Cutting the Cord

[Colin McGregor]

On Sat, Apr 20, 2013 at 1:37 AM, Evan Leibovitch <evan-ieNeDk6JonTYtjvyW6yDsg at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> Hi folks.
>
> Well, my kids have been badgering me to stop paying stooopid prices to
> Rogers and I'm ready to leap, switching my Internet and dumping my cable TV
> completely in favour of Internet/Netflix/Usenet/etc.

Welcome to the club, I cut the cord end of last November when I moved.
It hurts a bit, but not nearly as much as Rogers customer "service".

> Any assistance would be appreciated to help me with these:
>
> This will be cable rather than DSL. Any comments, good or bad, about
> Teksavvy's cable service? Most of the comments I've read seem to be able the
> DSL stuff.

I've heard nice things about Teksavvy's DSL service, but nothing about
their cable. For myself, I am with the Toronto Free-Net.

> Is anyone here using (or looking into) vMedia? It looks too good to be true.
> I am especially intrigued by what their "VBOX" is beyond just a Google TV
> box.
>
> Recommendations on a good router are welcome. Preferably something that
> could run OpenWRT and has gigabit on all wired ports.

I will assume part of the role the router will have is to send
streaming video to other routers around the house to support set-top
boxes, etc., that you don't want to (or can't) run Ethernet cable to.

I'd suggest the Linksys E2500 router. Fairly inexpensive, readily
available (I bought mine at FutureShop), can run on the 2.4GHz AND
5GHz bands (unlike the somewhat less expensive E1550), can run on
2.4GHz and 5GHz simultaneously, can run the DD-WRT software (and by
extension I assume OpenWRT). The wired ports are however "only" 100MB,
not gigabit (mind you I don't see this as a significant issue at
present).

To note the obvious, streaming video is a bandwidth monster, a problem
when seemingly every smart phone, laptop, etc. is using 2.4GHz. A
current check found 24 wireless 2,4GHz hotspots in/near my apartment
and zero 5GHz hotspots. For video streaming you want to be on 5GHz,
with fewer people using it, and more channels to choose from, your
chances of getting enough bandwidth are FAR FAR better. On the other
hand you do still want support for 2.4GHz to handle your smart
phone(s) and other devices that don't have the hardware to support
5GHz operation.

A CURRENT problem with the DD-WRT software is that it doesn't support
5GHz operation, on the other hand there is Tomato Linux (sort of).
Tomato Linux has splinter and forked, so there are some versions of
Tomato Linux that do support the 2.4GHz and 5GHz operation, I am
currently running Tomato by Shibby (.http://tomato.groov.pl/) and at
present am happy with that.

> Does the router need to be placed between my switch and the modem, or can it
> be just another device hanging off it?

>From a technical standpoint, shouldn't matter, BUT... If you have the
router before the switch you can use the router's QoS (Quality of
Service), Bandwidth and Access control tools for everyone/everything
on your network.

> Are there any tips based on previous experience on how to handle the
> transition from Rogers to Teksavvy or vMedia? How hard will Rogers try to
> talk me out of it (ie, like the retentions program they have for phone
> customers that can negotiate better deals?) Otherwise, how hard will Rogers
> make it to leave them?

I told them I was leaving, PERIOD. They did send me a letter asking me
to call in and explain why I was leaving, for a $25 gift card (which I
did, short answer I gave them was ROTTEN customer service (which was
the main reason, but there were also costs)). Any event I ended up
with a Shoppers Drugmart $25 gift card that I used to help get a Sony
Blu-ray player. The Blu-ray player besides being able to play HD
movies off disk, does have an Ethernet port on it, so it can grab a
range of free and pay content off the net.

> Is anyone having any like with OTA, ie a good old antenna? I have a south
> facing wall on a three storey house in northwest Toronto, should I even try
> this?

I use and like OTA just wish I was better placed at present.

> All replies are appreciated.
>
> --
> Evan Leibovitch
> Toronto Canada
>
> Em: evan at telly dot org
> Sk: evanleibovitch
> Tw: el56
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists