Silurian

I need to get myself over to HomePro. I was there last week and forgot to look for the window film. I'm surprise that more people don't put this film on their windows. It seems like a good way to block at least some of the heat from the sun. Guess people are more concerned with air conditioning and window bars.

I contacted True since I am experiencing 50K to 90K download speeds during the evening to the US. Of course they did the usual of testing the line. Then they insisted to send out a technician to the house. I know it isn't an issue with the line in the house since I get 2M to adslthailand.com. When the technician came out, I explained the issue to him. He called the office and then explained to me that True only guarantees bandwidth within their network. He then stated that the reason it is slow is due to CAT limiting the bandwidth out from True and there is nothing that True can do about it. He did state I could purchase a leased line for 30,000 baht/month. That's not going to happen.

I did find that my company has a local VPN pop for me to use but for some reason I get between 160ms to 220ms ping time from my house in Bangkok to that VPN gateway which I believe is in Bangkok. I have no idea how this traffic is getting routed around. The tracert shows at least 15 hops from my house to a point where it seems to be blocked. At least it seems better to go across the VPN for now until the True/CAT interchange gets better.

-Sil

Well, I think you are right about it being True's fault. I'm only getting 50K to 90K testing outside of Thailand with or without using the VPN. I was confused before since I am using a proxy server inside of Thailand which makes it appear the internet to the US is fast. But when I use the VPN, it bypasses that proxy so my speed drops drastically. It appears that True (or someone) is limiting my bandwidth outside of Thailand.

You had the same problem where a normal connection was fine but the VPN was slow? I have a hard time believing it is an issue with True since I would think this uses the same connection but I could be wrong. I've got a few other tests to try yet and then I will contact True to see if they can help. Thanks for your response!

I'm using True ADSL and I get really good download speeds when I connect directly from my laptop, around 2Mbps. When I use my company's VPN, the download speeds drop drastically to 70Kbps. I've looked around the WEB but so far have not come up with a solution. I do use a Belkin ADSL wireless router to connect. I think it might have something to do with MTU size or how the Belkin handles the VPN, but I am not sure. Tomorrow, I'm going to go over to a friend's house that uses a Linksys router to test if the VPN connections does the same thing there. Also, the upload speeds appear unaffected by the VPN, it just affects the download speeds.

I have used this same laptop in the US with a Netgear router and cable modem, so I know it works fine there using the VPN. Is there something with ASDL and VPNs?

Anyone have any ideas?

I'm looking for a place to buy window film for my townhome in Bangkok. I think it would help reduce the heat from the incoming sun and create a little more privacy. Has anyone added window film to their windows?

I use ThaiSoftware Dictionary from ThaiSoftware. If you Google thaisoftware, you will find it. I bought mine from a bookstore located near Lotus but I would think you should be able to find it in any bookstore.

The only issue I have had is that my old laptop died and they won't send me a new installation key for my replacement laptop. I've written them twice and never heard back. I find it quite rude that they don't even reply to my email. I need to go get a new copy I guess.

Thanks to the both of you. I went to Central and purchased a Reach 1.9Ghz phone.

Does anyone know of a good place to find a 900Mhz or 5.8Mhz cordless phone in Bangkok? I don't want a 2.4Ghz phone since my home wireless network and the phone conflict. I have tried several of the 2.4Ghz phones and they all conflicted with the wireless network especially the Panasonic brands. I've seen one 900Mhz phone at Lotus but it was really basic. The Office store above HomePro had 1.9Ghz phones that they could order. I have not seen the 5.8Ghz phones in Bangkok. While at Pantip, I didn't see any stores that were selling phones but I didn't go to every store. The 46/49 Mhz phones are also out of consideration since they are analog and anyone can pick up your conversation plus their distance is fairly limited.

Thanks!

-Sil