ManInSurat

Oh I'm very sorry, I completely misunderstood that line in your OP.

I genuinely thought you meant that the mail had tried to tell you that your friend had passed on in an effort to get you to open it.

I apologies for coming across as crass, that really was not my intention! :jap:

I like you have the WDC 500GB - mine is the Caviar Green SATA, I just have 4 of them installed, and at 2TB it's more than I need for now.

Were you looking for 1TB+ drive space in one drive? If so, Thanni.com has a 2TB WDC Caviar Green on their site for 4,120 - I'd say for maximum space and price that's probably a decent option.

I think with WDC you get for what you pay for.

As someone once told me - you pay cheap, you pay twice!

I think that's well intended info, but overkill for most. I think if the OP is getting a package that does not incl. a free router (ie. the cheapest), he's unlikely to splash out 2000THB on a supposedly better router. Those 2000THB might be better spent on getting a contract with a few more mbps. Or getting 3 months free internet, depending how you look at it.

The n-link router should do just fine. Like I said, it won't cut it if you need n speeds. Get it for free!

There's no need to install any True software AFAIK. You can do the install from a browser.

You're quite right schmutzie, and that post was written with a bad taste in my mouth from some awful routers I have had the misfortune to have. Overkill? Yes probably!

I don't know of the OP's internet needs and if you're a casual user then I would completely agree that this N-Link router should suffice. All statements made in my post were just my opinion, which like bumholes - everyone has!

As I said from my personal experience I prefer the level of service I receive using my new router than with the old, as a user who is online 10+ hours a day.

Also as siamect says, I also like fact that I can have the level of control over the router that I need and there isn't any unecessary bundled software. It is a trueonline branded N-link router, which I really don't like the look of! Personal preferences again.

I hope you end up choosing the best option available to you OP. Best of luck!

P.S. Thanks for sharing the info about the browser/True setup compatibility, which I know this back when I did it! I just edit router settings myself, wherever I can - but the True technician was with me at the time and they like to do things their way.

I’d say what has happened is that your now deceased friends email account has been hacked.

Spammers are now sending out messages to everyone in his address book and it will look like the messages originate from your friends account.

Looks like you’ve got plenty of advice on how to filter theses messages.

Very good point MTH and one I overlooked. This is also a possibility. The fact that they are also sending from alternate domains makes me think they're either employing some form of SMTP spoofing or are just sending from other domains at their want and need.

Have you asked your friend if this has happened? Maybe he isn't actually aware if this is the case and you might be doing him/her a favour.

Thank you for this very comprehensive reply (and apologies to Tywise for posting the url), but having looked again at the domain names, each and every one of them is completely different?! albeit with the same name of my friend as the 'sender' for all. This is the only spam I get on this particular account - (for personal use only), and so I know Gmail's spam filter, in all other respects, to be a good one. So how did these many domains, using the same 'sender' get around it?!

These spammers should really get a life:angry:

You're more than welcome and I really do feel your pain.

What has happened is that you've either signed up somewhere suspect or what I actually think has happened - you've got an infected file on your unit that can harvest your mail data and see your contacts and use this to prey on your emotions, like with the desipcable "deceased friend" message. What a simply terrible thing to do to people!

A good thing to do now, for free, is to Google TrendMicro Housecall which is a free malware/anti-v/spyware checker that can do it over the internet so you don't have to download anything. It has a pretty comprehensive database of new trojans, worms etc. That way you can see if you have any infection. I do this about once a week.

We all like to sign up for things and sometimes we can't avoid getting infected. Technology has progressed to the extent that URLs alone can infect your unit if your security settings aren't up to scratch.

As I said before, once they have your personal information, they can send you mails from everywhere and you can't block all imcoming spam unless you block all imcoming mails!

It's a very sad side-effect for the general public, but being able to have access to FREE internet based mail clients means that there there will always be a small proportion that will use the service for their own nefarious means.

They can also create unlimited domains from which to "attack" you from. Until the hosting site kills their account that is. Some places Israel, China, India, also offer "bulletproof" domains and SMTP services for a large fee that will allow their spammers to get away with what they're doing with impunity. The only way this can be counteracted is by the free major MSPs learning of the SMTP data of these "bulletproof" companies and blocking them, which is hard to keep up with as you would imagine.

