Pc's , Sattelite dishes etc

[banpaeng]

Lee, you sem sold on the GPRS. Looks like I will be using it. As stated in another post faster than land lines.

[Mr. Bean]

Living way out in the country I had the phone company install a land line. Every year during the rainy season the line would go out for at least 4-6 weeks. Fed up with dealing with them trying to find out when they will fix the line. I closed the account and went with Ipstar.

IPSTAR came out installed a dish and a box by my computer, now the system is on 24/7 and no more dialing up and cutting off etc. It's broadband.

Since they sent up the new Satellite last month they have lowered the monthly fee. It just arrived today and the new fee is 2,675.00 baht a month including vat.

I have had this system for about six months now and very happy I did it. Before the phone line would go down the I would have to re-dail up. One month my re-dials were 5,000 baht. So, I said good-bye to the phone company and informed them when they take AT&T as a partner, call me.

[Bill & Sue]

Hi Lee,
Tell me more about GPRS. I'll own up from the start & say I know next to nothing about it. I assume that it is a pay for what you use thing. How does that work then ?
I have been looking at them on t'internet & like most things, there are good, bad & indifferent ones.
Someone is offering a buckshee Vodafone one with a Laptop package, but apparently they are crap. I then looked at a review of an O2 one which is fantastic but will they work in Thailand?
I'll stop babbling on now & boring you all s**tless!!

[yorkman]

Well I've posted a question for Lee above to see what he uses; but research so far is this. I'll wait to see if he tells me I'm wrong.

I used the Vodafone card in the UK, and it worked fine. If you had a GSM connection then GPRS worked fine too. The card was (still is as far as I know) a badged version of the Option Globetrotter (easily found on the web). The good news about this card is you can get ex vodafone stock for about 3600B (from the UK)... other cards unless they are rubbish cost much more. This stock is new and unlocked.. so you can use it on any network. Others exist..of course... the Sierra Wireless Aircard range work very well; but are pricey. I used to work for O2, its usually good kit but they lock them... and I cannot find an unlocker or unlocked stock. I want to look at the Thai prices first

We get a good DTAC signal at home, so I, or rather my wife, is going to trot down to the DTAC office tomorrow and ask there about plans and rates. If you ask at the normal dealers the one or two I bothered with seem fairly clueless.

I've found some costs on the Internet, but they could easily be out of date, so I won't put anything here until I know better, or Lee chips in. Cheap enough it seems, even if you get a connection barely better than dialup on GPRS. There has been some noise about support for EDGE on DTAC, which is much faster, but thats just talk perhaps..

John

[banpaeng]

Here is link to a thread that Lee started about this subject.

http://www.udonmap.com/udonthaniforum/v ... .php?t=363

[Paul]

I used to work for O2, its usually good kit but they lock them... and I cannot find an unlocker or unlocked stock.
John

As you used to work for O2 maybe (maybe not) you can help me.
I brought over an 02 flip/camera phone from the UK and have tried many places in Udon to get it unlocked - with no success.
Its an 02 -X2 and is currently quite useless.
Most of the shops here claimed they dont have the sofware to unlock it.
My next plan of action is to try the shops in MBK in Bkk

Unless you can suggest otherwise ?

Thanks

Paul?

[lee]

Hi Lee,
Tell me more about GPRS. I'll own up from the start & say I know next to nothing about it. I assume that it is a pay for what you use thing. How does that work then ?

Buy a Solomon modem from the AIS shop in the complex for 6,900 baht, comes with a free sim card to get you started.

Modem looks like this:

Place sim card into your mobile phone to register it, then transfer in to your GPRS modem.

Install the driver on your computer and then plug your modem into any USB port.

Your computer will ask you to select a driver, then click ok.

Double click on your GPRS icon on your desktop, a new window will open, click connect and then your modem will connect in a matter of seconds.

Open you web browser and you're ready to surf the net.

Just top up your sim card with any one-2-call prepay card. I have a 300 baht card and after 1 week of heavy usage I still have 270 baht.
I believe you get 40 hours at 0.06 per minute and then after the 40 hours it changes to the standard 0.5 baht per minute. If you don't want to pay the higher rate just purchase another sim (220 baht) and then you have an extra 40 hours @ 0.06 per minute.

