Telmex + Telecable

After 8 years of waiting Telecable finally wired my street in Villa Nova so I signed up for the internet.

Now, I need to know how to use both TelMex and TeleCable ISPs at the same time.

After spending a day reading, I know less than when I started.

Basically, I have a desktop, a laptop, a Vonage phone and a lightning station to hook up.

I found some hardware on Amazon for about $200 that I think will do the trick but looking for something simpler and cheaper.

If you have any ideas, post a link or PM me.

No one or the other with the exception of modems that can take both connections but doubt if modems are available and if they are probably wouldn't work with our Telmex/Telecable.  I have both I put my VOIP phone on the Telmex modem and use the Telecable for house wide WIFI.  Yes I have done what you want to do up north but not sure you could do it here.  So does anyone know if you can use non Telmex/Telecable modems here? Do they make boxes that could take the output (lan cable) of the two modems and combine them?

Do understand that when everybody gets on the internet in your neighborhood your Telecable connection slows down.  Telmex uses DSL technology and sends the signal directly to the switch so it tends to be more consistant.  It doesn't happen often but like sunday afternoon my telecable 10 turns into 4 or 5. But most of the time it still beats my .8 Telmex line.

z

After reading hundreds of pages of literature and learning a few hundred new terms, there is lots of equipment out there for under $100US.

The biggest difference is in features. You can buy them with load balancing where they actually add the bandwidth, roll over where they just swap the lines when one goes down, both, and a multitude of features plus speeds.

Windows 7 and up comes with software to accept 2 inputs but you may have to get another board for the second input.

I use one of these (about $100): http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.mx/MLM-513177718-tp-link-router-balanceador-de-carga-tl-r480t-alta-potencia-_JM

It works OK, but does take some configuration. If you understand basic networking terminology it isn't complicated but probably would be considered complicated if you don't.

You can configure it with up to 4 internet connections. I use 2, Telmex and Telecable like you want to do. It doesn't always work perfectly, but that is mainly due to Telecable's annoying tendency to fade out and in from time to time.

This does the "load balancing" that you mention over the multiple connections. This means that it balances all of your internet requests over the connections, sending some out through one and others out through the other. You are still limited by whatever the download/upload speed is of each connection. It does not "combine" them in the sense that if you have 5mb down on one and 5mb down on the other you now have 10mb down. You will still only have a max of 5mb down on any request, but multiple requests can be balanced over the connections.

There is no technology that you can implement only on your side that can combine multiple connections to increase the bandwidth to the total of your inputs. The ISP has to provide this capability on their side and you certainly can't get it trying to combine two different ISPs.

OasisCloud wrote:I use one of these (about $100): http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.mx/MLM-513177718-tp-link-router-balanceador-de-carga-tl-r480t-alta-potencia-_JM

It works OK, but does take some configuration. If you understand basic networking terminology it isn't complicated but probably would be considered complicated if you don't.

You can configure it with up to 4 internet connections. I use 2, Telmex and Telecable like you want to do. It doesn't always work perfectly, but that is mainly due to Telecable's annoying tendency to fade out and in from time to time.

This does the "load balancing" that you mention over the multiple connections. This means that it balances all of your internet requests over the connections, sending some out through one and others out through the other. You are still limited by whatever the download/upload speed is of each connection. It does not "combine" them in the sense that if you have 5mb down on one and 5mb down on the other you now have 10mb down. You will still only have a max of 5mb down on any request, but multiple requests can be balanced over the connections.

There is no technology that you can implement only on your side that can combine multiple connections to increase the bandwidth to the total of your inputs. The ISP has to provide this capability on their side and you certainly can't get it trying to combine two different ISPs.

There is embedded software in Windows 7 up that will combine 2 ISPs. If I could ever get TeleCable to do the install, I'll let you know if it works. I gave TeleCable 150MXN as a deposit for the installation. Was supposed to install in 3-5 days. 8 days later, haven't seen them. If not here by Thursday, I'm going to take the 150MXN as a lesson. If they don't show up to install, I think they will never show up to repair

Has anybody been able to install a personal cable or DSL modem locally?? And do they make a box to combine output from two modems into one box to load share??

