Tt&t Adsl

[ChiangMaiThai]

rjcos, do you know if your modem setting (not sure what it is called) is at 33 or 66?

I can't believe the speeds youa re getting. That is what I had hoped for. Where do you live? I'm kept close track today. Its never been above 200Kbps. Its rarely above 150. And it spent most of the hours between 9am and 4pm at 40Kbps. Do you think I am configured wrongly or do you think you are just lucky to be in an area with only one or two users and I am unlucky to be in an area with about 50?

[ChiangMaiThai]

OK I just checked my speed again after my last post and got the highest speeds thus far. At 7:07pm I ran three tests at the McAffee site and clocked 1.136 Mps, 1.491 Mps and I did not write down the third but is within the same range. That is Mps, not kps (i.e. over 1000k). Not bad.

Can you tell me what site you tested your speed on? Also, I test mine here:

http://us.mcafee.com/root/genericURL_gener...catalog_nav.asp

Can you give it a try and tell me what it says? Here's the log for today. Nowhere near your speeds and much of the day, it was like an average dial up connection:

7:20am 84.88Kbps

7:35am 154.4 Kbps

7:41am 125.44Kbps

8:06am 198Kbps

9:04 210.24Kbps

9:10am 210.64Kbps

9:30am 53.36Kbps

9:36am 58.96Kbps

9:45am 55.28Kbps

9:57am 38.48Kbps

10:04am 48.48Kbps

3:29pm 36.8Kbps

4:06pm 114.8Kbps

4:10pm 51.76Kbps

4:12pm 210.24Kbps

4:25pm 115.44Kbps

4:37pm 31.76Kbps

4:38pm 50Kbps

4:53pm 69.52Kbps

5:11pm 55.28Kbps

5:22pm 157.04Kbps

5:24pm 209.52Kbps

9:08pm 46Kbps

9:11pm 146.88Kbps

9:43pm 214Kbps

[rjcos]

ChiangMaiThai - I am testing at the same site you are testing. I just tried again (10pm) and got 1.594 MPS. It has been like that all night. Let me say that this has not been the norm for me. Usually I run 150-250k. I think it has everything to do with how many people are on and maybe how many people are hooked up to your line. I am enjoying it will I can. I am in the Maehea area (Hong Dong).

[rjcos]

Sorry I didn't answer your other question as well. I do not know what my settings are, but I wouldn't think if your connection is working that you are set up wrong. It probably has more to do with who you are sharing the line with.

[ChiangMaiThai]

Sorry I didn't answer your other question as well. I do not know what my settings are, but I wouldn't think if your connection is working that you are set up wrong. It probably has more to do with who you are sharing the line with.

I'm right in the city close to Central. So I think you are simply in an area with only a few users and I am in a high user area. I just tested and got 214Kbps. The speeds you are getting are phenemenol. If you look at TA and some other ADSL providers, you are getting an amazing deal! Unlimited at 1000Kbps plus for 1000 baht a month. You're getting the best deal in Thailand. Enjoy it! I hope no one else in your area signs up!

[sabaijai]

Rico - What part of Chiang Mai did you have the TT&T DSL installed? I'm about to apply for same, wondering whether my results will more closely resemble yours or CMT's.

thanks

[ChiangMaiThai]

Rico - What part of Chiang Mai did you have the TT&T DSL installed? I'm about to apply for same, wondering whether my results will more closely resemble yours or CMT's.

thanks

He's in Hong Dong where I'm guessing he is only one of a few users. I've gotten around 150 to 200Kbps all day today which is reasonable and well worth it, but doesn 't compare to what he's getting...

[sabaijai]

Thanks for that info, CMT. I think I'll hit the TT&T office tomorrow - assuming they're not closed for Songkran week - and sign up. Wish I'd done it two weeks ago, when they were saying the wait was two weeks. Then again perhaps the new estimates are more honest ...

[sabaijai]

Just back from the TT&T office. They tell me that although my line is eligible for DSL, they have to check whether my area (near CMU) is "full" or not. If "full" then the service will be unavailable. Sort of like those Air Asia fares of 800B to Phuket ...

Secondly they say they're all out of the free modems so it will be necessary to buy one. The cheapest is 1700B, happy to buy one since there appears to be no other choice. If the connections aren't "full" ...

[ChiangMaiThai]

If you do miss out, I've got to think some other companies will be offering similar deals soon. All day today, Monday, its been at 40Kbps. TT&T tells me that this is because itsa peak time. OR maybe my modem is not working well. They suggested I try switching modems with a friend. i suggested that if they suspect something may be wrong with my modem, that they replace it. If it would just stay above 100 then its reasonable, but 40 is just too slow...

[monty]

Remember, 40kbps is what they guaranteed in the first place! The 2 Mbps is only guaranteed on local internet, the 2Mbps international access is shared with up to 50 users.

