Dear Sabah, Sarawak users.

I live in Sabah and we have this 100/50 subscription.

The good thing is to KL we actually get 100/50 Mbps

The bad thing is, the moment we leave Malaysia our bandwidth goes down very fast!
To India it's already 30/20 and to US or EU it's 20/10 or worse.


yes, yes, I hear you saying:"well if that's how it is"

Well that's the point, it isn't!!

I asked 2 of my friends living near KL and have a 300/50 connection and they get
250/40 to EU/US

In this post https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?act=ST&f=301&t=4805456
a user criticizes me claiming he gets 40+ MBps (that's 300+ Mbps) and I believe him!

Because

https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopic=4787223&hl=

a user living near KL also reports he has 200 to 250 and 35 to 50 Mbps to EU servers

Meaning in KL they actually get very high speeds to the outside world!!

That's amazing!

So these are 2 online sources claiming they get fast speeds to the outside world.


but I asked also a few friends living here locally, some of them have Unify, to test these servers
and ALL of them get the same speeds like I get:
appr. 100% speed to KL (so that is NOT the bottleneck!!!)
but when we go to EU/US our speeds are all 20Mbps download and 10Mbps Upload

We all have 100+ Mbps fiber internet connections.


So if we can get 100+ Mbps to KL
and from KL to the outside world people get 200+ Mbps speed

How come we here in Sabah dont get it?

Are we throttled in KL?
Are we filtered?
Is our traffic from Sabah going through "servers" checking us and thus the capacity of
these servers is the limitation?

Why do all of us here in Sabah, to the outside world through KL, have 10 times slower connections?

Again:
KK to KL we all have the speed we booked!!!

KL to the outside world has amazing speeds 200+ Mbps

But KK - KL - Outside world very slow like something is filtering/throttling our connections.

Could other users from Sabah/Sarawak confirm these speeds or do you elsehwere in Sabah/Sarawak to
servers in EU/USA also have these amazing 200+ Mbps speeds?

Thanks for the posts friends!

So basically from Sarawak to USA speed also goes down below 20Mbps..

That's very weird as several contacts reported to me from KL to USA they still have 200+ Mbps.

So how come our connections in Sarawak and Sabah so slow?

Anyone an explanation?

@zioburosky13 your test to Celcom I can confirm! I tried using remote Desktop from Europe/USA servers I have access to to do the speedtest check back into Sabah and when I select TM/Maxis networks the speed is below 5Mbps but when I select Celcom the speed is over 200Mbps!

So I am still puzzled why this is so slow for us TM and Maxis users?

If the speed between Celcom in KK and Europe/USA is 200+ Mbps

Why can't Maxis/TM do this as well?

But TM/Maxis users in KL actually do get these high speeds also.

It just doesn't make sense to me.

Only explanation I can think of is throttles or filters because Celcom is using the same sea-cables.

I'm really without explanation..

Also a friend of mine here from Sabah is working in Japan many months per year and it's weird we get fast speeds to Japan..

and he says in Japan to USA he gets 500+Mbps to New York.

But from Sabah to New York we did the tracert and found it goes through Japan but all of the sudden the speed goes down to below 20Mbps

it just doesn't make sense.

Well the question really is:

are all users throughout Malaysia treated equal?

Are users prioritized because of contracts paying more?
This would be acceptable to me and I just change my plan, but I want to be sure before changing my plan this is the reason.

Or are users prioritized based on geographic location. Sabah & Sarawak discriminated?
This would be totally unacceptable for me for one and second changing my plan wouldn't change a thing.

Point is. I asked Maxis Fiber Team about this and they said:"changing plans doesn't change a thing, we don't prioritize users"

To my question if it's maybe they prioritize/discriminate based on geographic location they refused to give an answer.

And refusal to answer this specific question, starts some thinking processes:
-1) why they don't want to answer that?
a) they think the question is silly/insulting
b) because they know the question is valid, the answer is "yes" and they are not allowed to confirm this?

So I'm trying to find more users throughout Sabah & Sarawak to confirm whether or not users are discriminated based on their geographic location.

