Is it worth paying more for my internet?

[nellyp]

I have 3bb and pay 994 baht for 13mb download. I want to stream football but it keeps freezing. is it worth me paying extra and having 16mb download?. Definitely thinking cth is the way forward. can I downgrade to 10mb and still use skype with a good connection and download movies at a good speed (not at the same time)

[worgeordie]

Hi Nellyp, I think you would be better going with CTH and just keeping the Internet package you

have, its just not worth trying to watch the football and its stopping and starting,best paying a

few bht and watch it properly.

I upgraded my Internet,had TOT wire 10mb 690 bht went for TOT fibre2u, 13/1 thinking it would

be much better,plus its costing more, but it was fast for first week, now had it 6 weeks and its

worse than what i had before.

regards worgeordie

[tfc]

The 3BB 590 baht deal is fast enough for me (pages load as fast as WIndows Explorer directories open) and I don't see much different between mine and my neighbor who has the next one up.

Edited November 24, 2013 by tfc

[NeverSure]

Surely you mean 13Mbps, not mbps? 13mbps will get you nowhere with streaming.

A problem I noticed in Thailand is that servers I was trying to access throttle down their own upload speed due to their number of customers (clients) and lack of bandwidth. So even if the ISP was actually providing the advertised speed, I couldn't download at that speed from certain sites.

I also saw that on overseas connections. Rather than rely on one of the online speed tests which aren't very accurate, I'd actually find a big file and download it. Perhaps a YouTube video. I'd time it with my watch, then read its file size, do the math, and know exactly what my speed was. It sucked.

I think that in theory 13Mbps should stream. I think there must be a choke point somewhere.

$.02

PS I use Video Download Toolbar to download any and all videos. (Free.) Link

It has a resume function in case your connection breaks.

Edited November 24, 2013 by NeverSure

[RKASA]

Most streams are provided at source with only 175kbps -to- 1500kbps so your speed is not the problem anyway if you have 13mbps rated internet. ping sometimes hurts - but normally when a stream is not working for me start checking you will see the international connection is bottle necking and goes up and down. Sometime I only get 200kbps from overseas sites if I am lucky. This is why all the hype around 4G etc make me laugh. I could live fine with a 3mbps connection but here I don't think they can make even make that work properly most of the time anyway.

Unless your doing a direct download and that source has the speed or torrents which collect many sources at the same time - then all that speed means nothing - an engineer that works with dtac hinted to me that anything over 5mbps rating in Thailand is just sales hype and a dream as far as a working connect goes - you will rarely find any more then that outside of a few downloads and then there are the rather meaningless speed tests inside of Thailand which is not really well connected to the rest of the world anyway.

streaming unless you are doing several at a time should work fine but they won't always work here at any speed.

[lomatopo]

I think the Law of Diminishing returns applies here in that you could spend thousands of baht chasing that elusive performance nut you require, and never get there.

You may have reached that point, so my answer would be "no".

At 15 ~ 20 Mbps (Download) x 1.5 ~ 2.0 Mbps (Upload) and 1,000 baht/month, may be the best place to stop, but obviously a lot will vary by service provider, time of day, target server(s).

[Digitalbanana]

>but it keeps freezing

What stream are you using? I have little buffering at all using a bog standard 10mbps TOT line.

[HardenedSoul]

It's only really worth having 20, 30, 50 or 100Mbps if you're a torrent user. Even then, you have to beware throttling and bandwidth shaping if you make regular use of your speed capacity. Either that or shell out for a seedbox.

[nellyp]

Thanks everybody I am going to give it one more week to try the streaming (I am using stream hunter and wiziwig to watch football), I have been advised to try watching it through a client (ace) rather than straight through the stream. So I have downloaded the Ace client and will give it a go. I tend to think that I am chasing my tail here. Surely 13 Mbps should be enough to stream, I can watch streamed movies easy enough but football seems different. If this doesn't work I'm going to go for the CTH package.

