5Mb 3Bb Premier

[negreanu]

Is anyone still using 3BB 5mb premier these days. Is it still offering consistent and reliable 5mb connections to the US 24/7.

How's the video streaming?

Cheers

[nikster]

Yep. Working fine. Video streaming usually works fine.

For some reason YouTube videos work better when viewed on youtube vs. embedded. Embedded they sometimes stutter. But that seems to be the case for any connection.

Why are you asking? Are you having trouble with True cable or whatever super high speed connection you have these days? I am testing out TOT fiber with the intention to turn off 3BB if TOT is good enough, as TOT fiber costs less and is twice as fast (10Mbit) for most things. But... still testing and will use it as my main connection for a month before deciding.

Edited January 8, 2012 by nikster

[Digitalbanana]

I'm using 3BB 6M package at 599THB/m and notice the 3BB premier 5M package is more than four times the cost on their web site. Is it worth it?

[Phil Conners]

I used 3BB premier for years and switched to the "standard" (10/1) maybe about a year ago. In my opinion there has been no - zero - difference to the performance, except my speed went up and price went down, from 3gb (I had a grandfathered 3gb account @ ~1,400 baht/month) to 10gb (~900 baht/month). I truly believe that regardless of what they say the premier account is just "farang tax".

Youtube is usually fine as they are usually cached in Thailand. Other video sources are hit and miss, as are they with any other ISP in my experience.

Regardless of account type it has been my experience that any thread is limited to 1gb. If you want to use the full bandwidth you need to use either bittorrent or a download manager that multithreads the download in several streams. Then you can max out the connection quite easily.

Another factor that makes things like VOIP awful sometimes is the quality of the line. Not just the line to your house but what is technically known as dropped packages. There are a lot more of those in Thailand than anywhere else I know off. This is what cause broken and stuttering sound in VOIP sessions.

[pluto_manibo]

I have been on the premier 3mb/1mb package for the last 4 yrs, although it doesn't seem to exist anymore! I have experienced a slight increase in download transfers in the last month and I am highly suspicious they just put me on the normal 6mb/1mb package(590 baht) for the price of Premier 1390 baht. I would also like to change but everytime I inquire they state that for farang Premier is better!

[nikster]

I used 3BB premier for years and switched to the "standard" (10/1) maybe about a year ago. In my opinion there has been no - zero - difference to the performance, except my speed went up and price went down, from 3gb (I had a grandfathered 3gb account @ ~1,400 baht/month) to 10gb (~900 baht/month). I truly believe that regardless of what they say the premier account is just "farang tax".

Youtube is usually fine as they are usually cached in Thailand. Other video sources are hit and miss, as are they with any other ISP in my experience.

Regardless of account type it has been my experience that any thread is limited to 1gb. If you want to use the full bandwidth you need to use either bittorrent or a download manager that multithreads the download in several streams. Then you can max out the connection quite easily.

Another factor that makes things like VOIP awful sometimes is the quality of the line. Not just the line to your house but what is technically known as dropped packages. There are a lot more of those in Thailand than anywhere else I know off. This is what cause broken and stuttering sound in VOIP sessions.

Yeah you need to watch your line quality. When you have premier, they will send someone if you complain, I had this done once. My line was crap and the guy came and tested everything until it worked. It was a bit complicated because they had to use the pre-installed telephone cables into the house and those actually caused the problem.

I think whether or not you need premier depends on your needs.

- For torrents, a normal line is cheaper and faster

- For downloads, ditto (download manager)

- For Skype, premier is more reliable

- For professional use, premier wins

If you need a very reliable 24/7 connection that always works, and never breaks down or "slows down tremendously" at certain times - get premier.

I had standard 3BB before, and there was always this or that problem, a slowdown at the worst possible time and so on. Then I switched to premier and didn't have to think about my internet connection again. Ever. That to me is the main difference. Standard may or may not work depending on the time of the day, the moon phase, alignment of the stars.. who knows. Premier always works.

If you use the internet for web surfing and torrents (and youtube) you don't need premier.

[nikster]

By the way - YouTube is not cached in thailand, it's co-located.

