Wi-Fi Connection

[Guest Asmerom]

I am currently renting a Condo on the 15th Floor of View Talay 5C and it seems there is no wi-fi connection available up there.

I'm informed that you can buy some device at TUK Com for 15,000 baht which slides into my Apple Mac Pro Laptop and will access the internet.

The lad at the Apple Counter said I give him 15,000 and he goes off and buys it in Pattaya. Back in 10 minutes. Does that sound OK to you?

Does anyone have any further advice about my little problem and is it really necessary to spend all that money to connect. And I do mean only from my Room on the 15th Floor by wireless. There's no phone.

Hope to here your responses.

Thanks,

Asmerom

[Guest travelerjim]

Does anyone have any further advice

 

I lived in VT5C for 1 year...on the 13th floor.

 

Before telephone and dsl was available in VT5C...

I was able to get wi-fi connections most times ..

I had a wireless laptop computer.

 

Suggest you contact TOT and get MaxNet...1024 dsl for about 790 baht...

you will need phone...to connect to the dsl.

 

DO NOT recommend you give anyone 15,000 baht

to get for you something at TucCom...

 

Go yourself and get for yourself...

ask around TukCom and you will at least get value

for your baht if you pay it directly to a seller.

 

I am not an expert on computers...so if you have a typical desktop computer...

maybe someone else can advise on what is needed and available to get

connected by wireless.

 

Also, for less that 19,000 baht at TucCom

you can buy a NEW ACER or similar laptop computer that has wireless :-)

 

The office at VT5 can help you or ask one of the real estate fellas there...

Ari (speaks English) of Kaews Laundry and AA+Properties on main floor is good guy...

I am sure he can help you.

[Gaybutton]

Even if you can get WiFi, that doesn't mean it's going to work. A friend of mine stays at a View Talay condo, 10th floor, and he does have WiFi available. Every so often it actually works. He gets totally frustrated with it. It works when it wants to, and much of the time it doesn't want to.

 

I agree with Travelerjim. Assuming you're going to be staying where you are for a long time, and can be assured of getting the same room whenever you are in Pattaya, it would be far less expensive to have a phone line with ADSL installed. I use Maxnet and it almost always works beautifully. Sometimes it gets slow and maybe once every two or three months, or so, I lose my connection for a day or two, but otherwise it works quite well and is acceptably fast. You're not going to find much of anything in Pattaya just yet that will give you greater speed unless you get a dedicated line, which is much more expensive.

 

If you do decide to go with Maxnet, ask them if they can throw in a router. Sometimes they do or will give you one at a discount. If they won't, you can get a good router at Tuk Com for about 2000 baht. I use the D-Link router and it works just fine. I think it's one of the least expensive brands.

 

I can't remember how much it cost to have the telephone line installed, but it wasn't all that much. It cost about 3300 baht for the initial fees for Maxnet, plus abut 2200 baht for the router. The whole thing came to far less than 15,000 baht.

 

My monthly MaxNet bill is 1070 baht plus 140 baht for the TOT phone line, making my monthly Internet service fees 1210 baht. I don't even have a telephone attached to the Maxnet line, so I have no associated bills for phone calls.

 

I don't know what the guy at Tuk Com is offering, but before I would buy it I would at least want to know just what it is, would want to see it, would want to see it demonstrated, would want to know where he's getting it from and what his own cost for it is, and I would want to know if any additional fees or monthly bills are involved and how much. I would also want to know if the device has a warranty, how long the warranty is valid, and if the device ever does need to be serviced, can the service be done locally. Often, when people take an item that needs to be serviced back to where it was purchased, they end up hearing, "Have to send to Bangkok."

 

If you do opt for ADSL, you'll likely be told it will be about two weeks before anyone comes over to install the phone line. Many people have told me, and it was also my own experience, that everything actually was installed and working within three days.

 

Your message does not say how long you intend to stay in that condo, but of course if you are not going to be staying there over a long term period of time, at least a few months, then you're probably much better off sticking to Internet cafes. Internet cafes may not be as convenient, but they will save you a lot of money if you're not going to be at that condo for very long.

