taiping

Wednesday 15 Jan at 8:50 am -- CAT fiber-optic "On-Net" 20 / 3 Mbps using OOKLA Bangkok to New York gives 288 ms ping / 14.82 Mbps download / 2.89 Mbps upload.

I'm satisfied for 1,500 baht a month.

"I tell her I do not want a relationship that is about money and she says OK lets have relationship... come buy me gold and I will hang out with you."

Even if it was not clear before, surely this tells you the answer you have been seeking.

The original 5-million baht demand should have been a red flag to start with.

Suggest you ask a trusted Thai friend to act as intermediary between you and the gf and her family, to negotiate the dowry and exactly what you are paying for. I've never heard of payment for engagement and separately for marriage - the money is usually handed over in cash to the mother on the Thai traditional wedding day.

Get a list of your assets in Thailand notarized in Thai and give it to the Amphur when registering the marriage. Only assets accumulated after marriage count towards a divorce settlement.

That's what I did and it worked out fine in the end - some 19 years ago and still going !!

When the upper crust in Bangkok, businesses, and all those with pensions start to realize that they are looking at substantial financial losses, I think they will drop Suthep like a stone. I hope so.

Dear Thaiblether,

I am a 30s-something white male Caucasian (not fat - nah!) who doesn't drink (much), smoke, or swear (in company). I am polite and deferential at all times but try to avoid being too creepy about it. I would never go with bar girls or sit on bar stools, however comfortable they might be. As someone with a private income and my own transport, I would be delighted if we could meet so you can tell me all about Thailand and I can tell you about foreigners - just for friendship of course, no hanky-panky, Just drop me a line.

Went today (13/12/2013) to the government Nopparat Hospital in Bangkok. After initial denials I asked my Thai speaking daughter to phone the government health hot line 1330. After speaking to them she gave the phone to the hospital staff. I was then given a Nopparat Hospital application form which had a box to fill in my Thai ID number from my YELLOW tabian bahn book with my name in it. The office wanted a copy of the yellow tabian bahn book and entered the details on their computer system and gave me a Nopparat Hospital card. I was told that I can now use the hospital under the 30-baht health scheme by showing them the hospital card + ID like the yellow tabian bahn book or a Thai driving licence (which I also have). In addition, I was told that Thais no longer require the 30-baht health scheme card but only have to show the hospital card + ID. If I want a 30-baht card, they said I should go to the government office.

It seems in Bangkok at least that the 1330 call centre and Nopparat hospital have no knowledge about the 2,000 baht health scheme for foreigners.

I don't understand the VIBER/SKYPE OUT cost table above.

A SKYPE OUT call to a UK land line costs 2.3 US cents / minute + 4.9 cents connection fee (+ VAT). To a UK mobile costs 25.9 cents / min + 4.9 cents connection fee (+ VAT).

http://www.skype.com/en/rates/

I call mainly land lines so I don't see the advantage of VIBER.

Am I missing something?

I remember the old days with 56 Kbps dial-up in Bangkok - be happy !!

I've had CAT fibre-optic "On-Net" 20 / 3 Mbps for the last few weeks. Works fine except for the downtime last Saturday/Sunday due to the political demos when power was cut at CAT, and a couple of other short down-time periods lasting a few minutes each.

Speed to LA this morning was 19.36 / 2.88 Mbps.

My CAT fibre-optic Internet connection in the Ekamai area was cut-off about 3:30 pm on 30/11/13 and was only resumed at 8:30 am on 1/12/13.

All my contact phone numbers to to CAT were down. I got through to a CAT technician's mobile phone, and he said the CAT power had been shut down as a precautionary measure.

This is all causing untold damage to the country.

Thank goodness it will not stop in Cha-Am so it will hopefully remain relatively peaceful (except for holidays).

I retested the CAT "ON-NET" connection again to a different server in Los Angeles and I gor 46.54 / 1.72 Mbps, Latency 250 ms.

I retested the CAT "ON-NET" connection again to a different server in Los Angeles and I gor 46.54 / 1.72 Mbps, Latency 250 ms.

I have been using TRUE HI-SPEED INTERNET ADSL connection for some years now, at present rated 10.0/1.0 Mbps.

I got fed up with the sometimes slow International connection (my daughter complains about TRUE 3G on her iPhone as well) so applied to CAT for their "ON-NET" fibre-optic service.

Since CAT control the International Gateway then I think that's the best hope for a decent service.

Took them about 7-weeks, but CAT installed their fibre-optic cable from the connection point about 300 metres down the Soi, into the condo, then up the service shaft, and across the ceiling in my room. At zero cost. Naturally, I had to get approval from the condo management to install the cable (might be the stumbling block depending on your condo management).

The cost of the CAT connection depends on the speed requested, but ranges from 1,500 baht / month for 20.0 / 3.0 Mbps to 25,000 baht / month for 100 / 25 Mbps. I think there's a 300 baht / month fee for the modem (HUAWEI Wi-Fi modem/router) plus (I guess) 7% VAT. I haven't asked CAT yet if I can use my own modem but the HUAWEI works OK.

Speed Test using www.speedtest.net today shows: 46.95 / 5.05 Mbps, Latency 6 ms, Locally; and 46.95 / 6.62 Mbps, Latency 42 ms, to Singapore (SingTel); but reduced to 9.31 / 1,79 Mbps, Latecy 187 ms, to Los Angeles, USA.

I think my connection now is rated 40 / 5 Mbps, but I actually applied for 20 / 3 Mbps. CAT mixed up the paperwork.

