wpcoe

Belkin N1 Vision Modem-Router actually I bought this product here in bangkok. I have seen some routers that are draft n wifi. I dont know if you have checked this or not but go to the IT City, 4th floor, Siam Paragon. I found most of my stuff I need there

A belkin surge protector

Belkin N1 Vision

Various other things

as far as the Gigabit Router You might check that there although I dont know if they have one or not since I've never looked for one.

Thanks for the info. Next time I'm in Bangkok I will check at IT City. The IT City in Pattaya doesn't have the modem-router, just the router.

Since you have the Belkin N1 Vision Modem-Router, you already have a gigabit router. :-)

Although it's only a minor part of your experience, I would like to also commend the BNH cashier department for interfacing with the insurance companies.

After a minor outpatient procedure, a BNH cashier interceded on my behalf after the insurance company refused to pay -- the cashier asked me to wait and had my doctor re-itemize my bill so that it was covered fully by my insurance company.

In comparison, at Bangkok Hospital-Pattaya -- a BNH-affiliated hospital -- I had the same outpatient procedure performed and the cashier bluntly informed me "Insurance no cover. You pay now." I asked him/her (a khatooey) if the bill could be re-itemized/re-classified to have insurance cover it. After a glare and a big sigh, I was told to wait, and voila, insurance covered the entire amount.

Oh, and congratulations on a successful surgery!

Does this thread refer to the center IMMIGRATIONS hall, or is there some special CUSTOMS area as well?

Additionally the police will not tolerate unauthorized taxis whose drivers tout passengers out loud and disturb airport patrons

Yawn!

Which implies that the police WILL tolerate the obnoxious and pushy AOT touts who loudly accost passengers and disturb airport patrons...

I wonder how the extension across the Chao Phraya to Thonburi will affect the overall efficiency of the Silom line. The Saphan Taksin station, through which both uptown and downtown trains must transit, apparently will remain a single-track station. With the frequent trains during rush hours (every three minutes, each direction, ISTR?), the timing will need to be quite accurate to avoid backups, no?

Sorry to jump in so late on this thread so late, but I just returned to Thailand and am catching up on forum reading.

I was on the morning UA flight departing BKK for Narita and as we taxied out to the runway things were normal until just about reaching the runway, then BAM! the fog descended and was so thick that you couldn't see the wingtips from inside the aircraft. The captain came down and strolled through the cabin chatting with folks and said the visibility was so poor we couldn't even taxi back to the terminal if we wanted to. We waited in that spot for over an hour and heard a couple planes attempt to land and then go around.

At one point during the delay, the seat belt sign came back on -- our sign that we were going to leave soon -- followed by an announcement from the cockpit that the fog had lifted enough for us to depart, but then came down again so we still couldn't depart.

It was surprising how fast the fog came in/down. One minute could see for miles, next minute can't see 100 feet.

I read about it 6 months or more ago, sadly it will not be open for my retirement extension next month as would be much easier for me to drive there.

This location is convenient to no one. DM is closing for good so there is no reason to go to that area. There are no farang out there so its a 200 baht taxi ride each way.

Dagnabbit, Lite Beer, I totally forgot that I had that reference on the site! The site has now been updated.

And, JimGant, thanks for the kudos. It is not easy to keep that site up to date, and I have frequently (as recently as the beginning of December) debated taking it down. Your comments are well appreciated!

[edited to add that web page is now updated to remove the airport as an option for getting re-entry permits]

Here u can check the different Provider and packages over few month.

(download to excel-file)

www.live-access.com/PhuketInternet.aspx

Offers from TT&T MaxNet:

Indy: Sharing 1:20, Maxnet definition: limited international Bandwidth (Best for Thai Surf)

Premier: Sharing 1:10, without Limit

Biz: Sharing 1:2, without Limit

Café: Sharing 1:20, without Limit

Café Plus: Sharing 1:10, without Limit

Modem Modulation: Adsl2+ Annex M

DSLAM’s from MaxNet are not the same as HiNet (CAT).

For all Provider: u get what u pay for....

That web page for Phuket is very interesting. Would be nice to have one for each area, like Bangkok, Pattaya, Chiang Mai, etc.

From the "Offers from TT&T MaxNet" I find it hard to believe that they've actually *improved* the attenuation rates. When I first signed up about four years ago for MaxNet the programs had different names, but here's what I was told:

MaxNet@Home (now Indy): sharing = 40 (number users per acct = 1)

MaxNet@Life: .......... sharing = 10 (number users per acct = 1-5)

MaxNet@SME: ........... sharing = 5 (number users per acct = 1-10)

MaxNet@Biz: ........... sharing = 2 (number users per acct = 5-20)

To go from 40 users to 20 users for Indy is quite an improvement.

take a look:

http://www.thaicharger.com/index.php?topic=291.msg2324

Thanks for that link. I was unfamilar with Spyder3, and since I can't read enough Thai, I Googled it and it seems nice, especially the Sypder3Print, but not sure I want to spend $300+ (on amazon.com), much less B19,900 (~$560!) on thaicharger.com, just for that.

