croftrobin

In our household we have a number of phones - Pre Pay and Post Paid.

I was finding that with my own pre pay DTAC (HAPPY) I had a few thousand baht in their system but never very long to use it.

After a failed ATM top up yesterday I spoke to a lovely girl at their call centre who sorted out the ATM payment refund for me, and also (when I explained why I had been trying to pay them 1500 baht instead of the (unbeknown to me) 800 baht ATM top up limit!) told me that you can exchange your credit with them for days at a rate of only 4 baht per day.

So if like me you have about 3.5k in your dtac credit just call them and they will adjust the expiry date.

Mine has now been adjusted to sept 06 and I'm happy with that.

Never buy small value top up cards (50 - 300 baht) - either with AIS or DTAC - you are throwing your money away - use the ATM top up or go into a DTAC / AIS Shop and tell them what you want.

Does anyone know of a good builder who can build a swimming pool for me in Korat as I would like to have one in my home and I have asked all of the Pool builders that advertise but they are in either Pataya, Phoket of Hua HIn and say it is too far to come.

I would appreciate it very much if anyone has had a pool built in Korat and if they have any pics it would be nice to look at and how much it cost to build and how long they took.

Look forward to your replies.

Please can you give some more details of the pool required - eg size? - salt system? covered? etc.

Transport (Fuel) costs have doubled in about 14 months so many co's will want to know a few more details before they contact or visit you.

PM me with more details please.

Cheers

Any word on this?

I have one (not a physical card) - I have Internet banking with kasikorn - I just clicked a link in it about a year ago and applied for the eweb card - I chose an nominal amount of 20k - All fine

I have it listed in my accounts list online - it has a 16 digit number - but no pin or 3 digit code etc

( and I dont know if it is visa/amex/mcard etc) so it as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike...

I have no idea how to use it!

Lampard10

Can you confirm that you/your wife or the TFC hold a license to operate this taxi service? - As well as the required insurance?

Similarly for Car rental - which strangely disappeared off your own website after the last smash? - Are renters covered by your insurance? If so what type of cover?

I have picked up on an awful lot of negative local gossip regarding this matter recently and providing the answer to this information in the public forum will stop the <deleted> talk and the jealous.

Cheers

I am a happy IPStar customer. I have had my system now for 3 years - and it gets cheaper and cheaper every year!

My wife runs a business and an internet shop in the village and this also provides me with my internet access at home, which I have through a wireless router and a few repeaters on my property.

I use Skype and other VOIP packages to telephone mobiles and fixed line phones all over the world and I regularly download UK TV shows on Torrent’s.

To put things in perspective – I now only pay 7490 baht per month for an unlimited 1024/256 connection per month, last year I paid 10500 baht for a 256/64 unlimited connection. And before that my bills were 15k or so per month.

A satellite internet connection (2 way) in the UK will cost you:

@ 2000UK pounds (138,000 Baht) one off equipment fee ( NON REFUNDABLE)

& @ 1000 UK pounds per month (69,000 Baht) for the same connection I have now in Thailand) – (1024/256) (BUT NOT UNLIMITED)

I know as I have friends in the Scottish Highlands who use this for dealing. (Stock market not YaaBaa!)

When my system was installed I was provided with a UPS for the IPStar Terminal free (don’t know if that is still the case)

BUT if you do not use UPS’s for you PC’s and other equipment in Thailand (They only cost 2.5k for a reasonable one) then you obviously do not value your equipment which is plugged into the mains and must enjoy re-inputting data!

I live in the sticks (as some people call it) (Paradise to me!) and I am happy I do not have to make an international GSM call to my ISP in the UK @9.6k - as I happily did in 96/97/98 to collect mail on my laptop (And it only cost me £5 (340baht) per minute then!!!)

We must look at things in perspective; certainly internet access is not as reliable as it is in Europe.

ALL INTERNET CONNECTION METHODS ARE PROBLEMATIC IN THAILAND!

Look at the number of grumbles about True, JNET etc about ADSL connections in this forum.

Dial up access on land lines is just a joke as there is so much noise on the lines.

GPRS works (for me as a back-up or when travelling) but again network problems are regularly experienced!

What we should be saying is “good, month on month the external internet connectivity is growing and the price of connectivity is coming down”.

