Saturday, May 3, 2008 

Malaysia - Essential Visits

Located in South East Asia, bordering Thailand in the north and Singapore in the south, Malaysia achieved its independence from British rule on the 31st of August 1957. With a population of approximately 23.5 million (58% Malays, 24% Chinese, 8% Indians and 10% others), Malaysia is rich in differing cultures and traditions. The uniqueness of Malaysia is that all these differing religions live alongside each other in harmony and peace.

You may be asking "What's there to do in Malaysia?". Malaysia offers natural beauties in tropical rainforest, scuba diving; Shopping haven in all major cities; Friendly citizens across the country. Whatever you want to do, ranging from being a potatoe couch at the hotel to extreme adventures, Malaysia has it all.

Having said that, I will now point out to you the essential visits that you should take part in order to make your trip whole (in no particular order):

Petronas Twin Towers
Towering at a height of 452 metres (1483 feet), the Petronas Twin Towers is the highest twin towers in the world. Built to 88 storeys and 32000 windows, the towers are connected via a skybridge. You must book your time to access the skybridge for an excellent birds-eye view of the Kuala Lumpur city. The towers were featured in the movie Entrapment starring Sean Connery and Caterine Zeta Jones. When visiting the towers, take a stroll at the KLCC park (20 hectares or 50 acres) located adjacent to the towers and indulge yourself in shopping at the Suria KLCC located inside the towers.

Pulau Pinang (Penang Island)
Affectionately known as Pearl of the Orient, Penang is famous for its natural beauty and exotic heritage. Located at the northern part of Malaysia, Penang, a bustling island, has a large variety of culture, people and food within the 285 square kilometres enclave. So diversed, you will be able to find churches, Chinese temples, Indian temples and Muslim mosques all within a five minutes walk. Colonial buildings still exist and are constantly being restored to its former glory. When you are at the Pearl of the Orient, you must sample the hawker food found at abundance, take a ferry ride (especially at night) and stroll along the beaches of Batu Ferringi.

Sipadan Island
Located on the north-eastern part of Borneo Island, Sipadan is one of the world's best dive spots. White sandy beaches borders this 12ha island. The island was formed from a undersea volcano and is raised 650meters from the sea floor. Sipadan is famous for its reef wall, rare reef creatures and the regular appearance of sea turtles. If you are a diver, this is one place that you would not want to miss.

East Coast Islands
On the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, an abundance of idyllic white sandy beaches. To escape the hustle and bustle of the city, hop over to the east coast, put on a sarong, grab yourself a coconut, relax and enjoy the pounding of the waves. Out in the sea, islands such as Perhentian, Tioman and Redang are famous for their dive spots and family getaway.

Cameron Highlands
This 1800 meters above sea level region is a popular getaway from the tropical heat for Malaysians and tourist alike. Cameron Highlands was discovered by a British surveyor named William Cameron in 1885. This highlands resembles England as old English inns, chalets and bungalows still exists today. Attraction in Cameron Highlands includes mountain and jungle hikings, tea plantations, fruits and vegetable farms, flower nurseries and its people. Cameron Highlands has two golf courses if you are game.

Proboscis Monkeys
Living exclusively in Borneo island, proboscis monkeys have the largest nose amongst all primates. Reaching up to 17.5cm long, the reason for the elongated nose is unknown. Another distinctive feature of this unique creature is its pot belly. The proboscis monkey is an endangered species and is listed under the IUCN Red List. Visiting these creatures in its natural habitat is well worth the journey.

About the Author
Mij Gnow is an avid traveller who is infected with the travel bug throughout the year. Weighed down by the corporate world to earn a living, Mij continues to write articles in preparation for his future travels. Mij is also the creator and administrator of Travel Corridor, http://www.travelcorridor.com; a site containing essential visits around the world.

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How to Troubleshoot Your Internet Connection for DSL or Cable Service

One of the common problems among internet users is testing their internet connection to pinpoint the exact problem. There is a big number of internet users who use DSL, and cable modem service.

You set us your connection the way your ISP (internet service provider)instruct you to. Sometimes, it doesn't work for numerous reasons.

You service is not ready, your hardware in not connected properly, or your ISP is having problems.

Whatever the cause of the problem maybe, there are some diagnostic tools you can use in Windows XP, in order to identify the problem.

If you are not exact in your diagnostic, you will get a good idea at least.

Before we get to the diagnostic tools, let us discuss what is involved in an internet connection.

The information travels over the internet to your computer through your ISP service. This is done through a High speed modem then to a network card installed in your computer.

Your computer is called a host, your service provider will give you the DNS IP address, and you get your login and password. That is all what you have from your ISP.

Sometimes, your internet connection fails, and you want to find out the problem. You may be able to fix it, or at least get some information about the problem to advise your isp for help.

You will start by accessing the command prompt by going in sequence to:

Start menu, program, accessories, then command prompt. A window will open where you type commands from the prompt.

At the command prompt, you type: IPCONFIG. This command will give you the active network connection on your computer. Here is an example:

PPP adapter Copy :

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 68.239.158.45
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 68.239.158.45

The above output was produced when I ran the Ipconfig command on my own computer running Window XP OS, and A DSL connection. The IP address is my computer address assigned by the ISP.

Please note, you can add an option to this command, in order to get more detailed information about your connection. Here is the output, when I ran the same command with the "all" option.

Ipconfig /ALL

PPP adapter Copy :

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-53-45-00-00-00
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 68.239.158.45
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 68.239.158.45
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 151.198.0.39 151.197.0.39 NetBIOS over TCP/IP. . . . . . . . : Disabled

Notice now, the output includes the phisycal address of the network interface card installed in my computer. Also, you see the DNS IP addresses. With the above information, I didn't have any problems.

Supposed ,I disconnect my DSL connection and ran the command again, this is the new result:

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Notice in this case, where I disconnected my connection, you don't get a DNS server. This tells you that I am not connected to the internet.

Also, notice the IP address starts with 192.168, which is the default address whenever your computer is not connected to the internet.

Another command is the ping command. It will allow to check if a computer is connected to the network and ready to communicate, whether intranet, or internet.

Once you run it,it will sent a packet to the computer specified and gives the time it took for the packet to travel. This is an a output when I tried to ping www.yahoo.com:

C:>ping www.yahoo.com

Pinging www.yahoo.akadns.net [216.109.118.66] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 216.109.118.66: bytes=32 time=35ms TTL=55
Reply from 216.109.118.66: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=55

Ping statistics for 216.109.118.66:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 35ms, Maximum = 39ms, Average = 38ms.

That shows that the host was reachable, and connected to the internet.

A very important command is the Nslookup. This will let you check if DNS (domain name server) is working properly. The function of the DNS server is to translate ip addresses to domain name of the networked computer. Here is an example:

C:> nslookup www.yahoo.com
Server: home5.bellatlantic.net
Address: 151.198.0.39

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: www.yahoo.akadns.net
Addresses: 216.109.118.67
Aliases: www.yahoo.com

So, you enter the name after Nslookup, it will give you IP addresses and vice versa.

In summary, there more commands in Windows Xp, but using the three above commands should give you a good idea about your internet connection problems. You can find where the problem is occurring. Is it your machine, or the ISP.

Thanks,
George Chamoun

For tips about your Windows XP computer, visit our new website: http://www.ResolveWindowsXpProblems.com

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