But if at least 1 user in Sabah/Sarawak can confirm to the USA/EU they also get 100Mbps or even 200Mbps then obviously there's no geographic discrimination and something else must causing it.

@AV_2018 has much higher speeds, and is a TM user right?

Meaning there is no discrimination going on. But then what is the bottleneck? Why are users in KL getting so much better international connections compared to Sabah&Sarawak.

I would understand it if the connection Sabah-Sarawak to KL was very bad already.. But that connection is actually very good. So we should get the same as KL users, right?

yes that's true..

I thought it was obvious what I meant..

I meant: the connection between the main hub and the target server if that's equal.

of course from KL to a user in KL is different than from KL to a user in Sabah.

But I wasn't talking about this.

I meant the connection "KL - target" that should be equal for a user in KL and a user in Sabah.

trying to write it below what I mean:

user(KL) -> ISP (KL) -> Server/host (Foreign country)
user(KK) -> ISP (KL) -> Server/host (Foreign country)


The 2nd in these 2 diagrams should treat users equal.

Of course the first step can't treat users equal.

But the point is, now writing numbers here:


user(KL) 800Mbps ISP (KL) 200Mbps Server/host (Foreign country)
user(KK) 100Mbps ISP (KL) 20Mbps Server/host (Foreign country)

So I called support and asked: if I'm in KK and upgrade to 800Mbps, will it change the 20Mbps?

Support answer: "NO!" it will remain 20Mbps!

Meaning support says:

user(KL) 800Mbps ISP (KL) 200Mbps Server/host (Foreign country)
user(KK) 800Mbps ISP (KL) 20Mbps Server/host (Foreign country)



This last I haven't tested, but support told me it won't change. That's why I am trying to understand.

Because for me it doesn't make any sense.. if the connection between KL and Foreign country can do 200Mbps
and a User in KK to KL can get 100Mbps or 800Mbps.. how come you can't get the 200Mbps but still 20Mbps?


Maybe support is wrong, I hope support is wrong.

But before I upgrade to 800Mbps and locked to contract for 2 years, I want to be sure support is wrong.

And to be sure, I first have to understand this.

And I don't understand it. That's why I'm asking.

100% agreement!

It would be nice if ISP would state these speeds on their websites actually..

Not just selling MAX SPEED LOCALLY but a small list:

speed to Singapore
Speed to Japan
Speed to Australia
Speed to USA
Speed to EU

I think these are the 5 most relevant connections in Malaysia and ISP should be honest to users about it.

It depends on the technology.

In Europe they use the 3/1Gbps Technology but they sell to people the packages synchronous only.

Meaning 1/1Gbps is the max. Or 1000/1000Mbps.

They basically sell
100/100Mbps
200/200Mbps
500/500Mbps
1000/1000Mbps
packages in Europe.

But that's not a real story.. because the Max is 3000/1000Mbps with current deployed technology meaning
if on a specific node you have 16 users at the same time uploading, you only get 1000/16 ~ 60Mbps net

They just figure most of the time people won't upload so you don't really notice it so all 16 people can book the 1000/1000Mbps

In Malaysia the companies seem to be a bit more realistic and understand people actually do download and upload at the same time
so they "limit" each connection to balance the load a bit more...

And thus synchronous isn't sold in Malaysia because that's not realistic to the current level of technology being deployed in Malaysia
or even in EU or US for that matter. Most synchronous sold in EU is marketing only, not realistic.

Also Malaysia is less dense populated meaning the infrastructure is more expensive... so you gotta limit a bit more to artificially create
higher prices with more limitations. At least for the first years to earn back your investments..

The pricing and limitations in Malaysia do make more sense than the European pricing model.

Also, 99% of the people in Europe don't book the 1000/1000 package anyway because, as stated previously, you only get that in your local network.

Going to a webhost, foreign country, you can forget getting 1000/1000 it's not realistic.

They sell it in Europe, but not realistic.

