tkessler

I don't disagree with Computer Guy...the communications and customer service is not ready for prime time...If all my MX customer in my work answered me promptly and Ilox were the only one who didn't, I'd think its Ilox.  But with rare exception a lot of the country behaves like that...maddening...Maybe its cultural.  

I'll offer my two cents here:

- For everyone who is complaining that they prepaid over 18 months ago and the delays have been eternal..understand that we had a pledge period, where you could express your interest without obligation...Once we had enough pledges, we had the prepaid period, where signups were sent vouchers to actually pay.  We didn't know if enough people would actually pay until last October, when they had enough and decided to start the project.   If you paid last May, like I did, about 6 months of that time was wait and see with no obligation.  At 7% percent interest on the roughly 15000 pesos for 6 months, you're out 500 pesos.  So sorry,  but Ilox wanted to see some skin in the game from the local community before committing to an FTTH installation.   I knew of no other way to get them in...We're not in the US.   Small communities there have worse problems trying to get broadband.    But we did it...They're here.  And their service is quite good. 

When they decided to start the project, they had to site their offices and concentrator installation.  Ajijic real estate prices turned out to be sky high, it took them a couple of extra months to get that sorted out....They finally got the office in Buganvilias arranged and concluded they couldn't put the truck depot in Ajijic....I know, its not your problem...But we did it...They're here. 

- We are in early October and as a practical matter things started rolling in January of this year.  Its been 9 months, they said 6 for all the prepaids.  Sorry things are running late.  But they do have most of the original prepaids covered now.  -If all the folks in San Antonio and Riberas hadn't left for the summer, Ilox would have done their installs first.  But when they tried, their newly hired crews kept firing on 2 cylinders..so they said to heck with that and adjusted their plans to keep their crews busy, which included mixing recent signups with prepaids.    Raquet Club was an area with a high density of prepaid signups, it was one they had to jump on as a salvation to their crew utilization problem. We weren't anticipating that and it didn't look great for keeping promises, but they have a business to run and that's the explanation.  They are now all over San Antonio, Riberas, Chula Vistas....We did it.  They're here. 

- The areas beyond Raquet Club like Las Fuentes, etc..I don't know if you've driven it...it is way out there...Ilox installs are in three stages..First they have to prep the cables to the area...then the branch cables to the boxes, and then finally drop to the houses.  I know they are in the first stage to Las Fuentes...After they finish up San Antonio area they'll work on that area...And then most of the original lakeside area will be done. - I have dealt with dozens of complaints about service, refunds, etc and have found most or all of them to be unsubstantiated.  99% of the time a nice email to the NOC will resolve the problem.  I've seen:   mail delivery problems, unclear refund requests, language issue, customer side technical issues, misunderstanding of speed tests...it goes on and on.    In every case, showing just a bit more empathy and drilling down on the problem can solve it. 

lox is not Telmex..there are some subtleties.  They'll assign you a private IP address by default unless you request a public one, which can screw up streaming.  That's due to a global shortage of public IP addresses.  Their routers often block interport communication, so you need to put all of your network on one switch and run just one cable to the Ilox router.  They don't allow you to do much on the router like open ports, but they'll do practically anything you request via a mail to the NOC.  All of these are basically just prudent business practices for a small ISP that doesn't  want to their tech support choked with a bunch of trivia.  If you can't deal with this, get yourself a decent computer guy who can help you before you put it all on Ilox.

Tom

You can sign up for the Ilox double or triple 250 which will give you 250 Mb down and 75 up,  fiber to the home (FTTH).   They installed mine in Rancho del Oro in May and I routinely get 450 Mb down and 100 up.  Best to speed test on fast.com which gives the best representation of your ISP's speed. Fast.com are netflix servers on your ISP's boundary.  Speedtest.net will return a result that shows not just your ISP but transit networks also in the path to the server.   When you install fiber, need to be careful that you have a recent PC, Gb network connection, don't test over Wifi, or you'll get unrepresentative readings. 

Ilox crews moved to into San Antonio /Riberas / Chula Vista area a few weeks ago and have begun installing.  They are running a few months behind the original plan, but things are now moving along just fine.

Thats right, I have very little outbound on Callcentric...$0.02 a minute not much of an expense even if I had a lot!

Many years ago I took the Mexican exam and was issued XE1KG...operated for many years but then it expired and the government stopped regulating it.    I believe there are a lot of people operating under the radar, just need to be discreet about it. 

I use a callcentric.com Voip line with a Grandstream HT801 adapter you can buy on MercadoLibre in Mexico for $50.    When someone calls my US number, it rings the GDL and Ajijic house and my MX cell simultaneously.   About $3 a month. 

