3BB - Internet International Surfing

[Jeffrey346]

1 hour ago, Jai Dee said:

Be careful using Hola.

 

Ultra-popular Hola VPN extension sold your bandwidth for use in a botnet attack

 

Sometimes a free service isn’t really free and you can end up paying for it in unexpected ways. If you’re running the Chrome extension Hola Better Internet or the Firefox add-on Hola Unblocker, well, that’s exactly what’s happening. What’s more, your payment might be unwitting participation in a botnet, according to one site moderator.

 

Hola is a very popular virtual private network (VPN) service that routes your traffic through different countries to mask your true location. That way you can defeat regional restrictions to watch the American version of Netflix from Argentina or BBC’s iPlayer from the U.S.

 

Read the full story here.

If you use Chrome, go to extensions and install Location Guard. You can set it to a specific city worldwide and that is where other websites will think your location is.

 

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/location-guard/cfohepagpmnodfdmjliccbbigdkfcgia

Edited February 17, 2017 by Jeffrey346

[KittenKong]

I went to the 3BB shop to ask about switching from my 18/1 ADSL package to this "@3BBinter" VDSL package. Previously they always said that the cheaper regular VDSL would be worse internationally than my ADSL package and this seems to be borne out by comments of those who have the regular VDSL package. Interestingly they said that the new "@3BBinter" VDSL package would be the same or better than my old ADSL package, for slightly less cost. But I cant have it for a few months as they need to install a "full VDSL line" whatever that is. New router cost: 900B. One year new contract.

When I can get it I will take it as my current 1Mbs upload speed is sometimes too limiting.

[Linesy]

It's Potluck and unfortunately we can't trial a service before committing, too many variables to know what works best at a set location. Tested next door's standard 3BB 30/5 VDSL with testmynet downloads SG 25mbps London 12mbps Sydney 15mbps 8:00 Saturday evening, couldn't test any later as they go to bed early.

[Hereinthailand]

If this is the same service they were selling some time back it was explained to me what I would be paying extra for was a lower contention ratio on my line, meaning instead of 40 or 50 customers sharing a line I would have no more than a 1/20 ratio on my line meaning more bandwidth for me.

[KittenKong]

2 hours ago, Linesy said:

It's Potluck and unfortunately we can't trial a service before committing, too many variables to know what works best at a set location. Tested next door's standard 3BB 30/5 VDSL with testmynet downloads SG 25mbps London 12mbps Sydney 15mbps 8:00 Saturday evening, couldn't test any later as they go to bed early.

 

It seems to me that a one-off test, or a short series of tests, will always get a good result on the standard VDSL package. However, if you try to keep up some sustained international usage over several hours at peak times (perhaps streaming or torrenting) then the standard package may get rather slow. I think that avoiding or reducing this is what the 200B @inter package is all about.

 

I find it extremely annoying that I cant (or at least they say I cant) switch back to the old package if I dont think much of the new one. There is no technical reason why doing so should not be possible, albeit with a possible service fee.

 

 

1 hour ago, Hereinthailand said:

If this is the same service they were selling some time back it was explained to me what I would be paying extra for was a lower contention ratio on my line, meaning instead of 40 or 50 customers sharing a line I would have no more than a 1/20 ratio on my line meaning more bandwidth for me.

 

Speed reductions on my ADSL line happen at much too regular times for it to be normal contention issues. I think that "contention" is just their euphemism for deliberate throttling and traffic shaping.

[Hereinthailand]

You are kidding yourself if you think they have the capability to throttle or traffic shape, I have worked with telecom engineers here everything is done manually to fix problems, not like home where load balance is constantly monitored and controlled without so called engineers. As the number of users on your line depending on your lines contention ratio changes so does your bandwidth availability, nothing magic or complex there. Thats why I have always despised shared internet connections, you never get what they advertise or you pay for. HAHAHA try to sell me expensive 50 mb sevice when I can pay for 10 mb service and have the same bandwidth. available.

[Linesy]

Quoted by 3BB: inter on the 50/10 VDSL requires payment of 1 year upfront.