Do not come to Thailand and expect the same connection speeds you had when you worked/lived at home.

My experience with IPStar is that some people have been unlucky with a particular installer in certain regions.

However like all Service Industries, throughout the world, after a number of complaints by users, this is acted upon.

I am aware that CSLoxinfo have not renewed contracts for a number of installers/engineers as they were unhappy with the work carried out.

New contracts have been assigned in these areas and it’s just a matter of time before the cowboys are ousted.

If you are an IPStar customer then the last thing to remember is that the connection fault 50% of the time is completely out of the ISP’s hands as the problem is with the Satellite(s) Gateway on Thaicom2/3 or the new IPStar - so when you phone them with a problem 50% of the time they are chasing Shinsat up to fix the problem – so that’s why you are told to switch your terminal off for a period of time! (They are just buying time)

I am a happy IPStar customer. I have had my system now for 3 years - and it gets cheaper and cheaper every year!

My wife runs a business and an internet shop in the village and this also provides me with my internet access at home, which I have through a wireless router and a few repeaters on my property.

I use Skype and other VOIP packages to telephone mobiles and fixed line phones all over the world and I regularly download UK TV shows on Torrent’s.

To put things in perspective – I now only pay 7490 baht per month for an unlimited 1024/256 connection per month, last year I paid 10500 baht for a 256/64 unlimited connection. And before that my bills were 15k or so per month.

A satellite internet connection (2 way) in the UK will cost you:

@ 2000UK pounds (138,000 Baht) one off equipment fee ( NON REFUNDABLE)

& @ 1000 UK pounds per month (69,000 Baht) for the same connection I have now in Thailand) – (1024/256) (BUT NOT UNLIMITED)

I know as I have friends in the Highlands who use this for dealing. (Stock market not YaaBaa!)

When my system was installed I was provided with a UPS for the IPStar Terminal free (don’t know if that is still the case)

BUT if you do not use UPS’s for you PC’s and other equipment in Thailand (They only cost 2.5k for a reasonable one) then you obviously do not value your equipment which is plugged into the mains and must enjoy re-inputting data!

I live in the sticks (as some people call it) (Paradise to me!) and I am happy I do not have to make an international GSM call to my ISP in the UK @9.6k - as I happily did in 96/97/98 to collect mail on my laptop (And it only cost me £5 (340baht) per minute then!!!)

We must look at things in perspective; certainly internet access is not as reliable as it is in Europe.

ALL INTERNET CONNECTION METHODS ARE PROBLEMATIC IN THAILAND!

Look at the number of grumbles about True, JNET etc about ADSL connections in this forum.

Dial up access on land lines is just a joke as there is so much noise on the lines.

GPRS works (for me as a back-up or when travelling) but again network problems are regularly experienced!

What we should be saying is “good, month on month the external internet connectivity is growing and the price of connectivity is coming down”.

Do not come to Thailand and expect the same connection speeds you had when you worked/lived at home.

My experience with IPStar is that some people have been unlucky with a particular installer in certain regions.

However like all Service Industries, throughout the world, after a number of complaints by users, this is acted upon.

I am aware that CSLoxinfo have not renewed contracts for a number of installers/engineers as they were unhappy with the work carried out.

New contracts have been assigned in these areas and it’s just a matter of time before the cowboys are ousted.

If you are an IPStar customer then the last thing to remember is that the connection fault 50% of the time is completely out of the ISP’s hands as the problem is with the Satellite(s) Gateway on Thaicom2/3 or the new IPStar - so when you phone them with a problem 50% of the time they are chasing Shinsat up to fix the problem – so that’s why you are told to switch your terminal off for a period of time! (They are just buying time)

The poster outside Hua Hin with 30 years experience!

Your ping response times are what you will get 99% of the time on satellite comms.

In your 30 years have you never worked offshore using Satt Comms? Why not install a cheap solar powered cooling fan in the housing of your terminal?) Just bastardise 4 solar garden lights – connect them up and add a fan – free cooling !

The UBC equipment is of no use and very little value.

The Thai channels 3/5/7/9/11/ITV + others are all free from Thaicom 2&3 are on the C band.