Of all the methods I have looked into; reporting to either Google or Spamhaus is probably the best option you have. Alright, you alone cannot change the world, but if enough people are there with you adding their signatures, Big Brother will eventually do something about it as it denigrates the overall service the more upstanding members of their usership receives.

We have ways and means to fight, but ultimately and very sadly, I think it's a losing battle - while FREE services are there to be used.

To try and help you in some way just to get these out of your inbox, if you notice a similar pattern forming in the mail address that is sending to your mail account - Gmail is intelligent enough for it to allow you to block portions of a mail address. Try and spot a pattern in the mail addresses they chose to use and try to block this. It may help.

What is worse is than in my spam mail account I have, there are messages that are from "me" meaning that the spammer has the techonology or knowhow available to them to be able to spoof the SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol) data and thus trick the MSPs into thinking the mail is coming from another point of origin. This REALLY gets up my nose.

Hope this helps and best of luck with trying to kill this bane on society.

well bloody said the man above me. @GENOBKK join our facebook group. "gaming and internet problems in Thailand." you may rant to your hearts content there:annoyed:

Lmao, get him signed up 'Arris! Good man!

Well I was doing some research yesterday, and although this might be common knowledge I thought I would share what I found with TV.

In my line of work I have to make calls to America, landlines and mobiles, and I used to use Skype. They don't have bad rates, although there is also a connection fee per call I believe.

Well all of that has been blown out of the water now - for me at least.

1. Get yourself an American Proxy/IP that allows you to log into Gmail - basically you need HTTPS/Socks. These are available for free, you just need to know where to look.

(I'll let you search for this yourself lest I fall foul of TV's rules - Google is your friend. If you don't know what Google is - GOOGLE IT!)

2. Create yourself a new Gmail account with said IP.

3. Login and wait for the page to completely load.

4. You will notice that on the left-handside navigation bar at the bottom of the page, there is an option called "Call". Enter a US number in here and Gmail will prompt you to accept their telephony settings.

5. Re-enter the number, dial it, et viola, free calls to America/Canada until they suspend this service.

Alright, you need to find the IP first, but once you have, you're golden and saving a fortune if you need to call USA/Canda.

Google state that the reason they are offering this free service to US/Canadian numbers is they want to be a force to rival Skype and that people using their call facilites to other countries around the globe will easily help them recoup any lost amounts to US numbers.

The Skype killer perhaps? I for one think that the quality of the call was better than Skype's. Test for yourself and see what you think.

Happy free calls!

When I signed up for my 16Mb True package I got a free N-Link True Online branded Wi-Fi router - silver in colour.

Personally, I think it's rubbish and I would advise you to avoid - it's 799 THB for a reason! Seeing as it's free with some contracts or included as part of the deal is great. They couldn't exactly hand out top of the range routers for every contract applicant could they!?

I 100% agree with lomatopo, get yourself a LinkSys router if you can. Not overly exspensive and can easily be ordered online from Thanni or Jedicool and delivered via EMS for a total of around 2,000 THB.

That's exactly what I did and I've had uninterrupted service.

On a related topic does anyone else think that the software you have to install with True's internet connection at startup is a farce? Such a shame a fantastic and progressive ISP has such a terrible interface for easy-of-use/point-and-click users. It's a resource hog and IMO not very user friendly at all. It also corrupted some data on my HDD when I uninstalled it.

If you can familiarise yourself with getting into your router and editing settings that way - do so. It'll save you lots of headaches.

N.B. LinkSys are a sister company of Cisco Systems, probably the best router manufacturers in the business.

As already said, don't confuse malware/viruses/spyware - which actually infect your unit - for spam, which is sent from a mail address to yours.

Although you haven't said which MSP (mail service provider) you are using Tywais is absolutely right about Gmail's filtering - it does work and I believe all other free MSPs (Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL etc) also have similar manageability.

A word of advice here when choosing to filter mail coming in, instead of blocking the whole mail address that is sending you spam, choose to block the domain - if it happens to be a domain that is not one you'd ever need to receive mail from. The domain is the part after the @ sign. So if it's a domain you'd never need to receive mail from e.g. viagra(at)sellingviagra.com then block the domain. Beware that you don't block something important - like Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail et al.

If you're using a Windows based mail client, the same rules apply, you can choose to filter out unwanted mail addresses/domains etc.

