tkessler

Ilox tailors their Internet to 99% of the people that hook it up and it just works. The come to Lakeside and a lot of people want to stream content, some of it pirate, others from sources that may not be paying the bandwidth on their side, etc. Some want VPN connections for business services, some want to hide their IP. They all want it to work plug and play and if it doesn't they want the ISP to be responsible. Oh, and they don't want to pay much. Good luck with that. What I can tell you is we did get Ilox in here to put in FTTH fiber which was the last remaining bottleneck to anyone getting decent Internet. From here on out, its all negotiable, including with Ilox. I suggested they should consider offering some legit streaming packages, like USTVNOW. There clearly is a nice opportunity for some consultants and VAR´s here to offer value added services.

Due to the shortage of public IP addresses, Ilox by default employs "Carrier Grade NAT" and assigns private 10.X.X.X private IP addresses, which heavily reuse the same IP address across many users. If you connect to another point via a streaming service where your connection emerges on a dedicated (not fixed) public IP, it may work fine for streaming. But if you try to stream directly from Mexico or use a DNS proxy, the NAT may or may not break the protocol. Ilox will switch you over to a public dynamic IP at no charge, you just request it. That should fix most issues. At the point your Ilox service will technically be roughly equivalent to Telmex, without the speed. Streaming and DNS Proxies can be part of dicey cat and mouse games that are not always guaranteed to work the way you want. Ilox can only do so much. .

The other day I bought a SourSap, (aka Guanabana), in the market and made a really nice smoothie. These are great fruits, but a hassle to peel and to separate the pulp from the toxic seeds. Lo and behold, an Internet search resulted in a packing company in Nayarit that will hotshot to you the next day 1lb packets of Guanabana, Guayaba, JackFruit and Passion Fruit, all fresh and export quality. I ordered a 1000 peso box of about 25 mixed packets and they are wonderful. One of the specialty stores here, like Panchos, Superlake, or the organic market, would likely have a hit carrying these. Check them out. The company is called Pures y Derivados de Nayarit and the website is here: http://www.lasguavasauce.com/index.html . Felipe is the contact: pdn7@ymail.com

Gringohombre...you just need to calm down and chill. Ilox is here to stay, your money is safe, and their service is great. The only challenge they have now is too much demand, their crews are working San Juan Cosala now and they´ll head over to Riberas / SAT when they finish. There are at least 100 people waiting for installs in SAT and capacity has been reserved for them, on what possible basis are you saying they're not coming? The bigger issue now is their initial capex investment in the expensive concentrator is starting to max out, so they've got to do another round of capex, which will probably push out the recent sign ups a couple of months.

I send Euros to a German bank account through my Casa de Cambio CIBanco..I just do a Banamex online transfer to them and they send the money at a good rate, plus a $150 peso service charge..

Dozens of people have prepaid service in San Antonio, Chula Vista, and Riberas...They will be installing soon as they can get to them.

@Cafemediterraneo: Seems there was an outage yesterday. Ilox uses CFE poles and seems there can be events where they are at the mercy of them.. I don't know this was the case..but over time you can expect them to reinforce the weak points and service should become more reliable. In most other civilized countries they've long opened the phone company poles to competition to avoid having to use the power poles. But Telmex has fought that tooth and nail. Write your MX legislator if you don't like it. Sounds like on the signal you are talking about wifi. The wifi modem in the Ilox router could be better. Do yourself a favor and turn it off and get some decent access points..or hard wire your casita. You'll be glad you did.

