Incredibly slow International traffic after 6pm

[lomatopo]

These NECTEC maps show an update of July 8, 2013.

616.133 Gbps of international bandwidth.

http://internet.nectec.or.th/webstats/internetmap.current.iir

http://internet.nectec.or.th/webstats/bandwidth.iir?Sec=bandwidth

http://internet.nectec.or.th/webstats/internetuser.iir?Sec=internetuser

Edited August 22, 2013 by lomatopo

[CNXTim]

Here is the CAT cable map;

http://www.cat.net.th/map/internetmap.html

Basically guys, if you want to have streaming US based HD movies 24 hours per day - you can simply pay for it..

If that is your only reason to have the internet....

[Makhao]

The first bottle neck is local, if you use a cheap line (like 600 Baht/mo), as you share with 20 other users (especially the kids after school).

The second is as described above the bandwidth leaving Thailand.

I have a dedicated TOT fiber ("real" 19Mbit bandwidth, 1700Baht/mo) and usually its stable even in the afternoon (I get about 4Mbit per connection and use up to 10 connections simultaneously).

But sometimes I also experience a slowdown and in that situation I tested the traffic on TCP-level with my collegues in Europe:

We found out, that my line is o.k. until the last hop in Thailand, there we had packet loss of 40% up to 90% !! No wonder, that streaming is not working for some users here.

VPN is not solving that, as the second bottle neck also slows down the VPN connection (I mostly use VPN to Europe).

But it is interesting, that sometimes the bandwidth is cut on a port basis and not generally. E.g. once my connection slowed down from 19Mbit to 2Mbit, but when I switched the port to something unsual as 53 (DNS requests), I got full speed of 19Mbit again :-)

Of course, this requires the possibility to change ports on both sides of your connection, what is not an option for all users. But it may be a good hint for the tekkies here :-)

[recom273]

As said before, all ISP's in Thailand are restricted during peak hours. The speeds quoted by them are to cache'd traffic within Thailand which is all perfectly legal when you read the wide ranging disclosure in the small print. They will shape to a percentage of your purchased bandwidth, so you do get what you pay for, same goes for your VPN, a free or cheap VPN isnt going to give you the performance of a higher priced VPN with a lower contention ratio.

You may want to speak to the tech services ( not the initial help desk, they are just reading auto generated replies ) explain what you are trying to achieve and you may find your problem is due to bad international routing / bottlenecks. The internet here is set up for the domestic market who browse the internet / Facebook / youtube. What you are doing is quite specific so your connection needs to be optimized.

Everyone is keen to jump down the throats of the Thai ISP's but these guys cant read minds, they need accurate data such as traceroutes and ping tests to ensure your getting the best possible traffic.

Try it, i was really blown away how helpful my (3BB) tech support are. I now have personal emails and mobile numbers if i ever come up against slow speeds to my French server.

[bubba]

I have a sort of related question.. >How are you able to get Netflix here. I have tried and I'm blocked from being in Thailand!

Free:

http://tunlr.net

[samran]

Here is the CAT cable map;

http://www.cat.net.th/map/internetmap.html

Basically guys, if you want to have streaming US based HD movies 24 hours per day - you can simply pay for it..

If that is your only reason to have the internet....

Can you expand on this a little? It seems that some are saying don't go for anything above the base package, but you seem to advocting something different?

[TravelerEastWest]

I have used 3BBB Premium in Chiang Mai and Bangkok in crowded areas and typically have no problems.

Around 2400 per month for 5 down and 1 up - but constant for overseas connections 24 hours a day better than much larger plans that are cheaper from True etc.

In the end you need to pay for a good connection.

[samran]

If you are only getting 1.5Mb "in-Thailand" on a 10Mb plan then you have a connection problem. Use Speedtest.net and test to the "nearest" server to you...that is, in your case test to a Bangkok Speedtest.net server. Personally I always test to the STS Group server since it always seems to give the fastest download speeds....guess that server has more bandwidth capability...don't get bogged down so easy.

