Remote work experience

[TheNaturat]

I'm considering spending few months of winter in Pattaya (of course if covid restrictions allow it), while working remotely. Only thing is that I need to ensure that I have good enough Internet connectivity so it doesn't impact my work. It includes mostly Teams voice calls with people in Europe and US, with screen sharing. I'm wondering if latency won't be an issue to my colleagues - can anyone comment on that? Also, how common Internet outages are on connections available in Pattaya? I plan to rent a condo, I'm willing to pay a premium for one with a good connection if needed, with 4G data shared from my phone as a backup.

Edited July 10, 2021 by TheNaturat

[T-T-T]

we have started a thread on this see my link below.. you should not have any issues. I have a 50mbps link and MIFI back up on 4g which works fine also 

I use teams daily inc video all works fine. 

Edited July 10, 2021 by T-T-T

[forcebwithu]

19 hours ago, T-T-T said:

we have started a thread on this see my link below.. you should not have any issues. I have a 50mbps link and MIFI back up on 4g which works fine also 

I use teams daily inc video all works fine. 

Don't see the link. Here it is...

 

[TheNaturat]

Looks like it's in the advanced forum so I don't have access - it seems a bit strange considering the topic, but much appreciated anyway.

[forcebwithu]

Good point. @T-T-T, if you're so inclined you could request the mods to move your topic to the non-advanced member area.

[Daryle]

I have been doing the remote thing using AiG for years. Daily, I do conference calls using WebEx, Skype, Zoom and Day Trading (using amscotOnline). Add in some online gaming and movies (using Nvidia Shield), and my current 50/20 Mbps package has not let me down once.

Keep away from the mobile connections and get a dedicated router in the condo. Connect the router to the laptop and HDMI cable onto a second monitor, and your set up and ready to go! I have never experienced any significant interruptions with AiG. Full disclosure, I have no financial interest in AiG. All the best with the move.

Edited July 11, 2021 by Daryle

[rope-a-dope]

In my experience it's a bit.....remote.

[Ben75]

Should not be an issue. Fiber in some condo's, DSL in others. Fallback get a cheap 4g (or even 5g if your phone supports it) SIM and tether to that. When you rent  a(short term) condo ask them if the internet is with your own router or not, that's the main thing to check in advance. Get a local pre-paid SIM at a 7-11 or the airport and load it up with data.

Don't know where you are from but in some countries you can can a decent data bundle with world wide support (eg Verizon US did thata couple of years ago) if you really want 100% certainty from the start and buy you some time to get a local SIM. 

[HimBadMan]

I've been working remotely here in Thailand since April and have learned a few things

1. Always ask owner speed of internet and if it's a shared or private router.

2. Before giving them 1st month rent make sure you do a speed test.  Keep in mind if you login to VPN service it will reduce your speed a bit.

3. Buy a cat 6 cable (tukcom) has 20 footers for 300 baht.

4. Always plug into router when available.

Over the past few months I've also traveled to the islands for a week at a time(phi phi, koh tao) and most hotels don't have private routers.  So I also have a 5G smart phone with a 5G AIS hotspot just incase room wifi was slow.

Again did a wifi speed test prior to committing to a room.

Edited July 30, 2021 by HimBadMan

[zica505]

On 10/07/2021 at 15:09, TheNaturat said:

I'm considering spending few months of winter in Pattaya (of course if covid restrictions allow it), while working remotely. Only thing is that I need to ensure that I have good enough Internet connectivity so it doesn't impact my work. It includes mostly Teams voice calls with people in Europe and US, with screen sharing. I'm wondering if latency won't be an issue to my colleagues - can anyone comment on that? Also, how common Internet outages are on connections available in Pattaya? I plan to rent a condo, I'm willing to pay a premium for one with a good connection if needed, with 4G data shared from my phone as a backup.

most condos have a good enough connection for what you need, just ask in advance and don't worry. 4g/5g hotspot is always a good backup, I used it as a primary connection many times when renting short term

[Bdvvardbe]

Have been considering working remotely too, great to hear the bandwidth sounds decent.

What are your time differences? In contemplating either 4 hours ahead or 15 hours ahead depending on which country I base my remote work from. I kinda like the 15 hours ahead so would be starting work super early + could build in a session before starting work.

 

 

[Bdvvardbe]

So with the offset 9:00am would be 11:00pm.

 

Does anyone here work remotely with offset hours? Does it work in your favor?

[Thomaz73]

9 minutes ago, Bdvvardbe said:

Does anyone here work remotely with offset hours? Does it work in your favor?