This is a pretty nifty scheme by which hits to YouTube are actually routed on a dedicated line out of Thailand & into Singapore, and then use an international connection from Singapore. So it feels "as if" you were in Singapore, and Singapore has international bandwidth out the wazoo...

Microsoft, Google, Apple all use this facility - it's cheaper than to have actual physical cache servers in Thailand, and also better. The Thai ISPs also cache things but YouTube is probably _the_ example where caching is impossible. Way too big. The amount of traffic going to and from YouTube is insane.

Edited January 10, 2012 by nikster

[Phil Conners]

I stand by what I wrote before, my internet connection has not become any worse for changing from Premier to standard, only faster and cheaper.

Yes, I am a professional.

I have noticed with Youtube that less popular videos don't always play as easy as popular videos, hence the assumption that they probably cache the most popular. Anyway my point was just that Youtube is a "special situation".

[cacruden]

I notice a change in the 3bb website in the last month or so. 3bb Premier is no longer listed in the prices section - so I am guessing it is now "grandfathered" at most. I have been wary about changing it, but been thinking of the FTTH option but worry about the international bandwidth. So I checked the website several times over the last several months. Anyone know if this is the end of 3bb premier or they just forgot it when updating the website ....

[SNGLIFE]

So, I have 5MB Premier because I need reliability when connecting to USA servers (work + very large files). Would I regret making the switch to the 20/5 MB plan? Would like to hear from those who have switched already.

[JakeBKK]

I still maintain my 2MB cat line - if the shit hits the fan - the service from cat rocks. It's still THB 1600 tough.

Edited January 11, 2013 by JakeBKK

[cacruden]

So, I have 5MB Premier because I need reliability when connecting to USA servers (work + very large files). Would I regret making the switch to the 20/5 MB plan? Would like to hear from those who have switched already.

20/5 plan is not available in my building.

Made the switchover today on my 5M Premier line, so in a month or so I will be able to give a reasonable comparison. A week ago I added a 16/1M line, two days ago I added a load balanced router (TP-Link TL-ER5120), and today I switched over my premier line to 16/1M profile.... From what I gather, the Indy line will have the bandwidth managed based on time and network congestion. It will vary from 100% -> 50% -> 33% -> 25% net international bandwidth. A single connection will be limited to about (3M down maximum). File transfer protocols like BitTorrent will use multiple connections, while downloads using FTP will use a single connection. There are (secure) download protocols available that do "multi-part" transfers that will allow you to use a maximum bandwidth available at the time. I was getting full bandwidth at night on the 16/1 line, but right now I am getting it restricted to about 33% of total bandwidth. Which means my current download volume is capping out at around 1.3MiB/s (premier was capping out at 0.55MiB/s).

With Skype, I have had issues with Premier a little, so it was not perfect. There was also a little issue with Skype with the 16/1M so I will have to have a longer time to compare. Part of the issue could be related to how my old modem firewall was setup, I had not given much thought to configuring it for Skype. I have added rules to my firewall that should improve the quality of my Skype calls. Basically, if you do not configure your computer on the internet as a virtual server allowing UDP/TCP packets on specific ports through it will use another computer as a proxy (this other computer may be your friends computer running Skype) which will obviously have some impact on line quality.

[cacruden]

Just kicked up to full bandwidth or about 3.8MiB/s download - or around 7 - 8 times quicker than Premier for a little more for 2 DSL lines load-balanced. Even time restricted, I think the change will be worth it.

[cacruden]

First morning running the dual DSL 16/1M lines I have been getting between 3.0 - 3.8 MiBs (megabytes / s or about 30 Mbps [8 bits to a byte]) down (torrents).

Edited February 19, 2013 by cacruden

[cacruden]

It ran at near full bandwidth up until around 6pm local time, then dropped down to 33% of net bandwidth. My guess is that it will remain at that that level until midnight then go back to near full between 12 and 1am.

[nikster]

I still maintain my 2MB cat line - if the shit hits the fan - the service from cat rocks. It's still THB 1600 tough.

That's crazy.

TOT fiber is rock solid 10/2M for 1600, though I think it might be cheaper by now, I need to call

3BB fiber just came out with a 30Mbit line for 1200 baht.

