Upgrading a 10mbps TOT HiSpeed to 30mbps Fibre 2U worth it?

[WorriedNoodle]

We have a 10mbps TOT ADSL line that generally works OK, except when streaming international content TV via XBMC or Hola tends to buffer. Local TV channels are OK mostly, but can buffer as well, albeit a lot less. We might have two or or three users online at any time via wi-fi points.

** My question is, will upgrading from a 10mbps TOT HiSpeed (590THB/month) to a fibre optic line rated at 30mbps (I think costs around 1500THB/month - not sure on this??) make any noticeable difference and stop the buffering on IPTV services? Any experiences of doing this from anyone please?

[qdinthailand]

yeah, TOT it seems just slowed down my 10mbs plan when streaming from the U.S.

They did this about a year ago, when I was on the 6mbs plan. Switched to 10mbs plan then, got the streaming from U.S. speed back up to what it was when I first subscribed to the 6mbs plan. Now, for the past several weeks, I'm back to where I was - too slow again to stream properly.

f*ckers!

[worgeordie]

I also have the TOT 10Mbs service, and just the opposite has happened,its streaming great, even in the evening,

when before after 5 it would just buffer all the time, also when it rained it would disconnect,but that does not happen

now, I was even planning on changing over to 3BB ,it was that bad, but for last 2/3 weeks its been great,I dont

know what changed,but I am now happy with TOT, Problem is I am sure it wont last !

regards Worgeordie

[GirlDrinkDrunk]

30 mbps is worth it if you do alot of multi-threaded downloading. for example if you torrent, and especially id you have a seedbox. streaming video, not so much

it aint gonna work magic on your you tube viewing, though it may show an improvement

[Lefty]

I have the 3bb 30mb package, here in Korat it is 1200 baht/mo payable 12 months in advance plus 2,000 baht for router, so 16,000 to start.

Performance-very good. little to no buffering watching Netflex,Amazon movies and US.tv via USTVNOW.

Lefty

[muratremix]

I use 10M/512k TOT in our village house, as there are no other alternatives and we got TOT almost 2 years ago. It works solid, when it works. Sometimes DSLAM Box doesn't work and it takes 3-5 days to fix, but hey, TIT!

If you have access to True Ultra (Cable internet), you can give it a try if you're not located in farang crowded area.

My 20Mbit true docsis works like a charm.

[keeniau96]

Several people here on Phuket tried similar TOT upgrades and found that the actual delivered speed on the fiber version was much slower than their previous service. That was several months ago here, so not really definitive but not a recommendation.

[pete66]

Avoid TOT wherever possible. Sample 3BB, normally much quicker, whatever the specifications say. TOT are a dinosaur.

[Tengu]

There are a few things to consider in the quest for fast, non-buffering internet besides the advertised speed.

Buffer bloat (google it) is a problem in many routers. Buffer bloat is a problem because some router manufacturers mistakenly thought that bigger buffers were better unfortunately they were wrong.

For a full explanation http://twit.tv/show/security-now/345

I am a lurker on TV living in Los Angeles, CA, so I do not know what is required to view the content you are trying to access. I do know that some content will require you to use a VPN, TOR or other similar location spoofing method. That can be a major factor in your bandwidth. Some are much faster than others. Often you get what you pay for.

And there is the net-neutrality issue. ISPs are fully capable of throttling any content that they choose to. Even if encrypted, they can see how much data is being streamed and if you are using a lot of bandwidth they may slow you down.

Speed tests are often inaccurate due to the use of "burst mode" transmission where they send at full speed for a short (20-60 seconds) in order to quickly fill a buffer and then throttle back to help their overall bandwidth.

As with most things your mileage may vary.

[WorriedNoodle]

Thanks for input guys. If the price is under 1500THB /m we'll probably give it a try. Will update later on outcome. I have no choice in our village but TOT. Hopefully we can switch back to TOT ADSL if TOT Fiber is a waste of money.

Maybe in a few years 3BB will move in to our area?? They have a lot of adverts up nearby.

Interesting video on buffer bloat, but at over an hour I haven't got time to see when the guy gets to the point:-)

[EveryDayTheSame]

Short answer:YES!!.....I have it in the house 1500Bht/month......Brilliant. ...I can stream,wife can stream, and download/torrent all at the same time. No buffering or freezing.......

[ajarnmarc]

Some may say avoid TOT,

and I've never understood why??? True vision and 3bbb both limit your unlimited connection to 2gb a month at full speed, then they drop it down to a much slower speed. It's in the fine print, and I didn't see it until I bought into true vision for a short period of time. 3bbb, use to be Tt&t, and for some of us, we know what their reputation was, concerning service...so bad they had to change their company name. TOT and CAT are both government owned, and they lease out to all the others for their connection, and yes they do appear to be dinosaurs in their approach and marketing, but in the end who cares? I'm interested in the connection, and I didn't have to pay for the router or the setup fee with TOT fiber upgrade, when I had the 10mb plan. I've now had the fiber connection for over a year, and it's been solid for me. I have the router set up to wifi connection only, and my computer connects via wifi to the router, so it's always on, even when my computer isn't. Great for access to mobile devices when needed. I get almost 30mbps download, and between 2 & 3mbps upload, which is fine for my internet calling, and downloading/seeding torrents. It's rare that I can receive a file faster than 2mbps on a single torrent, and I'm signed up with a private torrent site http://www.torrentday.me and http://speed.cd, which are both free, you just need to seed back what you receive. I get some amazing speeds through these sites, even with my vpn connection. Never had a drop line, other than when the company is doing maintenance or the power is out. I can't see myself going back to the dsl connection, fiber has been and is great for me needs. So for all the TOT bashers, it's TOT or CAT at the top of the list for me, so I don't get limited on my bandwidth (true vision) and don't support a company that changed their name (TT&T to 3bbb) to hide from their terrible reputation in the past.