[Pib]

On 2/19/2017 at 9:11 PM, Hereinthailand said:

You are kidding yourself if you think they have the capability to throttle or traffic shape, I have worked with telecom engineers here everything is done manually to fix problems, not like home where load balance is constantly monitored and controlled without so called engineers. As the number of users on your line depending on your lines contention ratio changes so does your bandwidth availability, nothing magic or complex there. Thats why I have always despised shared internet connections, you never get what they advertise or you pay for. HAHAHA try to sell me expensive 50 mb sevice when I can pay for 10 mb service and have the same bandwidth. available.

So you are saying someone on say a 10Mb plan will the same bandwidth as a person on a 50Mb plan?   Sorry, can't buy that story.

 

Now, will the person say on a 50Mb plan get the 5  times the speed to an international website as the person on a 10Mb plan?  The answer is probably no as the speed/bandwidth you get to international websites is not a linear relationship....but in all probability the 50Mb plan will get X-amount great speed....maybe a little bit more....maybe a lot more.    A 15Mb plan may get the same speed to say Los Angeles as a 30Mb plan....will depend on the internet service provider and other factors....I noticed that when on a True DOCSIS/cable plan can comparing international speeds to folks on the True 30Mb plan.

 

Right now I'm on AIS Fibre...and that's shared bandwidth also.  I stared off on a 50Mb plan....then upgraded to a 100Mb plan. Do I get approx twice as much international speed on my 100Mb compared to my previous 50Mb...yea, generally I almost do to the majority of sites.  Where I use to routinely pull 45-50Mb speed to an international site on the 50Mb plan....on the 100Mb plan I pull around 80 to 100Mb.  

 

 

 

 

[Hereinthailand]

Yeah thats what Im saying and you just said it yourself. A pig with lipstick is still a pig. If you feel spending more money is okay for crap service then go for it.

[maxpower]

On 2/19/2017 at 9:11 PM, Hereinthailand said:

You are kidding yourself if you think they have the capability to throttle or traffic shape, I have worked with telecom engineers here everything is done manually to fix problems, not like home where load balance is constantly monitored and controlled without so called engineers. As the number of users on your line depending on your lines contention ratio changes so does your bandwidth availability, nothing magic or complex there. Thats why I have always despised shared internet connections, you never get what they advertise or you pay for. HAHAHA try to sell me expensive 50 mb sevice when I can pay for 10 mb service and have the same bandwidth. available.

Then I must be kidding myself watching this shaping algorithm in action. Oops its gone out of balance must pull the up lever.

[Pib]

Yeah thats what Im saying and you just said it yourself. A pig with lipstick is still a pig. If you feel spending more money is okay for crap service then go for it.

???? Said it myself? If you think my post supported your line of thought you need to reread my post.

[muratremix]

2 hours ago, Linesy said:

Quoted by 3BB: inter on the 50/10 VDSL requires payment of 1 year upfront.

Only for farangs lol.

[Linesy]

Only for farangs lol.

Yes correct, I emailed them back for clarification and Thai national can pay monthly, I knew this was common practice but thought it may have been a requirement of the inter package. I was wrong.

[Pib]

Expect 3BB has experienced too many farangs skipping out on contracts....going back to the home country.

 

Now with AIS Fibre they do not require 12 months upfront for a farang (I have an AIS Fibre account in my farang name)....you are treated just like a Thai....pay monthly...no 12 months upfront.

 

 

 

[Jeffrey346]

When I signed up for 3BB they asked for 6 months in advance. They claimed that is standard foreigner policy.

 

I told them this foreigner has other choices and they waved the advance and required deposit.

 

So hold your ground...

[wpcoe]

15 hours ago, Linesy said:

Quoted by 3BB: inter on the 50/10 VDSL requires payment of 1 year upfront.

 

12 hours ago, Linesy said:

Yes correct, I emailed them back for clarification and Thai national can pay monthly, I knew this was common practice but thought it may have been a requirement of the inter package. I was wrong.

 

Was that for "upgrading" from 3BB ADSL with an existing account, or is it only for new first-time 3BB subscribers?

