Veazer

Check the power requirements of the drive you intend to buy. Sadly, USB has 500mW per port specifications, but many if not most drives are greater than that and require 2 or more ports. I've even had some power hungry drives that won't run using 2 cables.

i found a 120gb western digital drive rated at 500mW that works just fine with a single USB cable. If anyone knows of any drives with even lower power requirements please post.

The 500mW limitation of USB is was very poor thinking IMHO. 6-pin Firewire ports are typically rated at 7-8 watts or more.

I suspect that there is more effort to censor Myanmar from opposition forces on the outside than there is from the government. I gave up on trying to find anyone that had anything good to say about Myanmar. I also gave up on finding statements of defense posted by the Myanmar government. The net is flooded with pro democracy horror stories that I believe are probably pure bull. Censorship regarding Myanmar is definitely happening by some big brother force representing the global business mafia mentality.

The most positive word on conditions in Myanmar comes from the pictures posted by pro democracy forces. The alleged victims of oppression appear to be quite happy, well clothed and well fed.I could go to any downtown corner here in Canada and find more convincing photo's of suffering and despair.

When I compare Thai and Burman photos to Canadian realities I feel that both the Thai and Myanmar governments should be commended while our Canadian democratic masters deserve a kick in the butt.

Any more words of wisdom for us?

There's a few incoming sms services that are not free, but other than that everything incoming is typically free. I believe I was charged 40 satang per incoming message from the Yahoo messenging network. I would have never known until a friend pointed it out.

If found this and this, it looks similar to the photocopy they had at the office. Still no contention ratio listed though.

EDIT: BTW, the vpi/vci are different than maxnet for these packages. I don't have access to their modem at the moment so I'm not sure what they are. It took me some time to realize this before I could get the connection up.

As long as you on public accounts you've to accept that the connection is shared, read the fine print of the contract!

Even with leased line the ISP garants the speed between the Subscriber and the ISP's server only! Local speed to other servers than the ISP's will dropping and international will drops more!

But vor VoIP you'll need a down- and upload speed from constant min. 98 kbps! So the speed you getting should be much enough!

Do you realize you actually used an exclamation point for every sentence this time Reimar? I think that might be a record.

I understand that the connection is shared, but on an expensive business connection there should not be frequent periods of 1 second or more of no data transfer. Voip doesn't need a lot of bandwidth, but surely you understand that these 1 second dropouts will make voip undesirable if not unusable for business users. The Thai ISPs don't make any promises for voip on the cheapo home packages, but for this they should be delivering more. But before I say too much, I need to actually test the connection using the VoIP equipment. It's possible that TOT is recognizing the QOS tags and that could change the outcome greatly.

@Dr. Naam - I'm not sure how they got the package, but i did see a xerox copy of the different packages. they're not too cheap. i think they're paying about 6K for the 3072/512. They're all called platinumbiz, diamondbiz, etc. depending on speed. I can get more details if you need, just let me know. I wasn't able to find anything on the net regarding the specifics. I did find one reseller using the same package names though.

@RKASA - Ok, i'll be a little braver and take another look. Didn't some of the network-related reg settings change after XP SP2 though? This program is from 2003....

You might try this application to check the MTUs in the network path. TZ Connection Booster

But if the router is lower than actual wouldn't that just discover the MTU of the router if it's run from the PC? or would I set the router to an artificially high number and then start testing? Not sure...

I've seen TZ Connection Booster before, it's just so freakin' ancient that I could never bring myself to install it considering the registry entries it's about to mess with. If I can achieve the same by specifying increasing ping packet sizes (ping -l xxxx) then I would prefer it, but if this app does more I'll consider it. I was hoping someone might know the numbers outright so I wouldn't need to experiment too much.

Are these international speeds or local? If international, try to see what the local numbers are. The overhead is around 20% ... so 3072-20%= 2457 not far from the 2366 you get.

The 1000-1200 kbs you refer too ... are these international or local?