To me the main difference between fiber and DSL is fiber seems way more reliable. Less room to f... around with the lines, I guess.

[cacruden]

Been running torrents at near full bandwidth for 75%+ of each day (last three days) on the two 16/1 DSL lines.

[cacruden]

Today was the first Skype call since the switchover of the lines, it would be the same regardless of one or two lines..... the line quality was acceptable (11pm - midnight).

[cacruden]

It has been more than a week since disconnecting my 5/1M premier line (now 16/1M) and it was the right decision. The 5/1m premier line has become the option to pay more and get less in return (at least in my building). I get higher speeds for downloading torrents, can use Skype, and VPN without any issues (any more issues than before).

[pluto_manibo]

Thank you, for sharing your experience. I am on the Premier package for the last 5 yrs. Just this last week I have been throttled down to 25% of capacity. After many complaints, they deny any error or disruption of service. I am also thinking of making the switch!

[nikster]

My TOT just got upgraded to 20/3 so I guess my old package is now cheaper.

[cacruden]

Tonight was the first time the download speeds are much slower..... probably one of their international links are down - which means they have to implement a more stringent management. The speeds seem to be starting to increase just as I am typing.... looks like the congestion is beginning to ease.

Edit: Actually, I was throttling myself - the problem is not on the download side there seems to be a slightly lower upload speed so I restricted the upload speed and the downloads increased dramatically

I have slowed down a few times (download) due to my own configuration problems (torrents) -- i.e. if your computer uploads at the maximum upload speeds you will end up throttling yourself since the protocol traffic will not be able to be sent back promptly.

Edited March 8, 2013 by cacruden

[manarak]

which brings me to my question: for pattaya, which providers do not use the same "tubes", i.e. the traffic does not go through the same bottlenecks?

opening my office soon and I am considering dual WAN.

[cacruden]

Bottlenecks depend on the service that you buy. 3BB is one of the better ISP providers (read alot about different ISPs).

All plans that are advertised are general consumer packages that most people buy. ADSL implementations by there very nature (worldwide) is not selling you a guaranteed bandwidth, just a maximum bandwidth that is available when the network is not congested. They rely on the fact that not all users will use all the bandwidth all the time. The bandwidth available through 3BB seems to be reasonable and the network management is protocol agnostic (which means they do not discriminate based on service). If someone wants a more guaranteed pipe, some of the ISPs can give it to you but you will end up having to pay for such a service (often 10x the consumer package price).

With the TP-Link TL-ER5120 I could actually have up to 4 ADSL WAN lines, but I only have two lines into the condo (and I do not own). Different offices have different needs, but for general use 3bb tends to be fine. Of course the general consumer packages might have terms which technically forbid them for being used as business packages (I have not read the terms).

[manarak]

yes... I want to to know which ISPs are the most independent from each other, so that I can lease lines from different ISPs to reduce risk of downtimes.

In theory, I could use 3 lines, 2 tel and 1 cable TV.

[cacruden]

yes... I want to to know which ISPs are the most independent from each other, so that I can lease lines from different ISPs to reduce risk of downtimes.

In theory, I could use 3 lines, 2 tel and 1 cable TV.

I would guess that 3BB (Jasmine), True (True-IIG) and CAT (Asia American Gateway) would have some difference in their international links since each has their own international links BUT I believe you will find any major ISP will actually have multiple international links (i.e. True will have some bandwidth from True, some from CAT, some from Google etc.). The problem occurs is that the international bandwidth in Thailand still is at best full utilization - at worst over-utilized -- which means that if ANY major international links go down the rest of the links will become congested as traffic is rerouted (latency goes way up, bandwidth drops like a rock). A few years back the earthquake near Taiwan cut all major Pacific ocean routes for almost 3 weeks....... and then a year or so after that there was a boat anchor that pulled up most of the fibre links routing through to Europe through the middle east (vague recollection - details may not be exact). Most international fibre follows similar routes so even if you go with different international providers there is always a chance of links being cut.

What is available depends on where your located - you might not have more than a few choices (in my building in central Bangkok - there is only one provider available).