Thail Outlook TV (The best English Thailand news channel) is to be found on NSS6 (Ku Band)

If you want free BBC News 24 and ABC it is available from Panamsat 8 or Panamsat 2 (also on the C band)

What you require is a moveable dish with either just a C band LNB or with an additional KU band LNB to take advantage of other free KU band Signals. Eg Euronews (which is in 7 different languages) + Thai Outlook TV

JSAT are expensive (they do provide English support however) and only really ideal for BKK or Pattaya users.

They will sell their equipment to you outside the areas but will not support you.

One option is to have a local PSI Sat sytem installed. - or a far better option- buy the hardware you desire (Not PSI Branded) and have a local installer set it up but tell them that the sytem must go down as low as PAS8 or even better PAS2 on the East Side.

Look at http://www.satthai.tv/INDEX_SAT.ASP - You will be able to put together a system the same as JSat for around 22k. - as opposed to @ 38k

You do not say where you live so the above also relates to anyone who lives outside BKK or Pattaya

If you have any questions just pm me

My ADSL is down and I need to upload some files, so I went to and internet

cafe here, which does high speed broadband.

I put the LAN lead in and it said I was connected but when I went to load a web

page it kept bringing my dial up adsl connection box for home. I could not view anything.

Is there a procedure for using this kind of network. I have never used LAN before

so sorry for the dumb question. IF I need to set anything up, can you explain what I have to

do.

Thanks

Connect your pc to the LAN and start up

Ok- open Internet Explorer - go to Tools - Internet options

Then from the window that opens up select the Menu Tab "Connections"

About half way down that window will be some check boxes, put a check in the option "Dial whenever a network connection is not present" then click Apply and OK.

Close Internet Explorer and then open it again. Type in an address and you will find that the page will open.

Just seen this !!

If you suffer from noisy lines and can only get a connection if you are lucky !(after a long modem negotiation time) of just over 33.6 k then it is best to just peg your modem to 33.6k and not try to connect at higher speeds. This will normally ensure that you have a modem negotiation time of just a few seconds and then you will be connected.

I used to live in out in the wilds in Scotland and suffered from old noisy lines - which were especially bad in the rain (@ 250 days in the year!) These were in the days when I dialled long distance to Birmingham for an access point and my phone bill for internet access was > 250 uk pounds per month! ( And it really was not all that long ago either! 1993!)

I have tried this here in thailand for people with dial up connections and the same is true. Almost 100% first time connect - so no problems with huge bills for failed connects, you just have to accept that you can not get a faster connection.

You can add an extra initiaslisation string to your modems dial command and this will do this.

As each modems chipset is different then the change to the command sting is slightly different.

Here is a link to a page with info regarding limiting your maximum connection speed :

http://www.modemsite.com/56k/x2-linklimit.asp

If you are really stuck pm me with your make of modem and I'll try to help

Give a few more details please - are you looking to school, non Thai Children (English speaking) in a Thai school - that will teach them Thai or the other way round?

I would think most Schools in Surin are already bi-lingual (Khmer & Thai) and some will also be very proficient in Lao !

Drive over to Surin - you can either buy at Makro or Big C.

I bought one from Big C at Xmas but Makro may be marginally cheaper - they were out of stock the day I was there with the folding!.

Both stores had stock earlier this week.

I paid about 3k + more for decent clip on net, bats & balls

I have not seen them in Buriram town.

George

If you want to use any torrent software then get the Fixed IP - as you will find that with the NAT connection you will be listed as unconnectable on the torrent sites - as you will be going through yet another layer of CSLX 's routers after the proxy

VOIP software will also perform better. As I have found using both Skype and VOIP Cheap - where I have a UK telephone number that is on the PC.

I changed to Fixed - they do it in about 8 hours after my phone call - they also screwed up for a fortnight and I had download speeds of around 2.3Mbps! I download the 5GB of an 8 episode UK TV series overnight! Unfortunatley they realised their mistake and I'm back to my 1 Mbps connection again.

But it really depends upon what you are using the net for in your own capacity.

PS they still have not added the 200 baht extra to my invoices!! - yet...

You dont pay 30 baht per connection !

Follow these instructions:

Jusat call *138 and press 1 for English. Select your GPRS package and then you will be talked through the set up.

Just make sure you have sufficient credit in your phone for them to deduct the monthly fee (according to which package you select)

You can upgrade the package by calling them but it takes about 12 - 24 hours for the upgrade to go through

Agent - for mail and news - been using it since it launched in 1995.

