Internet connections and Computers in Pattaya

[kittyboy]

I posted this in the other forum but did not get many responses. I was informed that I would be able to use my wireless connection if I brought my computer. However, I still have a few computer related questions when I make my next trip to Pattaya. Any information that the members share would be appreciated (minus the usual snide and catty comments).

I plan on coming to Thailand (going to Thailand?) next year. I will be staying about three months. I want to do some computer work while I am in Pattaya. Mostly typing up lecture notes and editing power point slides. However, I will need an internet connection. I have a laptop with a wireless connection. Most of the projects I am working on can be downloaded onto a flash drive.

Should I bring my laptop to pattaya? It is relatively light but I hate lugging the thing through customs and I am worried it might be stolen. Is it possible to just bring the flash drive and work out of the internet cafes? Would it be possible or even practical to rent a computer to use in my hotel room? If I brought my laptop would my wireless card work? Do the internet cafes in Pattaya generally have a full suite of Microsoft Office products? Word and Power Point for example?

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I always bring my laptop. Wireless hot spots abound in Pattaya. Never had a problem conneting and getting on the net. I normally stay in Boyztown and have had great wireless connections from my room. The hotels I use all have in-room safes in which I put the laptop when not in use.

I use a flash drive when I want to take a document to an internet cafe for printing. However, my experience has been that many shops use knock offs of the MS Office Suite. This can sometimes cause formating problems. This is generally solved by converting to Adobe PDF format. Every internet shop is able to handle printing of PDFs.

make sure you have a good, up to date anti virus program. Most internet shops are stuffed with virus and spyware and keyloggers, and your flash drive can easily become infected.

For a three month stay and computer work to do, I would bring the laptop. Find a hotel that has Wifi and work at your leisure in the room with your computer and familiar software. If your hotel does not have a connection, do your work at Starbucks while enjoying a latte. I don't think you need to worry about it being stolen unless you are very careless. Guard the laptop as you would a camera, wallet and the like. You should be okay.

[jimnbkk]

[quote="kittyboy"]... Any information that the members share would be appreciated (minus the usual snide and catty comments). quote]

Somebody named "kittyboy" not wanting catty comments? hmmmmmmm.

joking aside: I bring my notebook to Pattaya (I usually rent a condo in Jomtien at View Talay Project 2, Building A) Downstairs there is an internet shop and he has ethernet cable plug-ins you can use. I believe most if not all notebook computers have an ethernet port. Using this port saves the danger of working over an unsecured wi-fi link, and lets you use your own office suite.

Using wireless connections in Thailand is playing with fire. Make sure that you have all of the latest protective programs in place if you chose to use them. You will, also, find that the download is so slow that it will often time out before you are finished with your download. The ethernet plug in is the way to go, but don't trust that just because you are in a hotel using their connection that all is safe...and the download time will still be very slow.

You will, also, find that the download is so slow that it will often time out before you are finished with your download.

Not my experience at all.

Unfortunately, I have had to work on some important projects while on holiday in the LOS and I have not had a problem with download times for some monster files (i.e. highly animated Powerpoint presentations) using wireless.

I would agree, having up-to-date firewall and virus software is the only sensible way to go not matter where you are in the world. Finally, using VPN adds another layer of protection.

The bottom line, using a laptop in the LOS can be as simple as using it at home. The right hotel or coffee shop with wireless in the LOS sure beats working in the office.

[fedssocr]

if you do decide to go with the USB drive you might want to consider using PortableApps www.portableapps.com It's a free suite of programs that you load onto your USB drive including OpenOffice (MSOffice compatible open source suite) and Firefox. Basically it allows you to keep your data secure by running everything off the thumbdrive. And you can carry all of your data, bookmarks, etc with you. Just make sure you get a USB drive with plenty of space (at least 2 GB or perhaps 4GB). My boss constantly raves about it and how cool he thinks it is.