Problem With 3Bb Or Pc?

[Nienke]

Hi all,

I'm using 3BB now for a while already. Went for 9MB for 900 baht per month.

The last few months I've ongoing problems with accessing sites. Sometimes I can access only facebook, but not my email accounts, let alone when I click on a link on facebook that the link will open.
Also when I watch clips on youtube it will 'stutter'. I can watch it but the 'stuttering' is highly irritating.

As my knowledge about this is almost nil and I have no idea where the problem lies. Called 1530 many times. It helps a little, and then the problem is back.

Yesterday did several speedtests through 'speedtest.net'.
Download went up and down with the lowest download 2.26 Mbps and the highest 10.38.
Upload varies between 0.16 and 2.12 Mbps

This morning at 8.30 am it was: Ping 339ms, down 2.85 Mbps and up 0.58 Mbps.

at 9.00am: Ping 57 ms, down 5.97 Mbps and up 0.90 Mbps.

dslreports.com gave:
at 8.45am for Washington dc: down 660 kb/s, up 350 kb/s and latency 283 ms
at 8.50 am for Parsippany : down 623 kb/s, up 663 kb/s and latency 190 ms, and
right after for LA: down 1155 kb/s, up 1279 kb/s and latency 263 ms

For Washington and LA there was a warning: " ISP upload compression detected. Your upload speeds may be inaccurate. "

The stuttering also happens sometimes when I play a game that's on my pc, not through the internet.
My pc is bought second hand at least 6 or 7 years ago. Recently it was looked at and cleaned, and windows upgraded to Xp. (not a clue if this is relevant, but thought to mention it anyway).


So, my question is: any idea if the problem I'm facing is my (oldie) pc, 3BB connection or both?

[Langsuan Man]

The most likely suspect is your browser ? Have done speed tests with all the big 3 (Firefox, IE9 and Chrome) and was amazed with the difference between them

Google's Chrome was the best with a much shorter ping than the other two

[Pib]

My bet would be the problem is your 3BB line/service since your speeds are varying so much from poor to good. And the stuttering on your video streaming can be easily caused by the bandwidth flow/download speed being inconsistent/varying a lot...stop-and-go for X-milliseconds. For streaming video, even a high speed connection needs to have fairly consistent data flow because even with buffering the video player can't compensate many times for stop-and-go data streaming....and some video streaming servers only allow enough (not unlimited) bandwidth flow of sufficient speed to keep the video stream showing smoothly under a "good connection"...they do this to minimize the amount of bandwidth they need to feed out to the world...many times it's harder to get a good connection in Thailand to a server which may be half-way around the world (or a nearby country). When connecting to severs "outside" of Thailand your international bandwidth/speed is going to be much lower than the plan's in-Thailand/advertised download speed...using a Java-based speedtester you are probably going to get best case 2-6Mb even on a really high speed plan. Don't use a Flash-based speedtester like Speedtester.net because Flash/OOKLA-based speedtesters are easily fooled by local cache servers...that is, you can easily get bogus results...bogus download speeds and faster-than-light ping times to international servers.

Easy enough to try another browser...it may help...but my bet would be it's your 3BB line/service. Good luck.

Edited February 25, 2013 by Pib

[Nienke]

Thank you Langsuan Man and Pib for your comments. It has made it a bit clearer to me.

I've done speed tests on both firefox and Chrome. And Chrome is indeed faster, but not trouble free. The stuttering and unable to open links occurs there as well.

Today was another frustrating day, so I fear I have to pass the 3BB office tomorrow. Boring!

[pluto_manibo]

I have had similar problems in the last 4 days. My package is the Premier 3MB/1 MB! The speedtests show these speeds, however downloads are running at 25% capacity(from 1.2 mb to 350 kbs). I have called many times, stopped by the office and had the tech over...As he sees the speedtests, he says all is fine....when I show him the download speeds and Youtube clips stuttering...he says its the house wiring. Which I am sure it isn't, as I have checked the speeds on Java based speedtests. I am sure they are throttling speeds. I am in the same predicament and I am not getting positive feedback.

[candypants]

what are you using as a dns server. try googles dns server, it might improve things

Configure your network settings to use the IP addresses 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as your DNS servers

more info here https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/

[2008bangkok]

U gotta love the random excuses they make up to blame everything and everyone apart from 3BB but dodgy house wiring is a new one

[Pib]

U gotta love the random excuses they make up to blame everything and everyone apart from 3BB but dodgy house wiring is a new one

Oh no, dodgy house wiring has been a long time excuse, but sometimes house wiring is indeed the problem. However, usually when a line goes from working just fine to not working just fine due to wiring, it's a funky/corroded/loose connection that has developed in the wire hanging on the soi poles or area junction box which is exposed to the weather elements, people, and critters.

Years back when I was on a TOT 2MB ADSL plan, I upgraded to their 4MB ADSL plan which at the time was the fastest speed possible to my moobaan due to TOT equipment in the area. Anyway, my line had operated OK at the 2MB speed but when switching me to 4MB on installation day they just couldn't get the 4Mb speed on my computer.

This TOT crew had an electronic meter which measured the line speed and other line metrics. With the meter hooked to the line entry point to my residence where it changed from the TOT wiring (like you see hanging on the poles) to the service entrance wiring leading to my house they could easily pull 4Mb with good SNR, attenuation metrics. This service entrance wiring went underground for around 25 meters and then came up into my house. At that service entrance point the wiring leading to the house was just regular multi-stranded copper wire like you would find in an appliance electrical cord; it was not regular phone wire...maybe the home builder felt regular electrical wire would withstand being enclosed/encased in metal underground conduit running from the service entrance up into my house better than house phone wiring...but he probably should have used phone wiring like hanging on soi poles which can withstand the elements/long years.

When hooking the meter to the point where it entered the house (after running underground through the conduit) the max speed was around 3Mb with attenuation value significantly climbing and SNR went lower/got worst...and at this point the wire still had to be connected to the regular phone wiring running in my house walls...with the signal still having to run through those wires it just made things a little worst. There was just something about using that regular multi-stranded electrical wiring for approx. 25 meters which the higher speed ADSL signal did not like.

To get the problem fixed I had regular phone line wiring (like hanging on the pole) run through the wall (bypassed that multi-stranded wire) to where I plugged-up the ADSL modem...problem fixed....no problem in getting the 4Mb speed nor about a year later 6Mb speed with TOT upgraded the equipment in my moobaan a little more....great attenuation values, high/very good SNR, etc. But since them True cable/DOCSIS has come to my moobaan and I have switched to them.

So, can wiring in your residence make a difference--yes sir it can! But I think the much more likely culprit is the a funky line/connection hanging on the soi poles or junction box servicing the area.

[lungbing]

I've got 3BB's own wire running from their box outside, down the garden wall up and then down the house wall (so we can walk under it) and through the wall directly to the modem, total length maybe 20 metres. And the service these past two weeks is rubbish. I have Premier 3/1 for which I'm paying 1166 baht a month. It is very tempting to come off that and get their regular service at higher speed and lower cost. Premier service appears to give me nothing.