Utilities & Mobile Internet revisited

Yes, I think I'm going to retain PLDT until the lock-in period ends then ditch them, meanwhile add Filproducts as a backup for now, then make Filproducts the main connection when I ditch PLDT.

 

I worked on line here for a few years and I used two ISP's and a dual wan router. (not a load balancer) It allows you to have up to 4 providers and it is set up to pick the best speed out of the providers dynamically. It switches instantaneously, from the slower or offline to the faster of the two or how ever many providers you have. With two providers and a battery backup, I was never offline and always had a speedy connection.

 

I have PLDT Fibr about two years now and it's had two longer outages (as far as I remember / noticed), for a day more or less in both instances, and a couple smaller ones (lets say less than 30 minutes). Not great, but since I don't run any servers that have to be reachable from the outside, I can live with that. Usually it's decent speed, I pay for 30 MBps and last time I checked got 30 down, 70 up (to a server in the Philippines).

Whenever they are down or just slow, I find my smart mobile to be a sufficient backup. Obviously this gets relatively expensive if you move huge amounts of data (might be worth to pause automatic downloads of updates etc), but otherwise, if you have good 4G coverage wherever you are it's close enough to a wired connection to not let me worry about a second line.

 

I agree. One really doesn't need a second provider in ordinary circumstances. To me, though, the second provider and dual wan was necessary because I was teaching on Skype and other meeting software and could not have interruptions or slow downs, (and therefore lost packets). If a smooth uninterrupted connection is not absolutely necessary then a phone hot spot works well for sure.

 

I still have a dual wan modem lying around, if anybody is interested.
Did all the multi-isp tricks in and out the book but since i have Fibr my connection here in Camajac my headache is gone .

I mostly use a good VPN (ExpressVPN or IPVanish) to get around all local DNS and Routing problems on the PLDT network and am very happy since 3 years PLDT fibr.

Strange that the service in Valencia is so bad. These are some of my speedtests to Netherlands where most of my work is connecting via ExpressVPN in Amsterdam

 

Very recently read a review (can't find it now to show source) which explained how some VPNs can even increase speed.