Or even test to the TOT speedtester at this Link or to the True speedtester at this Link. Although they are both Flash/OOKLA-based speedtesters like Speedtester.net easily fooled by local cache servers they are still fine for checking your "local/basic connection"...you want to ensure you are getting the full speed you are paying for....10Mb in your case. But don't use a flash/ookla based tester for international speed testing as they are too easy fooled; use a java-based tester.

Remember, ISPs are only selling/advertising their "local/basic" connection speed; not their much lower international bandwidth. Just as FYI, below is the speeds I just got on my True DOCSIS/cable 14Mb/1.4Mb connection...from my Bangkok home to the Bangkok servers. And yes the download results are much faster than 14Mb since the DOCSIS system started using "bursting" around 6 months ago which gives you much higher speeds for the first 30 seconds or so...which is usually longer than the speedtester test period...therefore you log a much higher download speed...then the bursting stops and you get the normal speed (14Mb local speed). Bursting is great for browsing/opening up browser webpages, small file downloads, emails, etc.

TOTCapture.JPG

TrueCapture.JPG

Thanks,

So I tested locally, and was getting 8Mbs, which means that the local stuff is fine.

Going offshore though, man, another story. Got this using a Java based tester.

[Pib]

Yea, that's some pretty sad international speed. And regarding your local speed, you really should be getting 10Mb. If you know how to enter your modem's setup menu to where you can see something called the "data or sync" speed which represents your basic connection between your modem and the DSLAM then you can confirm if you are getting the 10Mb local connection you are paying for. If it's less than 10Mb then you probably have a "physical line" problem like a funky connection somewhere on the poles/junction boxes.

Below is what I just got on my True DOCSIS 14Mb/1.4Mb plan at 9:45pm Thailand time.

But when I did the same test earlier today I got around a 6.3Mb download speed.

Speed Test #105355568 by dslreports.com
Run: 2013-08-22 03:53:25 EST
Download: 6310 (Kbps)
Upload: 981 (Kbps)

Edited August 22, 2013 by Pib

[snooky]

I love my US baseball and would like to sign up for games via MLB or similar site but am afraid I might not be able to watch the games with slow internet speed. I am on True with the supposed 10MB speed.

Any suggestions?

[smok3yjk]

Yea, that's some pretty sad international speed. And regarding your local speed, you really should be getting 10Mb. If you know how to enter your modem's setup menu to where you can see something called the "data or sync" speed which represents your basic connection between your modem and the DSLAM then you can confirm if you are getting the 10Mb local connection you are paying for. If it's less than 10Mb then you probably have a "physical line" problem like a funky connection somewhere on the poles/junction boxes.

Below is what I just got on my True DOCSIS 14Mb/1.4Mb plan at 9:45pm Thailand time.

Capture.JPG

But when I did the same test earlier today I got around a 6.3Mb download speed.

Speed Test #105355568 by dslreports.com

Run: 2013-08-22 03:53:25 EST

Download: 6310 (Kbps)

Upload: 981 (Kbps)

I'd take these results as a grain of salt. I ran the exact same java based speedtest from a California location just like you...and i got comparable results as you. 2-3 mbps with java dslreports speedtest.

However, my Netflix runs like shit still 80-150 kbps according to Windows 8 bandwidth meter. Also I tried downloading a Ubuntu ISO from various USA mirrors and getting 80-400 kbps fluctuating constantly. Not anywhere near the 2-3 mbps the java speedtest reports.

[RichCor]

I have a sort of related question.. >How are you able to get Netflix here. I have tried and I'm blocked from being in Thailand!

Free:

http://tunlr.net

Someone else just started a new thread that might help : TV Thread introducing TrickByte DNS

Also, if you're a Chrome (Google Browser) user, I like Hola Unblocker. It lets me view sites normally blocked in other countries: CHROME MENU: TOOLS | EXTENSIONS and click Get More Extensions (at bottom of page),

or get it here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hola-unblocker/gkojfkhlekighikafcpjkiklfbnlmeio

These links subject to modmin approval and may disappear without notice.

[Pib]

Yea, that's some pretty sad international speed. And regarding your local speed, you really should be getting 10Mb. If you know how to enter your modem's setup menu to where you can see something called the "data or sync" speed which represents your basic connection between your modem and the DSLAM then you can confirm if you are getting the 10Mb local connection you are paying for. If it's less than 10Mb then you probably have a "physical line" problem like a funky connection somewhere on the poles/junction boxes.

