Laptop-mobilephone-inet Connection?

[Dustoff]

I have posted some of this in the Chiang Mai forum since that is where I live.

Strange need perhaps but I must be able to dial from my laptop, thru my cellphone, to Internet Thailand. AIS/Samsung provides GPRS but it does NOT allow or provide for using an outside internet provider and locks you into using their internet access. This will absolutely not work for me since I must download email into my computer and upload website updates FROM my computer. All of this requires usernames and password and authenticaion/negotiations which are not possible from a mobilephone alone.

I want a phone with a USB cable (the fastest) or a serial port connector (not bad) but NOT infra-red since it is the slowest. I can find the phone but if any of you out there are accomplishing this already, PLEASE tell me who is your provider and I will try to find one of their offices here in Chiang Mai with an English-speaking rep.

Respectfully,

Dustoff

[Phil Conners]

Nonsense.

You can access YOUR mailbox through ANY Internet connection, just update the name/password in your mail client.

[Dustoff]

Nonsense indeed.

Your response does not relate to my post in any way whatsoever...

[Phil Conners]

Then rephrase your question.

It looks to me like you're a clueless AOL'er somehow lost in Thailand.

[Crushdepth]

If you will be accessing the net via your phone to your laptop, the speed bottleneck will be the the GPRS connection itself, it won't make any difference how you connect the phone and laptop (IR/cable/bluetooth). The cables for Nokia phones are 400-500 baht or thereabouts.

To access internet on AIS GPRS you will need to configure both the phone's GPRS settings and the modem/dial up connection on your laptop. As Madsere said, to access your email you will also need the right mail servers/usernames/passwords etc set up in your mail program.

If you are after detailed info, there are a lot of threads on this subject.

[stumonster]

The reason for madseres reply was because you are not making sense. the AOL comment made me laugh.

please tell us what you are trying to do and then we can help you.

also have a search through the treads in this section - we have discussed GPRS/EDGE via AIS/DTAC/Hutch a fair bit already , and many of us use GPRS/EDGE daily throughout the country.

[Dustoff]

Then rephrase your question.

It looks to me like you're a clueless AOL'er somehow lost in Thailand.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Appearances are not everything but thank you for your responses.

Actually I am/have been a computer tech since the late 50's and continue to serve hundreds of past customers and act as a tech for many computer manufacturers.

I am simply seeking someone who can tell me where to find the kind of service I am seeking and regretting that I have not as yet been in Thailand long enough (4 years) to know how to state my technical needs to any cellphone service provider I have found as yet.

While your rather unkind responses may give you a personal feeling of satisfaction, they remain off-topic and serve only to make this thread longer than it need be.

Restated: I need to find a moblilephone service provider who has the software necessary to allow me simple dialup access; as in using my mobile as a simple modem which will allow me to install my mobile as a modem, dial in using my Inet dialer, and continue as if using a landline. Pure and simple and I have used this method with cellphones throughout North America and other countries with complete success.

Again, while I appreciate your considered responses, if you do not have the technical knowledge or experience, please make space for someone who does. I will not direct personal assaults toward you and I request that you show me the same respect.

Thank you,

Dustoff

[monty]

Dustoff,

Agree, the reason why you want to do this is not so important...

I guess you can use pretty much any gsm phone to use as a modem. For sure any nokia (data enabled anyway) can do it.

You install the drivers on your pc (in the case of nokia it's called PCsuite).If the CD is not supplied with your phone, it's a free download from Nokia's website.

Afterwards you just create a new connection like you would do for setting up a normal dial-up connection and choose to use the gsm modem instead of your regular modem.

Your speed will be limited to 9600bps, so it's not important if you use infrared, cable or bluetooth....(they are all 57600bps or faster)

Important note: Your network provider has to allow "DATACALLS". In the case of AIS this is only possible if you are a post-paid customer. They will not allow datacalls on the one2call network(eventhough gprs will work)!!! If you are a post paid customer, you will have to call them (1175) and request that they allow datacalls.