 

As an aside, if any of you ever need work done on your computer, I suggest calling Killin. Killin is Thai, but speaks excellent English. He'll come over to your place and if the service can be done at your place he'll do it on the spot. If he has to take it to his shop you'll almost always have it back the next day or within two days. He shows up at the time he says he'll show up or will call you if he is running late.

 

His prices are very reasonable. I recently had him do some major work for me. At my request he literally gutted my computer and made a new one out of it. He installed a brand new motherboard with dual processors (I still can't believe the difference in speed), re-wired everything, installed a 250 gig hard drive, installed a new and much better sound card, put in the maximum amount of memory my computer is capable of holding, gave me a new tower box, and took my old hard drive and made an external hard drive out of it. He also re-installed my operating system and threw in some excellent maintenance software. He was also willing to re-install all of my software, but I preferred to do that myself. The total price for all of it, including his own fees, was 16,000 baht. At current exchange rates that's about US $510 and I now have what is literally a brand new computer operating at lightning speed, with everything working perfectly for once.

 

If you wish to contact Killin, his number is 081 295 3860. I can't recommend him highly enough.

[PattayaMale]

Your computer may find a wireless network but if the network is "secure" you will not be able to access it anyway without a username and a password. Remember connecting to a network is costing someone something. 15,000 will pay for a router/modem but what will it connect to? Service connection is not free.

 

If someone in your building that is close to you has service on a wirless device, you will be able to share it if it is not secure. Most people secure their wireless service for their own use.

[Guest Asmerom]

I lived in VT5C for 1 year...on the 13th floor.

 

Before telephone and dsl was available in VT5C...

I was able to get wi-fi connections most times ..

I had a wireless laptop computer.

 

Suggest you contact TOT and get MaxNet...1024 dsl for about 790 baht...

you will need phone...to connect to the dsl.

 

DO NOT recommend you give anyone 15,000 baht

to get for you something at TucCom...

 

Go yourself and get for yourself...

ask around TukCom and you will at least get value

for your baht if you pay it directly to a seller.

 

I am not an expert on computers...so if you have a typical desktop computer...

maybe someone else can advise on what is needed and available to get

connected by wireless.

 

Also, for less that 19,000 baht at TucCom

you can buy a NEW ACER or similar laptop computer that has wireless :-)

 

The office at VT5 can help you or ask one of the real estate fellas there...

Ari (speaks English) of Kaews Laundry and AA+Properties on main floor is good guy...

I am sure he can help you.

 

 

Many thanks for those very informative and comprehensive replies to my wi-fi problem.

I'm renting for six months so I'd probably like to do something. Though I realise I may end up using a preferred internet cafe like the one I'm in now just past the TUK store on the same side. Its really modern,clean,with pleasant decor and the staff are attentive, bringing a glass of water to the desk.The only downside is its popularity. Its often full of squealing, giggling girls making long distance assignations in execrable English.

 

The real estate fellas of VT5C seem to be as ignorant as I am about wi-fi but I will try to speak to Ari.

And thanks Gaybutton for that very practical helpful advice.I agree, even if the service worked, it may well prove poor or erratic. The one I used in VT2 was exactly that.It was the owners.The guys in the VT5C estate office offered to give me their password so I could use their ADSL Service, but its not quite the same as having it in your own room.I would have to bring my laptop down to the ground floor.

 

I 've concluded from these most useful comments that wi-fi is definitely not the answer. I will now make enquiries about a phone line and Maxnet as suggested by Travelerjim and Gaybutton.

That list of entirely sensible questions Gaybutton, which you would want answered before you handed over 15,000baht to the boys at TUK would be impossible to ask without an interpreter. I had great difficulty just asking for the correct device and even more difficulty understanding their replies in tortured English. Does nobody in Thailand learn English at school? I've been here a month and I haven't yet met a Thai who knew a word of English, the language of international communication.

 

I'll certainly remember the name "Killin" and his number.

There are "networks available" listed on my laptop but clicking on JOIN always fails to connect and anyway passwords would be required to access those networks.

 

It looks like the phone is the answer.

 

Thanks again to all,

Asmerom

 

 

 

[Guest TOQ]

" Does nobody in Thailand learn English at school? I've been here a month and I haven't yet met a Thai who knew a word of English, the language of international communication."