I want to use it for watching streaming TV programs (Fox News, CNN, etc). I have a new ASUS laptop with an HDMI connection to a SAMSUNG 46" LED TV.

TRUE Internet also worked but somewhat unreliable depending on the time of day. CAT seems better up to now (touch wood).

Phone CAT TELECOM to see if they can provide the "ON-NET' service in your area.

I have been using TRUE HI-SPEED INTERNET ADSL connection for some years now, at present rated 10.0/1.0 Mbps.

I got fed up with the sometimes slow International connection (my daughter complains about TRUE 3G on her iPhone as well) so applied to CAT for their "ON-NET" fibre-optic service.

Since CAT control the International Gateway then I think that's the best hope for a decent service.

Took them about 7-weeks, but CAT installed their fibre-optic cable from the connection point about 300 metres down the Soi, into the condo, then up the service shaft, and across the ceiling in my room. At zero cost. Naturally, I had to get approval from the condo management to install the cable (might be the stumbling block depending on your condo management).

The cost of the CAT connection depends on the speed requested, but ranges from 1,500 baht / month for 20.0 / 3.0 Mbps to 25,000 baht / month for 100 / 25 Mbps. I think there's a 300 baht / month fee for the modem (HUAWEI Wi-Fi modem/router) plus (I guess) 7% VAT. I haven't asked CAT yet if I can use my own modem but the HUAWEI works OK.

Speed Test using www.speedtest.net today shows: 46.95 / 5.05 Mbps, Latency 6 ms, Locally; and 46.95 / 6.62 Mbps, Latency 42 ms, to Singapore (SingTel); but reduced to 9.31 / 1,79 Mbps, Latecy 187 ms, to Los Angeles, USA.

I think my connection now is rated 40 / 5 Mbps, but I actually applied for 20 / 3 Mbps. CAT mixed up the paperwork.

I want to use it for watching streaming TV programs (Fox News, CNN, etc). I have a new ASUS laptop with an HDMI connection to a SAMSUNG 46" LED TV.

TRUE Internet also worked but somewhat unreliable depending on the time of day. CAT seems better up to now (touch wood).

Phone CAT TELECOM to see if they can provide the "ON-NET' service in your area.

This is what HideMyAss says, since they have VPN servers in Bangkok . . .

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Our servers will probably go through CAT also, since that gateway is the gateways to the rest of the Internet.

VPN speed is usually lower than your regular ISP speed, or exactly the same, but it can not be faster.

VPN speed depends on: distance to the server, load of the server, your ISP speed, your ISP/country global connectivity with the rest of the Internet, VPN encryption, etc

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I think the best idea is to get CAT "ON-NET" service for about 1,500 + 300 Modem Rental + 7% VAT, but I live in a condo and management have to agree on the cable installation, and who will actually make a decision?

I've just had a Chat with StrongVPN which they say . . .

And something else which may be of interest . . .

TRUE sent a tech to test my TRUE telephone line and found there was a "Line Speed" limit of 11.77 Mbps Download and 1.2 Mbps Upload.

So there is no point in my paying for a faster service like 13 Mbps if the limitation is in the phone line.

A friend in the same condo who uses TRUE ADSL can get significantly higher download speeds.

I think you can get an idea of the speed limitation by going in to the Modem-Router settings.

Requests to try to upgrade the TRUE phone line to improve the speed have gone unanswered.

Some years ago TOT offered to upgrade my TOT phone line to digital which I did not do because it involved a change in phone number. I intend to ask TOT again if they can upgrade the line and provide faster Internet ADSL service. I'm probably flogging a dead horse, but unless I try I won't know.

By the way, my interpretation of the last email from TRUE (as above) is that they DO have a "Data Transfer Limitation" as stated in Thai on their web site, but their answer referred to "rates of data transfer" which is not the same thing.

Steve

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I've been on to TRUE about their ADSL service to my home. Here's what they said (if you can translate the Thaiglish) . . .

I also asked them (several times) for alternative solutions like cable, but there's been no reponse.

Steve

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In reply to your email, we would like to answer your questions as following;

(a) I understand that TRUE has a "Data Transfer limitation" of 1,350 MB/Hour for the 10 Mbps ADSL service, and 1,755 MB/hour for the 13 Mbps service [information from True Online, but it is in Thai only, as far as I can find].
I would like to watch Internet TV but I'm worried these limitations might throttle the service and make it impossible to watch Internet TV, even with the 13 Mbps connection. I don't know how much bandwidth Internet TV uses.
Would you like to comment on this?
Answer: The rates of data transfer does not effect to home user.

i. Do you guarantee the 10 Mbps (or 13 Mbps) download speed, at least using the TRUE ADSL Speed Test within Thailand?
Answer: We guarantee the speed 80% only local test. For international site, there will be a problem depending on site region. For example : the site is far from you and there are too many hops in the connection between you and the destination sites especially international websites. As we can't guarantee the accessing to international site.

ii) If "Yes" to the first question, what are you going to do if I find the speed drops significantly below the stated service speed?
Answer: You can inform the issue to our representative, they will investigate and solve your problem urgently.

iii) Is there any way of improving the service so I'm not shared with other customers who use up a lot of bandwidth?
Answer: Actually, the package as the information below for the home users only. Thus, we have the data transfer limitation to control about this matter. For the customers who use up a lot of bandwidth (such as Internet Cafe', Business or Enterprise), we have other package and bandwith separate from home user to support them.

Yours Sincerely,