Where to find a clever P.C. technician?

[Oscar2]

who can recommend someone that is capable of upgrading or re-installing Windows on our computers without deleting all of our programs? we have XP Professional Edition on all of our computers. up until a week ago everything was perfect. Then we could not connect to the internet - or barely. we had and still have numerous problems especially connecting to websites outside of Thailand. i've been on the telephone with 3BB for a total of 4 hours trying to resolve this problem. the technicians have been to our home twice now. today they came again and brought 2 of their own notebook computers with them. both connected perfectly. they were here for 30 minutes and their computers can connect just fine but ours can not. they insist our Windows OS are corrupted and we need to re-install Windows. naturally since all of our computers were purchased here they all have bootleg Windows (but have operated flawlessly for more than 7 years).

what to do? i hear so many stories on inept technicians wiping all the data. of course our data is backed up but we don't want to lose the programs.

any ideas?

thanks.

[simoncnx]

Take 1 of your bootleg xp disks and load it. You should have repair option

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[cmsally]

try upgrading the firmware on your router first

[Frank James]

I think you are not the only ones having problems connecting with international websites. It has been mentioned lately by others. I can't get on the Guardian website since last week, and BBC is hit and miss. I blame Suthep.

[NotEinstein]

If you want to prove that it is your PC software, download a linux live distribution, burn it to CD or DVD, and you will have a fully working system to test your hardware.

[NeverSure]

ALL of your computers stopped connecting at the same time? It can't be the OS in all of them. Have you tried shutting everything off and rebooting one thing at a time from the wall out? First reboot the modem but be sure to not only unplug it, but to also disconnect the phone line or coax from it too. There is always a signal from that too. Re-connect the line into the modem and the plug the modem in and wait until it's fully on. Now plug your router back in. Now turn your computers on one at a time.

That will refresh everything.

Edited February 28, 2014 by NeverSure

[northernjohn]

I think you are not the only ones having problems connecting with international websites. It has been mentioned lately by others. I can't get on the Guardian website since last week, and BBC is hit and miss. I blame Suthep.

I have no problem with them. I have a windows 7 and true for a provider.

[Thighlander]

I read where the City of Boston Government is switching to Google Office suite; 70,000 pcs. The fat client model of Microsoft is a rotary dial telephone in disguise. If you can't keep your OS updated, frequently, your days are numbered. Stealing intellectual property is never a good idea.

Edited February 28, 2014 by Thighlander

[Oscar2]

try upgrading the firmware on your router first

thanks. we have 3 routers; Cisco, D-Link and Hatari. i've upgraded the firmware on the Cisco and the D-Link already. at first 3BB said it was the fault of our router. i took the D-Link to the service center. the technician said 3 months old D-Link - no way there is a problem. he checked it for almost 3 hours. said it worked perfectly. i ran the Cisco for a few days, same problem, same with Hatari (supplied by TTT back in the Maxnet days). same problem with all 3 routers. can barely connect. even TV is difficult to connect to. this started about 10 days ago. driving us crazy. i was totally shocked when the 3BB tech came over again today and with a smug look on his face, connected to the net perfectly with his notebooks.

[Oscar2]

Take 1 of your bootleg xp disks and load it. You should have repair option

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

thanks. already thought about re-installing/repairing the networking module from the disk. but....the idiots at the shop...(won't say their name but in Computer Plaza) gave me the wrong serial number for the Windows disk supplied with my computer so i can't complete the repair.

[Oscar2]

ALL of your computers stopped connecting at the same time? It can't be the OS in all of them. Have you tried shutting everything off and rebooting one thing at a time from the wall out? First reboot the modem but be sure to not only unplug it, but to also disconnect the phone line or coax from it too. There is always a signal from that too. Re-connect the line into the modem and the plug the modem in and wait until it's fully on. Now plug your router back in. Now turn your computers on one at a time.

