Do you want a new laptop? You’re not the only one. I’d love to win a new HP Compaq Presario laptop. It’d be a great replacement for my old laptop and it would be great to use in conjunction with my subnotebook that I take along with me now. Yes, a new laptop would be great. Maybe that’s why I am itching to the enter the new Charter High Speed Internet contest called theCharter Laptop-a-Day Giveaway.

Basically it works like this. Go to the Charter Laptop-a-Day Giveaway page and signup for one of their internet access plans. After signing up, you are automatically entered in their contest where they will give away one laptop a day for 30 days. Be sure to read all of the details about the contest on their page.

They are offering a very special bonus to people signing up online as well. Of course they are entering you in the contest, but you’re also eligible to receive a Shell Gift card. That’s free gas. With how costly gas is these days, a Shell Gift Card is like free money.

Ok, a free gas card and a chance to win a laptop are both great reasons to sign up, but what about quality of Charter? Well, webpages will show up very quickly and your downloads will take less time. The throughput is awesome. What are you waiting for?

I am thinking about going abroad again and I have come across many sites that are eye opening and give a lot of pertinent information. I found a Paraguay site that seems to give a lot of information. I don’t know how dated the information is, but the information is useful none the less. The site can be found here. Here is some of the information that can be found there:

Cost of Living
It’s fairly inexpensive to live here. As in most all latino countries services (medical, mechanic, house worker, etc) are inexpensive and imported goods are more expensive (than in the USA). In my last house I paid $200/mo rent for a huge 3 bedroom house with an enormous lawn and shaded barbecue area and two servant quarters. And I paid $80/mo for my houseworker who worked 54 hours a week.

And this:

Is it hard to get citizenship there? It’s relatively easy. Actually much easier than in 1st world countries. They just don’t accept poor people or escaping banditos. See the requirement list on our Living-In-Asuncion-Details page. Legally you can stay here indefinitely as a tourist as long as you leave the country every 3 months (or pay a small fine before leaving if you’ve stayed more than 3 months).

In other searching, I came across a site today about internet in Paraguay. The site is in Spanish, but it isn’t too hard to navigate. You can find the page here. The costs seem quite high, US$55 for a 64k microwave link and a little less than US$30 for unlimited dial up. Prepaid internet seemed cheaper, but still on the high side. International calls seemed pretty cheap through a VOIP prepaid card so it looks like they do have a somewhat competitive communications infrastructure.

I do like finding out more information and this site has done that. It sure makes me think that I should take a look at Paraguay and what Paraguay has to offer. The only drawback I can see so far is the general dearth of information about Paraguay. Look forward to more information, coming soon.

I can remember back in the day when a 56k modem was as fast you could surf the internet. Soon the first dsl became available and then cable modems. I first used a cable modem back in 2000 in Iowa City. I thought it was the best it could get. I got 100k downloads and I was happy. Later on, the speeds kept getting better and better. .

Now, Charter internet has a great offer. You can sign up for 5mb internet for just $14.99 a month. If that isn’t good enough, if you sign up using this link here, you will get a free $25 gas card. With a 30 day cancellation window, you can’t go wrong.

Sometimes you want to to have two computers using the same internet connection. It’s been awhile since I last posted an Ubuntu tutorial, so it is about time. Here I discuss how to share internet access over a crossover cable.

Ok, this config would take less than a minute if I was there. Maybe it will be the same for you if you can cut and paste fast. It can be done graphically and you might want to try it for fun. The fun part about Ubuntu is that you can experiment and there is nothing better than just figuring things out.

Open a terminal and type this:

sudo cp /etc/network/interfaces /etc/network/interfacesbkup

That backed up the file we are going to work with and then this:

sudo gedit /etc/network/interfaces

Now you are going to add the setting for your network. A file will get opened in your editor. Look in the file and you will see this line:
#iface eth0 inet dhcp

Right above it you will see a line that says auto eth0. Don’t touch that line. You want to delete the #iface line and put this in its place:
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.1
netmask 255.255.255.0

This sets the ip address of your LAN connection. Save the file and then exit from gedit.

Now, hook up the cable that goes between your computer and your wife’s computer then just restart networking by typing this in a terminal:

sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

Now you are ready to use the connection.

1st, do a google search to make sure you have still internet. (IE see something went wrong). It also checks to see if we need to do any default networking.

2nd, is the other computer using Ubuntu or Windows. If the other computer is using Ubuntu as well, just change her /etc/network/interfaces file in the same way I described above, but just change the address, to 192.168.1.2 and add these lines:
gateway 192.168.1.1
dns-nameservers 192.168.1.1

If the other computer is using Windows, go into the TCP/IP properties of the connection and untick the automatically get IP address and auto nameservers. For ip address enter 192.168.1.2 , tab through the mask and for gateway use 192.168.1.1 and for dns, use 192.168.1.1

Now check if the other computer has internet. and check if you have internet. You should both be set.

Problems?
Send me another copy of your ifconfig
If for some reason you lose internet on your Ubuntu, run this command:

sudo rm /etc/network/interfaces

and then

sudo mv /etc/network/interfaces/networkbkup /etc/network/interfaces

When you restart your networking will be back to normal.

I know this is very long, but it is actually very simple, I just have a long explanation. In short, set the networking for eth0 up and then get the other computer set up.

This was a reply to a post made in a forum about Internet Filtering in Thailand, I hope it is of use to someone out there. Back in 2001, the then new Prime Minister Thaksin came to power in Thailand. One of the first actions of the new year for the Communications Authority of Thailand(CAT) was enforce their monopoly on international communications. This meant that not only were voice calls subject to their monopoly but also data transmissions and this means the internet.

All of a sudden, all ISP’s were REQUIRED to purchase their internet access from the CAT at a markup. Since all internet access now passed through CAT, internet filtering began. Whenever the Thai Police felt that a website was counter to morals or laws of the Kingdom, they would give the website address to the CAT and the CAT would not allow for connections to be made to it and instead display a police notice.

This kind of filtering was impossible before 2001 because each individual ISP had to be contacted and they had to block the sites, but with only one ISP to deal with, CAT, it is very easy.

That is important to note, there is only 1 International ISP in Thailand, CAT, all others merely resell and repackage CAT access.