yuyi

Sorry but I think this is news.

It seems to me that Baht bus drivers virtually have a mandate from the police to kick the crap out of any drunken falang they want to and get away with it.

Does this not worry you ???

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i always thought that some of them taxi drivers were the police, same as the motor bike taxi drivers , and thats why they can do what the fork they like

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

More, it is the police (= police members) which directly or indirectly own the baht busses, the whole business.

Do you really think the regular brown boys will piss off someone higher in the hierarchy by not taking side of one of their "other" employees?

Not in Pattaya anyway, where the brown boys hide behind the corners, jumping on falangs which turn left at the traffic lights where it is not allowed to do so (while they are red), knowing exactly that most farangs will not know that at this traffic light it is not allowed.

NEW CUSTOMERS:  You can order ipStar at 256/128 kbps for 1,500 Baht per month - offer valid until 30 November - 3,000 Baht installation in addition to the first months rate in advance.  You will also receive up to 10 hours monthly (FREE) access through landline for people that have the service at home and have a need to connect when away frOm home and while traveling.  Normal price is 2,500 Baht 

Top speeds of up to 1024/512 kbps are available at 8,000 Baht per month

No deposit on equipment

...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

thanks for this nice summary!

After checking all info and websites however I'm not seeing expressly stated that this offer is for unlimited access. I see unlimited time mentioned, but not unlimited data traffic.

Can you confirm that there is no data traffic limit for this offer? I can download and surf as much as I want, and get pumped through the wires / air / satelite dish ...

If yes, and it is really unlimited data at 256/128 kbps for 1500 / month, then which is the best place to order it?

Should I try a local dealer, or central loxinfo, or...?

Thanks,

yuyi

...

Why can't we simply subscribe to any of the other satellite internet services with a footprint over Thailand??? Speeds of up to 1mbps are available at this moment...

TIT

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Could you point me to some of them? Real available / affordable offers?

... of course not to be used inside Thailand, no no , it's for my summer house far away ;-)

hmm. my bf just called the office in surat thani (i live in koh phangan) and they have none of these promotions.   it's still the same old 3000b/mo. limited account as before.... perhaps it wasn't csloxinfo, i will have to check, but shouldn't all the agents have the same basic deals?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They probably do, but as usual do not know it.

Remember, "mai mee" usually means "mai roo" only

Well, John, you really seem to like these guys, your last theree posts in a row are recommendations of them

I looked at their homepage, and under the hood is HTML 4.01 Transitional, the html code is clean, but very much table based. It does look like a premade template design, and not an individual design. And if you read the text of the page carefully, it gets obvious. In 2 places, close to the bottom, under "Professional Web Site Design", they forgot to take out the original template text, and left the "links to details" text in there

- "Professional Web Site Design (links to details - PHP, Perl, CGI, My..."

- "Search Engine Submission (links to details - Meta Tag Insertion, S..."

It says "links to details" but there are no links

Then looking at 2 of their portfolio sites, www.supplychainfocus.com and www.yorksiamhouse.co.uk does show for both sites old century html with no doctype declaration. One site uses some css, and the code is clean, but the other one is not clean at all, lots of font tags, no real understanding of CSS, etc... The menus are premade using old software - from 1997 and 2000 by Marcromedia.

Hmmm, would you want to buy a new car today, beautiful and shiny, and have them building in an engine from the last century?

So I would say, what you get there might vary quite much depending on who actually does the work.

This GPRS problem which you guys see (and me too ) is not a problem of the websites you visit, and also not a problem of international Internet connections. It might however be a problem of an overload of the local mobile phone network around you.

Also it is simply that GPRS is not ideal at all for data connections. It has a too long latency, which means it takes ages before data starts to move back and forth. Once it moves it is not too bad, but then the second problem kicks in: Data - timeouts. Your PC is waiting for a data packet from the Internet, and it doesn't come, it got lost on the way. If too much of that happens, the communication gets out of sync, and needs to reset -> You have to reload the webpage.

I think that these timeouts are mainly caused by the less than perfect installation of the technology in the mobile phone networks. As long as suppliers are selected by the kickback amount and not by the quality this will stay the problem here.

Due to this problem with GPRS and EDGE I did switch to Hutch CDMA, which works usually much better. 3 times GPRS speed, much less latency. But even here the problems started yesterday, International connections do get for almost all websites an "Access Denied" page by "proxy02.pacific.net.th"

Hmm, Hutch gets the International service by CAT, the monopoly for International internet connections in LOS. Hutch service does say the problem is known and lies with the CAT, and 1000 apologies.

