CobraSnakeNecktie

try going into your internet setup and changing your DNS servers.

also you can use "dig" or "nslookup" like programs on unix accounts to check dns lookup answers for certain servers.

Sounds like your asking a server with either old or bad info

I have the 512 Maxnet service in CM and I get 420 down and 200 up as measured by speakeasy. I really want to upgrade to something faster but its not all that clear I will get what I pay for.

absolutely no problems accessing and logging into Paypal and Ebay or anything else like online banking in Thailand (Chiang Mai)

Fairly well dependent on what display and graphics driver etc a person is using. I use a new Apple LCD and man its so bright and crisp I rarely turn it up all the way bright.

A few days ago I jumped on a friends HP Laptop and thought <deleted> I can hardly see it and it was on A/C power and display at brightest setting. Poor bastard ;-)

The Apple setup sure costs more but it's a good as paid for by the savings on books. BTW the real story is almost all up to date info is contained now days in WIKI's etc and user/developer forums. I rarely see the need these days to bother with Ebooks let alone printed books.

You guys are all wet behind the ears...

go to http://safari.oreilly.com/

Oreilly who publishes the widest selection and in many cases best computer books has a service that lets you read any of their books online in PDF format.

They have different plans ranging between $12 and $20 a month and you can read about 10 books a month.. Also they are searchable. Allow off line viewing. The first 2 to 4 weeks is free trial.

A great deal for me because I mostly just use books for quick reference and being able to search really is the greatest value. They have a system where you get so many tokens and have shelf space where you check out books... A little clunky at times but good once you get the hang of it. Never again will I pay for and drag a book around when I have alternatives like this.

Viangbua is a nice building but the location is funky at best. Okay you can walk to Tanin market which is one of the better ones in town but thats about it... Okay Rimping store is a reasonable distance also...

I think you can find better places like Hillside 4 which have more amenities and are close to things like central shopping center and save close to 10,000 baht a month. Hillside 4 is even pricey and lots of better places for the baht out there.

Easiest visa run to to Mae Sai and takes the better part of a day and costs about 900 baht for bus or van and Myanmar entry stamp.

I find it interesting that Linux and now the Apple platform is attempting to run Windows applications within their OS's without rebooting.. I think that will be a great development. I personally run Apple and would like to run some Windows Apps which in general are top notch.

I think you have to give MS their due though.. They got the world working in a standardized fashion. Hats off to that. Beats the days of OS/2 and Vax/VMS.

Windows did help establish their dominance by letting people copy their software and displace competitors... And now they could really clamp down but they are still not really trying very hard. Probably just upping their revenue a little. While I used to hate Gates and the whole MS thing I know have a lot of respect for the guy.. He is giving away billions and has plans to give away about 70% of his wealth and for really good causes.... I think he did a lot for the computing world and has be made the villian just because he has been very successful.

I use Vonage and live in Thailand.

Our small company has an Asterisk PBX server (linux pc) with Digium card installed online in Colorado. The vonage PSTN line is plugged into the Digium card.

This allow me to connect to the PBX server with either a Softphone (X-Lite) or SIP phone (Polycom)

If someone calls into the colorado PBX then they get an auto attendant and if the enter my extension then it rings me in Thailand if I am logged in or if not then goes to voicemail and emails me voice message as an attachment.

A couple of obeservations.

I works very well. Better voice quality than Skype.

Cheaper than Skype than using Skype In and Skype Out services

Soon we plan on adding a Skype ATA interface so Skype users can connect directly VIA PBX

Its also increasingly common to purchase SIP trunks from companies like Cbeyond which offer DID (direct inward dial) numbers thru the trunk into the PBX. Under that scenario you could just have your number delivered thru a SIP trunk to a PBX somewhere (probably in the US) and then just connect to the PBX over the net.

If you want a USB or SIP phone then you will need to order it from abroad... I have searched high and low and no luck.

However there are some good options available. If your using a Apple then the Imic by Griffin is a USB device which allows you to plug in a regular style headset. The device has an input and output jack and does all the things a USB phone does in terms of sound quality and removing electrical noise.