You can use Telmex dynamic IP but need to create an account on a dynamic DNS service like no-ip.com (free) and then activate the DDNS client on your Samsung NVR. Then you need to forward the ports in your router to the camera. What those ports are subject to some question. Youll need to map at least port 80 to access the web interface of your DVR. . You may need others depending on software you´re using externally to view your cameras. I suggest you map 8080 TCP external to 80 on your LAN. I found this discussion of on the web. Re: port forwarding samsung cameras Device Port : Initially, <4520~4524> is set. It increases / decreases by 5. - TCP: It has better stability and lower speed when compared to UDP, and recommended for internet environments. • UDP Port : Initially, <8000~8160> is set. It increases / decreases by 160. • Unicast/Multicast : Select one between UDP-Unicast and UDP-Multicast. If selected Multicast, Multicast IP and TTL are activated. - UDP- Unicast : Transfers data packet to an individual client. - UDP-Multicast : Allows data communication to multiple clients causing no additional traffic to the network. • Multicast IP Address : User can directly input. • Multicast TTL : Select from 0 ~ 255. Initial value for the TTL is set to <5>. • HTTP Port : Enter the port number for the Web Viewer. Initially, it is set to <80>. • Multi Browser Support : The Web Viewer can be used with a browser that supports the Silverlight. The multi viewer can be used only if the HTTP port is set to 80, protocol type is TCP and device ports range within 4505-4530. This is for the Siliverlight's security purposes. Tom

Dave my modem wifi is turned off too. I have four Ubiquiti Unifi Pro's at my place. Work great.

DaveP, One shouldn't have any kind of speed test expectation over wifi and/or to a server beyond Ilox demarcation point which they don't control. 2.4 Ghz Wifi single channel connections are good for about up to 40 Mbps if they aren't loaded with other users. 5 Ghz can do considerably more. Both 2.4 and 5 Ghz wifi radios can also do MIMO parallel connections which will increase the speed. The point is if you speed test over wifi, you're introducing a known bottleneck below fiber's maximum speed. The only legitimate connection for speed testing is hard wired to your ethernet port. However most ethernet ports max out at 100 mbps. The rule of thumb for speed measurement is that your port speed should be at least 10X what you're trying to measure. If you have 100 mpbs service, you need to make sure you have Gb hardwired ethernet ports. I had a PC with a 100 mb port and switched over to one with a Gb port...My speed test results jumped to 450 Mbps and peaked at 600 Mbps. See below. Make sure you are speed testing at Fast.com, which is the Netflix site at the Ilox peer boundary. Any other site is deep into the Internet beyond Ilox and is basically only telling how much they choking beyond the gateway connection. Another really good speed test is the Blue Angels jpg load at http://www.toast.net. (customer tools menu). Use the Google cloud storage test. Then compare it to others. That will give you a good idea how cheap these other guys are on bandwidth relative to Ilox. What I've found so far is that Ilox itself screams. They may have some service lapses when CFE poles go out until they can get their backups installed. The low speed rates I've seen are things like: old equipment, slow ports, wifi connections, weak VPN routers, multiple NAT connections (which will cause services dropout after a 30 seconds to 5 minutes). Its no big deal that it screams. Why shouldn't it? . Its optical fiber from your home all the way to their edge. They don't oversubscribe it on their own network much......thats not where the cost is. Most overloading is in the size of the connections they have to pay for (e.g peering), and beyond i.e. what your subscribing to and other networks are paying for. And trust me, even there, compared to the incredibly negligent stuff happening on most customer ends, it not the problem. Once you eliminate all that other garbage contamination, one can talk more seriously about speed test results.

I think Rick makes good points and that there is lots of room for improvement, especially in the communications. . Ilox arrival to lakeside, with the large expat population here, has clearly been a learning experience for them. Once the initial installations are done things should get smoother.

No one was expecting 60% of Lakeside to leave town which completely screwed up their installation plans. The house drops are but a small part of the investment. They built out Ajiic centro, then when they wanted to do the drops, no one was home. They had to beg for new sign ups to keep their crews busy and utilize the investment they had already made. Now they are moving to other areas based upon trying to keep their crew utilization at a decent rate. They have to run their business with some semblance of efficiency. Why exactly are you enraged? Instead of thrilled that decent fiber is finally coming to the area. Contracts are a two way street. If Ilox concludes from communications that a customer is not going to be happy no matter what, they will terminate and refund your money. What else would you have them do?

