REC

I want to add my voice to those thanking Ted for working so hard to make this happen. I have been connected and I'm thrilled. I was one of the original prepaid group and my service was installed about 10 days ago. The technicians that came to my house were very experienced, focused and friendly. When the installation was completed they asked me to do a speed test and the results were - and are - outstanding. I gave them a tip and a couple of cokes. All in all a great experience. They even called when they were ready to come to my house to make sure I was home and to confirm the address. I would suggest that it might make sense to stop by the Ilox office if you are in Ajijic centro and have not been contacted. They may have tried to reach you but haven't been able to do so - for whatever reason. Couldn't hurt. I'm not sure who within Ilox speaks English. I don't think the technicians did but not sure. I also am not sure about the office. I have only been there once and my conversation and the other customers in there at the time happened to be speaking Spanish. Thanks again to Ted for making this happen. This is a game changer! I couldn't be happier with the opportunity, process and outcome.

I'm always a bit intrigued by the idea of "getting the government out of energy" (or anything else) anywhere including Mexico. Let's look at electricity. Production and Distribution are related but different things. On the Distribution side would it make sense for each company that wants to compete in the "energy" business (electricity as an example) has to incur the capital cost of a huge and expensive power grid - large towers, high tension power lines, land/right of way, distribution to the community level and ultimately to the individual home or business? VERY expensive and duplicating all that infrastructure seems like it would increase costs significantly. Look at places around here where Ilox is not able to use Telmex conduits so some places are simply locked out of the Ilox option. Similar issue with electrical distribution. On the production side perhaps privatization might make sense in some cases. But that hasn't really happened in tons of places around the world but I guess it could have some impact in some cases. But even if we moved towards more privatization and competition on the Production side, the "public" side (governments at all levels) still have an important oversight role - environmental, safety, employee health, pricing, service level agreements, etc. And those private entities have a 100% profit motive and have complete allegiance to investors rather than citizens/consumers. Their only goal is to make as much money as possible. So as a concept, t-shirt or bumper sticker "get government out of energy" or anything else sounds good. But I personally believe there are times when that might not make sense and it is certainly not simple to execute. Just my observations.

Just had Ilox installed - right by the pawn shop and El Pechugon in the second block above the carratera (Marcos Castellanos). Really nice guys - they called to confirm the address when they were ready. Ilox had called two days ago to confirm the day & time. They got here when they were scheduled. Quick install (about 20 minutes) and very smooth. I'm getting 75+ down and 20-25 up. VERY happy with the service and obviously the speed.

I am one of the 300 prepaid customers and look forward to being connected. I am very optimistic and no matter what level of service they are able to provide it can't be worse than our other options around here. They offered two packages/speeds and 60 down/15 up is close to the speed of one of the packages . In fact that lower plan was 50 down and they planned to give early signups 75. If I get 60/15 I will be thrilled. This is a really great thing for our community. Thanks to Ted for getting this rolling. I'm a happy guy.

I definitely agree with the recommendations to get professional advice. A couple of thoughts that might be relevant when talking to those professionals - Is your paycheck deposited in a U.S. bank or in a Mexican bank? Does the company you work for have operations in Mexico - even if you don't work on those aspect of the business? Are you living in and working from Mexico most or all of the year? Or do you travel to the U.S. or other countries? How often? How many days a year are you out of Mexico each year? Do you have employee benefits like health insurance purchased in Mexico and paid for by your employer? I think there might be a slight distinction between where the money is "earned" and where you are "paid". But ask the pros. The professionals will need to give you all the details but these are things I considered as I have a business in the U.S. but work from here - going on 13 years now. All my clients are in the U.S. and all payments are made to my U.S. bank. Definitely very practical to work from here. Just make sure to cross all the T's and dot all the I's.

I second the recommendation for Jorge Ulloa and his assistant, Angel. 376 108 1532 Hidalgo # 44, Suite 103. Riberas del Pilar http://www.ulloapt.com/ Absolutely the best. Worth every penny.

I also use ExpressVPN for Amazon Prime Videos and Netflix. From time I have to try new setting when they figure one out and block it. Sometime I just have to through the available servers to find one that is working. Last time was a few days ago and I am using Los Angeles 3.

Had lunch there a week or so ago and it was delicious. One of our favorite meals in the last few months! We will definitely go back soon and often. We are going to give the Sunday buffet a try and will report back. Nice folks and really hope they have great success.

We have had several friends that spent time at Casa Nostra and we visited them often. They seemed very happy there and I was impressed with the facility and the staff. Since I don't have much direct experience with any of the other places my opinion is heavily slanted towards Casa Nostra. I would go there myself if and when the need arises. Good luck with your search. I think you have a number of very good options.

