ManInSurat

Yes I'm on TOT, 3MB service, 590 per month.

The point of my post was to maybe help some people who, like me, were suffering from TOT throttling.

I'm downloading right now at 350Kb/s.

Mate, please understand, in the above post you quite clearly say you're on a 3Mb connection. Given the download speeds you were telling everybody you were getting, they were bound to not believe you. Like they said on a 3Mb connection you have to be very lucky getting upwards of 350kbps, bordering on breaking the laws of physics.

Its a 4MB connection.

Pic taken 3 minutes ago

Now you've said it's a 4Mb you made those speeds you're getting much more believable. You don't need photographic evidence, just to get your speed right from the get-go. Would have saved loads of problems!

Also this is an internet forum and as such (and I speak for myself here!) we're all a little bit anally retentive about technological matters

"SPACE...

the final frontier...!"

Would have loved to have "karst" owing to its relevance, but I would not be changing a letter.

So I'll stick with:

TRACK.

Lady Sings The Blues

Can this thread be closed and/or removed then please?

If 90% of it is missing, I see no point in it being here.

Hi Molly.

You're being really vague if you're looking for help.

You need to articulate better what exactly the problem is.

When you say you need to improve your website, do you mean you need to actually make the layout and content better. Do you need to make it more user-friendly?

A lot of websites try and win the Turner prize instead of just focussing on making it nice and easy for people to use. A lot of Thai websites fall foul of this.

If you're talking about traffic. Well there is no easy fix for that. There's no easy fix without some form of investment on your part either. Be it SEO/PPC offline advertising of your URL etc.

You have to be more clear about what the problem is, then more people will be able to help you and will send you a PM.

To me you sound like you're trying to just get quick and fast business advice for free. There is no quick fix!

TOT now registering (Sat 11th) 57 down and 246 up and thats for an alleged 100mbps service

Was thinking of changing to TRUE, but will give it a miss, I think.

Seems that they are all crap.

Anybody know where you get a satellite connection and how much it costs??

Like astral says, IPStar is really a last resort and should only be considered by those where even GSM/Edge is not even a possibility, say on Koh Lipe or somewhere really remote. What a lot of people don't realise on a satellite system is that your packets, on the way to the server, have to travel from your transmitter, to the Thaicom 4 satellite (which is in a geostationary orbit over the Asia-Pacific region above the Earth's ionosphere ) and then from the satellite to the server you are trying to send packets to. Obviously the reverse is the same for the subesquent incoming data, responding to yours. All this is done through the the Earth's atmosphere. It'd be great if there was a vacuum in the atmosphere, but we and all life on Earth would be dead! The Earth's atmoshphere has differing layers of thickness, and satellites need to be placed higher up than the ionosphere as if they are placed too low, atmospheric drag can cause them to lose speed and crash. So signals have to be sent through all of the Earth's atmosphere and there's a lot of resistance there.

Even travelling at the speed of light, there will be a noticable "hang" in time of data be sent and received and when trying to work on anything real time, or do anything in real time on the internet this can really be very frustrating. Some IPStar users say this pause can be anything up to 10-20 seconds (sometimes longer), which might not sound like a lot, but really is very noticable. It's just simple physics and the distance out to the satellite and back again on both journeys to and from your transmitter. The journey that a DSL signal will take over land and sea, through copper and fiber optic cables, will always be much faster at reaching its destination than through the atmosphere. Once the whole world has changed over to fiber optics for all their lines, I can easily see the satellites becoming obsolete, for internet users. Unless, as I said before, you really are in the middle of nowhere. Fiber optic cables refract light rays in such an efficient manner, that little of the signal (if any) is lost on its journey. Copper is not as efficient, but still is more than capable for what the average user need to use it for (many people don't realise that even slight kinks in the copper wire can really mess up the signal you receive.)

Not only that, but I used to work for a telecommunications company in London, and the company owned a satellite or had part invested in one and it was my responsibility, at night, to readjust our ground-based transmitter's transmitting frequency if the weather was being particularly awful. My main point here is that the weather can have seriously bad effects on satellite signals. Thailand suffers from bad weather for large portions of the year and I would say, overall, you'd definitely receive worse service than those on the ground with a DSL connection, through days lost to bad weather.

I really think that IPStar should be considered by those that have absolutely no alternative, as you'll really end up just being disappointed and really out of pocket. It's not cheap to setup or run at all.

With regards to the OP, if you can, if WiFi is not an abolute necessity - which it should not be as even the N-Link router they give out has a RJ45 jack in the back of it. Try first, connecting your router to your laptop/PC by an ethernet cable, if you are not already. A wired connection is generally much more stable than a wireless one.

