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Posts: 4935

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Q: Is there such thing as a reliable internet connection in China?

The past nine months have been nothing more than a network nightmare in 4 different cities. Wife downloading something? Disconnected/unable to access anything important. Wife webcamming with family / my mom? I'd be lucky if I could do anything online.

 

And that goes for her too. If I'm doing anything, she can't do anything. If I want to relax after work/school and play a game, one of us has to suffer for any number of reasons. Is there any way to get a reliable connection here? What company offers such plans?

 

Should I just buy another connection and let us both win? Can you even do that?

10 years 49 weeks ago in  Web & Technology - China

 
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Posts: 2186

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I would imagine that the CPC members and the Chinese government hackers have a fairly reliable connection so it must be POSSIBLE,

 

.............rare but possible.

 

However we have three separate internet connections with the same company, first for me, second for the TV system and a third for my wife's phone and everything else. I would think that would be your way forward.

Hulk:

Three? Well, it's cheap enough isn't it?

10 years 49 weeks ago
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Hugh.G.Rection:

Yeah three is a bit of an overkill, but we got a wifi system and it was so slow that I went insane hulk and my wife, to protect my sanity (and my head, walls, doors etc) bought another wired connection and used the wifi for her phone, then when we got the TV system that used another wifi system. iirc they cost about 200RMB for the the two wifi and my wired is pay as you go but seems to last about 3 months between top ups, the wifi ones are both unlimited usage.

10 years 49 weeks ago
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10 years 49 weeks ago
 
Posts: 9631

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If this was 3 months ago I would have said no. A month or two ago, China Telecom upgraded my 4MBit to 20MBit, it doesn't actually deliver that much, typically it is 10-15Mbit for traffic within China and 4-8MBit via VPN to connectionpoints in Europe. It does stall for 5 seconds now and then, and I can see that it is because my router gets disconnected, the longest period without a disconnect I've seen is about 9 days. 

BUT, China Telecom would be different in different parts of the country. My hood is newly built and twice in the last half year I have observed people ripping up the newly constructed sidewalk to put down some pretty thick fiber, and then put back the sidewalk making sure it get less and less even each time. 

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10 years 49 weeks ago
 
Posts: 14

Governor

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Hmm, I'm with China Unicom on a year plan and I get decent speeds on the West side of Beijing. The line gets a bit slower from time to time (weekends or holiday) but it's good most of the time. (20MB / optic fiber, I download at 2+MB/s most of the time).

We have 2 computers at home, phones, tablets, TV and everything is alright.

 

Really, the only way to go around connectivity issues is to get optic fiber (really stable) and use a good router (preferably one allowing network traffic management so you can split flow between computers and set up your network properly).

 

I'm speculating but have you been using the same router all along while you moved? If so, the solution might be simple: Try to replace it just to see if anything changes. It might be a good idea to invest in a 200-300 bucks modem (get it from back home, comes with English firmware too which is always nice). If you already have a good router, then I'm not sure, it could be many things. Sometimes network configuration can be tricky and something stupid might be getting in the way. There's always the possibility that the areas you picked were bad (sadly and unluckily) in one of many ways: overpopulated, bad internet lines or equipment in your building, internet technology used, etc...

 

If you're having problems with "international" websites in particular, the choice of your VPN provider is also very important (apparently not the case here though). I've tried a lot of them and there's really only a handful that are really decent.

 

Anyway, I've got a 1680RMB package with China Unicom for the whole year and it works fine. Hope that helps.

 

Hulk:

I did think it was the router, but I can't read enough Chinese to see if there's an option for better QoS / traffic management, or if it can even be managed on a Chinese crapline. However, I had this same problem in another city without it. Everyone in my wife's school also had the same problem (again, could be the router, but I'm not certain).

10 years 49 weeks ago
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TheWired:

I've lived in several European countries and have been using ADSL until I came to China actually. I can't say that getting optic fiber is the miracle solution to all of your problems but it sure is a positive change for me. I was given a cheap router (200RMB / TP link) when I signed up with China Unicom but quickly replaced it because of the non-existant English firmware and the few available configuration options.

 

ADSL is probably the predominant technology in China and it is heavily affected by the amount of people using the service, as well as how many devices you're using internet with at the same time. If you've been moving your furniture with you, it could also be that some device you're using is not "handled properly" or incompatible with a specific router (faulty drivers for instance).