I was using such a setup and happy with the quality.. My employer sent me a SIP USB phone from the states and its identical quality..

If you need a SIP phone to log directly into a PBX then the above setup does not work for most options. If however you just use Skype or Xten etc then its works great.

Not sure if there is a PC equivalent. They Imic might work on a PC come to think of it.. But not sure.

512 KB ADSL TTT ... Actual speed is a about 420K download and 200K upload.

Very solid and reliable connection.. Virtually no outtages and very few slowdowns.

890 baht a month and includes a phone line

Gary

Not exactly blazing speeds but if ADSL is not offered very interesting..

Any web links to the package they sell in Thailand?

How much do you pay? equipment purchase costs? etc?

Is there much latency? do you need a POTS line for the uplink?

I just did the www.speakeasy.com/speedtest to SF and faster than normal

430 K download

195 K upload

Get to know the traceroute command. It will show the time to each network hop

traceroute www.cnn.com

traceroute: Warning: www.cnn.com has multiple addresses; using 64.236.24.28

traceroute to cnn.com (64.236.24.28), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets

1 192.168.1.254 (192.168.1.254) 1.992 ms 1.232 ms 1.420 ms

2 203.188.20.1 (203.188.20.1) 57.611 ms 58.220 ms 57.140 ms

3 172.27.23.146 (172.27.23.146) 59.265 ms 55.953 ms 58.445 ms

4 203.195.105.142 (203.195.105.142) 59.441 ms 58.338 ms 57.342 ms

5 203.195.105.28 (203.195.105.28) 60.744 ms 66.286 ms 59.418 ms

6 203.195.105.28 (203.195.105.28) 58.632 ms 93.064 ms 63.641 ms

7 61.19.15.201 (61.19.15.201) 96.676 ms 63.942 ms 61.19.15.209 (61.19.15.209) 77.189 ms

8 202.47.253.138 (202.47.253.138) 111.689 ms 68.043 ms 68.653 ms

9 202.47.253.217 (202.47.253.217) 278.799 ms 277.894 ms 289.199 ms

10 ge-1-6.r01.lsanca03.us.bb.verio.net (204.1.253.17) 278.725 ms 273.452 ms 278.188 ms

What this output is showing is how long to each network hop. This will help you understand which part of the network is slow for you.

Traceroute is a built in command on most Unix systems and on windows its called tracert. Also there are utilities with GUI's you can download to test such things.

From personal experience Ionizers work really well. Back in the day I would grow some marijuana in the states for personal use and the distinctive smell is your worst enemy. A good ionizer would knock the smell out faster than the filters. In truth I used a homemade carbon filter for exhaust air which often left the area too quickly to be affected by the ionizer. The combination made it smell free. My point here is that if an Ionizer can knock such a strong smell out of the air quickly then its doing something worthwhile and it it does it for a lot less energy and noise and without expensive filters.

Anyone know where in CM to buy them. decent quality and decent prices?

Now that the toxic air season is upon us, I was curious what people use for air purification.

Ionizers? filteration? those water refresher things I see for sale? plants?

where is a good place to buy such devices?

I am in CM city and have the TOT ADSL 512 package..

Using www.speakeasy.org/speedtest as a benchmark to San Francisco.

My fastest and most consistent speeds are 420 K download and 195 K upload. It never goes above that mark. Occasionally it does slow down to the mid 200 to 300 k's download but that is rare. Never any outtages in the 6 months I have it...

If you think its an outtage blow away your DHCP assignment before drawing any conclusions.

I think its a great service for the 780 baht. I would be curious what someone with the 1 meg service actually gets with the above benchmark test.

really remarkable when you think about it... The packets make their way to HK and then undersea cable across the pacific. I read somewhere that a packet can circle the earth twice in one second on the backbones. Groovy

uh the signs for showing baht are still up at Mae Sai. They are faded and list three amounts of 10K, 20K and 30K for families. Was just there a week ago.