John, Ilox assigns private IP addresses by default. If you need to open ports to see your cameras, they can switch your IP to public dynamic at no charge. You will need to request the port mappings to the Ilox NOC. They do not allow access to the port forward menu on the modem by customers. However they will be happy to open ports on request. Just send a mail to noc@mail.ilox.mx telling them what you want... (i.e. port no, TCP UDP or both, IP and MAC address to forward to, etc) Earlier I thought this was quite a restrictive policy... After several conversations with Victor Godinez of Ilox however, I am seeing it more his way... The more people mess with their modems, the more it chokes their tech support. GPON modems are far worse than DSL modems. So they keep them in a pretty tight sandbox. Second, the minute you open a port for incoming connections, its an invitation to hackers...They can come into your device..camera, pc, whatever, and from there get into your LAN...can get very ugly. So if you open ports, you'd better be up to speed on your security. And to make it very clear, Ilox may be a more restrictive ISP on their hardware, they don't block anything, and they'll open whatever you want...Just send them a nice mail. If you have cameras, instead of opening ports, consider using their cloud service. Most have them now. I have Hikvision cameras and use Hik-connect. My NVR makes an outgoing connection to their cloud and I can view my cameras from anywhere..no open ports, no hackers...far fewer worries... IPV4 addresses are in short supply and until everything changes over to IPV6, they are treated conservatively. But noone should suffer for service...If you have an issue, just write the NOC... BR, Tom

Europcar is awesome. Sixt is good. Thrifty will look for the tiniest ding to claim damages when you turn in. Stay away from them with a ten foot pole.

Ilox gives you a private IP by default.

I've been talking with Ilox about this. Here is where they are now. That may change in the future...But in any case, there should be no situation where you can't get running properly. - Optical Fiber Modems are more complicated than DSL modems. They are certainly easier to screw up. - All ISP's tend to give you crappy crippled modems, some crappier and more crippled than others. The more crippled they are, the less you can screw it up and create headache service calls for the ISP. So there are good reasons behind this. - Telmex modems offer a fair amount of versatility. You can forward ports, enable DDNS, set firewall levels, etc. There's also a lot you can't do. They also tend to be buggy. I have to reset my Telmex modem every week or two. And Telmex is slow. - The Ilox modem is more restricted than Telmex. One good reason is that 90% of what you want to do on the Internet can be handled by their modem config...The modem allows any service that works via outgoing connections. Incoming connections require port mapping. Default blocking of incoming connections helps keep hackers and phishers out of your system. Trust me thats a good thing. - Now here's the key difference: Ilox will absolutely configure your modem to whatever you need like the Telmex modem. They have no policies against mapping ports, or anything else. They are not a restrictive ISP. They just want to work with you to program it from their end to keep control over the crazies. . You email the NOC, they'll answer quickly with the changes. They give you a private IP by default, you can map ports to that...If there's a problem there, they'll switch it to dynamic public IP like Telmex. If you're mapping ports, somewhere you'll need to be running DDNS. For $750 pesos a year they'll give you a fixed IP. So there's your challenge. You have to know what you want with some clarity! Will Ilox at some point open up their modems and make them more like Telmex.? .Maybe...Is that a good idea? Maybe not...Very few people know what all those modem features do. The few people that need them simply need to ask for them. Tom

Wait a minute here... I helped you on this and we need to clarify. Yes, we are seeing a case of when you have a bunch of devices on the same network and some of them connect into one port of the modem and the other connect to another port, there seems to be some blocking of communication between the segments. However devices on both segments get assigned IP addresses and access the internet. This may in fact just be a security feature..like when you are on a hotel router and you try to see your peers and can´t . ,Just because all four ports on the Ilox modem don´t communicate among themselves transparently does´t make it a major flaw. But yes, it does appear to be behaving slightly differently from the Telmex router. That may be a feature, not a bug! For the moment We successfully addressed this particular issue by making sure all devices among themselves were first connected on a switch and then running just one cable from that switch to the Ilox modem. Later this week we´ll look at the port forwarding. Thanks everyone for your patience. We are learning a lot from these initial installations. I am sure the rest of this story will turn out just fine.

