Jump to content
Chapala.com Webboard

Tell us about Total Play


Mainecoons

Recommended Posts

Interested to know more if skeptical the dismal internet scene locally is really going to change.  Fresh in my memory is the promise that Ilox would be the savior only to see the same problems of constant service variability and poor customer service of TelMex replicated.

Who are they, where do they come from?

How is the service hooked up?  We currently get TelMex over one of our phone lines.  Does Total Play require a separate line run into a new modem?

Following this with great interest.  Although TelMex has finally struggled up to sufficient speed for streaming, far less than what we have been paying them for, better internet service would be great to have.  We are jealous of our students in GDL who have cheap, very fast and reliable wireless internet in their apartment.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have both Telmex and iLox. Neither is really 100% dependable. Especially on the weekends with the influx of Tapatios. All those multiple cell phones using their home wifi is a burden. In January, I'm going to contact TotalPlay for installation. iLox contract will run out in March but I paid them cash in advance for the year and when they cut me off for non payment, I'll just trot in with their modem and cancel. I am tempted to make them come looking for their modem however. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

With respect to your 'wiring' question......  TotalPlay is a fiber service.... FTTH, Fiber to the Home. As such there will be no use of copper wiring but rather a fiber strand will/must be run into the home from their main street fiber run. And because it is fiber, a new/different modem with fiber connection/capabilities is a requirement. It is provided. 

That modem does/will have wifi and ethernet connection(s) so if you are running something 'behind' your current TelMex modem like a router or better wifi coverage with a Mesh system, those things can be easily moved over to the TotalPlay modem. 

Another potential service for you might be a TelCel "En Mi Casa"... Internet over cell service with a 'modem' in your home. Speeds are not as good as fiber and one MUST ensure that the Telcel signal INSIDE your casa is very good. There are some upfront costs but as I say it IS another option.  Search for this subject here to find a few discussions about it. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I *think* that TotalPlay started here around May.  Chapala.com forums is probably the best place to get feedback about the service. I, too, have seen nothing but kudos for the service.  There was one outage very recently... 2 hours?.... I remember. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was one of the first totalplay customers and it has gone down once when a pole was hit and the phone has never failed excluding pole being hit.  Was going to keep ILOX as a backup but decided to cancel due to a lack of need.  I have 100 down and 10 up service and can watch a streaming HD movie while my wife does a video call and we have streaming audio running all at the same time with no problems. If you work from home and move files to the north you might want more upload speed but for normal stuff its just not needed.

Best decision I have ever made regarding internet.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Putting things into perspective.

In 1997 I started lagunanet and some people considered it the best thing since sliced bread, it saved people a ton of money "as long as they did not go over 100 calls" people were able to send email and do instant messaging, the web was still pretty green back then but it made communicating back and forth easy and avoided costly long distance bills.

Telmex was the next best thing, it was new, cheaper, and they offered 56kbps over our 33kbps which later prompted me to start up a high speed wireless service, which again, was much better and faster than dial up and while we had our issues it was pretty reliable and you did not need a phone line for it to work.

Eventually Telmex started high speed DSL which was pretty darn good and fast, however, over time. there service has degraded considerably, some areas are fortunate enough having fiber optic from Telmex many whom had to pay for the infrastructure in order to get it.

Then came Illox which has seemed to have had a few stumbling blocks and issues but it was well received because they offered higher download and upload speeds than Telmex DSL.

TotalPlay is currently the next best thing, I have it here in El Chante and have had it since June, and so far, with the exception of two outages when it was first installed it has been very reliable and very fast. I currently have their 200meg connection and am very pleased as are most people I have talked to.

I also have Unet out of Jocotepec who also offer high speed Internet, I get 50 megs for $279.00 pesos per month.

Just like our service back in 1997 our infrastructure was new and the longer time goes by, replacing and renewing equipment becomes costly, which in the case of Lagunanet it was no longer feasible to maintain.

Total Play's infrastructure is brand new, over time, junction boxes and fiber cable will begin to deteriorate and crack but if Total Play keeps investing and maintaining their infrastructure it will probably be around for a while, that is, until the next new company or technology moves in.

In the meantime, anyone who needs reliable internet service should always consider having two  ISP's because nothing is 100% reliable and there will be service failures.

