After some time in Mexico I have experienced the Gamut of Internet problems. Recently however I had the need to connect a SIP phone to what I was instructed was a Telmex Infinitum connection, later to find out it is CosmoRed. This CosmoRed connection proved to be quite challenging, and I detail the reasons here. I write here what I know about Mexican Internet Providers , especially those in Puerto Vallarta.

Infintum DSL

This is the most popular national Internet provider because it is owned by Telmex, or Carlos Slim(e) and Co.  who have spent a lot of money keeping the competition at bay as well as taking un-earned money from contractes, requiring them to pay for services that they never used. Because of their failure on a contract Telmex goes after them for the amount that they would have received even though no services were rendered. Now you see why I put the (e) after Carlos Slim. Signing a Telmex contract is like making a deal with the devil. At this point in the game it is better to look for another option if you do not need a Telmex line. They also have a long reputation of things like misleading advertising (where things like UNLIMITED calling is used when they really mean LIMITED. If it is not written in the contract (and it wont be) you wont get it!. As for the bandwidth a 1 Meg connection often yields only 128k of upload speed. This is barely Broadband as it is and when  you factor in that real world tests often yield half the bandwidth, this takes upload speed to 64K . Limiting upload speed is a way to hinder consumption of download speed. Telmex DNS servers often block VoIP services to this day. Recently I configured and IP phone to us.voxalot.com on a Telmex connection and in the end determined that TelMex DNS servers were not resolving the hostname . A quick switch to OpenDNS or Google DNS solves this problem. It does not however negate the probability that this DNS resolution issue is probably intentional.

Telecable

offers Internet service and in a decent neighborhood it works very well. Recently one client was informed that he had problems because the equipment on the line outside his home was older 550 Mhz equipment that was in need of upgrading. It may take them a while to get your issues straightened out but you will certainly get more upload speed than a comparable Infinitum connection.

Telecable However does not by default give you a Public IP . This is typical of Many Cable providers in mexico and the only opne I have seen that was not this way was Megared Tijuana , that actually got their IP addresses from a US provider across the border.

At least with Telecable you have the option of paying 50 Pesos more to contract the IP Plus service which gives you a public IP, which is unlike the next provider in this list.

Unless you have the IP Plus service (and have confirmed you are getting the public IP you pay for) do not use a router on this service. better to connect a switch and allow Telecable to give the IP addresses from those in the Private LAN IPs that they issue. This is especially necessary if you use VoIP , as most VoIP services require that you have no more than one NAT between you and your public IP address.

Cosmored

Is the epitome of horrible broadband service.  On first observation they offer no public IP and to get one they say it costs 1000 pesos per month. That is ridiculous given that I used to get a public IP even on a dial up connection.

Secondly nothing on the public Internet is pingable. Any ping sent to any destination on the Internet will not be completed. I believe this is in violation of recent Mexico laws that require ISPs to allow access to ALL services and ALL destinations on the Internet.  I think this is mostly because they do not want their customers to see the reality of the awful ping times and lost packets. Even the diagnostics at DSL reports.com are rendered useless to measure packet loss and ping times on these connections.

Third issue was their DNS resolution. I kept getting that web pages were unavailable. After changing my DNS to Google DNS , I quickly learned that this problem lie in their DNS resolution.  If you must use this service it should be considered essential to set your DNS to Google DNS or OpenDNS.

Again in this case the Private LAN IPs they offer apparently allow the connection of multiple computers via a switch , thereby avoiding a dual NAT situation. Also again stay away from using a router on this service for the aforementioned reason , especially if you need to use VoIP.

Later we will take a look at mobile solutions from Telcel and Iusacel

Summary

There is no reason these Internet Providers over cable should be holding out on public IP addresses. This makes advanced configurations complex if not impossible under some circumstances. The winner in my book however is Telecable , but that also depends on the neighborhood. If you are in a neighborhood that is problematic for telecable you may have to make a deal with the devil (Telmex) , or Chafa Cable (Cosmored) . Of course for many web surfers once the alternate DNS is selected with Telmex or Cosmored  that may be  all one really needs. Us geekz however may require something more.

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Update. Telecable has come a long way however they still seem to be unable to maintain a solid connection to the Internet as of December 2012 their Gateway is pingable but nothing beyond that. If you do not know what that means is thjat since their gateway is the point where their customers data connects to the Internet , it means that Telecable Puerto Vallarta is not connected to the Internet! That also seems to imply that these problems are system wide , and not just isolated occurrences. Their customer should demand that these failures are compensated in their bill . There is no way they can offer a business class service when at times they leave the Internet down all weekend . I have seen this several times now with a failure on a Friday night and it does not get fixed till Monday! Was the engineer too drunk on Friday night to see the problem or just to fix it?

On a positive note they have seemed to install some UPS back ups on some lines however the number is nowhere near what I was accustomed to seeing on “real” systems . I suppose that is an improvement as before thy seemed to have NONE . I suppose that seeing the necessity to have a more reliable network because they offer phone service was key in getting something improved.

I suppose their phone service is as bad as their intenet. How can they offer new services when their systems seem to be so fundamentally flawed?