Unfortunately the nature of the spamming universe is such that these spammers mostly use free MSPs and as such they have access to thousands, if not millions of other mail addresses to send you spam from. Alternatively they can just as easily buy new hosting, get a new domain and start sending you spam from that domain.

It's the fact they have the data of your personal email account which is the bad thing here. As long as they have this they can still get to you for life - it's horrible I know.

A very good piece of advice for you is when filling out forms anywhere on the internet for forum registrations, free offers, or any site that you think could use your information in a way you might not like - use a separate email address. I have a specific mail account I use for registrations to sites that I suspect will send me spam.

Even better than this - visit Yopmail.com - they provide disposable mail accounts that allow you to receive incoming mail to any address you create on the spot - eg ThaiVisa(at)yopmail.com - you don't have to set the account up yourself - any address exists and they have about 15 domains - it's very very very useful for weeding out spam.

If you really are p*ssed off and really want to try and get your own back, then I would suggest reporting the spammer to Spamhaus.org with all the data you can collect on the person sending you the spam. They actually name and shame the most influential spammers in the business today - you'd be amazed at where some of these people come from - some are just your average Joe and others are hardened criminals who have turned from pimping/extortion/human trafficking/drugs to spam. It's actually a very interesting site. Somewhat futile in it's general nature to kill spam (even more so with the advent of the new IPv6 ranges coming on the market soon), but interesting never-the-less.

On a statistical note, it is now reported that approx. 89% of all mail messages sent on a daily worldwide basis are now spam.

Here is a very very important video I suggest you all watch if you're interested in matters of this nature -

Edit: Sorry I just noticed you did mention which MSP you were using - my bad. All the rest of what I said still applies!

I'll happily add my two penn'orth to this.

3BB are absolutely awful. In every sense of the word. The internet service they provide , their customer service, their technicians. They are a poorly formed, poorly managed, money-grabbing ISP who like to take your hard-earned baht and fail to offer you what you paid for in return.

I'm not making these statements without just reason. I first applied for their Premier service, the 5M one back in 2006, it was ok for Thailand when I first got it and from that point forward it slowly went downhill, until it went so far downhill, it ended up in the nether regions of hel_l. In late 2009 after the joke formation of their new "face" (they have had 3 separate names as a company in 4 years - <deleted>!

?) 3BB I decided to plump for their 16M service - mainly because TT&T 5M Premier had gotten so terribly bad I HAD to change - as I really can take advantage of the increased speeds within Thailand. You'd never get 16M to the outside world with Thailand's internet infrastructure, hence why all the shiny shiny marketing ploys for these high-end speeds are bunk for those looking for international traffic.

If you really need fast international speeds/bandwidth in Thailand you need to be in Krung Thep, with True and on their 50M up/3M down Ultra Hi-Speed service.

I'm still a customer of 3BB 16M - I've had them out numerous times to check the lines, and on more than one occasion they basically accused me of having a crap router and a crap unit - I have a LinkSys AG241 wired router - which is basically one of the best you can buy in Thailand and also a i7 950 CPU in conjunction with top of the range motherboard , 2TB of HDD space - again when I bought it all, the best money can buy. His intimation that I had poor hardware really, really offended me. I don't often get angry at Thais, but I had to walk away from that technician lest I do something I'd deeply regret.

In my second house, which I made sure I bought in an area that True can reach to (in Surat Thani) I have a True connection. It's the 16M Premier. I absolutely LOVE it. I had a few hiccups the day of installation. I called their customer service who speak FANTASTIC English, I do speak Thai, but when using internet based terminology I find it much better to converse in my own language - and a line technician was round to my house the next morning, when I was told he would arrive.

He was very dilligent, studiously looked at the job the line installation team had done, said it could be better and went about fixing it himself. After him having worked on it, we tested it together and since then I have completely uniterrupted service for a long time.

Upon noticing the router I had bought and the other hardware I had in my house, he actually complimented me on it and said that he wished True could offer LinkSys routers with their packages instead of the silver piece of flimsy Wi-Fi N-link rubbish they actually do offer - he didn't say it was rubbish I am saying it is, because it actually is!

I think the connection has broken or been down once in several months. I'll admit I get a slight reduction in speed on a Saturday/Sunday morning - as it to be expected with school children and casual users overloading the network - but nothing that ruins the service I get.