 

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well I for one remember and appreciate your initial services... dial-up!  It was about as good as I had NOB at the time and was amazed that it was available in little ole Ajijic Mexico!  So kudos to you again for providing those services for so many years.

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good to see you posting Rod. I remember the good old days and that I became a client of yours when I bought my house and moved to Ajijic in the fall of 1997.

In the summer I lived on the shores of Lake Cavanaugh located between Seattle and Vancouver and we didn't have internet in my part of the urban US  until maybe two to four years after you were the first Internet Service Provider (ISP) down here.

Thank you for your great service say I. These days I a switching between Infinitum which is maybe 45 Mb/sec down by 12 up when working which is much of the time but certainly not all of the time and the cable company which although much slower, never seems to go down. (10.6 by 1.4 Mbps)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rod and Lagunanet were lifesavers for this contract programmer who moved here in 2004 from Dallas where I had a T-1 connection. COBOL was very wordy and took lots of bandwidth to transfer. Things went very well until a new house went up, up and up to my east blocking my line of sight to Rod's office.

But in the end it was a good run and lots of people here at the time were very appreciative of Rod and his little company trying to offer an alternative to Telmex, myself included. 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pete won't remember this but in the Fall of 1998 I went to Rod's office to talk to him about a friend's connection and Pete was in the office. I couldn't talk to Rod for 15-20 minutes because he was atop a very tall antenna that was anchored on his 2nd floor office roof.... "Fixing a Problem"!  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, RickS said:

Pete won't remember this but in the Fall of 1998 I went to Rod's office to talk to him about a friend's connection and Pete was in the office. I couldn't talk to Rod for 15-20 minutes because he was atop a very tall antenna that was anchored on his 2nd floor office roof.... "Fixing a Problem"!  

I certainly remember a couple of similar visits. Rod did it all and Pete was usually there assisting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, rod.collins said:

Putting things into perspective.

In 1997 I started lagunanet and some people considered it the best thing since sliced bread, it saved people a ton of money "as long as they did not go over 100 calls" people were able to send email and do instant messaging, the web was still pretty green back then but it made communicating back and forth easy and avoided costly long distance bills.

Telmex was the next best thing, it was new, cheaper, and they offered 56kbps over our 33kbps which later prompted me to start up a high speed wireless service, which again, was much better and faster than dial up and while we had our issues it was pretty reliable and you did not need a phone line for it to work.

Eventually Telmex started high speed DSL which was pretty darn good and fast, however, over time. there service has degraded considerably, some areas are fortunate enough having fiber optic from Telmex many whom had to pay for the infrastructure in order to get it.

Then came Illox which has seemed to have had a few stumbling blocks and issues but it was well received because they offered higher download and upload speeds than Telmex DSL.

TotalPlay is currently the next best thing, I have it here in El Chante and have had it since June, and so far, with the exception of two outages when it was first installed it has been very reliable and very fast. I currently have their 200meg connection and am very pleased as are most people I have talked to.

I also have Unet out of Jocotepec who also offer high speed Internet, I get 50 megs for $279.00 pesos per month.

Just like our service back in 1997 our infrastructure was new and the longer time goes by, replacing and renewing equipment becomes costly, which in the case of Lagunanet it was no longer feasible to maintain.

Total Play's infrastructure is brand new, over time, junction boxes and fiber cable will begin to deteriorate and crack but if Total Play keeps investing and maintaining their infrastructure it will probably be around for a while, that is, until the next new company or technology moves in.

In the meantime, anyone who needs reliable internet service should always consider having two  ISP's because nothing is 100% reliable and there will be service failures.

 

Thanks for the great service you provided us at Casa Flores B&B. You made a lot of our guests very happy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, rod.collins said:

Putting things into perspective.

In 1997 I started lagunanet and some people considered it the best thing since sliced bread, it saved people a ton of money "as long as they did not go over 100 calls" people were able to send email and do instant messaging, the web was still pretty green back then but it made communicating back and forth easy and avoided costly long distance bills.

Telmex was the next best thing, it was new, cheaper, and they offered 56kbps over our 33kbps which later prompted me to start up a high speed wireless service, which again, was much better and faster than dial up and while we had our issues it was pretty reliable and you did not need a phone line for it to work.

Eventually Telmex started high speed DSL which was pretty darn good and fast, however, over time. there service has degraded considerably, some areas are fortunate enough having fiber optic from Telmex many whom had to pay for the infrastructure in order to get it.

