autonomous_unit

That's the only way I've ever run Windows (98, 2k, XP)... under VMware with a Linux host. it works fine for office tasks, but I wouldn't expect games to have the performance or stability you desire. Edit: not that you shouldn't try, but just don't expect everything to work as fast as on native hardware!

I also had mixed results using USB devices with the XP guest. Some low-level stuff like trying to update the firmware on my iPod didn't always work right, and I'd have to find someone with a native XP install to run the upgrade for me.

Does parallels offer similar configuration options to VMware, to create a virtual network between the guest(s) and host OS?

I've usually given the real Internet connection to my host OS (Linux, in my case) and then set up a virtual network with NAT for the VMware guests when I wanted them to get out.

For business use, you might want to consider boards with integrated video... business apps really do not need a big 3D GPU like a game system, and this will also reduce strain on your power supply and cooling...

I've been happy with an ASUS board I picked up last year for socket AM2, with integrated NVIDIA Quadro NVS graphics, SATA, etc. It doesn't have much in the line of overclocking etc, but for business I wouldn't expect you'd want to take the risk anyway... I'm sure that the model lines have changed by now, but I got M2NBP-VM CSM. It even has onboard DVI output which I desired for a good solid LCD monitor connection.

I found searches on US online retailers to be useful, because some of them have relatively nice search interfaces in their databases of boards. You can search for ones with the features you need, and then check back and see what pricing and availability will be locally in Thailand. (Of course, some parts may not be readily available here.)

I would agree with jetjock that frugality can be a personality issue (or pathology) as well as a rational skill. I've seen both in my own US extended family and my Thai extended family that sometimes frugality happens without rationality, i.e. the obsession to save a dime costs too much in other unaccounted expenses or just in terms of opportunity cost or aggravation. I like to think that I've found some happy medium and do not exhibit the pathologies of my bloodlines, but I am sure I must be blind to some of my faults.

But I wouldn't doubt other experiences reported here, that some people learn budgeting skills later in life and show real improvement in their quality of life as a result.

I try to follow the rule of moderation in all things, including consumption, spending, saving, investing, and bargain hunting.

Thanks for the recommendations...

I've been thinking it would be good to try to get back into shape on my bike, but there are really no convenient rides around my house and I doubt I'll ride often enough if I have to drive to some park for each ride...

Has anybody seen any good bicycle shops in BKK where I could find a trainer that is not a deathtrap? (Trainers are stands which you attach to a bicycle to allow you to pedal while stationary against a resistance device.) I don't think I'd want to try to import something like that myself...

Yes, it will work until whatever ISP account it is actually using has a problem and gets terminated...

Me, I'm the paranoid and geeky type who would not quit until I'd reset the thing, set my own password, and found the right ISP settings to use my own subscription...

OK, I did a search for this modem and found a PDF manual online via google. You might want to do the same and download a manual for future reference... It is in fact a router with a built in PPP client. This raises the question of whose PPP login you are using currently.

So, you could simply purchase an ethernet switch (no point in getting a hub these days), and connect its uplink port to the modem's ethernet port and then put all your PCs on the other switch ports, as you originally hoped.

You should find a device configuration page if you visit http://192.168.1.1

The default username/password is admin/admin according to the manual I found. If it has been changed, then you may have to try to get this information from the dealer or else take a chance and force a reset to factory defaults.

Beware, however, that you'll need to know the settings for your ISP to return the device to operational status. Besides your own subscriber login/password, you'll need to know the VCI/VPI parameters that your ISP uses. You'd be able to get these from the device if you know the password. If you want to do a reset, the manual says to press and hold the little reset button on the back near the ethernet port.

I cannot answer for certain without knowing the exact model of your modem and how your current computers are configured in the network software. Your modem may actually be a router, meaning it is capable of serving multiple computers at once because it has an internal PPPoE client and does network-address translation to hide the LAN behind it. But, if it's a router, you must be running with the dealer's ADSL subscription (or a previous owner's) as the username+password are configured into the PPPoE client!