I go to Dermika - just next to Bugambilla Plaza where El Torito and the movie theater are. http://www.dermika.com.mx/#/

I think there are two issues - getting signed up with Shaw for access and obtaining/installing the necessary equipment. If you are Canadian and have a legitimate Canadian residential address you have some options as far as signing up for service including signing up directly with Shaw yourself. Do not mention Mexico in any of your communication with Shaw - VERY important. If you don't have that option you will definitely need help getting signed up. Ajijic Satellite & CP Electronics can help. You might also find someone that can add you to their account but I personally would not do so. This is not something you want to get wrong as Shaw seems to be paying more attention to verifying "legitimate" users. Just my opinion. For the equipment those two companies can provide you with the dish and box(es) you need. The equipment is not cheap to start with and when those folks import the equipment including shipping and duty the cost can only go up. It is possible to buy the equipment yourself and I have even found an online resource that will ship to the U.S. - but not to Mexico. As mentioned you might find someone selling equipment that could save you some money. My suggestions are that you make sure to buy up to date boxes - 600 or 800 series and not the older 300 or 500 models. Also I have heard of a few folks that bought used boxes that had previously been activated where they ran into problems reactivating them under a different name. For the dish it doesn't really make sense to try to have one shipped. Size and shipping cost would be at least somewhat problematic. Probably best to buy at least the dish from one of the local providers and then have them install & align it. I guess you could bring a dish down if you were driving. I have brought more than one box down in my airline carry-on luggage - but never considered bringing down a dish. Be prepared for a little "cost shock" upfront but once you are up and running you should be happy with the available content. I don't think you can go wrong with either of the recommended options. I use Ajijic Satellites in part because they are "local" but I have heard good things about CP too.

I am struck by how different our experiences with employees has been compared to others' experiences. We just haven't had these kinds of problems except in one case when we first got here. Had to get rid of our first gardener but it was very simple and painless. We had a lawyer do the paperwork and paid what was due without any problems. We have had the same housekeeper the entire time and the same gardener since replacing that first one. No problems at all. Maybe we are just lucky.

Here is a list of locations in Mexico from the Hollister/Mexico website. No idea about prices or if they can help you in English. I would be a little surprised if these supplies are cheaper in Mexico but perhaps so. Scroll down to Jalisco and you will find several places in the Guadalajara area that appear to sell Hollister products. http://www.hollister.com.mx/es-mx/wheretobuy Also looks like Amazon Mexico might have some of the supplies you are looking for. https://www.amazon.com.mx/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_7?__mk_es_MX=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=ostomia&sprefix=ostomia%2Caps%2C252&crid=2EMD57DS78TNC&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aostomia

Sonia - Thank you for posting this.

Another recommendation for KUSAT. I have had them ship several things to my U.S. address without any problems. Great service and they have sales on certain equipment from time to time. One thing to be aware of is that if you have equipment shipped to the U.S. import taxes will be added. I don't remember how much that was but do sort of remember that it was fairly reasonable. Seems like you might avoid that added charge by having things shipped to a Canadian address but since I haven't done that I don't know for sure.

This article says "Shaw Broadcast/Shaw Direct will be transitioning all signals on Anik F1R and Anik F2 to MPEG-4 beginning spring 2017. The transition will occur in three phases with the final phase being completed by September 2019." So that seems to say that receivers below the 6xx series will no longer work as they can't handle MPEG-4. This particular link doesn't mention moving all channels from the two Anik F satellites to G1. http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/11-shaw-direct-satellite/258554-shaw-direct-transition-full-mpeg-4-a.html This next link from Shaw talks about the transition to MPEG-4 but does not say anything about moving all channels to G1. http://www.shawbroadcast.com/Content/US/mpeg4.htm And finally I found this in a Shaw technical forum - a long thread but go to Page 76 - Post #1133. "You can read about Shaw's plans at This Link. As I study the spreadsheets they present, it appears that, by 2019, all the present SD Channels on F1R/F2 will become HD, and the SD versions will go away. It seems that the transition is planned such that no channels will be lost as the plan unfolds, and in the end, no channels currently on those two satellites will be moved to G1. So we should be good for receiving a signal until such time as F1R and F2 end their usable life......provided you have a 600 series receiver. In fact, if I understand the plan correctly, certain channels now coming from G1 will eventually be moved to F1R/F2," But a couple of messages down someone says everything is moving to G1. Most of what I have read is about moving to HD and MPEG-4 rather than moving everything off of Anik F1 F2 to G1. So who knows but looks to me like we are going to be okay as long as we have series 6xx receivers, I guess time will tell. http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/11-shaw-direct-satellite/62645-shaw-direct-areas-south-canada-mexico-us-etc-read-post-1-a-76.html

Note the https in Herm's link.

I second the recommendation for Lidia. I had heart surgery last year and she provided the nursing help I needed during my rather difficult recovery. One thing I really liked is that she stayed very involved - including visiting me at home to make sure everything was going well. She will coordinate everything and make sure you get the support you need - including any medical equipment.

Yeah - no point in actually following the laws of the country we have chosen to live in. Nothing wrong with being an illegal immigrant. Wait! What?

Seems like this is sort of like "losing" the return part of your tourist visa. We had a friend visiting last year - only about 10 days. So she had not overstayed her visa but did leave the return portion at our house when we took her to the airport. She simply went to the INM window and told them she had lost her documentation. They didn't ask any questions at all - simply filled out the return portion of a new FMM and handed it to her, Took less than 10 minutes. If I remember correctly the fee/fine was $306 pesos. Depending on the airline you should probably go to the INM window before even trying to check in with the airline. Many of them will not process your check-in until you can give them the return portion of your visa. Thanks for helping out your friend. This shouldn't be too complicated or expensive.