kbirkins

Not the answer I was hoping for but I really appreciate the assistance.

Many thanks to everyone who replied...

All-

A question for the immigration gurus.

I am an American with an Extension of Stay (EofS) (retirement) expiring February 10, 2016. I have Airline reservations and leaving via Suvarnabhumi the evening of February 13, 2016- 3 days after the EofS has expired.

I had planned to renew my EofS before leaving Thailand. However, unforeseen circumstances require that I remain in the States far longer (several months) than originally planned. I've concluded it makes more sense to apply for a new O/A Visa (retirement) when my business is concluded and I'm ready to return to Thailand.

I generally like to stay well within the legal requirements. So, my questions:

1) Strictly speaking what do I need to do to be legally in Country for those 3 days?

2) Is there any recognized grace period that allows me to leave without penalty from Immigration?

3) What would you do given these circumstances?

Thanks in advance..

go to ahashare…they have a great book section full of cookbooks with recipes and the like….scroll through the first 5 pages and you will find dozens of books dedicated to smoothie recipes.

I reckon once you know the basics you can come up with your own recipes.

I would never use milk….but yoghurt and coconut water make a very good base for any smoothie.

Interesting. I'm not familiar with Ahashare- could you post a link?

I attached a copy of the front of the brochure. Don't believe its the TOT X Code. The price is certainly right but I need to do some more due diligence...

Anyone know anything or better have any experience with this ISP?

A woman in the lobby of my condo (BKK, Asoke area) was handing out brochures to advertise an ISP named NET X. This ISP is offering 18/1 Mbps service for 450 Baht/month. A 36/6 Mbps package is advertised for 999Baht/month. Aparently, their packages do not require an 1 year contract. The brochure clains that NET X has been in business for 20 years.

I'm resonably happy with my service from TRUE. The prices offered by NET X are signiificantly better than what I'm currently paying (for a lesser pakage) so I'm interested. But, I've never heard of the company.

So, what is the collective wisdom about this alternative?

Cheers

I just have a couple of simple questions.

If I am in a hotel, guest house, restaurant or cafe, and they have one of these exposed routers, can any harm be done to my computer, given I have decent antivirus software?

Also, is there any information that the firmware upgrades or patches for these exposed routers have plugged the hole?

There are MANY issues to worry about when using a SHARED hotel, guest house, restaurant or cafe Internet connection.

When you connect to ANY Internet connection that isn't under your control, and you are worried about privacy and security (as you well should be), then you should always deploy a VPN connection to safeguard both your traversing data and the data connections.

The best practice when on a Public Internet Connection is to use a VPN that encrypts all of your outgoing and incoming sessions.

And use security software that prevents anyone from connecting to your machine while sharing the same LAN (so no shared folders, shared printers, etc,).

Some Security Suite Software will automatically you lock down your system when using Public Internet Connections, while others may need you to enable the mode manually.

For home use, there are online tests you can run to try and detect the 'known' exploits that can affect home routers. But there are ALWAYS unknown exploits, some truly unknown (yet to be discovered) as well as those unknown to many people but kept to private by manufacturer or government agency or spy for hire.

The best defense is to buy a professional security router and run all your home/business connection through it.

A dedicated security router is less likely to have issues that plague low-cost home routers.

And run security suite software on any equipment that connects to the Internet.

This a a rather interesting and infomative thread. What diferentiates a "a presessional security router" from a basic "off-the sheof" router that I could buy at Fortune Town (BKK)?

And, a big thank-you to Richcor for sharing his deep knowledge on these subjects!

Thanks for the information. I tried NameBench again with many of the DNS servers Richcor suggested and attached a partial of the output. Unfortunately, their Wiki is not particularly helpful to the novice and I'm unsure if there is cause for concern. In looking at the output ( again attached), I have the following questions:

1) Again, NameBench suggests a DNS server 0.0.0.0. What is this exactly, if not a server? Also, if you look at the output (bottom, black background) I attached, it appears 0.0.0.0 failed the test- why recomend making it the secondary server??