That will refresh everything.

i'm about to go bonkers. i have tried everything. 3 modem/routers, 4 computers, all new cables, 4 hours on the phone with 3BB (allowing them to remotely access our computers), one call alone was with a woman in BKK, perfect English for 2 hours. she was very nice and helpful but could not figure out the problem. tried IE, Firefox and Chrome, disabled firewalls, AV software, everything. one guy insisted the problem was because i didn't use Chrome...rubbish.

i am getting ping of 63 to 2490 ms and 50% of the time "Request timed out" when i run C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe - ping 8.8.8.8 -t - basically we can only connect about 50% of the time and never to some International websites. MOST Thailand websites O.K. but not all.

i was blown away when the 3BB guy came today and could connect w/o problem to every website we can't on any of the computers in the house (such as yahoo, BK Post, K-bank, eBay, CNN... he INSISTED the problem is our computers (all) have corrupted OS. he flat out told the wife he is closing the case and 3BB will not continue to respond to our calls or come over again. case closed. problem is our computers.

what do the members think we should do? close our account of about 8 years and go with True or TOT? could there be any truth that all our OS are corrupted? i am so sick of having to pop in at a friend's to check my email or like today stop at KSK to check email. in today's age it's b.s.

[cmsally]

Take one of your computers to a friends house and see what happens on their connection.

[DogNo1]

Have you tried running Malwarebytes and CCleaner on your machines? It doesn't sound as though it is a hardware problem if the 3BB technicians can connect with their notebooks. If cleaning your computers of spyware and malware doesn't solve the problem, it may be time to rescue your data from your HDDs and do a fresh install of a legitimate copy of Windows 7 along with a good Internet security program. There's just too much malware going around now to have computers that can't be updated and aren't protected.

BTW, you can download and install Malwarebytes and CCleaner from their websites- just uncheck all of the toolbars and other junk that they try to get you to install along with the programs. Good luck!

[sustento]

ALL of your computers stopped connecting at the same time? It can't be the OS in all of them. Have you tried shutting everything off and rebooting one thing at a time from the wall out? First reboot the modem but be sure to not only unplug it, but to also disconnect the phone line or coax from it too. There is always a signal from that too. Re-connect the line into the modem and the plug the modem in and wait until it's fully on. Now plug your router back in. Now turn your computers on one at a time.

That will refresh everything.

i'm about to go bonkers. i have tried everything. 3 modem/routers, 4 computers, all new cables, 4 hours on the phone with 3BB (allowing them to remotely access our computers), one call alone was with a woman in BKK, perfect English for 2 hours. she was very nice and helpful but could not figure out the problem. tried IE, Firefox and Chrome, disabled firewalls, AV software, everything. one guy insisted the problem was because i didn't use Chrome...rubbish.

i am getting ping of 63 to 2490 ms and 50% of the time "Request timed out" when i run C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe - ping 8.8.8.8 -t - basically we can only connect about 50% of the time and never to some International websites. MOST Thailand websites O.K. but not all.

Have you tried using 3BB's own DNS servers temporarily rather than Google's to see if that makes any difference?

[kimbathewhitelion]

Think the cleansing reply was the best, but in such a situation the standard trouble-shooting method should also apply. Disconnect all computers except one from the network & connect that one directly into the 3bb modem. See what happens, if needed run Malware/virus programs/cache cleaners....check, if further confirmation is needed, start in Safe mode with networking...check. Also try connecting via cmd line. It's all about a sequence of trouble-shooting. Fix one machine then apply the fix to the others, each isolated as you do so. After, use only one isolated for email, browsing & downloading leaving the powerhouses for work. If you do restore your machines, would suggest cloning each one to a separate external HD partion.

Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

[kimbathewhitelion]

Partition, that is.

Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

[sustento]

ALL of your computers stopped connecting at the same time? It can't be the OS in all of them. Have you tried shutting everything off and rebooting one thing at a time from the wall out? First reboot the modem but be sure to not only unplug it, but to also disconnect the phone line or coax from it too. There is always a signal from that too. Re-connect the line into the modem and the plug the modem in and wait until it's fully on. Now plug your router back in. Now turn your computers on one at a time.