So why does the CAT wants to block Yahoo and Google now?

If only they understood computers......

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If I ever offer you any help in this forum, it will be because I didn't read who was asking. I'm pretty sure that I know more about computers than you ever will. I doubt you have ever had the job title "Information Technology Manager", nor completed a Master's degree in Information Systems, nor written a computer program for Windows using Microsoft Foundation Classes, nor managed a network in a production environment. Generalizations suck, and sexist generalizations are worse. If you weren't so closed-minded you might meet some female geeks...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't think he's looking for female geeks, cathyy.

Just have a look at his book which he so desperately promotes in his signature:

""Desperately Seeking Sex & Sobriety" google "paul pisces" for more"

Desperately Seeking Sex and Sobriety

by Paul Pisces

...

Synopsis:

Colchester Essex England - Local boy makes bad!Ex Colchester Royal Grammar School pupil Paul Pisces' life slowly descends into a web of computers, alcohol, alcoholism and depression. The brothels of Amsterdam, however, provide some sexual excitement. Eventually following redundancy he takes up sex tourism in the Far East to relieve the boredom.A brief respite is encountered when he finds a job in San Francisco during the internet boom and bust fiasco but ultimately he returns to his alcoholic ways and books a flight back to Bangkok. From here it is just a short coach ride to Pattaya and a short step to suicide with a shotgun.

That's the beauty of the internet, and such a forum. You can talk with all kinds of people.

And they all love Linux!

And then, yes, Knoppix is great stuff, indeed!

You have apparently never installed a distro without your printer connected...and had it leave out the kernel bits that deal with printing, because it assumed you didn't need them.

I do it all the time, really! Every SuSE version, since years. Many many times:

Install first.

Then, a day later, oops, I need to print, switch on the printer. Fire up YAST, configure, printing.

A week later, oops, I need to scan, switch on the scanner. Fire up YAST, configure, scanning.

No problems. No recompile.

SuSE and similar do provide a already compiled kernel. Basic features like printing (CUPS), scanning (SANE), and all the USB stuff is included, ready to get used, or not, up to you.

As said, I usually plug in the printer(s) much later. Then it is a configuring of them (at SuSE with YAST). Easy and usually automagically.

Same for scanner. I have an exotic one which needs the firmware as a file. No problem, just an entry in the SANE configuration file. No kernel recompile.

I just added another "officially windows only" laserprinter with a proprietary driver for Linux. No problem, just two RPMs to install , CUPS restart, and it prints. No kernel recompile.

You have also apparently never installed Linux on a computer with a piece of hardware, say a NIC or a sound card, that was so new there were only third party drivers, and you had to compile those, and also recompile your kernel to eliminate any other driver for that piece of hardware or it would try to use the wrong one. BTDT.

Again, yes, also that happens sometimes. I did install a new soundcard recently. There was no driver available yet. Just an experimental one by the ALSA people. So what to do? Well, get the current ALSA snapshot, compile it, install it, runs. No kernel recompile.

But with the ALPS touchpad, to use all its features, yes, I needed a kernel recompile. Or better, a compile of the kernel modules only, to get the alps driver kernel module adapted to the kernel and installed.

Same with the latest nvidia drivers for the latest nvidia grapgics cards. It is a compiling of the kernel module needed only, no kernel recompile.

But then there is this Philips webcam. And yes, to get the full size picture I had to recompile the kernel. That was about a year ago, but now also that is not needed anymore.

You are, of course, right, IF the distro you are using includes (IIRC) kudzu or something like it for hardware detection at startup. Not all distros include that, though, as kudzu had some unfriendly conflicts. SuSe definitely does, as do most other Red Hat based distros. Debian based distros, not so much.  Plug it all in before installing.

Dunno about kudzu, I think SuSE is going for hal. And lots of SuSE developed scripts. Didn't look at details yet, this means it seems to work good enough

I cannot speak for real Debian distros, I haven't used them for years. For SuSE I know, that there is no kernel recompile needed to add a driver, just because the device was not plugged in at install.