Below is what I just got on my True DOCSIS 14Mb/1.4Mb plan at 9:45pm Thailand time.

Capture.JPG

But when I did the same test earlier today I got around a 6.3Mb download speed.

Speed Test #105355568 by dslreports.com

Run: 2013-08-22 03:53:25 EST

Download: 6310 (Kbps)

Upload: 981 (Kbps)

I'd take these results as a grain of salt. I ran the exact same java based speedtest from a California location just like you...and i got comparable results as you. 2-3 mbps with java dslreports speedtest.

However, my Netflix runs like shit still 80-150 kbps according to Windows 8 bandwidth meter. Also I tried downloading a Ubuntu ISO from various USA mirrors and getting 80-400 kbps fluctuating constantly. Not anywhere near the 2-3 mbps the java speedtest reports.

Big 10-4 (agree fully) a person needs to take speed test results with a grain of salt as each speed test (be it java or flash based) will use a different algorithms and servers in accomplishing the test....they will also use different file sizes....they will discard different samples taken during the testing period...some rely more on "random" data flow testing versus "sequential" data flow testing, etc. Some are more easily fooled by cache servers which can be typical for Flash/OOKLA based testers like Speedtest.net when during tests to international servers....but java based testers are much harder to fool.

And then you still have the situation of say your speed test to server XYZ in San Francisco gave you 5Mb download speed and you wonder why you can only get say a 1Mb download speed to a streaming video server also in San Francisco. Well, probably great majority of the trip/DNS routing between Thailand and to those San Francisco servers are the same...say for 99% of the round trip...but that last 1% in the San Francisco area is going through some different hardware/servers/routing/etc., which could really be degrading the speed. I only takes one chokepoint between here and there to make all the difference/slow things down. And of course the video streaming server you are connecting to may just be overloaded and throttling the bandwidth it is putting out to each or some folks connected at the time...a person could have a 100Mb internet speed plan in Thailand but if the server he is connecting to on the other end is overloaded/throttling the bandwidth it's putting out, then that 100Mb speed plan will probably be not better than a 10Mb speed plan.

Also, for streaming video a "smooth, consistent" data flow is critical compared to a fluctuating data flow...data flow that has a lot of stop & go, speed surges & then slow downs, etc., especially in those situations where the streaming video server you are connected will limit each connection to a certain bandwidth which ends up preventing your browser/viewer from being able to do much if any buffering. When you do a speed test many of the testers are just showing you an average of all the speed samples it took over X-seconds....speed samples that could be spiking & dipping greatly in speed...but when you average them all out you get "one" speed result.

After doing a lot of my own testing over my years of being in Thailand on different ISPs of TOT, JINET, and True and reading many ThaiVisa posts regarding speed test results (creditable posts/results), I'm pretty much convinced Thai ISPs throttle (don' buy enough) international bandwidth and generally it don't matter if you are on a 100Mb speed plan or a 10Mb speed plan for accessing international sites....when your 100Mb plan connects to the ISP's international gateway it will be throttled/limited to approx. 6Mb (or less) speed....when your 10Mb plan connects to the ISP's international gateway it will be throttled/limited to approx. 6Mb (or less) speed. Of course everyone's results will vary depending on your local circuits, quality of your local connection, and other magical/technical stuff that I don't think anyone fully understands....I know I sure don't.

Here's another speed testing site called TestMy to various servers in the U.S., Northern Europe, and Singapore...it also will not give a person bogus/fooled international speed results common on flash-based testers like Speedtest.net. As you watch the test run you can see it's doing some serious speed testing of your connection.

[cacruden]

Different ISPs (west and here) have different methods of shaping/managing bandwidth during peak hours -- and I prefer the ISP to many in North America. Here the shaping is protocol agnostic, whereas some others shape/throttle torrent traffic specifically. Nobody on this board pays for guaranteed bandwidth - you get what you pay for. The cost of guaranteed bandwidth is 10 to 20 times the cost of standard packages (and they are available if not advertised). I use 3bb here in Bangkok - 16/1M -- 2 lines load-balanced (I would prefer having more upload capacity but not available where I am) which replaced my 5/1M premier line around 6 months ago...... and I have been generally happy with it. It gets shaped in the afternoon mostly but during non-peak times I can get full bandwidth internationally. Even shaped the bandwidth I get is higher than I got on my premier line during peak hours.