This level of customer service is definitely not available with Maxnet/TT&T/3BB - they are, in my opinion, the very worst ISP I have ever had the misfortune to have a contract with in 3 separate countries I have lived in permanently in my life.

I'm just riding out my contract with 3BB as I do get some sporadic use from it when I'm at the other house and my kids can use it if they need to.

What surprises me more is that you're in Krung Thep... I'd always had this assumption that in a internet hub as large as Bangkok you'd be getting excellent service as the lines/infrastructure is the best in the country. Maybe it was a fault on your line - or something that could have been fixed by them coming out to you in person, given personal experience with True housecall line technicians I would have definitely recommended that.

As far as speed testing is concerned, be aware that the Global Speedtest site speeds are easily faked by ISPs. When using their site with my 3BB I got ping speeds to west coast of America of 34ms, which is faster than the speed of light - it's rubbish. Try and find a better test if you haven't already. Google is your friend here.

In summary, sorry to add to the naysayers here, but I think you'll soon come to the realization that TT&T/Maxnet/3BB are a terrible ISP.

True on their other hand are the benchmark which all other ISPs in Thailand should try to aspire to. The very best company I have ever had the pleasure of dealing with in the Land of Smiles.

That's all I have to say and as already said - the best of luck with 3BB and your sanity!

Should any of you any need any pointers with any of the services I use, I'd be happy to help anyone that needs it.

Here endeth the lesson.

It might be easier if you just said, "I don't know anything about this topic, but I do know that services like RapidShare continue to work for me."

Maybe you could try less pontification, and provide more "pointers" in a less cryptic fashion?

I do know things about this topic. I don't know everything there is to know about this topic - nor have I ever said I do.

What I do have is 3 constant years of unbroken internet experience in Thailand where my home is my office - I use it all day everyday. I also speak/read/write fluent Thai. Both are an integral part of my working life and as a result I have managed to acquire some really useful information that I think will make people's lives easier. Quite clearly this is just getting people's backs up and is causing more negative comments and hassle that I had ever anticipated. If I come across as an arrogant b*stard then I apologise for it. I don't want to piss people off, bottom line. You do realise there's no benefit for me in explaining to people about how to go about doing things in other ways? People can try to be helpful without having ulterior motives for doing so. I don't plaster links to personal or affiliated businesses, if I were doing that I could happily accept all the detracting comments, but I don't.

As for "pointers" the info I have put out in TV should really be common knowledge anyway. It's out there if people need to find it. Google, Bing, whatever.

But for you to accuse me of pontificating is laughable - there is absolutely nothing dogmatic about the way I have gone about trying to impart this knowledge I have come across over the years here. I just try and say to people - hey look at this - maybe this could be better for you. I've ACTUALLY tried it and it ACTUALLY works. Not for a few days, not for a few months, for a few years. I try to put forward sound arguments as to why trying something new might be a revalation for some people....from the outside it looks like you're all banging your heads against brick walls - it was primary intention to try and help you alleviate that. I see that intention was misplaced now. I'll read situations like this more carefully in future.

I have not once criticized another TV member for wanting to use torrents as their primary method of downloading and you're quite right in general I should keep my big mouth shout about the whole subject as I'm being no help to anyone at all.

You know what.... sod this.. I'm out. It was a mistake from the outset. I'm going to take my kids out to Koh Lampoo today to feed the fish, the pond on an island in a river! I've been working for 36 hours straight.

No hard feelings, apologies to all those that are offended by my attitude and the best of luck in working out your connectivity problems.

I'm genuinely going to delete my account with ThaiVisa today as the last 2 days has been an utter waste of my time!

Mee chiwit dee mak, dta lod bpai, tuk khon!

<snip>

Note: The uTorrent guide contains a section on patching tcpip.sys and increasing net.max_halfopen settings. IGNORE IT!

<snip>

Do keep in mind, there's no way to "mask" bit torrent traffic -- no matter what port you use.

<snip>

Dämn! So, to summarise, what I must do is:

1. Undo the TCPIP.sys patch - because you say to ignore it

2. Turn off the RC4 encryption - because you say there's no way to "mask" bit torrent traffic

3. Turn off port-forwarding - because ManInSurat says it's a myth.

Glad there are so many experts on this forum.

Haha, JS, a case of too many cooks?