However, a plain ADSL modem normally does not do these things, and it is the computer that runs the PPPoE client. In this case, you probably do not want to try to run multiple PPPoE sessions over the modem at once, as you would have to do if you bought a simple hub/switch. I'm still not 100% clear on whether you've removed the PPPoE client from your PCs or whether you might still be using it with this modem instead of the old USB modem.

What is the exact brand and model of this modem? How exactly is the network connection configured in your PC? If you look up your PC's IP address on the network card settings when it is using the ADSL modem, what are the first two or three numbers? Does it start 192.168. or does it start with some other number?

A router sold for home use will typically have a 4-port ethernet switch, as well as a separate WAN port and possibly a wireless antenna. You can definitely use one of these with your modem, by connecting the router's WAN port to your modem's "ethernet" port, and then connecting your PCs to the router's LAN ports. This is the safest purchase. You can even ignore the router functionality (just use the device's web page to turn off DHCP) and then use the built-in switch as a hub, while leaving the WAN port disconnected.

You might be able to find an ethernet hub/switch for a little less money, but I cannot guarantee that you would actually be able to operate multiple PCs on the modem's internet connection at once with just a hub.

That's interesting... did you buy the modem from your ISP? (Maybe it came pre-configured.) Do you have to run any connection software on the PCs or do you just configure them to use DHCP and get internet service over a regular IP LAN?

Maybe your "modem" is actually a router, in which case an ethernet switch might be sufficient. But, if it is really not a router, then you need a router to provide the connection sharing. You could get one of the ones with just a WAN ethernet port and several LAN ports (and wireless if you like) and probably save a few baht, versus having to get one with built-in ADSL modem.

I think you should be able to get a router for a few thousand baht at Pantip or similar IT malls.

Actually GPRS can give you 80 Kb/s when you are close to a tower and using a class 10 modem with 4 download slots. The data rate per slot varies depending on encoding scheme. The Wikipedia article for General_Packet_Radio_Service is pretty informative on this topic. When you are further from the tower, the speed per slot drops from 20 Kb/s all the way to 8 Kb/s. One way I can figure 48 Kb/s is if you assume class 10 with an intermediate encoding rate of 12 Kb/s per slot... there are two faster rates than this when you get closer.

I'll note that this thread inspired me to pinch my wife's EDGE-capable phone for a day and check coverage at our house. We now have EDGE coverage indicated with both our AIS and DTAC SIMs, whereas a year ago neither network showed EDGE coverage here in Nonthaburi. Of course, now that I have ADSL I don't really need it at home...

Can anybody verify whether post-paid is really necessary? I tested GPRS service on both the AIS and DTAC which are both pre-paid for me, and the phone indicated EDGE for both, but I didn't actually do any performance tests to verify the EDGE speed. I guess I'll have to borrow her phone again and do better tests next time.

I had a roughly three hour outage last week when a big storm rolled through Bangkok, but otherwise TOT ADSL has been OK for the past year. We do get frequent power glitches over here in Nonthaburi, and each time the local TOT equipment seems to lose power and get rebooted. (I have my router on a UPS, so it shows the DSL link going down and then returning shortly thereafter. Of course, it gets a new IP address and all my connections are broken because of this...) When the power is stable, I usually see router connection staying up for a day or more, until the TOT equipment seems to force a reset and new IP address.

I think the TOT DNS servers are a bit flaky, but I can live with them. I am able to have VOIP calls over our 1024/512 line without much hassle these days. The bandwidth isn't amazing but we all know about the overloaded Internet links to the outside world... I get reasonable speeds like 200-800 Kb/s for downloads from the US.

One thing I did notice is that if a ran my ADSL line through the UPS surge protector connections before going to the modem, it would be disrupted every time the phone rang! WIth a direct connection, this does not happen, so I've decided to take my chances without surge protection for that line.

So you've bought an ethernet-based ADSL modem now, but you originally had a USB ADSL modem? Or do you mean you bought a router with built-in ADSL modem now? What's the make and model of the device?