Generally you have faster connections in Europe because a lot of servers and clouds are MIRRORED in Europe..
So even if you visit New York Times from within Europe, you are actually opening a US server but it's MIRRORED on
a cloud solution in Europe. Amazon, Google, whatever..

So you are calling for a US server but your connection never goes to the US, it never goes through the sea cable, it goes
to a server farm somewhere in Europe where the mirror is put.

Because of this, there's also a slight delay in news reports when you watch it from EU IP address or American IP Address.
And the Ads are also different because of this.

But I think in Malaysia there aren't so many large server farms.. so for Malaysians the international connections OUT OF MALAYSIA are much more important
than for users in EU, Japan, USA.

And thus they have to limit connection speeds in Malaysia.. that all makes sense.

I just wish someone from Maxis, Unify, TM would come online and explain it so we USERS can actually figure out the best plan for our needs.

This post has been edited by mrgenie: Sep 4 2019, 08:43 AM

How come you have 3Mbps on one test and 100Mbps upstream on the other?


and yes Candy12 you may be right with most you're saying.

But I actually would want someone who had 100Mbps connection before and then upgraded to 800Mbps
to tell me there's absolutely no difference to foreign networks.

As I understood ISP worldwide must pay for the bandwidth they use worldwide.

Their own network of course is their pricing model to customers and they don't charge themselves of course
but the moment Maxis is using a network in the Philippines or a sea cable from Japan to USA they must pay
the company these networks belong to. That's a price per MB to this traffic.

Thus ISP can make a contract that packets originating from their networks get a specific "priority"
to cut better deals and better pricing. The more you pay the higher prioritized and thus faster.

I know these network operators can see if a packet comes from Maxis, TM or SingTel or German Telekom
and handle packats and bandwidth as agreed per contract.

But what if they not only can see the company behind the packet but i.e. TM could give a packet
some hashtag: customer priority A, customer priority B, customer priority C, etc..

higher paying corporate users getting best priority
end-user paying 200RM getting better priority as end-user paying only 100RM

I don't know if they do that, but they can, and I want to know if they actually do that?

If they do that, upgrading does make sense for everyone using cloud services outside of Malaysia.

Thank you very much! This is what I want to know!

To those with hiccups, connection drops, etc in Sabah/Sarawak..

I have this same experiences occasionally when using direct connection.

I now re-route all connections to Europe through Mumbai via VPN server and..

I have not the fastest connection through VPN only 20Mbps via Mumbai but it's stable
and I use backup system to backup all my data from here to servers in EU, Russia
over this connection: 100+GB on a day and no drops or issues.

When I connect directly from KL to Europe I also get drops, lost connection, etc.


But it is weird, as my friends in KL direct connection to Europe have 100Mbps and
on top of that extreme stable!

btw you can all compare connections using tracert

goto windows and type in:

tracert google.co.uk
or
tracert nyt.com

or any server located in US or EU to find about how international connections being routed.

You can specify IPv4 or IPv6 but I always use IPv4 only especially to avoid DNS leaks

In linux you can do this as well:
https://www.computerhope.com/unix/utracero.htm

Would be interesting if we all post where we are located:
mainland MY, Sabah, Sarawak and then tracert for example:

tracert 151.101.1.164 (California)
tracert 157.159.10.207 (Paris)
tracert 72.229.28.185 (New York)
tracert 103.15.170.110 (London)









So in all cases I'm using the Sistem Kabel Rakyat 1Malaysia (SKR1M) always.
Then on Mainland the infrastructure is extreme bad!



Why so many hops? My previous fiber internet providers (yes I had several already in various countries)
I had 1: my own router
2: was already the ISP outbound .. that's it.. hop 2 was already non-ISP internet.

Why 8 hops in Malaysia? Don't know, but very ineffective that's for sure!

Anyway, from there the connection to USA and Paris are using the Asia Pacific Gateway (APG)
Why to Paris the Asia Pacific Gateway (APG)??? Doesn't make sense, total garbage to use that cable to get to Paris

Followed by the Japan-U.S. Cable Network (JUS)

and then if going further than USA to Europe the
FLAG Atlantic-1 (FA-1)

but when I going to London.. MUCH faster and more efficient..
We go from KL to Singapore and then
SeaMeWe-5
followed by a connection I haven't been able to identify.