Secondarily, look into getting another router. The cheap routers that ISPs give out with their packages (and yes I got the silver N-link one and immediately replaced it with a LinkSys WIRED router) are normally not brilliant quality. I'd advise looking to get a LinkSys router, as it's what I use and I've never had a problem with it or my True connection.

Thirdly, get the line technicians out. Of all ISPs, True's seem to be the most reliable and more importantly, the most well-informed. I remember trying to talk (in Thai) to the 3BB technician about line attenuation, ping, tracerts, hops etc I might as well have just talked in Latin to him whilst flubbing my lips with my finger. He had no idea what I was talking about (and most internet terminology is English in the Thai Language!) - so get them to have a look for you. It will definitely allow you to rule out the line as a problem.

Lastly, if you're seeing the disconnects through the poker client/site itself then that's where the problem is most likely to be. I used to play with Pokerstars/Ultimatebet & Pacific, but I had to just give up in the end as the disconnections were causing me problems and lost pots when I did play. All Thai ISPs seem to have severe issues when connecting to the Isle of Man-based servers for Pokerstars, for example. That could have a lot to do with packet shaping by the Thai ISPs, as I believe poker clients (if that's what you use) use FTP/SSH transfer. You might want to visit Glasnost (Google it) and then try the SSH transfer test (which is basically secure FTP) and see if True are doing anything with your traffic. If they are, then that's highly likely where the problem will be. Thai ISPs still have a responsibility in accordance with the MICT to try and block or prevent access to online gambling, along with the plethora of other things they try and stop us from seeing. Again they are ways and means around all blocks, but I am not going to discuss them here and it's nothing a little googling won't fix on your part, if you are interested.

I think I've just about covered everything!

Best of luck sorting it out.

Manin, I've had True DSL ever since I've had a home in BKK, and they're the only ISP I've ever used here, I guess, because they've provided satisfactory, not great, but satisfactory service for a reasonable price.....

No shortage of complaints against many ISPs. Location, location, location seems to be a major factor. In some locations the ISP has good, local internet circuits/capacity; in other locations the ISP doesn't. This seems to be reflected in why some folks praise ISP XYZ while other folks curse ISP XYZ. It seems to be a crap shoot sometimes as to how good (or bad) your ISP is in your area. It can definitely be frustrating.

You both make excellent points and forgive me for being rash or unreasonable with my earlier post. As I said at the bottom of it, I needed to vent!

I agree that there have been posts/threads here that criticize True, it's just that there seems to be less of them in my opinion and I definitely do not see the other mainstream ISP alternatives (3BB/TOT) ever getting any praise for any reason. They are villified all the more.

I've mentioned this on another thread and I think some of us fall foul of expecting the level of service consistency we get back in our respective countries of origin, not withstanding the fact that in those countries we can really give our ISPs an earful if they are not doing what we like. Here, coming down hard on anyone in business is very counter-productive. We choose to live here, ultimately and we should know what to expect as a result. It's just very very frustrating as you say Pib. Lost internet connectivity basically means lost money to me. I don't think it's much to ask for, even in Thailand, some connection consistency. They can even take it down a level or two, it doesn't have to be 16Mb, I'd take half of that for a nice stable connection. I'm dreaming though.

I do agree with your statement that location makes a big difference, and I would also say the distance that is inbetween your house/connection and the main ISP exchange in the area. I have been told this by True themselves. Sometimes though, you can't dictate where exactly you'll be living or working.

Overall, like you say jfc, True appear to be the best of a really dire selection.

P.S. Re changing over your contract without your prior approval - 3BB (when they were Maxnet) did exactly the same thing with me. They did away with some ridiculously named service they had, bumped me up to an increased speed on a completely different program, and all without my prior consent. Sufficed to say, I gave them an earful, much like you did. I would argue that nearly every business in Thailand think that if they can get away with it (as most Thais won't complain) they'll definitely do it. I feel sorry for the CSR people that have to suffer the barrage from us. I'd love to get one of their suits on the phone to hear what I have to say. Fat (cat) chance!

Best of luck to you all with your ISP woes. We live in hope! I feel much better for getting this all off my chest though

I live in Surat Thani and I have a 3BB 16Mb "regular" package (old indy - as they have no 16Mb premier), after switching from the Maxnet/3BB Premier 5Mb service as it had become utterly unusable - even within Thailand. 30+ hops for my packets when trying to get to Google's servers within Thailand? Thanks 3BB.