Yes, the normal process with ADSL is that the modem implements something called an ADSL bridge, and then a PPPoE (PPP over ethernet) or PPPoA (PPP over ATM) connection is established via this bridge to actually talk to the provider and exchange Internet traffic. This PPP session uses a username and password, and that would have been configured in the connection manager software used with a USB modem. If you tried to connect a standalone ethernet-based ADSL modem to a PC, you'd still have to run a connection manager on the PC that runs this PPP session. However, with an ADSL router, the router itself will run the PPP session with its built-in modem and your PC will just see it as an IP router via LAN.

You also need some low-level circuit options called "VPI" and "VCI". You may already have these from the USB modem configuration but I am not familiar with those... If you ask on the main IT forum here, telling who your provider is and where you are located, someone probably knows the correct settings. Or you can try to get through to a tech support person at your provider.

Do you have some sort of ADSL modem now? Or are you just planning for a new connection?

The best way is to have a router that sits between the ADSL connection and all of the computers. It will serve a private LAN, meaning that each computer is connected to the router's "LAN ports" via an ethernet cable and configured to have a normal LAN connection to the Internet. The router will take care of sharing the single ADSL connection and IP address with all of the computers, so they won't know anything about the ADSL connection.

There are two types of router like this: ones that have an ethernet "WAN port" and ones that have a built-in ADSL modem. The ones with an ethernet WAN port will require an ethernet-based ADSL modem to connect into this port (a USB ADSL modem will not work). In either case, you configure the router with your ADSL account information (PPPoE or PPPoA subscriber name and password) via the router's web configuration page. I use an ADSL router but the kind with an ethernet WAN port are more common. I haven't looked at product availability or prices since 2004 when I bought my router...

If you do have a USB ADSL modem, you can attempt to configure one of your computers to act as the connection-sharing host instead of buying a router. But, I'd recommend getting a router instead.

I've been using Linux as my primary OS since 1992, when I taught myself so I'd have a Unix workstation at home to do my university computer science course work (due to similar frustrations with labs and modem banks that Linus had at his school). I managed to continue using it professionally at my software development jobs since then. Now, I even run a customized version of Linux on my DSL and WiFi routers!

I used to have to boot into Windows to deal with documents that others had sent me (in school or at work), then started doing that within VMware when that first became viable (in the mid 1990s). Now, OpenOffice usually suffices, and I only start Windows in VMware on the rare occasion that I want to mess with some tragically non-Linux software such as a firmware updater for my iPod... I prefer this to Wine because I can revert the Windows VM to its previous state at the end of the session and not fear any virus/corruption.

So, there are at least a few of us here who've used Linux so long that it is like breathing... I don't post in the health forum every time I breathe either.

I don't know nor care whether Linux is ready for the mainstream. I'm not the proselytizing type. I know it is fantastic for technically minded folks who want a tool that works for them and is easily customized with a little scripting and programming. My computing life is natively the Linux way. I find it alien to even read about the sorts of applications and problems that typical Windows users encounter these days, because I've never used a computer that way.

From what little I've seen of Thai IT shops, the low cost of Linux is not an incentive because they're not afraid to run pirate copies of Windows. On the other hand, the lack of commercial support, professional services, and ready-made applications (including system management applications) is a blocking factor. Many Thai IT organizations are even more backwards than their western counterparts in terms of being afraid to do anything themselves, because their staff are too unskilled and they lack the confidence to take any personal responsibility for the operations of their systems. This will remain a problem as long as "due diligence" is seen to equal "buy support and duck responsibility" rather than to equal "make operations cheap and reliable".

Is the original poster talking about an indoor heat exchanger that uses cool water?

Another geothermal system I've read about uses a regular heat-pump with an expanding refrigerant, but instead of exchanging again with an outside refrigerant-air heat exchanger, it exchanges with a larger underground loop of water (or some other solution). It is a closed loop circulating through a pipe that is laid out in trenches to resemble a large radiator, and it can dump heat there during the summer and extract heat in the winter (in colder climates where you want home heating).

This is also supposed to save quite a bit as the air conditioner does less work when it has a more temperate underground heat sink...

Yes, I'm not sure if I can speak slowly enough to please Dirk but it's worth considering what you are trying to do...

