Hi all,

I'm moving to Bangkok at the end of November, and I'm looking at the various options for a secure connection to the internet. I'll be staying at a serviced apartment that claims to have wifi, but I don't think I'll be able to get a dsl line there since they charge for the telephone per call, pretty much like a hotel. Wifi is fine for recreational browsing, but I will occasionally need to do some on-line banking so a secure connection is essential.

It looks like GPSR might be the best option, but I wonder if I could just walk into an internet cafe with my laptop and plug it in for a fee. My computer is a new Toshiba with Windows XP, so I'm wondering if it will be able to automatically connect once the wire is inserted?

Any insights are appreciated.

RS

Many Internet cafes will allow you to connect to their network via the ethernet port on your laptop. I have had no problem with this in the past. As long as their network is using DHCP which automatically assigns an IP number to your computer, and your network settings in Windows are not set to a fixed IP, you should be able to connect without any problem. I'm sure the staff at the Internet cafe would be pleased to assist you with setting up if required.

GPRS is another option but is somewhat much slower and will require you to have a mobile phone connection. DTAC and AIS offer GPRS on a pre-paid basis but for heavy usage, this could be an expensive proposition.

Thanks youngkiwi. I'll give the internet cafe a shot. I'm going to buy a mobile phone after I arrive, and I'll try to get one that is GPRS capable. Any insights on security if I use my own computer at an internet cafe?

Make sure you have a good firewall/antivirus. I would suggest Kaspersky Internet Security available from http://www.kaspersky.com

Also, make sure your hard drives are not shared or these will be accessible to other users on the Internet cafe network.

I would go for ZoneAlarm and make sure you choose Internet, not Trusted, for the new network when it pops up.

This will make sure your internal drives are not visible.

If you can remember to keep toggling it on and off, uncheck "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks" before you plug the internet cafe's LAN able into your notebook. Re-check the box only when you are hooking up to a network via the RJ45 jack for the purpose of transferring files via a LAN. You don't need (nor want) file/printer sharing enabled for surfing the internet.

I network my desktop and notebook computers at home to synch files, and use a Firewire connection, so that connection has file/printer sharing enabled. My RJ45/LAN and my wifi connections have file/printer sharing permanently disabled.

Yes, I'm paranoid, but that doesn't mean nobody is out to get me.