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M&C

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Posts posted by M&C

  1. The site will not accept my passport or my CURP and insists on the INE or IFE. No where to get an answer or a person. One cannot order without an account. This is new and if anyone figures it out, please post the response. Until today I had no problem ordering, paying or receiving merchandise

     

  2. An excellent resource is troypoint.com. I get emails and updates on what is working. There are excellent instructions and videos for cord-cutters. The apps for movies and TV can vary in how they are working and the updates I receive are extremely helpful. I bought a Firestick years ago and then I paid Derek to install some apps. But when they stopped working I stumbled onto Troypoint and now it is easy to keep things updated.

    • Like 1
  3. We moved here in February of 2017. We left Ethernet speeds of 140 Mbps in the US for at best 2 Mbps here. Frustration mounted. I use a VPN for all sensitive internet interactions so that slowed it down a bit more. Often, I played Solitaire on my phone while waiting for things to download and, especially, for things to upload at 0.2 Mbps.

     

    I read about ILOX on the Chapala Web Board sometime in early 2018 or late 2017. We are very much early adopters. We researched the company on line to find that it was the highest rated telecommunications company in the country. Now, my husband and I understand Mexico. Mexico does not have a mind set at all for customer service. Not one bit! We know and accept this as the way it is. My mantra is, “Soy jubilada. Tengo mucho tiempo. No tengo prisa.” We take a breath and then we wait. It is worth it to be able to live here.

     

    So, we never got anywhere with ILOX on what they needed for us to do for the infrastructure in our small colonos. We had voted to proceed with above ground conduit along the perimeter walls as being expeditious and far cheaper. But, again, we never could get anyone to give us the information. If we had had this information when we first tried to get it, then the conduits would have been installed months sooner. But we finally got smart and lucky. We saw ILOX running the cable in our area and we had a bilingual friend talk to them. Soon we were all friends and we had a reliable contact.

    In February 2019 my husband and his Mexican friends did our installation which included conduit into the homes. Our original estimate of about $4000 USD was based on Home Depot (MX) prices. But our friend, Vicente, found great prices in Guadalajara. My husband donated his time, the workers were paid, and our total was about $2200 USD. In some areas the conduit on the walls is painted, in other places it is covered with cement. It went through two carports as well. As they finished the work, the guys from ILOX installation told us we would get the cable (not the modems) the next week. Well, of course it was about three weeks later that we got the cable in mid-February.

    The modems came in April. We were the first in our colonos and I had impressive speeds on April 4th. Now, the speeds that they promote are speeds delivered to the modem. They are NOT Wi-Fi speeds, but Ethernet speeds. My Ethernet in the US was 140 Mbps and Wi-Fi was about 80 Mbps. That is the norm. But it seems that many on the Web Board do not understand this.

     

    I also know that every internet company provides cheap modem/routers, even north of the border. I had already brought back an ASUS router that I used with the ancient Telmex modem. And with both Telmex and ILOX, these modems do not allow setting to bridge mode. But it worked with Telmex and it works with ILOX. But for the first few days of ILOX only, our casita downstairs had fine Wi-Fi. And, just like with Telmex, the Wi-Fi did not reach the farthest point in the house – my toilet. So that is not a good place to check email. It is a bit better with ASUS.

    The best place to put a modem/router is where you are going to use it! This also is not well understood by people down here. We have an office/den/TV room and that is where all the hardware is. I ran Ethernet to my PC and to the Fire TV. Speeds are generally 80’s to 90’s Mbps. When I put the VPN on the router it slowed it down to the 30’s so I went back to using the VPN on the devices instead where it can be turned on or off. We use Express VPN which is required to watch Amazon Prime videos and it also works to get US Netflix which we do not have. VPN speeds on my PC are generally 30-45 Mbps and are similar on the Fire TV. I use fast.com for the speed tests as suggested by Tom Kessler on the Web Board. I use a Cat 7 Ethernet cable but a Cat 5 (at Steren and Walmart) probably would have worked fine. Both the ILOX and the ASUS Wi-Fi work fine in the casita. I happened to have a 100-foot Ethernet cable, so my husband ran it to the casita. Now our friends down there can take advantage of Ethernet speeds on their laptops. My husband’s ancient computer on Wi-Fi (no VPN) gets speeds of about 45 Mbps. And that is about average for iPhones and my very old iPad. I keep the VPN turned on when using the iPad and videos play just fine.