I originally saw 3BB's advertising for their 20Mb/4Mb package before I changed to 16Mb - I could really do with the increasing uploading speed. Although it was emblazoned over all their advertising they did not have the hardware in place to offer anyone that service where I live! While I was in the 3BB shop @ Tesco in Surat to change to the 16Mb package (about and hour, maybe longer) their in-house internet was not working. They had to fill out everything by form. I know, as I offered to help them fix it there and then. They declined, but it must have been so embarrassing for them. THIS IS AN INTERNET COMPANY WHOSE OWN IN-HOUSE INTERNET DOES NOT WORK! I am not joking. What do you think I was thinking, as a customer, when I left the shop? They are an utter joke.

I've had seriously problems with it from 2006 until now. Yesterday , on that very same 16Mb connection I was getting speeds both inside and outside of Thailand of a little over 1Mb, which is farcial. I was trying to get some work done and I just had to stop. It ruined my day. I don't mind a slight reduction in speed, but 1/16th is really totally unacceptable.

This was all after I had had a 3BB line technician team (over 4 people no-less) round on Wednesday and Thursday to replace the TOT shared telephone line, with one of 3BB's own. It made absolutely no difference. The service/speed is still sh*t and I'm really not a happy bunny.

I've been told that I just have to suffer in silence on a Saturday/Sunday BY THE ISP THEMSELVES!! All the kids and casual users want to use the internet at these times, and also on weeknights say from 5pm - 11pm. I really don't begrudge the user, that's their right. They probably won't even care that it's at a crawl at these times.

What I do mind is me paying well over 2,500 THB, much, MUCH more than the casual user does and being forced down to an equal level of service as the people only paying 599 THB, I'm paying the upper range for a reason. I want the very best level of service I can get. Also I really can take advantage of 16Mb WITHIN Thailand - it's not just international traffic I crave. This is also severely affected. I am very annoyed with them and have been for about 4 years as a customer.

I've said this before, but 3BB also really insulted me in my home. I got them round a couple of months ago to have a look at the lines, and while in my house, they noticed my brand new LinkSys wired AG241 router and told me having "shoddy" equipment, really could be to blame. They were blaming my top-of-the-range router! Have you seen the ridiculous Huawei piece of sh*t router they give out with their packages? I mean, please. This is one of the very few times I've been very very very annoyed by a Thai representing a company. I know connectivity, I know my life's work.

I speak Thai, I have a Thai wife, leuk krung children (grown up ones) who talk to the ISP on my behalf when I'm too angry. They have been treated equally as badly by the ISP. So it's not a "failure to communicate" thing.... they are just an awful ISP.

In summary JetSet I would really stay well clear - I've had 4 years of real hassle with them.

On a much lighter and happier note....

In my second home I also own a 16Mb True Premium connection. True have only just managed to get near to my moo ban, but not yet in it. I had to get a second house, where it's close. I didn't buy this I just rent - but have wonderfully been told by True I can take the line over when they do get to my moo ban in 5-6 months. I'm just so impressed with them. It's such a shame the new house is nowhere near as comfortable as my owned home (roaches and the like!). I just have to accept it, it's work and that comes first. True aren't far off getting their lines into my main home! HOORAY!

I got this just over a month ago and it's been a real life-saver. All of my work is internet based and a stable connection is of the utmost importance. It has failed only once since I got the connection and moreover, any time of day I try to use it I get fantastic speeds. Downloading at well over 1500kbps on a Saturday and Sunday and page load times, FTP transfers, p2p downloading, and general use, is NEVER interrupted and good enough that if I was in the UK, I'd be equally as pleased to have them as an ISP. They are a shining beacon in a rather depressing and bleak lanscape of ISPs in Thailand, not only that their 16Mb Premium is even cheaper than 3BB's 16Mb "normal/indy" after tax!

The fact is I should NOT really have to be doing all of this. The wasted time and money I'd really rather not have lost. Although thanks to True I can work with much more ease, so it's been a very productive exercise and I'm very glad I went to the trouble of getting it.

I personally cannot speak for TOT as I've never tried them, but they appear to be as shambolic as the ridiculous 3BB from the numeours threads here saying just the same thing. Rarely do I see threads like this referring to True. With good reason.

If you're in an area where you can get a True line in - for your sanity you have to get it. They do have sporadic coverage in the cities they do cater for outside of Krung Thep, and it can be hit and miss whether they are in your moo ban or apartment block. I had to specifically get my second house in an area they cover, but it's taken all my headaches away.

Lastly, if you were to look at all the ISPs and say which of them was taking the most massive strides as a business, it would have to be True. The 50Mb lines in Krung Thep, which I can see filtering all over the country in the coming years. I also say that True will be the first to introduce 100Mb lines to Thailand, and good luck to them. IMO they are everything an ISP should be. Not only this, they speak fantastic English, have a bi-lingual website and come out to you when they say they will.

I've made several posts just like this, you'll probably notice, as it's really the only way I have to voice and vent my frustration in my own language and it's cathartic for me. Sorry you have all listen to my rants, but I think I have to say it. I definitely need to say it! I hope it serves as a warning for others.