Gmail for a gmail account

and Outlook for a commercial account

You'd be correct, for a regular and fresh source a trip to Korat or Saraburi would be required.

There are a few small places that will have a certain small supply but they will tend to be " almost past best", "past best" or "well past best" !

When you live up here I think nothing of driving a round trip of 110 kms for 5 litre plastic bottles of milk - which I subsequently freeze for use over the next couple of weeks. I also do the same with salami, pepperoni, cheese, lamb, butter etc. As long as you use the stuff up (and use it in date order so it does not lie in the freezer for months then you have no worries.)

* NOTE* If you want to freeze milk - do not buy low fat milk to freeze - just buy regular milk - the higher the fat content the better it freezes.

This may be obvious advice, but a good investment is a cold box (polystyrene box) to store your items in when travelling (as you never know when that coffee - ah ok a beer - leads to a few hours of stuff lying in the car warming up! )

If you use Makro in Korat (or Surin) they stock the polystyrene boxes so you can pack the items there, the boxes are only 30 - 150 baht depending upon volume.

So I guess the best advice is buy a freezer and most importantly! use it for items that you can not get in your immediate locality.

Agree fully - go with HP for volume printing and reliability.

A small laser printer on each desk or couple of desks is a false economy. Low initial costs but medium to high costs on consumables and repairs in the medium to long term.

Get a good high volume HP network printer and perhaps a cheaper colour laser (they are only around 17k Baht now) shared for the designated few and thats your best option.

Additionally, its good for your workers to take a rest every so often, a short enforced walk to the printer, gets their eyes off the screen, allows them to stretch, etc. and should increase their productivity!

If your budget will not stretch to HP then consider the networked Ricoh or Oki range - also very reliable, cheaper consumables than HP and give very good duty cycles.

Never, ever buy an Epson Laser Printer - they are sh*te - they do make the best inkjets and should stick to that market!

Read the spec carefully before buying, especially about the duty cycle.

Cheap printers are just that.

They are only designed to handle a few thousand pages, then they die.

Heavy duty items cost money.

HP are the masters in this area.

Why not check for yourself or get the comms crew to check? - your rig is bound to have a few sat receivers on board - take out a dish (for KU band) if you have not got a spare one on board. First check to see if you can pick up a KU signal from Thaicom 2/3 @ 78.5°E - if you can, so far so good.

A quick test - can you receive the UBC signal on the rig ? - if yes then I would say you are 85% certain of using IPstar.

If so then check the signal strength on the IPstar transponders - if you get a signal of > 65% then just get the kit from IPStar and take it offshore. The KU signal is affected by rain, much more so than a C band signal, but in general unless it is very heavy rain in my 2.5 years experience of using the service its not a problem. If it is very heavy rain, then where I am the power tends to go off anyway so the PC's dont work! The larger the diameter of the dish, the better the signal you will receive and the less problem you will have with rain-fade.

The new IPStar satellite (@ 120°E) is not yet fully operational so until its confirmed 100% , they (IPSTAR) can not tell you anything, as they do not even know themselves! But I would bet a few quid that the signal from that bird will be stronger than from current sats.

Satellite footprints are not hard and fast - we watch Dream TV from the Phillipines with good signal strengths up here on cheap mesh dishes and the footprint diagrams certainly do not show us as having coverage!

Hi I work on an Offshore oil installation located about 140Km east of Ko Samui. From the IPStar web site I see that we are a little way out of the footprint of the nearest Satalight spot beam.

I have E mailed providers, IPStar and Shin sat repeatedly on this topic without any replies.

I have spoken on the phone and it seems that with sufficient demand (there are a few installations out here) they may be able to broaden the beam so we are in the area.

Having said that the person I spoke to cant be contacted now and didnt E mail me with any info as promised.

Anyone out there with technical knowledge on weather we are likely to be able to get the signal and recive decent internet access.

Our current system is so slow it can take an hour to get a print out of a bank statment and we have loads of folk who want to use it on board.

Any help much appreciated.

BR

Dyslexic Dave

When you connect to your Barricade via the web page try to change the Encoding of the page - In Internet Explorer - View Encoding - Try to change this to Western Europe.