Z

Zedinmexico wrote:And do they make a box to combine output from two modems into one box to load share??

Z

Did you read the thread? That is what it is about. There is a link above to a box that does this and jrm is working on a Win7 solution (please keep us posted jrm). As far as using your own modem to connect to the ISP, I haven't heard any success on that one. You'd probably need a lot of inside info and a fair bit of expertise to configure it. A router like the tp-link shields you from any need for that anyway.

It wasn't completely clear from the picture of the black box what was on the back and I don't understand Spanish .  I used a commercial unit up north that combined two cable modems and load balanced to a lan jack.  I assumed the unit above takes output from modems to black box. Two different things. I just wanted to be sure. Cable company configured the modems for me NOB and burned the configuration into an EPROM. Too bad we can't use our own modems as better modems work better in my opinion. I also saw a unit with a DSL modem and cable modem in one box also. These were commercial units designed for must stay alive operations to send data from transmitting towers for example. Worked well as we use to pull one of the input cables to test them. Didn't see anything like above at Fry's last week.

Z

I gave the Mercado Libre link because I assumed he'd want to buy it in Mexico. Googling tp-link Tl-r480t+ gives you lots of info in English. Here is a link to the user manual: http://www.tp-link.com/Resources/document/TL-R480T_v5_User_Guide.pdf

It is a 5 port router. Port 1 is always a WAN port and 5 always a LAN port. Ports 2-4 can be configured as either WAN or LAN, so you can have up to 4 WAN inputs that are load balanced. If you use 2 WAN then you have 3 LAN ports available for you local network to attach a wireless access point, another router, or whatever. You need a little networking knowledge to configure it, but not a lot.

I think that the level of support that you describe from your cable company up North is pretty unheard of here. Most are lucky just to have a decent and stable internet connection.

We were commercial and had an HP/Agilent cable/fiber testers that was better than anything the cable company had. They would borrow our instruments and we fed back some signals back to them that we picked up on Ku from outside the country. I had four dishes and 400 cable drops. We also worked on the early digital stuff with Stanford that became DSS and Dish. I was a very lucky techy boy sometimes but most of the time I worked on modems, callback systems, and RS232 Data Switches all of which now don't exist anymore. The cable company was very nice to us and we were nice to them.

Thanks for your explanation OasisCloud. I just know enough to be dangerous I guess.

Z

OasisCloud wrote:

Zedinmexico wrote:And do they make a box to combine output from two modems into one box to load share??

Z

Did you read the thread? That is what it is about. There is a link above to a box that does this and jrm is working on a Win7 solution (please keep us posted jrm). As far as using your own modem to connect to the ISP, I haven't heard any success on that one. You'd probably need a lot of inside info and a fair bit of expertise to configure it. A router like the tp-link shields you from any need for that anyway.

Well, it has been 2 weeks and I haven't seen a cable installer yet. I was supposed to have seen one in 2-5 days. If he doesn't show up this week, if he he ever does show, I'm going to tell him where to stick his cable and send him on his way.

I gave them 150MXN for the install and I'm beginning to think it was a cheap price to learn about their service level.

I did rework my phone system wiring and got my TelMex up to about 4.5 download so I really don't need the cable anymore.

I also tried the new TelMex "free calling to the US". It is apparently some kind of Voip system and it sucks for quality, much poorer than a Vonage system.

Where do you live? I had to get a new cable line installed last week. They came within the 3 - 5 day window and only charged me $50 pesos for the installation. I had gone to the Telecable office in Riberas to line it all up.

Almost at the top of Villa Nova.

They just wired the poles up here a month ago, I watched them pulling in the lines.

It will be 3 weeks tomorrow and I've written them off. They charged me 150MXN for the drop, which has never happened. I consider it a cheap price to see how their service works. If they won't show up for money, they won't show up for repairs.

I have a copy of the contract. The address is right, the phone numbers are right and I never leave the house without my cell phone. They've just lost the order.

If they do show up now, I'm just going to tell him to keep the money and go away.