Live in Issan? What do you do?

[Texpat]

49 posts, 1,011 views as of now.

Some people really want to know what we're up to. Geez, talk about nosy neighbors.

Nothing really, stay where you are. Just a bunch of buffalo and rice fields out here. The fact that 90 percent of the bargirls in the city are from here is mere coincidence.

They have no younger sisters in the minor leagues.

I promise.

[Fabian]

Me thinks it is OK in Isaan as long as she is over 18

Me thinks it is OK in Isaan as long as you can give her dad 10K.

I agree.

They were talking about if the man is her father, so why would he give himself 10K?

[jimmyyy]

Its not to bad up here in KK way, pretty nice actually, i prefer KK to pattaya or bangers......

[sunsetter]

^ I just got IPStar yesterday. Took them a little over two weeks to get off their arses to come install it. No complaints with the speed, i'm downloading at 120k just now.

Back to the original post... i drink Chang and watch the relatives work. They regularly walk past to check that i have enough beer and ensure that i have enough ice in it.

hello tao, im due back to do a stretch in the udon wilds soon, whats the ipstar thing costing? and whats the deal? i can get to the net in the oboto office but only in the afternoons for an hour or 2, so would like to get it at home,cheers

[Happyman]

Go fishing -feed my birds ( aviary) try and stop my cats getting into aviary have a drop of Mekong - same tomorrow ! LOL

[Tao]

I think IPstar is 2,600 baht a month for a 1Mb/512k connection. It's pretty unreliable with speeds that go up and down and since it's ku band it will be affected by the rains when they come.

It looks to me like they severely restrict streaming video and P2P content on the web. Any torrents or Youtube videos i try to look at take an age to view. Yet when downloading a regular file i can get close to the 100k/s speed i'm supposed to get.

Trouble is, there is no other option as of yet. Before we left Bangkok we were getting a 3Mb connection for a 1000 baht a month less which had no restrictions on content. It's annoying but at least i have the internet and i can download movies and new albums - it just takes days to get them.

[Tao]

You'll need space outside your house for what looks like a 1.5m dish, which is pretty big. From this, two co-ax cables need to be run into your house to the modem. This is hooked up to some kind of network switch where you can plug in your computer and a telephone line. We don't use the telephone too much as the quality is no great but that maybe because we use a wireless phone. I still need to try it with a regular telephone.

You just need to go into a TOT shop and basically tell them you want internet and tell them your address. They'll tell you what your options are, if it's IPstar then wait two weeks and they'll come and hook everything up for you. There's no logon password so it's easy to hook up a wireless router to their switch so you don't have to worry too much about placing the modem. Small print says this is not allowed though but doubt they'd mind if set it up while they where there.

[El Gibbon]

Just some details..



This was my IP Star in Makham.... 2.6 Kbaht per month. Installed three days after deposit.

Yes, Ku Band is affected by rain. As long as your logged on (modem powered up) I didn't have problems with rain unless it was unusually heavy. Connecting during a light rain storm was another matter.

As far as rain goes it was much more reliable than the UBC (antenna located just above IP Star).

The biggest problem I had was the DNS servers at TOT, total flocking crap and they still believe the only way to reset them is to power down and restart every morning around 9 AM... as told to me by the head sat guy at Chantaburi TOT office.... duh!

All-in-all it is a decent (slightly costly) solution when you don't have a land line.

E. G.

EDIT: You must have an unobstructed eastern horizon... pretty much due east and nothing above around 15 deg. elevation. That was the number in Chantaburi region, each part of the country will be slightly different.

[Norton]

I use CATCDMA. Reliable but slow. I've been thinking about switching to iPSTAR for better speed. Can anyone give me a feel (simple) for how much more speed I could expect with iPSTAR over CATCDMA? Looking at the connect speed as stated in CAT status window it says 230.4 kbps.

[Dalton]

I have IP-Star and I just checked the speed, download= 1026 Kb/s
Upload= 150 Kb/s.

[buad hai]

I use CATCDMA

Is it plain old CDMA, or CDMA-2000?

[Norton]

Is it plain old CDMA, or CDMA-2000?

Not sure but think it is plain ole CDMA. CAT gave (sold) me a Huawei (153.6k) wireless modem if that is any indication. Will call CAT to find out.