The intent in my answers is to provide information that helps people make informed decisions on their choices.       Folks should know the advantages of fiber over other mediums and have a basic understanding of the issues related to streaming.  I fail to see how answers that don't facilitate that are helpful. 

Mark,

I still don't get it.  Your comments are so generic as to be useless.   By not differentiating the clear advantages of fiber, you did put it into the same category of other mediums.    Yes, I suppose if all subscribers wanted to transmit at maximum velocity simultaneously, it might stress even modern day routers.  But you are ignoring the  improvement in semiconductors that have vastly improved the throughput of fiber and routers to the point where there are few practical bottlenecks. 

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-31903-2_8

On bottlenecks, there are two types of Internet traffic among the carriers.  Transit and peering.  Transit happens when an ISP pays another to carry its traffic.   Peering is when two networks agree to exchange traffic at no charge or the provider covers the cost.    Ilox is a small carrier that pays other networks to transit its traffic.  As described here:

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/isp-peering-high-speed-internet-slow/

They also peer with Google, Facebook, and Netflix.    Now is it clear why those services always work well? .  For residential service, you bet they have to throttle bandwidth at some point or their business case would go out the window in transit charges.   But, they try to make sure fiber subscribers get reasonable quality of service commensurate with their speed.  If you want better than that, there's something called SLA, service level agreement, where they start guaranteeing throughput.

In general, if you are seeing streaming problems on non-peered networks, it could be Ilox limiting peak throughput through a Cogent that they have to pay (unlikely but possible), a transit carrier, or even your provider.   If you've got a cheap service, you might be getting what you pay for.

I have no idea why Mark puts fiber in the same category as other mediums. Fiber is superior.  Immunity to electrical interference and weather degradation, and higher speeds are the main differences, along with lower maintenance costs. Your Ilox box,  called an ONT,   operates on two different wavelengths and each transmits at about 1.2 Gbps simultaneous in both directions.  Because fiber is newer technology, the networks have fewer  bottlenecks up to the ISP network boundary.  To be fair I imagine Telmex has few hardware bottlenecks these days as well. Their bottlenecks are the DSL segment speeds, dependent on your copper distance. The initial throttling  that does occur on fiber depends on the ISP service you contracted.  Beyond that, into other networks, where Telmex and Ilox have to pay traffic costs,   the oversubscription and degradation of bandwidth begins.  It happens mostly at the later stages in the connection up to your destination.  

Fast.com is the Netflix server at the Ilox boundary.  If you speed test there, you should with very rare exception get your contracted speed. I always get mine at 250 mbps, and its gone as high as 750.   Make sure you're hardwired on a gigabit port and not on a VPN, not over wifi. 

When you go to other networks:    Depending on the service you can be routed by their peer with:   Google, Netflix and Facebook through or direct peers with them-  Marcatel if a Mexican network.   Cogent, Level 3 or PCCW for international networks.   Once you are on those networks, anything can happen. 

You´ll have to weigh which crock of BS contains more BS.  Telmex ignoring the area for years with no one else willing to invest, or Ilox who did come in on the strength and faith of the prepaids (thanks Carolina!), are running behind, and could be a bit more communicative.  I wish I could waive a magic wand and have Ilox communicate more like an NOB company, but alas, we are SOB.   In some ways, thats why we all live here.  Go figure.     

I have to agree the communications part was not ready for primetime..  On the other hand, they are working diligently, they will get there.   Hold the rattiness. 

This morning there was an Ilox truck fixing a drop that had broken at one of my neighbors. He was, by the way, very happy with the service.  I buttonholed the installation guys and asked them what gives on Riberas,  La Cristina, and Las Fuentes... Their answers:    Riberas:  The crews are in San Antonio now and Riberas is next.   La Cristina:    La Canacinta installing now and then they'll move west to La Cristina.  Las Fuentes:   They are still in construction of the infrastructure between Raquet Club and Chantepec area.  It will be a few months for drops to be ready there.  But they will get there. 

Yeah I know they are not so hot on the communication side...We've told them many times...I guess a family owned Mexican thing...  But....contractually they are solid....They'll get there I'm sure.   Have more people in La Cristina signed up?   Strength in numbers....

If there were any plans not to install Ilox would be refunding your money.  They are hiring additional crew and trying to speed up installations.  I know they've started in La Canacinta which is Western Ajijic. 