The highest speeds were from the thaivisa speedtest. I also used http://speedtest.adslthailand.com, but it seemed to be unreliable and paused a lot even when international tests didn't. The international tests were similar to the TV speedtest. I prefer speakeasy.net/speedtest for US link testing.

I didn't see the high numbers till after 6pm, all tests were in the 1000-1500 range during the day. I was ready to install a VoIP setup for them to try, but when I saw those massive dropouts i decided against it. What kind of @!# connection does one need to buy before they can have decent voip?

I am settting up the shared internet connection at a friend's office and it seems a bit slow. I am getting about 2366/420 absolute max on a 3072/512 connection. I thought it should be higher, even with overhead. Currently their modem/router combo is set to 1400/1492 for MTU/MRU. Also, anyone know what the contention ratio for this package is? i am getting full second dropouts of no data and 1000-1200 kbps speeds in the day, seems absurd.

I did search for this info, sorry if I missed something obvious.

TIA!

EDIT: TYPO

Thanks for the help guys.

The bios is up to date, and the only way to do a cmos reset is to open up the case or use the aging and questionable 'killcmos' app. It sounds like the killcmos app tends to kill thinkpads so i'll pass.

The company says the unit is under warranty to i'll send it to IBM rather than keep messing with it. They're probably not going to be happy about me removing the diagnostic partition though...

I'm beginning to think that a persons's response to the word 'crackdown' can be a good indicator of how long they've been here.

Stage 1 - Concerned/interested

Stage 2 - Doubtful

Stage 3 - Amused

Stage 4 - No response whatsoever

Most of the TV crowd seems to be happily settled at stage 3 thankfully.

I'm doing XP installations for a local company's laptops. One of the Thinkpad X40 models froze while going into standby mode and never powered down the drives or fans. I had to force a powerdown (holding power button) and on the following reboot every USB port was dead. I've tried various USB devices, I've tried un-installing all USB Hubs and controllers and letting XP re-install them, nothing works. Device manager doesn't indicate any issues. The ports are still receiving power, i tested this with a friend's usb reading light. The USB ports on the docking stations are all dead as well. Any ideas?

I would break your upload into smaller segments so that any corruption will only require you to re-upload the affected volume. Perhaps split the file in 5-20 meg volumes. Also, I would recommend you use 7-zip compression as it almost always results in a significantly smaller file size, especially for huge datasets. It's much slower, but the time difference will be more than made up for when considering the slow thai connections. Higher compression levels & larger dictionary sizes will decrease the files size even further, but it can use massive amounts of memory. At the highest compression setting, 7-zip will utilize 1.3 GB of memory. I would recommend using the "Solid Archive" option as well for the smallest size, but check your files first because files cannot be added later to solid archives.

7-Zip is free, but i find the interface to be a lot more clumsy than some commercial apps supporting the .7Z format such as PowerArchiver.

I would use a FTP app that supports concurrent connections to maximize bandwidth usage. The free FileZilla would be my choice.

Changing ports is a good idea, i hope that helps.

And now we can all go back to our daily complains about slow internet and poor adsl lines.......

I'll bite... Here's a typical test on my True 1024/512 connection. The progress 'dot' of the speedtest often stops for a few moments which correlates with the VoIP dropouts. The attachments show my speedtests shortly after 6pm. The second is from speakeasy.net/speedtest. Idle connection other than the speedtests.

Perhaps the drive letter assignment has been removed somehow... go to Start -> Run -> "diskmgmt.msc"

When you see a list of all the physical drives, right-click the drive and select "Change Drive Letter and Paths..." Then you can see if the drive has been assigned a letter. If the list is blank, assign the next available letter after your fixed hard drive to it.

If it has a drive letter but still doesn't show in explorer, the OS may be hiding it. Install TweakUI from microsoft and find the section "My Computer" > "Drives" and make sure all letters are checked.

Also, did you by chance recently un-install any cd burning or related software? I have seen this occur with uninstallations of Roxio and another burning packages.