That will refresh everything.

i'm about to go bonkers. i have tried everything. 3 modem/routers, 4 computers, all new cables, 4 hours on the phone with 3BB (allowing them to remotely access our computers), one call alone was with a woman in BKK, perfect English for 2 hours. she was very nice and helpful but could not figure out the problem. tried IE, Firefox and Chrome, disabled firewalls, AV software, everything. one guy insisted the problem was because i didn't use Chrome...rubbish.

i am getting ping of 63 to 2490 ms and 50% of the time "Request timed out" when i run C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe - ping 8.8.8.8 -t - basically we can only connect about 50% of the time and never to some International websites. MOST Thailand websites O.K. but not all.

Have you tried using 3BB's own DNS servers temporarily rather than Google's to see if that makes any difference?

Added: The 3BB guy was undoubtedly using their own DNS server on the machine that he used. You appear to be using Google's public DNS servers. You have a connection problem on all your machines. Are all your machines using the Google DNS servers? Change one of your machines to use the 3BB DNS server and see what happens.

[mgbcnx]

If you're still looking for a computer whiz who's no-nonsense and makes house calls, contact Jim Brown at 084 611 7638 , e-mail <removed>.

Edited February 28, 2014 by onthedarkside
email removed as per forum rules

[GuyL]

Have you enabled IPv6 on your Windows XP computers? Your problem might be related with a lack of IPv6 support on your side. Here is how you can enable it: https://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/sag_ip_v6_pro_inst.mspx?mfr=true

You can also check if your computer is able to browse the web properly when booting on "Windows Mini XP" while using Hiren's Boot CD (which is also full of other utilities, such as antimalware programs for instance).

Information about Hiren's Boot CD is available here: http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd

You can download it (for instance) here: http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/

[Oscar2]

Take one of your computers to a friends house and see what happens on their connection.

yes, very good idea. that's next on the list.

[Oscar2]

Have you tried running Malwarebytes and CCleaner on your machines? It doesn't sound as though it is a hardware problem if the 3BB technicians can connect with their notebooks. If cleaning your computers of spyware and malware doesn't solve the problem, it may be time to rescue your data from your HDDs and do a fresh install of a legitimate copy of Windows 7 along with a good Internet security program. There's just too much malware going around now to have computers that can't be updated and aren't protected.

BTW, you can download and install Malwarebytes and CCleaner from their websites- just uncheck all of the toolbars and other junk that they try to get you to install along with the programs. Good luck!

thanks. good suggestions. running the utilities on all the computers now. we have ccleaner and other anti-malware programs i'm running now. will also try the one you suggest.

[Oscar2]

ALL of your computers stopped connecting at the same time? It can't be the OS in all of them. Have you tried shutting everything off and rebooting one thing at a time from the wall out? First reboot the modem but be sure to not only unplug it, but to also disconnect the phone line or coax from it too. There is always a signal from that too. Re-connect the line into the modem and the plug the modem in and wait until it's fully on. Now plug your router back in. Now turn your computers on one at a time.

That will refresh everything.

i'm about to go bonkers. i have tried everything. 3 modem/routers, 4 computers, all new cables, 4 hours on the phone with 3BB (allowing them to remotely access our computers), one call alone was with a woman in BKK, perfect English for 2 hours. she was very nice and helpful but could not figure out the problem. tried IE, Firefox and Chrome, disabled firewalls, AV software, everything. one guy insisted the problem was because i didn't use Chrome...rubbish.

i am getting ping of 63 to 2490 ms and 50% of the time "Request timed out" when i run C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe - ping 8.8.8.8 -t - basically we can only connect about 50% of the time and never to some International websites. MOST Thailand websites O.K. but not all.

Have you tried using 3BB's own DNS servers temporarily rather than Google's to see if that makes any difference?

yes, tried 3BB's own DNS servers. on them now. does not make a difference.

[Thighlander]

I don't see how you can afford a good technician if you can't afford a legal copy of Windows. 3 routers for 4 computers? Somewhere I smell the work of a German or a Swede.....Audi, Saab, Volvo, BMW...all over-engineered, and only work well on paper; but hardly practical in the real world.

[rakchaingmai]

Had the same problem with 3BB about 5 years ago i went in the shop everyday after a while they got bored of me coming in and i was glad when i finally changed to true had one problem in 5 years and the smile on there faces when i cancelled the contract and it was like a weight off my shoulders me and the wife would also argue everyday about it also and the phone line was a joke and i did not know what they were saying on the phone in english and i speak thai lol.