The new distros "Just Work" the same way Windows does, by including every single blasted driver in the base system installation. It's then only a matter of recognizing and loading the right driver module for whatever you plug in. Better to recompile and leave out all the excess crap you don't need.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Distros such as SuSE do include all drivers, but not load them. They load them only when you need them, because you configured a printer etc. needing them. Most stuff is in kernel modules, which are loadable on demand, and not compiled in the kernel anymore. As you said, "It's then only a matter of recognizing and loading the right driver module for whatever you plug in." SuSE has invested much in a good hotplug and coldplug system. It works better and better. With SuSE 10 now I did not need to manually add anything anymore (except proprietary stuff of course).

So there is not much overhead in the official kernel anymore. That is why I gave up to optimize and recompile my own kernel long ago. And not even Win4Lin asks me to recompile it anymore

Again, this is for SuSE and similar. Debian distros might show the behavior you describe.

As you said, it is good to connect all and switch it on, to get all installed and configured right away. (Just no kernel recompile for every forgotten to switch on device at least not with SuSE & Co.)

A good distro will also have solid hardware recognition so it will install the drivers you need. So be sure to have your printer, scanner, digital camera, webcam, whatever hooked up when you install Linux. Otherwise you may need to recompile your kernel to add modules (drivers).

...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You are correct, it helps to have all stuff connected and switched on during install, to get all drivers installed right away.

But modern distributions such as SuSE do also allow the connection of new hardware later, and will catch it and install / configure the drivers, if available. And most drivers are available.

If the driver is there, then it will get installed without recompiling the kernel, at install or later, when you connect the hardware.

A Kernel recompile would only be necessary if a driver which needs to be included in the kernel is not included already in the kernel. This would usually not be the case for a printer, scanner, etc., no need to recompile here. (I'm talking about the current distributions, such as SuSE 9.3 or 10, not about the "good" old times )

since when has it been a "global human right" to carry a firearm?

Oops, sorry, that is not what I wanted to say. Misunderstanding!

We are barely tolerated visitors in a foreign land

How you defend your life and property is another question. I do not at all like guns, and I do not advocate carrying guns. In general I would prefer if carrying a gun would be made impossible. But then looking at an intruder in my house, threatening me, my family...? If having a gun saves the lifes of my loved ones, so be it, I want to carry one. I would feel guilty if I would not have one and the moment comes when it would have saved lifes and health.

I have to add that I had been already in a situation where I was totally unarmed and a drunk Thai was shooting at my family, coming out of nowhere. It was only luck that he missed them, and that he did not pull the trigger when he pointed the gun at me, shortly before I managed to grab it.

Having a gun in the house would have not helped me at all, no time to get it.

But then again, look at this dead man now. Having a gun available could have saved his life. And may be more, motivated by his success the murderer probably will go on burglaring and killing.

On the other side having some nice dogs might give enough security, together with a nice club or stick to keep knifes at distance.

peeps that believe the above should stay in gun tolerant countries i.e the US

...

i hope peeps can see the point in the statement above and don't take offense

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No offense taken, it's more a misunderstanding.

Hi Helmut,

I have the 9.3 Pro DVD's here (a copy with 2 DVDs, not the double layer one). if you don't get it but still need it, let me know.

Also I have the SuSE10 OSS beta 4 for x86_64 downloaded already, 5 CDs. RC1 and 32 bit versions still downloading (slow, no ADSL here ).

You know that you can download the SuSE 10 OSS CDs freely, currently RC1?

But only opensource stuff on them, no software with proprietary license, such as Java. These will be in the commercial SuSE version, which is this Open SuSE 10 OSS plus the non open source stuff, but you can download most non open source stuff, such as Java, also separately from SuSE, on www.openSUSE.org.

See www.openSUSE.org

Let me propose also a download exchange. Not everyone has ADSL yet. So why not sharing the download. Each one downloads a part of it, and then mails it burned on CDs to the others.

I will always start with the x86_64 versions, but I need 1 day or more for each full CD. About tomorrow I'll have the RC1 of x86_64 complete, and may be CD4 of the 32 bit RC1 version.

BTW, SuSE 10 looks really good, beta 4 is already production level, at least for all what I touched and tested so far.

Hi

Reading through the posts on this site I do get the impression that most of the posters are ex-pats with a colonial type attitude.

All this talk about getting a Remington or “Dirty Harry” handgun or buckshot shotgun is a load of c***.

We are barely tolerated visitors in a foreign land that has never been colonized.

What a nonsense! Human rights are global. They are valid even in Thailand.

