Help With Internet In Pattaya

[why are the horses tired bob]

I am having a direct phone line put into my Pattaya condo with a view to buying a computer for internet use but I am hearing stories of excessive phone bills and slow connection. Can anyone advise how to avoid these? Given the lack of technical knowledge I have Can anyone also advise where to buy a computer from where they provide some degree of assistance? Or should I continue sitting on this hard chair at the 25 baht an hour internet shop?

[Phil Conners]

Using a condo-line (one that goes through the condo switchboard) can be a VERY expensive experience but if you managed to get your own direct line telephone bills are dirt cheap here. You'll have to do a lot of dialling to spend 1,000 baht/month on the phone bill.

Cheapest place in the area to buy a computer is Tukcom in Si Racha, but nowhere do they hold your hand and do everything for you.

If you're not a computer literrate and/or want to save money, nothing beats your local internet cafe.

[monty]

If you have your direct phoneline, having your own PC will certainly beat having to do your surfing in the internet cafe...

Tukcom is indeed the best place to buy your PC, probably between 25 and 40% cheaper then PTY!!!

Local dial up is reasonable in speed if you're with a good provider, AND the quality of you phoneline is OK...

Phonecost is a mere 3 baht per connection, not time metered so stays 3 baht for 1 minute or for 3 hours...

If you get your PC assembled and tested, they tend to be pretty much hassle free...

For most of the small problems you'll get an answer or solution pretty fast on this or other forums...

If you don't know how to go about buying a pc, let me know and I'll give you a list of required components, you can take it to TukCom and get your pc assembled for free (or a small fee). You'll get you basic PC for less the 20,000 Baht, not top of the line in speed but good quality components...

[why are the horses tired bob]

Thank you any advice on specs would be useful. I will be using the computer only for internet and games but I would like to print out articles. Should I buy a laptop?

[monty]

Hi Bob,

"Only the internet and games"

Now we need to know what games you're talking about since graphics intensive games is what needs a very fast PC and a very fast videocard...

Games like Quake III, Unreal tournament and X2 really need the fastest stuff around. This could easily double or triple the price of your PC.

Surfing the internet (and printing articles) is exactly on the other side, needing only a very basic machine.

If it's only solitaire you're talking about, that can be done by anything made after 1995

If you want advice of what you would need to buy, you'll first need to detail as much as possible what you're going to use the PC for...

Buying to slow/cheap ends up disapointing, buying top of the line is a waste of hard earned cash if you don'y need the performance...

My personal opinion on a laptop is that you would only want to buy it if you really need the mobility. More expensive to buy, more difficult to repair, much more expensive (if not inpossible) to upgrade... I've read posts on the forum about people not wanting anything else, citing comfort reasons such as using it in a recliner, so it's always personal...

Cheers,

Monty

[mrmnp]

I think I am the "recliner" guy who swears by a lap top for comfort and will take it to Pattaya for a weeks vacation today.

I use a Sierra Wireless card that plugs into your laptop and connects you by a sim card to AIS and their GPRS network. Monthly fee of 850 baht and no maximum hit yet, 4 hours a day so far.

I have done the land line bit in a condo and it is a disaster. Try to argue with TOT when you get a 10k bill for local phone use. ISP's available in Thailand are not much good and dial up is often difficult. Band width is always a problem. Sundays is a "slow" day on my system, not enough bandwidth.

While your condo seems to be your plan now, you may well move and you need to figure that issue in your plans before deciding between a pc and a laptop.

My wireless card also provides phone service while I am on-line and I don't even own a cell-phone. I don't receive many calls anyway. My daughter called me yesterday on my Birthday from Australia and we had an hour conversation all on my laptop with a earpience that plugs into the wireless card.

The phone service provides a "phonebook" so a click dials the number, and all kinds of logs such as missed calls, call duration and the like. PM me if you want more information on "my way" "non-techie" approach. Good Luck.

I bought the wireless card from a Fujitsu dealer who set the whole thing up for me including going to the AIS office to enable a sim, etc. Cost 15k baht.

[monty]

Hi mrmnp,

As I said the choice is always personal... I personlally love to play around with the innards of computers, and this would be virtually impossible...

A word of caution though on the AIS GPRS service:

You're on some kind of promotion package (which came with buying the aircard), when this promo ends it gets very expensive!!!

I just subscribed on this system and the current promotion was a good deal as well:

1200 Baht/month, first 6 months unlimited internet + 500 minutes calling time

Second 6 months still 500 minutes calling, but only 150 mb of internet usage included + 100 Baht/mb extra!