[wpcoe]

On 2/19/2017 at 0:21 PM, KittenKong said:

I went to the 3BB shop to ask about switching from my 18/1 ADSL package to this "@3BBinter" VDSL package. Previously they always said that the cheaper regular VDSL would be worse internationally than my ADSL package and this seems to be borne out by comments of those who have the regular VDSL package. Interestingly they said that the new "@3BBinter" VDSL package would be the same or better than my old ADSL package, for slightly less cost. But I cant have it for a few months as they need to install a "full VDSL line" whatever that is. New router cost: 900B. One year new contract.

When I can get it I will take it as my current 1Mbs upload speed is sometimes too limiting.

Do you have to prepay one year up front, or can you continue month-to-month billing on a new one-year contract as an existing 3BB customer?

[KittenKong]

4 hours ago, wpcoe said:

Do you have to prepay one year up front, or can you continue month-to-month billing on a new one-year contract as an existing 3BB customer?

 

The girl said that I would have to prepay the new contract. She did know that I am an existing ADSL customer of several years standing, but as I could not actually order the switch at that time there was no point discussing with her the details of whether I really needed to pay the full year.

 

All that said, with 3BB I always pay my year in full anyway to get the 8% discount and to avoid the hassle of having to pay monthly so I would continue to do so regardless of whether I had to or not.

[Linesy]

 

Was that for "upgrading" from 3BB ADSL with an existing account, or is it only for new first-time 3BB subscribers?

I'm just a disgruntled True customer tentatively making enquiries at this stage and couldn't even start to try and answer your question.

[dr_lucas]

An entire 4 pages thread discussing 3bb/inter special fiber package and not even a single post actually providing speed results of that special package and/or comparisons with the "standard" package.

Great.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

On 2/15/2017 at 6:30 PM, muratremix said:

If they say 200 baht for extra international speed, I would believe them. They sold premier packages before, so why not?

 

Yes, 3BB sold Premier packages before. And if you go back thru the various past TVF

threads of those who actually had 3BB's Premier service, I'd say the majority opinion was that paying extra didn't gain them any better international speeds.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

On 2/15/2017 at 8:49 PM, StarJedi said:

 

The 3 BB people cannot tell me what the approximate difference in speed would be.

 

As best as I can recall, they NEVER have promised any particular level of performance by paying extra for the supposed "inter" package.

 

[KittenKong]

I cant make a direct comparison because I have never had 3BB VDSL without the @inter add-on, but I definitely seem to get better international connectivity than those on the same VDSL package who dont have the add-on.

 

All rather irrelevant now though as the last I heard they dont offer it to new subscribers any more.

[Pib]

A major credibility problem I see with ISPs which offer these packages or add-ons which supposedly give much better international speed is the ISP being able to prove/guarantee better speed.  Jut for example since I'm with AIS Fibre, they have  various basic internet plans for the home and business but also offer some "PowerPro" plans. 

 

The AIS PowerPro plans add some features over basic plans but a key feature is supposedly faster/more stable international speeds...but AIS will not tell you how much faster and will not guarantee faster/more stable international speeds...they will just say your "should" get faster/more stable international speeds. I hate the "should" word which really means not sure, normally that's what happens, with  a little luck, etc.  The only way to really know is for the person to have done some speed testing for say for around two months to many international sites and documenting those results. Then call-up the ISP and switch to whatever international speed boost plan/add-on they have and then do more speed testing over the next few months...compare those before and after switch results to see if any significant speed changes occurred. 

 

Or if a person can get lucky and find another person close-by who has the international add-on/package and then compare speed test results over several months doing their best to run the same speed testers to the same international sites/servers at the same time.  But that is probably going to be hard to do to find someone willing to do that with you.

 

Around six months ago I was able to do some speed testing comparison with a couple of other TV  posters who had PowerPro plans and my basic AIS plan of same speed....100Mb plans at the time.   Results were my basic plan and their Pro plans got basically the same international speed results. 

