Internet Censorship And Communications

[auklandflyer]

Hi. I'm hoping to get some information to effectively manage a 6-12 month move to Thailand. Specifically, I need to be in Thailand/SEA for business development and also maintain communications with my business back in US. My concerns are and hoping to gain some insight from this forum some of the following:

1. Generally is the high speed connection reliable? I need to be to upload paperwork, email documents daily. I have online meetings a lot and reliable connection is critical.

2. Skype. This is what I use now is it reliable? Is there a better system? I need a sound phone system to maintain a professional experience for my current clients during this time.

3. Censorship. I'm not interested in toppling any regime, but I do need uncensored access to the www. Has anyone known to connect to a PC anywhere/ emote service - from your PC in Thailand to your PC in the USA and thus utilize a different ISP - should you want to circumvent insipid censorship?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I'm going to be based out of Thailand and traveling the entire region, but I also have a USA client base to maintain as well - a virtual office is you will - and these issues concern me.

Thanks

[harrry]

Hi. I'm hoping to get some information to effectively manage a 6-12 month move to Thailand. Specifically, I need to be in Thailand/SEA for business development and also maintain communications with my business back in US. My concerns are and hoping to gain some insight from this forum some of the following:

1. Generally is the high speed connection reliable? I need to be to upload paperwork, email documents daily. I have online meetings a lot and reliable connection is critical.

2. Skype. This is what I use now is it reliable? Is there a better system? I need a sound phone system to maintain a professional experience for my current clients during this time.

3. Censorship. I'm not interested in toppling any regime, but I do need uncensored access to the www. Has anyone known to connect to a PC anywhere/ emote service - from your PC in Thailand to your PC in the USA and thus utilize a different ISP - should you want to circumvent insipid censorship?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I'm going to be based out of Thailand and traveling the entire region, but I also have a USA client base to maintain as well - a virtual office is you will - and these issues concern me.

Thanks

I think your idea is advocating an ilegal act in circumventing thai proxies.

[jdinasia]

VOIP is hit and miss in Thailand and even with what counts for a "FAST" connection here you may not be able to use it.

As far as censorship goes in Thailand there is very little of it except in the way of anti-monarchy sites and porn site thought to be demeaning of Thais.

[Fore Man]

I routinely use Skype from my outer Chiang Mai home in Mae Rim District and had never had any problems with it. I am using ADSL over a TTT connection (512/256) and it has served me well for 4 years here. I had some early difficulties with the distant end unable to hear me, but this was probably due to my set-up and not the connection itself. I concur that you should have no problems with MICT censorship of normal business-related web access. I have heard rumors that use of a VPN is not permitted but never saw anything conclusive (I now connect to email services via a web-based Outlook server and it is generally flawless unless the home server needs a reboot).

[malcolmswaine]

Get a business line if you're doing business. I use a G.SHDSL connection from CAT Telecom and pay ~B3000 a month, plus the initial cost of the modem (~B7000). Whatever you do don't go for a "home user" style account, the contention ratio, port shaping, support and overall crap quality of service will most likely be the source of many a headache.

[trd]

A VPN is not illegal in Thailand. If that were the case many international companies based here would be unable to function.

[harrry]

A VPN is not illegal in Thailand. If that were the case many international companies based here would be unable to function.

The OP said

3. Censorship. I'm not interested in toppling any regime, but I do need uncensored access to the www. Has anyone known to connect to a PC anywhere/ emote service - from your PC in Thailand to your PC in the USA and thus utilize a different ISP - should you want to circumvent insipid censorship?

Attempts to evade Thai web controls as he advocates have severe criminal penalties in Thailand. Now I do not know if they would be used or not but he should be aware of it.

from Wikipedia

quote

Many expect further arrests as the Thai government flexes the muscles of the new Act. It is likely further arrests will occur over pornography and the use of circumvention software or anonymous proxies which conceal a user's IP address. The criminalisation of concealing one's IP address actually makes this law the centrepiece of much more draconian Internet censorship than that in China, Saudi Arabia, Iran or even Vietnam.

Provisions concerning computer users

Although the cybercrime law never refers to censorship, its provisions have been drafted in such a way as to criminalize everyday computer users. Computer users can now be charged for simply viewing any Website hosting content deemed to be “illegal, offensive or obscene” whether or not it has been blocked by government.

