True Cable Internet Issues

[nocturn]

I have just got back from a couple months on the islands and my true 20MB cable connection in bkk is just horrendous now. I have dns resolution issues, timeouts and slowdowns like crazy, but torrent and FTP traffic is blazing. Anyone else encountering these problems?

[astral]

Try changing your settings to OpenDNS

• 208.67.222.222
  
• 208.67.220.220
  

[wpcoe]

When is a secondary DNS server be called into use? Is it only when the primary DNS server is totally unreachable, is it after a certain time-out period is exceeded for a particular resolution transaction, or what?

Several years ago when MaxNet had frequent DNS resolution problems, I would use a MaxNet DNS server as primary, and OpenDNS as my secondary. It seemed to work fairly well in that configuration, but I've often wondered what it was that would trigger use of the secondary DNS servier.

[astral]

If you dive into the advanced settings you can have more than just 2 DNS servers

First, make sure that your DNS Servers are in the right order. If you have a local DNS Server, like I do, and you are looking up a local DNS name, you want your PC client to lookup that local DNS name in the local DNS Server FIRST, before the Internet DNS Server. Thus, your local DNS server needs to be first in your DNS settings as these DNS Server IPs are in the order that they will be used.

Secondly, you should be able to ping the IP address of your ISP’s DNS Servers. So, just as my DNS servers are listed above on my router, I can verify that I can ping them even from my local PC:

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/10-ways-troubleshoot-dns-resolution-issues.html

[Pib]

I'm on the True cable 20Mb plan here in western Bangkok...service has been rock solid. I pretty much use it just for browsing and emailing, but I did download a 147MB file the other day and it downloaded blasing fast. Even had internet when I had meter deep flood waters in my moobaan for the month of November. But like all internet service, be it ADSL, Cable, Fiber, etc., the circuits/cable serving your area could be having problems, funky conection on the pole, etc.

You could give their proxy servers a try: proxy.asianet.co.th or proxy.trueinternet.co.th, with both using Port 8080. It may or may not help. Sometimes the True proxy servers are faster/more stable than not using them and in the past fixed some of my "can't reach" certain web pages on my cable 20Mb plan. TV crossfeed indicated True ADSL users were not having this connection problem to certain pages; only True cable internet users. Specifically, I couldn't reach certain U.S. govt web sites but by using the True proxy or VPN I could...but that problem has gone away and I now don't need to use a True proxy or VPN to reach them.

Plus, if you are already using one of the True proxies, turn off the proxy setup as I have noticed that the True proxy servers have had their slow/bad days. Now, I only use them occassionally to see if they will help on those days I think the surfing should be faster, having issues with certain web sites, etc. Actually I haven't used the proxies hardly are all since the access to a couple U.S. govt web sites went away, and when switching back and forth between proxy use and not using the proxy I couldn't detect any download speed difference....up until a few months ago I got better speed using the proxy. And to this day anytime I want to get a valid Speedtest result I briefly to turn on the proxy to prevent the bogus faster-than-light ping times and download speeds to international speedtest servers.

For DNS I just use the DNS servers that True cable (and maybe ADSL) automatically use, which are: 203.144.206.29 and 203.144.206.49. In my testing with DNS benchmarking software on my TOT ADSL plan I use to have and my current True cable plan, I've found the DNS provided by your ISP is faster since their DNS servers are in Thailand versus outside Thailand and just a reliable up time and DNS resolution wise as OpenDNS, GoogleDNS, etc. Additionally, I'm heard a lot of ISPs automatically have their DNS servers setup to default to using GoogleDNS to lookup any web address the ISP's DNS server may not know. Your results may vary.

Edited January 1, 2012 by Pib

[Lannig]

When is a secondary DNS server be called into use? Is it only when the primary DNS server is totally unreachable, is it after a certain time-out period is exceeded for a particular resolution transaction, or what?

Yep that's how it works, however the delay until the switch to the secondary DNS takes place is unbearingly long. Not sure whether it can be tweaked or not. So if your primary DNS is down, you're not going to be surfing happily.

Several years ago when MaxNet had frequent DNS resolution problems, I would use a MaxNet DNS server as primary, and OpenDNS as my secondary. It seemed to work fairly well in that configuration, but I've often wondered what it was that would trigger use of the secondary DNS servier.

A long timeout.

Goggle's own DNS server can be used too and its address is easy to remember (8.8.8.8). It's fast and extremely reliable in my own experience.

Of course you have to accept the idea that just any DNS resolution you make will be recorded and matched with your Google account by IP (if you have an account) so that Google Ads will serve you more targeted advertisements.

Edited January 1, 2012 by Lannig

[Pib]

When using a secondary DNS other than one of the ISP provided DNS's, I would recommend GoogleDNS over OpenDNS because benchmarking shows the GoogleDNS is significantly faster (i.e., lower ping time) since it has DNS servers in this part of the world where OpenDNS does not. When I was on TOT ADSL I set my modem up to use TOT's primary DNS and as my secondary DNS Google's DNS (8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4). I wanted to have a different DNS than what my ISP provided as a backup in case the primarily DNS went down. Worked just fine.

Now on my True cable internet setup I just use True DNS servers since the cable modem acted squirrelly when trying to change the DNS's. Been on the cable internet since mid June and it has been rock steady even during the flooding.

[nocturn]

thanks, have tried a number of solutions and am still having issues. i may be cancelling the cable service soon as dsl remains rock solid.

Interesting for ftp and torrents cable is fine, but browsing is still highly problematic

[partington]

I'm in BKK- am having same issues-very slow-can no longer watch streaming TV-drop outs and losses every 10-30 mins.

If you call True Internet customer service and press 9 for english there is a pre recorded message that says "we are in a state of emergency and you may not be able to use high speed internet" !!

May be related to these problems!

[Lannig]

I'm in BKK- am having same issues-very slow-can no longer watch streaming TV-drop outs and losses every 10-30 mins.

If you call True Internet customer service and press 9 for english there is a pre recorded message that says "we are in a state of emergency and you may not be able to use high speed internet" !!

May be related to these problems!

Someone has been pulling out the wrong cable in True's operations room again, to demo how his brand new laptop can play 1080p videos smoothly :-)

Don't flame me, I've seen this happening for real. Not at True though, but there's no reason to think they're better than the others.