This would result indeed in 40 kbps if all users were downloading simultaniously(unlikely though, my guess is they're throthling you down when their system is heavily loaded)...

As Sabajjai posted, it seems some areas are already fully subscribed, so most likely you are in one of those areas...

In the beginning of this thread we were worried the access to international sites was always going to be limited to 40 kbps. Now it seems they are only doing this when their system gets loaded heavily...

My guess it's not going to improve when more and more usres are going to sign up!!

[ChiangMaiThai]

Remember, 40kbps is what they guaranteed in the first place! The 2 Mbps is only guaranteed on local internet, the 2Mbps international access is shared with up to 50 users.

This would result indeed in 40 kbps if all users were downloading simultaniously(unlikely though, my guess is they're throthling you down when their system is heavily loaded)...

As Sabajjai posted, it seems some areas are already fully subscribed, so most likely you are in one of those areas...

In the beginning of this thread we were worried the access to international sites was always going to be limited to 40 kbps. Now it seems they are only doing this when their system gets loaded heavily...

My guess it's not going to improve when more and more usres are going to sign up!!

The highest speed I've ever gotten is 250Kbps, even at 3 in the morning. So that means that there are always 10 other people downloading? i don't think so. Something is off.

[ChiangMaiThai]

Okay, after using TSpeed for the past few days I have my final analysis.

9 to 5, the speeds are usually around 40 or 50 Kbps. At other times 100Kbps to 200Kbps is normal. I've never gotten above 250Kbps, no matter what time I try. There's probably an hour a day where the system is just down and you can't access the internet.

From other member's comments I would say that your results will vary enormously depending on your location. But as more and more people sign up, my results could be the norm.

Overall, its still a good deal, but I would be more impressed if I actually got a genuine ADSL connection in the middle of the night at least and I could download large files. As things stand, I never get speeds that would be considered ADSL in any other country. i will be checking my phone line to make sure that there is no rust etc. Something seems off that I never get above 250Kbps. As I said earlier, that means that there are always at least 10 other people connected and downloading in my area and I have a hard time believing that. But maybe this is just the way it is in high usage areas.

Compared to the other options out there right now, for many people, this will still be a good deal, but don't expect that you are getting 2 MBPS ADSL!!!!! as the advertisements proclaimed.

[sabaijai]

CMT, your results have me thinking maybe I shouldn't even bother with TT&T. Maybe I should wait to see if someone else offers a better deal.

The thing is, this deal originates with the CAT, who are obviously cutting themselves the best discount (in any 'developed' country, they'd already have been sued for trust violations).

So maybe no one else will offer a deal as good as this? Anyway I'm ticked off I didn't sign up three weeks ago when I first went to the TT&T office ...

[monty]

CMT,

If you still have some patience try to download DuMeter

http://www.dumeter.com/download.php

With this program you can see graphically the speeds you are downloading at (any big file transfer is usefull, download something you would want anyway, of at least a couple of Mb).

If the system is overloaded you should see the speed fluctuate a lot during your download. On a shared high speed link your speed drops whenever somebody else downloads something. When they stop, your speed should go up again. If you're online with 50 people it will go up and down constantly.

The on-line speedtests only give you the average speed at which you downloaded a sample file.

If you see a nice stable 50kbps, you now for sure that they have a bandwith throttle somewhere... Maybe they want to protect another section of their network from slowing down by overusage on the loop you are on...

[monty]

Sabaijai,

I guess us people living outside of Bangkok (I live in Pattaya) will be in for a long wait before the other companies can offer anything competitive!

I just asked at the Loxinfo office why their unlimited adsl package costs 3600 Baht/month in Bkk and 6000 Baht/month anywhere else... They quote as the reason the extortionate prices they have to pay to CAT to lease the fat pipe(necessary to support a lot of broadband subscribers) to their main servers in Bkk...

Of coarse the tt&t deal is sweet because,as like you said, it originates with CAT. They don't have to pay themselves for their uplink to Bangkok. Thats why they don't sell in Bangkok, they lose a big part of their advantage over there!!!

This is the reason the sattelite deals are not to expensive over here, they don't need no CAT link to Bangkok... Unfortunately there are some other disadvantages to satelite links such as sattelite lag(delays caused by the signal needing to travel some 70000Km to Bangkok instead of a couple of hundred over land) and the fact that these packages are datavolume metered....

We'll just have to be patient, for the time being, I'm perfectly happy with my IPTV system...

Monty

[konangrit]

Hi,Monty

You seem to know a little about the various high speed internet options available in Pattaya. As I'm currently in England,it's fairly hard to find out about what is actually available outside of Bangkok and Chiang mai. Would you mind sharing some of what you know with me?

