PMK

I was having problems like that with TT&T a day or two ago - could get a good ping from yahoo.com and other sites, but the web pages wouldn't load. Are you experiencing something similiar?

Peter

Is anyone having Internet issues with True. Websites being blocked, inability to access international servers.... and stuff like that? Not to mention Yahoo not loading..

I'm with you. I've switched to Brother for both inkjet and laser. One thing I like about the low end multifunction printer I bought the wife is that it uses separate cartridges for each colour which will save money in the long run. The HL-2040 laser I bought has separate ink cartridge and drum, instead of having them combined which I think all the cheaper HPs do.

Peter

I will say take a look at Brother, one of the good parts is that Brother ink is cheaper, Brother has no problems with refilling, also Brother supports not only MS Windows but also Apple Mac and what was for me more important Linux.

They have a not to expensive Office machine (inktjet printer, copier, snanner and fax) with Ethernet, Parralel and USB connection.

I love both those products, but even the adblock extension for Firefox won't block flash ads unless you block the whole frame. There are other extensions for ad blocking, but that is the only one I've tried.

Peter

i get annoyed sometimes , well , more than sometimes , by animated ads that pop up in the middle of the screen , on many websites.

sometimes they hide the button that you click to close them down , they are an awful intrusion.

is there any shareware out there that will block the ads but not interfere with other animations such as videos from you tube, video streaming broadcasts etc.

i.e. that will just kill the ads.

i use xp sp2 with explorer 6 .

thanks

switch your browser to mozilla firefox it's faster and more secure than I.E. whatever version

also switch your email to thunderbird

both are easier to use and more secure easier to configure too

thunderbird has learning junk filter that is quite good but always check the email trash before throwing it out there maybe something you need in there

I use these along with zone alarm and Avg and have had no problems with popups or viruses for a long time time now

hope this helps

I'm with Jasmine on TT&T and have been having problems like being able to ping yahoo.com but not able to access the website itself. I would not at all be surprised if they were due to the political situation. Right now things seem to be back to normal.

And yes, schools are closed.

Peter

I'm with TT&T Maxnet ADSL. When it's working - which is most of the time - the connection and speed is reliable and good. But, when it goes down - as it did from early morning to late afternoon today - there is no connection at all and, strangely, it is often at times when there are VIP air movements and political tensions.

Maybe it's coincidence. Was your provider on-line today?

I see the SOHO service is 1,024/512 1,890 ฿ so you got to wonder how many users are sharing bandwidth on this service which is roughly 1/7 the price per kpbs.

Peter

I got TOT line and was browsing through this forum. Most are about TOT and True, anyone ever use Samart? If all ASPs in Thailand equally suck, then this WoW by Speedy package seems value for money:

WOW by Speedy

2048/512 Kbps

Network support = TOT

590 baht per month

FreeStart up cost.

FreeUSB Modem

FreeE-mail 200 MB

Any thoughts?

You don't state where you live. If it is in the Pattaya area, Sophon Cable carries it. I like to think I had something to do with that - I campaigned for it a while back. They also carry CNN and BBC which I would not watch with a gun to my head - particularly BBC, being Jewish, with their extreme anti-Israel bias. My $.02 and my last comment on this thread which I am sure it will be a heated one.

Peter

Where can I find the Fox News Channel? I used to be able to get it ,but now the network that I probably can’t mention here, no longer carries it.

Does anyone know just where I can once again get it, from here in Thailand?

I have sent emails to Fox and to the satellite company that no longer carries it.

Firefoxx,

Thanks for the information - appreciated.

Peter

"HD ready" TVs are TVs that fit certain criteria.

1. They have a minimum of 720p resolution (1280x720)

2. They can accept a HD signal via component and/or HDMI

In other words, practically all the newer LCD TVs and plasmas are HD ready. Older plasmas, which could only do something like 854x480, are not HD ready. The ability to accept and display a 1080i signal does not necessarily mean that it physically has that resolution... the image is scaled down to the native resolution.

If I may piggy-back your thread a bit, what are the "HD 1080i Ready" TVs that I see now in the Thailand stores about? Does anyone know the real scoop on those?

Thanks,

Peter

Gentlemen, we all know how prices are being slashed on big screens. So many of them out there and totally confused on the differences between them. some cons that i have heard

LCD - dead pixels over time.

Plasma - gas runs out.

Projections - need calibrations from time to time.

CTR - the best out there but limited to 34 inch.

so for the range of 40 - 50 inch, whats the best bang for the buck? brand wise. Bravia seems to be the premium brand but prices are also dropping on them. Someone mentioned the brand Tatung gives the best deal out there for the quality. any opinions?

