Job Discussion Forums

[Guy Courchesne]

Anyone notice that Slim Central and Helmex doubled the speeds of the basic hi-speed package...again?

When I first got the connection over a year ago, I bought in at the lowest speed package at 25 kB/s. It doubled to 52 kB/s late last year, and it seems this month it popped up to 104 kB/s. Price is still the same...Dunno if this is just in DF though...

[FreddyM]

relative to what you can find in most developed countries, the packages are still slow and expensive.
Of course, I'm the chump here, I agreed to a one year contract with cablevision for slightly higher speed, but at nearly twice the price that telmex is now charging for 1mb dsl. I didn't know telmex was going to double their speed last august when I signed with cablevision.
oh well, let's see if they get to 2mb for the same price by this time next year.
did you know that in asia, 10mb or even higher (i've heard of 100mb connections) are relatively common, and cheaper than what you find in Mexico for 1mb. Third richest man in the world, there's a reason for that....

[business2300]

A bit of topic but....
Is it typical to have internet in housing that is provided by the schools?

[ls650]

[Samantha]

I agree with ls650. Housing is NOT the norm. There is no school in my area that provides housing. Teachers are on their own. It seems some of the smaller schools inland who have to advertise for teachers constantly do provide basic housing, and if you are lucky cable TV. Internet, forget it. There are cyber cafe's everywhere. I think people planning to come to Mexico really need to be prepared for the reality of the situation. Internet is expensive here, and so are computers so that's why the cybers are usually packed.

[jillford64]

Some schools have internet access on site. The school where I work has about 25 computers that students and teachers can use to access the internet at no cost. The also have a wireless connection, but it is pretty slow.

Out of the blue, my landlord installed cable television last week and today installed a wireless internet connection!!! I don't know if cable internet is part of Slim Central and Helmex's operation, but I have to say this connection is VERY fast.

[Guy Courchesne]

[mapache]

Be careful connecting your computer to a regular telephone line while you have Telmex DSL connected.

I had Prodigy Infinitum DSL and connected my computer to the regular phone line to send faxes. The result was a bot virus called DS-0 Exploit. Other people's calls entered my computer through the DSL connection and dialled through to Germany and the UK over my regular phone line. As a result, I got an international long distance bill for over 1500 pesos. Telmex refused to do anything about it other than disconnecting my phone if I didn't pay. Telmex also packs extra monthly charges for DSL that aren't included in their contract or advertisements. Trying to get credit from Telmex for over-charges is worse than dealing with immigration here.

[Samantha]

I have used Telmex DSL for years now and it is far better than the option with Megacable. I have had no problems at all and my bill is what I am expecting it to be. It's not cheap but we knew that when we signed on.

[Guy Courchesne]

[ls650]

My school makes computers available to all teachers while on campus. The machines tend to be a few years old but good enough for TEFL work. The internet is broadband but the speed tends to vary a lot.

At home I pay about 350 pesos per month for a phone line and Telmex Prodigy 'Hogar' dial-up; for dial-up it's surprisingly reliable and usually I get a connection speed of 40K or higher.

[danielita]

[cangringo]

[Samantha]

Cangringo wrote:

[cangringo]

well yes it's working but because we got this puter at christmas and had to reformat, it took us a week to download all the updates and well downloads are just slow...sigh

that and you can only open so many pages at once

hopefully soon we'll be back to high speed...