Slow / Unreliable TOT Connection

[pattayarag]

I posted the following on my Pattaya Rag blog today but it has worked so well that it could benefit a wider audience:


I installed Winamp 5.5 recently and it also installed Bonjour Services by stealth which auto loads every time I boot my PC. Bonjour appears to monitor my network but what else it does I'm not sure. Given the problems I've been having lately with my Internet connection I decided to delete Bonjour Services. I'm desperate enough to try anything. My problems appear to have cleared and my connection is now far more reliable. So either TOT fixed a problem with their service at the exact same moment I rebooted my PC after deleting Bonjour Services or Bonjour Services were the cause of all my problems.
If you're having problems with your Internet connection, check to see if you have Bonjour Services running, (ctrl/alt/del and select the processes tab). If Bonjour is listed in your processes then you might have found your problem. You can use nCleaner to permanently remove Bonjour. Start nCleaner, select "Startup Man" and then the "Systems" tab and look for the Id string listed in red below. Untick this option and select "Apply". Close nCleaner and reboot your system and check your Internet connection:


System Services
( ) Alerter (c:\windows\system32\svchost.exe)
( ) Application Layer Gateway Service (c:\windows\system32\alg.exe)
( ) Application Management (c:\windows\system32\svchost.exe)
( ) ASP.NET State Service (c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework\v2.0.50727\asp net_state.exe)
(x) Ati HotKey Poller (c:\windows\system32\ati2evxx.exe)
(x) ATI Smart (c:\windows\system32\ati2sgag.exe)
(x) Windows Audio (c:\windows\system32\svchost.exe)
(x) Background Intelligent Transfer Service (c:\windows\system32\svchost.exe)
( ) ##Id_String1.6844F930_1628_4223_B5CC_5BB94B879762# # (c:\program files\bonjour\mdnsresponder.exe)


Ed

Pattaya Rag blog

[dirtydog]

Bonjour is often installed silently along with certain unrelated applications and the extra ports and services that the program opens can potentially reduce the security and performance of a computer slightly. The program creates a folder called "Bonjour" in the "Program Files" folder of the main hard disk drive without explicit user consent which is why this software is sometimes grouped with malware/potentially unwanted software.

In addition, the software may cause network problems with computers running Windows Vista. Bonjour modifies registry entires related to the way Windows Vista accesses and interacts with the network. Certain Microsoft Vista drivers are replace with the Bonjour drivers.

Linky

[Butterfly]

"Enables hardware devices and software services to automatically configure themselves on the network and advertise their presence, so that users can discover and use those services without any unnecessary manual setup or administration."

[pattayarag]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm still on Windows Xp so for me it's not Vista related issue. My Firefox browser would hang after about 5mins browsing and switching off and on my ADSL box would sometimes resolve it but not always. The problem was getting progressively worse and the removal of Bonjour has got me back with a stable connection performing at rasonable speeds. No hang ups. Can't be a co-incidence surely.

Ed.

[Butterfly]

I removed mine just in case, wasn't always sure of what it was doing. Anything from Apple should be banned for good practice.

[everglaze]

As per the toppic ( Slow / Unreliable TOT Connection )

Some time ago, I went to TOT for ADSL service and signed up for 512/256 Kpbs @700Bht
per mo. NOW TOT has for some unknown reason switched the price to 1536/512 Kbps
@700Bht. BTW all the ADSL users that I know-of, have an actual speed of about 1.9 to
14KBps of download.
You would think that a company that advertise a connection speed for a price, and cannot deliver
that speed, would either fix the problem or if could not fix the problem would be in violation of
Thai law! If they continued to charge money for that service.
The question is, can anything be done to resolve this issue?

[Thetyim]

You would think that a company that advertise a connection speed for a price,

Read the small print.
They are selling you a line with a maximum speed.
That line is shared with other users,
Nowhere do they promise you a minimum speed, either upload or download.
No promises have been broken

[blackgang]

And on top of that the phone cos. are govt owned as far as I know and there is no consumer protection agency in Thailand, you puts your money down and takes your chances..

[stroller]

So, the 'free' upgrade wasn't an upgrade after all!

A bit like handing out some "turbo-charged" "4 W D" stickers when you buy an ordinary pick-up.

Nothing to get wound-up about in the Los.

[Thetyim]

So, the 'free' upgrade wasn't an upgrade after all!

^ What are you talking about ?

