Reliable Isp In Chiang Mai?

[fruittbatt]

We are currently with TRUE, but finding that unreliability is an increasing problem.

(Have wifi connection, oodles of memory on the pc, so that is not the problem).

Our local guy tells us that the cable between Chiang Mai and Bkk is the issue, but whatever, the service is just not meeting my needs for consistent access.

Does anyone in or around Chiang Mai have a consistently reliable provider? If so, I'd love to know.

[lannarebirth]

We are currently with TRUE, but finding that unreliability is an increasing problem.

(Have wifi connection, oodles of memory on the pc, so that is not the problem).

Our local guy tells us that the cable between Chiang Mai and Bkk is the issue, but whatever, the service is just not meeting my needs for consistent access.

Does anyone in or around Chiang Mai have a consistently reliable provider? If so, I'd love to know.

Hi fruittbatt,

There is no such thing as a reliable ISP provider in Chiang Mai. There's only "what's working pretty good now" as far as I can tell. I've had a few ISP's here and when one becomes intolerable it usually precipitates a mass ,ove to other providers that work OK for awhile. I currently use TT&T's Maxnet service, which has already been through one slowdown in my tenure, but seems to have added enough capacity to right itself. get about 20% of the speed I'm paying for, but it's adequate, and I have 4 screens streaming all day long. You might give them a call, as this is the longest period I've enjoyed good internet service, and maybe it lasts. Good Luck to you.

[fruittbatt]

Thanks Lannarebirth,

I thought it might be the case that there is no one "reliable" provider. It sounds as if TT&T are more consistent currently, so will take your advice & call them re "maxnet". Your advice is greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

fruittbatt

[meadish_sweetball]

Too bad TRUE is messing up as well - this is the first negative report I have heard about TRUE Chiang Mai (plenty of negative reports for TRUE Bangkok though).

They were completely outstanding a few years ago. I guess they did not upgrade sufficicently once they started getting customers.

Four months ago, I changed from Maxnet to Hinet by TT&T, because I found Maxnet too expensive for what they provided. I am now getting a similar service for half the price. (Used to be on 512/256 Maxnet 4 Life).

[fruittbatt]

Too bad TRUE is messing up as well - this is the first negative report I have heard about TRUE Chiang Mai (plenty of negative reports for TRUE Bangkok though).

They were completely outstanding a few years ago. I guess they did not upgrade sufficicently once they started getting customers.

Four months ago, I changed from Maxnet to Hinet by TT&T, because I found Maxnet too expensive for what they provided. I am now getting a similar service for half the price. (Used to be on 512/256 Maxnet 4 Life).

Thanks Meadish,

I'll check out the Hinet deal and compare with the Maxnet deal. Really appreciate yours and Lanna's help .

Cheers,

Fruittbatt

[sabaijai]

I'm pretty happy with CSLoxinfo. I switched from TT&T/Maxnet/Ji-Net mainly because service was so bad. Whenever my CSLoxinfo DSL connection is having a problem, I can always get through on the phone and they can tell me what the problem is and how long they expect it to take before it's solved, plus they offer to call my cellphone when service is restored. They're also happy to send a technician out to my place quickly. With TT&T it was like pulling teeth to get someone to give me any solid info on the phone, and getting a tech to come out was difficult.

CAT is the main problem, I think.

[meadish_sweetball]

Yep, TT&T support all seem to have excelled at the course "Irrelevant Reasons for Connection Failure and Things You Can Make the Customer Do to Make Him Hang Up and Try Until Our Engineers Have Actually Finished Fixing the *Real* Problem"...

Considering how bad some packages are, I am reasonably satisfied with Hinet though. 999 baht/month and not too high a failure rate (but naturally, the speeds are not even a fourth of the advertised 2MB/768KB).

[CobraSnakeNecktie]

Yep, TT&T support all seem to have excelled at the course "Irrelevant Reasons for Connection Failure and Things You Can Make the Customer Do to Make Him Hang Up and Try Until Our Engineers Have Actually Finished Fixing the *Real* Problem"...

Considering how bad some packages are, I am reasonably satisfied with Hinet though. 999 baht/month and not too high a failure rate (but naturally, the speeds are not even a fourth of the advertised 2MB/768KB).

I suppose it matters on what users your sharing with but Maxnet for me anyway is pretty good. I am in Hillside 4 and while I have had a few outtages its pretty rare... Sometimes their DNS servers get flakey and it would appear its down but its just DNS. I setup a roll over DNS server to TOT and that helps a lot. Also setting up your DHCP to renew the lease more often. I am on Mac OS X so not sure what you windoz folks can do.

Maxnet has 512K for 870 baht and just recently 1 meg for 1000 baht a month. With the current 512 KB service I get 420K to the states as measured by www.speakeasy.net/speedtest

Hope that helps!

