OT: Internet connectivity

[Allen Taylor]

On Wed, May 09, 2007 at 04:56:46PM -0400, Jamon Camisso wrote:
> James Knott wrote:
> >Michael MacLeod wrote:
> >>On 5/9/07, James Knott <james.knott-bJEeYj9oJeDQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> >>>JM wrote:
> >>>> hi,
> >>>>
> >>>>    i need suggestion on a good ISP provider in north america 
> >>>(reliable and has
> >>>> a god track record)..
> >>>
> >>>That's asking a bit much, isn't it?  ;-)
> >>>
> >>>My ISP is Rogers and I find the service is very good.  It's far better
> >>>than Sympatico.
> >>
> >>I have Sympatico and find it much more reliable than Rogers. Go
> >>figure. Basically, there's no way to know which will be better until
> >>you try them both. Service levels vary so much depending on the area
> >>and infrastructure in your area. Basically, while Rogers may be
> >>terrific in one neighborhood, Sympatico is better in another.
> >>
> >As part of my work, I occasionally have to deal with Sympatico, on 
> >behalf of business customers.  It is always a problem, as the help desk 
> >won't help you, if you can't click on the "Start" button.  Problem is, 
> >the equipment that's connected to the ADSL line, is not a desktop 
> >computer.  It has no keyboard, monitor or start button.  If you try to 
> >escalate to someone who might know what they're talking about, they'll 
> >hang up on you.  At least with Rogers, you can escalate and since the 
> >help desk is not in India, you have a good chance of communicating.  We 
> >don't have the same problems, when the customer is on Primus or Telus.
> 
> Teksavvy have helped me with Linux though officially it is unsupported. 
> Router or no router too. Price is right for a 5meg profile ($29.95), and 
> wherever you can get Sympatico in southern Ontario, I think you can get 
> Teksavvy.

I'll second the Teksavvy nomination. I use them personally with a
dry-DSL setup with phone service via Primus VOIP. I have set up a couple
of clients and my wife's church on Teksavvy. Excellent tech support.
Fixed IP is nice too.

I will reluctantly recommend Rogers in some cases but I will never
recommend Symaptico. Their tech support is very spotty - I have talked
to some very knowledgable techs' but mostly very bad tech's at Sympatico
- and I'm a very leary of their strong link to Microsoft/MSN. I have
worked on more than one machine where the Sympatico tech has talked the
user into doing something that completely cut them off and then couldn't
talk them thru connecting again (more fees for me though . .  hmm).

Allen
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