Absolutely. I'm 5/6 hours ahead (summer/winter) and it works great as I can do major updates and stuff when everyone is sleeping back home. 

As for the OP. Been doing remote work here for ~6 years. I always try to have a condo wifi with a (different company) phone backup. Never had any major problems. 

[Bdvvardbe]

How do you remote into your work? My current job uses a mix of hpremote and teradici. From what I understand teradici has a lot of lag issues.

[Drzenie]

On 10/07/2021 at 20:09, TheNaturat said:

I'm considering spending few months of winter in Pattaya (of course if covid restrictions allow it), while working remotely. Only thing is that I need to ensure that I have good enough Internet connectivity so it doesn't impact my work. It includes mostly Teams voice calls with people in Europe and US, with screen sharing. I'm wondering if latency won't be an issue to my colleagues - can anyone comment on that? Also, how common Internet outages are on connections available in Pattaya? I plan to rent a condo, I'm willing to pay a premium for one with a good connection if needed, with 4G data shared from my phone as a backup.

They got pretty good 5G. 
I’ve been working from the “jungle” and that was fine. 
Shouldn’t be a problem. 

[simplebro]

I live on Soi Buakao and sometimes a transformer blows up, taking 4 hours to fix. Rain substantially increases the chances.

Connection speeds are great now. During peak seasons they can slow a bit. I'm on AIS fiber and my traffic goes through a VPN.

[bradonw]

Just echoing much of what is here but to caveat

I dont think you'll find an apartment block with good enough internet ready installed and you'll be sharing it with an unknown number of people

I work remotely too and have to have the very best internet.

Your problem is its 1 year minimum but you can pay in full up front and its pretty cheap so as long as you're ok with paying for internet youre not going to use then here it is

https://fiber.3bb.co.th/en/2022/01/31/new-gigatv-pack-24m/

1Gbps DL 500Mbps UL = 700 baht a month

just pay them the 8400 baht up front and when you're done just take the router back and walk away from it

 

[Fred Basset]

On 14/02/2022 at 04:49, Bdvvardbe said:

So with the offset 9:00am would be 11:00pm.

 

Does anyone here work remotely with offset hours? Does it work in your favor?

I worked Remotely for 2 months from Jomtien last summer, and I will do so again this summer. I work into the UK time zone. However I do not strictly have to match the full 9am-530pm UK business day, 3pm-1130pm Thai time. Most of my calls are appointed in advanced, which allows me some flex on hours. 

What I plan to do this coming summer 2023, is do a couple of hours work early to mid-morning Thai time, e.g. 7am - 9am, and maybe 10-11am, I can write emails at this time and schedule them to send during UK biz hours.  This will allow me to trade these 2- 3 hours off my later work block so I can do an hour or so 330pm - 5pm, have an hour or so for the sunset & food, and then work 7pm - 1130pm Thai time. I'll do this Monday - Thursday and take a half day on Fridays. I can also answer work emails on the go from my mobile too. So there is a bit of flex there around hours. 

My biggest challenges were, condo Wifi speed was 20MB, which worked Ok most of the time for Video call, but it would lag and stick sometimes too, so I would turn off the video when that happened and just use audio. Not an ideal internet speed but workable.

My kids stay with me and of course they are on the internet or online games etc when I am working so if i have an important video call, I give them a couple of 100 B and banish them to the 7-11 for 30 minutes which frees up a bit of internet bandwidth. 

I also use Skype Out for calling mobiles too. The rates are reasonable and quality good enough usually. Then have a Thai mobile with data for a backup internet hotspot and to use Skype Out on the go etc. 

My other even bigger challenge, was focus and distraction! With all the wonderful things outside, I find it hard to stay on task, and put in the hours. I have my own business so no one is going to pull me up on it, expect it hurts income. 

[Fred Basset]

On 15/02/2022 at 10:05, bradonw said:

Just echoing much of what is here but to caveat

I dont think you'll find an apartment block with good enough internet ready installed and you'll be sharing it with an unknown number of people

I work remotely too and have to have the very best internet.

Your problem is its 1 year minimum but you can pay in full up front and its pretty cheap so as long as you're ok with paying for internet youre not going to use then here it is

https://fiber.3bb.co.th/en/2022/01/31/new-gigatv-pack-24m/

1Gbps DL 500Mbps UL = 700 baht a month

just pay them the 8400 baht up front and when you're done just take the router back and walk away from it

 

If I rent a condo for 10 weeks this coming summer, would I be able to get this installed, e.g. have it up and running within a week? Are they quick to install this? Wife is Thai so can go in her name which would make it easier I think? But is it worth putting in for just 10 weeks?