The maximum line speed was 512 and now it's 1536
It was an upgrade and it was free

My download and upload speeds have increased dramatically

[everglaze]

You would think that a company that advertise a connection speed for a price,

Read the small print.
They are selling you a line with a maximum speed.
That line is shared with other users,
Nowhere do they promise you a minimum speed, either upload or download.
No promises have been broken

I must have mist the fine print, was it in thai or english?

Must be some logic to this. what is the point of paying for ADSL if dial up
is faster!.

[Thetyim]

what is the point of paying for ADSL if dial up
is faster!.

I am on the same deal as you
TOT 1536/512 @ 700 baht per month

I do get those speeds occasionally if no-one else is logged on and I am not sharing the bandwidth.
Today I am getting 620kbps down and 300kbps up and would consider this to be a slow day.
When I had dial up I would get 40kbps down and 20kbps up on a good day

[NickA]

My True connection is slower (1 Mb), but it never drops below 800 kbps upload/300kbps download.

[Marmite the Dog]

I've had 3 hours of downtime this evening and now I'm getting very slow download speeds. Fek knows what my ISP is, but 160kbps on a 2mbit connection is fekkin' shite.

Anyone else had any probs?

[Thetyim]

Nope, going like a train for me.
Downloading one torrent at 95 kBps

Before you blame the ISP check out your attenuation and SNR first

[lom]

Before you blame the ISP check out your attenuation and SNR first

hmm.
Don't take those figures too seriously, they are not easy to interpret.
Basically they are roof levels set by the ISP, ie the minimum needed in order to be connected.
They are quite different from one connection type (modulation) to another.

[AntRobertson]

I am on the same deal as you TOT 1536/512 @ 700 baht per month I do get those speeds occasionally if no-one else is logged on and I am not sharing the bandwidth. Today I am getting 620kbps down and 300kbps up and would consider this to be a slow day. When I had dial up I would get 40kbps down and 20kbps up on a good day

When you say that (i.e. 620kbps down, 300 up) where's that being measured from?

I use a broadband test (can't remember the name, but think I got the link from here actually) and when testing with the BKK server get around the 1200kbps down mark. However on most International tests I'm lucky to be getting 150kbps.

[Marmite the Dog]

I did do a bunch of Windows updates....

[NickA]

^If I use a broadband test I never get much hgiher than 800/400 kbps, and yet when I'm downloading (mostly torrents) I get 1000/500 kbps ++

[AntRobertson]

and yet when I'm downloading (mostly torrents) I get 1000/500 kbps ++

Really!? Crickey, if I'm getting 70kbps down I'm 'happy'

[Thetyim]

They are quite different from one connection type (modulation) to another.

Thanks, I didn't know that.
Am I correct in saying that attenuation depends on the line length and SNR depends on the line quality ?

[lom]

Am I correct in saying that attenuation depends on the line length and SNR depends on the line quality ?

The cables attenuation depends on the line length, cable thickness, cable material, AND at what frequency you are measuring.
Different modulation types uses different frequencies..

The S/N ratio which also is also frequency dependent is the difference between signal and noise.
Noise is among other things crosstalk from nearby wiring so in that aspect it is a measure of line quality.
But, the signal level does vary with modulation type and with used frequency's. So your ratio does not only reflect cable quality..

To check your cable , more sophisticated test equipment like the handheld test unit the telco guy is using, is needed.
It checks the whole frequency spectra.

[Thetyim]

^
So which modulation mode is the best ?

I am using GDMT at the moment

When I tried ADSL2+ I got dial-up speeds but it is supposed to be twice as fast.

[NickA]

I think that might be 70 KBps unless you are on dialup

'b' vs 'B'

'b' stands for 'bit' and 'B' stands for 'byte', where one byte refers to 8 bits. This can lead to confusion, as when a "1 Mega" connection is advertised, it is in megabits, meaning the maximum achievable download speed is actually 128 kilobytes per second.

[edit] Example usage

If the data rate of a data-stream 8,192 bits per second, then using the different capitalisations of letters this would be as follows:
8192 / 1000 = 8.192 kbps
8192 / 1024 = 8 Kbps
8192 / (8 x 1024) = 1 KBps
8192 / (8 x 1000) = 1.024 kBps
8192 / 8 = 1024 Bps

from Kilobit per second - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[AntRobertson]

I think that might be 70 KBps unless you are on dialup

You could be right, however that's taken directly from the line test as well (altough marginally higher most of the time). Nothing to say that's right either I guess, it's all a bit confusing.

Usually to download an eipsode of Heroes or Top Gear it takes around about an hour (sometimes less, sometimes more) for a 350mb file.