filingaccount

specs not posted

Specs of PC needed.

I'll be more than happy to share our experiences, suggestions, heartbreaks and success'. Just PM me.

www.prakard.com is decent enough to get an overview.

I can tell you one thing right away; any flaw you see now will only grow with time.

So I found this interesting video learning site, CosmoLearning.

I particularly wanted to watch the original lecture by Roger Penrose on his fascinating new model of the universe, its origin and future, and of the "Big Bang"; held at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences.

http://www.cosmolearning.com/astronomy/cou...e-the-big-bang/

Imagine my surprise when I clicked on the link and was greeted by this: http://58.97.5.29/ict.html

(Using a proxy allows the site to load, but the proxy does not allow video.)

I can't for the life of me understand why an educational website is blocked in Thailand. This video is contributed by the University of Oxford.

Can anyone verify that it is indeed blocked by True and/or other ISP's or if this is an isolated incident? Thanks.

Edit: After calling True and explaining what I experience I was suggested to use their own HTTP proxy (proxy.trueinternet.co.th:8080) and it happens to work.

The explanation was that "sometimes the internet is full so you have to use the proxy". I was suggested to try to use without proxy in "one or two days and see if it works again".

Well its interesting this read this thread. On searching the topics I came along hundreds of complaints regarding True's wonderful cra_p service and its reliability...

All that seems to have changed overnight and True now is the best provider someone can get. 4/8/10/12 very soon 20mb bandwidth... only the sky is the limit.

I wish everybody a stable and reliable bandwidth but in dealing with Thai providers over the last 15 years I have learnt something different.

In the past when a new service was introduced everything seemed to work perfectly... for about 1 month and then (with some exception) it turned into a nightmare.

Lets hope for everybody this time we can trust and rely on True! IMHO I am cautious and have my doubts.

Each month at the end of the month you will have crappy speeds with all ISP's in Thailand.

It seems as if at the end of the month, each month, Thai ISP's invariably throttle down the international links. This could be due to that they hit some usage limit, or they pay per GB and they have a maximum amount they are going to pay each month or a combination.

The beginning of the month is always the best time to spend time downloading as the limits/restrictions have been lifted.

If you think about it, most times when there is a hardware failure or other bandwidth limiting "accident" it's in the last 10 days of the month.

The reason why it tops out at about 1.1 MB/s (plus overhead for 10.5 Mbps) is the lack of upload speed.

Even though my total utorrent upload speed is only 4.7 KB/s, DU Meter shows the connections upload at full capacity (0.35 MB/s). This is most likely due to the need to update the relevant peers that pieces have been completed and other relevant data.

Other than that, I have no complaints about general speeds with True. I am pleasantly surprised.

I have already informed True about this limitation and they actually listened and promised to forward this to their engineering team for full testing. I mentioned the fact that Maxnet offers their 10 Mpbs download speed together with a 1 Mbps upload link, not for fun but out of necessity.

I suggest others inform True about this issue as well. If enough people start informing them (not complaining) they might actually listen and try to serve us better.

So u need to have the UBC gold package to get the 12mbit?

I don't. I only have a True Move SIM card.

You could try to connect to the trackers through a proxy (and allow the P2P traffic through non-proxy connections).

There is a crude way of emulating "HDR" in most images.

If this is what you are looking for and are interested I can show you how. Please PM me.

Left side is original photo, right side is the pseudo HDR.

If it is only Penang, and I haven't seen any reports from other countries besides Malaysia refusing tourist visas for one or other reason, then there is not too much to worry about - at the moment.

True, several people have been stranded in Penang and this is very regrettable and should be addressed by relevant Thai authorities.

In the meantime people who are stranded in Malaysia should consider asking the consulate either directly or through a reputable agent and find out what the real and true situation is. There might be some untold reason why tourist visas were not given out now. We would not know until asked and answered by the consulate.

Alternatively they could fly to KL with a budget airline. Costs should not increase much and will solve the immediate problems faced.

Slightly offtopic:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/14...er-cent/page-2/

"The tourism industry has suffered its deepest slump in many decades with the number of visitors expected to be down 22 per cent on last year, according to the Tourism Council of Thailand chairman Kongkit Hiranyakij.

It was the biggest plunge in tourism growth in 49 years, he said.

...causing the country to lose up to 200 billion baht of tourism revenue this year...

Last year, Thailand gained 540 billion baht in tourism revenue."

So from a 22% drop in arrivals they lose up to 37% total revenue.

