Sunny Valentine

Llaregubb: Although I deeply despise your choice of words, I tend to agree with you!

Judging from both my experiments and all the other users' experiences reported here and elsewhere, I can only assume that TOT is currently experimenting with different methods to block/shape the torrent traffic.

Well, whatever they do, they wont stop me, and lots of others.

@Digitalbanana: The encryption options I have already tried, they brought no results for me. Obviously I am at another branch of their experimentation line.

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.

I would if i were sure this was legal and not just bending the rules. I mean totally illegal or bending the rules its all the same. Its not legal and it costs a lot plus a lot of hassle. I don't see computer programmers or others getting caught if they work in their own home for foreign employers.

Funny statement.

If you really believe anything at all in Thailand can ever be accomplished without some bending of the rules, you are up for a big surprise. You wont stand 24 hours here until you have to bend a rule, at least slightly.

This is a bold conclusion, and so far no argument has been posted here that confirms this claim. Out of the blue?

Well, you are almost 100 % correct, but you might concede that doing so is not just bending the rules, but straight and outright illegal.

I saw the video. However I don't believe that it is real. They are professional actors to make the future King & Queen looks bad. BAN BAN BAN, BAN ALL THIS STUPID WEBSITE THAT SPREAD FAKE VIDEO. Works of CIA / MI5 / KGB?

I have some doubts about the authenticity of the Video too. But I rather not ban the Video, instead make a public research. If it turns out to be faked without doubt (and this would surely be possible with the technology we possess today) then crack down on the culprits with all might of the law.

In case it ain't fake, well, the public will make up their minds.

Did some testing now here in the last hour, on a TOT line that is heavily throttled.

Without measure, I get 10-20 dl speed.

Changing the port to 21 did not improve anything.

Setting the encryption to enforced and refusing unencrypted incoming connections did not improve anything.

What is working for me now, is using TOR for all Torrent Traffic. I am getting 200-300 speeds now on a 4 MB TOT line.

Tested with one torrent only (private tracker, 10 seeds, 2 leechers)

I have received some reports on twitter that the block pages in some cases are not hosted at MICT, but rather at the repective ISP's.

So we have reports that some different individuals are redirected to different pages.

Thats what I call a hint for your argument, but I fail to see it as proof.

@TAWP: Maybe, maybe not. What we have is the uncredited report citing an unnamed spokesperson, and spotty blocks that are varying from ISP to ISP, from location to location, and probably also depending on moon phases.

I remember sites pertaining to cycling, gardening, sports and whatever having been "blocked" before in similr matters ... I am not convinced.

@Metisdead: No blocks here.

What we have is a report by AFP that Thailand tries to block Wikileaks, and some local blockages. To me it looks like no official governmental blockage, therefore all material legal.

@IvanDobsky: One can only guess that someone wants to spread the video. Further speculation inappropriate.

Now that it seems official (was blocked before, probably illegally) we will soon see lots and lots of Thailand related Information to be released, that makes the Doggie in The Video irrelevant.

In general, travel expenses are only deductible if the locations where travel receipts originate (or air trips involve) are also locations to which invoices are sent, and from which income is received. This precludes going on globe-trotting vacations, and claiming them as business expenses.

Cheers!

Steve

Indo-Siam

Thanks for the info.

ow to the travel expenses: Does that mean that a business trip to meet an discuss possible business will not be deductible, in case no business is generated. Lets assume I run a company here, and another company in lets say Chile expresses interest in my services. I fly over to discuss details, but the project falls through. I should have correspondence and all to show as proof of genuine business interest though. Would that mean that all travel expenses would be considered borne out of my pocket by tax? I find this strange.

Once a company director is on the ground in Thailand, and wishes to exercise authority as a director - or if he wishes to receive compensation from the company for his services - or if he wishes to have his business expenses be deductible - in these situations, he needs to get a work permit.

Cheers!

Steve

Indo-Siam

Just curious: Would it be possible that a director living and working abroad, communicating with the Thai Co he presides by means of phone, Internet and courier services, receives a salary and expenses, without setting foot on Thai soil and without a Work Permit?