I've never professed to be an expert when it comes to port-forwarding and the 'myth' is not something I made up. I've been told by the ISP, Thais subscribers and farangs alike that port-forwarding specifically with Maxnet is known to be ineffective for a range of different protocols. I can categorically state that I have not done any testing to back those sentiments up, so fundamentally any argument relating to port-forwarding I have here is flawed and I won't press the issue until there's some more consistent verifiable data to see.

I think the idea I am trying to intimate here is that all the time wasted trying to find a workaround for the torrent (which does seem very long winded by the looks of the threads in here) could have been happily spent downloading using other methods and services that are by no means an inconvenience and are very stable. There are other means available other than those I outline, but I just speak about what I know well. I'm not here to plug any service or business - you'd have seen my links plastered everywhere if that were the case, which you know I haven't!

I'm just trying to promote the concept. Get the idea out there. As I genuinely think it'd just make people's lives easier and I consider TV to be a place to be able to come to find the most easy and stress-free way of achieving things in this lovely country. I think people also have an issue with the fact that there's fee with the method I use, but it's such a minor inconvenience. It's $10 a month or 8 large bottles of Chang in the same period! Peanuts. Maybe it's the fact one can be anonymous with a torrent, I don't really know. I just know from personal experience the method I use now is vastly less stressful than any other alternative.

It also seems to me that the ISP don't want to allow their subscribers to run riot with torrents and will do everything to try and stop us, thus making the whole process of say downloading a film, a much more drawn out process than it needs to be. I just want to get the media I'm after, have it saved on my HD and view it at my own leisure and I want all this done in the least amount of fuss and in the quickest time possible. Having to constantly stay ahead of the torrent game (the rules will change all the time) by tyring to garner tidbits of information from TV members, the ISP, locals, the postman, the soi dogs - anyone - would really not be my cup of tea. Maybe some people like the challenge. Is that it? Or not being dictated to by the ISP?

We're all pretty much aware of the fact that the Thai ISPs are completely wont to do what they like outside of being dictated to by the gov in specific areas. They can do what they want and that isn't going to change any time soon! True appear to me to be the only company that genuinely seem to understand the importance of having decent customer relations and are very very aware of their foreign customer base and have changed their advertising and work ethic accordingly. It's great to see. The more long-in-the-tooth ISPs, TOT & Maxnet - let's just say "old dog new tricks" I don't think you can ever win the battle of attrition there - with relation to torrents.

BUT...I digress, back to downloading..... From personal experience what I can say is that using the methods I have outlined above I get all media really very fast, speeds of 1.9 megabits download on a 16M connection last night using RS. That to me is amazing. That's a 700MB film in around 6-7 minutes. Yes, over the last month there have been some severe issues and I was getting the dropouts, lost connections and timeouts like everyone else, but they seem to have gone away for a full 48 hours now. Even when the gremlins were here I would get above 500kbs speeds without issue using the method I do to download.

I promise I won't keep harping on about. I've said all I have to say on my methods and you're quite right, it's time to change the record. I genuinely rest my case now about this.

I prefer to pass my days by without stress in this wonderfully beautiful country! :jap:

Sincerely best of luck with your torrent endeavours all of you, I hope you manage to crack it soon!

Should any of you any need any pointers with any of the services I use, I'd be happy to help anyone that needs it.

Here endeth the lesson.

Google glasnost and check to see if your connection is being throttled. You may be surprised to find out it isn't. A slow download could simply be that the computer you are connecting to is switched off. Remember that the notion of torrents is that you are getting parts of files from other users.

Which neatly fits into the alternative method that I set out above as with the alternative, unless the file-hosting server is undergoing maintenance or under a DDOS attack it will always be there for you and your getting your file in it's complete form and from source. Using a download inconjunction with this to aid in the efficiency of the way the data is downloaded from the server to your machine just compliments the whole process perfectly.

I just think torrent=futility.

I think I've made enough posts that allude to this fact now, lmao

I was definitely under the impression that the myth - that port forwarding "correctly" tuned to work with your torrent download platform was the ultimate solution - had been debunked various times. It just does not work.

I genuinely believe that those not on Premium style packages that do momentarily get high range download speeds are not the architects of this. I think this is the ISP not handling/analysing the data correctly for periods of the day and you seeing increased speeds as a result until they rectify the situation.