Is thaicharger.com strictly an online retailer, or do they have a brick and mortar store someplace? I can't read enough Thai, and don't see and "English" link nor anything that looks like a link to a map.

I have seen them in Fotofile in BKK (MBK 3rd and 5th floor). In Singapore I have seen them in camera shops in the Funan Centre and in Peninsula Plaza which is next door to Funan.

Thanks for the locations. I will check both in Bangkok and Singapore this coming week and compare prices.

Windows 7 now has the function of Monitor Calibration!

I'm booted into Vista now, but when I reboot later into Windows 7, I'll see how well that works. I was pleased to see that Windows 7 natively handles monitor pivot/rotation.

I've seen Spyders on sale in Fortune IT Mall (Bangkok) a couple of times at a couple of different shops, although you'll need to look around carefully. But really, unless you are doing high end work (and good luck finding a printing company that cares about colour profiles) you may as well just use Adobe Gamma, which comes with Photoshop.

My time will be tight when I'm in Bangkok, but I'll try to make it to Fortune as well to check prices.

I'm interested in a more technically correct color profile for my monitor to see if I can match color with my own ink jet printer. As it is now, what I see printed is substantially different than what I painstakingly manipulate in Photoshop. I've heard about X-Rite Colormunki that calibrates not just the monitor, but also a printout from the printer, but not sure I want to spend that kind of money ($500+). But, I suspect that the real solution to my situation *will* be to spring for a Colormunki or Spyder3Print.

I'm not a professional photographer or design person, just a hobbyist with a bit too much time on his hands. (I do web design also as a hobby, and color accuracy would be nice, there, as well.) It would also be nice to have a properly calibrated monitor to see faithful colors onscreen in all applications, I guess.

On my shopping list is a single unit that has ALL the following:

• ADSL modem
  
• 10/10/1000 (gigabit) router/switch
  
• draft-N WiFi
  

I cannot find a single such model in Thailand.

My current Zyxel DSL modem/router/wifi unit is dying. I lose the connection between my computer and the router every 30 minutes or so, so I am looking for a replacement.

My desktop and notebook computers have built-in gigabit ethernet, and since I travel a lot, I regularly synchronize files and settings between the two. Since my current router is only 10/100 ethernet, I do cable swapping to make a direct cable between my two computers to take advantage of the gigabit ethernet speed. So, I want the replacement modem/router to be gigabit.

I want to get draft-n WiFi since a/b/g units are limited in speed and range and undoubtedly my next notebook will be draft-n (or by then, approved-n). I do use WiFi with my notebook in other parts of my condo.

And, of course, I'd rather have a single unit, rather than separate modem and router.

I was lusting over the flashy Belkin N1 Vision Modem-Router on Aus and UK web sites (until I read reviews of lacklustre performance), but apparently that unit is not being marketed in Asia anyway.

There are plenty of models with two of my three criteria, but not all three. Why the heck doesn't someone make and market such a model here?

I've been doing more work in Photoshop these days and know my work would be a lot easier if I could calibrate my monitor correctly. I know what I need is a hardware device like the Huey or Spyder, but in all my window shopping in tech malls here in Thailand never recall seeing one.

Are they available for sale in Thailand, and if so, where? I live in the Pattaya area, so that would be great, but I also frequently find myself in Bangkok, and in fact will be there this next weekend. I will also be in Singapore the following week, and wonder if I should buy it there, depending what the prices are here.

The connection icon showing 12Mbps is the speed of the connection between your computer and your modem or router.

The "download" and "upload" speeds you posted each show the same speed posted in "bits" and "bytes."

There are 8 bits to a byte. "bit" is abbreviated with a lowercase "b," and Byte abbreviated with an uppercase "B".

e.g. "download 1741 kbps 217.6 KB/sec transfer rate" means 1,741 kilobits are downloaded each second, and: 1,741 kilobits ÷ 8 bits per byte = 217.625 kiloBytes

Now, to oversimplify* a bit:

ISPs advertise usually their download speeds in Mb (Megabits) per second (Mbps, or usually simply Mb). Your download speed of 1741 kbps is roughly 1.741Mbps, so if you have an advertised 2Mbps connection that's pretty good. (There is overhead and loss that would you prevent having a true 2.00Mbps download rate.)