I see what you're saying, but I still believe that using the word 'unlimited' is intentionally misleading and false - not misinterpreted. If a connection is not time limited but is limited to 20GB of data transfer per month, it is a limited connection by definition. It is the prohibitively expensive unshared corporate connections you mentioned that are truly unlimited. Some ISPs even advertise "always-on, unlimited connections!". Should the customer assume the statement is redundant?

Ultimately I fully agree with your statements about bandwidth use and cost, to allow a full time bandwidth hog on your network is not worth the costs they incur. I just believe anyone offering a product or service should describe it in a manner that accurately reflects what the customer can be expected to receive. Then again, that might not work too well in LOS. "Oversold and mismanaged!" in big bold print wouldn't exactly bring herds of new customers.

Let's assume the internet in Thailand is properly managed and that unlimited means unlimited as you explain it.

The average DSLAM has 64 adsl lines, so it must be capable of providing 64Mbps constantly. All 64 subscribers are maxing out their download 24/7.

Each ISP will have hundreds of DSLAMs throughout Thailand, where ever they provide ADSL. Let's pick an ISP with 500 DSLAMs, each has 64 subscribers with a 1024/512 package. Total required bandwidth: 500*64*1024|512 =~ 32Gbps downstream / 16Gbps upstream.

Think about that for a minute. And then look at the total available international bandwidth in Thailand: roughly 21Gbps (June 2007).

So even if the ISP from the example would offer his 32000 customers unlimited, unrestricted, guaranteed upload and download speeds, it would be impossible to actually make it happen.

But I'm not saying that they should give unlimited bandwidth, quite the opposite. Like you did (very precisely I might add), it's easy to point out that this is financially impossible when considering the real cost of a dedicated connections.

I'm trying to make 2 points but evidently I'm not doing it clearly enough:

1) Bandwidth is a limited resource so don't tell your customer his usage is unlimited or later on you'll have to explain that you didn't really mean it. On shared connections, clearly state the monthly bandwidth usage allowed. Nearly every web hosting package available will tell you this information clearly, so why not do the same for internet users?

2) Because bandwidth is a limited resource, use the best available bandwidth management strategies so that effects of bandwidth abusers is as low as possible. Giving all traffic equal priority, or essentially not managing bandwidth, doesn't accomplish this and is not effective use of the bandwidth. Like I've said here many times, this creates a situation where those with ridiculous numbers of concurrent connection get what they want and those who are just trying to make a call or listen to an online station get screwed.

Veazer, I get what you're saying about "unlimited" being misleading,

but ultimately, isn't all advertising?

True... I wonder if this is why my 'stainless steel knife' and 'shatterproof mug' lawsuits are not going well.

@Monty - I'm moving to your neighborhood, that's a fantastic connection.

...Yes, the "unlimited" word can be misleading, if you choose to interpret it in your own way. But hey, you can say that for practically every single product and service out there. Interpret something in the wrong context and presto, false advertising.

I see what you're saying, but I still believe that using the word 'unlimited' is intentionally misleading and false - not misinterpreted. If a connection is not time limited but is limited to 20GB of data transfer per month, it is a limited connection by definition. It is the prohibitively expensive unshared corporate connections you mentioned that are truly unlimited. Some ISPs even advertise "always-on, unlimited connections!". Should the customer assume the statement is redundant?

Ultimately I fully agree with your statements about bandwidth use and cost, to allow a full time bandwidth hog on your network is not worth the costs they incur. I just believe anyone offering a product or service should describe it in a manner that accurately reflects what the customer can be expected to receive. Then again, that might not work too well in LOS. "Oversold and mismanaged!" in big bold print wouldn't exactly bring herds of new customers.

I'm in a strange circumstance in CM where most low bandwidth uses like skype, voip, etc. work very poorly but torrents work well. They tell me that voice service is not guaranteed for home service, a ridiculous policy for something that uses 80kbps at the absolute most, usually a fraction of that.

So you're also a "victim" of that "downloaders"?! Because if the Torrent's works fine at CM means that alot will use the foreent downloading! But on cost of whom?