This should work although I haven't tested it:

I assume the computers are all in the same workgroup and that the file server is running XP. Create a user on the file server with a password and make him an administrator. Create the same user/password on your computer. Map a network drive on your computer to the file server share using the different name option - use this new user. Even after reboots, the mapped drive which is the folder you want to access on the server should be available.

Peter

Situation:

Small office, the strongest computer makes also the file server for the others (mostly just simple excel files).

Every user can use any computer as he get the files from the file server.

Now my computer is in a different room, dedicated to me, and I hate log in all the time, so no password.

I would like to be able to get access to all files on the file-server. Is there an easy way, based on the IP adress or can I automatic log in with username and password without getting asked for?

Any good ideas?

One thing I like about Jasmine Internet. Although expensive, I get exactly the performance they promised me or better at all times - day/night/weekends, which is the nominal speed less 20%. I have a 256/128 connection. The Thaivisa speed test results are consistently:

Download Speed: 211 kbps (26.4 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 102 kbps (12.8 KB/sec transfer rate)

The exception is during lousy weather - rain or even strong winds.

I don't have any problems with P2P or ftp downloads, and downloaded Vista without even using a download manager like Getright.

The compax 256/128 service, which I have at home is advertised as SME but is an additional 500/month for fixed IP is:

Special price

1,240 (from 1,550)

Well, at the beginning, I said that their service was pretty darn good, with speeds that were nearly at stated bandwidth, and no problems. This is the more expensive 1mbit SME package, which the nice saleslady said would have no limits and no packet shaping/blocking.

Well, now I've come to revise that assessment.

First, and foremost, it seems (that's what they admit, and that's how things look) that they have a policy of drastically changing network configuration at whim, which will affect speeds *a LOT*. When I first got it installed, my non-http downloads were excellent, around 1mbit/s throughout the day, every day, hence my glowing assessment. Then, during workdays, it deteriorated to around half that, then half that, then I was lucky if I got 50-60kbit/s. This was through the course of a couple of weeks. Then I complained, no response, and complained again. The next day speeds shot up to near their previous level. This cycle of "slow-complain-fast" happened for around a few times, and recently, for my last complaint, they just said "we will take it into consideration" and "no guarantee" and "we have a lot of new customers".

Line stability is OK, but there are times when I'll lose the DSL connection completely for hours.

For the "current" state of speed, during the workday only web traffic is anywhere near decent. Everything else is in the gutter. Really. P2P (and all other things non-HTTP) is practically nonfunctional. In other words, very similar to the Buddy 500 baht/month package. During the night (and I mean around 8pm -5am) and weekends, everything speeds up miraculously and actually *works*. So basically I'm paying a hefty premium for a service that actually only works during the night.

My thoughts? Their management are a bunch of monkeys. Their salespeople are clueless and misleading customers. Their tech people are useless, since it's the management that determines the speeds. Their service is not really a service, and not really worth the constant maintenance on the part of the customer. As soon as I can get an alternative, I'll terminate.

Verdict: Awful. Leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

That link seems to be broken. Can also use http://internetfrog.com or http://dnsstuff.com

If, for whatever reason, one needs an easy lookup for ip address from a URL, there's a free program at the link below which makes the process easy on a Windows machine.

Regards

http://www.gena01.com/win32whois/

PS on the speed issue almost any site using a counter script seems to be in a time vortex.

Or maybe your friend was and got confused. Not having been there, I don't know.

Peter

Noel,

I like certain things about Dr. Thitima, for example that yes, she is direct. She is also somewhat pessimistic and always, always, covers the potential worst outcome. I am not just blowing smoke at you - I've been going to her for many years. That is just the way she is. She thinks out loud and exactly the way I would want my doctor to think, reflecting on worse case scenarios.

Peter

Maybe she was having a bad day when she told my friend he was constipated and prescribed enemas. A month later he was diagnosed at a BKK hospital with advanced gastric cancer.

I think the key here is in the last sentence. Once you get up to 10 workstations or so, things start to get unwieldy peer-to-peer. You will have reached a point where email in particular should be hosted on a server or when Jane sends a copy of an email to John who is in the same office, it has to go all the way out to where ever the email is hosted and back again. It's inefficient and if there are large attachments things may start to break down.

Staff will come and go. Will the email be archived? If not, what happens if they delete all their email as well as all their documents on the last day? Joe replaces Jane. You want Joe to get Jane's incoming email but when he sends a reply, he sends as Joe. This kind of thing is so much easier to control on your own email server. Security will become an issue. Not only for backups, but to ensure (as much as possible) that data is not stolen. Even small tasks like ensuring that the anti-virus software is up and running and up to date on all the workstations get to be time consuming and inconvenient (you got to kick someone off their computer or do it after hours) unless the software is server based.