 

Thanks again to all,

Asmerom

 

 

Asmerom, that staement sounds a little harsh. Since you are going to be here for about 6 months you may possibly have time to learn basic Thai, the national language of the country that you are in as a guest.

 

just a thought

 

john

[Gaybutton]

I'll certainly remember the name "Killin" and his number.

 

There's the solution to your problem. Call Killin. He can recommend what you need. He probably knows exactly what that device is too. If he doesn't know, he does speak English, good English, and can easily find out and can also tell you if Tuk Com is selling it at a reasonable price, whatever it is, and he can get answers to the questions.

 

[Gaybutton]

Since you are going to be here for about 6 months you may possibly have time to learn basic Thai, the national language of the country that you are in as a guest.

 

I second the motion. I have always felt it is much more obligatory for farangs to learn Thai than it is for Thais to learn English. It is helpful for Thais when they do learn enough English to at least effectively communicate, but I agree with TOQ.

 

I lived in the Miami, Florida area, where there is a very large Cuban population. A major area of Miami is known as "Little Havana." Many of the people living there make no attempt to learn to speak English at all, despite the fact they are living in the USA. There are many areas in Miami where if you can't speak Spanish, then you can't communicate at all. I always thought their refusal to try to learn to speak English was a bad idea and I still think so. It limits them and it limits those who cannot speak Spanish. In many ways you end up with that house divided against itself that Abraham Lincoln warned about.

 

To my mind, if a foreigner chooses to live in Thailand, then it is his responsibility to try to learn at least basic Thai communication, not the other way around.

[Guest Asmerom]

I second the motion.

 

 

I thought my comments about Thais not knowing any English would ruffle some feathers and I agree that it could be interpreted as arrogant. Certainly, if one intended living here ,then yes, there would be no excuse for not attempting to learn some Thai. Though listening repeatedly to those two excellent communicators on "HP NEWS UPDATE" channel 26, I think, at 7pm. the idea of ever mastering that continuous flow of sing song sounds might seem ambitious in the extreme.But there is such an attractive rapport between the two of them ,they keep me amused and entertained without my understanding a word. And there's the problem. Even after watching them for hours I can't imagine ever distinguishing separate words.

 

My question still remains unanswered, Are they taught English in school? One would think a nation so dependent on the Tourist industry might consider it a matter of great urgency to educate its youth accordingly. Surely you might expect some of the staff at Tesco Lotus for example to know a few names of the items they sell to so many English speaking tourists.But whoever you ask, you know you're going to be treated to that blank stare of incomprehension which always looks faintly hostile to me. That could be wrong.

 

Some bold independent thinker might surmise the trouble with Thailand to be ,it was never colonised by the English. Just think of the roads, the railways, it might otherwise be blessed with, all under the rule of an incorruptible government. Of course, such impolitic thoughts would never sully my mind.

 

Still persevering with the phone question and I might just get in touch with your technical guru Killik. It sounds like a good idea.

Asmerom

[Bob]

The "English" statement seemed ignorant as well as harsh. Many Thais speak and understand English well and a large chunk of the population in the big cities speak and understand at least some English.

 

And the percentage is one hell of a lot higher than the percentage of falang who speak Thai.

[Gaybutton]

I thought my comments about Thais not knowing any English would ruffle some feathers

 

They did. I guess this thread is going to be a dual subject now. To answer your question, yes English is taught in the schools. The trouble is that so many Thais lack the opportunity to obtain more than a few years of education and a great many of the Thai English teachers can hardly handle English themselves. I'm surprised that so many Thais do manage to handle English quite well.

 

I'm also surprised at your comment that you've been here a month, yet never encounter Thais who speak decent English. You haven't been talking to the same Thais I talk to. Most Thais I meet do speak a fair amount of English. As a matter of fact, I find it quite rare to meet Thais who can't speak any English at all.

 

You can survive quite nicely, at least in major cities, without learning a single word of Thai. Many farang do just that, but that's all you can really do . . . survive. It doesn't take much effort to learn a good bit of Thai. I suggest trying. You say you stay in Thailand six months each year. If you make an effort to learn you'll be surprised at how that makes things much easier and will enhance your life. You don't have to, but if you do I'll bet you'll be glad you did.