 

That was around 6 months....now my international speed with AIS Fibre is not what it use to be....dropped starting around late Sep probably due to AIS Fibre doing some reorganization within their company beginning 1 Aug 17 to separate their internet business from their internet IPTV business which they even mention on their website, maybe just buying less international bandwidth to save costs in return for more profits, moving customers from 49.xxx IPv4 series servers to 184.xxx IPv4 servers (maybe that server change was due to their internet business reorg), maybe actually giving base plans lower international speed but Pro plans higher international speed, etc.  Who knows if any of above mentioned changes caused the drop in their international speeds and for folks on lower speed plans like say 75Mb and below, they might not notice any change in international speeds compared to folks who are on the higher speed plans such above 75Mb who may have been enjoying great international speed.  

 

Oh well,  now that I have joined Speedtesters Anonymous I now do few speed tests other than occasionally to a domestic/in Thailand server like to a Bangkok server since I live in Bangkok to ensure I'm getting my basic/domestic  200/50 speed (actually 200/60) as domestic speed is the only guarantee you can get an ISP to stand behind.  Any international speed tests I do are just occasional to see if anything has changed for the significant better or worse.

 

 

[dr_lucas]

The only ISP that I know for a fact that does offer better international connectivity for premium packages (ie. their relatively expensive corporate/SME packages) is TRUE.

SME packages get:

- Fixed IP on the M and L packages (unrelated, but worth mentioning)

- No transparent proxy

- No throttling of P2P, streaming etc.

- International routing through (the much better) True TIG, instead of CAT IIG

 

Edited October 29, 2017 by dr_lucas

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

53 minutes ago, Pib said:

Oh well,  now that I have joined Speedtesters Anonymous I now do few speed tests other than occasionally to a domestic/in Thailand server like to a Bangkok server ...

Pib, if you're feeling a jones someday for wanting to do an international speedtest on your AIS fiber, just send me a PM and I'll talk you down... I've got your back! 

[Pib]

1 hour ago, dr_lucas said:

The only ISP that I know for a fact that does offer better international connectivity for premium packages (ie. their relatively expensive corporate/SME packages) is TRUE.

SME packages get:

- Fixed IP on the M and L packages (unrelated, but worth mentioning)

- No transparent proxy

- No throttling of P2P, streaming etc.

- International routing through (the much better) True TIG, instead of CAT IIG

 

 

Now maybe you have personal experience, like being on a True SME package and having done testing, but if you have not, how do you know True's advertising words above aren't more hype than reality.   AIS Fibre PowerPro plans have similar words (see quote below from their webpage) but my testing with several other TV posters who had Pro plans indicate there was little if any difference in international speed...at least around 6 months ago when the testing was done.

 

And where True says the international routing goes through their True International Gateway vs the CAT International Gateway really carries no weight in support of faster international speeds.   When I was on True DOCSIS/cable for five years, just before switching to AIS Fibre in Jul 16, my five years with True and being on their international gateway did not impress me regarding international speeds. In fact, True to this day still seems to get a lot of complaints from TV members regarding slow international speed.  Plus, from a fair amount of TV members posts over the years who were on CAT fiber plans and I'm going to assume also using the CAT international gateway, those folks seemed very happy with their international speed, but the CAT plans they were on were very pricey plans....business type plans.

 

Heck, AIS uses it own international gateway also which is shown as the AWM/SBN International Gateway at this NECTEC webpage.  Just saying/advertising a certain international gateway is used  doesn't mean faster international speed actually results unless it proven through comparison testing.  I expect part of the reason True points out it uses its own international gateway is because most people would probably think with them using their own gateway that probably results in faster speed (true or not) and for other people not using the CAT (a govt owned company) gateway may give a warm fuzzy no govt monitoring is occurring....not to imply CAT is monitoring data traffic for the govt....I'm not wearing that tin foil cap yet.    Preaching to the choir I'm sure.

 

 

Quote

 

PowerPRO Packages are Ideal for home use, the customer feel the exclusivity of channel over the network with low rates of sharing and smoothly even during the many service users.

• The package will be Public IPv4 and Public IPv6.
• Enabled port forwarding and bridge mode
• Including International internet channel (bandwidth) over the PowerHome package.
• There also has been priority of after-sales service when the customer report a problem before 12.00, obtain the solution within a day. Or if report a problem after 12.00 to get the solution up to 12.00 within the next day

 

•  

[Pib]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Pib, if you're feeling a jones someday for wanting to do an international speedtest on your AIS fiber, just send me a PM and I'll talk you down... I've got your back! 

