Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tatertot]

[Swampfox10mm]

Please sound-off and mention what internet provider you guys are using.

We're on SK now, and it's CRAP. Anything outside of Korea to the USA is barely at 56k. They're giving me the run-around about Japan being to blame, but my 3g phone goes 5x faster through pretty much the same tracert!

Obviously, I'm being throttled, and I'm pissed.

Torrents barely work at all. Youtube, either. Skype-- forget it (but through my 3g phone, I can do full video both ways).

I have the "free" SK connection, which we get because we have 3 phones with SK. This is pure garbage. I get far faster out-of-korea speeds when I run my 3g phone as my access point.

[Swampfox10mm]

Ok, I signed up for a free trial of Astra, also. I was upset with it for about an hour, until I figured out the mode where I can bypass my country. Once I chose that from the menu, my speeds skyrocketed beyond belief.

I'm going to try this out for a few days, and see what I think.

[Swampfox10mm]

Full 1080p video over Youtube with no buffering! Loving it!

[ssuprnova]

Could someone please PM me an a free trial link?

[Swampfox10mm]

There isn't a link for it. I looked all over. You have to go through the registration process, and I contacted the live chat representative to help me set up the free 7 days.

After a few days of use, here are my thoughts:

1. It's not perfect. I have to toggle between using it and not using it, because Korean sites will almost not load sometimes (due to Japan, I will bet) when I'm on a USA West Coast server, for example.

2. It cuts out sometimes, much like wifi going down for about 30 seconds, but maybe once or twice in a few hours.

3. YouTube will buffer a lot faster, but only if I set it to the P2P-friendly mode (and use a server with a "*" next to it.

4. I must also go into SETTINGS, VPN OPTIONS, and choose BYPASS MY COUNTRY from the VPN Mode pulldown menu before I see any increase in speed.

5. If you use Torrents, remember to port-forward every time. You can find directions for this online.


I'm thinking I may purchase a few months of this at the higher price, because I'm hoping they'll get the Japan cable problem ironed-out.

Then again, I'm also forming the opinion that the Japan problem has been used as an excuse to severely limit bandwidth on YouTube, Skype, etc. Someone posted a link to the article about that issue and the collusion by telecoms to control the explosion and usage of overseas sites. I'm hoping people will start an uproar soon, as YouTube has all but become unusable for many in Korea (even at my school, where it is extremely useful). It took 15 minutes for me to load a 7 minute video at 240p tonight. Worthless.

If someone can explain to me how I can barely download YouTube with my regular KT connection, but when I switch over to my Astrill VPN using the same KT connection, I can download 720P and often 1080p videos without waiting on buffering once they start, I'm all ears. Also how I can get decent enough speeds to skype with video both ways on my 3G phone, but not through my home internet connection? It's obvious the local telecoms are thinning the pipeline severely and blaming the Japan Tsunami. Tracert's show the hold-up is within Korea at Hanaro (SK's service).

Also, it's nice being able to see videos that are blocked in Korea due to copyright. I've noticed that works both ways, too. Many official Korean music videos in HD are nigh impossible to find in searches, if they can be found at all.

[Swampfox10mm]

FYI..

I also installed Astrill at my work computer, which they allow you to do (it won't work on two computers at once, though).