Internet Blackouts

[swissie]

For the last 2 weeks I loose internet connection several times a day. ( I am with CAT Wireless with antenna and router).

Answer from CAT: There are so many WI-FI recipients in your aerea now that the signal turns weak because of too many users. !!!!!! Could this be ?

Remedy offered by CAT: We will link you by way of Fiber-Optics for perfect Internet-Connection. (At double the monthly price I pay now !)

What do you make of all of this?

Thanks & cheers.

[wpcoe]

Where are you? It could well be that they over-subscribed their WiFi service and/or you got unlucky and have a bunch of high-use subscribers sharing the bandwidth.

Out of curiosity, what are the fiber plans they offered (speed/price)?

[LuckyLew]

Too funny, they cannot provide the service you pay for now

so they ask you too upgrade

I wonder if Thai people fall for this?

[swissie]

Where are you? It could well be that they over-subscribed their WiFi service and/or you got unlucky and have a bunch of high-use subscribers sharing the bandwidth.

Out of curiosity, what are the fiber plans they offered (speed/price)?

I live near Suan Phung. About 150 Km N/W of Bangkok, close to the Myanmar border. Nearest big city is Ratchabury.

They have not yet presented any facts and figures with regard to their fiber plans to me.

The technician mentioned, that he will talk to the boss to find out, if he could get me free installation as part of a promotion. To get free installation, I wonder if I will have to sign a 500 year contract with them ? Cheers.

[Pib]

CAT response could be true or you could just be receiving a weak signal. Then again there is always the possibility of a setup/driver problem on your computer. Regarding the fiber, please don't think a whiz-bang "fiber" connection will give you faster-than-light speeds as that fiber connection is only a part of the whole connection...sometimes referred to as the last mile of connection. But at least you would have a dedicated connection to your residence versus fighting for a Wifi connection.

I think fiber contract lengths can be reduced to your estimated lifetime if paying for the entire cost of that final mile connection.

[Aachen]

Too funny, they cannot provide the service you pay for now

so they ask you too upgrade

I wonder if Thai people fall for this?

This is not funny! In Europe you also get "up to xxx MB/s" ADSL! That means everything from 0 to xxx MB/s! So this is not Thai special..

[NeverSure]

CAT response could be true or you could just be receiving a weak signal. Then again there is always the possibility of a setup/driver problem on your computer. Regarding the fiber, please don't think a whiz-bang "fiber" connection will give you faster-than-light speeds as that fiber connection is only a part of the whole connection...sometimes referred to as the last mile of connection. But at least you would have a dedicated connection to your residence versus fighting for a Wifi connection.

I think fiber contract lengths can be reduced to your estimated lifetime if paying for the entire cost of that final mile connection.

Should have signed that 500 year contract a couple of days ago because the world ended yesterday.

There are some very real and effective signal boosters out there, even some good repeaters, but also some pure signal boosters. I wonder if they could pull more signal if that's the problem.

I agree, update the driver and make sure there is no electromagnetic interference close to the antenna or even in line of sight of it. I have seen microwaves and fluorescent lights knock the wifi off.

[RandomSand]

Seems like an easy choice to me! You have enough problems with your wireless service to make a post here about getting a fixed line. I'm a customer of CAT indirectly via a local reseller and typically don't have any problems at all with internet gremlins. I wouldn't switch to a wireless connection for a 1/10th of the price I pay now... even if it offered unlimited up/download.

Edit: I'll add that local CAT offices are offering six month contracts locally in Pattaya, last time I looked, but one year is the contract length is the standard. (sorry about my English.. hmmmm-- don't drink and post

[swissie]

CAT response could be true or you could just be receiving a weak signal. Then again there is always the possibility of a setup/driver problem on your computer. Regarding the fiber, please don't think a whiz-bang "fiber" connection will give you faster-than-light speeds as that fiber connection is only a part of the whole connection...sometimes referred to as the last mile of connection. But at least you would have a dedicated connection to your residence versus fighting for a Wifi connection.

I think fiber contract lengths can be reduced to your estimated lifetime if paying for the entire cost of that final mile connection.

Folks I really need your help.

Everytime I experience a Internet-Blackout it still reads "SIGNAL STRENGHT EXCELLENT". Strange. Could it be that the problem is not with CAT but there is something wrong with my setup/driver as mentioned above? Or can it read "excellent signal strenght" and still have no internet or so damm slow that it can drive a man crazy? I am a t a loss.

Before sending threaths to CAT, promising to burn down their headquarters,(HeHe) I need to to know if the problem is a CAT problem or my setup/driver is the root of all this misery. How can I find out what applies?

Thanks & cheers.

[Pib]

It can definitely be a driver. I've had that problem before with my Toshiba laptop. I could make a Wifi connection between the laptop and router no problem, but I wouldn't get an IP address/public IP connection with my ISP or I would have intermittent IP disconnects. What had happened is Windows had automatically installed an updated wifi driver for the Wifi chip in my laptop...and my laptop didn't really like that particular driver.

Since laptops can be very picky about their drivers, after I reloaded the correct driver from the Toshiba website for my laptop (I already had the driver saved on my computer...I keep all my laptops unique drivers on my hard drive), I got a good connection. But after few days later Windows automatically downloaded an updated driver again and I was back again to only being able to connect to the router but not getting an IP address with my ISP. Once again I reloaded the Toshiba driver and got back online again. Then I figured out how to set the Windows automatic update function to ignore that one driver...it has never download again...and I have been online since by using the latest wifi chip driver for my laptop--not what Windows thinks is the best driver for my Wifi chip. Yeap, laptops can be picky about some of their drivers.