Then came Illox which has seemed to have had a few stumbling blocks and issues but it was well received because they offered higher download and upload speeds than Telmex DSL.

TotalPlay is currently the next best thing, I have it here in El Chante and have had it since June, and so far, with the exception of two outages when it was first installed it has been very reliable and very fast. I currently have their 200meg connection and am very pleased as are most people I have talked to.

I also have Unet out of Jocotepec who also offer high speed Internet, I get 50 megs for $279.00 pesos per month.

Just like our service back in 1997 our infrastructure was new and the longer time goes by, replacing and renewing equipment becomes costly, which in the case of Lagunanet it was no longer feasible to maintain.

Total Play's infrastructure is brand new, over time, junction boxes and fiber cable will begin to deteriorate and crack but if Total Play keeps investing and maintaining their infrastructure it will probably be around for a while, that is, until the next new company or technology moves in.

In the meantime, anyone who needs reliable internet service should always consider having two  ISP's because nothing is 100% reliable and there will be service failures.

 

Sorry but ILOX infrastructure was new and it sucked from the start and still sucks. Drop outs every hour.  The phone never worked.  I was also a Telecom engineer and worked with Glass fiber and plastic fiber and its pretty rugged stuff as long as you keep the backhoe and tree trimmers away.  

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is all very informative, thanks.

Looking at their internet only packages, looks like $529 pesos per month for 40 mb which is 4 times faster than what we have now.  That's plenty fast enough for us.

Questions:

1.  How easy/difficult is it to deal with their office?  This is apparently a big problem with ILox if past reports are any guide.

2.  How close to the speed you are paying for are you actually getting?  With TelMex, we are lucky to get 50%.

3.  How easy/difficult to install and what is the cost?

Gracias!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

MC, in Chapala, Totalplay put up its cables on my street months ago so installation was just running a cable to the house.  My TotalPlay is running at about 35 mbps according to 5 internet speed programs.  I am supposed to be getting 100mbps.  But the speed I`m getting gives me uninterrupted streaming (no whirling green circles) and all websites come up pretty fast and there has only been 2 very brief interruptions in service in a month (at least one a day up to several hours with Telmex) so I`m perfectly satisfied.  I may get around to calling them about the discrepancy in internet speeds or I may not that`s how satisfied I am.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've had TotalPlay for well over 6 months with no outages or problems at all. I'm in Riberas below Mirasol. I have the 100 mbs package and reliably get 100 down and 10 up. For the first 6 months they gave me 200 mbs as an intro, but now that I'm down to the 100 it works just as well and just as fast for most things.

I canceled my iLox 150 mbs package that I had for well over a year a month after I got TotalPlay. Ilox says they give you a speed, and if you do speedtest it says you have that, but try downloading or uploading a large file and the speed drops way off. We had many outages with iLox and I know friends that have iLox and have had outages since I installed TotalPlay. 

So for me there is no comparison. For me the 100 mbs TotalPlay package is much better speed wise than the 150 mbs iLox package was. I often have to download and upload large files (say 30 gb) and it is at least 10 times faster on TotalPlay.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe I'm lucky but with ILOX I'm getting 390 down and 70 up both on fast.com and speedtest.net. Yes there are outages but lately at least for me they have been quite rare. 

I think Totalplay is another good option for those struggling with the other players. It's a far cry from the days of Telmex being the only game in town.

I actually called the Totalplay local guy Luis asking about the TV package because my Sky receiver died. He wanted to get off the phone because he said he no longer worked for the company and passed me off to an associate working at Soriana in Chapala. I never could get a straight answer about TV although subsequently many Facebook posts indicated it didn't work well at all. I didn't need more speed only a Sky alternative. I ended up getting new Sky receivers and will stay with ILOX.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have had Total Play for the past 5 years in Zapopan and have not had any serious issues.

Installation showed up the same day we called. Internet, TV and Phone Line all work, although we don't use the phone line, I did connect one just to check. Everything is connected through the modem so don't expect the phone line to work without power.

 

Slow speeds seldom occur and I don't recall the last time we had an outage that was their issue. (We had one where there was dust build up caused a failure in the modem. Support blew into it and fixed the issue which made me feel silly)  Technical services always showed up when we called for support and have provided their cell numbers in case we had additional issues. 

That being said, I have not had any other services myself to compare to.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...