Not having a Thai passport does not take away your rights to defend your home, your property, the life and health of your wife and children and last but not least your own life.

You should replace the "barely tolerated visitors" by "most welcome cashcows", that would be closer to the truth. And then again, all depends on you. Looking at these "visitors", well, indeed, many would be "barely tolerated" in any country.

Now if you have a house here, get some dogs, the bigger the better. That keeps 99% of the burglars out. Some might try to poison your dogs though.

"ex-pats with a colonial type attitude" wow! If someone comes in my home with bad intentions, well, no matter where I happen to live, I have the right to stop him. And this case just shows that having a "dirty harry" around is a good life insurance. This poor guy would not be dead now! Ask him about having a "colonial type attitude" or not!

Insulating your roof one way or the other is certainly helpful to keep the house cooler and to reduce the electricity bill.

I did see a house with a cathedral roof (no space for ventilation, but having a foam insulation from Lohr) stay cool enough even without any a/c, and even in the midday sunshine.

ARC in Pattaya and Lohr Trade in Naklua / Pattaya will probably give you both the same good result.

ARC has a better marketing. But I have seen them refuse smaller jobs or more remote jobs. Also their pricing for solar panels is so ridiculously high, that it shines a bad light on their other offers.

Lohr is more flexible, easier to talk with also for these smaller or remote jobs. They do work all over Thailand anyway.

My preference would be Lohr Trade. But ARC should also get the job done with a good quality (if they accept it).

well, I seem to be lucky this time, I placed a lot of calls in the last days from my Orange number (the DTAC sim is in one of the notebooks) to various numbers, TOT, AIS, DTAC and Orange, and I got the AIS voicemail just one time

But some time ago, it was really bad, and even switching between Orange and DTAC didn't help when I needed to get an AIS number. Which could not really be overload because I could get non AIS numbers.

Has anyone considered that your phone might be the problem? 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes Udon, this is a very good point, indeed. You should always check that possibility!

My experiences with Hutch cdma are with one "phone" only, actually not a phone, but the "Sierra wireless PCMCIA card #555". Because it works fine, not tested with other cards/ phones though.

My experiences with GPRS, expecially the timeouts and the latency, are with a "Sierra wireless PCMCIA card #750", then a second "Sierra wireless PCMCIA card #750", then a "Axen GPRS PCMCIA card", and then, to try EDGE, a "Sony Ericsson GC83 EDGE PCMCIA card".

GPRS tested with AIS GPRS, then with DTAC GPRS. EDGE tested with DTAC only, because no one else is offering EDGE.

The annoying latency and the timeouts with GPRS I did see with all cards, in different locations.

With EDGE I seem to see more timeouts at my current location. Testing it in center BKK, in a 3 hour period, did show less timeouts, but I also see such "less timeout periods" at my current location, outside of BKK, from time to time. This 3 hour test in center BKK (sukhumvit area) did give a similar download speed as Hutch, around 15 -16 kBps, but with interruptions.

My tests with DTAC and AIS availability and signal strength in remote Isaan areas involved swapping the SIMs to test them in the same phone(s), including placing an real call, to check the communication quality.

One of the "Sierra wireless PCMCIA card #750" had been defect at one time, and got repaired / replaced by AIS. Then it worked again, but still showing the latency and the timeouts.

(BTW, the 2 "Sierra wireless PCMCIA card #750" and the "Axen card" are 4 sale)

Some phones do show a better signal strength than others, so a fair comparison should be made bu swapping the SIMs in the same phones.

In short:

Hutch has currently

- 2 phones which you can connect to your PC, and

- 1 USB modem "Airplus", and

- 1 PCMCIA card sierra wireless (which is currently not available though).

I get with EDGE sometimes download peaks in the range you describe (20 kBps, notice the B, not . But in average it is much slower, and downloads often get interrupted by timeouts.

Hutch cdma gives me and many others here a reliable internet connection with download speeds of around 15 kBps continuously. This is 3 times modem speed.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks for the update, good to see some competion opening up. How much do they charge for unlimited? Last time I checked Hutch was more expensive than Dtac.

yes, hutch was about 1400 and DTAC etc. was about 1000. But now (last time I checked) Hutch has promotions for the airplus USB modem and for the phones with datacables for about 1000 / 900 baht.

I'm just about to buy a new aircard to stick in my new notebook. So far I'm afraid of losing my Dtac - I came to love it so much. I used to leave my notebook on for the whole might and download 250MB videos/audiobooks without worrying about disconnecting, and that's in the boonies, outside EDGE.