If you those are you that are lost can get your head around the file-hosting/downloader idea (which is not hard to understand given that you're happy to fiddle with the port settings on your torrent platform) and the small noimal fee you have to pay, I genuinely believe your file downloading experience will be much more happy and relaxed in Thailand. Not only that you'll get your files in a much more timely manner.

Something tells me that I'm shouting into the wind though here.

This is all just an outrage, ToT should not be allowed to promise a service (such as 4 MB download speed) and then block torrent downloads

<snip>

The original TT&T Maxnet web pages did state that peer to peer would be limited for Indy and not for Premier - hence the high price of Premier.

I'm on the TT&T Premier service. Bittorrents are very slow. They spike and then drop to nothing and then spike again in a continuous cycle. Same on CAT HiNet. I've never seen this before. This is the first time I've tried downloading bittorrents for over a month.

I recall that effect when I used to download from Rapidshare - the download graph was like a saw-tooth graph, slowly climbing to a maximum and then crashing down to nothing before slowly going back up again.

It's still the case at certain times during the day JetSet. Recently though I've seen a vast improvement with the file-hosters and I'm on the 3BB 16M regular. The day before yesterday I noticed that they were throttling my RS speeds during daylight hours down to a very noticable constant 300kbps. I got the daughter in law to get onto 1530 and pull them up on it and for the last 2 days I've had uninterrupted stable D/L speeds up to 1M of a daytime and 1.9M of a nighttime.

Whilst on the phone to the ISP my daughter in law told me that the ISP were accusing me of d/ling all day everyday and if I were doing this then I should definitely expect a slow down in general speeds and performace, which is definitely not the case at all. I made my daughter in law press the issue and they eventually relented and as I said - all was tickety-boo after. I still maintain that a call from a native Thai speaker who can press the issue with them works a treat. I agree it should not have to be this way.

I still am extremely dissatisfied with 3BB in general and will be changing over to True when I get coverage.

Appalling ignorance. I'm glad that Manin understands that there is not point in trying to reason with a madman.

Only problem is sometimes I come to the realisation far too late!

Anyway for all the other torrent users of TV who would like a viable workaround, which is really actually an alternative, then I will be happy to oblige. Certainly not for the benefit of the OP, but so as not to denigrate the overall quality of TV and keep this forum a place which people would like to come back to and as a source of tried and tested information!

Nearly all legitimate content that is available via a torrent will also be available via the plethora of file hosting companies. I will not name any outright so as not break TV rules but the acronyms of RS, MU, FS, HF should help you clarify who I am referring to. Each of these charge a relatively small monthly fee for you to be able to download content from their servers, which is uploaded by the general public. File hosting sites have their detractors and with very good reason - which is an argument that I'd rather not go into here. I will simply say that legal and copyrighted content is widely available at these sites. I am writing this with that content in mind!

You can simply create an account with any of these sites, pay your monthly fee of say $10 for unlimited or in some cases limited content and download to you heart's content without fear of repercussion or victimization as you'd be using it for non-nefarious purposes. I will also mention at this point that most of these file hosting providers also allow you to download content from their servers as a non-paying member for a reduced service. So you can use this for free, if that's a major concern. Though if you bedrudge ~$10 a month for a service like this then maybe you should keep hammering away at torrents in the hope something or someone capitulates one day.

If upload/download bandwidth is a severe issue many modern day file download managers, such as the excellent FDM have lots of customizeable options that will allow you to dictate exactly what bandwitdth is used - when, where and how.

FDM in conjunction with a file-hosting site is a fantasic way to access legal content for all at a minimal cost for the service and still maintain your lovely download speeds.

The beauty of this method for me is that you are free to leech to your heart's content (as you have paid a nominal fee for the privlege to do so) and you no longer have to be concerned about which peers or nodes you are connected to in your local area. I much prefer this method and it enables me to access content much much much much faster than I would otherwise with a torrent.

This is a working solution I use on a daily basis and using Sunny Valentine's Hitchcock portfolio as an example I can categorically state that this kind of media would be easily available there.

I sincerely hope this helps people that are suffering any problems with torrents.

Although I don't agree with some of the wordings used by Llareggub, I second his thoughts.

If the Internet infrastructure is that poor here, the ISP's should stop selling unrealistic packages, or invest in decent international peering. It might come for a price though, but who says some users wouldn't be willing to pay for a decent connection that also delivers.

And, please stop bitching about the alledged illegality of Torrents. They are not illegal, and although I use Torrents a lot, most if not all is legal.

