scifi

TVUnetworks.com - great site, thanks phazey.

Thinking about the dogs barking not scaring the snake - snakes are deaf, aren't they, or did I make that up?

Great pic TBWG - really shows where the name comes from. I'd be happy to live with a snake in the garden if I knew it wasn't venomous and it stayed out of our way. And if it kept the toads down, then it would be welcome. If they eat toads, that is.

to the OP.... did you bring the snake inside? where was it when this pic was taken?

Not inside, this shot was taken on the porch at the side of the house. Our dogs like to sit there as it gets a good breeze. I heard the dogs going bananas and came out to see this chap sitting there, didn't seem to be bothered by all the yapping. I had seen a snake about this size in the garden before. I figured this was the same one and just wanted it to go back to where it lived. I moved a (long) stick towards it - dumb, I know, but it wasn't budging - it had a go at the stick a couple of times, then headed off the porch and eventually back into its hole by the drain.

Wow, that was a close shave Chinavet. I've got a lot of holes in the garden that the rain washes out. Think I will get them all filled in. Thanks also for the pictures Ian - useful to know what is what.

Thanks for all the info. The thing that makes me doubt that it is a keelback is that they seem to prefer wet environments? No water in our garden, but there are loads of toads, so maybe they attracted it (for food). I am concerned that it might be a crate/krait but I agree the colour is not right for a banded krait. Sorry I can't get the pic to work - there is a better version at the end of this link: photo on flickr

I am now wondering if it is some kind of reed snake, which are burrowing snakes, apparently. This one disappeared down a hole, and did so on the previous occasions I saw it.

Thanks Chinavet, good common sense advice, of course. Hope the bite wasn't dangerous. I can't seem to fix the pic and the snake has gone, so I will leave it at that. Sent the pic to my wife at work. She called to say "what did you do with it when you caught it?" She has a higher opinion of my abilities than I do.

Thanks - trying again...

I tried not to do anything stupid, but when I approached it with a stick, it defended its ground. I read the keelbacks are harmless but can be aggressive. Had a look at some of the other pics, but couldn't be certain.

>>> Edit: Still no luck attaching the image properly... you can also see it here.

Hi all - another snake ID request here. I have looked through some of the other ID threads, and got a clue that this might be a keelback. Can anyone confirm or correct that? It is about 50cm. We have two small dogs: is this snake harmless or dangerous to us and the dogs? It appears quite often in the garden, can I ignore it? Thanks for any info!

^ Perfect! Thanks for the info.

Did you find anything, Cuban? I am also looking (the schedule for Universal would also be good). The only thing I have found so far is this. But I haven't yet checked to see if TH is on the same schedule.

Nevermind that the service is toilet, it's all just about money and Maxnet are now coming to get you through your browser...

Last month their billing went haywire and they billed me 4000 baht instead of 2000 (Premier 3MB). My wife spent days on the phone to Maxnet in Bangkok getting it sorted out. Eventually they sent us the correct bill for 2000. Took this bill to the local office yesterday to pay it. The office was in chaos, they wouldn't take the money. It was like they were moving out: boxes of paper everywhere. I guess the takeover is really kicking in. They told me I have to go to SCB, Bangkok Bank or Tesco Lotus to pay. And as a parting shot they said my bill was actually 4000 baht, instead of 2000. "Yeah, sure it is," I replied and went back home. Today I fire up my browser and a blocking page from Maxnet turns up like a stinking **** in the waterpipe telling me I owe them 4000 baht. My wife had already been on the phone just this morning reconfirming that our bill is 2000. They are useless. I hope they get this takeover sorted out fast and get back to at least pretending to offer some kind of service. I am starting to miss TOT.

Looking at this thread it seems that there is a whole lot of stuff going on behind Maxnet's doors. If this is the cause of our misery, I expect the pain will continue until the politics are sorted out. We may just have make the best of what we can get for the moment. I am on Premier in Chonburi, using OpenDNS, and the service is ok, but I agree there is no point upgrading right now. I think we are just going to have to sit and wait, and see what comes out of all this. Could be a few more weeks yet.

koheesti, DNS settings can be configured on your local machine, so if you are using the resort's connection, but your own laptop/device, I think you can just go ahead and change the DNS settings on your machine and things should improve. (I think that is right...?) However, if you are using a public PC provided by the resort, you are probably stuck with the full Maxnet "experience". I am guessing you need admin rights to modify the DNS settings, but maybe you could try, if it is a public PC. Or ask; I suppose that would be the polite thing to do

Well, it is certainly a nationwide problem, which makes sense as I suppose all the inter traffic is squeezed out of Bangkok.