In summary JetSet, I strongly urge you to get True, if it's possible.

I live in Surat as my username implies and I regularly go to Khanom, Hua Sai and Thung Song in Nakhon to visit in-laws and get in some fishing while I'm there as they're pretty much all avid fisherpeople - my wife included!

As Khanom is on the Gulf of Thailand I either rent out a longtail for the day with my brother in-law or alternatively I fish off the rocks at Khlong Note - near where the dolphin watching tours leave from (see photos below) It's really lovely there and you can see right across to Samui, even see the ferry pier on a clear day. Not many people realise but Khanom was the main ferry pier from the mainland to Samui up until about 15 years ago, before Don Sak was built. There's still very clear evidence of that there. We either take tents with us and sleep under the stars on the beach or hire one of the many bungalows dotted around the area. You can also get a 3 bedroom villa, right on the seafront, for 1,200 THB - which is right next to the now defunct ferry pier.

You can also see the Mu Koh Ang Thong National Marine Park, and if you get a nice local Thai fisherman guide, he can take you out to any of the tiny and numerous islands dotted all around the archipelago. For me Mu Koh Ang Thong is one of the best kept secrets and very much overshadowed by it's big brother Samui and little sister Pha Ngan sitting right next to it - thank heavens! It's my second favourite place in Thailand for paradise after Koh Rok/Koh Kradan/Koh Lipe on the Andaman in Krabi/Trang.

As I said above you can also rent out a longtail for dolphin spotting in the area and the trips are quite successful - common grey porpoises with black flecking. They bow-ride and look up at your from the water, that's amazing when they do that. They're such fantastically empathetic and intelligent animals that can take on a shark and win! I've heard stories of them protecting humans, herding a human in a pod they've formed to protect from sharks. Simply fantastic.

The thing I love about sea fishing here is that there such a wide variety of fish species. To name just some of the fish I have caught there - either boating or on rocks:

Bla Kang Baan - Oriental Sweet Lip, light brown or rusty colour with large black spot towards tail.

Bla Duk Talay - Saltwater Catfish (deep grey/green in colour and apparently have much stronger poison in their gill barbs - I didn't intend to test this out!)

Bla Salit Talay - A yellow and black striped saltwater gourami. Ubiquitous in the Andaman sea as well as in the Gulf of Thailand.

Bla Nok Geow - Parrot fish in a variety of colours.

Bla Nok Khow - Another type of sweetlip except these are silver

Bla Lang Keow - I don't know the English for this, but the name in Thai literally translates to green-backed fish.

Bla Lai Talay - Saltwater eels. Again a variety of colours.

Bla Siat Khao - Silver Dorado - not the long green variant more stout and obviously silver the one I caught was well over 7kgs.

Bla Oh - The very very ubiquitous mackerel, seen commonly in open air markets baked and about 30 baht per fish. I really can't stand them to eat, but they're very popular with the muslim community.

Bla Pak Pao - Globe/Puffer fish, which are always immediately thrown back. My brother in law really sees these as a hindrance to his fishing. They have a tendency to bite through line.

Bla Kra Baan - Saltwater rays and skates. Normally sand coloured, some deeper browns too and greys.

Bait for saltwater - I generally use live shrimp, kept with a machine-generated air supply in a cooler, when going for larger fish I'll tend to use squid, normally dead, sometimes live if we can keep them that long. We actually go out for the squid too the night before, which in itself is great fun, you should see the hooks (very odd looking) they use and the lighting rigs they have for that. I won't go into the process in detail here, but if you ever get offered the opportunity don't pass it up.

Also there's the option to catch smaller fish for live bait in the rock shallows, which you hook and cast or cut up if you fancy. I find Bla Lang Keow are the best for this and I generally use a 6 hook Sabiki Rig as you can get 6 fish on if you're lucky and these Lang Kiow are like mackerel. They'll go for anything, even just the bare hooks! Fish jumping onto your hooks really is funny sometimes.

I caught the majority of the different types in Khanom, and only really got dorado in Hua Sai.

There's more but these are all I can remember right now for saltwater.

In Thung Song, which is not dissimilar to Surat Thani really, we take a small oared channel boat, which is really good fun as we mainly go for Bla Chadoh - Giant Snakeheads and Bla Chon - Regular/Striped Snakeheads. Again we go and get the bait ourselves the night before, taking a torch out on my brother in-law's palm oil plantation and catching small frogs ourselves to use in a live bait rig, "spring-loaded" so as not to snag the hook on the vegetation. I also take along bright and dark frog lures, which I buy from my brilliant tackle shop in Surat and then back this up with all manner of insects which we catch ourselves, grasshoppers, juvenile roaches, crickets all work well.