[whiteman]

cat for me but it costs if you want quck and none disconnects = 6999 bhat a month 30 mg

[tollgate]

Don't know about True, but my 3BB ADSL is not capped at 2GB/month. Most 3G plans are capped at 2 or 3Gb though and then slow down dramatically.

[MartinBKK]

Don't know about True, but my 3BB ADSL is not capped at 2GB/month. Most 3G plans are capped at 2 or 3Gb though and then slow down dramatically.

True Docsis is not capped either. As far as i know only 3g services have usage limits but feel free to correct me if i'm wrong. I have both True Docsis and TOT fttx and over the time i've had them TOT has probably been slightly better, however they both have their ups and downs hence the reason i have two. I have just done the exact upgrade the OP is considering and so far it has not been worthwhile. I think there is a problem though because last week my speedtests were showing the correct 30mb to the BKK server but now they are only 20mb. I am going to call up to let them know.

PS. I have also had 3BB ADSL before and i didn't find that as good as what i have now. However, other people report that 3BB is far better so i think it's safe to assume location plays a huge factor with all ISP's.

Edited August 10, 2013 by MartinBKK

[cacruden]

I have 3bb and I can tell you there is no way they have capped me. I have averaged over 1 TB per month.

[muratremix]

I have 3bb and I can tell you there is no way they have capped me. I have averaged over 1 TB per month.

I used my friend's 3BB 10Mbit in ChiangMai last year and after downloading a few gigabytes, they capped internet down to 1Mbit for the rest of the day.

3BB may not be throttling customers in Bangkok, but they are definitely throttling customers on remote areas. Needless to say, 3BB ping times were awful in CM.

Edited August 11, 2013 by muratremix

[pete66]

I have 3bb and I can tell you there is no way they have capped me. I have averaged over 1 TB per month.

I used my friend's 3BB 10Mbit in ChiangMai last year and after downloading a few gigabytes, they capped internet down to 1Mbit for the rest of the day.

3BB may not be throttling customers in Bangkok, but they are definitely throttling customers on remote areas. Needless to say, 3BB ping times were awful in CM.

I use 3BB in CM daily and there is no such throttling, and my ping is 20-30ms, which is not "awful"

[pete66]

And by the way, if your ping time is awful, there is *alot* you can do it about it. You can download apps that will be find the fastest nameservers you can access, such as openDNS or google DNS. You aren't stuck with using the DNS of the internet company you bought your package from.

[muratremix]

And by the way, if your ping time is awful, there is *alot* you can do it about it. You can download apps that will be find the fastest nameservers you can access, such as openDNS or google DNS. You aren't stuck with using the DNS of the internet company you bought your package from.

Ping or traceroute has nothing to do with dns. Good luck to you with opendns, they like to redirect traffic to their search engine which is stealing.

[cacruden]

I have 3bb and I can tell you there is no way they have capped me. I have averaged over 1 TB per month.

I used my friend's 3BB 10Mbit in ChiangMai last year and after downloading a few gigabytes, they capped internet down to 1Mbit for the rest of the day.

3BB may not be throttling customers in Bangkok, but they are definitely throttling customers on remote areas. Needless to say, 3BB ping times were awful in CM.

There is network management where I am, I have two 16/1M lines but 13/1M would not differ by much (which I will probably downgrade to). I run torrents downloading/uploading 24 hours a day. It depends on the day and the time of day -- what your maximum international bandwidth will be -- but they DON'T cap. ADSL (consumer) lines are not bandwidth guaranteed - if it were your cost would be at least (probably more) 10 to 20 times the price. Basically, when during peak hours when the volume is greater than that available they cut your international bandwidth to a percentage of line speed (typically 50%, 33% or around 15%). During the hours of 12 midnight to around 9am - there is typically no management restrictions (100% of line speed), it typically drops to 50% later in the morning, then 33% in the afternoon and sometimes down to 15%. With those restrictions I maxed out one month probably around 4TB - but more typically 2TB / month (so around 1TB per line).

[farmerjo]

I just installed tot fibre 20mbps,working ok.

If i want to watch say the ashes on wiziwig what should i be able to receive and watch with no buffers.

Eg 200mbps or 500 mbps.(mbps or kbps whichever)

Or more or less,thanks.

[Pib]

And by the way, if your ping time is awful, there is *alot* you can do it about it. You can download apps that will be find the fastest nameservers you can access, such as openDNS or google DNS. You aren't stuck with using the DNS of the internet company you bought your package from.

A couple years back I experimented with using different DNS serves such as Google DNS and OpenDNS. I could tell absolutely no difference between those DNS servers and the DSN server my ISP used. And when using software which benchmarked different DSN servers, like the DNS Benchmark program, the benchmarking programs always rated the DSN server my ISP was providing higher than Google DNS and OpenDNS in terms of time/milliseconds to reach sites and the reliability of reaching the sites without having to hand off to another DSN server. Nope, my own eyeballs on the computer screen and benchmarking showed me using my ISP DSN was best. Your results may vary.

What I did for a while was to set my primarily DSN server to my ISPs DSN server and the secondary DSN server to Google DNS. I used Google DNS as the secondary over OpenDNS as the benchmarking program showed GoogleDNS was significantly faster (but GoogleDNS was still slower than my ISP's DSN sever). That way I would have a different backup DSN incase both my ISP'sprimary and secondary DNS servers ever went down...but I even stopped doing that once switching fro ADSL to DOCSIS/cable as the DOCSIS seemed to act a little squirrelly when using a DSN server other than the ISPs.

But like I said, Your results may vary.

[cacruden]

If you want fast DNS searches - set up your own DNS and cache them on your own home network