grnelson75

To extend this subject a bit more, I was once told that running the ceiling fan (on low), together with the a/c, was cheaper and more efficient than running the a/c unit alone - something to do with a more even spread of the cold air. Any comments?

Anyway, with the ceiling fan running, I run the a/c at 27 degrees, (starting about an hour before bed), then knock off the a/c about 3.00am when I get up for a pee. That seems to work quite well for us, the coolness seems to persist with just the ceiling fan running.

I think the key is to ensure that the a/c is also drawing out the humidity. I can't be dealing with humidity when it's either hot or cool.

I do the same, run AC and a fan. A fan will spread out the cold air and provide evaporative cooling. End result, the same comfort level can be had at a higher temp setting on the AC. Since the AC is the money pit in this setup, your overall electric bill s/b lower.

Thanks all for the feedback. Interpreting tax law does make for an interesting discussion.

Yes, you can. What matters is where you provide the service of your labor, not where the employer is located or pays you from. However, since you do not pay Thai taxes, you would not qualify as a bona fide resident; you would have to meet the physical presence rules to be able to claim the exclusion.

That's my take on the exclusion too. I'm guessing my situation wasn't the intent of the tax code, but as long as it's legal I'd like to take advantage of whatever tax savings I can realize.

the foreign earned income exclusion requires that you pay taxes on your income to a foreign country, ....

From my reading of IRS Pub 54, I see there is an income tax exemption that covers credit for taxes paid to a foreign country and the foreign earned income exclusion that allows one to exclude income up to $91,400, but I don't see anything that says one must have paid taxes on that income to a foreign country to claim the exclusion. Did I miss something in my reading of this publication?

I'm wondering if my earnings while living in Thailand would qualify for the foreign earned income exclusion.

I meet the physical presence test (>330 days living in Thailand). My earned income is from working via remote desktop connection to companies in the US while residing in Thailand. I could do this work just as well in the US, but choose to live in Thailand. Anyone have thoughts on whether this income would still qualify for the foreign earned income exclusion?

They have had their feed, and the neighbours trees are also turning.

I guess different area different times that the trees go dormant. Up Buntharik way they will sleep Feb to the start of April. Learn something new each day. Jim

Hi Jim,

Spent New Years in Bun Tharik and sorry to report the trees have already turned. My uneducated guess is it has been very dry since the beginning of November. Already lost a good % of the trees we planted in May, probably b/c we were slow to get rice stalk down around the trees. Once we did that the surviving trees seem to have perked up a bit.

Hope you get back to LOS soon. Looking forward to sharing some cold ones with you again.

Gary

I've been having problems for months with Indy 3 MB. I use websites in the USA and Europe more often than ones in Thailand. Sometimes International websites will not load at all. Skype is not possible.

Should I upgrade to Premier? Will that resolve this poor service? the Internet service has slowly been deteriorating over the last 3-4 months to the point where it is barely usable; it is so slow and unreliable.

Thanks.

As mentioned by another poster, the answer to your question may depend on where you live. If it helps, another data point for you. I'm located in Bun Tharik, about 45km SE of Det Udom. Started with Indy service and discovered immediately that international connections were too slow for the remote work I do, plus Skype was useless for calls. Switched to Premiere 3mb and have been satisfied with connection speeds up until about 1 week ago. Now, at least for my location, the international connection issue appears to have been resolved.

It does look like someone in Maxnet found the right switch to throw. The previous download speed of .03 mb/s to Newark, DE is back up to an acceptable 2 mb/s.

It's essentially unusable at this point, 0.03 Mbits download for US sites, and this is on a 3 MB premier connection. Thai connections are faster than ever though.

I've noticed that not all US sites are experiencing slow connection speeds. Using speedtest.net, download speeds to DC and SF are around 2.4 mb/s, but download speed to Newark, DE is .03 mb/s. Unfortunately, I have remote work I need to do at the U of DE in Newark.

I have been able to coble together a work around which is a Remote Desktop connection to a workstation of mine sitting in Wisconsin. From there I initiate another remote connection to U of DE. Latency is killing response time, but at least I can get work done after a fashion. This also proves the problem is definitely the hop from Thailand to the US. Too bad I can't force a route from Thailand to DC and then to Newark.

For chuckles and grins, I called our local Maxnet technician. His repsonse, reboot my computer <grrr> .

Yes the old 'it's your computer' problem.

Don't believe a word of it.

When they come out with that BS I always insist that they plug in their own pc.

That is when they come out with 'must be your modem'.

Always get them to plug in a spare modem at this point.

Only then will they admit to a network problem.

In my case, not even then did they admit to a network problem. They told me the modem was overheating because it is hot in Thailand and I was leaving it on too long. They said I should not use the modem longer than a couple of hours.

here again primary and secondary dns (dnsadvantage)

156.154.70.1

156.154.71.1

May the luck be with you....

Thanks webfact for the info. I'm a Maxnet Premier 3mb customer. Switching the DNS server address to dnsadvantage resolved the page not found errors I was getting.

Fast and friendly service for my tourist visa in Feb and then my O-A in April.

gr, was that a multi entry O-A? If not, did you have that option?

It was a multi entry O-A.

Denver is very friendly but only helps those from the local area.

Likewise Houston.

If you're in Boston, I know from recent first hand experience they will handle visa apps from those outside the area. I live in Wisconsin and for convenience used Boston while there for work. Fast and friendly service for my tourist visa in Feb and then my O-A in April.