2) In all the tests there is a notation that www.google.com and www.twitter.com are "hijacked" and "incorrect". Are these a result of the governments censorship efforts or symtomatic of something more sinister and therefore a cause for concern.

Thank-you in advance

Cheers

NameBench.pdf

In changing DNS servers recently, I had a rather unexpected outcome that perhaps one of you can explain. So here are the particulars:

True is my ISP and have have their 13M/1M package. I recently tried a utility program called "Namebench" that is supposed to identify which DNS servers are optimum for your system. In my case, it recomended that I change the DNS servers on my router to 8.8.8.8 (primarly) and 0.0.0.0 (secondary) over the True default settings for improved speed and performance. I made this change and I'm trying to understand the result:

In loading webpages, I do not observe any discernable improvement in speed- in fact, I'd say under normal usage the system is slower. In most cases however, if I connect through my VPN (Witopia, LA node), the webpages will load noticeably faster (??). This seems odd to me as I understood a VPN by using some bandwidth should degrade performance.

This is not a major issue but it is a curiosity and I hope someone can enlighten me.

Cheers

Fang-

I also have a Lenovo purchased in Thailand. Its the Y50 model. Yes, it was preloaded with W8.1 and I received a recovery disk. After some initial problems (detailed on another TV thread) I successfully upgraded to W10.

I live in Bangkok and planning a trip to Japan. While there I will want to rent a car.

Most of the online advisories indicate that an international drivers licence is needed for a rental in Japan. I have valid US and Thai drivers licences and if I were in the States getting the international drivers licence simply requires a trip to a local Automobile Association of America (AAA) office. Does anyone (ex-pat) have experience getting this type of licence? If so, where?

Thanks in advance..

Well, I guess the fourth time is the charm.

My initial try at updating was a fail. The first couple of attempts I could not compllete the download. On the third attempt (using the media creation too)l and selecting update this PC, the set-up seemed to work until the verification screen. It got to 100 % and my laptop froze. Ctrl-Alt-Del had no effect and I was forced to do a hard restart. This resulted in the blue screen and I had to restore from a saved image. This was why I tried the alternate method of downloading to a usb drive.

So, If you download the ISO and choose update other computer later. The tool will ask for your product key (presumably your current W7 or W8.1 key). My key was not accepted by the setup tool. Another fail.

I decided to try the media creation tool again. This time I used my VPN during the download- and success! Not sure if its coincidental or not but using the VPN seemed to make a difference.

So, I'm stuck and hope someone has a solution.

I have a lenovo Y50-70 laptop X64 running windows 8.1. I tried to upgrade to Windows 10 a few days ago without success- in fact using the media creation tool was a complete fail. I decided to try again by downloading and updating with the ISO (via usb).

This morning I started the set-up tool on the usb and seemed to be making progress until set-up asked for me to input my product key. I typed in the key (from my CD case). The key was not accepted and I was invited to type in an alternate key. Tried two more times- fail. <deleted>..

On Control Panel, my cuurent copy of W8.1 shows activated. Checked the product key with a small utility program and it checks out ( same as the key on my CD case).

Other than stay with W8.1, any ideas for moving forward??

Fail here too

I have a new Lenovo Y50-70 laptop, W8.1 X64. Tried to download W10 this morning. Its took ~2hours but was looking good until the verification stage, At verification the screen showed 100 percent and then froze. Cntl-Alt-Del did nothing. Hard restart gave me the blue screen of death...

Very glad I had an image back-up-- thankyou Macrium Reflect (free)

Think I'll wait a few days an see how things shake out elsewhere.

I assume you mean this one, which seems to recommend the "RK Flashtool" to do the update.

http://www.minixforum.com/threads/x7-kitkat-240-june-4th-2015.6185/

I'm not familiar with this tool, but if you look at the comments on this video:

http://chinagadgetsreviews.blogspot.ro/2014/06/how-to-easily-install-rockchip-rockusb.html

The video says for 8.1 x64 although some of them say it can't be done.

This is the tool that corrupted by USB and Network drivers

Chicog,

After firmware 010 (JellyBean 4.2), Minix published a Kitkat version (4.4). The latest iteration from Minix is designated 240.