One might think the numbers do not add up, or the 22% drop in arrivals are the "high spenders" that abandon Thai travel.

TAT organises shopping contest to boost tourism

BANGKOK: -- The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) on Wednesday launched Shopping Challenge 2009, a shopping contest, at leading department stores in Bangkok to boost Thai tourism.

So "Thai tourism" has been reduced to shopping sprees?

Why not actually make Thailand a worthwhile place to visit? You know,

remove the "red-light" districts in Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya, Chiang Mai and in every nook and cranny of this country (one can't enjoy night life without encountering professionals on the prowl at least a few times. yes, this includes "nice" places)

promoting real Thai culture (without the "only 500 baht" shouting)

cleaning up the country (eg. beaches, the sea, klongs and air)

educating taxi drivers, guides etc not to try and rip off everyone at the first opportunity

inform operators of popular attractions to reduce prices of common items (eg. water at 50 baht is a no-no)

remove dual pricing and the way-over-the-top prices and rates tourists encounter daily

offer "Made in Thailand" good at human prices (not soap at 400 baht a bar)

just to name a few...

This might actually put Thailand in a better light and build a solid foundation for long term growth.

However, knowing Thailand and Thais, todays payoff is more important than tomorrows potential.

I am looking to buy a netbook but I'm having a hard time selecting between the various models on offer. They all look very similar to me. If anyone out there in LOS, were comtemplating buying a netbook which one would you settle-on and why ??

Thanks heaps

Roderick

What do you intend to use it for?

If you know that, then the answer is pretty straight forward.

If it is just for the occasional websurfing, email checking and chatting, then any one of the Intel based ones are fine. The cheaper the better.

If you require more, then forget netbooks.

Generally speaking an LCD TV is worse that an CRT TV with 480i signals.

720p, 1080i and 1080p is where LCD TV's shine.

Of course an LCD TV have other advantages, like weight, no flickering and it's more future proof.

Also they are fairly inexpensive. The older 32" (720p) models go for as little as 15,000 Baht.

In any case, my own personal opinion, get an LCD TV.

justin.tv

ustream.com

fromsport.com

atdhe.net

to name a few.

and a metric ton of torrent sites

There is absolutely no reason to pay for "TV" anymore.

I currently have TOT (2 Mbps) and True (8 Mbps)

Starting torrents

TOT: 155 KB/s

True: 904 KB/s

It's quite likely that your signal is being somewhat blocked. Open the netting and position the antenna between the window and the netting and see if your signal improves.

But first you could just head out to the balcony or yard (whichever you have) and do a "beta" test.

In low signal areas it always helps not to be behind walls, windows, mosquito nets, trees etc.

Do you know where the GSM cell tower is? Try getting a line-of-sight to the tower if possible (eg. a direct free air imaginary "line" between your device and the tower).

If you do have a very poor signal, you could also build your own antenna http://bigredball.blogsome.com/2006/07/29/...-was-no-signal/

Do you even know what you are talking about? There is nothing wrong with hosting on Microsoft platforms. Platform is determined by need. There are plenty of exploits for PHP/MySQL.

Yes I have "a little knowledge about related things..."

Nothing wrong? In this case plenty of things went wrong.

Without knowing particulars of the situation one can only give very general suggestions, just as I did.

There are plenty of exploits for any platform but not as many as on Microsoft solutions (one can always argue why) so the likelihood of getting infected is less on non-microsoft solutions. It has nothing to do with "this software is better", just simple arithmetic.

Further, hosting with a professional company reduces the risk, but does not eliminate it. One would think a professional hosting company would be on top of security though. This does not eliminate the need of doing your own research, from top to bottom.

Oh, and for anyone questioning my suggestions... where are yours? (besides the apparent bashing of some very general suggestions).

I have tried a number of companies on the internet that stream Live TV, mainly from the USA, but am unable to get a stable stream. The transmission keeps freezuing and is impossible to watch. This is at any time of the day or night, and on a number of different providers.

There are too many variables to simply say "yeah, this works, this doesn't".

There are a few things to consider though, generally speaking.

Streaming media is time sensitive. This means that when there is an interruption (eg. packet loss) then your stream will suffer within a few seconds because you are not able to buffer the video beyond a few seconds.

It's also bandwidth sensitive. This means that when bandwidth drops for a few seconds to much lower levels than what the live stream needs, you will suffer.

On shared bandwidth, in your case 2Mbps, the maximum you can hope to achieve is 2Mbps minus overhead. If you are watching a stream near your maximum speed then you will most likely see a lot of interruptions. The less bandwidth you use the less likely you are to see interruptions in your feed. This is due to the nature of shared bandwidth, the number of users and how the general traffic pattern is managed by the ISP.

