Heavy Skype Internet Usage

Second post is a question.
I will have a few and hope I can help others in the future.

Like some, I would like to work a little for spending money
and to keep motivated every day. (Not sure I could get used to
being idle every day) I also like the thought of keeping myself in a business
mind frame in case there may be a financial emergency.
(I think most people are apprehensive now with the world economy being
shuffled here and there by the high and mighty)

I've worked in IT for 30+ years and have been flexible in learning new
technologies, so I think I can use this Internet thing as well as the next person.

One of my plans requires the use of some type of Skype desktop/voice
sharing for up to 3 hours a day 5 days a week.

I have Clear 4g service and unlike Verizon and others actually give subscribers
unlimited use and do not charge more or throttle down the speeds.

I know that 3g/4g is more expensive for the providers and having looked at
Telmex's rates I see I would need ADSL or cable for my project.

I'm wondering if Mexican companies such as Telmex or Telecable would
have a problem with this intensive use. Maybe its not a problem in Mexico??
Would like information also for Chapala area specifically along with other
areas in Mexico...

Please, if you could, give me as much feedback as possible, thanks.....

If you are looking for unlimited telephone access NOB I would suggest a MagicJack Plus rather than skype. FWIW.

From friends who have claimed to have tried all the various options, I am getting the highest satisfaction opinions with Vonage. There is a building distrust of Skype since they are now part of Microsoft. A friend just switched from Telmex DSL service to Telecable because of service issues with Telmex. Now he has run into problems with Telecable because their modems apparently have some sort of connection limits which I do not understand. Apparently there isn't a "one size fits all" option?

I find the audio quality is better on Vonage than magicJack, but both work. Of course, magicJack is much less expensive.

Been a happy user of Vonage for nearly 10 years now...no complaints, no problems, clear sound and no delays. You will need the fastest connection that Telmex has for the best results.

Vonage works well and you will have to experiment with the various packages. I didn't have very good luck with Vonage or MagicJack on the low end package, but after moving to a higher mb package, I have been just fine.

I work part time out of the house, most of my work is done by email. I use Skype for my US phone and Telmex for internet. Originally I just had the basic package from Telmex and the internet speed was not so great for Skype calls. I had to get the upgraded package from Telmex in order to have good, clear Skype calls.

We have the basic (5 MB) Telmex package and have no issues with the Magic Jack Plus just so long as I am not downloading anything when using the phone.

Axixic wrote:If you are looking for unlimited telephone access NOB I would suggest a MagicJack Plus rather than skype. FWIW.

Or net talk. They have been doing the modules that plug
into your Telmex box much longer than magic jack. If
you are going to serve much get telmex (DSL) as Telecable
has some wierd rules regarding many connections or somthing
like that. The local weather guy is having these problems. I
find DSL while slower especially uploading to be more reliable.
During the rains performance is dependent on how wet your
cable or phone line gets. Mine never goes down. My neighbor
goes down in the fog no less water. Good luck. If you want
to talk PM me as I am a retired computer engineer for HP
and can help you understand the issues. From my experience
I don't think once you get a stable system you will have many
problems telecommuting. Some folks have both cable modem
and DSL for when one goes down. I would get the 5 level
service as it works very well with VOIP phones using DSL. I
don't know much about telecable as I have a Sat dish so I don't
deal with them anymore. In the past Cable modem seemed less
reliable. Others may offer newer data on Cable modems down
here.

Z

Great!!!
Thanks for all the info guys.

I know that the Firefox I use has the options
in about:config to alter the number of connections
to websites. Maybe that is what Telecable is having a problem with.

I know a few years ago that some internet providers were unhappy
if they thought you had quite a few PCs hooked up on a router, but
I think now a days they've given up on that.

ZedinMexico, I'm sending a PM, if I can figure out how.

MJ has pretty bad quality, skype is better but there are other providers out there with better quality and quality counts as you don't want them to think you are out of the US, better for them to think you are next door, right?

Not only next door but with a phone number they understand and know how to use.

I've used Vonage the last 5 years sometimes 30 hours a week with no problems. I've run it on 2mb but Telmex recently upped it to 5mb. I really didn't see much difference.

Mr Intercasa
What in the blazes is MJ....
hahaha
Please explain yourself ...
hehehhe

MJ is Magic Jack.

I think that the best answer is that "it depends", and it depends on many factors that my take you a while to determine. A lot has to do with your location Lakeside and also who you communicate with.

I've had very good reliability and speed with Telmex DSL, others haven't, even some people living close to me. I never had a Telecable option until recently, because there was no service here. But they recently installed new service down my street, so I got it, partly for the TV and also partly as an Internet backup (it is very important to me also). Even though the Telecable service in this area is brand new, it seems much less reliable than Telmex.

As far as Skype, vs MJ, vs Vonage, vs Google Voice and any other options, I think that also depends. I don't have MJ or Vonage, but suspect they are at their best (and most economical) when calling North America. I regularly need to talk to people in Europe and find Skype very good for that and have also never had a problem with it calling NA (though I'm always skeptical of anything associated with Microsoft).

If you live in a more rural area of the US you will also run into the same type of issues. Most cities have good connectivity, but as you move out it gets less and less so. Lakeside is not a large metropolitan area, so don't expect the infrastructure of one. If connectivity is important then do your homework before deciding on a location as location and other factors do make a difference. I don't think there is a good hard and fast formula though for what works in all situations.

OasisCloud: "I don't think there is a good hard and fast formula though for what works in all situations."

While you were referring to the Internet, your statement is so true for so many things in Mexico!

CheenaGringo: "While you were referring to the Internet, your statement is so true for so many things in Mexico!"

Also true in New Mexico and most places in the world. I lived in the East mountains outside of Albuquerque for a couple of years in early 2000. I loved it there, but will have to say that the electricity and phone reliability was worse than I've experienced anywhere Lakeside. In Albq. was much more reliable than the East mountains of course.

Magic Jack works just fine for us, and the quality is so good that friends think I must be up north. It wasn't always that way, dropped calls, bad connections, but they've come a long way in a short time. You also cannot beat the price. We renewed recently, approximately $60 for 5 years.

I use Magic Jack and Skype. Magic Jack will not work to certain neighborhoods, for example calls from home in Mexico to an area in Pa. So I use both. That way I always have something that works. I can use both without problems with the Telmex 599 per month pesos plan. With that plan you get 100 free minutes to the US. I believe for the 999 pesos per month plan you get unlimited calls to the Us but not sure.

In an attempt to not spread misconceptions about Telecable, I will see if I can explain the issues that the "weather guy" is experiencing. It has to do with the frequency that the site updates and sends the info down/up to the Internet. Since there are updates performed every 10 minutes, this amounts to 144/day or a very unusual amount that the Telecable modems are not designed to handle. They have some sort of auto clean procedure with a manual override and anything beyond that is above my pay grade!