     

    Something to remember, people, our devices and computers impact on our perception of “speed.” Yep, Kodi was buffering even with this unfettered speed. So, I looked up how to clear the cache and it is better. My computer is from 2014 so it needs for me to sit down and work on the congestion. But it is still MUCH, MUCH faster than before. No more Solitaire! And for you other Kodi users, Kodi needs to be maintained and updated regularly. Just do a search for monthly lists of working addons and proceed accordingly.

    I have learned a lot about Kodi and computers just so I can watch the English Premiere League replays. (You have to watch them right away and the online community highly recommends using a VPN.) We also still watch games and movies in SD (standard definition) as there is less buffering and our older eyes can’t tell the difference anyway.

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  4. As a paying, happy Express VPN customer it is easy to get Amazon Prime video. You sign into your account and do live chat and ask which server to use for Amazon (or Netflix). Last year the New Jersey one quit working, did chat, now Los Angeles 3 works just fine. I put VPN on the Fire TV's and make sure it is on before going to Amazon. Occasionally I forget and get the geographic restriction, then turn it on, then watch without problems. I also have VPN on PC and mobile devices. You are limited to 3 devices at the same time and that is not a problem. Don't do banking without one!!!

  5. This is for multiple factor authentication to verify that it is you signing into your account. Capital One is my main credit card and checking account as there are no foreign transaction fees on the card and more Mexican ATM's than with Discover for checking account. I have the Capital One app on my mobile phone (Mexican AT&T service) which is one of the options. This uses my fingerprint to access and is the secondary factor for accessing the site from my PC. I ALWAYS use a VPN (Express VPN, $99.99 USD per year, multiple devices and/or put it on a router) for banking and just about everything else - like Amazon Prime Video or Netflix. Just now when I signed into C-1 from my phone the option for email verification is still there.

    I use Magic Jack as well, but made the mistake of telling Synchrony bank that it was VOIP. They won't use email (don't ask me why?!! $%&/()S!!)  or an app and they won't use that phone number for the secondary authentication. That means no more Amazon store card or Lowes (for when we are visiting the US). I miss the 5% back/discount on Amazon and Lowe's, but the only other way to access the website or phone app is to wait about two weeks for the snail mail with the code to arrive at my US address!! Other sites (like Amazon - not the store card) give the option to send a voice mail rather than a text and the Magic Jack app on the cell phone works for that. Sometimes you have to press 1 to get the code. Magic Jack does not usually work with the automated text, though it works for regular texting.

    This is all NOT a problem compared to my accounts being hacked or my emails stolen or viewed by others. I was told it was because of US banking laws that there is a problem with a non-US address. For my various accounts, only Discover bank is okay with a foreign address. When we first moved here in 2017, what used to be Scottrade told me if I was out of the US for more than 6 months at a time then they could not hold my accounts with them. I had already read enough to know to keep a US address to give out. And I have a "semi"-adult step-kid there to check the mail (not fool proof, as she missed the letter from SSA and that was a pain in the ### but she keeps sending photos of junk mail!).

    BTW - Magic Jack (which is my "home landline") is cheap (I forgot the amount.) and it works fairly well, even when I am out and about and not on wifi. And the VPN does slow the download speed, but from 2 at best to 1.something is not noticeable. Movies don't generally stream on Kodi worth a damn, even without the VPN on (and it is required for Amazon Prime - movies usually okay but blurry at times). Cannot wait for ILOX!!!

    One more thing - VPN's are about privacy and security due to their encryption. But one also needs good passwords (I use LastPass and my main password is a very long sentence) to also protect from hackers, especially in light of recent revelations of more sites having security breaches and data stolen.

    Hope all this helps someone...

    • Like 1
  6. John Shrall,

    I cannot connect directly to Telmex with the router. My Telmex Arcadyan modem address is the same as yours and I was able to log in. I am unable to see the PPPoE password that is locked and I think that is why I cannot set bridge mode. When I try to enable bridge mode it tells me to reset PPPoE on computer to be able to set bridge mode. . DHCP is set as active. The router IP address is supposed to be http://192.168.1.1 or http://router.asus.com.

    In other words, the bridge to the router is not working. And it will not work if I just use a LAN port to the router either. I think I will have to call Telmex and see if they can help.

    Pappysmarket,

    You are very fortunate to have yours work out. I tried it without success.

     

  7. Thanks. I tried Duolingo but it was too much typing and I prefer to do language acquisition the native way. I had some classes years ago in high school and worked with a lot of Spanish speakers in my career. Duolingo is too much repetition for me at this stage. The guy at the tianguis, Taylor, who was mentioned in a book has not been there and I was wondering if anyone else knew of a source.

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