matt111

Digitalocean had some network problems but it is 99 percent reliable (somedays 100 percent).

Setting up a proxy is very easy, setting up vpn is a bit harder but http proxy will be enough for most people.

No VPN service can offer same level of speed with private vpn/proxy on vps server because it is not shared with hundreds of other people.

If one wants to set up proxy server but need help, after bought your 5$ basic node from Digitalocean (make sure to choose SGP1 node and centos 5.x or 6.x 32 bit os) send me a pm and I can set up rest.

I echo this, setting up a pptp vpn on DO solves many of the issues I face with slow internet. International performance with DO SG from True is very good. DigitalOcean peer with TrueMove in SG * and it seems atleast for now largely uncongested.

* although its one way at the moment - outbound trace will show CAT IG for next few weeks

I suspect True runs its paid transit (green) at near capacity (possibly with some simple QoS bias for IP ranges for their high-end premium/biz broadband packages) , however peering seems fine.

http://www.trueintergateway.com/en/map01.html

Indeed immigration are more diligent than they seem, I wouldnt of been worth a try in my opinion.

I had some significant overstay in thailand, but a new UK passport had just arrived in my possession via HK, not wanting to prejudice future entry or visa I was eager to bury the overstay. I exited at a land border on the old passport, paid the fine, and had the red stamp and overstay notes scribbled in this, I then tried to enter Malaysia on the new passport (incase of being refused entry due to closeness of old passport expiration date), Malaysia immigration noticed and marched me back to Thai immigration where I was quizzed and given a real bollocking and the notes transferred over to the new passport. Perhaps I would of got away with it had I made switched at a later point, but whilst they might look half a sleep anything a foul quickly wakes them up.

What is the cooling off period for Thai life/ppi insurance?

When we purchased a new car on drip in gf name a few months ago via tisco finance, they did the cliche thing of trying to push ppi insurance via SCB, typical terrible value prop, to which i told them no.

A few weeks ago I find out that they called her via telephone and sold her the same crappy policy - from my understanding if shes loses her low paid job (not because she quits, or gets fired), then after a certain period, and presumably under a millions terms and conditions, they pay for 3 months of the car loan, or if she has an accident and can't work (on support of medical assessment) they pay up to 2 months, its seems a stinky policy to pay ~700x12 (seems be a suggestion though that its over 60 months same as car loan but Ive not seen paperwork yet) for coverage that's essentially limited to 9500x2 (possibly 3) for eventualities such as them, and the reality is I pay the car loan anyway.

So simple version, whats the cooling off period to get this cancelled penalty free?

(note: still havent figured out if they dangled a silver bracelet or a few bottles of wine, caused a bit of tension to put it lightly)

Is this IPTV? I thought it was True Online with True Visions cable package? A few channels have English soundtrack.

Ah good point just presumed it was iptv.. We have cable internet so presumably its get split then before it get to the router. We were told 1000baht for the tv box plus the 100baht extra a month - on basic internet only at the moment. If there a few english channels its better than what Ive got now (nothing)

http://trueonline.truecorp.co.th/product-service/product-broadband/entry/1524

Thinking of knowledge package at 799baht/months - are those channels in the english?

The current factory promotion is 0% interest finance over 60 months + 1 year free insurance, or, up to 80K baht discount (that will be the top model though, lower grades will get less).

Sounds like your dealer is giving you promotion #2. As a factory promotion, it costs the dealer nothing to give you this, and indeed any other dealer can offer the same (or better).

I'd be shopping for a better deal - i.e. one where the dealer gives you something more than a gold trinket.

Yes, there is always a commission on finance and insurance sales.

Thanks IMHO,

How does the relationship work with the banks?