You can easily recognise when they block datacalls, if you let your PC dial the access number from your ISP, the phone will drop the line the moment it hears a modem pick up the line!

One more note: not all ISP's accept dial-up calls from mobile phones! They require special modems to receive such calls and not all have them. Loxinfo has them for sure, inquire with your ISP for more info (good luck )

Consequently, you cannot dial up your own PC from a remote location, as your home modem will not finish the handshaking with your gsm-modem. I wanted to do this a while back (access my homePC through my pocketPC running VNC) but no luck...

[Dustoff]

An excellent response Monty and exactly what I was looking for. I will check with Inet to see if they can accept calls from a 'mobile-modem' then probably get a Nokia with a cable and software.

Inet may have been my problem in the first place as when I tried to dial in with a friend's mobile, it immediately disconnected. We shall see.

Does the plane pic mean you are a fellow pilot?

Dustoff

[Gary A]

I also don't understand your problem. Using AIS or D-TAC I can connect with any Thai ISP. I have used True, Asianet, Loxinfo and others without a problem except that they are all painfully slow.

A call is supposed to be 3 baht a minute but check your SIM balance before you hook up and keep track of the minutes. I have found the cost to be nearer 10 baht per minute and that is OBSCENE for the VERY SLOW connection. Infrared, Bluetooth and a Solomon USB modem all suck and all are very expensive. I am in Loei province. If anyone thinks I am full of crap I have a couple email addresses for you to verify what I have just said. I even had better luck than my friends have. The Solomon modem is better than Bluetooth or the infrared but not much.

I tried to use GPRS but couldn't connect most of the time leaving the regular dialup connection via a SIM card as the only other option. I have since gone to a satellite dish. If it is at all possible to get a landline that is the way to go.

An excellent response Monty and exactly what I was looking for.  I will check with Inet to see if they can accept calls from a 'mobile-modem' then probably get a Nokia with a cable and software.

Inet may have been my problem in the first place as when I tried to dial in with a friend's mobile, it immediately disconnected.  We shall see.

Does the plane pic mean you are a fellow pilot?

Dustoff

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[monty]

Dustoff,

Yep, am indeed a pilot but haven't flown much lately due to high workload

Will pop in at Bang Phra soon to go for a quick fly around

The immediate disconnect is a clear sign of the mobile network blocking data calls.

As said it'll only work with post paid accounts(on AIS), and after a call to them telling you need to have access to datacalls! As Gary A points out it might be different with D-tac prepaid, I have no experience with them...

And it is indeed slow, but often more reliable compared to gprs. I use the direct dial up only if the gprs has absolutely no throughput. On AIS the datacall minutes are billed the same as any other call, in my case 3 Baht/min.

For the people not understanding the need to do this, try accessing the smtp server from any ISP(as you would do when sending e-mail with outlook) when you are logged in thru another ISP or gprs. Simply won't work! Understandable as well as they want their smtp servers only used by their own subscribers...

And using web-based mail through mobile phone can be frustatingly slow, so not really an option as well.

Or try to upload something to their webservers if you have a site hosted with them... Only works if you are actually on the net through them...

[Dustoff]

Excellent responses! Whew...

My problem, from the first, is in finding a server's office that can discuss these things with me in English since I seem to be having no luck in learning Thai. And while my wife is very bright indeed, she is about as computer/technical-literate as a McDonalds hamburger. Things get lost in translation...

I suppose that any phone with a cable connection will work as an external modem but without the appropriate software and a mobilephone server that will allow such things, I may as well buy an electronic rock.. I frequently go into the boonies where finding a landline to download my email and upload my webpage updates directly through my Inet provider is very difficult indeed. Maybe I just need to take a break and enjoy where I am? Quite likely...

Thanks Gary A - helpful response.

Monty - I fly anything that will get me off the ground. 30+ years as a commercial helicopter pilot, parachutist, into hang gliders and have been getting into ultralights here in Thailand with HIGH hopes of getting my own to explore Thailand from the air. Big-bike riding is great up here but.. gotta get in the air as often as possible... I do, however, find the pollution and lack of visibility up here depressing...