[Malthus101]

I have a 10Mb ADSL service with True - Ultra High-Speed they call it - roflol...

Anyway, every evening at 8pm BKK time, I need to log on to a US site to listen to a live webinar - video, audio and chat room.

It is essentially DEAD. That is 9am NY time (Eastern)

I get stuttery video, the presenters mouse pointer leaving trails across the screen that don't disappear, a swirling flash symbol that never goes away and often 99.5% silence, and the text-chat delayed by up to 12 minutes.

<deleted> Thailand! Why are they so incredibly sh!t at these sorts of things? I'm seriously considering moving to South Korea instead! How can I get any "work" done here?!

Is there any solution? There must be people living in Thailand who have excellent connection speeds.

I'm curious about what Samran said:

Posted 2013-08-21 20:57:30

I've noticed the same thing here in mid Sukhumvit. Up till the day before yesterday I was getting Netflix just fine on my 10mbs TOT plan. Speed has been really good.

Starting last night, I can barely watch it, and am getting at most 1.5mbs from the US and the stream stopping every minute or so.

So... the bit about it being fine up until a few days ago. I am in Ekkamai, this is mid-Sukhumvit wouldn't you say? Could it be these goons at True have dropped a "trunk" or whatever the internet uses (I have no idea - is it a node?!) - anyway....

What about a proper speed test that I can show to True to explain how crap their service is? Of course, ideally they'd send an English speaking technician round at 8pm and he could see for himself - but they never send technicians out at night I was once told.

Coz they're lazy amateurs.

[Malthus101]

Oh - I occasionally get the message "Connection Lost - trying to re-connect" but I have a feeling that is from Omnovia, the webinar hosting company....

[Straight8]

I have a 10Mb ADSL service with True - Ultra High-Speed they call it - roflol...

Anyway, every evening at 8pm BKK time, I need to log on to a US site to listen to a live webinar - video, audio and chat room.

It is essentially DEAD. That is 9am NY time (Eastern)

I get stuttery video, the presenters mouse pointer leaving trails across the screen that don't disappear, a swirling flash symbol that never goes away and often 99.5% silence, and the text-chat delayed by up to 12 minutes.

<deleted> Thailand! Why are they so incredibly sh!t at these sorts of things? I'm seriously considering moving to South Korea instead! How can I get any "work" done here?!

Is there any solution? There must be people living in Thailand who have excellent connection speeds.

I'm curious about what Samran said:

Posted 2013-08-21 20:57:30

I've noticed the same thing here in mid Sukhumvit. Up till the day before yesterday I was getting Netflix just fine on my 10mbs TOT plan. Speed has been really good.

Starting last night, I can barely watch it, and am getting at most 1.5mbs from the US and the stream stopping every minute or so.

So... the bit about it being fine up until a few days ago. I am in Ekkamai, this is mid-Sukhumvit wouldn't you say? Could it be these goons at True have dropped a "trunk" or whatever the internet uses (I have no idea - is it a node?!) - anyway....

What about a proper speed test that I can show to True to explain how crap their service is? Of course, ideally they'd send an English speaking technician round at 8pm and he could see for himself - but they never send technicians out at night I was once told.

Coz they're lazy amateurs.

i hear you, and again, they [iSP's here] play all sorts of tricks, throttling, capping, limiting, u name it.. guess you could try one of the other IPs's like 3BB, but there is always someone bitching about all ISP's at any given time.. fully understand your frustrations. I've gone through these myself, and just learn to live with it or change over.

[retoocs01]

well, it is frustrating and it seems, it's getting worse from month to month...

I remember ~two years ago, I was able to watch tv-streams almost 24h without buffering on my former 4Mbit ADSL line.

Nowadays (on 10 Mbit), the same streams are only watch-able at night time (sometimes)

Afternoon until night time and weekend = crap.

Overloaded/overbooked lines in combination with poor international bandwidth and a lack of maintenance.