The girlfriend paid a 5k reservation fee on a Ford Fiesta based on assurances that she could get minimum finance (i.e. something silly like 20k down) which turns out you need to be a high ranking diplomat to get away with such, no doubt it's going to be an up hill battle to reclaim the 5k. But more interestingly when we pushed Ford to stop the bullshit (i.e. you know the circumstances, you sold a car on finance before, dont play dumb, quote us a 20% deal) they now claim that the bank is very backed up and it could be weeks before them coming to come see us (after multiple missed appointments the week prior for the earlier clearly unattainable deal).

However when we had a discussion with Mazda we had the bank on the phone to us discussing and clarifing, prevetting, available finance minimums etc.. offering to come see us that very day with paperwork. I've delayed signing off on anything as I a bit sick of getting jerked around.

Is it possible to arrange finance with a bank outside of pre-arranged vehicle, qualify and determine rates/limit for HP and then go and arrange with a dealer/brand of choice (obviously they will vet the asset at some point in process), is this possible in Thailand or do we have go through the dealer arranged finance to qualify for the 20%.

Do dealers deliver nationwide or is collect on delivery?

Mazda 2 sport

Base Price: 654000

20% deposit = 130,8000 (thai name, does not qualify for 15%+gurantor deal, but does for the 20%)

Contribution from Mazda dealer: 49,000 (plus some lump of gold for this month only - probably worth < 1k)

Registration fee: 3,000

Some other license fee: 3,500

First payment: 88,300

Then 60 payments of 9897 per month.

Plus 1yr free insurance, plus six other things not to get too excited about, that should be included in any car anyway (petrol cap, boot liner, mats, some sport thing on a sport model, an engine and so forth)

Certain colours in stock for < 1 week delivery

--

What other dealers are offering a contribution to the 20% deposit on cars ? Except for Ford Fiesta

What is the lump of gold deal? Common?

In the UK its common to build commission into the finance, the dealer has a flat rate which they can bump on a 80/20 split with the some lender, so do dealers here get finance commission? If so what are the flat rates (I can work back how much comm they are buildining into the finance from this)? Just trying to determine if the discount is genuine (surplus stock, more demand for trucks) or just recouperated via inflated rates

Just to update on replacement laptop batteries.

Order an internal acer battery, a hipro laptop power supply and two hdmi to dvd wires, from 3 different vendors, on the 5th august from AliExpress (china site), everything arrived between 20-22nd, so a little over two weeks. Payment was easy with BKK Bank visa debit card. I choose china air mail (cheapest), all three were marked as gifts (unrequested but desirable), and no custom chargers. If you dont mind waiting 2-3 weeks this a great option, thanks Dork!

I cant speak for authenticity, they look almost the same with tiny tiny difference in font face used, could just be revisions but for the price I couldnt care. Also ignore any tracking on China mail as its not very reliable.

Looking for a replacement laptop battery for an acer, compatible or "copy" is fine.

Can anyone provide a contact number or email or web address of a reliable vendor (panthip or otherwise) that will ship it

Preferably not one of silly vendors that tries to sell replica battery as official manufacturer originals for the full original retail price, if I can avoid "but is original sir, no copy, original cost more" then all the better...

And it's weird because in my case its faster with the Proxy turned on.

It may be, packet loss is likely to be the reason, weather its caused locally by wifi signals, bad router firmware, annoying family member downloading torrents or just the usual 1-2% observed when you > 50% of what you've subscribed to. when using a proxy (depending on how its setup) the tcp session on the other end is new/clean session (hoping its on the other side of packet loss area), so lets say you're downloading 100mb test from New York with a rtt of ~300ms when you introduce a small percentage of packet loss (at all levels regardless of window scaling) you're going to see crap speeds (pretty much what uncached speedtests are showing) as its scaled back to a fraction of your speed, it will eventually rise again you'll probably find its something crap like a 1/10th of your connection as TCP scaling presumes that the packet loss scales with thoroughput which is not the case with our commodity adsl/docsis residential connections. The best solution is a non-passthrough buffering proxy (probably bad terminology - correct me) just on the outside, i.e. singapore. If you're willing to play it and work with the limitations then that 599 baht connection a month is actually pretty good value. vpn doesnt really solve the problem as the data channel at least on openvpn is dumb (thats not a slur its just not a reliable protocol by design that left to e.g. the tcp sesssion(s) its tunneling). If you can resolve the packet loss affecting tcp on a small latency link ~<70ms things become much smoother, ever wonder why SG speedtests are pretty solid?