You also have the option of a monthly post pay which is 900 baht for unlimted monthly usuage but requires a copy of your passport and proof of address.

Make sure the modem your purchase is the latest version and has the latest software for sending text messages via your pc.

The service seems very reliable to me, it's not super fast but it does the job. If moving from ADSL to GPRS you will be dissapointed but when moving from a landline to GPRS you will notice the difference in speed.

The following text is taken from a Thai website that sells GPRS cards:

A GPRS air card allows you to stay connected to the internet anywhere in Thailand and throughout more than 160 countries worldwide.

GPRS means "General Packet Radio Service" and refers to the technical manner in which data is transmitted. Data is sent in "Packets," when it's received it is checked for errors, this ensures reliability and integrity even under adverse conditions.

GPRS differs from Wi-Fi, which in contrast to GPRS, offers severely limited range and is entirely depend on "serviced hotspots" which are both infrequent and expensive in Thailand.

The GPRS service is a data-only extension to normal mobile-telephone networks. Whilst it is possible to connect via a mobile phone it is important to understand that the use of a GPRS card is faster, more reliable and more elegant than connecting a mobile phone.

The future of GPRS seems certain as many new mobile phone services are dependent upon the GPRS data infrastructure. Continued enhancements and improved data throughput, while still maintaining backward compatibility, ensures that a GPRS card is a wise investment for the traveler, business user or anyone who appreciates the freedom of staying connected to the internet where ever they happen to be.

GPRS offers a theoretical maximum speed of 85kbps, however in normal use you can expect to achieve speeds in the range of 40k - 56kbps. GPRS typically connects in under 3 seconds, considerably faster than it takes to connect via a dial up modem connected to a normal telephone line. Once a connection is made it is rare for the system to disconnect spontaniously; indeed, some of our clients regularly write and send emails from the rear of a moving chauffeur-driven car.

[yorkman]

I brought over an 02 flip/camera phone from the UK and have tried many places in Udon to get it unlocked - with no success.
Its an 02 -X2 and is currently quite useless.
Most of the shops here claimed they dont have the sofware to unlock it.
My next plan of action is to try the shops in MBK in Bkk

Unless you can suggest otherwise ?

Thanks

Paul

Thats the one made by Benq yes? Not the X1? Ok the shops are, sort of, correct. You need a modified cable to connect to that phone and unlock it as I remember, so they are very unlikely to have that. Easily available in the UK but that does not help! You can order the cable from the net (costs about 1400B!!!) and then the software is a download.

John

[Paul]

Thats the one made by Benq yes? Not the X1? Ok the shops are, sort of, correct; you need a modified cable to connect to that phone and unlock it as I remember, so they are very unlikely to have that. You can order the cable from the net (costs about 1400B!!!) and then the software is a download.

John

That sounds about right as one guy in the complex said it looked similar to a Benq model. 1400 baht for a cable - hmmm, this phone will stay in a box in the spare room I think !

02 is not that well known here yet - however they seem to be making a presence with the introduction of an 02 palm pc or whatever it is. saw it in a shop the other day.

[yorkman]

Paul,

Thanks for that, I'll take a look. I looked at DTAC because I know a good signal strength at home and all the cells are GPRS enabled, so I'll try an AIS sim in my phone first.

I think that USB modem is a GPRS class 8 device, so maximum upload speed is 14.4 kbit/s so it may not suit my needs. A class 10 device, like the 2 devices I mentioned above, doubles that. It only matters depending on your ratio of downloading and uploading so your mileage may vary.

John

[BangkokButcher]

John, I'm interested where you can pick up the vodaphone data cards from for 3600 baht (ฃ60 ish) any chance of posting a link or sending me a pm, cheapest i've managed to find is about ฃ80 new or ฃ70 refurbished.

TIA

[yorkman]

John, I'm interested where you can pick up the vodaphone data cards from for 3600 baht (ฃ60 ish) any chance of posting a link or sending me a pm, cheapest i've managed to find is about ฃ80 new or ฃ70 refurbished.

TIA

Here its at ฃ51 plus the postage.. http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=115561

There may well be others..

John

[BangkokButcher]

Brilliant, cheers for that