If that does not work you can try changing your language in XP and try entering the details in another language.

You can clone the MAC address of your PC with all the Barricade products

The letter that everyone (existing customers) received dated 5th September is not valid as IPstar changed the conditions for CSLoxinfo. - There is no gold 1 & 2 and no Platinum 1& 2 packages!

So you need to phone them up and tell them what package you want (from the new offerings - Express 1 - 4.

Alos the change over is not going to be made until the middle of the month, so if you are going for a more expensive package (and it does not change by the end of the month) make sure you tell them that you will only pay for Express 1!

Ready for that 1,500 Baht Broadband experience but, there are no phone lines where you reside?  GPSR doe not seem to cut it? GSM too expensive?  Well here is your solution if you take advantage of the offer before 30 November 2005.

ipStar at 1,500 baht per month

Want to know more than take a look at http://www.quote-host.com/ipstarinfo.html where I have posted the most recent communication with ipStar Sales staff.  I get nothing for putitng out the word to everyone, so this is not an ad.

I mean that likely on the low price packages, XXX number of users will be sharing the available bandwidth.

On higher priced packages X number of users will share the bandwidth.

So although the maximum speed will be 256 or 512 in practice you will not get this at busy times.

Another open network for the wardrivers to discover while eating their carry out somtam!

If you wake up in the morning and there are chalk marks on your building then do follow the advice in the previous post asap!

If not then follow the advice asap anyway before they chalk your building as a free wireless internet access point!

Ok

A bit more info prised out from the annals of the Co. today

The letter we are all getting (as current subscribers) is a bit ambiguous as the Gold 2 package is the same speed ul/dl as Platinum 2 package.

However after speaking to CS Loxinfo this afternoon they confirmed that the difference was in available bandwidth

(i.e. contention ratios, which, have always existed on IPStar Packages anyway)

So the bottom line is if you want a better regular service (for business) with lower contention ratios then pay the 6500+VAT. For the platinum 2 package.

They are going to introduce 1000 – 1500 per month baht packages but later in the year. BUT ONLY FOR NEW SUBCRIBERS! . (And the ratios on this will suck – I Bet!)

You will be getting a visit from the engineer in October -

(In a queue system (How does that work here  $$$) (If you have said D(F) uck to them on the phone too many times in the past, then join the Khymer line!)

To realign the dish. At present it is pointing East (To Thaicom 2/3 @78.5°E) – It will have to turn 180° (on its mount) to point to 120° E

So: if you have it currently tucked under the eaves of your roof pointing East, you’d better decide upon a new position for it! (And no doubt when they come to move it have the cash ready for the extra cable! As they are not going to do this for over 1200 punters for free, they will be looking to recoup costs on any trivial matter (eg, extra cable)

More details as and when I can gleem them!

For the cabled sections you will require repeaters.

Are there points in the 300m length where there are dry and electricity serviced points? Eg other buidlings? If so are they your buildings? Is it your land?

If not you will have to run power to repeaters (not in the same conduit) and have them sited where they will work even in the rain! etc etc.

You must give more info before any co. will give you a reply let alone a visit!

Are you sure this is legal?

Wireless inside a building is fine, but once you start adding external antennae

you will need approval from the

Post And Telegraph Department

Phaholyothin Rd.,

Phayathai, Bangkok.10400 Thailand

Tel. (662)271-0151-60.

This is a previsously authorized network that has fallen into disarray. The cable part is being added and that does not have any requirements other than permission to mount on powerline poles, which we will get locally for two poles, with the rest ofth polesd resting on and being part of private property.

I dont know about AIS or Orange but I have fax & data services with DTAC.

However this is on a contract phone line.

Using the prepaid system you can not send a fax.

Works fine for me.

For fax to mail I use Demon Internet in the UK- as I have an account with them. They allocate me a dedicated UK Fax telephone number and then the incoming faxes are sent to me my email account as attachments . (I've had this fax service for over 7 years now)

Does anybody have experience using mobile fax in LOS, eg Nokia 9300? Does it work with Orange or would DTAC or AIS be better (besides the better coverage upcountry)?

The alternative would be fax to mail, best with notification of incoming faxes by sms. Any experiences? Can you recommend any fax-to-mail service?

Thanks for any help!