FYI, a happy true docsis user on the lowest/cheapest plan, no unsolvable issues that arent documented everywhere, time for some netflix..

A tourist visa is the easiest in this scenario in my opinion. I had 3 back to back without a single question, admittedly this was via Penang* embassy in Malaysia. On or before the 60 day date go to local immigration and pay 1,900 to extend to 90 days, thus so far you've 270 days. Whilst third was practically guaranteed I was told I'd probably get a fourth but after that they may mark it so I wouldnt get a fifth. This was in the last six months.

If you drop your passport in to either Bannana Guesthouse or Jims guestbook (both on chulia street), they'll handle the running about to the embassy for about 300 baht (plus visa fees obviously) if I remember correctly, tourist visas also come back the same day at 3.50pm. Some skeptics dont trust agents but i my experience the two mentioned have all done what they say on the tin, without the hassle of taxis to embassy (like you would have to do in KL) and waiting around for cost of a few beers.

Book your penang flights in advance and its pretty reasonable trip cost wise.

Street food is rarely healthy. A lot of vendor dont have a water supply so washing of vegetables is limited. Hygiene practices and storage is debatable.

In addition practically all street food is loaded with extraordinaory amount of MSG, sugar and sometimes salt. Even those that say mai sai msg cant escape, vendor will use the cheapest fish, soy, oyster, and that red one for dipping sauces all of which contain msg (e621) and/or e211, most of time they dont know (some even have a NO MSG sticker on the trolley). Dont forget the cheapest refined palm oil.

Its basically a chemical dinner.. .

Granted it can be very nice..

Always presumed the girlfriend took food hygiene fairly strongly for a Thai (usual insistence about Thai people very clean, and declining train and bus stop food, and certain market stalls that she found something not to satisifcation) until I start observing her own kitchen practices, some stuff that made me quite uncomfortable.

Most recently a cat had vommitted on the porch chair outside the house, she starts cleaning it with small scrubbing brush from the kitchen, I happened to see and told her to ensure that brush ends up in the bin (for 10b or whatever it costs is better than avoiding any future mix up of keeping for garden or future occurence). A day later I find it back in the kitchen, she claims she washed it, clarification was 'with soap', some profanities leapt from my mouth.

Now before few people jump at me Im not after 5star sterile clean food where we wear gloves 24/7 and wash hands every 22 seconds, I know there a limits to whats practical and that exposure to blah blah is not always a bad thing, kids should play in dirt blah blah, Im pretty reasonable in terms of just the basics. .

I think there some genuine fundamental misunderstandings/gaps-in-knowledge to do with basic food hygiene and contamination that she lacks, if I put it right with day/half-day course in BKK it would be money well spent, can anyone recommend anywhere? where do hotels send their staff? I couldnt find any books in local store but could be looking in strong place, and wouldnt count on self-education via youtube etc..

Im attempting to use ipv6 via he.net's free tunnel broker via their Singapore server, but I suspect my cheap ass router isnt passing Protocol41 as the doc suggest is required.

Anyone had success using ipv6 behind a Huweai 856 adsl router (the free wireless one 3BB give out on their standard ADSL)?

Are any providers handing directly handing out ipv6 addresses if requested with dhcp6? What routers support this/recommended?

FYI

- firefly samui to penang 3x a week starting aug 10th, 2012

- cant book yet, website only shows samui to subang

http://ttgasia.com/article.php?article_id=3947

how do you get to pun pin from samui? presumably these dont stop/start at suratthani then?