"Any landing you walk away from is a good one..."

[paulfr]

For the people not understanding the need to do this, try accessing the smtp server from any ISP(as you would do when sending e-mail with outlook)  when you are logged in thru another ISP or gprs. Simply won't work! Understandable as well as they want their smtp servers only used by their own subscribers...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't understand this.

I use Outlook to access the servers of 4 different mail servers for my 4 email accounts; Google, Yahoo, etc., tec.

One click and all 4 email send/receives are processed. 8 different server addresses; incoming and outgoing x 4 = 8

I connect thru Asianet ISP via a direct line.

I also don't see why DTAC or AIS GPRS will not allow you to to access anything on the net worldwide. Who you connect to will need the policy and SW to allow uploads and downloads is all.

I assume what is most important to Dustoff is a wireless connection as he needs to work when away from a landline. So it is GPRS/EDGE or Voice Dial up.

I am curious about all this. Someone or something is not right.

[monty]

I had to apply for my AIS gprs sim at an AIS office. None of the local Telewiz'z and assorted shops in Pattaya could help me. This meant a 20km drive to Sri Racha where they had a big AIS office (right on the same street with both Dtac and Orange )

However they spoke excelent English, and had somebody who could configure both my laptop and PocketPC in less then 15 minutes...

I guess somewhere in the Chiang Mai area all the providers should have a branch office as well. Guess you would have the best chance over there!

Dustoff, ultralight / microlight is the way to go in Thailand I recon. We are lucky to have around 10 ultralight airstips within a 1 hour flying time radius here on the Eastern Seaboard. Great to do some airfield hopping on a sunny Sunday!!!

I tried helicopter a few times, but the beasts are so inherently unstable my brain experienced some serious overload. The thing just flew with me instead the other way around

[stumonster]

I use GPRS when out in the country(sometimes in the city with my PPC) with an AIS pre-paid card and either my laptop or PPC . As I don't use smtp/pop3 any more , relying on the web based interface for emailing . I also access my gmail account via www.pocketgmail.com with no problems on my PPC.

as far as I have seen I have been paying 1 baht a minute. I have had some connection problems with GPRS in bad phone reception areas in the country , but one of the advantages of a bluetooth connection is the ability to place the phone where you want it. If I encounter throughput problems with my GPRS connection I just disconnect and reconnect.

[chanchao]

This guy really has some blockage somewhere to understand that GPRS will connect better and faster and cheaper compared to making a data call.. .

And 2, he refuses to understand that you can connect a computer through a phone through GPRS just the same as a datacall.

Worked with computers since the 50s.. indeed.

Check this out:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=29267

When asking a question, it helps if you also then listen to the answers even when those answers are outside your predefined universe.

[Gary A]

And it appears that you are too thick to understand that GPRS doesn't work well at all in many places. It works in the Loei area maybe one day a week. Other times it connects and just sits there. It SUCKS!

This guy is really too thick to understand that GPRS will connect better and faster and cheaper compared to making a data call.. .

And he refuses to understand that you can connect a computer through a phone through GPRS just the same as a datacall.

Worked with computers since the 50s.. indeed. 

When asking a question, it helps if you also then listen to the answers even when those answers are outside your predefined box.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[chanchao]

He's in Chiang Mai.

But for agrument's sake, if GPRS quality or non-availability would be an expressed issue then that's of course fine and will lead to different answers and different alternatives. It's not an argument of GPRS versus something else, it's an issue of listening to answers or not.

[Gary A]

I also signed up for my GPRS account at Sri Racha. (No other choice). I had the post paid package for 999 baht per month. They do indeed charge 3 baht per minute for dial-up calls. Since the GPRS was useless most of the time I dropped the service and tried prepaid. As near as I could tell the charges are nearer to 10 baht per minute with prepaid. A friend and myself traded SIM cards to try each network, he has D-TAC and I have AIS. Both are about the same. BAD and rip off rates!

