How to get reliable internet in Ho Chi Minh City

You should be discussing this with your landlord. My download is 20 and upload is 30 and I'm sure I can get a better package if I wanted to pay more. This is through Viettel. Again ask your landlord to upgrade if need be.

You may need to rent a house, rather than an apartment, to optimize your internet service.  A lot of apartment complexes are locked in to one provider and one level of service for the entire building.  You may find a place with the appropriate level of service but be aware.

Things have dramatically improved  in VN, and my FPT service in a big hi-rise runs well, meaningg I get what I pay for.  If you're Inet is required 99.99999% of the time, buy a USB capable dual link router.  If you lose your HS home service, the 4G wireless will activate as a backp.  Many routers will also cobine both Inet links, and give more xfer capability.....but 4G is pay as you go....i.e. you reach your limit, and it shuts offf.

Your need for International connectivity will be the challenge.  You can buy true 100/100 high speed service, and it is fast!  But, only in VN to VN sites.  Once you xfer date to, say, Tokyo, your xfer rates can regularly drop by 90%!  There is no cable shark;  Viettel, the Army owned provider, owns all of the fiber optic easements.  They  then sublet their excess service capacity to Mobi, Vina, etc.  Viettel costs a bitt more, but its speed and coverage is well worth the higher cost.

Happy Surfing!

Hi there!

It's actually quite okay here in HCMC.

I am on a 80M/80M connection and I don't have much issue.

Time to time, you may have slow down, but Vietnam improved their international connectivity, and it gets better.

I agree that for the accommodation, it's good to check the ISP first. I moved different apartments and I did not always have the choice. I did try FPT, Viettel and VNPT.
My recent apartment is only on VNPT and I cannot get FPT which offer a much better package (1G connection) for not so much more than what I am paying now. (80M).

To work, there is no issue.
To be on the safe side, you can buy your own router and a UPS (You can find plenty of APC UPS here).
This is what I have, and I did not have much trouble for the past year.

I tend to feel buying a decent home wifi router is necessary.  Viettel and FPT both provide $7 Tenda units, both of which have major security flaws, well known to hacking community.

dudumomo wrote:

Hi there!

It's actually quite okay here in HCMC.

I am on a 80M/80M connection and I don't have much issue.

Time to time, you may have slow down, but Vietnam improved their international connectivity, and it gets better.

I agree that for the accommodation, it's good to check the ISP first. I moved different apartments and I did not always have the choice. I did try FPT, Viettel and VNPT.
My recent apartment is only on VNPT and I cannot get FPT which offer a much better package (1G connection) for not so much more than what I am paying now. (80M).

To work, there is no issue.
To be on the safe side, you can buy your own router and a UPS (You can find plenty of APC UPS here).
This is what I have, and I did not have much trouble for the past year.

I had MYTV could not access my UK bank accounts on it. Also afternoon & evening internet access was dire! Changed to FPT now access UK bank accounts no problem, internet in afternoon better but still slow. Now have BBC news, lifestyle,earth & CNBC. Was sick of watching CNN & Bloomberg! CNN think the only thing of interest in the world at the moment is Donald T, like on & on & on about him! Also the presenters are either smarmy gits, *** or self opinionated women! At least BBC recognises that there is a big wide world out there not just the good ol USA.

A little too much Speaker's corner.last post...but CNN, BBC, Sky, Al Jazeera, etc. are all monitored, and delayed by VN.  Facebook, and Google have complied with VN's request to physically co-locate their network into VN, ostensibly to make evidence gathering easier.  This is mainly focused on VN bloggers, not expats.

Thanks for the heads up.  Should I bring a router with me from the US?  High speed access is critical to me.  What kind of rental units would allow me to get the most unfettered, wide open, high speed Internet?  Is it possible to have great Internet in a cheap living space?  Or does great Internet come only with luxury living?

Thanks for this information.  I want to be sure I understand it.   When you say 80M/80M, what do you mean?

moirawalsh wrote:

Thanks for the heads up.  Should I bring a router with me from the US?

Check the voltage input.  It probably has an AC to DC converter that accepts 220V but check it.

You could bring a wifi router from the US, but Wifi is governed by goverments.  I have had problems now and again with my Mac.  It sometimes receives a neighbor's signal, tagged as VN, and blocks the restricted channels, that work in the US device, 

You can bring from the US, but most are here in VN as well.  They are slightly more expensive, however.

80M/80M means 80Megabits per second, both receiving, and sending data.  That's pretty fast, but the speed is guaranteed only within VN.  If you send/receive data to a US location, the speed will be drastically lower.

And finally, your Wifi router's location is extremely important to give your PC a strong signal, without interference.  Most VN apt's are concrete walls, with steel inside.  That will block, or reduce the Internet speed to some degree, perhaps horribly.  You can add high gain antennas, extenders, all kinds of gadgetry, but placing the router as high and as close as possible will be the cheapest solution.

Both ASUS, Linksys, and D-Link are high quality brands.  If you are a bit of a geek, Microtik routers are small business grade, and really cheap.  However, they are complicated to setup.

I hope this helps you.

THIGV wrote:

moirawalsh wrote:

Thanks for the heads up.  Should I bring a router with me from the US?

Check the voltage input.  It probably has an AC to DC converter that accepts 220V but check it.

Good advice! Most electronic gadgets are dual voltage, but blenders, vacuums, etc. bought at Sears or Target are almost all 110V only

Hi everyone,

Although it's been a while, I'm trying to repost within this topic to see if anyone has any tips on getting a good internet connection "to European sites". Let me explain: I work in "remote server" mode and the server in question is located in Switzerland. In my apartment I have a "corporate" FTP connection (package that costs me 545K VND per month and should guarantee me 250 mbit/s download). Despite this apparently very powerful package, the connection via the remote server is very bad. I think this is due to connection problems to Europe and abroad in general.

Does anyone have any suggestions or have they found any solutions to get a stable and reliable connection to international websites?

Thank you in advance!

Matteo

Hi everyone,
Although it's been a while, I'm trying to repost within this topic to see if anyone has any tips on getting a good internet connection "to European sites". Let me explain: I work in "remote server" mode and the server in question is located in Switzerland. In my apartment I have a "corporate" FTP connection (package that costs me 545K VND per month and should guarantee me 250 mbit/s download). Despite this apparently very powerful package, the connection via the remote server is very bad. I think this is due to connection problems to Europe and abroad in general.

Does anyone have any suggestions or have they found any solutions to get a stable and reliable connection to international websites?

Thank you in advance!
Matteo
-@MatteoSuc

Try using a Viettel phone with Max data as a Wi-Fi hotspot.

More and more I am finding that when my local internet ethernet connection gets iffy, I only need to switch over to my phone's hotspot and I'm able to do virtually anything on the internet using my HP Envy laptop, including watching video.

That might solve an unstable connection.

It won't help if the website is actually being blocked, or if your computer in Vietnam is being blocked by the site in Switzerland.

@OceanBeach92107

Thanks for the advice!

I'm using Viettel on my mobile phone, but I think I should change the subscription, because with the current one (for which I pay 150 VND per month) the download is quite slow. May I ask what kind of subscription you use or recommend to get as much connection as possible?