Someone else can elaborate about ping.

To look from another perspective, ADSL has improved quite a bit in the past few years. Not too long ago, I willingly paid B1,000/mo for 1MB/512k service, and now I pay the same B1,000/mo for 4MB/512k. Five years ago or so, I don't think a 4MB home connection was even available.

Also, several ISPs now have their own IIGs so that there is no longer a monopoly/restriction of a single CAT-owned gateway.

I think one of Thailand's best hopes for faster connections is if another country, e.g. Singapore, lays new high capacity, wide-bandwith trans-ocean cables and then the Thai ISPs tap into it through their own IIG. I realize this will only help those of us who already have decent connections, and does not address outlying areas that are currently to far from a DSLAM, or who don't even have telephone service. But, it's all about me, isn't it?

Here's a tracert using TT&T MaxNet Indy 4MB/512k.

Tracing route to thaivisa.com [203.174.85.146]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1

2 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms 222.123.184.1

3 * * * Request timed out.

4 * * * Request timed out.

5 11 ms 11 ms 10 ms mx-ll-58.147.0-25.static.tttmaxnet.com [58.147.0.25]

6 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms mx-ll-58.147.0-86.static.tttmaxnet.com [58.147.0.86]

7 11 ms 11 ms 11 ms mx-ll-58.147.0-94.static.tttmaxnet.com [58.147.0.94]

8 11 ms 10 ms 10 ms mx-ll-58.147.0-106.static.tttmaxnet.com [58.147.0.106]

9 44 ms 43 ms 43 ms mx-ll-58.147.0-110.static.tttmaxnet.com [58.147.0.110]

10 44 ms 43 ms 43 ms 116.51.17.53

11 45 ms 44 ms 44 ms 116.51.17.30

12 44 ms 44 ms 44 ms cr1.eqx.ne.com.sg [203.174.80.1]

13 44 ms 45 ms 44 ms 203-174-80-54.rev.ne.com.sg [203.174.80.54]

14 45 ms 48 ms 46 ms thaivisa.com [203.174.85.146]

I wasn't sure which ISP and plan Monty was using, but I seem to have one less hop than he reported. I believe the non-Indy TT&T plans have less hops and/or less latency. For easy comparison, here's what he posted:

Tracing route to thaivisa.com [203.174.85.146]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 3 ms 2 ms 2 ms 192.168.1.1

2 28 ms 34 ms 29 ms 58.147.34.1

3 * * * Request timed out.

4 * * * Request timed out.

5 173 ms 208 ms 223 ms 58.147.0.41

6 35 ms 34 ms 34 ms 58.147.0.33

7 34 ms 34 ms 34 ms 58.147.0.86

8 35 ms 34 ms 34 ms 58.147.0.94

9 34 ms 35 ms 34 ms 58.147.0.106

10 148 ms 67 ms 68 ms 58.147.0.129

11 67 ms 68 ms 71 ms 116.51.17.125

12 68 ms 68 ms 68 ms 116.51.17.30

13 70 ms 70 ms 67 ms 203.174.80.1

14 69 ms 69 ms 72 ms 203.174.80.54

15 70 ms 73 ms 70 ms 203.174.85.146

<crossing my fingers that the font formatting I used translates to all browsers: mono-spaced (Lucida Console) font in smallish size...>

Is this thread saying that the Suan Phlu office is moving to Chaeng Wattana, or is it some other office? If Suan Phlu, is it the entire operation being moved, or just part of it?

Was told to have funds in bank 3 months before new extension in 1 year and not to forget the 90 day address reporting

Happy to hear of your positive experience. Well done.

That comment about 3 months might be news.

I and others have been told explicitly that the money does NOT need to be seasoned for 3 months for subsequent extensions (using the 800K). I was told the DAY BEFORE would be OK (that was over a year ago though). This time (late last year) I did not season for 3 months and no questions were asked.

So here is my question, did the officer tell you about the 3 month policy without your asking? Or did you ask specifically about next year? Either way, probably bad news.

Jingthing: It seems that the 90-day requirement for renewals is now specified in the new rules issued in November.

This is a quote from http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/post-a70477-.html:

(1) The alien has obtained a temporary visa (NON-IM);

(2) The applicant is 50 years of age or over;

(3) Proof of income of not less than Baht 65,000 per month; or

(4) Account deposit with a bank in Thailand of not less than

800,000 Baht as shown in the bank account

for the past 3 months

at the filing date of the application

. For the first year, the applicant

should have that amount in his bank account for not less than 60

days or

(5) Annual income plus bank account deposit totaling not less

than Baht 800,000 as of the filing date of application

The use of red in item (4) is my own emphasis. In the linked document the entire item (4) is in red, indicating it had been revised in the November version.