I had to apply for my AIS gprs sim at an AIS office. None of the local Telewiz'z and assorted shops in Pattaya could help me. This meant a 20km drive to Sri Racha where they had a big AIS office (right on the same street with both Dtac and Orange  )

However they spoke excelent English, and had somebody who could configure both my laptop and PocketPC in less then 15 minutes...

I guess somewhere in the Chiang Mai area all the providers should have a branch office as well. Guess you would have the best chance over there!

Dustoff, ultralight / microlight is the way to go in Thailand I recon. We are lucky to have around 10 ultralight airstips within a 1 hour flying time radius here on the Eastern Seaboard. Great to do some airfield hopping on a sunny Sunday!!!

I tried helicopter a few times, but the beasts are so inherently unstable my brain experienced some serious overload. The thing just flew with me instead the other way around   

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[chanchao]

I pay 99 baht for 30 MB on DTAC. Or you can get 12 hours for 250 baht on AIS, or the unlimited thingy.

I think often it's also the phone that has a problem in getting you proper speed. Sometimes a firmware update might do wonders.

Anyway.. any word on EDGE ? Phones are here, but I think it's only experimental and in BKK only at the moment?

[Gary A]

Had I been charged by the download I would have been happy. Being charged by the minute when nothing is being downloaded stinks. Is the D-TAC account charged by the download post paid? My Thai friend is about to give up on the per minute prepaid. In fact I'm sure he would be happy to have the download account. He is Thai and if nothing downloads he wouldn't be paying anything. He worries nothing about the time involved. Between myself and my two friends we tried different phones and a Solomon modem. One has Nokia, the other has a Siemens and I have the Solomon. It appears that the Nokia infrared is the slowest of the bunch. LOL! Another friend has a Motorola and uses Blue-tooth. Again no apparent advantage. 99 baht for 30 MB is actually quite good.

I pay 99 baht for 30 MB on DTAC.  Or you can get 12 hours for 250 baht on AIS, or the unlimited thingy. 

I think often it's also the phone that has a problem in getting you proper speed.  Sometimes a firmware update might do wonders.

Anyway.. any word on EDGE ?  Phones are here, but I think it's only experimental and in BKK only at the moment?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[stumonster]

I have an AIS 12call pre paid card and I have no problems using GPRS via my n-gage/bluetooth 20klms upstream from Nong Khai , 30-40 klms east of Khorat and bangkok. The only time I have had problem has been about 15 klms east of sak lek (phichit prov) but my mobile phone reception there was very marginal , getting on the motorbike and moving somewhere away from the hills for good reception and it worked fine(PPC). The speed might not be phenomenal , but it it quite ok for checking email , looking at the latest news , posting on thai visa , etc

[chanchao]

> Is the D-TAC account charged by the download post paid?

You can choose if you want to pay by the hour or by the megabyte. Personally, per MB works out a lot better; like you can be online on MSN forever and use up very few bytes.

So what's better depends on what you use it for and how; on a time limited plan I bet I could be really effective in downloading and writing email off-line..

But for the way DTAC have priced it, the per megabyte plan is better for most uses. (Esp. if you browse with most images turned off).

[Veazer]

I pay 99 baht for 30 MB on DTAC.  Or you can get 12 hours for 250 baht on AIS, or the unlimited thingy. 

I think often it's also the phone that has a problem in getting you proper speed.  Sometimes a firmware update might do wonders.

Anyway.. any word on EDGE ?  Phones are here, but I think it's only experimental and in BKK only at the moment?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Is this price available to prepaid customers as well?

[bdenner]

I’m some 80km out of Udon and couldn’t be happier now we have just had a new AIS repeater station installed near by. 1st thing I did was connect via GPRS and it works very well for me, the odd outage but managable.

As for charges see topic.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=34503

I'm currently using the 350 Baht – 120 hours/mth option (no missprint) for a contract period of 24 months. There are 5 different options on offer. See the AIS web site. I couldn't believe it and got both verbal and written confirmation from them before changing from my 1 Baht/min option. Have to have a AIS mobile phone contract not pre paid.