Hi everybody - I was wondering if anybody here has experience telecommuting from San Pedro. I'm not currently a resident of Belize, but I'm seriously considering relocating to San Pedro within the next year. I'm hoping someone can share some insight on the options that are currently available for secure, high speed internet access (I need to be able to connect to a remote network via a VPN connection). Any info you can share will be greatly appreciated! Thanks

The entire telephone network went down last year due to a strike. The electric company was on strike. The satelite connections were down.

Don't even consider it.

WOULD LIKE YOU TO PM ME! I AM RARELY NEGATIVE BUT THIS PERSON IS INSANE TO COMMENT IN THIS MANNER...UNLESS THEY ARE A TELECOMMUTER. I KNOW A FEW IN SAN PEDRO. THE STRIKE WAS FOR A WEEK AND 7 MONTHS AGO!!!

WITH TODAYS TECHNOLOGY YOU ARE ABLE TO GET CABLE MODEM, DSL, AND WIRELESS INTERNET IN SAN PEDRO, AND TELECOMMUTE EASY WITH THE TYPE OF CONNECTION YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT.

THE NEGATIVE RESPONCE ABOVE IS APARENTLY A BITTER PERSON WISHES THEY COULD TELECOMMUTE BUT HAS NOT CLUE HOW SO IS MAKING FUN OF YOU. THEY ARE JEALOUS OF YOUR DREAM, AND ENVY YOU FOR THE THOUGHT.

I WISH YOU THE BEST OF LUCK. REMEMBER, DO THE OPPOSTITE OF MOST PEOPLE TO CREATE YOUR SUCCESSES AND HAPPINESS. YOU CREATE YOUR OUTCOME AND CAN MAKE ANYTHING WORK ANYWHERE.

AND FORTUNATELY, IT IS EASY TO TELECOMMUTE HERE.
BEST WISHES. CONGRADULATIONS FOR TAKING THE FIRST STEP...DREAMING AND THEN INVESTIGATING.

:rolleyes: All that said, you may encounter more downtime that you are accustomed to. The power does fluctuate. As does the cable... But that doesn't mean it isn't possible to do what you are thinking of. Good luck

My entire business revolves around the Internet and the only time I’ve encountered a significant outage in the last 3 years was for 2 days when a satellite outage coincided with the BTL strike.

Power outages and Internet downtime are rare these days. I was down for a few hours the other week because BTL changed server IP's but other than that all has been fine for months.

If both power and back up satellites at the internet cafe's were down you could still run up to Chetumal to get access if you were in dire straits.

You’ll still need a self-employed work permit to telecommute legally.

Thanks to you all for your replies. I live in a rural mountain community right now, so the idea of unexpected downtime isn't a foreign concept to me. I'm not discouraged so far!

Good! See you there. If more people lived their dream the world would be a better place.

THE NEGATIVE RESPONCE ABOVE IS APARENTLY A BITTER PERSON WISHES THEY COULD TELECOMMUTE BUT HAS NOT CLUE HOW SO IS MAKING FUN OF YOU. THEY ARE JEALOUS OF YOUR DREAM, AND ENVY YOU FOR THE THOUGHT.

I DO telecommute in the states....I would NOT chance it there. THAT IS MY OPINION.

He/she can investigate to their heart's content. It ultimately is THEIR choice.

You'll definitely need to find out what the ISP here will allow (PPTP is the main issue, if I remember correctly), and how flexible your VPN administrator is. Your admin can tell you what questions to ask the ISP. Issues like changing server IPs make VPN admins very unhappy. :-)

Another tidbit, which probably doesn't matter for your business but I just went through it so I thought I'd share. To get a document notarized here, so that it is recognized as legitimate in the states, you have to see the Consul at the American Embassy. She and the staff were very helpful, and it was $30 for the stamp. (There is actually another option, but it involved getting a Belizian court to approve a Belizian notary, which seemed more complicated to me.) There were specific days and hours for American Citizen Services at the Embassy, so check before you take the ferry over.

whitewater, you gave a very useful piece of information for many regarding noteries. Thank you.

GB, good to clarify. Life and success in business is about "chances" when you say you would never take a chance, a telecommuter could always move back. You wrote DON'T EVEN CONSIDER IT. Not that you would not chance it.

Life's about chances and opportunities.

I do agree with all of the people above that it can be done. Just make sure you do everything legally in Belize and check into the laws.

I HAVE BEEN HERE 5 MONTHS AND THE POWER HAS GONE DOWN ONCE FOR 2 MINUTES, IT CAME BACK ON BEFORE I COULD EVEN LIGHT MY CANDLES.

MY CABLEM MODEM HAS NEVER, EVER GONE DOWN. I HAVE FASTER INTERNET THAN I DID WITH WHO I HAD CABLE SERVICE FROM IN THE STATES. I THINK DSL GOES DOWN MORE THAN CABLE, MY NEIGHBOR HAS IT.

It sounds like you might have more down time in Colorado than here.

Have you been here? If you have and love it here, GO FOR IT. Best of luck, follow your dreams.

Oh yes, I've spent a little time (not as much as I would like) in AC and I am completely in love!

Actually, I ended up in Colorado because my father moved out here to become a ski bum. I went to visit him right after he settled in and about a year later we were neighbors. Now he and his girlfriend have moved to AC - if he would just quit moving to such great places maybe I would stop following him!

