Ilox is down

Tday, my bill for the first month was higher as well.  I believe that is because of the installation fee and the cost of the cable they have to run from the pole to your house.  Your next bill should be at the normal rate for the package you signed up for. I just did another couple of speed tests, and I'm getting 38 Mbps. I signed up for the package that offers up to 40Mbps, so I'm happy.

My first bill was $89.00 CAD. I signed up for the lowest package which is I believe $399 per month so there is a massive installation fee.

Comparing first bills in USD and CAD it looks like first bills are about 1200-1300 pesos depending on exchange rate, so not location dependent but maybe a flat fee for installation same as Telmex for "upgrades"

suegarn, I just left the Ilox office and got some questions answered.

Apparently I signed up for the $1229 peso, 350 MBPS package, I thought I was signing up for the $350 peso package, My Bad. So the billing is about right. Not getting anywhere near that speed though, but have not needed to load it up yet.
I must have been blinded by the opportunity to have Fiber Optic Cable ! Where do I sign! They say I can down grade it in 5 months.

[quote="Tday"]suegarn, I just left the Ilox office and got some questions answered.

Apparently I signed up for the $1229 peso, 350 MBPS package,   I thought I was signing up for the $350 peso package, My Bad. So the billing is about right. Not getting anywhere near that speed though, but have not needed to load it up yet.
I must have been blinded by the opportunity to have Fiber Optic Cable ! Where do I sign! They say I can down grade it in 5 months.[/quote


Ouch! Sorry that you're stuck with the expensive package for that long. Good reminder to always double check exactly what you're buying before signing on the dotted line!

The installation fee is $300, payable when you sign up.

"How is a 'fiber' test site in California going to assess your fiber connection in Jalisco? I really want to know."

As for speed, it is still best to find a large file online somewhere to download, then watch the speed bar. Speed tests are still fairly accurate, no matter where you ping to. Because it's not just calculating the time to your PC; it's doing a lot of averaging.

The client establishes multiple connections with the server over port: 8080. The client requests the server to send an initial chunk of data.

The client calculates the real-time speed of the transfers, then adjusts the chunk size and buffer size based on this calculation to maximize usage of the network connection.

As the chunks are received by the client, the client will request more chunks throughout the duration of the test.

During the first half of the test, the client will establish extra connections to the server if it determines additional threads are required to more accurately measure the download speed.

The test ends once the configured amount of time has been reached.

They charged me $900 pesos for installation fee according to my first billing. I paid nothing when I signed up other than giving them my charge card for monthly billing. The first bill for my $399 package was $1299.00 as calculated above.

Well, I haven't had my installation yet, so I will see if I get charged extra when the time comes. I did pay cash, and my contract says installation included.

HelperGuy wrote:The installation fee is $300, payable when you sign up.

"How is a 'fiber' test site in California going to assess your fiber connection in Jalisco? I really want to know."

As for speed, it is still best to find a large file online somewhere to download, then watch the speed bar. Speed tests are still fairly accurate, no matter where you ping to. Because it's not just calculating the time to your PC; it's doing a lot of averaging.

The client establishes multiple connections with the server over port: 8080. The client requests the server to send an initial chunk of data.

The client calculates the real-time speed of the transfers, then adjusts the chunk size and buffer size based on this calculation to maximize usage of the network connection.

As the chunks are received by the client, the client will request more chunks throughout the duration of the test.

During the first half of the test, the client will establish extra connections to the server if it determines additional threads are required to more accurately measure the download speed.

The test ends once the configured amount of time has been reached.

This method doesn't tell much about the health of my local fiber connection though, does it? I once had to troubleshoot a single-mode fiber cct that would happily support 1 gig transceivers, but wouldn't work with 10 gig transceivers. The very clever engineer who received the certification results apparently didn't grasp the significance of the big red "FAILED" that was stamped over the cct number. After testing with the OTDR the real wonder was that any cct was established. I don't doubt you know that aggregating downloads is not a very reliable benchmark. Too many variables in play. The Ilox team terminating the FTTH connections either weren't very well trained, or they weren't supplied with adequate testing equipment. Probably the latter.

You asked. You did not ask about the health of your local fibre connection. The answer is about as correct and complete as it gets. Fibre engineering courses are the obvious next step. You'll need special equipment.

If you're interested, all you really need to know adequately perform fiber optic splicing and testing can be found in this book and in this book. There are, of course, many other books and online sources for this type of info. It's the price of the equipment that hurts.

I'm finding my Ilox speed is all over the board lately. Sitting on the patio about 25 feet away the speed bounces around from 17mbps to 9mbps and settles around 11mbps. When I stand right beside the modem it is stable but only 23mbps. I pay for the 40mbps plan. I think their crappy modems are the problem.

I've had Ilox hooked up for a couple of months now. Speed tests are pretty consistent. Usually between 36 to 38 Mbps download and 8 to 9 upload. I test with Fast.com and Speedtest.net.

I agree......the other night I was getting 95 Kbps (yes....Kbps) on my ipad right next to the modem. The next morning, 12 hours later, I was getting 40 Mbps on my ipad right next to the modem. We are paying for 75 Mbps. Have had a technician come by and of course, on his laptop, with the LAN cable attached to the modem, he got up to 75 Mbps. Had all kinds of reasons explaining the difference. It was recommended that we run an ethernet cable from the modem to the repeater downstairs. We will see. In the meantime, my husband was so upset that he went back and renewed with Telmex.

The iLox modems have worse-than-average WiFi. This is unusual, because there is a bottom-line standard for WiFi, and it is dirt cheap for the parts. On top of that, any repeater/extender relying on WiFi is going to see a massive drop in Internet throughput, the farther it gets from the main modem. You may think your speed would be great, because the WiFi signal is showing 3 or 4 or 5 bars... but that is the WiFi strength only, not the Internet strength.

The installer was right: if you connect your repeater/extender/router/bridge directly to the main modem via Ethernet, the signal would be as good as it gets. Now, very few people want to go to the trouble and expense of doing that, but it is actually a simple and inexpensive fix.

Barring that, it is time to consider mesh WiFi systems. These are sets of 3 or more devices that communicate by blanketing your areas with WiFi, at a much higher strength, ensuring your WiFi is giving you the best signal strength for Internet. It is not cheap; Google Mesh starts around $300 U.S.

Inexpensive repeaters from Steren and TelMex, give you what you pay for, sorry to say.[/i]

suegarn wrote:I've had Ilox hooked up for a couple of months now.  Speed tests are pretty consistent.  Usually between 36 to 38 Mbps download and 8 to 9 upload.  I test with Fast.com and Speedtest.net.

Sue, do you have the black modem (which comes with the TV package) or the smaller white modem for phone/internet only?

CanuckBob wrote:

suegarn wrote:I've had Ilox hooked up for a couple of months now.  Speed tests are pretty consistent.  Usually between 36 to 38 Mbps download and 8 to 9 upload.  I test with Fast.com and Speedtest.net.

Sue, do you have the black modem (which comes with the TV package) or the smaller white modem for phone/internet only?

I have the black modem for TV/internet. I'm on the 'up to 40 Mbps package'.

I think those black ones have better wifi signal than my white one.

I have tested both, and both are just as bad. Except not always. Weird.