I need a reliable connection with little or no lag. So I guess that rules out Satellite. I also need something faster then dial-up, although a very fast connection is not so important. I will also be using it off peak, generally 20:00-08:00, so I guess an ADSL or DSL line will be quite sufficient for my use at these hours, even with a high contention ratio.

Do you know of any options that would fit the bill for what I need, and if so, which areas are these available in? I've checked some Thai sites as to which areas in Pattaya have broadband available, but unfortunately they only say the telephone numbers which can use it, not the streets. Obviously, I would like to rent a place where I know I can get broadband, instead of just taking a chance. So, if you know which streets are hooked up, I would find that very helpful.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and if you know anything that you think may be useful to me, thankyou for answering my questions in advance.

Konangrit

[ChiangMaiThai]

CMT,

If you still have some patience    try to download DuMeter

http://www.dumeter.com/download.php

With this program you can see graphically the speeds you are downloading at (any big file transfer is usefull, download something you would want anyway, of at least a couple of Mb).

If the system is overloaded you should see the speed fluctuate a lot during your download. On a shared high speed link your speed drops whenever somebody else downloads something. When they stop, your speed should go up again. If you're online with 50 people it will go up and down constantly.

The on-line speedtests only give you the average speed at which you downloaded a sample file.

If you see a nice stable 50kbps, you now for sure that they have a bandwith throttle somewhere... Maybe they want to protect another section of their network from slowing down by overusage on the loop you are on...

Ok, I downloaded a 1MB file. The speeds didn't hold level at all. Initially, I got in the single digits- 6Kb up to 9Kb down to 2Kb, then into the low teens and then a minute of nothing and then in the 20Kb to 30Kb range. It was always changing speeds. What do you make of the overall speeds and pattern of downloading?

[ChiangMaiThai]

CMT, your results have me thinking maybe I shouldn't even bother with TT&T. Maybe I should wait to see if someone else offers a better deal.

The thing is, this deal originates with the CAT, who are obviously cutting themselves the best discount (in any 'developed' country, they'd already have been sued for trust violations).

So maybe no one else will offer a deal as good as this? Anyway I'm ticked off I didn't sign up three weeks ago when I first went to the TT&T office ...

Eventually, there will be a better deal, but who knows when. Overall, I'm still better off now than I was on dial up. I used to spend more than 1000 baht a month on loxinfo, which was slower and of course, not connected all the time. But it does seem safe to say that I'm not getting broadband speeds. I am a bit perplexed as to why I can never get above 250Kbps, even in the early morning hours. If 50 people are really sharing 2mbps, it seems that at certian times I would see very fast connection speeds, but they elude me.

[monty]

Hi CMT,

your results baffle me a bit, since it has all the characteristics of a very heavy (over) loaded system. They obiously don't limit your speed artificially.

I would say their backbone to Bangkok is not big enough, but I don't get it when one of the other posters is saying he gets over 1 Mbps download speeds on the same system. This would even be considered very fast in Europe (I got between 200 and 800 kbps through cable)!!!

Either he is posting higher speeds then he actually gets, or TT&T hooked much more then 50 users on to your loop... Knowing Thailand it probably is the second scenario. Maybe they forgot that people's download habits change when you have broadband access... you don't only surf the web anymore, you start doing downloads you wouldn't have tought about while still on dial-up!!!

Their advertising is obviously a rip off, even when the deal ends up being better then dial-up... TIT

Monty

[sabaijai]

Overall, I'm still better off now than I was on dial up. I used to spend more than 1000 baht a month on loxinfo, which was slower and of course, not connected all the time.

This is why I still want to get in on this deal, if I can. I'm spending close to 2000B/month on Loxinfo dialup, so might as well get the same thing/slightly better for 1000B/month.

Thanks for all the detailed info, CMT, it has really helped those of us following the TT&T deal weigh the pros and cons. Much appreciated.

[monty]

Hi Konangrit...

Seeing the hours you need it and the requiered low latency/high speed my guess is you're on the American stockmarket Been there, done that

ADSL available probably on beach road and second road between Royal garden and Big C. Maybe also in the small sois running of second road (inland).

This is based on the internet cafe's I know of having ADSL... Wether you can get or not depends on distance to the telefone exchange (less then 3.5Km) and the subsequent frequency test they do on your line...

In this area it won't be easy nor cheap to find an apprtment unfortunately, but for the persisting one probably possible!

Pricewise broadband is very expensive here. ADSL comes in at 6420 Baht/month (Loxinfo) or 7222 Baht/month (KSC) Add to this 1000 Baht/month for the communications company for the use of their ADSL exchange... Both company's are 256/128 kbps...