People who taunt us Speedtester Anonymous folks into relapses should be cursed with only dial-up internet connections.  

[dr_lucas]

3 hours ago, Pib said:

Now maybe you have personal experience, like being on a True SME package and having done testing, but if you have not, how do you know True's advertising words above aren't more hype than reality.   AIS Fibre PowerPro plans have similar words (see quote below from their webpage) but my testing with several other TV posters who had Pro plans indicate there was little if any difference in international speed...at least around 6 months ago when the testing was done.

•  

Yes, indeed I have personal experience, using True SME package for quite a while at work (no longer these days), while using their home DOCSIS  package at home, so I did do lots of testing while I used both. 

The SME package is definitely superior in every way to the home packages. True does not impose any bandwidth caps or limits on their SME packages subscribers at any time of the day, so you are basically getting the best available speed when using, while the only limitation is usually the choke points/bottlenecks outside of Thailand, on your route to destination, for which True has no control of.

They do grant you reserved access to their TIG exchange, which is much much less crowded and offers a far better share-ratio for available bandwidth than the CAT gateway and do provide optimized routing between  the other local exchanges they have peering agreements with (e.g. CAT IIX) so that you will get the best possible route to overseas locations.

Granted, neither them nor any other ISP can guarantee you will be able to max-out your package speed on international connections, but they can guarantee that they won't be the ones to limit your way out of Thailand. It is possible that even if you are sitting at the last point of exit from Thailand, which is, say - Equinix 10Gb/s and try to download something from New York, you may still get 20Mb/s single-threaded download speed on testmy, due to the choke points and other conditions on your route outside of Thailand.

 

I did see your single-threaded comparisons of the PowerPro and PowerHome packages earlier with Shariq and as you may have figured out by now, after what I just wrote, they don't necessarily prove much, although they may.

 

 

 

3 hours ago, Pib said:

Now maybe you have personal experience, like being on a True SME package and having done testing, but if you have not, how do you know True's advertising words above aren't more hype than reality.   AIS Fibre PowerPro plans have similar words (see quote below from their webpage) but my testing with several other TV posters who had Pro plans indicate there was little if any difference in international speed...at least around 6 months ago when the testing was done.

•  

True DOCSIS (and AFAIK also fiber) home packages normally do not have access to True TIG, except for special temporary routes when the routing via CAT has issues such as broken routes, packets loss etc.

CAT corporate plans used to have special higher priority and lower share ratio on CAT IIX. Not sure what's the status currently. I do remember reading some CAT corporate customer/s complaining somewhere about a deterioration recently.

 

Not so related, but note that until now I never had the chance to test True fiber-fiber (ie. not fiber->Docsis or Cable->Docsis) packages, although I believe they use the same networks and routings, thus don't expect them to be different than the DOCSIS packages, except for naturally True fiber will show slightly lower overall latency  (~ 4ms lower than DOCSIS), unlike China, for example, where China Telecom actually switched their fiber customers to an improved network (at least in some locations), albeit their fiber is using the notorious CGNAT now.

 

P.S. This is the correct International Gateways map at NECTEC: (link). The one in your post is the domestic map.

 

Edited October 29, 2017 by dr_lucas

[dr_lucas]

Oops, sorry, the second quote in my last post above was not supposed to be the same as the first. It was supposed to be this:

 

5 hours ago, Pib said:

And where True says the international routing goes through their True International Gateway vs the CAT International Gateway really carries no weight in support of faster international speeds.   When I was on True DOCSIS/cable for five years, just before switching to AIS Fibre in Jul 16, my five years with True and being on their international gateway did not impress me regarding international speeds. In fact, True to this day still seems to get a lot of complaints from TV members regarding slow international speed.  Plus, from a fair amount of TV members posts over the years who were on CAT fiber plans and I'm going to assume also using the CAT international gateway, those folks seemed very happy with their international speed, but the CAT plans they were on were very pricey plans....business type plans.

 

Guess I need to get some better sleep at nights...