Use of circumvention software or anonymous proxies is considered to be “illegal instructions” (same legal weight as viruses, for example); concealing one’s IP address by these or other means carries penalties of two and four years.

end quote

[OriginalPoster]

A VPN is not illegal in Thailand. If that were the case many international companies based here would be unable to function.

The OP said

3. Censorship. I'm not interested in toppling any regime, but I do need uncensored access to the www. Has anyone known to connect to a PC anywhere/ emote service - from your PC in Thailand to your PC in the USA and thus utilize a different ISP - should you want to circumvent insipid censorship?

Attempts to evade Thai web controls as he advocates have severe criminal penalties in Thailand. Now I do not know if they would be used or not but he should be aware of it.

Agreed. We all should support Thailand's right of censorship just as we support our own country's right to censor.

[Crushdepth]

I don't support my own country's 'right' to censor, and neither do 80% of the general population, if the 'no cleanfeed' campaign in Australia is any indication.

But anyway, is it my imagination or has the amount of censorship in Thailand declined a lot lately? I used to see the occasional 'green screen of censorship', but I can't remember having seen one for months.

[livinthailandos]

Hi. I'm hoping to get some information to effectively manage a 6-12 month move to Thailand. Specifically, I need to be in Thailand/SEA for business development and also maintain communications with my business back in US. My concerns are and hoping to gain some insight from this forum some of the following:

1. Generally is the high speed connection reliable? I need to be to upload paperwork, email documents daily. I have online meetings a lot and reliable connection is critical.

2. Skype. This is what I use now is it reliable? Is there a better system? I need a sound phone system to maintain a professional experience for my current clients during this time.

3. Censorship. I'm not interested in toppling any regime, but I do need uncensored access to the www. Has anyone known to connect to a PC anywhere/ emote service - from your PC in Thailand to your PC in the USA and thus utilize a different ISP - should you want to circumvent insipid censorship?

Dear Auklandflyer

Is high speed connection reliable, depends where you are at in thailand major areas, like bangkok, phuket, samui, krabi, etc ( major areas are known to have reliable internet. You should note thailand's internet infrastructure is pretty much crap. If you are uploading paperwork, email should be fine as long as file size isn't to big. All internet providers here pretty much go through cat telecom in there IIG for sending international data packets. (NOTE do NOT I repeat DO NOT GET TOT, there internet is very poorly done. Recommendations TT&T, Maxnet Internet lots of positive reviews. Should you be sending confidential stuff either use VPN or you should know how to use a SSH, but then your clients would to.

2. is skype reliable, yes but connection speeds, packet loss is high, quality might be ok. Use at your own accord, if your with a primer package with maxnet should be fine.

3. Censorship. Is not bad like china although you never know with thailand anymore. Since your going to be coming here I highly suggest you change your dns servers to opendns, the internet providers DNS Servers here are highly useless.

4. Didn't see anyone posting this but, you do know your external IP address changes everytime you get online unless you have a static ipaddress ( i suppose if IPV6 was already in wide use everywhere this might change since the availability of IP Address would be huge. )

[swain]

Limited worries. Get two VOIP solutions. Skype could be one and magicjack could be another. I use magic jack as its 20 dollars a year and has a lot of bells and whistles (voice mail etc) plus your own number and unlimited usage to the USA. I came to Thailand with 4 different solutions and settled for packet8.net and Magicjack.com I have found that if one is having a problem the other most likely will be working. Get yourself a phonecard to keep your expenses down when and if you have to use a land line if your connection is down or has lag. As for your internet connection, it really depends on where you live. When we were looking for a house we found many options in many villages. But in talking to the neighbors we heard many bad experiences with the internet connectivity in many of these areas. When we found the village that we live in now.. there were many positives and a few negatives but only from people that didn't know anything about computers. It depends on the company you use but you can get a static ip address from some companies, its expensive and I don't suggest it. ADSL will most likely be your choice, and the router will renew with a new ip address every 24-72 hours depending on the provider.

Dont sweat it, you will be covered if you do your homework.

Edited February 26, 2009 by swain