Thanks to webfact and gosompoi for providing alternate DNS settings; as others have confirmed, these work well. I have switched over now - no problems. I should have tried that earlier, but I read recent posts about how Maxnet has been blocking third-party DNS. I recommend that anyone on Maxnet switches over. If anyone needs a pointer, I will post some instructions, or maybe another poster can help out, I've got to get back to work. Thanks all.

...although looking at Upcountry's ping trace, maybe they are changing the host names of all their servers??

Thanks for the replies - yes, good to know we are not alone/going mad.

Thanks for the link webfact. I can't get to it at the moment, guess what: page not found

There is another thread (http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Maxnet-t276797.html) about Maxnet changing their name... I can't see how that would affect service, although maybe some of the alternate names suggested here have hurt their feelings.

I am on Maxnet Premier and for the last couple of days I have been getting Indy-quality DNS on international urls - i.e. rubbish. Many sites fail to load, some only load after several refreshes. I thought I had been downgraded to Indy (I am in dispute over a random fee that has appeared on my bill), but my upload speed is 1MB, which I think indicates Premier. Does anyone know if they are doing maintenance? Does OpenDNS work on Maxnet again yet? How can they make this so flipping difficult? Thanks for any help. What would we moan about if we ever get a hassle-free broadband service here...

This was about a year ago, but for what it's worth: went through Glasgow immigration with my girlfriend w/ tourist visa - the staff were polite and friendly. They did ask several questions, directed at each of us in turn. I prompted my girlfriend a couple of times when she didn't understand and it was not an issue at all. They basically just wanted to know our situation (briefly) and what we planned to do in the UK. They also checked we intended to go back. As another poster stated, your girlfriend already has her visa, so this is a formality. It is definitely not a grilling. I expect you know already, but GLA is a good airport to come in to - quiet and not intimidating for new visitors, unlike LHR.

I switched to Maxnet Indy 5MB after a 5 day outage on TOT. No problems since. I think quality of service depends a lot on your region. I would add the following though: forget Indy and use Premier (I upgraded after a month). Indy has all kinds of restrictions on it for international connections. Even with Premier, they seem to mess with the settings: I cannot connect to a Subversion archive through Maxnet, and they restrict you to their own DNS I think, which has been a bit dodgy lately. The Maxnet billing department is also a bit random, and customer service is as good (bad) as you might expect. However, any of that is still preferable to outages, which I found common on TOT. If your current provider has good service and speed, you may as well stick with them. Maxnet is not bad, but it is not great.

How did you get on Jared? I will be travelling to the UK with my wife to visit my parents. We are planning to use VAF1B (family visit).

Thanks for the replies all. Since posting, I haven't had any more calls. I guess you are right TopDogger, nothing more sinister than that.

Over the last week or so I have had about 4 calls to my mobile from different unknown numbers - the numbers are visible, but not in my contacts. When I answer, a recorded message says the caller wants to use the Pay For Me (or Pay 4 Me?) service to connect (i.e. I pay for the incoming call). As the only person who calls me is my wife, and I obviously have her number stored, I refuse the connection. Is this a scam or is someone really that desperate to talk to me? I guess it's a scam. My SIM is only about 4 weeks old, pre-paid on AIS. But I can't find any info on this service from AIS (very quick search). Anyone else getting calls like this? If it is a scam, how would it work? I could call one of the numbers back, but I'd rather just moan about it here. Cheers.

Thanks chaps. I guess it's back to head-scratching for me then. Might move to another networking site, e.g. Xing.

Since I switched to TT&T Premier (from TOT), LinkedIn.com just times out. I have no problem with any other site I use. I get the same problem in FF, IE and Opera. Any one else having problems, or is it just me?