Try www.shoutcast.com and listen to the different live radio streams at different bandwidths (24 kbps up to 320 kbps) and see where your cutoff point is. I'm guessing you will notice a lot of buffering starting at 192 kbps.

Another thing to keep in mind is the source of your live stream. Is it a user shared stream (eg. justin.tv, ustream.com)? These streams generally have quite a lot of failure points between you and the origination point.

If it is a paid for stream (eg. wimbledon.org) then the most likely failure point is the 2 first examples in this post.

I would need a lot more information about the source of the stream, softwares used, equipment and so on to be able to give you a more detailed answer.

Edit: clarifications.

Can anyone help me to set my new D-Link DSL-2640T router to optimize my download speed with utorrent?

I read about port forwarding but I don't know to do it.

Stef

General utorrent settings.

Disable DHT.

Force encryption and allow legacy connections.

Limit your upload speeds. Maybe 17 KB/s is enough.

Limit the amount of seeds and peers both on the Global setting and per torrent setting. (I have mine at 250 global and 100 per torrent).

Make sure peer lacy bitfield is enabled in the advanced settings.

Also enable allow same IP.

Make sure your max half open connections is changed (XP SP2, is default 10. Increase it if you have not. PM me for link to software.). Set the half open in utorrent to a value less that the XP SP2 limit (eg. XP SP2 is set to 250, then utorrent should be 249 or less. I prefer 250 in XP2 and 100 or so in utorrent). This enables more peers to connect quicker to you and still enables you to surf fairly unimpeded.

These settings work well for me, I make no guarantees it will work on any other connection but mine. Trial and error seems to be the only way to get it right.

Choose a high port (62345 maybe) in utorrent and enable DMZ to your LAN IP.

This will ensure you have the best possible scenario for top speed.

A good policy is to have an up to date firewall installed on your PC.

What ever happened to blind trusts?

I'll note, of the 44, 23 were PTP weren't they?

No wonder that petitioned to change the law.

Suthiphon dismissed allegations that the EC had an ulterior motive, saying the EC had been petitioned to probe the MPs and that it did not initiate the investigation by itself.

Of the 44 MPs, 23 are from the Pheu Thai Party, eight from Puea Pandin, three each from Chart Thai Pattana, Pracharaj and Bhum Jai Thai, two from Ruam Jai Thai Chart Pattana, and one each from the Democrat and Social Action parties.

Let us stick to verifiable figures shall we?

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/1885...-by-accused-mps

"The poll regulating agency will this week rule on the questionable shareholdings of 57 MPs suspected of holding them in breach of the charter.

Twenty-eight Democrat MPs are expected to be accused of holding prohibited shares along with other members of the coalition. Among them is Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban.

Apart from the coalition MPs, seven Puea Thai MPs are also facing disqualification for the same reason."

Viruses took down website & forum - how this happened, I ain't got a clue. I got Bit Deffender Total Security that comes with a firewall.

Trojans all over - so bad that google put up a warning against visiting my site and my forum.

I am in the process of resolving the problem.

Question: how best to protect my website and forum to avoid this from happening ever again?

Your advice is appreciated!

Do your website hosting with a professional company...

At the very least host your site on a linux server.

Never rely on a Microsoft software for critical apps/systems.

Forget the FM transmitter and retrofit your new Camry with an aftermarket iPod kit.

Most Audio garages will know what you want.

Another available option is from a True Move sim.

Dial 0-6000-2-6000 and press call, then follow the instructions.

UK landline is 2 Baht per minute and UK mobile is 6 Baht per minute.

I do not know the quality of this service.

There is no "the best" service in international calls anymore. You call will inevitably be routed through VoIP at least partway of the connection.

If you have bad quality on your Skype calls, please stop all other activity on your Internet connection, reboot the modem and try again.

I have inadvertantly damaged a condo stairwell carrying furniture through up the staris and have been advised that I need to re-paint the wall. The condo contractor quoted 52,000 baht as he claims that the paint is 'special' and that the entire floor needs to be painted and we cannot just do a 'touch up' job. I know this is <deleted> but need to get a couple of counter quotes. Any advise?

Take a ton of pictures ASAP together with the days newspaper. That way you can avoid "additional" claims.

Post said pics here and let us see the 52,000 baht worth of damage.