I am downloading as well as uploading code, and the most convenient and bandwidth-saving way to do this is torrents.

Apart from that, I am interested in classical movies, almost all of them with expired copyrights. I am not interested in the latest blockbuster, but want to complete my Hitchcock Collection.

No one is bitching about the illegality of torrents. Really, they are not. I even specifically said .. "I'm not pulling you up on the piracy issue here" to highlight that fact. What I personally think about piracy I'll keep to myself and as you say there are legitimate reasons and examples where people should be able to view downloaded content without fear of repercussion.

I meant that the OP's reaction was completely counter-productive and rude after the initial attempt to get help and I wanted to explain that by using the current problems in the UK as an example he/she may be able to relate to. An analogy, close to home, where everyone is being robbed by the ISPs there equally as much as in Thailand. I was also trying to imply that you're much less likely to change the status quo in Thailand as an expat than you would be in the UK. Especially if you're going about it in that rude and abusive manner.... which completely goes against all Thai cultural sensivities.

I think I'm starting to learn (after 3 years) that on TV there are times where you should just turn away and do something else instead. I think I'll get my coat.

N.B. I genuinely do have a solution to the issue at hand here

That is complete bullshit, TOT sells us a connection based on download speed and upload speed, I pay for this every month and I expect it 24/7/365, if they can't deliver, then stop selling the product - you wouldn't expect to buy a bloody car and have to share it with half a dozen others would you? You pay, they should deliver!

I saw nothing in the contract about "sometimes" you can have 3MB, but only when we say so.

Stop making excuses for these &lt;deleted&gt; and start demanding what you paid for!

I was in the middle of writing a post to perhaps alleviate your problem for you, but if this is how you react to a simple statement of fact from another TV forum user then you really don't deserve it I'm afraid.

Dont you realise that the UK is up in arms about broadband speeds advertised and received and the ASA is trying to do something about it? If it's inherent in a progressive internet infrastructure like the UK then it should be little shock to you that allegedly some underhand internet business practices happen in LOS. You cannot dictate how Thai ISPs run their businesses with your logic and misplaced anger.

Moreover I would believe you want maximum torrent bandwidth so you can get all the films/TV/music for free. I'm not pulling you up on the piracy issue here, but the fact that you want all those freebies RIGHT HERE AND RIGHT NOW.

Grow a sense of where you are and have some perspective man.

I'm not sure if changing the DNS solved the problem or whether coincidentally it was sorted by 3bb because I changed back again to "Obtain DNS automatically" as I had it before and my https and VPN were still OK. So the jury is out.

Frustrating isn't it?

Yes and what bugs me is that the customer service line (1530) isn't working. That usually means they have a serious problem, are being inundated with calls and have cut off the line so they can get a bit of peace and quiet. Terrific.

Just keep trying is all I can say really. My wife's daughter got through on 1530 immediately yesterday and after the call my connectivity problems straightened themselves out for a while until this morning.

If you're lucky enough to have a fluent Thai speaker in the vicinity who can really get your message across then I'd definitely use that option, because as you said they're probably having to deal with a massive influx of English only calls at the moment.

As already alluded to in this thread do not be surprised that if and when you do get through - in Thai or English - that terms like "https" and "DNS" won't go straight over their heads. Maybe you might get lucky - they do have some staff who do know the technologial aspect of their job. It is my opinion that these workers are retained largely for the Thai customer base, but that is just an opinion.

I'm not sure if changing the DNS solved the problem or whether coincidentally it was sorted by 3bb because I changed back again to "Obtain DNS automatically" as I had it before and my https and VPN were still OK. So the jury is out.

I'm not 100% sure either if I am honest.

All I know that my https problems disappearing coincided exactly with when I changed my DNS back to Maxnet's own from True's.

What annoys me more is all this uncertainty about it and no place to get definitive answers.

If you're choosing the "Obtain DNS Automatically" option then Windows is just getting the DNS info from your router and using that for your LAN connection- which if you haven't played with your router at all will be Maxnet/3BB's own.

Oh well, hopefully some answers from other people may shed some light on the subject.

Frustrating isn't it?

Oh and lastly before I forget...