You mentioned not seeing CD as permanent storage for photos. You also should not consider a single hard drive to be permanent storage! You may get away with it for years, but you also may be one of the unlucky ones who has a drive failure after a few months. As was mentioned above, even if the warranty gets you a replacement drive, you've probably lost some (or all) of the data on the failed drive.

The easy solution here is RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks). If a disk fails, it should give you time to get a replacement and copy your data over again before the other disk also has a chance to fail. Note, this is not a replacement for real backups to CD/DVD or tape, because it only helps with disk failure. It doesn't help you if you issue the wrong commands to the computer, or if the computer or some program crashes and corrupts the data on the filesystem.

You can do the super cheap manual effort: buy TWO of the USB drives and make sure you keep regularly copying your photos onto both disks. The disadvantage is that you have to be diligent or you might forget to copy the data frequently enough, so it stops being redundant!

Better yet, you can buy one of those RAID-capable storage boxes like the Buffalo NAS which has two (or more) drives in it. The advantage of this kind of product is that it looks like one drive to your computer, and automatically copies the data to both disks whenever you use it. In either case, if a disk fails, it should give you time to get a replacement and copy your data over again before the other disk also has a chance to fail.

If you do buy a NAS box, it is essential that you choose one with the redundant RAID modes such as RAID1 (mirroring) or RAID5 (parity protection) and that you actually enable this mode. If you choose the non-redundant striping mode (also known as "just a bunch of disks" or JBOD), it gives you more space but it is actually more risky than operating one drive, because you lose your data if ANY disk fails. With the redundant mode, you lose your data only if TWO drives fail at the same time.

Just to be clear, you shouldn't really have to document her Thai income when you go to the embassy... just by being married you should be able to get an O visa without any difficulty. We did this at Los Angeles a few years ago, so I don't have current experience but I don't think the rules have changed in this regard (just the price). You can get a single or multi-entry visa, depending on how much you expect to travel that year...

Eventually, if you qualify you'll want to apply for extension of stay about 60 days after your last entry to Thailand (one month before the 90-day stay is up). If you do find a job here, you can get a work permit on your O visa, though some lawyers and employers may boldly claim otherwise. You do not want to "switch" to a B visa. You can qualify for the extension based on marriage and your combined incomes, rather than having to meet more stringent requirements for foreign workers without a Thai spouse.

If you plan to have a wedding in Thailand, you cannot really register it without falsely claiming to be unmarried to begin with. Whether that bothers you or not is your own business... You have the option of staying unregistered, "falsely" remarrying, or getting your US marriage certificate translated and then certified at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to present to the local Amphur office. You don't strictly need to register a marriage in Thailand to deal with immigration issues. But, we did cross-register, because we felt it made some things easier to have a normal Thai document of the marriage. For example, it helped to get me on my wife's health plan at work, since those bureaucrats do not know about foreign documents. This is not getting married again, but merely registering the fact that we were already married abroad. We just made up our own translated copy on the computer, following the same layout as the real CA marriage certificate and took that to the MFA.

I just flew out of Suvarnabhumi with a similar situation in May (about 20 days late for my first expected report). I brought along cash but the officer just stamped me out as usual. Don't ask, don't tell.

In American English, or at least my western dialect , for spouses to be "separated" usually means to be living apart as a formal prelude to divorce. Of course some couples reconcile, but we would not say "separated" if we were just living apart due to financial or logistical reasons...

My sympathies to Naturk, and I would agree that your current permission to stay should still be valid, but the next renewal won't work on the grounds of marriage if things do not improve.

Secure connection to what? The question doesn't make any sense to me.

You normally use a VPN to connect into some private space such as a corporate or home network. There is no way somebody can give you a "VPN service" that would do this... it requires software or hardware running both inside your private network and on the mobile systems out on the Internet.

A third-party service would only protect the traffic until it reached their network and then it would continue unencrypted the rest of the way. Why would you trust some random VPN provider and the "other half" of the Internet anymore than you trust the first half you would talk through without the VPN?