FThis is faster and more efficient..

But also not optimal!!!

Connections Malaysia to Europe (France, London)

could be done by either:
Asia Africa Europe-1 (AAE-1)
or
FLAG Europe-Asia (FEA)

but both TM and Maxis don't use this.

Although that's a DIRECT CONNECTION
from KL to Europe!!!!!

If I wish I could ask someone at TM or Maxis and pay them 100RM a month
just to get routed over these cables.. my speed would be 100+ Mbps to Europe

A technician friend told me it's contracts they make. They make cheap contracts and use the cheapest solution
and if routing via via is cheaper than direct connection you get the less good connection simply because its cheaper
but large corporations they pay more and get the fast connections.

So I really wish if this were an option for end-consumers as well? Pay more for better connections?


This post has been edited by mrgenie: Sep 7 2019, 12:30 PM

Thank you AV_2018.

Yes yours goes via Sing to Hong Kong and then the sea cable from HK to Marseille around the Indian subcontinent which is 60%
shorter then my connection.

My connection clearly goes to Japan and then through the USA.

If the timezone are kinda equally distributed the way from Southeast Asia to Europe is 25% of the globe.

But across the pacific through the USA is 75% of the globe.

I know distances in reality are not exact because of the curve of the earth compared to the earth map.

But clearly NOT going across the pacific to Europe is shorter and thus less latency.

So I really don't understand why my ISP (maxis) sends the signals across the pacific through the USA.

You have thus a much better connection, that's for sure!

My other statements of speed to Europe/USA remain valid.

BUT I found out when I do speedtest to i.e. kpn.nl it's poor performance.

1Mbps (Megabits!!!) and it's using routes all over eastern Asia, pacific, USA etc..

very dumb to route the traffic that way.

But I found another server in the Netherlands for instance from the University of Twente:

tracert snt.utwente.nl

Tracing route to snt.utwente.nl [130.89.149.254]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms R-KIANSOM [172.22.64.1]
2 2 ms 2 ms 1 ms 58.71.245.62
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 33 ms 28 ms 28 ms 58.71.243.49
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 57 ms 27 ms 27 ms 58.71.241.105
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 205 ms 206 ms 206 ms 172.22.134.5
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 202 ms 202 ms 202 ms 202.151.252.254
11 205 ms 205 ms 205 ms ae0-1204.cr5-lax2.ip4.gtt.net [208.116.134.145]
12 340 ms 340 ms 340 ms xe-0-2-0.cr2-ams2.ip4.gtt.net [89.149.143.182]
13 288 ms 277 ms 278 ms surfnet-gw.ip4.gtt.net [77.67.76.34]
14 274 ms 279 ms 275 ms ae21.zl001a-jnx-01.surf.net [145.145.176.46]
15 289 ms 288 ms 288 ms e0-0-3-0.es001b-jnx-01.surf.net [145.145.4.45]
16 271 ms 418 ms 274 ms utwente-router.customer.surf.net [145.145.4.46]
17 277 ms 278 ms 277 ms cpanel-prod.snt.utwente.nl [130.89.149.254]

This is thus using the sea cable directly from Kuala Lumpur to Europe

And guess what?

Download speed: 80+ Mbps and Upload speed: 45+ Mbps

( I have a 100, 50 subscription)

So to the same country in Europe, just another company Maxis routes my internet
COMPLETELY different.. Instead going all the way through the pacific and USE using the direct cable Kuala Lumpur to Europe!

And completely different speeds!!!

But a user in KL we found out to KPN also using THIS SAME CONNECTION but to KPN!

But to KPN I am forced going through the pacific and USA.

It doesn't make ANY SENSE!

User A to Server A connection A
User B to Server A connection B
User A to Server B connection A
User B to server B connection A

is this some lottery for us customers?