Hey necroflux, do you mind telling me which USA proxy server you are running your browser through? I’ve been fiddling with stuff like that at times, sometimes it seems to help, other times not.
Anyone tried Open DNS? It was suggested on a similar thread a while ago, but I can’t honestly tell if it is beneficial or not.
I never used to have a problem watching streaming vids on CNN.com, and NHL.com (700 kb/s), but these days it is only possible in the morning and gets worse as the day goes on. Friday night? Forget about it.
[quote=“Mer”]Hey necroflux, do you mind telling me which USA proxy server you are running your browser through? I’ve been fiddling with stuff like that at times, sometimes it seems to help, other times not.
Anyone tried Open DNS? It was suggested on a similar thread a while ago, but I can’t honestly tell if it is beneficial or not.
I never used to have a problem watching streaming vids on CNN.com, and NHL.com (700 kb/s), but these days it is only possible in the morning and gets worse as the day goes on. Friday night? Forget about it.[/quote]
I use open dns as a replacement for hinet’s slow dns servers. Works as advertised. Of course it doesn’t solve any bandwidth issues you may have.
Otherwise I don’t experience any consistent problems with overseas connections (it’s slower during peak usage times). I have a 2m fixed ip with hinet.
Concrete example: I just came across a link to a video on crooksandliars.com. I click… and wait… the connection is made to the web server, so DNS isn’t the problem… but minutes later and nothing. So I switch to proxy mode (using the info below) and it’s smooth as silk - and I get 220KB/S downloading a video through the freaking proxy!!
*66.98.238.8 Port 3128 has been working well for me this week. It was listed on one of those “free proxy” web site lists.
*Note always use proxys assuming that they are a honeypot server for gathering personal data and or a CIA intelligence gathering tool. :America:
Stupid question, but if I’m going to try Open DNS, which one do I apply it to?
In my Network Connections folder, I have three icons.
Under ‘Broadband’ is my Hinet connection icon.
Under ‘LAN or High-Speed Internet’ are icons for Local Area Connection and 1394 Connection.
Thanks for the advice/suggestions/help, necroflux and kelake.
I’m going to try that free USA proxy as well, see if I have any improvement with stubborn connections, streaming, etc.
Interesting. I don’t know much about proxys but don’t they cache/buffer the websites? If yes that could explains why it’s faster.
Anyhow, no problems yesterday and today with my hinet connection at home, the websites / forums I had problems with before load quickly, and I can even stream my favorite German radio station again.
I guess that Hinet has a lot off bottlenecks … if in a congested office area, during working hours, it will be slow … at night as everyone starts playing online at home … slow connections … weekends, when all the kids are at home … slow
OpenDNS will solve exactly one problem: slow DNS servers. The symptom of a slow DNS server is when you first go to a site it takes a long time to open the first page, but from then on in the same session there is no delay. From what I’ve seen, the current problem with Hinet is slow international links, not slow DNS.
I would recommend ditching Hinet and getting a different ISP. I have Hinet 8m/640k service at my first restaurant and it was great until last fall sometime when International links slowed down tremendously. Inside Taiwan it is still good, so it is just the International links (e.g. download something from sourceforge.net using their Tainan mirror and it zips along close to line speed). At home I have 2M/512k service from TFN and though the line speed is slower, it often outperforms the Hinet line. You can find out more about their service here:
My first DSL service here was Giga Net mostly because it was cheap. Performance on International links was horrible and after a few months I switched, picking So-net based on recommendations. It was great for several years until it started really slowing down, especially on P2P, early last year when I switched to TFN based on other recommendations. So far it has been fine.
The main problem with Hinet is that they are overwelmd with customers, and lines leaving the island are not enough, the amazing this is tho that Joost TV is stable and of good quality … can’t say the same about video I view from Europe with Media Player … or Youtube many times
Seeing as all the other ISPs go through Chung-Hwa Telecom anyway, I don’t see what switching providers will help. I’ve not given up on HINET yet, but I’m certainly no longer satisfied with my service.
Is there no such thing as paying for “guaranteed bandwidth”?
I don’t think DNS is my problem. I’ve tried Open DNS off and on and see no improvement.
I have also tried the HINET proxy server, and the free USA one that necroflux mentioned, and have had mixed results. I can’t honestly tell if things are better with or without. I also could not get access to some usual sites using the USA proxy, and get an administration notice or error as a result.
ISPs lease a certain amount of bandwidth for their international links. International links are provided by a wide variety of comparies including Chunghwa, Verio, etc. Even if an ISP leases an international link through Chunghwa, that traffic is completely separated from Chunghwa’s Hinet traffic.
Bottom line, there are indeed very clear differences in performance between different ISPs, even if they use Chunghwa lines at certain points.
If you are a business then you can lease an international circuit with bandwidth guarantees, but it’s not practical to do so as an individual. This is exactly what the ISPs do. If they lease a 100mbps circuit for every 10,000 customers, that will perform a lot better than if they lease a 100mbps circuit for every 100,000 customers.
I had (guarenteed bandwith) until last year (3M/7**k, fixed IP) when I decided 8M/640k would satisfy my needs and be cheaper, it does do for surfing and e-mail … but not for video, sound and downloads most of the time, well it depends on the time of day and day of the week. But Hinet does definitely not deliver what they promise on inbound connections from abroad … sometimes my upload is faster than download …
Typically bandwidth guarantees like this are only guaranteed across their own network. Once you cross over to someone else’s network, there’s no more guarantee.
ISPs lease a certain amount of bandwidth for their international links. International links are provided by a wide variety of comparies including Chunghwa (Zhonghua), Verio, etc. Even if an ISP leases an international link through Chunghwa (Zhonghua), that traffic is completely separated from Chunghwa (Zhonghua)'s Hinet traffic.
Bottom line, there are indeed very clear differences in performance between different ISPs, even if they use Chunghwa (Zhonghua) lines at certain points.[/quote]
If this is true, then is there a consensus preferred choice for an ISP other than HINET? I know that is probably a matter of opinion, but is there one that would be heads above the rest as far as what a foreigner accessing sites outside of Taiwan would want?
[quote=“Mer”]
If this is true, then is there a consensus preferred choice for an ISP other than HINET? I know that is probably a matter of opinion, but is there one that would be heads above the rest as far as what a foreigner accessing sites outside of Taiwan would want?[/quote]
I know that, but than they should not advertise as such … when you go to a CHT office they tell you that you can not have a 10 or 12/1M connection because you live to far from the nodes … but than what’s the use of advertising it … point is that CHT has not enough oversees bandwith in the first place, they rather lease bandwith to third parties I guess …
I just called Hinet and had them switch me to a static IP, I had to speak Chinese but the process was painless otherwise. Basically you get a new username (that 8 digit number) and you use @.ip.hinet.net instead of @hinet.net in your member name. The switch was free for me but I can “only use it on one computer”. Okay…
Results are much better for Internet browsing, pages that weren’t working 10 minutes before I called AT ALL now load beautifully. Torrent speeds are the same (which have been good enough all along). Pings aren’t really improved.
What really struck me was this: on this phone call and on previous calls, the tech will ask “What page are you having trouble with?” It just dawned on my as to why they ask this question - they must filter every single HTTP request through a proxy on their end, which isn’t configured to focus on traffic outside of Taiwan. You complain about a site, they add it to the proxy server’s list, and everything’s okay. Going to a static IP must bypass this proxy server. This explains why HTTP browsing is vastly improved after going static IP (no more proxy filtering) whereas other traffic remains the same - because the other traffic was never being filtered through a proxy!
I’m about 90.653% sure that’s exactly what is going on here.
