Little service of TOT internet... advice/suggestions welcomed

[selftaopath]

Hi all thanks in advance for your constructive assistance. We live in the "sticks" aka Isaan. TOT is the ONLY available internet service. Recently TOT's service has been off mainly and when it is on it is unstable i.e. on/off/on/off.

We've called TOT often. They've sent "engineers" to our home. The situation persists... little to no internet. They either don't know how to fix it or don't care to.

I'm at a loss and could use help. Living here I rely on the internet for much. I don't know where to turn to b/c TOT is not the solution. I can't figure it out. Seems like the internet is on more often during late night hours - I check.

Thanks, boy I miss the internet and TV.

Edited July 28, 2016 by selftaopath

[Guest StephenB]

winet? (Do you have a device on your roof?)

I have wi-net in Issan, and believe it is over-subscribed. I am limited to 10Mb/s download speed, when the Internet cafes on the same path/nearby are filled with kids, I get slammed hard. On-line gaming (minecraft, etc) are completely unplayable. Skype, and any other voice chating is borked as well. Pings will go from from the International gateway to west coast of U.S normal--> 380ms to 5000ms+ when congested. (The congested leg according to mtr is the 2nd hop (from device on roof to tower), so it is nearby.

The head TOT guy for my area knows my wife's number well now - 'Oh its the furlongs house calling again' LOL :-) I have now learned to just roll with it.

Use the tool mtr on Linux reveals all the high jitter, latency are on the first leg. I equate this to one of two possibilities:

1) over subscription (most likely)

2) some Internet cafe's are not being throttled to 10Mb/s. (unlikely)

It is also possible that their infrastructure is not configured correctly or overloaded.

The most annoying thing for me is the constant power cuts. Had 2 yesterday, 1 the day before. Many power surges, undervolts all the time. In a way they are handy too, because I think everyone clears out of the internet shops. When that happens I have low latency for a the next hour. Some of my stuff is UPS protected now, and I find myself wishing for a lightning strike, powerspike that blows the circuit boards of the Internet shops nearby. (That is wrong thinking, shame on me!, my apologies...)

I fully expect poor Internet all day tomorrow, (bummed out, sigh....) and will be surprised if my kids get to play online with other kids, or watch youtube.

I too do not have any other alternative ISP's except for mobile data. Just have to grin in Thailand, everything seems to work out in the end.

[selftaopath]

winet? (Do you have a device on your roof?)

I have wi-net in Issan, and believe it is over-subscribed. I am limited to 10Mb/s download speed, when the Internet cafes on the same path/nearby are filled with kids, I get slammed hard. On-line gaming (minecraft, etc) are completely unplayable. Skype, and any other voice chating is borked as well. Pings will go from from the International gateway to west coast of U.S normal--> 380ms to 5000ms+ when congested. (The congested leg according to mtr is the 2nd hop (from device on roof to tower), so it is nearby.

The head TOT guy for my area knows my wife's number well now - 'Oh its the furlongs house calling again' LOL :-) I have now learned to just roll with it.

Use the tool mtr on Linux reveals all the high jitter, latency are on the first leg. I equate this to one of two possibilities:

1) over subscription (most likely)

2) some Internet cafe's are not being throttled to 10Mb/s. (unlikely)

It is also possible that their infrastructure is not configured correctly or overloaded.

The most annoying thing for me is the constant power cuts. Had 2 yesterday, 1 the day before. Many power surges, undervolts all the time. In a way they are handy too, because I think everyone clears out of the internet shops. When that happens I have low latency for a the next hour. Some of my stuff is UPS protected now, and I find myself wishing for a lightning strike, powerspike that blows the circuit boards of the Internet shops nearby. (That is wrong thinking, shame on me!, my apologies...)

I fully expect poor Internet all day tomorrow, (bummed out, sigh....) and will be surprised if my kids get to play online with other kids, or watch youtube.

I too do not have any other alternative ISP's except for mobile data. Just have to grin in Thailand, everything seems to work out in the end.

Hi,

We don't have any device on the roof. I'm not "geek" so pls excuse my ignorance. We have wifi through a ph/ cable line.