I disagree that Windows Server is something that you should set up yourself unless you really don't need to spend your time supervising the 10 staff and running your business. Server operating systems have countless bugs and oddities that can only be learned from experience (probably like your own business) and given Murphy's Law, things tend to go awry at the worst possible times. You should get an I.T. professional. I would say that even if I did not find out today I will probably be available Oct 1. ;-)

In the meantime though, just set up a shared folder as is explained in one of the links the other guys posted.

Peter

Hi all,

I cuurently have three staff in the office, and we are all using our computers happily, however, i now have a problem.

I need to be able to store all the files in one location, so that they are accessible and changeable by everybody, rather than hunting around on each others hard drives.

Im not sure how to do this, but im sure its very simple to anyone with half a tech-brain.

What hardware do i need, software etc etc.

Plus, to complicate matters a little, i am a Mac user, and the rest of the office uses PC.

This system would also need to be easily expandable as within 3 months, we will have another 4 or 5 terminals involved.

Help please!!!

Hi John,

See my reply to Lannig about using a router. I'm not saying it can't be done - I just got fed up with it particularly trying to troubleshoot Internet connection problems. A modem is so much cleaner. I will look for that Dlink modem although I just found out that due to my employer moving to Bangkok I may be out of a job soon - I wanted IPcop for the office, not for home. Can you confirm that the The D-Link DSL210 worked with IPcop?

Peter

There should be no problem to get IPcop working with an ethernet modem/router..AFAIK they will all work. It would be better to put the router into bridging mode so as to avoid a double NAT situation ( although double NAT works ok for most thngs )

The D-Link DSL210 USB modem ( Conexant chipset ) works perfectly fine for me here in Thailand ( Supplied by TT&T but I've seen it for sale in Tukcom Pattaya) ..and the Speedtouch USB " Green Frog" supplied by BT is still working fine on an IPcop I setup in England about 4 years ago.

Noel,

I like certain things about Dr. Thitima, for example that yes, she is direct. She is also somewhat pessimistic and always, always, covers the potential worst outcome. I am not just blowing smoke at you - I've been going to her for many years. That is just the way she is. She thinks out loud and exactly the way I would want my doctor to think, reflecting on worse case scenarios.

As an initial screen, B-P is fine, but I agree strongly to get another opinion if you are diagnosed as cancer and don't have major elective surgery there. Also, if there is just the one tumor, maybe you should be sure it is preserved as diagnosis of those things may be as much art as science - I don't know - but just maybe it should have a second opinion too.

Best of luck and take it easy - you don't know what it is yet. I had a tumor removed from my esophagus and it was benign, but there were lots of frowns and "I don't want to worry you, but"'s from her before we found that out.

If it is cancer an alternative to Bumrungrad is the cancer centre in Chonburi which I hear is very good but have no personal experience with it - I'd be interested in other's experience. Really, though, I don't think you can go wrong with Bumrungrad.

Peter

I arrived at the BPH a little early for the 7.30 am appointment, but was soon taken through the usual checks, plus blood sample.

I was pleased to have it confirmed that I am HIV Negative.

As for the gastroscopy itself, I really would not want to go through that again anytime soon. A most unpleasant experience, to say the least.

I could not help but watch the screen, although I did have a couple of violent gagging fits despite the fact that I was trying my hardest not to resist.

Fifteen or more very long minutes...

I suppose you could say that the procedure was a success, although I would have preferred a different outcome. The biopsy of the tumour she found has been sent off for analysis.

I was then wheeled off for a CAT scan.

Dr Thitima had little doubt that I will need surgery and, without even waiting for the CT results, an appointment had been made for me to see a surgeon on Friday, followed by another consultation with her.

Dr Thitima pulls no punches.

When I asked her as to her opinion, she bluntly told me that the tumour looked very bad and she did not like the look of it at all.

When asked the obvious question, she casually commented that the it might be benign, but we will have to wait until Friday to know for sure.

Oh, and the bill came to just over ฿29,300, less discount of ฿400

Happy days!

The problem is that the restriction on accessing the WAN side of Ipcop from the LAN side makes configuring/monitoring the router and troubleshooting Internet problems a real headache. In the end I decided it was not worth the effort.

Peter

The big problem with IPcop is finding a ADSL modem that it will work with. I looked long and hard and could not locate one in Thailand or even Australia. That was several months ago.

What would be the problem making IPcop work with an Ethernet ADSL router, specifically? Not that I have any first-hand experience of such a configuration, but I can't quite see what the problem would be? Your IPcop box with 2 LAN cards, one goes to the router, the rest serves the LAN.

