grrr

We sure felt it here in Chiang Rai, but no apparent damage.

It's always good to find out it's not just me. I've noticed degraded connectivity for the last few days, and tonight, many sites give me:

• Safari: Safari can’t open the page “http://whatever” because the server unexpectedly dropped the connection. This sometimes occurs when the server is busy. Wait for a few minutes, and then try again.
  
• Chrome: The webpage at http://whatever might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address. Error 101 (net::ERR_CONNECTION_RESET): Unknown error.
  
• Firefox: The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.
  

Some sites work, some don't. All work via VPN.

I live in Chiang Rai, and I develop, host and manage lots of websites. Getting your own, private ADSL connection at a hotel or guesthouse would not be possible, but probably easy with a rental apartment or house.

Though I've missed it for the last 5 years thanks to travel, the haze/smoke season is truly evil, and it's a wonderful time to be elsewhere.

Obviously cheap fruit and vegetables are available everywhere (it's Thailand!), though finding organic and/or safe® pesticide treated produce is considerably more challenging...but possible. We buy organic lettuce from Kawporn Hydroponics in Mae Chan, whatever is in season from home farmers (who don't spray poisons) from our local market, and Royal Project produce from Makro.

I think there is yoga in the city, and endless hiking and biking outside the city.

I'm a web developer, with clients primarily in the US.

Friends who actually earn money in Thailand are few and far between, though I know a restaurant owner, a few teachers, and a guy who bought land/built houses and rents them (in Chiang Mai).

My wife's brother owns an aircon service shop. It's located at saam yak Fang Min which is the second light after the bridge heading north out of Chiang Rai city. The shop is on the left, right after the light (next to the parking lot for the morning market). We'll tell them if a farang driving an Isuzu shows up to give him a fair price...!

In case anyone else is having the Apple/iTunes access problem I've been having, it can be fixed by changing your router or computer's DNS servers to 3BB's servers. Using Google DNS, OpenDNS, etc. work fine for everything else, but broke access to Apple for me.

For the last 3 or 4 days I have not been able to access most Apple sites, including the iTunes store (via iTunes and iPod Touch). Sites like discussions.apple.com either time out and never load, or partially load VERY slowly. When I switch on a VPN, everything works as expected, which tell me my internet connection is fine, Apple/iTunes is fine, and 3BB probably messed up some http/web filtering rules.

Well, just think about it.

A persons computer, mobile phone or site communication is down and they can`t function.

What a joke.

You may find it shocking, but some of us actually use these new-fangled computer things for business.

I've had work done on my 1990 XLR250 at ST, and they are the most professional shop I've dealt with in both Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai for XRs and XLRs. The GT Rider website has their contact information.

Have you checked this?

If available anywhere, Rimping Supermarket, Chiang Mai would be your best bet.

Thanks everyone for the responses, it sounds like it's worth the trip for sure. Thoed Thai also sounds good, thanks for the tip.

We have some guests arriving from the US next month who have seen a lot of Chiang Rai province and are interested in new places. Doi Chaang and Doi Wawee sound interesting, though I can't find a whole lot of information online about them. So...to anyone who has been there:

• Are they worth the trip?
  
• Is the road to Doi Chaang accessible with a non 4x4 truck?
  
• Day trip or overnight trip? If overnight, any recommendations? I have heard of Doi Chang Resort and Laolee Resort.
  

Thanks for any first-hand information!

Nice idea...but no.

It's called Tsutaya. New release DVDs are 30 baht for 1 night, others cheaper for 1 week...

Back to the original topic (countrywide block of https connections), once again I can't access any https sites this morning! Everything worked fine last night. Anyone else seeing this again?

I would buy a Mac at the authorized Apple reseller store in the city...no worries about future service...and far less worries about viruses and all the junk that accompanies Windows computers. Of course the downside is higher cost.

You are helping the Big C Supercenter Public Company Limited track your spending habits, and I'm sure they appreciate your cooperation.

My crappy 6mb 3bb service is working perfectly and looks like 3bb were smart enough to get some people to pay more.

save your money there is nothing wrong with indy service.

Is your Indy account working perfectly for VoIP, bittorrent, and VPNs, or working perfectly with things like hotmail and youtube? Some us apparently stupid people who pay more for "premier" service use the Internet for more then email and web browsing.

downloading a torrent at the moment at 720kB/s using a private tracker.

You must have the lucky magic connection - downloading at 720 KB/s with your 600 KB/s non-premier account. Congratulations and I'm jealous!

How does your premier work today? My suck, very unstable. Up and down in speed allt the time

Mine in considerably better today, almost back to how it used to be before July 27.

I'm getting some strange traceroute results though, as if certain websites are being routed through different 3BB packet inspecting firewall - meaning possibly our ISP is spying on us (gasp!).

My crappy 6mb 3bb service is working perfectly and looks like 3bb were smart enough to get some people to pay more.

save your money there is nothing wrong with indy service.

Is your Indy account working perfectly for VoIP, bittorrent, and VPNs, or working perfectly with things like hotmail and youtube? Some us apparently stupid people who pay more for "premier" service use the Internet for more then email and web browsing.

Most of us experiencing the recent 3BB service issues appear to have "Premier" accounts. Before 3BB changed their package descriptions, they recommended Premier accounts for things like VoIP, bittorrent, online gaming, etc...the things that are not working well or at all now for many of us now. The new, 5 MB 2,500 baht Premier package does not mention these things anymore. All it says about Premier accounts now (per Google translation): "For those who have broadband Internet experience. And to increase efficiency of use.". Very meaningful! It's as if any of us NOT with this new 5 MB Premier account are experiencing the crappy, filtered service most people get with an Indy package. Could this be a brilliant marketing attempt to get all of the 1,100 baht 3 MB Premier account holders to upgrade to 2,500 baht 5 MB? Is the 3BB marketing department smart enough to figure something like that out? Probably not.

My torrent speeds just went from around 0-2 KB/s to 250 KB/s - a very good sign that our diligent 3BB engineers might have fixed something...

I'm having the exact same issue with my 3BB premier account. Changing the port or tracker makes no difference. Top speed I've seen is around 20 KB/s since Wednesday.

My torrents are averaging 0.0 KB/s to 4 KB/s today (both uploading and downloading), while last week over 300 KB/s downloading with my apparently no longer existent 3 MB/s premier package. On my TT&T phone line here in Chiang Rai, I don't think I have any other ISP options...which is becoming a serious problem. I wonder if they will automatically switch me to the new 5 MB/s premier package for double the price I'm paying now...probably!

Well, at least it's good to know it's not just a problem for me here in Chiang Rai (3BB Premier), but wow, this really sucks.