After a few days with very slow speeds, right now my torrents are lading reasonably fine again. Still not sure if TOT was the reason for the slow downloads, or the peers, as the speed went up this evening after two Torrents finished, and new ones taken place. But I will move to either CAT or True hopefully in a week or three. I just have enough of their incompetence and disorganization.

It appears that a guy was greeting customers, which indeed is work....

Right, and the customer who reciprocates the greeting is then working, too, and should be extradited with the next plane?

Sorry, but hardly ever before I have seen such a poor argument to support government supported extortion and bribery than here.

www.wikileaks.com

Wikipedia puts it between 27% and 55% from all internet traffic. Depends a bit how you calculate, maybe spam mail is the king when counting number of transfers. Bandwidth wise it's P2P and Torrents by far the largest part of P2P traffic.

LINK

My point, what ever the percentage, is that without illegal torrent downloads we all could watch youtube and have functioning international connections.

Well, the percentage figures quoted in Wikipedia go from 18-35%. And both figures are several Years old, from the times before Youtube. Go figure ...

As a matter of fact, Torrenting is stiill the way to distribute data with the least bandwidth usage:

Imagine 1 MB data, from one server to 10 recipients.

Total bandwidth for download: 20 MB (10 at the server, plus 1 each at the cleints.)

Torrents: Ideally 11, probably a bit higher, but nowhere near.

So, if all of you please stop downloading from Youtube and use torrents instead, we all would have less trouble.

Agree with your final statements. The trackers I participate I also seed a lot of original material, not just leeching and hoping someone picks up my seed. And whenever I am offline, I tend to get friendly to angry reminders .....

Personally I don't agree with all these ratio issues. Any 1.0 (or above!) rule would inevitably come to a total standstill. So most are then building special rules in order to overcome this. Crazy. Talking about Thailand Visa proceedings as logical and straight-forward instead.

As a matter of fact, most of the time I fail to obtain my ratio is not carelessness in my part but rather noone available who leaches, as everybody is so afraid of the consequences a download has to his holy ratio, that he rather refrains. Smaller seeds are taken and often almost completely seeded within minutes after start, so, unless you permanently stare at the news and react immediately, you will most likely be able to dl fast, but cant give anything back. A normal file here is looking after one or two days with 20+ seeders and maybe 1 leacher or 2, if any.

But that's off topic ....

MKAsok, I am aware of the issues with FTP. But there is a large difference: In order to successfully use Bittorrent, you better run the client 24/7. whereas up- and download to a remote client (seedbox) is temporary, and can be kicked on and off without any issues with the community.

Don't really understand what you mean by 'issues with the community.'

At the private trackers I operate it is considered a bad habit to not seed 24/7 ....

MKAsok, I am aware of the issues with FTP. But there is a large difference: In order to successfully use Bittorrent, you better run the client 24/7. whereas up- and download to a remote client (seedbox) is temporary, and can be kicked on and off without any issues with the community.

Lomatopo, that's what I would see as a main benefit. Torrenting can really slow down your connection. I tested pinging local as well as International Connections with or without Torrents running in the background, the results were amazing: About 1200 vs 85 ms ....

Let me know where you book, I would consider a three month test drive any time.

For me, with almost 100% non-thai traffic on the private trackers I participate, would a Thai seedbox provider make sense? Or elsewhere? Any recommendations?

While discussing Proxies or Torrents is maybe slightly bordering the TV rules, there is no doubt that troll post like we seen here lately are definitely forbidden ....

Using a proxy is illegal in Thailand.

Bu*lsh*t!

troll elsewhere please!

He's right, it's illegal to use a proxy in Thailand.

It is illegal to use a Proxy in Thailand to circumvent government blockages of Websites, and to create havoc on other people's computers. It is definitely not illegal to use Proxies for legal means, including Torrents.

Link to TV Admin statement with more data,

Using a proxy is illegal in Thailand.

Bu*lsh*t!

troll elsewhere please!