Anyone else here on so-net service? I’ve been seeing very slow access to non-Taiwan sites for the last ~2 weeks. I’m pretty sure it isn’t my line because I can download files from Taiwan sites at the nearly the line capacity (200KB/s) still, but from sites outside Taiwan it’s rare to get above 30KB/s now. In addition, some sites are slow or even inaccessible randomly.
This has only started in the last 2 weeks or so. I’ve been a so-net customer for over 3 years and this is the first time I’ve seen more than very occasional problems. Before this it would be quite common to be able to peg the line capacity on downloads from foreign sites. Now it just pokes along.
Are any other so-net customers seeing this slowdown lately?
So-Net was intermittently bad for me last fall and for the last few weeks it’s been pretty consistently bad. I know it’s not the line itself because downloads from within Taiwan are still fast, and traceroute only shows packet loss starting on the link to Tokyo. I’ve posted several recommendations for So-Net over the years here, so this serves as my notice that I can no longer recommend So-Net. I’m looking around for other ADSL providers with static IP. It looks like TFN is one of the good ones now?
Jlick, your not alone… I’ve noticed the same on my 8M/640k So-net line and I was wondering the same. Although it seems like its back to normal now, the problem persisted waaay too long this time. I’ll definitely switch if there is a better alternative… TFN looks really good but they aren’t cheap. I’m guessing you get what you pay for with them… either that or teh fiber optics… I’m definitely willing to give it a shot if it’s more reliable.
[quote=“zerosum”]
Anyone have any experience w/ TFN?[/quote]
I’ve used their static IP 2Mb/512K service and except for the first week hiccups from the new installation, they’ve been soooo stable. Nothing goes down with them. When I had outage problems, I called them and they were very responsive to my service calls. Longest I’ve had them resolve a problem was 3 hours (they claimed that a line was cut somewhere) but usually within an hour the problem was gone.
TFN also offers VOIP service with their Gogotalk service (can be found at the buyer beware Tsann Kuenn 3C stores). I’ve posted about these services in this forum so check out the links here.
Well, this morning was really the last straw. My so-net line was completely down for about an hour. I’m gonna be switching to TFN soon.
zerosum, yeah, one of the things about TFN is that they have a really nice English section on their website, but it looks like everything on there is about 2-3 years out of date.
I’ve been running some tests this afternoon and it’s still busted for me. I’m seeing ~4-6% packet loss past tokyo, and meanwhile my Acrobat Reader is trying to do an update but just crawling along.
If you want to test things yourself, get Ping Plotter Freeware:
This will give you a visual representation of how packets are routed around the net. Put in the address to a foreign site in the address to trace, and it’ll show you how it gets there, how long each hop takes, and any packet loss. I have mine set as follows:
Number of times to trace: Unlimited
Trace Delay: 2.5 seconds
Samples to include: 100
I see packet loss starting at 80.77.0.121. Packet loss is in the “PL%” column.
I’m running two systems right now (64 and 32 winxp)
I did a reinstall of the 32bit winxp (pretty much everything else as well) the other day and everything seemed to update ok including office, adobe, java, antivirus, etc… and I was back up in no time as usuall… although hotmail still sucks (but i think that has more to do with hotmail than anything else).
A few weeks prior to that however, it took all MS updates (I use EN-versions of MS software), inc. adobe, java, etc. longer than a day to update (or download) each :fume: :fume:. It was as if my connection was non-existent despite the fact Google was loading ok (but of course that doesnt really mean much anyways). I thought at first there was something wrong on my side or that something went wrong during the new install (which is why I reinstalled again later)…
Office alone normally takes ~ 15 minutes for me (on a clean install) if that. Btorrents were slow as hell too… speaking of which – I have a few current transactions as I type this… I’ll run the test when all the torrents are done, which should be tomorow THX for the link! I’ll post the results for you by tomorow eve.