And the Russian, Korean, Chinese, whatever invasion won't improve the situation.

We all know that and yes, it really sucks.

But unfortunately, I can't see no light at the end of the tunnel.

Thailand, the hub of Internet and online frustration

Edited August 27, 2013 by retoocs01

[Pib]

well, it is frustrating and it seems, it's getting worse from month to month...

I remember ~two years ago, I was able to watch tv-streams almost 24h without buffering on my former 4Mbit ADSL line.

Nowadays (on 10 Mbit), the same streams are only watch-able at night time (sometimes)

Afternoon until night time and weekend = crap.

Overloaded/overbooked lines in combination with poor international bandwidth and a lack of maintenance.

And the Russian, Korean, Chinese, whatever invasion won't improve the situation.

We all know that and yes, it really sucks.

But unfortunately, I can't see no light at the end of the tunnel.

Thailand, the hub of Internet and online frustration

It all comes down to Location, Location, Location...and luck. A couple years ago I was on TOT 4Mb and 6Mb plans....I basically couldn't do any video streaming due to excessive buffering. Then True DOCSIS (cable) internet came to my Bangkok moobaan....I first had the True DOCSIS 20Mb/2Mb plan for Bt1299/month...super reliable...and I could stream video fine....then I downshift to the True DOCSIS 14Mb/1.4Mb plan for Bt699/month....super reliable and I can still stream video fine...and actually I get around double that 14Mb speed for short periods say around 30 seconds or a little more due to "bursting" they implemented on DOCSIS about 6 months ago. I only downshifted to the lower speed because it became clear to me when it comes to "international speeds/bandwidth" there is little difference between a 100Mb or 10Mb plan...well, there is one difference...a BIG price difference.

[balo]

TOT at my location in Chonburi has been terrible for the last few days , not possible to watch any streamed channels for more than a few seconds .

So yes its getting worse, my backup solution is DTAC mobile , 384kb stream works much better than my 6mb TOT line......

[cacruden]

I think some people's expectations are out of whack, while some people are not getting minimum service that most would expect. In Thailand as a westerner you are never going to get 24hrs of full international bandwidth without spending MAJOR bucks/pounds. It does not make sense to buy bandwidth that is only going to be used for a few hours a day, what is reasonable to expect is that you will receive full bandwidth maybe at most 12 hours a day (but not less than 8 hours). The rest of the time the ISP is going to have to manage bandwidth to give all users a slice of that international bandwidth -- enough to stream YouTube, facebook etc. (but not HD streaming) with the aim to keep latency / bandwidth constant (for me 3bb has done a reasonable job in that area - not perfect -- but fair). If you want full and exceptional bandwidth - you will have to move back to where you come from to get it since local (regional) bandwidth is cheap and plentiful (still a lot of dark fibre). Of course if you were in UK or US, and you were a Thai trying to connect 100% of the time to websites here..... you would have the same complaints.... slow speeds etc. There is a limited amount of bandwidth crossing the pacific ocean still, and priority will go to those that buy GUARANTEED bandwidth (mostly companies at 10 to 20 times the price of consumer packages).

[Turkleton]

sorry, wrong topic.

Edited August 28, 2013 by Turkleton

[samran]

To be fair to TOT - I rang them the other day and the service seems to have gotten better. Haven't tested the speeds, but can watch netflix again which is all that matters.

[Dene16]

I Realise people are trying to be helpful but if only they could keep to the original topic and just answer the question (simply) without adding masses of useless information.

It is not rocket science that the problem exists within the realms of the suppliers (not routers ,cables, software or any of your devices) except in odd circumstances

If it were an individual problem why do we all suffer the same problem.

The most sensible answer is that the lines become overloaded with traffic at these times in Thailand and too few lines.

I live in Surin (15 kilometres from the city) and experience the same problem.

Internet has become far better in the last few years with fibre optic capabilities (no loss of speed) APPARENTLY. But expensive at 17,000 baht to install

I have TOT 13Mbps on a dish 690 Baht a month. This speed all day but slows to 1.5Mbps at evening/night (unable to stream)

I have no doubt fibre optic's in the main cities will eventually become the norm but until this time I believe you will have to except it.