Korean Job Discussion Forums

sluggo832004 · Joined: 04 Sep 2010

Just got internet set up in the apartment.

Cable modem connection. SK broadband.

I download 6 kb per second, no joke.

It took me 3 hours to stream a 30 minute tv show.

Technician came by and didnt see a problem.

Is this a cable modem problem, or just maybe im sharing bandwith with other people in my apartment complex?? or is it a technical issue?

NSMatt · Joined: 29 Dec 2008 Location: London

thegadfly · Joined: 01 Feb 2003

Something is MAJORLY wrong -- my download speed at work is 9.61 Mbps, on a wireless connection, shared within the whole school, on a slow computer....

Are there firewalls or antivirus programs that are not allowing a solid connection, or are you running a ton of programs in the background?

Just tried my home computer ang got 89.96 Mbps...yeah, I would think it is something in your computer....or a specific site you are using to download....

yfb · Joined: 29 Jan 2009

Undersea data cables in Japan were damaged by the quake. Nothing you can do.

SarcasmKills · Joined: 07 Apr 2003 Location: Seoul

SK sucks.. switch to KT..it's the fastest in the country... worth it.. faster speeds than back home..

RMNC · Joined: 21 Jul 2010

It's probably your computer. Format everything, reinstall your OS and it'll probably be fine.

crossmr · Joined: 22 Nov 2008 Location: Hwayangdong, Seoul

http://speed.nia.or.kr/weather/weather_01.asp
you can see some average speeds off various plans there on a daily basis.
SK has the fastest today at 91.66 Mbps

L&MaC's · Joined: 01 Jan 2011 Location: Ittoqqortoormiit

Korea claims to have the fastest internet at 100MB/s

but I am yet to find a computer in Korea that has this internet speed.

Can someone explain that? How does it work?

crossmr · Joined: 22 Nov 2008 Location: Hwayangdong, Seoul

jonpurdy · Joined: 08 Jan 2009 Location: Ulsan

Yep, in-country I can hit the max of both my school and work connection. Foreign sites are hit-and-miss. RapidShare and torrents can max my connection but regular news sites and even YouTube barely hit half a MB per second sometimes.

Vox_Populi · Joined: 04 May 2009 Location: Seoul, South Korea

My partner works for SK Broadband in their Internet Telephone Tech Support department. He says that they're getting MANY complaints about slow service but they are, almost invariably, about websites with servers located in North America. SK is officially stating that the problem is due to the earthquake.

From what I've read on the internet, there are 4 main fiber optic cables crossing the Pacific. One of them comes to land very close to the Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Plant in Japan and that one is completely out of service at the moment. Another which goes near the area is operating but only at very minimal levels. That basically leaves the two more southerly cables carrying all the internet traffic between North America and East Asia.

About the only thing you can do is to just have patience. Some sites may have alternate mirror sites with servers in Asia. If you find out this is the case with a website you're using, look into switching. Otherwise, there's nothing you can do until the cables get fixed and there's currently no estimate as to when that may occur.

BTW, I recently ran a speedtest from my computer against servers in Seoul, Tokyo and San Francisco:

Seoul: 48 mb/s
Tokyo: 30 mb/s
San Francisco 180 kb/s (yes, that's KILOBYTES!!!!)

qwunk89 · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

Reviving an old thread. I too have SK broadband and my internet speeds (especially international) have been lagging. I just ran a few speed tests (Wed, 8pm).

Seoul: 22Mbps Down, 3Mbps Up
New York City: 1.90Mbps Down, 1.40Mbps Up

Wireless:

Seoul: 13Mbps Down, 2.29Mbps Up
New York City: 1.55Mbps Down, 1.55Mbps Up

Kinda slow. Time to call SK and get a guy over here?

SeoulNate · Joined: 04 Jun 2010 Location: Hyehwa

UknowsI · Joined: 16 Apr 2009

Korean gamers have for a long time preferred KT to SK. Not so much because of the transfer rate, but because of latency issues abroad. Apparently KT is much better for accessing american servers.

Before I bought KT internet I had around 250 ms latency to american servers and frequent packet loss and lag spikes. It would pretty much mess us 50% of the time I wanted to play any games with american servers. After getting KT FTTH I have 150 ms latency and never experienced any packet loss. The service is also very fast, but for me it hardly matters if I get 2 Mb/s, 10 Mb/s or 50 Mb/s, it's all good enough for my use. The few times I do large transfers I seem to get around 50 Mb/s to Korean servers.

Swampfox10mm · Joined: 24 Mar 2011

By my experience SK now sucks for home speeds and should be avoided. KT sucks for phone internet speed.