I just calculated that I would have paid over 10000 Baht if I was in the second 6 months!!! (total usage 243 mb).

A a comparison I pay 2.5 Baht/mb on my satellite internet!!!

I just wonder why the technician didn't set you up with a hutch internet sim, triple the speed of GPRS, very reasonable price and works with the aircard as well...

It does of course depend wether there is coverage in your hometown!

Depending on the package you get 300mb or 500mb included and will pay 10.24 Baht per mb extra.

Website Hutch : pricing

Webste Hutch : Coverage

On the phone lines, I've never ran up unexpected phonebills but it would be possible if you set your PC on autoredial and it's trying to connect on an expired internet package! 75 attempts per hour gets you a 225 Baht bill/ hour.

Also, just because you're dialling a number with same area code doesn't mean you're dialling locally!!!

from Pattaya to Rayong is still a 038 number but will be billed at 3 Baht/minut or 180 Baht/hour!!

Again, the choice of what one buys is completely personal and in this case a little bit finacially as well... a 20000 Baht desktop pc will set you back at least 50000 Baht in Laptop version

[why are the horses tired bob]

Thanks for your help. I will not be playing any graphics intensive games. I simply wanted to use the internet to read and print out newpaper articles and check on the decline of my fantasy football team. I would expect to use it one or two hours a day. Maybe by the time the shop you mention opens its Pattaya branch a simple and less expensive alternative to dial up will be available in Pattaya.

[fatter than harry]

hmmmm, but what if one were to want a computer solely to play graphically intensive games and download, er 'music' and didn't want to buy a pre made model?

[monty]

Hi Fatter then Harry,

The problem with most pre made models is that most of the time they use a cheap mainboard with on board VGA...Incomprehensible...

These games will not even start on a system like that!!!

My personal choice would be to get a decent mainboard e.g. nforce2 chipset (asus A7N8X-X), very good vga card e.g. Radeon 9600 Pro (Gigabyte GV-R96P128D), a good processor (minimum AMD XP2800+ ), 1Gb ram, a decent speakerset and a harddrive turning 7200 RPM.

The rest of the parts is less important for those power hungry games...you do need a DVD since these top of the line games are only available on DVD!

In my humble opinion there is no advantage in paying more for a Pentium based PC...

A system like this would set you back around 30000 Baht without monitor.

This will be a fast PC, decent enough to play current games in resolutions up to 1280X1024.

This is certainly not the fastest available, one that would be needed for even higher resolutions but I think everybody except the most hardcore gamer would be happy with this.

For example, the top of the line videocard at this moment (ATI Radeon 9800XT) costs around 25,000 Baht alone !!!

[monty]

The price noted above is of course only the parts... you'll still need somebody to assemble everything, find yourself a Windows to put on etc...

[Up2U]

Thanks for your help. .............. Maybe by the time the shop you mention opens its Pattaya branch a simple and less expensive alternative to dial up will be available in Pattaya.

Don't wait for what may never happen.

Pattaya is a desert as far as decent computer outlets areconcerned.

DCO and Sony outlets in Pattaya Klang, both poorly staffed and unhelpful.

One place on Sukhumvit, difficult to get to unless you have own transport or can direct a motor-bike driver (again, difficult to carry back to your apartment all the goodies you have bought).

Taxi to Sri Racha is not expensive, half-an-hour each way, at the most.

I usually use the limited-hours Loxinfo cards for times when I have no other access. Not cheap, but does allow you to plug-in and dial-up without going to ISP's and paying deposits, credit cards and so on.

Now I get to work an hour early and use that facility.

[fatter than harry]

Thanks Monty, really appreciate your advice, way back when in the UK I bought my first computer from TIME.....I shudder now looking back, tried to upgrade the graphics card and there was no slot in the motherboard as they made their own.

Anyway, I'll print all this out and scuttle on down to the depths of Big C where they have a few good computer shops and see what we can put together.

[why are the horses tired bob]

I live on Sukhimvit which place did you have in mind up2you. I understand tuk com is opening in Pattaya in a few months where day night is now.

[Up2U]

Between Pattaya Klang and Pattaya Nua, near a Soi that runs into Soi SS Villa. Can't give you the name, haven't been there for about eighteen months.

If we are getting a decent computer shop in Pattaya Tai, excellent! But I'll still only believe it when I see it - Soi Day-Night is the home of many failed businesses.

[Guest IT Manager]

hmmmm, but what if one were to want a computer solely to play graphically intensive games and download, er 'music' and didn't want to buy a pre made model?

Specs specs specs

Don't use Intel Mainboards in Thailand..they are crap. Use Asus or Asustek.