Now that's good! I can only dream of that (with GPRS/EDGE).

May I ask you where you get that (PM if you don't want to say here, please)? We might see here again a difference in the local support of GPRS/EDGE between your area and mine. I tested several places, but that is not more than a spotcheck, of course.

Also the fastest speed I ever saw was 37kBps. Will Hutch ever match?

I trust Dtac

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You say "outside EDGE", and also "37kBps". That would mean 37kBps in GPRS? if yes, may I assume a typo, and it should be 37 kbps? (b is for bit, and B for Byte. 1 Byte = 8 bit). This would be about 4.5 kBps, which is OK for GPRS.

The current Hutch cdma technology can not do 37 kBps. A realistic value would be 15 - 16 kBps. That would be 3 times faster than a 4.5 kBps GPRS connection. I do not know their future plans, such as a WCDMA installation.

In such a "no timeout" situation with DTAC GPRS you might want to check if and when DTAC will install EDGE at your place, and it is is now or soon, then test first before thinking about switching to Hutch. The DTAC office in the (ex) world trade center can give you that info.

And if you get EDGE with 37 kBps and no timeouts, as you describe above, then forget about Hutch CDMA and stay with DTAC EDGE, and enjoy live, you are so lucky

i cant even get connected using dtac in the afternoon in BKK to nong khai.

so i have to switch to AIS and then it works ok.

so that must tell you something??

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Because AIS is the best one

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's it! I understand now. Time to switch back then

Coverage? AIS better?

When will people stop to tell that nonsense?

There are areas where DTAC is better, and there are areas where AIS is better (I haven't found one yet though).

As I posted here already, I got told in the deepest Isaan, there where all the sick buffalos live, that only AIS would work there. Even in a phone shop selling DTAC stuff.

But the signal strength on my DTAC was 2 ticks better than their AIS. 2 ticks is a lot. I could still use the phone as it is, they needed an antenna on a 10 meter post, and even with that my signal was better.

So much about the coverage area 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Nope, you're wrong. AIS is much better in terms of coverage; AIS service network covers 795 districts throughout Thailand, plus international roaming across in six continents.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thug, what is wrong?

That there are areas where DTAC is better, and there are areas where AIS is better?

That there are areas, even remote ones, where the DTAC signal strength is clearly better, and AIS not working without a 10 m high special antenna?

That many people say that only AIS works "there", and when checking it out DTAC works better "there"?

That's wrong ?

What is also not wrong is that I had to change my beautiful and expensive AIS VIP number, because it did not work, and that in the center of BKK

But you mention the 795 districts of AIS. Very impressive. Isn't it important that it works where you usually are? And if it happens to be DTAC which works fine in the areas where I am, even the remote ones, then 795 districts of AIS coverage is a pretty useless figure for me. It does also not say how many districts DTAC covers, nor how many AIS does not cover. And is it usable there, or do you need a special antenna on a 10 meter post?

International roaming? Well, also that's not an AIS exclusive. But then again, six continents, wow, that sounds so good

The first time I asked Hutch about their cdma Internet they told me that none of their phones can be connected to a computer, not even PDA they were selling for 30k.

Second time I looked they had aircards but their speed was only up to 155kbps and they advertised it as "almost like a modem". Is it any better now?

It always was. A modem has only max 56 kbps.

On Dtac's EDGE I routinely get 150 kbps download speeds, which, I admit, is slower than 250kbps I used to get just a few months earlier but still faster than I get on my school's ADSL.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Plus+, I did write a longer post about this subject very recently here, with lots of details. You might want to look it up.

In short:

Hutch has currently

- 2 phones which you can connect to your PC, and

- 1 USB modem "Airplus", and

- 1 PCMCIA card sierra wireless (which is currently not available though).

I get with EDGE sometimes download peaks in the range you describe (20 kBps, notice the B, not . But in average it is much slower, and downloads often get interrupted by timeouts.

Hutch cdma gives me and many others here a reliable internet connection with download speeds of around 15 kBps continuously. This is 3 times modem speed.

"almost like a modem", that is nonsense, it is 3 times as fast!