I'd also think the upgrade process would be the same. Roughly 18+ months ago, I was able to update my X7 to version 010. Other than the firmware version, the only thing that has changed is that my computer is running on W8.1 instead of w8.

As I mentioned before, I'm a fairly casual user. In reviewing the internet threads about this topic however, its clear that many are reporting issues flashing from W8.1 and at least one thread claims its not possible using W8.1 X64.

I was aware and tried the config.ini hack but no joy . The problem is reportedly with X64 computers.

My trip to Fortune Town a bust too.

Thanks to all for playing.

Life goes on....

Thank-you Chicog but the link you copied is for upgrading to the 010 firmware. I already have 010 and wanted to upgrade to the latest Kitkat firmware.

I'm a fairly casual user but have studied the Minix support and forum pages. I may be wrong but my take away was that this upgrade required flashing. I posted a call for help on the Minix X7 forum to no avail and frankly just about to give-up on this PITA.

Cheers

I have an Neo X7 running 010 firmware and would like to update to the latest Kitkat (240) firmware. I have tried the solutions offered on the internet to do it myself but wiithout success. I live in the Asoke area of BKK and hope someone can recommend a capable shop.

My laptop is a Lenovo Yoga X64 running W8.1. The problem has been locating the proper drivers so that the computer will recongnize the X7 and allow flashing new firmware. The procedure on the Minix website does not work for W8.1 computers. Warning to others: I tried other solutions but none worked. One such "solution" on a website (and youtube video) called "China Gadgets" corrupted the USB and network drivers on my laptop. Its taken three full days to restore my laptop.

Anyway, this little adventure has killed my enthusiasm for this project. This is reportedly a trivial update if you have a W7 computer but alas I nor anyone I know near here has one. I'ld like to take this to a shop and have the update done for me. I will probably go to Fortune Town and ask around but if anyone has a more specific recomendation in the lower Sukhumvit area, I'd appreciate your suggestion(s).

Hello, All

I'm in Bangkok (Asoke) and need general sevicing ( inspection, lub. o-rings, etc) for my regulator and BC. The regulator is an older US Divers model. The BC is a ScubaPro.

If you know of a reputable shop(s), I'd appreciate your recomendation.

The seafood Pad Thai at Hoi Tod Chaw-Lae is very tasty. As you're walking from the BTS Station on Thonglo, its roughly 150 m on the left.

Give it a try- you won't be disappointed...

Thank-you all- your replys have been very helpful...

I am wondering is there is any advantage of applying for a new Extension of Stay vs. applying for a Retirement Visa during a planned return trip to the U.S.

I am a retired American. My current Extension of Stay expires on February 10th, 2015. I had planned to apply for another Extension of Stay. I'll be taking a trip to the U.S. in early February for roughly 3 months before returning to Thailand.

Is there any reason for me to apply for the Extention of Stay before leaving Thailand vs. a new Retirement Visa while I'm in the U.S.

Your insights/guidence would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks but still no joy.

Unfortunately, the map appears to be little more than a pretty "ornament" for their website.

I did however, note a link for their dealers in Thailand that I hadn't seen before. Its in Thai and my girlfriend tells me none of the listed dealers are in Bangkok-- go figure....

A few days ago, I wrote to the Lifan, Thailand asking about where to buy their motorcycles in Bangkok. They have unfortunately not replied to my inquiry. Doe anyone know where the the BKK dealership(s) is located. Extra points if you have contact information.

Thanks

I have a question about the linkage (if any) of an "Extension of Stay" and "Re-entry Permit" (multiple).

I am currently in the second year of my O-A (retirement) Visa. I will need to apply for an extension of stay before February 10, 2015. I am planning to take some trips outside of Thailand in the near future and thus need to obtain a multiple re-entry permit. So, this is my question:

I presume a reentry permit (multiple) is good for a period of 1 year. If I obtain a re-entry permit now, does it automatically expire with the current extension of stay? Or, are the validity time-frames independent and I'll need to separately track the expiration dates of my extension of stay and re-entry permit?

Thank-you, Kelly