Dont use onboard modems, use internal or external, preferable 3com/usrobotics

Onboard LAN is fine

Don't use onboard VGA, too hard on resources.

Use a high end graphics card. If you can stretch it, Matrox, if not, a good TNT Riva, with 64 Mb onboard the VGA card. There are heaps of choices. Get one with 3D.

Put an Extra IDE USB 2.0 Card in the back.

Use onboard sound, no problem, unless you want deluxe sound, then use Creative.

Get good speaker systems.

Use Kingston RAM. More is better.

Use a Maxtor Harddisk 7200 rpm, 80 Gb is cheap enough.

Use an attractive box, with USB cards on the front and the back.

Use as much wireless peripheral as you can. Use Logitech, not the cheap rubbish.

Get a laser printer. 1010 from HP is about 9 or 10 K baht. Very fast. Cheap to run. half the price of colour.

If you must have colour, HP Business Inkjet. 11K or so.

Get a LCD monitor. It's nicer. Its easier on the eyes. It looks smart.

Get a DVD/CDRW.

Don't get a floppy drive unless you have lots of floppies already. If you do, disable it so the bf/gf can't bring viruses home.

Get a multicard reader, for your camera needs.

Save 100 baht on the bits and make up for it with the service it needs.

Is that enough?

[fatter than harry]

I'm gushing with gratitude, thanks loads!

Sorry Bob for sidetracking your thread, errrrr, why are the horses tired?

[Phil Conners]

I agree with IT except:

- Don't waste money on the LCD screens. A 4K tube equals the quality of a 20K LCD screen. Of course a LCD screen (supposedly, time will show if it's actually true) last longer, better on the eyes, less heat, smaller footprint but the price difference is still too high. Once a 1200x1000 LCD screen can be had for sub 10K I might revise my opinion on this.

- Don't buy a printer until you realize you need one. Once you need one find out what you need it for. For example an Epson C43UX cost under 2K and prints very nicely, both documents and photos. The cartridge can be refilled cheaply on any street corner.

- Most digital cameras come with a USB cable so I don't know what anyone would do with a card reader.

[wildrover]

Hi folks

New in town and looking to buy a computer. Is Tukcom in Sri Racha still the place to go or did they open an outlet in Pattaya?

wildrover

[Phil Conners]

No outlet yet, I think it's planned for December/January. Tukcom is still the place.

[stumonster]

Most digital cameras come with a USB cable so I don't know what anyone would do with a card reader.

I bought a in one USb2 card reader for 600baht basically because no matter what I tried I could not get the usb cable with my phone(has mmc card) working.. but now I also use it for the SD card in my digital camera... then if I take my laptop some where it can be taken also leaving the other leads behind.

It suprises me no second hand pc places are open in pattaya or surrounds because you only need a basic(read old) machine to access the internet.

for a desktop at home I went to panthip and got a good machine for 8000baht.

p3 733,128meg,20gig,32meg agp tnt2 and 17 inch CRT monitor.. it came with me installed.. but no prob to replace that with 98se.

I did decide to go and get another 128meg ram and a 40gig drive for storage of photos/mp3s and I replaced the OS again with win2k pro.

as for printers I just got a new canon.. the cheapy.. came with a second set of cartridges and it is fine for printing small happy snaps and small amounts of black printing..was around 2000baht.

but after saying all that..lol.. new computers are quite cheap in thailand.

[monty]

TukCom Pattaya on track to open end of august!

South Pattaya road, where the Day-Night shopping mall used to be...

TukCom Sriracha has two secondhand shops as well , bit more expensive then Panthip but as Stu said there are good deals to be had for a PC only used to access the internet! They just got a load of identical Compaq machines at 5900 Baht. Bit low on specs but perfect for Win98SE and all regular apps such as office and the likes...

Hey Stu, don't like ME do you???

Guess it was Win Mayor Error

[benthai98]

I hate to do selfish plugs like this but here goes:

You could come and see us at Liberty Computers. We are very centrally located (2nd Road in between Sois 7 & 8 - oppoiste Izuzu show room) and have English speaking staff. The majority of our clients are long term expats. The majority of our systems are custom made though we do offer a few pre-made packages (from about 14,500 to 38,000) for those that just needs something that works.

We also set up private and commercial networks and provide onsite service contracts.

We've been there since 1997 though we have recently acquired new english owners. I'm aussie by the way.

<!-- end of shameless plug -->

[dirtyrider]

You don`t need the latest graphics card to play new games, a geforce 5200fx or radeon 9200 would do the job for the odd game or 2.

Only £40 here in the u.k.