If that is not the current accurate translation, will someone please let me know?

Do you have any income? If so, you can get an income verification letter from the US Embassy in Bangkok, and with that letter, you do NOT need to wait 60 days for any funds to be "seasoned" in a Thai Bank.

The only time you need to wait 60 days, is if you are using ONLY savings (i.e. no income) to qualify.

The US Embassy is making a visit to Pattaya on January 29, and the notice mentions that services offered during the visit include "Notarial Services and Certified Copies ($30.00 or Baht 1020)." If they in fact bring the blank form letter for income verification with them, you can save a trip to Bangkok. To verify if they provide that service (the income verification letter): "If you have any questions, please e-mail: [email protected] or call the American Citizen Services Unit at: 02-205-4049."

As long as you have a round-trip (return) ticket to/from Thailand (or a continuing ticket with a flight out of Thailand to another destination), a perhaps easier route would be to not get any visa at all. Just enter Thailand on a 30-day visa-exempt stamp and convert to a Non-Immigration O visa IN THAILAND and then apply for one-year retirement extension.

see: "The express lane to a Retirement Extension" for the procedure.

By doing so, you totally avoid any hassle or inconvenience obtaining a visa in the UK.

Anyway, I get myself into the kitchen, flicked on the light just in time to see the baby King Cobra striking at my legs & naked feet. Ok, I could tell you he was 6 foot long and all of that, but he was actually only about 60cm - YET very very cranky .

Based on some trivia I read on another cobra thread here, that age of snake possibly is the most dangerous.

A true baby snake which is too young to be able to produce and/or inject venom is least risk. An adult cobra has control of the amount of venom to dispense. In the case of true prey, like a python who would fight it to the death, the cobra will inject maximum venom. (Did you know king cobras eat other snakes?) In a defensive posture against a human it can inject a lesser potency warning dosage. However, adolescent cobras have full strength venom and the fangs to inject, but not the ability to adjust the dosage, so every bite is a killer bite. Or, so I read...

In CM, I have a simple 3 stage filter with the same order charcoal-resin-ceramic,

but i asked a local salesman who said the order should be ceramic-resin-charcoal.

Does it make a difference? Is it easier to maintain/clean by putting the ceramic filter at the 1st stage?

Any water experts care to voice their opinions?

I would think that having the charcoal filter first would make it clog up much faster. Having the ceramic filter first would make sense since it is scrubbable, whereas a charcoal filter is not.

Thanks for the reassurance. Even with the caveats that Crossy brought up, I think I'll not worry about this.

Another PVC question, though: Is there a difference between the different color pipes? Is it simply a matter of color coding so that if you see a yellow one you expect it to have wires, and if you see a blue one you expect water? When the local handyman buried my previously on-the-wall-surface wires into the bricks, he used blue PVC ... is that a problem?

What is the expected life-span of the ubiquitious blue PVC piping used for water and sewage?

What happens when such life-span is reached and the piping is encased in concrete, such as in a floor or wall?

I did read on another thread and I think it was connected with American passports but it was said that photocopying passports is illegal.

A couple years ago a friend and I went to a Kinko's copy shop in San Francisco to get color photocopies of our passports and were advised by the staff that color copying was illegal, but black-and-white (greyscale) was not. I always wondered if that were true, but never followed up on it.

On New Years Day I made a trip from Jomtien to Pattaya early afternoon, and traffic was heavy along Jomtien Beach Road, even though half of the beach chairs seemed empty. "Oh, well," I thought. But...

On the way home, I boarded a baht bus at the infamous Pattaya Tai queue and the bus lurched into motion, but at the Third Road junction, turned left. I could see up Thappraya Road, and it seemed like it was wide open, so not sure why the driver would take a bypass route and if so, where he would re-join the regular route. On impulse, I rang the bell and got off and paid the driver B10 anyway. Big mistake.

Have you ever tried to catch a baht bus on Thappraya Road by Third Road heading into Jomtien? They're all FULL! After nine buses passed me by (none of which turned on to Third Road), I was able to hitch a ride on the bumper (standing at the rear) of the tenth bus.

When we got to the Hanuman Statue, he turned left and headed toward and past the tax office and turned down Soi 5 heading toward Beach Road. Understandable, as he probably was just trying to avoid congestion heading toward and past the police box at Dongtan Beach.

BUT, he went halfway down Soi 5, pulled into a hotel and reversed course, heading back toward Pattaya!

So, I again got off, paid B10 without a smile and walked to Beach Road, to catch my *third* baht bus to take me into Jomtien.

I know many folks would not have paid both of the first two buses, but one of my New Year resolutions is to be less confrontational.