For those of you that do want to revert back to your old DNS settings or are not entirely sure how to go about it I'll write a little description about what to do here:

A quick way to check your DNS right now is like this-

Click the Start Button then the Run button. In the text box that pops up type "cmd" (without speechmarks). In the black command prompt box that appears type in the following "ipconfig /all" (w/o speechmarks) and you should have immediate access to the current DNS settings your computer is using.

You can "hardcode" your router to use any DNS you want, which is a standard function with all routers. If you go into your router's admin panel which is normally acessed by typing 192.168.1.1 in your browser address bar and then using "admin" (without speech marks) as login and also for the password. Once into the router find a link to the status of your router you should be able to see which DNS your router is currently using. If it's not your own ISP's DNS then for the moment you MAY want to consider changing it. Nealry all routers have the option for you to let the router allocate the DNS directly from your ISP. Choose this option if you have it.

There should also an area on your router you can navigate to which deals with all DNS data. As there are so many different routers out there I won't go into specific detail about models etc. The info is out there for your brand and model if you need to find it.

Alternatively you can also change the DNS setting in Windows. This is done by navigating to My Network Places > Network Connections, then right clicking on your LAN connection, clicking Properties then highlighting Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) clicking Properties and then manually changing the DNS there. There you will notice you can enter your own DNS or tell Windows to just use the current configuration of the router.

Please be aware that if you do choose to play with any router or windows settings you are doing so at your own risk and I don't want to be held liable for any hiccups that happen on your end!

Happy fiddling! (That sounded bad!)

Changing my DNS as you suggested seems to have done the trick maninsurat. Thanks https OK. VPN OK.

Glad to hear it mate.

Can anyone else back up this DNS issue with relation to https? Maybe this could save a fair few people some headaches today!

Perhaps those that had been using True's DNS like me were unaware of some changes they had made recently or even if Maxnet/3BB are now becoming aware of us using other DNS services and taking action against it. (I'm not entriely sure if this is possible - maybe someone could also confirm this!)

I know this nearly lost me a fair few baht in business.

Back to the grindstone!

This is driving me nuts! As well as https I can't access my VPN with remote desktop unless I switch to my AIS GPRS modem. This is pathetic service!!!

Is there a workaround to this? I tried TOR but that doesn't seem to help.

Depends what you're using the VPN for, I have a few for the UK and they're all connecting fine at the moment, but one of mine (my-private-network) was out for about 5 hours yesterday - so be sure it's not your provider that are having issues at the moment.

Failing that a quick-fix suggestion if it's just browsing you're interested in would be to get a web (browser) proxy - the paid ones are much better. (You can find free ones but the time you spend looking for a working one is a sheer waste and very frustrating).

It's as simple as getting the IP from the company you get it from, the login and password. Change the connection settings in Firefox and/or IE-Chrome and then use the login/password for authentication and you should be fine.

I personally use THIS company. Althought plenty of others are available - some that offer free trials too. Note that this is not a plug, just what I personally use!

Note that if you like to download stuff from the BBC to watch, you can't use a browser based proxy to get past the Windows Media player license authentication, you'd still need a VPN for that. If that last sentence means nothing to you, then pay no attention to it!

TOR is rubbish and it's as hit and miss as trying to find free proxy servers anywhere around the world. Actually I would say it worse as you can't dictate where the location of the next IP is coming from and you could end with an IP in Uzbekistan for all you know. I'd avoid it if you need speeds above an absolute crawl.

Other suggestions would be HideMyIP or IPRental, which again are both paid subscriptions.

The only free option I know if getting lucky with a free web (browser) proxy lists of which can be found a places like THIS

Those are the best suggestions I can think of. Best of luck to you. Chok dee na khrap! :jap:

After running some exstensive tests, I discovered that my altering the DNS had appeared to have affected all https connections.

I just reset my DNS back to Maxnet/3BB's own (202.69.137.137 & 202.69.137.138) from True's (119.46.240.5 & 119.46.240.1) and I can now access all https without issue - Gmail, Paypal, Banking etc.

Just a suggestion for those that are want to play with their DNS setting - like me!

Maybe go back to your own ISP's DNS if you're currently having problems. Many of you might point out that this goes against the section in my above post about the DNS issue, but that genuinely did have a beneficial effect for me for quite some time. So for now and until I see any need to do any further research I'll stick with Maxnet/3BB's own. Sorry for any confusion here.

I still stand by my statements that Maxnet/3BB are horrible company with disgusting business practices though!

Hope this helps!

Posted in error.