[lannarebirth]

Here's my experience:

I'm pretty happy with CSLoxinfoMaxnet. I switched from TT&T/Maxnet/Ji-NetCSLoxinfo mainly because service was so bad. Whenever my CSLoxinfo DSLMaxnet connection is having a problem, I can always get through on the phone and they can tell me what the problem is and how long they expect it to take before it's solved, plus they offer to call my cellphone when service is restored. They're also happy to send a technician out to my place quickly. With TT&TCSLoxinfo it was like pulling teeth to get someone to give me any solid info on the phone, and getting a tech to come out was difficult.

CAT is the main problem, I think.

I think this stuff depends on when you start. My troubles with Csloxifo were last year and I just had to quit. I was hitting walls and such. I didn't even know I had that stuff in me till I had CSLoxinfo. I'm breathing and smiling now.

[john b good]

I use TT&T Maxnet and for the past couple of days it's been dropping out after about 10 minutes.

At the moment I am on some sort of record (23 minutes and still on. Well I will be if this sends)

Nope !! even though still logged, up comes the message "cannot find server" Oh well

[roamp]

I've had True for about a month and it worked well up until the last few days. The problem is intermittent. Sometimes everything works fine. Some web sites work Ok, while others fail to load at all, and others load slowly. Yahoo Mail, for instance, has been giving me problems. Sometime turning the modem on and off helps, and sometimes disconnecting and reconnecting does the trick.

I ran a broadband test a few times and each time it said there were problems connecting to servers in East Asia and Australia, but the connections to the US and UK servers worked fine.

It seems the problem may not be with True, but who can tell?

[meadish_sweetball]

It really seems to depend on where you live, although I am not clear on how it works exactly.

Most ISPs guarantee a fixed maximum number of share partners (khuu saai in Thai) and my theory (not confirmed) is that these share partners are taken from the same general area as yourself.

So if Loxinfo has a guaranteed share ratio of 15 subscribers to one line, and that ratio is full, you will experience slower speeds, but a person living in a different part of town where there are only 2 subscribers sharing one line, will get a good connection...

Not sure if this theory is correct though, does anybody else know?

[Ajarn]

It really seems to depend on where you live, although I am not clear on how it works exactly.

Most ISPs guarantee a fixed maximum number of share partners (khuu saai in Thai) and my theory (not confirmed) is that these share partners are taken from the same general area as yourself.

So if Loxinfo has a guaranteed share ratio of 15 subscribers to one line, and that ratio is full, you will experience slower speeds, but a person living in a different part of town where there are only 2 subscribers sharing one line, will get a good connection...

Not sure if this theory is correct though, does anybody else know?

shit happens

[calibanjr.]

Lannarebirth: "There is no such thing as a reliable ISP provider in Chiang Mai. There's only "what's working pretty good now" as far as I can tell. "

That's pretty much my experience, but True's been the most consistent for me.

I have the 890 THB package in my office (1m/512k) since I have a vonage line there, and the 750 (512/256) in my house. Worlds apart. 1/512 runs at about 70% usually, the 512/256 runs less than 40%. FWIW.

DD

[fruittbatt]

Thanks to everyone who contributed your experiences with various ISP's.

It seems that Lannarebirth's statement that there is "NO reliable ISP provider" is quite correct.

Will be checking the TT&T options and making further enquiries as to how many subscribers there are in our neighborhood.

Cheers,

fruittbatt

[cmsally]

I have the 890 THB package in my office (1m/512k)

I also use TRUE cable. It has been consistent since I got it in March. I had one bad patch but that turned out to be my computer. I think it depends on where you live and also your computer. I have dial up for back up and using it on 3 different computers gets me 3 very different speeds.

I am now trying to set up a router so I can use TRUE on more than one computer, but the set up seems to be a bit complicated. Anyone had success on this one??

[CobraSnakeNecktie]

I have the 890 THB package in my office (1m/512k)

I also use TRUE cable. It has been consistent since I got it in March. I had one bad patch but that turned out to be my computer. I think it depends on where you live and also your computer. I have dial up for back up and using it on 3 different computers gets me 3 very different speeds.

I am now trying to set up a router so I can use TRUE on more than one computer, but the set up seems to be a bit complicated. Anyone had success on this one??

you really don't need a router to connect machines to one network connection. You just need a network hub to put more than one machine onto the same network segment.

Are you talking about your TRUE router? Does it have multiple RJ-45 ports? If so then just make sure you have DHCP working on both the router and client machines. Should just be plug and play. double check your cables. You want your network cables to be "straight thru" as opposed to "cross over". Most of the network gear these days auto senses the cable but this could be causing you problems. Good idea to switch cables around to test things.

Where do you live to have True cable? Are you sharing it with other people? Its pricey if you get True Cable for just one household.

[calibanjr.]

I set up my own network in BKK when I had True ADSL, but with cable I had the installation guy grab a linksys cable router w/wireless and set the thing up (the wireless router was 5k, I think, about a year ago). As Cobra says, you could just run a hub, cheaper. Either way, if you buy a hub or router at one of the shops on the north side of the moat, IT Plaza, Computer Plaza, etc. give the guy a few hundred baht and he'll scoot out and set it up for you, if you live within say 5-10 km.