There is an internet cafe locally and a restaurant that also has wifi. I'm not sure what my speeds are but NOW I don't even have internet most of the time so speed is an afterthought. lol SKYPE is ok .... when I have a connection. Overall I'm satisfied w/ TOT... when it's on. We went a/b 4 yrs total w/ TOT .... 2 yrs at our current home. Generally TOT is usable, but a bit tricky communicating with them. I don't speak Thai and their English speakers I find difficult to understand. Ones from PI are best communicators.

I asked for a "rebate" b/c no service. LOL You can imagine how that went. lol lol Ah Thaisssssssssssssssssss are not very agreeable to giving money back.

[noise]

Being on ADSL is the problem, I suspect, because, I also suspect, your phone lines are old. As Stephen B mentioned, when everyone else on a line gets on the internet, everyone's service is degraded, regardless of your programs speed. One of the things that used to help me was to turn off the modem, wait a few minutes, and turn it back on for a new connection with, hopefully, less users. Usually worked for a while.

When True cable first came by the house, I was with TOT then, I asked TOT if they could meet True's cable speeds. They made me wait for 5 minutes, checked the line, and came back and candidly said, "No, the lines and servers are too old, you have the max speed we can offer."

Can you find a Thai speaker that can ask pointed computer questions about the infrastructure? Frequently wives and girl friends who are not real computer users don't know how to ask the right question or poke at an answer that is not complete. You may or may not have the option of paying more for better service. You might just ask how much a dedicated connection would be so you do not suffer game players competing with you.

[JayBird]

Is 3G/4G an option out there?

Is Satellite internet an option? (800ms ping times, but better than 5k)

Do they offer an option to lay out a dedicated line to the nearest box/exchange? (You pay for the line and its yours 100%) ?

[Crossy]

How is your regular phone on the same copper? Noisy, low volume?

I'm going to go along with those who suggest it's a bad phone line, tracing the wiring back to the box at the road and checking all the connections may improve matters, otherwise get a new cable run from the road to your house.

OR

Ask TOT about WiNet, a Wimax-like solution with a small dish pointed at a tower up to 20km away, we had it when we first moved in as there were no phone lines available, works very well. We now have fibre after the resort next door paid <insert large sum here> to get a connection to the village

[selftaopath]

On 7/29/2016 at 3:33 PM, Crossy said:

How is your regular phone on the same copper? Noisy, low volume?

I'm going to go along with those who suggest it's a bad phone line, tracing the wiring back to the box at the road and checking all the connections may improve matters, otherwise get a new cable run from the road to your house.

OR

Ask TOT about WiNet, a Wimax-like solution with a small dish pointed at a tower up to 20km away, we had it when we first moved in as there were no phone lines available, works very well. We now have fibre after the resort next door paid <insert large sum here> to get a connection to the village

I would think TOT would check the line for breaks etc. But hard to say. We don't use a land line so not sure a/b static etc. This all started a/b 1 month ago. Up until then my TOT service was reliable. My wife wonders if it might be due to an internet shop near us selling wifi etc. and having kids play games for hours. We mentioned everything we could think of to TOT and always the same..... we'll send someone out.... it's "in the process" oh and you must be patient was the topper. I asked if TOT wanted us to pay for service that we don't get. No answer. Or we'll pass your question on to management.

I'm looking into getting 3BB installed. Seems like they recently started providing some local service. LOL OR maybe it's a SCAMMER saying they are from 3BB. Hard to say in the land of scams (LOS).

[Crossy]

Assume nothing when it comes to Thai techs checking stuff. The only way to be sure is to check it yourself.

Just trace the wire and wherever it goes into a box pop the lid off and examine the connections, re-make any that look iffy. If you find damp that's likely your problem.

 

[Shaunduhpostman]

I would not continue with them. In most cases other providers will be better. TOT just up and cut all service to our tambon up in Isaan one day about 5 months ago without notice. They strung us along for 6 weeks telling us it would all be fixed tomorrow though it never was before the government workers at the Tambon office told us that they had the same problems and that we shouldn't wait for them to fix things that at the Tambon office they had just recently switched to another provider. We had TOT for 4 years and it was mostly pretty good but you would get a week here and week there of no internet and many times unusuably slow, though mostly good speeds, but why they suddenly switched our area off we have never learned.

