Subscribe via RSSChina Internet Speed too Slow or Just DSL Slow?
November 11, 2007
The current DSL line I'm using is too slow regardless of its 512Kbps plan. That's why I couldn't post anything to my blog for few days, because I couldn't view it. The status I receive is "The Connection has Time out". I can't even use the Australia proxies, which normally help me connect at faster speed.
Update: Now I get faster and unblocked with Strong VPN Solution (click to read more).
The place I'm in currently in is the border of Zhongshan and Zhuhai. Zhuhai is a city near in mainland China that's right next to Macau and close to HongKong. The speed is noticeably slow at peak times, like noon and evening. I could only surf the Internet at an acceptable speed while using an Australian proxy at time between midnight till morning.
At first I was blaming China for not having stable speed. Then yesterday I found out in January someone also said "China Internet Still Terribly Slow":
The Internet in China is still at snail speed and for some weird reason it gets worse in the evening.
Is everybody trying to play games after 18:00? Is the available bandwidth less in the evening to cut cost for China Telecom’s use of satellite back ups or is there another explanation for this?
Then today when I signed up for a new Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) plan, I realized actually I was using Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) which cause the problem. When I signed up for new broadband I had to make sure they tick the ADSL option (;).
Anyone should know that DSL is a bad out-dated choice for broadband. DSL speed varies from 128Kbps up to 9Mbps. The max speed look so nice (9Mbps) but actually it's not that fast.
The bandwidth for one DSL trunk line is divided by the number of people who share the same line, just like a LAN-to-LAN line. So what happen here is that at peak time, too many people surf the Internet at the same time, so the line become bottleneck, and the speed become slower than dial-up.
The problem didn't just end there, I'm surfing mostly American hosted websites, while the rest surf their China based sites (.cn). The .cn traffic sure get priority compare to others, so my own web requests get delayed, delayed, and delayed... till the browser display time-out message.
Well, I guess the good news is that the new ADSL line is 4Mbps. There is a 2Mbps option but it's so ridiculous that the monthly price is the same as the 4M.
- 4Mbps: RMB 150/month + RMB 300 one time setup.
- 2Mbps: RMB 150/month + RMB 200 one time setup.
- 512Kbps: RMB 80/month + some cost I don't care.
I felt like being lucky for the speed checkup. China Telecom notify I could get the 4Mbps and they will come to setup at 4pm tomorrow.
Update: I got a solution for slow Internet in China here Strong VPN.
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[...] I wrote earlier, I’ve been experiencing extremely slow Internet speed here in the border of Zhongshan and Zhuhai cities. I couldn’t really access my own blog to [...]
Hi, are you sure about the 4mb option? I am on 3mb with china telecom and I thought that that was the fastest speed. Please let me know.
Yes, Alex, the 4MB option is for sure... providing that your area is ADSL enabled. Unfortunately my area is not.
[...] so finally I got the time and motivation to follow up on a post earlier called China Internet Speed too Slow or Just DSL Slow? . Thanks to Alex, a visitor who left a question on that post. You will find in this [...]
I'm getting the 1.5MB adsl option from china telecom tomorrow.
Currently living in Chengdu right smack in the middle of china.
I was in a computer store the other day surfing on their 2.5mb line.
It seems fast when I was searching on google. But when I hit a US site... it was terribly slow. What gives? Great Firewall of China?
I'm afraid even my speed won't be enough to surf comfortably.