3BB speed in Bangkok suddenly horribly slow?

[ShannonT]

I have a 16MB internet package with 3BB since over a year and it has been great. I normally have speeds of 900kb/sec during the day and 1200kb/sec at night. Now, suddenly a week ago, my download speed dropped to only 200-300kb/sec, sometimes even slower. It's slow everywhere, on YouTube, with torrents or even normal file downloads from reliable servers.

I called many times but they can't seem to find a problem and keep telling me to restart the router or my computer. Sigh.

Tonight I found the following in my router:

Downstream Upstream

Line Coding(Trellis): On On
SNR Margin (0.1 dB): 77 178
Attenuation (0.1 dB): 245 171
Output Power (0.1 dBm): 188 119
Attainable Rate (Kbps): 20612 2325

Path 0
Downstream Upstream
Rate (Kbps): 15357 1276

My "Attenuation" seems to be very bad. According to this, I must be about 20km from the 3BB node? I can't remember it being this high ever. Is it possible they messed something up on my connection?

[PoodMaiDai]

Our 3BB in Chiang Mai went from pretty good to horribly slow, almost unusable half of the day. Two weeks calling to customer support, every day, has gotten us no further or faster. They say no problem, restart the router, typical nonsense while they play with Facebook.

We're going to look into the Nano Station with TOT for satellite internet, as I've heard from a few in my area it is much, much better. But who knows?

[Dork]

Your ADSL statistics look OK. The Line Attenuation is measured by your modem in increments of 0.1dB so the down/up numbers of 245/171 are actually 24.5/17.1 which are within range. Likewise the SNR and Attainable Rate look ok to me.

The only number that looks slightly out of range is your downstream rate of 15357 which for a 16/1 package should be around 18xxx.

If I was you I would do a local speedtest (e.g. http://speedtest.adslthailand.com/). If the result is considerably below your package speed of 16/1 then you can try the following;

1 - If possible, on the ADSL MODE setting, force ADSL2+ ANNEX M instead of MULTIMODE.

2 - Swap the Modem/Router for another brand to see if that helps

3 - Have a 3bb technician check the local DSLAM

If the local speedtest gives an acceptable result but your user experience is still bad there probably isn't much you can do yourself except complain to 3bb.

[worgeordie]

I was going to change from TOT which is really crap, fast, slow,slow,slow,bit better,

totally unreliable,when it rains it goes down to Kbs like 9,12,30,which is worse than

dial up,or goes down altogether ,makes me think problem with the wires outside somewhere,but if they send

engineer out and its not raining ,he will find no problem.! catch 22

When you phone TOT there first response is turn router off and back on again,

which i do at least 2 times a day anyway.

Regards Worgeordie

[hml367]

I was going to change from TOT which is really crap, fast, slow,slow,slow,bit better,

totally unreliable,when it rains it goes down to Kbs like 9,12,30,which is worse than

dial up,or goes down altogether ,makes me think problem with the wires outside somewhere,but if they send

engineer out and its not raining ,he will find no problem.! catch 22

When you phone TOT there first response is turn router off and back on again,

which i do at least 2 times a day anyway.

Regards Worgeordie

When I was using internet over ToT wiring (ToT ADSL, and KSC Internet), the wires connection block was not covered at all. One time when they came to the house to check, they said the wires were corroded. Cleaned the connection and things improved. I ended up cutting a large, plastic soda bottle as a cover for the connection block. However, there were more problems with those isp's and I ended up changing anyway.

MSPain

[cacruden]

I have two 16/1 lines and they both had the speed reduced considerably (7/24) on the international bandwidth. Up until now (depending on network management for congestion during weektime daytimes) the speeds have always been really good for downloading internationally using multi-stream downloads (bittorrent being one such protocol). During off-peak times I could utilize the full bandwidth. For the last week it has dropped down to about 15% 24 days 7 days a week..... not sure if this is the new norm with bandwidth management or there is something wrong with some of their international links (I have not seen any reported problems). If this is the new norm then I will just drop the packages down since it does not make sense to pay for something I cannot use (I have no alternatives when it comes to ISPs).

[ShannonT]

I have two 16/1 lines and they both had the speed reduced considerably (7/24) on the international bandwidth. Up until now (depending on network management for congestion during weektime daytimes) the speeds have always been really good for downloading internationally using multi-stream downloads (bittorrent being one such protocol). During off-peak times I could utilize the full bandwidth. For the last week it has dropped down to about 15% 24 days 7 days a week..... not sure if this is the new norm with bandwidth management or there is something wrong with some of their international links (I have not seen any reported problems). If this is the new norm then I will just drop the packages down since it does not make sense to pay for something I cannot use (I have no alternatives when it comes to ISPs).

You are also on 3BB? I have exactly the same problem.

The local speeds are great, about 12Mb down and 1Mb down, but international speeds are horrible since 1 week.

[cacruden]

Yes, 3BB

[cacruden]

They probably oversold you on your package (even before the network management changed). If you check the installation sheets with the password there should be around 3 pages - one of those is the stats that you had when it was first installed. Your distance from the CO may only allow you up to 12Mb down (and 1 up) which corresponds to the 13/1M package of theirs. Not sure how network management is done exactly, but if you get a percentage of maximum speed or if you get a set limit per line -- if it is a percentage then that would be the only differentiator between the 13/1M and the 16/1M line for you (if it is not done on a percent basis then there would be no difference). Overselling is a common problem even in North America Right now it is crap 24/7

[elgordo38]

Suffer the same in Chiang Mai

[cacruden]

Not sure I will get a good response but I sent a support request asking if the current network management is the new norm. If it is I will just downgrade my packages

[ShannonT]

I just had a 3BB technician come to my house today. He checked the line and ran some speed tests on the 3BB website (doh!) and said that the speed was even better than my package was supposed to have. I then showed him high speed download websites overseas, like in the US, UK and Japan and he wasn't able to get speeds faster than 120kb/sec. He said he would go check the box at the main street to see if there was any "rain damage" but I told him if there was rain damage, it would affect both local and international speeds. So he called back to the main office and they told him that they would troubleshoot the problem at their end and would get back to me within 2 days.

Sigh.

[cacruden]

Not to mention rain damage would be localized and not a common symptom They have changed there congestion/network management profile - for what reason I don't know.... it may be one of their international lines are down (but I have not heard of any being down) or they could just be trying to save money on international bandwidth

[cacruden]

Speed has improved late this afternoon after (24hrs after complaining). Have not tested the limits because all my downloads are probably limited by the source.

[cacruden]

ok, tested it by downloading a well seeded download and it looks as though it is back to 100% of line speed for torrents.

[cacruden]

Our 3BB in Chiang Mai went from pretty good to horribly slow, almost unusable half of the day. Two weeks calling to customer support, every day, has gotten us no further or faster. They say no problem, restart the router, typical nonsense while they play with Facebook.

We're going to look into the Nano Station with TOT for satellite internet, as I've heard from a few in my area it is much, much better. But who knows?

I tend to not use the phone for sending problem, I use their web submission form (which seems to be only in Thai) and then I write my problem in detail in that box (in english). Their front line tech support is not going to be as good as who my email generally gets routed to.