EDGE should theoretically be faster, but so far I do not know anybody getting the better speeds here. I tested it also in several places in BKK, and average download speed could never match Hutch's cdma, despite higher peaks with EDGE. And EDGE always shows a much higher latency, which is annoying.

hi'

Having such an easy "click and run" software delivery service for SuSE would help me a lot in my support of some non geek and half geek Linux users ...

hi'

windows is like this, click and run(fast) ... to buy some aspirin

that is good, very good! Francois, you made my day!!!

one would like to improve the install of progs needs to setup rpm with all dependencies satisfied inside the rpm even if some files are already present on the hdd, overwrite, updates, or simply setup as they should be ...

we're all looking for this, make install and update of drivers easier.

Exactly. I can compile an app, I can even compile a kernel, but still I like to install a new app easy and quickly. Now for me tools such as YAST or APT are good enough, especially apt is really nice, and more and more apps are available there, besides the original SuSE stuff. And with sunaptic there is a nice frontent available too.

However when I try to make that available for some non technical ex windows users, they stumble.

There is a need for improvement, and I think Linspire is addressing that. I did just read an Interview with Michael Robertson in the Linux Format magazine, they apparently have already some experience with this Click and Run (I can't help, I'm still laughing about your windows click and run above ). They seem to have done > 5 million installations with this cnr system, so apparently they got it working.

that's a real big goal ... and linspire is not in the right way, emulation is not the rigth way to do with linux, do we need windows when we use Suse?

No no no, they do not emulate windows. They do not even use wine anymore, but go the way of real Linux applications. They do just theme it to look similar to windows.

may be good job for an OS but please don't call it a a Linux distro ... RS will stop to sleep

ps;RS ... Richard Stalman, GNU's Guru

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, I know what you mean. But there might be a misunderstanding, they do go the pure Linux way now. Not too bad. And there 2 highlight apps Lphoto and Lsongs are open source. They do also sponsor the new Mozilla (web page) composer, which is called NVU now. They did hire the lead Mozilla composer developer and pay him just to do that. And again, it is open source. So they do a lot which I think RS will approve

And most of all, they do not want to compete with any Linux distro. Not at all. They do clearly target the windows users, and nothing but the windows users. So they do explicitely not compete with SuSE or redhat or mepis or Ubuntu or whatever. Linspire does complement all that by dressing up Linux as a Windows clone, fully aware that that means playing dumb. The Linux desktops KDE and Gnome are in many ways superior to Windows already today, but they do give away this advantage to make it more dumb, meaning more like windows. All that in order to make the switch easy for the windows users.

They are aiming at Microsoft, and they shoot with a much cheaper OS which many Windows users can today already use and forget about windose. Under the hood is poor Linux power though. I see nothing bad with that.

So is Linspire for me or for you? Surely it is not.

But it is probably what I install for my "grandma", well, actually the next one will be my sister, because I will not be able to give her support, and she just got windose under control somewhat (and she has seen the windose "click and run to buy aspirin" problem already )

With Linspire it will be easy for her, and for me. And then we see how it develops, may be one day I give her SuSE, may be she stays with Linspire, anyway, no more money for Bill

Most big Thai ISPs use proxy servers that can mis-lead you as to where the machine you're trying to trace actually is.

cv

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This would probably explain the varied results. The tracert indicated Bangkok on the 3rd from last hop so ... I guess thats the closest I'm gonna get!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I found many IP addresses from user's in the U.S. to be Australian ones, and many IP addresses from user's in Europe to be netherland ones, despite the fact that they are in Scandinavia or Germany.

Many ISPs work global, and thus you get whatever IP they have from whereever

You can use such info as a hint only, not as reliable data.

Not sure about Dtac, but one thing I like with AIS is when you call customer service (1175) and choose English you actually get to talk with somebody who speaks English!

Same with DTAC. I had a GPRS problem with them once, a billing problem actually, and you could even say it was my fault because I did not see the letters about changes which they send to the Thai address in sick buffolo village, which I used when registering for GPRS with them, because they did not want me without showing my work permit at that time, which I did not carry with me, and I did not see the SMSs they did send me, because I didn't use that card all the time (Hutch cdma internet is so much better...)

Anyway, I got the service people, in English, they did even have to call the manager, because I told them to shove the 4000+ baht "per megabyte downloaded" bill up their axx, which I got for 4 hours of email and updating some files, using up all the standard credit line, and switch me back to unlimited. And in the process they did call me back, as they promised.

Now 4000 baht is a lot for a Thai company to shove anywhere, but they did, they only asked me to wait for the next day, then the unlimited would be active again, and I would not have to pay the 4000+ baht, just the monthly fee, as before.