--Lannig

The big problem with IPcop is finding a ADSL modem that it will work with. I looked long and hard and could not locate one in Thailand or even Australia. That was several months ago.

If you know of a location to buy one here, please post it! I loved IPcop when we were on dialup and really miss having it for analyzing and monitoring the way the users in the office use (abuse) our Internet connection.

Peter

IPcop

http://www.ipcop.org/

With the layer 7 blocker addon from here

http://mh-lantech.css-hamburg.de/ipcop/download.php?view.151

or P2P blocker

http://mh-lantech.css-hamburg.de/ipcop/download.php?view.160

All free, you just need to supply your own low(ish ) spec pentium II or III PC

download and set it all up ( admitedly not so easy but Kerio isn't easy either IMHO )

But you'll have an industrial strength firewall for very little outlay.

Dr. Titima gave me the option of local or general anesthetic for this procedure. I chose local. It was an unpleasant experience but not that big a deal. It only takes a few minutes.

You will definitely be fully aware as all the anesthetic, which is a liquid, not an injection, does is freeze your throat a bit. As I recall I did have to take some pills in advance but if they were sedatives they did not work!

Best of luck.

Peter

Thanks, Roamin.

I also did not like her brusque manner, but I will go ahead regardless. Cost is not really an issue.

I asked her why I would have to have 'nil by mouth' from midnight tonight for a local anaesthetic and she said it was because if I did not 'co-operate', I might well throw up.

I really am looking forward to the morning...

Noel, your stomach has to be empty. When passing the scope you might gag a bit and bring up whatever is in your stomach. You will be sedated enough that you will have no idea what is going on but you will be able to obey instructions such as 'keep your hand down'.

It's very helpful to have facts rather than anecdotal experiences. For me, this is the most valuable post in the thread.

What is a CT64? I did a search on it and got back 'cable tester'. I don' t think that is what you were subjected to. ;-). If it is a CAT scan, would you mind stating how much it was?

Peter

I use Bangkok Hospital Pattaya when I absolutely have to, otherwise I go to Bumrungrad. I had some heart problem and decided to try BHP since I live in Pattaya. Came home with loads of pills some of which made me feel worse. Went to Bumrungrad where Dr. says "Why this and this and this? and told me not to take. Did CT64. Nothing wrong.

Here are some costs from both hospitals:

BHP single room with microwave and sink B4,100

B'grad single room, microwave and sink in corridor pantry B3,300

BHP standard inpatient food B1,300

B'grad food B430

BHP Nursing Charge B2200

B'grad Nursing charge B1,300

BPH 1000ml Iv Fluid B495

B'grad 1000 IV fluid B396

BPH 100ml IV fluid B165

B'grad 100ml IV fluid B178

CBC is B240 at BHP, B205 at B'grad.

Electrolytes are B220 each at BHP, B195 each at B'grad.

At the moment it is not even up. Anyway, no big deal - I was just mildly interested and I do thank you for the link.

Peter

www.buddybb.com

the page is not very helpfull.....

Would someone post or PM the URL for the "Buddy" service?

Thanks,

Peter

Hmmm. If the site won't open that doesn't indicate a DNS server error. If the DNS server resolves the name of the site/domain to an IP address then it has done it's job.

Peter

I find True's DNS a bit tempermental. Sometimes it works great, other times hopeless, and there are some sites that just won't open ('network tcp error' time out etc).

So I've tried a few other Thai DNS with same results - work well for a while, then crap out. I have no idea why (I would have thought this sort of thing would be fairly straight forward!).

Very slick. I love that keyfile option. Great tip.

Later versions of Winzip also do AES 256. It's not free but most people have it already and might be faster/easier for some people to use.

Peter

Truecrypt - open source, easy to use, can run installed or from a thumb drive, and with a good passphrase it's unbreakable:

http://www.truecrypt.org/

This is interesting as I am on a Jasmine connection and use their recommended (to me) DNS servers which are 203.147.0.3 and 203.147.0.2. 203.130.159.20 identifies itself as dnscache1.ji-net.com. Did Jasmine suggest that one or did you just find and decide to use it yourself?

Why would you suggest a different DNS server for overseas or do you mean if he is located overseas?

Peter

Re DNS I use 203.130.159.20/21 which is jinet.com and it has been fast and problem-free for me, overseas you could try opendns.com - 208.67.222.222/220.220 but it won't be as fast as local.

ISP proxies

I am bit puzzled by this. Some web site show my IP as proxy.ji-net.com [203.147.0.44] (ji-net.com is vaild. That is the domain name of my ISP, Jasmine Internet) . Others like dnsstuff.com show it as my actual IP, for example, 203.156.42.237. Why would different sites identify it differently - some as the proxy server and some not?

Thanks,

Peter