[sunsetter]

You'll need space outside your house for what looks like a 1.5m dish, which is pretty big. From this, two co-ax cables need to be run into your house to the modem. This is hooked up to some kind of network switch where you can plug in your computer and a telephone line. We don't use the telephone too much as the quality is no great but that maybe because we use a wireless phone. I still need to try it with a regular telephone.

You just need to go into a TOT shop and basically tell them you want internet and tell them your address. They'll tell you what your options are, if it's IPstar then wait two weeks and they'll come and hook everything up for you. There's no logon password so it's easy to hook up a wireless router to their switch so you don't have to worry too much about placing the modem. Small print says this is not allowed though but doubt they'd mind if set it up while they where there.

very helpful nice one, so what are the options with a phoneline?

[buad hai]

CAT gave (sold) me a Huawei (153.6k) wireless modem if that is any indication. Will call CAT to find out.

It's plain old CDMA. CAT now offers CDMA2000 EV-DO in many places. It's much, much faster (supposedly). But, you'll need to buy a new modem (12,000 baht) to use it.

Trouble is, I've yet to find someone who actually uses it so as to get a real world bandwidth report.

[lom]

I have ordered one as backup when ADSL crawls but not got it delivered yet.
I asked them about what speed I could get and was told that the base station has a 2Mbs limit and that typical connection speeds are 300-800Kbs depending on distance to the base station.

[Tao]

typical connection speeds are 300-800Kbs depending on distance to the base station.

This is what i've never been able to find out. How close to the transmitter do you need to be to get the fast speeds?

[lom]

^ I don't know, and I doubt they do
I was gonna ask them how to close you neeed to be in order to get 2mbs but the staff was so busy looking at girl photos on the internet that I felt I shouldn't disturb them more.
I got my name and phone number on their waiting list (one week delivery) and that was more than 2 weeks ago.

Their towers here in Chaweng are 400 and 800m away from me so I guess I will get a pretty good signal.
I'll be back with more info about actual connection speed as soon as they've got their thumbs out..

[Tao]

800m?.. you should be pretty good for a quick connection. I'm waiting to hear how it performs

[Texpat]

Live in Issan? What do you do?

About what I like.

[Dalton]

^ That involves a rubber-glove, vaseline, towel, a goat or cheep, leather outfit, and a whip...

[Texpat]

vaseline

and a pinch of sand ... I'm kinky that way.

[Dalton]

^ My bad mate..

[lom]

It's plain old CDMA. CAT now offers CDMA2000 EV-DO in many places. It's much, much faster (supposedly). But, you'll need to buy a new modem (12,000 baht) to use it. Trouble is, I've yet to find someone who actually uses it so as to get a real world bandwidth report.

I intended to do a report about it as soon as I got my modem..
But today I was told that CAT is scrapping their CDMA net, they will convert it to 3G GSM.
If they ever get their thumbs out and call me, I'm gonna tell them that they now have a spare place to put their CDMA modem.

[navydoubs1977]

I live in Pak Chong by the way),

lucky you fave place in thailand. wine at local vinyards isnt bad too.
beautifull place stayed in a log style cabin about half a mile left off the main street, was near a temple if i remember right and some what look like brand new house left to rot.

[rondothai]

I just putter around my house and garden with four dogs and wife.

Same here, but with 5 dogs and I work in the middle. I know there's a list the size of an elephants bogroll of things you can and can't do round here (I live in Pak Chong by the way), I even get odd stares when I cut my grass!! Maybe I'm doing it too quickly and not sleeping between each blade.

Have recently moved from down-town Buri Ram to my wife's village. Seemed like a good idea! One rai of land noe built up with 100 lorry loads from her "uncle". Turned out to be clay and rocks - mostly. There goes my dream of a verdant orchard stretching out from the balcony to the road. The planted trees are trying to stay alive. Should we have planted them in the rainy season - and am I in the wrong thread? My first attempt at online communication as a new member of TD.

Don't need to own dogs here - the locals hounds queue up at our kitchen door every lunch-time. Haven't tried to pat them on the head though. Mean looking bunch.

Would truly welcome advice on the aforementioned lawn project! I have seen piles of one metre strips of grass at the local garden centre. Best to wait for the rains? It's a bit like a dust bowl here at the moment.

There! That wasn't too difficult. Greetings one and all!