N.B. Toads will not work. The fish really don't like them. I'm talking about the Ee-Ang toads, the one that make that racket at night after a rainy spell. They get their Thai name from the noise the make "eee, aaaang, eee, aaaang", haha! They're dark grey/green with a white chest.

The frogs you should use are called "dtua kiat" or "luuk kiat" they are not tree frogs, which are normally very bright, they're small ground dwelling frogs about the length of a pinkie.

The channel we go out on is really bank to bank stuffed with lotus plants and give the predatory fish great places to hide we find a nice spot and cast out over the plants and make the frogs jump reeling in at a steady and medium pace. Chon and Chadoh go for bait very quickly and you have to have your wits and reflexes about you to get one on. Your striking here has to be at its best. It's very exciting as you are basically hunting these and it's a battle of wits.

Chadoh's are the real prize, I've had a couple around 5-6kgs, but nothing mythical yet, which I think is mostly due to the fact that the channel is relatively small, so they never get to those sizes. I have seen pictures from people have gone out on Chiew Larn reservoir near Khao Sok and there's some real monsters in there. I'm dying to go one day.

One thing I will say for Chon/Chadoh, they're probably the most intelligent fish I have ever tried to catch. They're also extra sensitive to disturbances so try to approach them as noiselessly as possible. I really enjoy fishing for these.

Another way Thais catch Chadohs/Chons in these channels around plantations is an invention I've only ever seen in Thailand - a yore. They call the way of using this "york yore" which means to lift the yore. It's a massive pulley system, that has a large square net attatched to four poles that hang the net down into the water to the bottom. They are built on mini-piers that extend out into the canals about 10 meters. You lower the net into the water with a winch - which is on the bank, let some time pass and when you think fish have made their way above the net, you wind in the winch and quickly bring the net up, trapping any unsuspecting fish. Nowhere near as interesting as line fishing - but you can sit with your mates, having some drinks, making as much noise as you want and catch all manner of things.

Back in Surat Thani, the fishing is nowhere near as good unfortunately and all the tributaries of the Tapi River I have found to be quite poor for wild fish. There's pay for play places, but I've always liked wild fishing myself.

When I do fish, I generally catch:

Bla Duk

Bla Kayeng (dwarf catfish/mystus)

Bla Lai (black eel with red flecks)

Bla Gaa (carp family, generally black or very deep brown)

Bla Gote (silver catfish with a black spot on the dorsal fin - be warned their gill barbs have a strong poison in, I acidentally stabbed the webbing between my fingers with one and it really really hurt - for a while)

Bla Sawai

Bla Jiin (again another fish I don't know in English, but translates to Chinese Fish from Thai - they're quite large dark brown with red marks/fleckings, I suspect part of the gourami family)

Bla Selamet - (don't know English for this either, they're silver with a pink/red sheen, and average 0.5 to 2 kgs.

Bla Nin

Bla Tapien Khao/Deng (red-tailed tinfoil barb and the Javanese silver barb)

Bla Yee Sok - (the Isok barb)

Bla Siew - (Tiny rasbora, when over-the-shoulder net fishing - which I'm trying to learn!)

Bla Pak Pao - (the freshwater puffer)

and lastly large blue-armed fresh water crayfish - one of which I actually caught on a line with live shrimp - cannibalistic!

Bait-wise dead shrimp is a favourite, feeders with foam filled with the rice-flour/banana/oil mix, earthworms, ragworms (which I buy), insects, frogs, home made boilies, corn, bread.

As for what I'd really like to get my hands on. Well there's a company my brother in law knows in Ranong that will take you out shark fishing. What for, I don't exactly know. But the words, shark and fishing make me almost salivate. What a prospect! I'd like to go for the Mekong Giant obviously, the freshwater giant ray, Tarpon, Arapaimas, Alligator Gar, Mahseer and Marlin none of which you come across in my neck of the woods. Or so I believe/have been told. Maybe someone might know otherwise.

One thing I will say about Thailand is that it is utterly unbeatable for variety, such a rich and colourful abundance of fish, if you look in the right places.

If any of you make it down my way and want a guide, I'd be more than happy to help!

Here's some photos of me out in Khanom on a very unorganised spot of rock fishing. I have other photos on cameras somewhere that I'll have to dig out at some point so I can show some great catches.

Sorry some of the photos are so large!

The fish the Thai guy is holding is an Oriental Sweet Lip, the very unkempt farang is me (i'd had a few by the time this photo was taken - what's fishing without a beer or 17?!) and the location is Khlong Dote, Khanom on the Surat Thani/Nakhon province border. In the first picture you can actually see part of Samui in the background.