Another possible alternative is ISDN. Coverage area is much bigger, but they don't have unlimited packages. You'll pay 27 Baht/hour for 64Kbps and 54 Baht/hour for 128Kbps.

Any more info, just ask away...

Small tip: If you have the IPTV system (one-way sattelite) the latency(delay) is only in receiving data. If you send a command it will still travel through telephone line (low latency)...

Also , with any provider modem, adsl or whatever, you'll get ping times of between 200 and 400 msec. This because the big distance to the US and the massive amount of hops your data has to make before reaching its target!!!

Hope this helps...

Monty

[rjcos]

CMT - My speed has been all over the place lately, but I am still testing at over 250 almost all the time. Many times the test speed seems higher than the time it actually takes to download a file, but it is still way faster than dial up for me.

I do not know if your ADSL modem has anything to with it (I'm showing my ignorance here). But I am not using the free modem they gave away, but am using an actual router. The reason is I have a Mac and the free modem only works on Windows machines.

[konangrit]

Very helpful information,Monty

I'm actually a proffesional poker player, but I make most my money playing on-line nowadays. For this reason I need the lowest possible latency in both directions.

I also need the most reliable connection as possible. Which seems to only leave ADSL. I agree, 7500-8000/month is extortionate for 256/128 compared to most other parts of the world, and I would begrudge paying it (works out about 1750 THB for 512/256 here), but I guess it's only a small percentage of what I would earn from it.

Any thoughts on which is better? Loxinfo or KSC? Also, do you know if Tt&t have any plans to roll out their package in Pattaya? I probably wont be moving to Thailand until the end of the year/beginning of 2005, so maybe there will be some better deals, or at least more areas available by then.

As you said, there are not too many decent places available for a reasonable price in the areas covered at the moment. I wonder if ADSL extends to Soi Buakhaow.

Thanks again, Konangrit

[monty]

As far as I know TT&T doesn't have any plans for Pattaya. Indeed for what you need it for adsl is probably the only option. My guess is that prices will drop but not by much! As for the speed they roll out adsl networks is a joke. The current coverage is in place almost a year, and still no expansion... ISDN never even made it to Jomtien before it got kind of obsolete...

We'll just wait and see...

Good luck

Monty

[holm188]

does anyone know the SMTP server to be used with the 1000 THB TT&T plan to send email?

Thanks, Holm

[ChiangMaiThai]

rjcos, it turns out that the reasons my speeds were low is because I was on a temporary user name and password. My permanent user name and password are not working, but TT&T tells me that they will be by Monday and my speeds will be faster. We'll see.

[rjcos]

CMT - Hopefuly your speeds will pick up. Let me know how it works out.

[ChiangMaiThai]

Well, with VCI set at 33 it works, but I've been getting around 46Kbps. Not exactly DSL. Now I can change it to 66 which I'm told will give me the real speeds, but when I do I am only able to connect to their network and not to the internet. I called them once again and they tell me that they are working on it (just like they were two weeks ago). Maybe they'll send someone to the house they tell me. The free modem doesn't work for some reason, only the router does. So they tell me I need to pay another 1000 baht for this. I would telll TT&T to f#ck off in a second if there was a worthy competitor.

[valentinoxxx]

Hi Konangrit...

Seeing the hours you need it and the requiered low latency/high speed my guess is you're on the American stockmarket   Been there, done that

ADSL available probably on beach road and second road between Royal garden and Big C. Maybe also in the small sois running of second road (inland).

This is based on the internet cafe's I know of having ADSL... Wether you can get or not depends on distance to the telefone exchange (less then 3.5Km) and the subsequent frequency test they do on your line...

In this area it won't be easy nor cheap to find an apprtment unfortunately, but for the persisting one probably possible!

Pricewise broadband is very expensive here. ADSL comes in at 6420 Baht/month (Loxinfo) or 7222 Baht/month (KSC) Add to this 1000 Baht/month for the communications company for the use of their ADSL exchange... Both company's are 256/128 kbps...

Another possible alternative is ISDN. Coverage area is much bigger, but they don't have unlimited packages. You'll pay 27 Baht/hour for 64Kbps and 54 Baht/hour for 128Kbps.

Any more info, just ask away...

Small tip: If you have the IPTV system (one-way sattelite) the latency(delay) is only in receiving data. If you send a command it will still travel through telephone line (low latency)...

Also , with any provider modem, adsl or whatever, you'll get ping times of between 200 and 400 msec. This because the big distance to the US and the massive amount of hops your data has to make before reaching its target!!!

Hope this helps...

Monty

Where is the telephone exchange in Pattaya?

I thought that is was on Pattaya Klang. Therefore giving more scope to the possibility of getting broadband away from Beach Road.

A friend who stays near Carrefour Pattaya wants to obtain a broadband connection with unrestricted access. What's his best bet?

Satellite?