An Update On My Experiences With Cslox's Sme Adsl

[Firefoxx]

Well, at the beginning, I said that their service was pretty darn good, with speeds that were nearly at stated bandwidth, and no problems. This is the more expensive 1mbit SME package, which the nice saleslady said would have no limits and no packet shaping/blocking.

Well, now I've come to revise that assessment.

First, and foremost, it seems (that's what they admit, and that's how things look) that they have a policy of drastically changing network configuration at whim, which will affect speeds *a LOT*. When I first got it installed, my non-http downloads were excellent, around 1mbit/s throughout the day, every day, hence my glowing assessment. Then, during workdays, it deteriorated to around half that, then half that, then I was lucky if I got 50-60kbit/s. This was through the course of a couple of weeks. Then I complained, no response, and complained again. The next day speeds shot up to near their previous level. This cycle of "slow-complain-fast" happened for around a few times, and recently, for my last complaint, they just said "we will take it into consideration" and "no guarantee" and "we have a lot of new customers".

Line stability is OK, but there are times when I'll lose the DSL connection completely for hours.

For the "current" state of speed, during the workday only web traffic is anywhere near decent. Everything else is in the gutter. Really. P2P (and all other things non-HTTP) is practically nonfunctional. In other words, very similar to the Buddy 500 baht/month package. During the night (and I mean around 8pm -5am) and weekends, everything speeds up miraculously and actually *works*. So basically I'm paying a hefty premium for a service that actually only works during the night.

My thoughts? Their management are a bunch of monkeys. Their salespeople are clueless and misleading customers. Their tech people are useless, since it's the management that determines the speeds. Their service is not really a service, and not really worth the constant maintenance on the part of the customer. As soon as I can get an alternative, I'll terminate.

Verdict: Awful. Leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

Edited September 6, 2006 by Firefoxx

[melus]

Thanks for the heads up on the CSLoxinfo SME package, Firefoxx. I guess that with anything that seems too good to be true in Thailand, it won't last forever.

I really think ISPs can give us what we pay for if we push them hard enough, but it's a game of attrition, and they're winning.

Edited September 6, 2006 by melus

[monty]

Csloxinfo seems to have serious bandwidth problems!

Their iPSTAR system is close to useless now, eventhough TOT proves that a stable and fast connection (for satellite connections anyway, with their inherrent limitations) is possible with the exact same equipment!

Firefox's assesment og their SME offering's quality confirms they have nowhere near the capacity to serve their customers!

As for now I'm still happy with TT&T's Maxnet4life package (also aimed at the very small sme's) with steady speeds of around 70%-90% of rated max speed, whatever the transfer protocol I'm using!

Edited September 6, 2006 by monty

[Firefoxx]

I would be satisfied if there was a 50% drop during the day, since I'm not that picky. However, the drop is from 100k down to less than 10k, and that's not a laughing matter, since it renders the line practically useless for anything other than web surfing... and I didn't buy this to just enjoy the web surfing. It's also not acceptable performance for a premium service from what's supposed to be a premium ISP.

I stuck with them and gave them a chance to redeem themselves, but they don't seem to be interested in doing that.

[SoMeOnEnUlL]

I had a same problem with SME.. I used for one month and changed it back to normal one.. 'coz the only different is you've got a static IP with SME and that's all..

[PMK]

One thing I like about Jasmine Internet. Although expensive, I get exactly the performance they promised me or better at all times - day/night/weekends, which is the nominal speed less 20%. I have a 256/128 connection. The Thaivisa speed test results are consistently:

Download Speed: 211 kbps (26.4 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 102 kbps (12.8 KB/sec transfer rate)

The exception is during lousy weather - rain or even strong winds.

I don't have any problems with P2P or ftp downloads, and downloaded Vista without even using a download manager like Getright.

The compax 256/128 service, which I have at home is advertised as SME but is an additional 500/month for fixed IP is:

Special price

1,240 (from 1,550)

Well, at the beginning, I said that their service was pretty darn good, with speeds that were nearly at stated bandwidth, and no problems. This is the more expensive 1mbit SME package, which the nice saleslady said would have no limits and no packet shaping/blocking.

Well, now I've come to revise that assessment.

First, and foremost, it seems (that's what they admit, and that's how things look) that they have a policy of drastically changing network configuration at whim, which will affect speeds *a LOT*. When I first got it installed, my non-http downloads were excellent, around 1mbit/s throughout the day, every day, hence my glowing assessment. Then, during workdays, it deteriorated to around half that, then half that, then I was lucky if I got 50-60kbit/s. This was through the course of a couple of weeks. Then I complained, no response, and complained again. The next day speeds shot up to near their previous level. This cycle of "slow-complain-fast" happened for around a few times, and recently, for my last complaint, they just said "we will take it into consideration" and "no guarantee" and "we have a lot of new customers".

Line stability is OK, but there are times when I'll lose the DSL connection completely for hours.

For the "current" state of speed, during the workday only web traffic is anywhere near decent. Everything else is in the gutter. Really. P2P (and all other things non-HTTP) is practically nonfunctional. In other words, very similar to the Buddy 500 baht/month package. During the night (and I mean around 8pm -5am) and weekends, everything speeds up miraculously and actually *works*. So basically I'm paying a hefty premium for a service that actually only works during the night.

My thoughts? Their management are a bunch of monkeys. Their salespeople are clueless and misleading customers. Their tech people are useless, since it's the management that determines the speeds. Their service is not really a service, and not really worth the constant maintenance on the part of the customer. As soon as I can get an alternative, I'll terminate.

Verdict: Awful. Leaves a bad taste in your mouth.