Moving from Thailand

[GeoffH]

4 minutes ago, Arizona Kid said:

I could give a fork less about the technical stuff that you are talking about. Just say if it works good or not. Isn't that the same thing? 

Sorry, I didn't mean to confuse people.  

*thinks*

ok.. try this.

 

Manila has internet as good as a first world country around Makati.

As the internet goes to other cities it travels via cables which can only carry so much 'internet', like a water pipe if too many people use it then the pressure drops.

Down the south of the country in Mindanao is about as far as you can get from Manila and still be in the Philippines so the internet has to go through a lot of cables to get there and along the way a lot of people are using it.

So by the time it gets there it's not got much... 'pressure'.  Like being at the end of a pipe in a street sort of.

 

Some places will have bigger pipes going to them (like Cebu) and the pressure will be better, some will have small pipes and the pressure will be worse but generally the further away the worse it is.

 

Does that help?

 

Edited April 28, 2020 by GeoffH

[Jollygoodfellow]

18 minutes ago, GeoffH said:

Does that help?

Bring this for the Arizona kid next time you gigabit into town. 

[Snowy79]

Have a look at Boracay.  World class beach, good ex pat community, every shop you will need, decent internet and rental prices are plumetting due to this quarantine which may last a very long time. Added to this there's two International airports near and a ferry port. English is well spoken here due to it's tourist industry.

[AusExpat]

On 4/28/2020 at 5:22 PM, Arizona Kid said:

I could give a fork less about the technical stuff that you are talking about. Just say if it works good or not. Isn't that the same thing? 

Internet speeds for dummies abridged version:

It depends upon what he needs the Internet for, some people require fast upload/download speeds (have a friend who edits movies and needs to have good transmission rates but it does not matter how long it takes to make the connection), some require to connect quickly to websites everytime all day (like another friend who day trades who needs instant connections when he sells, download speed doesn't matter). Gamers need both quick connect and good transfer speeds - if your computer is connected to the game server 1/5th of a second faster then you can shoot the other guy before he even sees you are there.

But as you said for the average user you just care if you can look at pages and watch video without waiting too long.

Think of it as when you turn a tap on how long does it take for the water to come out then the second measure is how much water comes out when it is on.

[hk blues]

And don't forget that both dowload and upload speeds are important depending on what you're doing.  For watching Netflix download is important, but if your doing a skype video call both download and upload are important. I have a very acceptable 26-28mbps download but a poor 3 mbps upload. 

[Arizona Kid]

7 hours ago, AusExpat said:

Internet speeds for dummies abridged version:

It depends upon what he needs the Internet for, some people require fast upload/download speeds (have a friend who edits movies and needs to have good transmission rates but it does not matter how long it takes to make the connection), some require to connect quickly to websites everytime all day (like another friend who day trades who needs instant connections when he sells, download speed doesn't matter). Gamers need both quick connect and good transfer speeds - if your computer is connected to the game server 1/5th of a second faster then you can shoot the other guy before he even sees you are there.

But as you said for the average user you just care if you can look at pages and watch video without waiting too long.

Think of it as when you turn a tap on how long does it take for the water to come out then the second measure is how much water comes out when it is on.

Starting to get it. I just download whatever TV shows that I want to watch, put them on a usb, so don't care much about the speed.

[Jollygoodfellow]

9 hours ago, Snowy79 said:

Have a look at Boracay.  World class beach, good ex pat community, every shop you will need, decent internet and rental prices are plumetting due to this quarantine which may last a very long time. Added to this there's two International airports near and a ferry port. English is well spoken here due to it's tourist industry.

I believe the cost of living there would be high?

[Snowy79]

2 hours ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

I believe the cost of living there would be high?

This quarantine has actually surprised me.  Before hand I could find bars with 50 peso San Migs and rum and cokes.  Other bars were 90 peso to 110 peso.  All you can eat buffet from 295 peso to 450 peso for a decent one.  If you wanted a blow out for 750 peso you could eat and drink as much as you want for 4hrs.  That included wine and beers.

Every bar has free live entertainment pretty much and an average bar meal was 450 peso upwards. Since the bars closed I'm eating fresh food every day for about 500 peso between two of us.

Wifi is way cheaper than Oriental Mondoro where I left.  The only real expense is accomodation but you can get a habitable one bed for 15k, 25k will get you a decent one 2 mins walk from a stunning beach.  All in I find it cheap enough for the quality I get here and no polution or real traffic issues.

[AusExpat]

10 hours ago, Snowy79 said:

This quarantine has actually surprised me.  Before hand I could find bars with 50 peso San Migs and rum and cokes.  Other bars were 90 peso to 110 peso.  All you can eat buffet from 295 peso to 450 peso for a decent one.  If you wanted a blow out for 750 peso you could eat and drink as much as you want for 4hrs.  That included wine and beers.

Every bar has free live entertainment pretty much and an average bar meal was 450 peso upwards. Since the bars closed I'm eating fresh food every day for about 500 peso between two of us.

Wifi is way cheaper than Oriental Mondoro where I left.  The only real expense is accomodation but you can get a habitable one bed for 15k, 25k will get you a decent one 2 mins walk from a stunning beach.  All in I find it cheap enough for the quality I get here and no polution or real traffic issues.

Can I ask how many expats live there (on the island, not just the main beach) full time in your estimation?

Edited April 30, 2020 by AusExpat

[Snowy79]

1 hour ago, AusExpat said:

Can I ask how many expats live there (on the island, not just the main beach) full time in your estimation?

I'd hazzard a guess at least one hundred. Many keep themselves to themselves but there's a healthy group of about 30 that are regular drinkers in the local bars.  Many married, a few single and most have a good circle of local friends which is good to see. I've travelled around a lot and a few places have some good things going for them but here is one of the few places that I've been with more positives. There's a few delis on the island where you can get some great Western produce and everything you need is within 2km of straight road.