You should be able to figure out your line rate by comparing the fee on your Chunghwa (Zhonghua) bill with the fee schedule on their website. To see what your real performance is, go to dslreports.com/ and run a speed test. The speed test servers are in the US, so this shows your off-island speeds.[/quote]There are one in Taiwan:
speed.anet.net.tw/
Just click on it, you need Java Virtual Machine installed.
Let’s just say I’m a little disappointed and I hope Mrs Fluffy isn’t paying a lot for this.
But I can stay on Forumosa 24 hours a day, which is all I want.
Horribly innacurate. It has claimed my downlink is anywhere from 1-4mbps, and uplink is 100-500kbps. If you average them out it gets close.
Can anyone fill me in on the amount of d/ling that can be done.I am living in Japan at the moment and I can d/l (download)as much as I like.
In Taiwan you are paying for per hour/min usage?How does this work out?do you really have to keep an eye on how long you are connected or are the rates quite reasonable?
[quote=“Mr Jones”]Can anyone fill me in on the amount of d/ling that can be done.I am living in Japan at the moment and I can d/l (download)as much as I like.
in Taiwan you are paying for per hour/min usage?How does this work out?do you really have to keep an eye on how long you are connected or are the rates quite reasonable?[/quote]You pay per month and you can stay one as long as you like, there are no quotas (yet). I think jlick gaves the rates earlier in this thread.
First of all, keep in mind that you pay for the ADSL line and the ISP service separately. The line cost is flat rate. For the ISP service you sometimes have a choice of paying either flat rate or paying hourly, though most ISPs are flat-rate only. The hourly service is really only appropriate if you are a very occasional user. I wouldn’t recommend those at all. If you are an occasional user, stick with a dialup account or get one of the cheaper flat-rate ADSL accounts.
The flat rate accounts (such as the rates I quoted earlier) are flat rate no matter how much you download or upload. I know I’d be running up huge bills if my ISP charged based on bandwidth used. That said, depending on which ISP you chose, you may not get the performance necessary to actually download a lot. If you pay NT199 for your ISP, you’ll probably get exactly what you pay for in performance. Look at the many different ADSL threads on here and make note of which ISPs are mentioned favorably and unfavorably and choose accordingly.
[quote=“jlick”]Found the new speeds and prices on Chunghwa (Zhonghua)'s site.
Format is “(Speed): (Line Charge)+(Hinet ISP Charge)=(Total)”
256k/64k: 360+299=659
1m/64k: 410+410=820
2m/128k: 440+440=880
8m/256k: 650+550=1250
2m/384k: 749+749=1498
3m/512k: 1049+1550=2599
If you use an ISP other than Hinet then the first number is what the amount on your phone bill will change to.[/quote]
I was just looking over my bills - signed up for a 1.5 M / 384k ADSL connection Sept. '02 and am paying NT$1588 / month… with the fees review, do the revisions apply to everyone ? ( I wouldn’t mind paying less for a faster line ! )
For the speed increases, those were effective a couple of months ago, so 512k/64k is now 1m/64k, 1.5m/128k is now 2m/128k and 1.5/384k is now 2m/384k. If you leave your ADSL modem on all the time you may need to turn it on and off to get the upgraded speed.
For the price changes, those are the prices effective June 1. If you have Hinet as your ISP, then the total charge is what you should be paying starting June 1. If you have a different ISP, then the left most number is what your line charge will change to starting June 1, and it is up to your ISP whether or not they compete with Hinet’s price reductions. When the price change was announced it was pending approval from the DGT, so there may still be some changes.
I just wanted to inform you guys not to bother with the information on Chungwa Telecom’s (cht.com.tw) or Hinet’s (hinet.com.tw) websites as both of them are out of date an incorrect. I just signed up for Chungwa’s 3 Mbps/ 512 Kbps ADSL line and that is currently the fastest line they offer. I asked them for the 6 Mbps line and they said that they don’t offer it as yet. This is about 2 weeks ago. I wonder if this speed upgrade to 8 Mbps is for real because I’ll definately be upgrading the second it’s available. As for the link speeds, they are genuine. On my 3 Mbps I have been able to regularly (almost daily as I do a lot of downloading) attain speeds of over 300 KBps and that’s KiloBytes not Kilobits and theoretically a 3 Mbps line should be able to max out at 375 KBps (and that’s without actually taking into acount TCP/IP overhead). Usually the reason you’ll see slow speeds i.e. for me going slow is under 80 KBps is that somewhere along the route to the server you are connecting to there is a bottlekneck. My upstream which is rated at 512 Kbps which is equivalent to 64 KBps (divide by 8 to go from bits lower case ‘b’ to bytes upper case ‘B’) and I regularly speeds just barely above 50 KBps so I’m actually pretty happy with both my upstream and downstream speeds as rated by Chungwa. If you’re getting a shitty connection it’s not their fault it’s the way the traffics is being routed from the server you’re trying to access and no I’m in no way affaliated with Chungwa or Hinet or any other isp I’m just another techogeek living in Taipei.
Cheers.
You should have waited a few days. The 8M service is supposed to be offered starting on June 1. You are right about the old 6M service though. Though Chunghwa offers it I’ve yet to see any ISP, even their own Hinet, actually offer service at that speed.
That is true to some extent, but they do have some control over it. Each ISP will interconnect with other networks (peering), and if they have trouble reaching a particular network, they can add peering to a network better able to reach the destination network. A good ISP will have 100 or more peering arrangements. A crappy network may have as few as one. As well, they also have control over how much bandwidth the peering connections have. The cheaper ISPs will not have as much to spend on the number of peering connections and amount of bandwidth, so they will be much more likely to have limited connections and limited bandwidth, thus you are much more likely to encounter bottlenecks.
Since I got my July bill today, thought I would revisit this topic for updates. The bad news is that the 8M service still does not seem to be currently available. The good news is that they have increased the uplink speed to 640K from 256K. The other good news is that uplink speeds have been increased for other ADSL accounts. For example, 1.5M/384K service was upgraded previously to 2M/384K, and is now upgraded to 2M/512K. Also, it looks like other ISPs are matching the ISP price cuts with Hinet’s new pricing. My ISP, so-net is now charging comparable rates to Hinet for 2M/512K.
Here are the current speeds and prices:
Speed, Hinet ISP+ADSL charge=Total
256K/64K 250+300=550
1M/64K 375+410=785
2M/256K 420+440=860
2M/512K 549+699=1248
3M/640K 1200+949=2149
8M/640K 550+650=1200
Given the pricing, I’m wondering what Chunghwa will do about the 2M/512K and 3M/640K service offerings which are going to end up being more expensive and slower than the 8M/640K service?
Well, I just downgraded to 2MB/256K, and it seems to take a little longer on the upload of files to my server, but then I don’t that very often.
I just didn’t see much justification for having that fast a service anyway, since I’m not running a server at home, at all.
Otherwise, it’s fine.
If there had been 8MB/640K, I might have been tempted, but right now, what I have is pretty fine.
Kenneth
Anyone in TienMu area can post actual versus advertised download/upload speeds and which ISP provider you are using? Am planning to subscribe to ADSL service and I want to choose the most practical subscribed speed versus actual spped the telco/adsl line can provide.
Thanks in advance.
I recently moved to Taipei County and I ordered Changhwa Telecom’s (Hinet) ADSL off the net on July 7th. It has been three weeks and still no one has come out to hook it up. I called Hinet and they said that since I was not in the “city” it would take longer than the usual 10 business days. How long? They would not say. What sucks is that even if I go with another company I still have to wait for the Changhwa techinician to come out and hook it up. How long have other people had to wait?