Ferret, please accept my apologies.  I didn't mean to conflate your comments with other folks who have alleged all kinds of breaches.  I have to agree the communications is wanting.  I would complain about it more except I've been in MX for over 30 years now and poor communication and lack thereof seems to be a permanent part of the culture.. Not to be confused with dishonesty or broken promises.    We gringos living here have the luxury of playing both ends against the middle.   Manana when we like, indignation otherwise.  A great life here because of that.  Keeps your blood pressure down.   Tom

Ferret, up until late November of last year the project was uncertain and your payment a speculative deposit was at risk at being refunded.  You have magically turned that into a  declaration of breach of contract, me covering for them etc.    In reality, they are about 2 months behind.  If you hadn´t been one of those 300 people who took the risk, the project never would have happened and everyone would still be groaning over Telmex, who by the way, is upgrading Riberas as we speak.    The residents of Riberas are conveniently ignoring the fact that when Ilox started contacting them on the installs, to their horror no-one was there, and they decided to push out to avoid a repeat of the central Ajijic problem.   They will come back to Riberas just as soon as they finish up Raquet club.   Sorry its worked out that way but don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.    The prepaids who took the risk and relieved Ilox and the expense of getting those 300 customers is what tipped the case for them to come in.      Community crowdfunded projects like this..pledge first, then deposits, finally commit when the deposit goal reached, are a great model to get things done that otherwise never would have happened.    Sorry for this glitch but thats all it is, a small glitch.   

@Tugwestend.   Not to worry.  The cable for all of Lakeside from Joco to San Antonio is in.    They activate sections from the Ajijic concentrator, which is a significant investment by itself. .  Then they go into the activated sections and install the house drops.   When they started activating sections in central Ajijic and went to install the drops,  3/4 of the people had left for the summer.  They faced stranded investment they already made, (can´t start billing until they install¨), and crews firing on 2 cylinders. What did they do?  keep the crews busy with new sign ups (Ajijic), readjust the plan to areas where people were around,  West Ajijic and Raquet Club, and come back later to Riberas and San Antonio where most had left.  

The project didn´t officially start until November of 2018. Everything before was pledging and collecting.  There was no official program go ahead until November.  Here we are in July.  They said 6 months.  We're a few months behind.  For full fiber to the home whereas before it was no hope with Telmex?     

Ilox is absolutely committed to providing service to the prepaids who signed up. Please understand the recent sign up installs is  strictly a crew and asset utilization strategy because so many people left for the summer.   That's all.   The area west of Raquet Club is still dark fiber that should be activating for subsequent installs soon.  Then they´ll schedule those.  Then they´ll activate the next section, etc.  

I use them for FX transactions.  Very reliable . Good rates. 

My understanding is that the Telcel Internet at Home uses different 4G bands than the regular cell service and has different characteristics.   Ditto for the AT&T service. 

I have been experimenting with using Telmex modems as additional wireless points and the seem to work pretty well.  You can pick them up for a song on Mercado Libre.     You have to put them in bridge mode or they´ll screw up your network...  Turn off the Ilox Wifi, put one next to your router, run a cable to another one where you want coverage, repeat.  Give each one their own IP address, and assign all the same SSID´s; If you have 2.4 and 5 ghz models, most people give a separate SSID for each frequency.   You don´t plug anything into the phone line or WAN port, just use the Wifi and switch part. 

What I´m not 100% sure about is the roaming..When you move away from one to another, your device should automatically switch over to the strongest one.  But one guy I did this for said it didn't, he had to switch manually.   So checking into that.

You can get these things for like 300 pesos each..new...

KDX...What kind of "mesh router system" do you have?  A mesh network can extend coverage but at the cost of througput .  Your IPTV could be buffering due to the throughput of the mesh, or maybe because of a VPN connection, or a provider beyond Ilox.  You should plug your TV hardwire directly into the Ilox modem and see if it still bufffers. 

Ilox backlog with new signups is growing a lot, they are still trying to get all the prepaids at Raquet Club done and then will move on to Riberas, Chula Vista, and San Antonio.  They had some installers leave and that didn't help either.  Best thing you can do is sign up now and get in the queue, it'll be 2/3 months. .   Its going to be a long summer but once they get through the initial build out everything will normalize.  

John, 

The phone line Ilox gives you is a SIP Voice over IP trunk.  Those typically have a lot of features...Ilox has a special page for telecom services where you can register and get additional numbers, etc.    But I don't have the minutae on whether the phone line they give you as part fo the fiber package has the same.   Best as you say, write the NOC and see what they say..

https://www.iloxtelecom.com/troncal-sip

Nice to be loved.  Thanks to all.   For all you VPN fans who are also techies, check out zerotier.com   Mind blowing completely free encrypted virtual network.   I've got 4 locations all on the same network, including the Chapala house and just added a VPS gateway in the US with it own dedicated IP for $5 mo.  I haven't tested that part yet but should stream US content just fine.   This may be a nice alternative to VPN's...

According to an Ilox supervisor who we just buttonholed at Raquet Club, Riberas was one of the first scheduled installations....  Ilox started calling and calling people to schedule installations and 9 out of 10 had left for the summer.    I guess there are a lot of Canadians there.  Right now they are working like crazy in the Raquet Club, then will go to San Antonio, then Riberas...