As said, it was not really their fault. I asked friendly, but insisting, and they did give me what I wanted, all negotiated on the phone with the service people. They did make the promised call back.

I do not think AIS would have made the 4000+ baht bill dissappear. I experienced them as rather inflexible. However DTAC service did shine!

At my girlfiends parents' house there is only AIS signal, movet about 5 clicks to the north and only Dtac is available.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

So the best coverage area does not help, if it is not there where you need it. I even had experienced holes in AIS's network within BKK, in the sukhumvit area, where despite a good signal strength you cannot make a call with AIS. And that exactly in the condo I used to live. Now you have your nice AIS VIP number, and the long awaited call comes in, and you cannot take it And this is a permanent problem there. DTAC / Orange work fine there though

So check where you will be most of the time, and see how your favorite operator works there.

Let me add also Orange as operator. Low low costs, and works fine almost everywhere. Not in some very remote areas may be. In sick buffalo village mentioned earlier, Orange worked only near the school (AIS did not, btw). I did not test Orange with these 10 meter antennas they use there to get AIS, but I assume it would work also. I use Orange without any problems in all BKK and Chonburi area, and down the south, even in Samui. It is simply nonsense to say not to use it because behind the third mountain left of Chiang rai there is no Orange signal, and on Koh Tao, and I never go there anyway.

Also why forgetting Hutch? Cheap, and works really good, at least in and around BKK and down the Eastern seaboard. Their internet access using cdma is lightyears ahead of all the others in speed and reliability, be it AIS and even DTAC's EDGE. What do you say, it does not work behind the third mountain left of Chiang Rai, where you might go one day? Oh well No problem, just pay Toxin's AIS for the myth it works everywhere, it's your money

Great news for Krung Thep  based Linux afficionados!!!

The premier UK Linux magazine- Linux Format has recently been picked up for distribution locally.  If you have any interest in Linux you would do yourself well to visit any branch of the Bookazine shops in Bangkok and checkout this great resource.

With every issue comes either a CD or DVD loaded with an entire Linux distribution and various Linux applications.  I discovered the magazine about 9 months ago and have been very impressed by each issue they've put out since that time.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

OK, I got it.

Hmm, cool, indeed.

Nice article about X, more and more catching up with Tiger. This will give the Linux desktops another push. And windows seem to fall behind quite clearly.

A well written magazine,GoodHeart, thanks for the tip!

Prolly will just stick to AIS because of ... coverage.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Coverage? AIS better?

When will people stop to tell that nonsense?

There are areas where DTAC is better, and there are areas where AIS is better (I haven't found one yet though).

As I posted here already, I got told in the deepest Isaan, there where all the sick buffalos live, that only AIS would work there. Even in a phone shop selling DTAC stuff.

But the signal strength on my DTAC was 2 ticks better than their AIS. 2 ticks is a lot. I could still use the phone as it is, they needed an antenna on a 10 meter post, and even with that my signal was better.

So much about the coverage area

I am going to buy a new laptop when I come home next month and I was thinking about changing to Linux.

I am reasonably comfortable with Windows Office etc and thought that it should be fairly simple to cross over to Linux, HOWEVER looking at this and other threads about Linux makes me realise that I will have to learn a whole new language and work my nuts off just to do something different.

Unless there is some fairly easy way about setting Linux up and transerring all my stuff from Windows I will stay where I am.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Don't worry, it is easy.

You could even continue using your MS Office, by getting crossover.

Or even better switch to OpenOffice. It reads and writes most MS Office flawlessly. Thus transferring your MS office documents will be an easier thing to do. (Except if you make heavy use of macros in MS Office. These macros might not run unchanged in Open office.

You could even start using Open office while still using windows, there is also a windows version of it.

Don't let our discussions intimidate you. We are just discussing about the best way to Rome, and some prefer the easy way, some the pure way, some the high speed train, etc. but all ways are fine. Just not identical. With Linux you have the choice. Some like it green, others brown, then others again blue.

Being able to participate in this forum shows already that you can use also Linux.

As long as you do not have some exotic hardware the switch should be smooth.

A good idea is to start by trying a "Live CD" version of Linux. This let's you see how Linux might feel on your PC, without that you actually have to install it. Just don't judge the speed at that pint, running from CD is obviously slower than running from harddisk.