Found a live stream for it! Not as good as TV but alright...

Click Here

I would have thought the game would be on terrestrial TV after the Bulgaria game was televised, anyone know where I can find, if I can find it. Thanks.

ManinSurit

That is great to know. I got a Google phone number a little while ago, the one number that you can forward to any of your other numbers, home, cell, work etc.. The thing that bothered me about it was that they would email you your voice mails in typed format. I do not remember but I believe they will also do it for any call that you record, which you can do with their service. I figured that Google already knew enough about me from every time I used their search engine. But the price that they charge for the service you mentioned sounds good.

Thanks for this heads up mate. I'll have a look at it when I get a chance. I don't mind paying an upfront fee for something if it really delivers.

For the time being the above method is perfect, as I can get HTTPS/Socks proxies with ease.

When Gmail alters it stance on this, MagicJack might come in very handy!

:jap:

Oh and about your Blu Ray blanks, I haven't seen them in any of the major retailers here, but I'm in Surat, so I don't have much choice.

I would have though shipping them in would be a good idea if you can EMS it you should be able to get past customs, but don't hold me to that and you might need to look into it.

Price-wise though, this is very agreeable at under $6 per. It's Amazon.

Blu Ray Discs

That's what I would probably go for myself.

I'm not really up to speed with Blu Ray disc prices, so this might be rubbish, sorry in advance if it is!

Never had any problems with getting things into Thailand from Amazon.

Guys I know I said TheBox is dead, BUT it isn't. It's very much alive, if you're a torrent fan I really suggest you get yourself an account.

Just use this link here:

Sign Up!

Maybe they've just changed their policy and it's a conincidence or maybe they are trying to stem the flow of leechers (yes, like me!) from the main site URL. I really don't know but I don't care.

What a result this turned out to be. I know have a new confirmed account. Sweet! ThaiVisa is a little joy sometimes.

Screen:

New Account!

As you'll see in there, and as quite rightly pointed out by astral, they do monitor how much you upload and download, which is annoying, but ultimately necessary.

Also you'll notice TheEmpire is a sister site to TheBox - although I haven't tried it yet I have a feeling just by the look of them that Empire is for US TV and Box for UK.

So....I'm well chuffed now!

Off to play with my Box (if you'll excuse me!)

Some sites, like TheBox, TheEmpire require you to keep a certain ratio of upload to download,

otherwise you go into Ratio Warning and are liable to be banned if you do not upload enough.

To be fair to others you must be prepared to keep downloads on disk for a while so that people

can share. Alternatively you can make new material available for upload.

I had a TheBox account, but I fell foul of their anti-leeching policy and it was taken away. They are simply a fantastic source of UK TV, stuff like Rick Stein's older series which are really hard to get.

Unfortunately you'll notice now they only hand out accounts via invitation as you'll see here:

TheBox

Such a shame that. Really wish I wasn't such a leech whore now!

Ah well, that's life I suppose.

Generally the iPlayer has everything I need now.

As for everything non-UK related I use RS/MU/HF, instead of torrents, just for my nerves and as I get great upper range speeds (which are constant for most of the day) when using in conjuntion with FDM (alright it's $10 a month for this but as those speeds, I'm more than happy to pay it) here's a screenshot:

At those speeds we're talking a 700MB avi in just over 5 mins. I literally think of a film and have it ready, after I've gone to make a cup of tea!

It's about 1400 now, but after midnight, it kicks into overdrive and goes above 1700 and that's True 16M, I've never had a torrent at that speed I have to say.

Sometimes I have to use a torrent and yes, Demonoid is normally the way forward or Vuze.

I try to stay away from them where I can, just due to all ISPs stance, especially True who have the latest technology to use in the fight against P2P. I read an article about it the other day - but for the life of me can't remember where it was. The basic jist of it was that they are doing more than just packet shaping. They're ahead of the game. P2P in Thailand leaves me really cold.

It's annoying as if you're an MMO gamer like me, it messes that experience up for you too. Thailand are very very fond of their MMOs so it makes no sense to me.

Oh and thanks for the heads up about TheEmpire, I like the look of that. It's identical to TheBox in design and not invitation only. I think I might make an account now. Nice one astral!

That's actually pretty decent gonzo, I'd give that one a try first. It has a 54Mbps upper limit, which will be fine for you and as it's ASUS you'll have loads of places you can go to get it fixed if it ever breaks or you can just switch over to the N-link in an emergency - if you do decide to get it.

I also like the fact that that router has a built-in printer server which a nice little addition.

I'd choose that over the N-link for sure. I would personally say you don't need to fork out for a new one.

Maybe think about updating the firmware of the ASUS when you do get to try it.