Checkout Petcharat Marina, different name now Marina club or something like that, but they serve breakfast, including full english , from quite early on in morning, and for 160 baht it is best Ive had on samui, very professionally presented, lovely view, massive portions, good coffee etc.. Took the girlfriend who had veg breakfast which was also (benefits for taking gf you get 1.25 breakfasts) very good (fruit, youghurt with cereal, omelette etc..)

True 3G is very reliable if you got signal, and certainly more reliable than 3bb in my experience. A bit late now that you've ordered it, but the coffee shop near the university has recently switched to true broadband and it is barely usable on many sites, i end up connecting via my phone instead (strange as you would think true 3g would be similar to true cable)

The minibus back from Penang aint too bad if you leave at 4pm, it takes about 1hr45min to reach border, no queues at border and then another 1hr to hat yai. Typical thai style minibus though - no curtains, stupid subwoofers taking up legroom etc..

Also the bus from Hat Yai to Samui at 10.30am was a minibus last week they said the only run big bus at 8am now, so I opted for bus to Surat Thani (220baht) at 10.30am which dropped me off at sea tran office about 4.20pm, in time to catch 6pm ferry (240baht). All a bit of a ballache.

Also consider getting over night train, means you have to get surat thani station the night before, there is a hotel near the station for a few hundred baht where you can get showered, watch tv, etc.. arrives in butterworth about 2pm - google seat61 thailand.

Awesome, where did you order the Raspberry PI board from in TH?

Id be happy at 52-53baht/GBP,seem to be this about three years ago, once you take the commission, one baht for greedy bwanker A and another for B, plus some dropped change, then its everything a straight forward calcalution of doubles or halves. On a serious note, with all the major events in last 3.5years it has stayed within a relative small window, 46-54, so unless we have some major major major events I dont see anything that will push up back up to these magical 70 figures

Company I consult for now pay our SEO guy 1600 per month sterling, plus link building, plus expenses (the various tools used alone about 150 quid a month), we have metric in place to ensure we getting good value, Im told he works one day a week on our project. I havent seen last months reports but our Google Analytics we can pivot data in various way to estimate our cost per enquiry, its working out well for us and we're happy to progress without bringing in in-house.

Basic SEO from the all-rounders, jack of all trade, specialist at none (the people that remove viruses from computer, but also do web design, manage VPS/WHM setups, do SEO, do CAD, so anything you ask, the goto IT guys in the bars) - granted we need these poeple - simply dont understand that not a small bit of onsite (to be fair most have progressed beyond meta tag now for on-site advice, thank god for that) and some off-site link spamming.

The last company I consulted for the SEO staff costs were >50k per month, plus about 1.2million sterling on PPC, at one point we were told we were biggest UK PPC spender for that sector, and we were not a content aggregation. We did have some industry speaker/SEO-celebs on the team but I guess they werent paid more than 400.

These also take care of some business development, suggesting partners that we can work with, making the initial phone days, bringing in other contacts when needed, serious game they command serious money and they can be worth every penny and more.

Sorry this sounds harsh but I have to defend the reality of the industry.

I dont offer SEO, and I will not refer in the spirit of this board.

As its in your name it will be mostly like to be written off. No they cant nab you at the airport, no it wont prevent you coming back etc.. it might prevent you getting TOT again but I wouldnt even say that is likely. For 2,000 baht though you should just pay it, if a miracle happens and TOT become vigilent then one day they might say no 3G for you which would be a PITA if you live in sticks where they are the only provider. If you want to be ethical about it, return the aircard or anything tangible they have given you.

I stand corrected it was indeed for 2 years , $35 per year, $70 total. Hmm seems much cheaper than I remember it.

With .com it was never 2 years. I remember the old Internic, it was $70 per year per domain, you could register one and then you would get a snail mail remittance slip, the first domain i got I had to get a friend to pay because getting a UK bank to write a US cheque was severely problematic for such small amount, you had 30 days to pay it or the domain would lapse,