I have 1024/512 service and am not sure how to answer the question... I don't keep total usage stats. Do you count web browsing as download, and if so, how are you keeping track?

My single largest download use is probably syncrhonizing a local mirror of Linux software with a remote mirror every night (so I can update software on multiple hosts while only downloading once over ADSL). For March, I happened to have logged statistics from those downloads and it came to about 3 GB total.

My total email fetching via IMAP only seems to be about 40 MB for that month.

I don't use P2P software. I tried it for downloading some Linux images once and found it was faster to use straight HTTP!

I am already questioning myself for replying, but hey, why let everyone else be the blowhard here?

Yes, I think the previous reference to a recent airline offering is a deployment of onboard pico cells.

The line of sight issue is not hogwash. Precisely because GSM towers blast out a strong signal to cut through buildings and foliage, they can be picked up over very long distances when there are no obstructions. I remember standing on top of a sand dune in Southern California and picking up a GSM signal from very far away through a notch in a mountain range. I even managed to place a call that rang through and passed a bit of audio in each direction, but it then fell apart before we could have a conversation. I'm not a radio network engineer, but I play one on tv... I think the long distance violated the tower-to-phone latency requirements for GSM and that is why my call fell apart.

In practice, airliners have a line of sight at a relatively shallow angle to many towers that would be over the horizon for land based phones. The problem is not the towers directly below. As such, using a phone on a plane without pico cells causes two problems: the phone tries to negotiate possible hand-offs with far too many "adjacent" towers at once, and the plane moves so quickly that the hand-offs also happen too quickly. During take-off and landing phases, e.g. the first and last hour of each flight, the altitudes and air speed tend to be lower, and I think many people have witnessed successful phone calls. I cannot imagine the GSM network was very happy with the disturbance, however.

I don't have any experience mounting CIFS shares from Linux, nor any experience with SuSE. Also, the use of /media for your mounts is suspicious to me, as that is commonly used by some of the goofy graphical desktop software that has been added to Linux over the years. As part of the old guard of Linux users, I have steered well clear of that junk and cannot give any useful advice.

However, the "auto" option in /etc/fstab should only affect whether the system tries to mount the entry at boot when the "mount -a" command is executed. If you issue a "mount -a" instead of your specific "mount /media/NAS", does it mount OK?

A common problem with NFS mounts (somewhat analogous to CIFS mounts) is that the fileserver may not be available at the time a client system boots, so the mount will fail if it is just listed in /etc/fstab. The solution to this is to use an automounter which is usually configured via /etc/auto.master and friends (see auto.master and read its manpage). The service is often started via /etc/init.d/autofs.

The advantage of the automounter is that the mount is not attempted until an application tries to use the mount point, and it will automatically retry until it suceeds. In environments where there are dozens of fileservers and hundreds of remote mount points, this is the only sane way to configure workstations so that everything usually "just works".

One thing to be cautious about... these bus-powered drives usually cheat as the disk requires more current than the USB bus standard allows.

Many of the housings draw more current than they are supposed to, which might work for a while if the host computer is not enforcing bus power limits (part of the USB standard is to negotiate power requirements). Eventually, the USB host might "burn out" from being overloaded, or the overload might just reduce the voltage until data corruption occurs due to disk malfunction. Some drives may not work at all in some hosts, because the host protects itself from this abuse, while others might work "forever".

I have a 2.5inch drive housing which came with a funny USB cable that has two heads to insert into the computer. One head carries the data signal plus power, and the other head just taps more power so that it can get more current to the drive than would be available over a single USB socket. I've found my 60GB Hitachi drive works more reliably when operated using this dual-tapped power, when connected to my laptop or most desktop computers. By reliable, I mean I could do large transfers for several hours, whereas there were frequent glitches where the disk "disconnected" from the OS or had unexplained disk errors after anywhere from a few minutes to an hour when operating on only one socket. I also got a cheap powered USB hub to use when running the disk at home, to reduce the stress put on the laptop's USB chipset...

Unforunately, the Y-shaped cable can only reach two host USB sockets which are quite near to one another, unless more additional extension cords are used.