There's a really interesting Google written guide about changing the firmware on that router HERE

Obviously I take no responsibility of anything that happens as a result of you changing your firmware! It's a pretty straight forward process though.

Hope it works out for you mate. :jap:

I am so fed up, I have been in thailand 10 years and it is no better then when I first came here, they say the speeds are higher that is all!!! www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ San Francisco server 450 on a 4 MB Primiere account. what should I do? If I sold something to a thai that was that far from doing what it was supposed to be doing what do you think would happen?

Yeah you'd get in trouble, or be rounded on!

Here as the customer you get nowhere. Thais would also get nowhere when complaining to 3BB IMO. I frequently had by daughter call them up who is leuk krung and she was palmed off just as much as I was!! Unless you're an incredibly high ranking Thai official you're stuck - even then that's debatable as it's like a cancer in the bad ISPs. They can't just sort it out in a day. It's much deeper than that.

You have to realise that Thailand is still an Economically Developing Country and as such it's countrywide internet infrastructure can't be compared to that of what you are more familiar with in your native country (US?).

...

Just remember my cousin who at the time were in Sweden (supposed to be one of the high-speed internet paradises right?) where most people have 100Mbps internet...

When it didn't work and she called helpdesk they promised her that it will be fixed when there is a technician available... probably next week or the week after... great that they plan their future but...

...I prefer Thailand!

I have had some problems here in Thailand, but since I got ADSL and all of my problems have been fixed within 24 hours...

Martin

Who are you with Martin? I bet it's True!!

I'll genuinely be shocked if you're with TOT or 3BB/Maxnet/TT&T/etc/etc/etc!

One thing I will agree with you on here, is that for me, with True, the come to you when they say they will. Again, my personal experience. 3BB on the other hand never came when they said they would and when they did, they thought there is no possible way I would have some understanding of how the internet works and be able to know when they're BS-ing me.

Amazed that the callout times are so long in Sweden, you're right they and South Korea are allegedly the best countries in the world if you need connectivity. Shame neither of them are as beautiful and comfortable as LOS (IMO!)

I am so fed up, I have been in thailand 10 years and it is no better then when I first came here, they say the speeds are higher that is all!!! www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ San Francisco server 450 on a 4 MB Primiere account. what should I do? If I sold something to a thai that was that far from doing what it was supposed to be doing what do you think would happen?

Yeah you'd get in trouble, or be rounded on!

Here as the customer you get nowhere. Thais would also get nowhere when complaining to 3BB IMO. I frequently had by daughter call them up who is leuk krung and she was palmed off just as much as I was!! Unless you're an incredibly high ranking Thai official you're stuck - even then that's debatable as it's like a cancer in the bad ISPs. They can't just sort it out in a day. It's much deeper than that.

You have to realise that Thailand is still an Economically Developing Country and as such it's countrywide internet infrastructure can't be compared to that of what you are more familiar with in your native country (US?).

It's rife with corruption and this affects the quality of the work done in putting the necessary infrastructure in place.

Moreover it's also a country where most media has to be checked before it is allowed in the public domain and this extends to the internet massively. Admittedly the MICT do a crappy job and it's easy to get past their filter, but I'm talking more from a point of the amount of hops your packets take to get to and from the server you're trying to connect to. I remember I had over 30 hops for Google.com with 3BB. I mean, <deleted>!?

Like I said before and I'll say again True Online seem to be the only ISP in Thailand that are trying to emulate good western business practices and I, for one, really applaud them for it. Singapore by comparison, which is much smaller and richer has only just introduced 100M lines - Thailand's 50M lines have been out for a while now, and Thailand is a much poorer country per capita. I don't think it'll be too long before 100M lines are available here, if only in BKK for the first few years. But that is real progression and it's going be True that is spearheading everything.

3BB just have an air of "really don't give a sh*t - now go away and suffer in silence" about them (others have had experience to the contraty as we see here, but I think that's a minority opinion.)

The attitude they gave me was very much like this and I hate them as a company as a result.

P.S. I've mentioned this elsewhere genoBKK, but be wary when checking your speeds, I know for a fact ISPs can fake data on the Global Speetest which is top of Google's searched. Speeds of 34ms to west coast USA? Faster than the speed of light? Physics says NO! I'm afraid.

I don't know if speakeasy do it, but just be forewarned. Try and find another test if you can. Glasnost (google it) are great if you want to know if an ISP is playing with your connection. Also the free trial with DUmeter is interesting too.

Manin Surat,

You certainly have received bad service.

As for True being a good company we have not had the same experience I have found their staff rude and lacking in intelligence.

My latest story is a couple of weeks ago they did not show up to install a phone line nor did they call to apologize or reschedule. I went to the local true office and they said that they had accidently cancelled my new phone account and neglected to yell me after I had paid in advance of course.

