ISP, Best ones? What to expect of them?

[Thanakil]

Alright, I'm making this thread mainly because my current ISP is trying to ra... Abuse of every customers simply by making us think we have the best services possible for a very cheap price and yadda yadda while charging us more and more and constantly modifying what we get.

So now, I kinda want to get a new one, and I was wondering, what should I expect of ISPs? And does anyone know a good one for Canada?

Is there a way to easily what ISPs offer? I tried canadianisp but it doesnt seem quite complete enough...

I really only want something that offer me a good speed, and who doesnt try to limit how much I can download each month (mine is currently limiting every services, sometime even giving a limit of 1gig only each month, hell, downloading a beta or even a DEMO only will bust the limit).

[Galway no Sora]

Limitation usually because you take quota limit, if you're using time based you won't be charge for over quota.

[Thanakil]

Originally Posted by Galway no Sora

Limitation usually because you take quota limit, if you're using time based you won't be charge for over quota.

Actually, I am time based =/ it's a specific price for 1 month time, but I still get a limitation... Seems like half the ISP around here are working that way.

[Galway no Sora]

Well, I heared that ISP in US and Canada have a good service. In my country, you'll need to pay an extra expensive fee to get slow-medium speed connection. It's sucks when you'll be charged $35 for 64Kbps a month. Don't get wrong, maid salary in my town is only $35 / month, so you can imagine how its expensive.

Back to topic, I think you should contact your ISP to clear this thing. They have their own regulations, so we can't do anything except to agreed .

[washablemarker]

hmm. i don't have any experience with canadian isps, but i do know that where i live, everyone typically has 1mb down and 500kbps up for reasonable monthly prices with no limits. others pay more for 10/10 connections or better, but that is probably the most common. limiting to 1Gb a month is rediculous though. i would highly suggest switch your isp, which it already seems you are doing. i can ask around for you though.

[firyace]

Did you try Shaw yet?

By far I have very good experiences with their broadband service as its fast and so far I haven't had any complaints regarding me reaching over my bandwidth limit

[guenthar]

The governments for all of these countries that have ISPs like that need to start regulating those companies and force them to stop ripping off there customers. Even the US (which is pretty good when it comes to internet connections) isn't really that good compared to other countries like Japan. (atleast in some parts)

[Galway no Sora]

Originally Posted by guenthar

The governments for all of these countries that have ISPs like that need to start regulating those companies and force them to stop ripping off there customers. Even the US (which is pretty good when it comes to internet connections) isn't really that good compared to other countries like Japan. (atleast in some parts)

No, Japan isn't better than Korea. Korea have more than half of their population connected into broadband. Indonesia ... only 10%-15% maybe Yeah, that's shame.

[KillerShots]

Well, for one, look for an ISP without any limits on it. Whenever I reinitialize one of my systems, I tend to download 25-40 GBytes in a day (OS patches, source code (small comparatively), steam and direct2drive downloads (2-12 GBytes per download)). This number is only going up as time passes.

As far as connection speeds, that changes drastically depending on where you are. Some places in Europe have fiber with very high speed connections, and a couple of trial areas in the US have that as well. Don't know about Canada. Next you have DSL / Cable modems... try not to dip below 6Mbits down with 768k up. Both technologies are capable of this, though with DSL you're not sharing a relatively small pipe with your neighborhood. If those aren't available... your next economical bet is ISDN. It's more expensive, it's slower... but it's technically broadband. Failing that, you have satellite. It's cheap and you get "reasonable" download rates... but uploads are going to suck and latency is going to be 250 ms *minimum* (signal to satellite->ISP limited by speed of light + some small overhead). Next you have really *nice* connections, but they are *extremely* expensive - T1 and T3. Tend to go for around $400-600 per month. A T1 will give you 1.5 Mbits down and 1.5 Mbits up. Nothing short of fiber will give you that upstream value. A T3 is significantly faster. Bear in mind there's also a hefty installation charge (phone company has to run a dedicated line out to you).

[Galway no Sora]

Hei, just curious about ISP in your country, KillerShots. They have T1 and T3 as well? Damn, here in Indonesia you (home user) will stuck at 768Kbps except you're son of BIG boss with $$$ unlimited, can get 3Mbps.

I think $400-600 a month for a T1 or T3 connections is pretty cheap, I can't imagine that speed if sold by Indonesian ISP that can cost you *maybe* around $2500-3500 / month

[KillerShots]

Actually, in my area a T1 goes for $359/month (link)

[Thanakil]

Bandwith around here is like, 5mb/800kbs for DSL, 7mb/800 for cable and 10mb/900 for cable, except if you pay big bucks to get 20mb/10mb for cables or 16mb/x-got-no-idea (cables too).

The problem is that the download limit with cables connection is moronic, and I REALLY mean moronic... Like "20gig download and 10gig upload by month'' for the 20mb/10mb cable connection who cost 85$ moronic....

I'm either gonna go down a notch with DSL, or pay a little extra to get a unlimited cap with Sympatico, I never used Symp but they're the only one to offer that, and since I already got the installation for a cable modem and everything, it would save money for the installation...

[RZetlin]

In Canada there are only two major players:

Bell Sympatico (ADSL)
Rogers (Cable)

Rogers has faster speeds but throttle bittorrent and have a soft cap.

Bell Sympatico doesn't throttle bittorrent but has a download/upload cap. If you go over the cap you have to pay more.

[Thanakil]

Over where I am the major player is Videotron, which is basically the same as Sympatico but with smaller price if you get TV + Phone with them.

I was with them but the cap became kinda stupid lately, one year ago I already increased my service (and the price) to dodge the very low cap they had, and now I get another cap, both time they didnt do anything to compensate for it, like decreasing the price or anything.

I think I'll go with Sympatico now, give them a try or something.