Thanks again to everyone for the advice, opinions and information. I'm still in the very early stages of investigating the dream and this has been very helpful.

wow, you love it here AND have family! You can't beat that! I definately recommend trying your telecommuniting even more now!

I do think it will be much easier than you think. I do not feel like I have left the states with the technology today. I am an easy phone call away and have cable modem and wireless internet.

THE ONLY THING THAT COULD MAKE IT EVEN BETTER LIVING HERE WAS IF MY FAMILY WAS IN LOVE WITH IT TOO AND COULD LIVE HERE!

Whew...why's everyone yellin

I can read ya loud and clear

I DON'T KNOW DAMMIT! THANK GOD I'M DEAF!

it's a long way from BZ to Colorado NYG

If I had to rely on telecommuting as my only source of income, I would get a satellite dish, or rather I've been advised that you really need 2 dishes working together for uninterrupted coverage.
The DSl on Caye Caulker is amazingly reliable (knock wood).

Knock Knock......

Glad it wasn't just me Simon
klc

i did not know i was yelling by writing in caps.

I see a new business opportunity: Ex-Pat with a current notary seal. I'd bring mine down each time for $15/notarization.

Good to note that most of the internet cafes did not go down during the BTL strike. Also many folks have independent satellite connections. The island was never without internet capabilities, it was just the general populace.

If you are worried about electricity purchase a small back-up generator.

I remember a time when the San Pedro Sun worked on golf cart battery power to get the paper out.

Krehfish, I will be needing your notary seal for US Real Estate transactions. Glad to pay the $15. Are you going to be staying on SP or just vacationing?

I am new to the board and this topic is a bit stale, but I wanted to add my comments since I am a new telecommuter in the Cayes. Bottom line, I am doing it, thusly it is possible to "live the dream". Enjoy it while you can!

I am a US telecommuter and have been living on Caye Caulker for 4 months. Up until two years ago, satellite was only broadband available in Caye Caulker. I am sure San Pedro had it somewhat before hand.

Now we have BTL DSL, available up to 1Mbps DOWN / 512Kbps UP. I use the 512d/256u service. The DSL and land line install was $250US after everything (install, deposit, etc) and I pay $150US per month (I had 11Mbps in NYC for $53US, ugh). Satellite is still available, but the dishes are expensive, the service plans are comparable to DSL for usage and the latency of the satellite rules out anything "real time" (think NO voice/video).

Selfishly, I'd love if someone could respond to this and talk about the cable modem service available in SP, we don't have it yet...

The DSL bandwidth (availability and stability) is pretty good, I regularly saturate the downstream for 20min-1hr and it is fairly stable. All of the backhaul from the islands is microwave (see towers all over Belize). From there BTL uses fiber optic capacity from the ARCOS caribbean undersea fiber system (nwcable{dot}com).

My Vonage line (VoIP) works great about 80% of the time, but you must not be downloading anything else significant while using it. Skype works much the same. If you MUST have a reliable phone, I would get an IP softphone with a callback feature that initiates a landline call from the US to Belize for every incoming or outgoing call. Use the all-IP phone unless it gets dicey and then pay for the US-Belize landline callback when you need it (obviously this requires a BTL landline too)

BTL supplies you with a DSL modem that has NAT standard but the catch is you do not get a publicly routed IP address, and cannot open ports for forwarding at all (BTL essentially NATs all of it's customers too). This turns out to be good for general network security, but bad for the security-minded consumer who'd like the ability to run basic TCP/IP services responsibly.

I don't have problems with blockage of common file-sharing protocols nor free VoIP services. Although I cannot open ports, there are NO baseline content/security filters in place that I have detected.

As far as the VPN comment, I use MS PPTP to connect to my office and have never had a problem -- works like a charm. It generally drops out 2-3 times a day and then starts right up, but that is tolerable for me. I have never tried a pure IPSEC or GRE type of connection.

I am not sure what the install is like in San Pedro, but it was a HUGE pain in the ass in CC. What happened to me was fairly typical, the line(s) was installled in 2 days and the modem (the cheezy POS that it is) took 3 weeks to arrive from the city. Plan on using the internet cafes if you cannot wait that long to get back to business.

Hope this helps any telecommuters looking to relocate to paradise...

Hi.
I can't help you with the telecomuter thing but I can answer some of your questions.

Cable modem is my favorite in SP it is extremly fast. And you can be downloading things while usuing vonage, I know several that have it. If it changes the phone quality it is because the DSL connection is too slow. My friend uses his several hours a day and does not have down time.

As far as the install speed. My experience:
Went to Coral Cable, asked when it could be installed, they said TODAY in 5 hours. 2 hours later they were at my place and asked if they could install, all equip+modem included $75 BZ, no contract.

Although I do not have CCV available in Caye Caulker, I would still be interested to see how they get out of SP/Belize. Who does CCV use for an upstream ISP? Is it BTL, Satellite, wireline to Mexico?

East way to find out is with a traceroute tool.

If you are a CCV customer, point your browser to:

easynews.com/trace/ (for example)

Push the trace button and copy/paste the results back into a reply. OR if you just know the answer respond accordingly.

Thanks in advance...

The cable company routes through BTL.

Krazy after the $75 install what is the monthly fee?

depends on what connection speed you want. From $25 BZ UP. I have the second to highest speed and it is fast. I pay $125 BZ/ month so about $62 US.