Cheers

[CP3]

Ace? Even my Singapore internet 200Mbps, doesnt work perfectly with it. So it's all depend. But if you want better speed in any countries, get multiple lines and load balance it. There is not much different between basic and higher package.

[slipperylobster]

My Hulu streams without stutter, but when I have a problem elsewhere, I just download the video (takes a few minutes) and then I watch it. Stream for what? Download first if you can. Some sites, such as Hulu, make it difficult to download. Try some alternative sites. Also use proxies when available. Chrome and Firefox have add ons that let you view some sites that may be blocked.

First try "Internet download Manager" (Not expensive)....it can download faster than your browser does by itself. Also try a download manager... such as Download Helper for firefox.

Sometimes streaming is slow because that Website's server is flooded with simultaneous connections....that is not something you can control. In that case, a faster connection helps.

90 percent of my time, I am just reading/writing on forums, or emails. Have no need for super fast connections. I often write offline when I have my laptop with me and have no connection. When I get home, I go online and just cut and paste.

Same with reading email...I have a multi-clipboard....such as Ditto.....and I just copy quickly all my emails and read them/write back later.

Well, doing these things is quite effective, and I just use basic 3bb wifi.

[chris2004]

Downgrade to the 590 10mb package which is still fast enough and use the 400 baht saving towards CTH. The CTH HD pictures are great a world away from internet buffering.

Edited November 26, 2013 by chris2004

[menorah]

I've had both 3BB & TOT, the latter has been far more problematic regards 'freezing' of 'streamed' content. I did a bit of 'Googling' and there was a suggestion that upgrading to a Dual Bandwidth router could be the answer.

I've since contacted TOT about upgrading but they seem incapable of understanding my request. Sadly, most of the office staff have zero knowledge of the systems and technology they sell.

If it weren't for the fact 3BB have no cable near my new home, I'd have reverted to them straight away.

[thailandbeachisland]

It won't be any better as most of the time the problem is not the connection,

[vincent13]

Most streams are provided at source with only 175kbps -to- 1500kbps so your speed is not the problem anyway if you have 13mbps rated internet. ping sometimes hurts - but normally when a stream is not working for me start checking you will see the international connection is bottle necking and goes up and down. Sometime I only get 200kbps from overseas sites if I am lucky. This is why all the hype around 4G etc make me laugh. I could live fine with a 3mbps connection but here I don't think they can make even make that work properly most of the time anyway.

Unless your doing a direct download and that source has the speed or torrents which collect many sources at the same time - then all that speed means nothing - an engineer that works with dtac hinted to me that anything over 5mbps rating in Thailand is just sales hype and a dream as far as a working connect goes - you will rarely find any more then that outside of a few downloads and then there are the rather meaningless speed tests inside of Thailand which is not really well connected to the rest of the world anyway.

streaming unless you are doing several at a time should work fine but they won't always work here at any speed.

This is also my understanding of the problem: "the international connection is bottle necking and goes up and down";

unfortunately there's not much can be done to address this issue, especially when one in hostage to an inferior service to begin with (that is, TOT - the only provider in most rural areas). As another poster suggests, you might have to bite the bullet and get CTH.

[Digitalbanana]

There are several apps on Android Google Play that stream CTH sports HD. They don't buffer - but no English language commentary on football, tho picture is good. Can hang a bit on big games like the last 10 minutes of last weekends Merseyside derby - but generally OK!

[DGIE]

Try the 900Baht of DTAC and for sure you will have a better viewing. And maybe you team will win too with DTAC

[nellyp]

Ace? Even my Singapore internet 200Mbps, doesnt work perfectly with it. So it's all depend. But if you want better speed in any countries, get multiple lines and load balance it. There is not much different between basic and higher package.

OK that is above my head but thanks anyway. My mate has this working for his football streaming perfectly with 15/2Mbps