Which Broadband Access ?

[yeti]

Hi,

I will have pretty soon to do some work for my company from my condo in BKK.

So I need a reliable and fast broadband internet access.

The most important issue for me is the quality of the connection, can not stay one week without internet. And I need 128 kbps minimum for international websites.

The price is a less important issue

Does this exist in BKK ?

Thxs

[lopburi3]

I have been using the TRUE service for the last two weeks with no outage and always speed check above 250k to McAfee in USA (downloads and connect speed is over 280k) with the 256/128k package. Believe this should be one of the most reliable if you have a TA phone line as both phone/isp under the same umbrella. Have used their dial up service in the past and always had full speed downloads from international cites as they have good bandwith out of Thailand. It is not the cheapest if you are a full time user (you log on each time/disconnect) but at 750 baht per month for first 40 hours and 14 baht per hour thereafter it is not much more than good dial up service from major isp's.

[yeti]

I had a look to TRUE offer.

Their cable connection sounds good too, and the price/month is cheaper.

Do you know if for the cable they are as reliable as for your ADSL connection ?

Thxs

[lopburi3]

If you mean the UBC cable modem it is only available in certain areas I believe and you will be in a situation where the more users get on the line the lower the bandwidth. But don't believe there are many users at present so you should have a good connection if it available to you.

We do have more cable outages then we have telephone outages however.

[Guest chingy]

if price is not n issue, and for business go fo loxinfo or q-net, Ta(true) is not business professional lack of service skill.

[JJDinsay]

Depends who you talk to really but since price isn't an issue then that's a major obstacle out of your way. I can't really say anything bad abou TA. I've had them for about 1.5 years, starting with their 512/256 40hours package and it was beautiful. Only time it ever went down (knock on wood) was usually due to the modem losing the settings. Their packages have come down a lot cheaper now. I've used KSC broadband which pretty much blows. I know another use who uses LoxInfo but dey have issues with them too. Again, IMHO, TA is the best way to go. Also, get a TA number with the TA DSL service as their phone network apparently is in much better shape than TOT - don't know if this is accurate though.

[Ian_B]

I too have had True's ADSL (1024/512) for the past 2 weeks or so.

So far I'm very impressed and often get DL speeds in excess of 100kb/sec.

Not had any outages yet - so far I recommend it

Not cheap but I only use it approx 2 hours/day

[frogmo1]

I'd concur with the comments about True's 256/128 ADSL connection providing excellent home performance for 40 hours/month at 550 baht.

I say this notwithstanding the bunch of idiots that answer the customer service phoneline. I successfully installed the model package, which includes 10 free hours of service and provides a log in name and password for the free time. Unfortunately, a week or so later, after I had exhausted the free 10 hours, I had great difficulty obtaining my log ins and passwords for the Internet and Localnet. The customer service reps would tell me that these critical items had not yet been generated or that they had to consult with somebody first, yak-yak-yak, always assuring me that they would call back the next day but never doing this. Finally, after two weeks back at the Internet cafes and a sixth call to True during which I was placed on hold for about 30 minutes and then disconnected, I asked the seventh rep to just please put on a (or "the") supervisor. Initially, he returned to ask for information I'd given his six predecessors. At that point, I simply said, yes I'd provide the information again, but please let me speak to a supervisor. About 10 minutes later, a person who identified himself as a supervisor did pickup and assured me he would solve the problem by the end of business the next day. I assured him that that would be fine, but that if he didn't get back to me I'd be sure to get back to HIS supervisor. Much to my relief, at 10 minutes to 5:00 p.m. the next day he did call me at my office at SCB Park with the log ins and passwords.

I hope your customer service experiences are less stressful.

[lopburi3]

I had great difficulty obtaining my log ins and passwords for the Internet and Localnet.

I received the log on names/passwords when I applied for service but also had problems with the international service log in and was told they put a block on it when the 10 hour package was first logged on (used it in two days). Believe the person who did the block was off the week and one of the phone service operators was nice enough to gave me her log in to use on Monday. After holidays (Friday) this stopped working and was told if wanted to keep original log in name would have to wait until person returned on Monday but if wanted to change the name he could set up within the hour and he did so.

[yeti]

Ok, TRUE seems to be my solution.

Which modem should I buy ?

Thxs again for all your help

[bkk_mike]

Which modem should I buy ?

Simple answer - it depends...

If you are going on one of the True packages with a mix of localnet and international, and you're only using one PC, and that PC is running a recent version of Windows (98SE, Me, 2000, XP), any of the standard USB ADSL modems are fine, as you'll want to make sure you're only connected when you're fully aware you're connected. (to avoid paying 14 baht an hour for the weekend you left the router turned on... )

If you go for a package with always on international access, then a router is probably the best way to go, especially if you're intending to hook up more than one PC at the same time, or connect using multiple operating systems. (you can get drivers for the USB modems for other OS, but nobody is going to tell you that getting them up and working is as simple as getting a router).

What router to get depends on how you want to use the connection... - i.e. If you've got a laptop or want to use PCs in other rooms without running cables, then WiFi becomes useful. If you're just going to connect from the same desk all the time, then a simple non-wireless router is usually quite a bit cheaper.

Which particular router you get doesn't make that much difference except at the margins... - i.e. a Netgear will generally connect a little faster over Wi-Fi in bad conditions with WEP enabled, but if you're only using the connection to hook up to your internet connection, the Wifi connection speed will still be faster than your internet connection. Similarly, a Linksys will do a lot of it's setup automatically, but once setup, a router generally just sits there and works...

A few things to watch out for...

uPnP - if you want to hook up your Xbox or PS2 to it (in the long run - not sure if Thailand has much internet gaming on these yet).

DDNS - Dynamic DNS - if you want to run a personal website from a dynamically allocated IP address. (although if the router stays up and you don't keep switching logins - the only time your IP address might change is if they're working on the hardware at the exchange)

NAT Firewall - Routers generally have a firewall built-in, so most port-scanning doesn't get past the router. (I still run a firewall on the PC - better over-protected than under).

IPsec Passthrough - necessary if you're using VPN software to connect to your office network.

The only caveat I would have is I tend to pick hardware from a manufacturer I've heard of, and haven't had issues with in the past... (no more Belkin for me )

i.e. I have a D-Link network card, Netgear USB Wi-Fi adapter, and SMC all-in-one ADSL modem/switch/router/AP. This comes from picking up what I found in stock in Pantip at the time. But it all works together with no issues. If you get both ends of the Wi-Fi from the same manufacturer, some will run twice as fast - but connecting at 108Mbps to share a 512Kbps ADSL line doesn't seem necessary...

If you happen to be in Europe at the moment, routers are actually a bit cheaper there than here if you shop around on the web (or maybe I don't haggle enough at Pantip). - but remember 802.11a isn't permitted in Thailand.

P.S. I've had True for a few weeks now, connecting to my office VPN in London with no issues whatsoever (other than when the maid disconnected the filter from one of the phones when she was cleaning).

[cyber_cynic]

I would recommend an ethernet (RJ45) modem rather tahn a USB modem. It provides you with more setup options i.e. you can plug it direct into the lan card of your PC or into a hub/switch.

I would also recommend a modem with built in firewall and router.

FWIW I am using the DLink 500G which is working quite well. It has a bulit in firewall and router and I plug it into my hub.

[yeti]

And what about the modem provided by TRUE for 1800 Bahts.

They don't give much details about it. Anyone tried it ?

[lopburi3]

It is a ZyXEL prestige 630-11 USB modem with software from TRUE for setup. Seems to be working fine but have no basis for comparison. Zyxel has a website with full data if you want to check it out.