Hire a painter for the day, as many have suggested, go to home pro and ask them for paint. Pay the painter generously (500 baht per day) for a 3 day job and you have a spectacularly done wall.

Start by calling Home Pro. www.homepro.co.th

They are always helpful.

thanks for the replies, i do get a tiny bit of static in the phone lines but i don't think that matters too much.

as for DL/UL speed, it is around the promised rate until later on in the day (evening and night)

does anyone know if CAT HiNet ADSL service more stable?

Is it a crackling sound (eg. crrr-pop-crack-crackle)?

Is it a buzzing sound (eg. a continuous bzzzzzzzz sound)?

Generally

If it is crackling sound, then the connection will be unstable and connect at lower physical speeds. Ping times will be erratic.

If it is a buzzing sound, then the connection will connect as normal, look normal, but simply not work very well. The interference is too high for the ADSL signal to "pass" cleanly. You might get 60% ping timeouts or more.

Any interference, no matter how minute, is bad for high speed ADSL connections.

For a bzzzzz sound, try removing your phone from the line and see if the connection works better.

Also, forget about getting good speeds during peak hours on a consumer line. Thailand simply does not have the available bandwidth.

The only thing that seems to work fine 24/7 is torrent traffic...

Thanks again. Will print out your recommendations to work from when looking around.

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VGA. Any decent professional workstation VGA card will set you back at least 30,000 Baht.

edit: VGA card rough cost is the basic cost, then add in the extras right? (im sorry, as i said, im pretty dumb at this ).

A decent professional VGA card for rendering 3D images would cost you 30,000 Baht or so.

In your case, maybe, the work could be done 100% by using CPU processing power only. I do not know enough of your work, and what you produce so my suggestions are very general and quite vague.

If you are unsure, then I suggest NOT to invest in a professional VGA card at this time, and do some serious research first.

Thanks for your post filingaccount. Really appreciate you taking the time to write that.

My other pc was a gift, its in storage because i havent returned to the UK in the last couple of years. Trudging a big pc about without being sure if i will remain in Thailand would not have made sense. So no regrets (although of course sad that its devalued so much). Just that im starting to miss having a bigger pc. No idea what can be salvaged, the specs for the other pc are (this is info taken from an email confirming specs, but to be honest i dont quite understand it all..so im just putting down anything i think is relevent):

CPU:amd x2 4800

MOTHERBOARD: asus a8n-sli premium

GRAPHICS CARD: e-vga 7800gtx 256mb ddr3 ram + a sli (adding a second graphics card)

HARDDRIVE: 2 times 250gb western digital sata 2 in raid 0 mode

POWERPACK:high quality targen 650 watt powerpack

RAM:1GB of branded very high quality ram

SOUNDCARD:creative X-FI

Something also about SATA 2..which i dont understand.

Are these things pretty much out of date now?

My old monitor was bliss. Dell 24" widescreen, so plenty of space, but, id be happy enough with one monitor half the size whilst here.

I think the laptop im using is getting to be on its last legs now. Sony Vaio FS115s. Added memory. Use a cooling usb fan thing that it sits on..but its not a happy bunny.

With the specs you gave filingaccount, dont suppose you would have an idea of what the cost would be also (i realise youre not a shop! Its just if you had a rough figure. )

Of course, would be great to hear advice from others also.

Thanks so much.

No problem at all.

As I suspected. Your system is at least 2 generations removed from the current.

It is a decent PC and will run games ok.

I suggest trying to sell the parts of the old PC and buying new parts here. Do not expect much though. Maybe the VGA cards could fetch a little.

The only salvageable part would be the sound card, and possibly the 2 HDD's (to be used as temporary storage for your renderings and images).

If you are on a budget, but need the power, below are my suggestions (not a full set, but the main parts).

CPU: Intel quad core. Maybe Intel Core i7-920 2.66GHz. 11,000 Baht

Mainboard: Any really, as long as it can handle DDR3 RAM, without built-in VGA. Around 4000-6000 Baht.

RAM. At the very least 4 GB. I suggest 8 GB. 1500 Baht per 2 GB.

VGA. Any decent professional workstation VGA card will set you back at least 30,000 Baht.

If you do not need a professional grade VGA card you can basically use any old VGA card (not from 1995 or anything though)

LCD. at least 2x 22+" . If you are not concerned with very accurate color reproduction, just pick 2 standard ones. 6000+ Baht per screen.

HDD. Maybe a Western Digital Green power 1 TB, or Seagate 1TB. Any new large HDD will do. Pick 2 if you want to do RAID or need more storage. 4000 Baht or so per drive.