Anyway, 3BB is much more responsive, they have an English call center in Bangkok that is mostly pretty good about relaying your message to the local center. I don't know why we put up with the difficulty of trying to get TOT to fix problems, as you mention, and it doesn't matter if you speak Thai or not, they will have you talk to a different person everytime you call and nobody seems to communicate with anyone else in their offices, my wife says she will never forget how badly they treated her. If you don't call them several times a day they think the problem has solved itself and then apparently there are people who work there who think nothing of cutting a whole area's interent and demanding people continue to pay for no service. 3BB speeds are very consistent as well and you  get the speed they advertise. TOT seems to more and more just think they are entitled to neglect everyone and money will roll in just the same.

Edited August 2, 2016 by Shaunduhpostman

[nongsangcity]

Iam deep in the jungle and i have no problems with TOT what so ever....its quick and its always on.......

[Andrew Peterson]

Im the same as nong, im surrounded by jungle and i have no problems what so ever. Although sometimes it goes out, thats a minor problem.

[Crossy]

The secret with TOT is to bypass the call centre (which, as others have noted is useless, even in Thai), get to know your local tech, get his number.

 

When you get a problem call him direct and give him and his mate a small tip "for lunch" if he comes out. Service is amazingly improved

[selftaopath]

On 7/29/2016 at 3:33 PM, Crossy said:

How is your regular phone on the same copper? Noisy, low volume?

I'm going to go along with those who suggest it's a bad phone line, tracing the wiring back to the box at the road and checking all the connections may improve matters, otherwise get a new cable run from the road to your house.

OR

Ask TOT about WiNet, a Wimax-like solution with a small dish pointed at a tower up to 20km away, we had it when we first moved in as there were no phone lines available, works very well. We now have fibre after the resort next door paid <insert large sum here> to get a connection to the village

I would think TOT would check the line for breaks etc. But hard to say. We don't use a land line so not sure a/b static etc. This all started a/b 1 month ago. Up until then my TOT service was reliable. My wife wonders if it might be due to an internet shop near us selling wifi etc. and having kids play games for hours. We mentioned everything we could think of to TOT and always the same..... we'll send someone out.... it's "in the process" oh and you must be patient was the topper. I asked if TOT wanted us to pay for service that we don't get. No answer. Or we'll pass your question on to management.

I'm looking into getting 3BB installed. Seems like they recently started providing some local service. LOL OR maybe it's a SCAMMER saying they are from 3BB. Hard to say in the land of scams (LOS).

[Crossy]

1 minute ago, selftaopath said:

I would think TOT would check the line for breaks etc. But hard to say. We don't use a land line so not sure a/b static etc. This all started a/b 1 month ago. Up until then my TOT service was reliable. My wife wonders if it might be due to an internet shop near us selling wifi etc. and having kids play games for hours. We mentioned everything we could think of to TOT and always the same..... we'll send someone out.... it's "in the process" oh and you must be patient was the topper. I asked if TOT wanted us to pay for service that we don't get. No answer. Or we'll pass your question on to management.

I'm looking into getting 3BB installed. Seems like they recently started providing some local service. LOL OR maybe it's a SCAMMER saying they are from 3BB. Hard to say in the land of scams (LOS).

 

Read Post #8

[selftaopath]

We did that Crossy i.e. tip and got ph #. Seems like the entire team either is not "top notch" or too "busy" to fix our problem    The wife and I made yet another trip to local office (Kaengkhro) and talked to the only person there...that was last Friday (maybe govt. workers have flex hours lol ) He seemed to be a former "road crew/boss" guy. He said he'd come out on Tue... yesterday. He did and he checked the line..... before our hook up. And guess what!!!!! found the problem, fixed it and now internet is restored. This only took 1 month of incessant calling - both to the "hotline" and local office, trips to the local office, personal calls to "engineer", three visits to our home, new router, strung another line from the poll where our house line meets post at the street. For the likes of me I don't know why they didn't check the line BEFORE our hook up. Ahhhhhhhhhh maybe b/c that's what I suggested? TIT after all. 

 

I greatly appreciate TV members input/knowledge and willingness to assist. Would really be "up schitts creek" w/out you all. Thanks... now lets see how long my service is reliable and onto yet another village living adventure/challenge. lol 

[Rimmer]

A post has been removed, seems you already have started your own topic about the problem you are having.