 

When it comes down to networks and computers, the best way to fix problems is usually to turn everything off, then turn them on one by one and check what causes problem. It's a pain in the A-- but can get the job done.

 

In your case, and if you are using optic fiber already, you could try borrowing a modem from someone else and try to see if it makes any difference, or buy one if you're willing to take the risk. The other option would be to turn all of your devices off, use computers separately, together, then use one computer and one phone, or a computer and the TV (if you use internet TV). One of the devices may be the cause of the malfunction.

 

I know these things drive me absolutely nuts. T.T

10 years 49 weeks ago
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Hulk:

This problem persists with the stock router from China Telecom too. I do have a cheap router, but I wonder if I can flash DD-Wrt or Tomato. I might give it a go later. Need to see if my model is supported.

10 years 49 weeks ago
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10 years 49 weeks ago
 
Posts: 544

Shifu

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9 months of internet troubles you say? Is it possible that Hulk Dumpling 2.0 came preloaded with signal jamming software?

Hulk:

The little Hulkzi is indeed preloaded with... revolutionary signal adjusting technology.

10 years 49 weeks ago
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Amonk:

Capable of simultaneously blocking you from the internet and sex, this little green bundle of joy better be delicious.

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Posts: 416

Shifu

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the center in guangzhou has reliable connections, mostly cos all the buildings are new and have upto date technology can be quiet costly installing fiber optic, a friend of mine has 100mb  but only seems to work well with chinese websites. but anywhere outside the center is well slow and unreliable

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10 years 49 weeks ago
 
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My works connections is pretty damn good. They are on a VPN and it's still pretty fast. Not sure what kind of internet they have though. It is possible though, because we have over 200 employes using the internet all at the same time and things like youtube still load pretty fast (for china).   So it is possible, I'm sure my companies internet bill is pretty expensive though.

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10 years 49 weeks ago
 
Posts: 196

Shifu

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"The past nine months have been nothing more than a network nightmare in 4 different cities. Wife downloading something? Disconnected/unable to access anything important. Wife webcamming with family / my mom? I'd be lucky if I could do anything online."

 

Yea, I noticed this too.. The overwhelming majority of Chinese Internet users are badly limited in upload bandwidth.. When the upload starts getting anywhere near saturated, you're going to have a bad day because even if you're downloading things, your PC won't even be able to send the required acknowledgements in time because the outgoing traffic is all plugged up.. So then the websites don't send you more data because they don't get your acknowledgement and your Internet breaks.  

 

"And that goes for her too. If I'm doing anything, she can't do anything. If I want to relax after work/school and play a game, one of us has to suffer for any number of reasons. Is there any way to get a reliable connection here? What company offers such plans?" 

Hrm, you could try looking into Fiber optic internet connections if you live in a city.. If you don't live in a city, then you're pretty much screwed.. I came from rural New York and I had the same problem back home that I have here in China.. At least back home, the Internet connection was a bit more reliable..

 

 

 

"Should I just buy another connection and let us both win? Can you even do that?" 

If you can find an Internet connection that has more upload bandwidth than what you've got, you definitely want to go for it.    Chances are, you're probably running something like 6 or 8 MBits download, but are restricted to 0.4 MBits on the upload which is slaughtering your Internet connection when more than one person uses it.

 

The other thing you could do is try getting a router that supports QoS and packet shaping/throttling, if your wife is hogging all the Internet or plugging the upload bandwidth, it will automatically slow her down and share it equally.  They cost a bit more than a regular router, but they work pretty well.  In fact, your router might already support QoS and you don't even know it Smile.. 

 

Just keep in mind that audio/video live streaming always ends up getting priority over other things because it's real-time and there's just nothing you can do to fix that other than buying better Internet, which may or may not be available to buy.

 

 

 

 

 

Hulk:

It's not just that.

 

It's also the frequent disconnections (forgot to add this part) while just surfing the web. Not even streaming/doing anything else... just surfing. Sometimes my internet goes out for 12 hours or more, and I can't do anything all night. I hate that.

 

Even worse, you call customer service and they say they can't find your ID (translation: too lazy to look/do my job).

10 years 49 weeks ago
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