Teksavvy Nightmare

[Thomas Milne]

On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 10:06 PM, John Moniz <john.moniz-rieW9WUcm8FFJ04o6PK0Fg at public.gmane.org>wrote:

> On 04/10/2013 07:22 PM, Anthony Verevkin wrote:
>
>> From: "Thomas Milne" <thomas.bruce.milne-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org>
>>> I noticed that you are sending from Sympatico. Maybe you can answer
>>> my actual question, which was about technical drawbacks to their
>>> service. I see Bell adds things like anti-virus and so on on top of
>>> the service. Those things can sometimes have some unforeseen
>>> negative consequences.
>>> Do you find it generally fast and so on?
>>>
>> Thomas, I think I could answer your question. I have moved to the new
>> apartment a month ago and found that Bell might actually be an ok choice
>> for me. I like having fast Internet but I do not download much. So I
>> took the Bell 15/10 package with 60GB included for $43/mo promotional, $53
>> afterwards. Provided 60GB is enough for me that price was actually better
>> than Teksavvy who would also have to charge for the Dry-loop (I don't pay
>> that with Bell) and modem rental (Bell gave me the modem for free and
>> because they mentioned it is a $100 value deal I am sure I own it now).
>> And there is no contract here, just a 30-day notice.
>>
>> I checked the speed with iperf towards my Blink connection at work and
>> I had a no-loss exchange at the speeds of 14.9/9.9 which is the way it
>> should be.
>>
>> Bell security was also something I was afraid of but the modem itself
>> does not have any more features than what a stock router would have.
>> Also like with all other Bell routers you can use it in a pass-through
>> bridging mode and that's what I am doing, running a full scale Linux
>> router in a virtual machine which establishes pppoe session and runs
>> all the firewalling, VPNs, QoS and IPv6 encapsulation and serves DHCP
>> back into the router (which is acting as a LAN switch + AP at this
>> stage).
>>
>> There was also an email from Bell with a link where I could have
>> downloaded their security software for my PC, which I didn't even check
>> cause I don't need it.
>>
>> I cannot say if they throttle the torrent traffic as I don't do much
>> torrents - the only movie I have downloaded since went through overnight
>> and I can't say if it was fast or not cause I was sleeping :)
>>
>> Overall I am fully satisfied with me going with Bell now and if you are
>> not going over 60GB/mo (which is a sum of upload and download), then
>> Bell might actually be cheaper than the "independent" ISPs.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Anthony
>>
> Thomas, just to add to the above, I've been happy with my DSL service in
> general (good consistent speeds) but am getting a bit annoyed with the
> number of lost connections I've been having lately. Unfortunately, I don't
> yet know if it's a problem within my walls or outside. For example, today
> my wife complained that the internet wasn't working. After resetting the
> modem and two switches (twice), I got a connection. But it took two resets.
> I don't know what to make of it as yet, still have some testing to do.
>
>
You know, that's the one thing that stands out for me with Teksavvy, and
the one reason I am being more patient with them now. I realized that in
the past 5 years, I have never had more than a brief hiccup, nothing that
required more than restarting the modem. Their customer service might be
horrifyingly incompetent, but it appears that technically they remain 'on
the ball'.

I really appreciate everyone's input, even though it got a bit silly here
and there. Setting aside the complaints about specific companies, I don't
think any Canadian would disagree that sometimes it seems like we are
living in a technological backwater. It is a shame.

I'll stop before I say something communist and upset William P.

Have an awesome day!

-- 
Thomas Milne
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