No, I'm a victim of incompetent network administrators who don't know how to properly implement bandwidth management. If the traffic of some 100GB/mo BitTorrent bandwidth hog is the same priority as my low-bandwidth VoIP service, I blame the ISP. In my experience, Thai ISPs often give equal priority to each connection without regard to how many connection are already established and other factors. This is why the "divide and conquer" technique of 50 part downloads and BitTorrent can render other users connections less usable.

what about the people whose computers are a hive of <deleted> ?

how much bandwidth is used by zombied pcs that are part of a botnet ?

This is a very valid point that seems to be overlooked. Despite the problems they cause, at least a torrent user (in theory) is getting and giving something wanted by themselves and others (legal issues aside). A virus ridden computer using bandwidth to pump spam mail in our inboxes is not desirable to anyone except the spammer.

They were given a warning and a chance to upgrade so what's the issue? Bandwidth is not a finite resource, why should everyone else have to subsidize the heavy downloaders when they refuse to upgrade to a suitable package?

I generally agree, but I don't care for the idea that someone can advertise something as unlimited when it isn't. If there's a limit, make it easily known and don't mislabel the service.

The same thing has occurred with some voip providers. They would advertise unlimited calling packages and then add high surcharges to users who used over 2000 minutes/mo etc. The info was in the fine print of the legal agreement, but imho I believe it's fundamentally wrong to intentionally mis-represent your service as something that it isn't.

I'm in a strange circumstance in CM where most low bandwidth uses like skype, voip, etc. work very poorly but torrents work well. They tell me that voice service is not guaranteed for home service, a ridiculous policy for something that uses 80kbps at the absolute most, usually a fraction of that.

Reimar is incorrect, lots of external drives can use spin down / power management. It seems to depend on the PC and chipset (& firmware) of the drive enclosure. I just upgraded the firmware on two external cases and both now auto-sleep without any additional software. They seem to follow the XP power management spin down setting as best as I can tell. They also spindown during standby/hibernation and auto spin-up when resumed. It slows down the resume a little because it will not 'unfreeze' windows until all drives are at full speed, but i understand the need for this behavior. BTW, the same drives will not spindown when connected to my friend's older Thinkpad X40 so this is why i said it seems to depend on the PC as well.

Even no-name cases can often be updated if you're able to find the chipset maker and model. This would really be the ideal solution for you if you can get it to work, the drives would only be running when needed and a short duration after, but they'll always be available to windows.

try the following:

menu tools and then customize...

..then scroll down to 'Menu Bar' and click 'Reset'.

just open a gmail account, and use their smtp server. should be no problem

It works well, but some email clients will show 'From '[email protected]' on behalf of '[email protected]'. Gmail is just playing by the rules and showing that the email was sent using their own smtp servers.

If he need loads of space he might try xoomwebs.com. They offer 25 GB of free hosting, ad-free. I'm testing them now.

garro,

I uploaded the Google Video Player to the Download Section if you still ned them!

That's not the problem. The problem is that Google Video is no longer giving the option to download the file to the local pc in .gvi format. Now the dropdown only shows iPod/PSP format (mp4)..

netfirms.com is decent, just a banner ad at the top of your pages.

http://www.netfirms.com/web-hosting/web-hosting-basic/

You can find others here: http://www.free-webhosts.com

For some reason I am not being offered the option to download to my computer when I search google video today. Only offered download to video ipod/sony psp.

Any ideas?

I'm seeing this problem as well, there is no longer the option to download the .gvi version of the videos (renamed .avi file )

Try Wordpress instead, it's much more user friendly and easy to get up and running fast.

http://www.wordpress.org/

A potential problem with using wordpress is that search engines might reduce his search ranking unless the site is updated frequently, like a good blog should be. Search engines seem to be more 'tolerant' of other CMS systems like Joomla, Drupal, etc that are not focused on blogging. More on that here.

I do agree that a cms system would be a wiser choice, for many reasons.

Edit: changed google to search engines...