I’ve pretty much made up my mind anyhow – zhonghwa is teh suxor… I’m prolly gonna go TFN as it seems to be the best alternative at this point in time. I’m headed to their office tomorow – lemme know if you might want to know anything ahead of time and I’ll try to get that up for ya as well.
I just got back in from HK (visa run) it’s past 4:00AM right now and I’m tired as hell… thx again for the info.
It’s gotten a bit better than around CNY when it was really awful. It’s still not great though. Downloads are sometimes able to get up to the 40s or 50s in kB/s, but I used to get up to 200 if not the high 100s on downloads from foreign sites (I have 2m/512k so that’s close to the limit). Email and ssh are really choppy because of the packet loss which is really annoying for interactive services like that. At this point Hinet is performing better, which ain’t very flattering.
J… sorry it took so damn long for me to get back on here…
Checked in with TFN… unfortunately they do not offer the non-Zhonghua service in my area. So… in other words, I’d be on the same damn Zhonghua line if I were to switch over to TFN - which would basically be the same sh!t… I dunno where you’re at but they do offer the non-Zhonghua TFN service in most areas of the Hsin Yi area.
FYI: According to them… So-net (or any ISP who uses a Zhonghua line) will have the same problems regardless of ISP – given that there are problems in the first place. I’m assuming So-net (or Zhonghua) might have rerouted traffic in certain areas and therefore the crappier speeds… then again, I’m not an expert when it comes to this sorta stuff. :s
Seems like we might be stuck for now Perhaps cable might be worth checking out?
[quote=“zerosum”]Checked in with TFN… unfortunately they do not offer the non-Zhonghua service in my area. So… in other words, I’d be on the same damn Zhonghua line if I were to switch over to TFN - which would basically be the same sh!t…
FYI: According to them… So-net (or any ISP who uses a Zhonghua line) will have the same problems regardless of ISP – given that there are problems in the first place.[/quote]
Depends where the problem is. If it is your phone lines that are crappy then any ADSL service will be just as slow. In the so-net case the slow down and packet loss I was seeing was on the Taipei-Tokyo link. If I downloaded from sites within Taiwan (e.g. the Tainan sourceforge.net server) I would get the full speed of my line every time. If I downloaded from a US server then performance would be anywhere from mediocre to pathetic. That’s not a problem with the ADSL line but with the ISP providing service. If that’s the same thing that you are seeing then changing ISPs will fix the problem even if it is still over Chunghwa’s phone lines.
Basically the way it works is that Chunghwa Telecom provides you with an ADSL circuit on their phone lines and connects it through their switching system to the ISP you have contracted for service. Everything from that point on is solely provided by the ISP, from the local network links to the international peering and transit links. The international links are what are the problem with so-net currently.
FWIW, since my line is under my wife’s name I had to wait for her to get around to applying to change it to TFN. They told us it would take a week to switch over but they haven’t yet done it a week and a half later.
Aaahhh I see… Thats good to know. So-net used to be pretty good when I first started with them so I’m hoping the problem is with their service – and not the line.
Yeah, I had my existing line switched from So-Net to TFN. The first problem was that they said it would take 7 days to switch and instead took almost two weeks, which meant that I was off on a trip when they installed it. I got back this morning and found the second problem is they set me up with a regular PPPOE account instead of the bridged static IP account I’d asked for. They say it’ll be 3-7 days to fix that. It is pretty fast so far though.
They got my service reconfigured with the static IP service I wanted as of Monday and I’ve been happy with the performance and stability of it so far. So far it seems like YC’s experience, a little bumpy getting things set up, and fine after that.
I’m guessing you get what you pay for with them… either that or teh fiber optics… I’m definitely willing to give it a shot if it’s more reliable.
THX for the link! I’ll post the results for you by tomorow eve.
thx again for the info.
Thats good to know. So-net used to be pretty good when I first started with them so I’m hoping the problem is with their service – and not the line.