Many other True horror stories with an emphasis on many....

I have had 3B in a past organization the name I forget now in the countryside and yes their staff was dizzy but not rude. and yes their internet speed was probably half what they advertised outside of Thailand but not too bad I was on an Indy account at first and then upgraded.

You are quite right, my personal bad experience might not necessarily mean others have had such a torrid time with them. I just was really really let down by them as a company and in the UK I would have taken this up with an ombudsman if I could, but we're in LOS right!?

Someone once told me this gem of wisdom.... "A happy customer will generally tell 10 people of their good experience with a company. A p*ssed of customer will generally tell 100".

The way I was treated by 3BB/Maxnet/TT&T (or whatever permutation they have mutated into now!) - was absolutely unacceptable.

I personally think you're very fortunate and seem to me to be one voice out lots that have had a decent experience and/or level of service from 3BB.

I'll be sticking with True, mainly because I'm eyeing their 50M Ultra Hi-Speed in the hope that it filters down my way in relatively decent time, which I think with True and True alone this is a possibility.

Where are the other ISPs with regards to this kind of progressive attitude towards their service?

Also, the last time I checked, for the prospective foreign market (which must be quite large) 3BB has no online advertising in a language other than Thai. Which is utterly ridiculous.

Either they really just don't care or they don't want the hassle and bother of having to hire someone to do the work, it can't be a cultural thing as we're talking about the prospect of them earning fortunes after minimum outlay. Obviously 3BB just don't think like this, which is mental.

Maybe I'm wrong and maybe it's there somewhere, I've looked all over this (LINK) and can't see anything.

Where as True quite clearly have the change language feature at the top of the site. Alright I don't need it and most internet savvy people with common sense should be able to navigate to the products and prices page in Thai, but not everyone falls into this category. I would say the majority of potential foreign custom doesn't either.

More reasons why I think they're a shambles, but that is just personal opinion.

WD is good as are Seagate, Samsung and Fujitsu. The WD Green is not really a good choice for the boot drive because it spins at 5400 RPM vs. 7200 for most, including the WD Black and Blue series HDDs. You would probably do well with a WD Black 1TB or a Seagate 7200.12 1 TB or even larger, say, 1.5 or 2 TB HDD (data will eventually fill up any space that may be made available). I would recommend using Acronis True Image to transfer everything from your current HDD to the new one, then setting the new as the boot drive and relegating the old 500GB to secondary drive or perhaps as external backup unit.

In the product listing on Thanni it has the 2TB WD Green as 7200rpm. With an average seek time of 8.9ms which compared to Samsung, Hitachi, et al is pretty much par for the course.

I believe they also offer 1TB drives that also have 7200 too.

Is there any chance the product listing is wrong?

LINK

There's conflicting data here, where they say it's 5400rpm like you say... confusing...

LINK

EDIT: Upon closer inspection I can see the model on Thanni is the "WD20EARS"... (love that it's called twenty ears, makes me think of some mythical beast!) and the other, the first 2TB SATA drive in the world no less, is the "WD20EADS" so that might clear things up.

Latex

Here are some brilliant one-liners from probably the most naturally funny man that ever lived.

If you have a spare moment, youtube some of his performances.

Even when he passed on - due to heart attack on stage - people thought he was joking!

We miss you Tommy!

Here's some of his classics:

"Police arrested two kids yesterday, one was drinking battery acid, the other was eating fireworks. They charged one and let the other one off."

"I'm on a whiskey diet. I've lost three days already."

"I cleaned the attic with the wife the other day.

Now I can't get the cobwebs out of her hair. "

"I went to Bournemouth for the weekend and arrived late a night. I found the first B&B threw a stone at the window and the lady of the house opened up. I said - I wanna stay here for the night - she said - STAY THERE!"

"I called a local builder's yard and said - I wanna skip in my backyard tomorrow. He said - you can do what you want - it's a free country."

"Received a lovely little note from the someone the other day - they were very complimentary - to the extent they left a note on my car. It said PARKING FINE!"

"Went to the corner shop - bought 4 corners."

Just brilliant and without the need for profanity!

If you're out or in with your mates.... get them to write down the following on a piece of paper "ALPHA, KENNY, BUDDY"

Then get them to say it as loud as they can as FAST as they can, prefereably in a public place as a bet.

Laugh at the fallout!

Oldie, but a goodie, which many of you may have heard before. I love this joke:

A pirate walks into a bar with a steering wheel in the front of his trousers.

The barman shocked at seeing such an appendage asks the man, "Er... why do you have a steering wheel in your pants mate?"

To which the pirate replies.... "Arrr, it's drivin' me nuts!"