Hey Jonny, No business relationship, pecuniary or financial relationship with Ilox WHATSOEVER. I still work for a living and sell electronic components in Mexico and Latin America. My only interest in getting Ilox to lakeside is so I can enjoy high speed Internet at my lakeside home when I retire, and a desire to do something for the community. Before Ilox I petitioned Telmex for fiber, organized about 30 resident who agreed to pay...no response...that was a bit upsetting. Rod, correct, Ilox assigns a private 10.X.X.X IP by default. They will assign a public dynamic IP at no charge if you request. For 750 MXN a year they'll give you a public fixed IP. Not sure what Ariboy's particular problem is but it should be fixable. Ariboy stephen.americasconsulting@gmail.com should be able to help. Tom

Johnny, looks like you still can't read. Its not that Ilox can't do more installs...Its that most of the prepaids have left town and are no where to be found to continue with their installs. Ilox put in all the investment in central Ajijic. If they can't install a prepaid, they are faced with stranding that investment. So they're installing others to utilize that investment, then they'll move on to the others. No, they really didn't get it that the community here was that seasonal...So they're making the best of it. They have to manage their business prudently. What a huge disservice you are doing to this community by implying that this is some kind of negligence or incompetence. Why don't you read the communications carefully and correct yourself. .

Not only is Jonny in trouble but looks like he can't read either.

For everyone waiting for their Ilox install , who prepaid, and is wondering when they will get theirs, here is an update from Victor Godinez @ Ilox. ---------------------------------- Hello Tom Yes we are so far done with ajijic centro, and working in San Juan Cosala now, there is many problems contacting customers who did a sign up, most of them are no where to be found and our technicians are siting in the office. We are going in the gated communities and also installing underground cable where they already have ducts for us, this has added additional time on our install due to more work needed on underground. Same day install is being done only when our technicians are sitting in the office from not being able to contact any customers for our team to work or our team arrives at a customer and they are not home, so they call back office and ask for contracts in the same street. Our techs have 3 installs programmed per day, but most of the days they are not able to install more than two, we have 3 installers and so far we have installed around 110 prepaid customers ____________________________ Note there is a lot of infrastructure beyond the customer drop that requires them to prepare an area with a lot of other investment, then do the customer drops. If the customers aren't around they have to use up that investment before starting another area....But things are moving along...just need some patience... Tom

Ariboy, that sounds awfully odd. I'd be happy to also take a look at this. There should be no configuration Ilox dependent where your cameras can't work.. Please message me with your phone and lets talk. Tom

Ariboy...Ilox by default assigns you a private IP address, which is different from Telmex which assigns public dynamic IP addresses. You will need to set up a port forward from the public IP address Ilox is using for you to the static IP address on your network. That can be done a couple of ways. I suggest you write a mail to the Ilox NOC, noc@mail.ilox.mx and they´ll fix you right up. Tom

That is bizarre...As far as I know: - Telmex doesn't allow anyone to use their poles except for Telmex service...If iFibra is using Telmex poles then 99% likely they are a Telmex contractor.. - If fiber is put on CFE poles, then royalties must be paid to CFE..They do an annual census and bill whoever owns those... All that said, things change so quickly here maybe there are new arrangements happening...i.e. 3rd parties using Telmex infrastructure or even Telmex putting fiber on CFE..I don't know...what I do know is more fiber in Ajijic (by whoever) = better quality of life at lakeside...So I wish all the best!

Can you confirm they are really stringing fiber on Telmex poles and not CFE poles? If Telmex poles then must be Telmex or an affiliate...Send a picture.