[Russell]

Hello all, this is Russell from Hotel Cielo.

You don't know me yet as this is my first post on Playa.info.

Here's the story on the webcam. After Hurricane Dean we were pummeled with some type of oppressive humidity. I'm not really sure why but not only did it wreak havoc on our webcam but it also blew our transformer on the roof.
We shipped the camera back to Axis to be fixed and finally got it back in January.

So we climb back up the ladder and work on focusing the camera and showing a bit more of 4th Street and a bit less of out beautiful sign (hee-hee) and low-and-behold we just can't seem to get it right again. It seems that when Axis put the thing back together something in the lenses wasn't quite ligned up correctly. (Think of a spray can with the red dot that the nozzle should be ligned up with). So now we're working on hooking up with an Axis tech person who hopefully will be able to walk me through the lens alignment process. Only problem is I'm back in New York right now (6" of snow this morning) so this won't get done til next week or a bit later.

In addition, we use Telmex for our DSL. Our downloads are great but uploads are slower than 14k dialup. This has been a huge problem for us as we have a US telephone number that utilizes VOIP. So if you call the hotel we can hear you fine but the person in the US hears mostly nothing. To make matters worse, the Telmex modem does not provide QOS (quality of service prioritizes the telephone line). For about a month now we've been speaking with our cable provider about going with cable instead of DSL. On Tuesday they arrived and installed the new cable and modem, but there are no ports to plug the phone and webcam in. So now Alfredo is back up on his white horse and going to rescue us again. We're installing the best wireless router available on the market. The router will give us the QOS we need for the phone and be able to handle the webcam as well. Additionally, we'll be able to beam the wireless throughout all of Carboncitos (yes, wireless is free of charge while enjoying our delicious tacos pastor) and most of the hotel rooms.

Hopefully in a week or so we'll get the focus thing worked out and everyone should be happy.
The bottom line is, we're working hard to get everything right. Who said technology is making life easier anyway? Thanks for your patience and understanding. Gotta go shovel the snow.
Russell