[Oscar2]

I don't see how you can afford a good technician if you can't afford a legal copy of Windows. 3 routers for 4 computers? Somewhere I smell the work of a German or a Swede.....Audi, Saab, Volvo, BMW...all over-engineered, and only work well on paper; but hardly practical in the real world.

some people..... i never said i can't afford a legal copy of Windows. i said we bought all our computers new in C.M. and the all came with bootlegged Windows. you didn't know that is how they sell computers here? even our old Acer notebook bought new from Acer 7 years ago came with a hacked copy. nothing new in LOS. we use one router for the entire network, just have 3 different ones including the junk Hatari we got from Maxnet 8 years ago, a Cisco that I like but the wife does not, and her D-Link. really nothing helpful from you.

[Oscar2]

Had the same problem with 3BB about 5 years ago i went in the shop everyday after a while they got bored of me coming in and i was glad when i finally changed to true had one problem in 5 years and the smile on there faces when i cancelled the contract and it was like a weight off my shoulders me and the wife would also argue everyday about it also and the phone line was a joke and i did not know what they were saying on the phone in english and i speak thai lol.

looks like we are switching to True next week. we called them and 2 hours later a young hottie 25ish sales lady was at our door offering us a promotion at 699 for 12 Mbps and free cable TV. i just love the way some things are done in Thailand. i just wish the wife hadn't been home at the time. lol.

[Thighlander]

I don't see how you can afford a good technician if you can't afford a legal copy of Windows. 3 routers for 4 computers? Somewhere I smell the work of a German or a Swede.....Audi, Saab, Volvo, BMW...all over-engineered, and only work well on paper; but hardly practical in the real world.

some people..... i never said i can't afford a legal copy of Windows. i said we bought all our computers new in C.M. and the all came with bootlegged Windows. you didn't know that is how they sell computers here? even our old Acer notebook bought new from Acer 7 years ago came with a hacked copy. nothing new in LOS. we use one router for the entire network, just have 3 different ones including the junk Hatari we got from Maxnet 8 years ago, a Cisco that I like but the wife does not, and her D-Link. really nothing helpful from you.

And I also know Microsoft gives you several warnings stating that it knows you are using an illegal copy, and while it will give you updates for the time being; don't count on the future. It also gives you a chance to purchase a license for it. A 7 year old computer with a pirated copy of XP is worth about 800 THB.

[naboo]

I stepped into a True shop today for the first time since leaving them (with them acknowledging that they owed me 2000B with no obvious way to hand it over).

I felt dirty.

Don't.

A hideous company.

[Oscar2]

I stepped into a True shop today for the first time since leaving them (with them acknowledging that they owed me 2000B with no obvious way to hand it over).

I felt dirty.

Don't.

A hideous company.

right. we are still going to look into TOT ADSL and Synet before making a final decision. True has owed us 2,000 Baht for 6 years now when we had satellite TV with them. the sales girl found the old account in the computer and said 1,000 would be credited towards the deposit and the other 1,000 towards the billing if we decide to go with them. at least they found it. but no final decision yet.

[NeverSure]

I don't see how you can afford a good technician if you can't afford a legal copy of Windows. 3 routers for 4 computers? Somewhere I smell the work of a German or a Swede.....Audi, Saab, Volvo, BMW...all over-engineered, and only work well on paper; but hardly practical in the real world.

some people..... i never said i can't afford a legal copy of Windows. i said we bought all our computers new in C.M. and the all came with bootlegged Windows. you didn't know that is how they sell computers here? even our old Acer notebook bought new from Acer 7 years ago came with a hacked copy. nothing new in LOS. we use one router for the entire network, just have 3 different ones including the junk Hatari we got from Maxnet 8 years ago, a Cisco that I like but the wife does not, and her D-Link. really nothing helpful from you.

And I also know Microsoft gives you several warnings stating that it knows you are using an illegal copy, and while it will give you updates for the time being; don't count on the future. It also gives you a chance to purchase a license for it. A 7 year old computer with a pirated copy of XP is worth about 800 THB.

Not if it's cracked properly. It appears to be genuine to MS. Same with Vista, 7, and 8 but different cracks.