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Harondel J. Sibble (help@pdscc.com)
Sat, 17 Mar 2001 10:13:55 -0800
Well being that I have both, I can throw out a few comments.
On 15 Mar 2001, at 10:43, Kevin wrote:
> I am thinking of getting either of the two, and wondering
> what is best?
Now that depends on your criteria.....
> Price Range - $40-60 per month
> IP - Dynamic/Static Either one
Both offer similar stuff for similar pricing
> Reliability - Should be very reliable
Well for $40-$60 month there's only so much you can expect.....
That has been born out by my experience and many of the experiences of list
members. Three or 4 years ago when I only had adsl, I used to slag cable
regularly on this list, as the years passed, I did that less and less. And
once I got it myself, I limited slagging to once every six months or so ; - )
Many of my clients at the time had lots of probs with cable while my adsl was
generally pretty good. However if you go back through the archives you'll see
adsl had its fair share of probs especially wrt the BC Tel dhcp servers.
This is just for the connection itself. Wrt the main servers, Telus was
generally stable and reliable while rogers.. well.... sucked! When Shaw came
on the scene and sent out letters to @home subscribers, the crappy mail
service was one of the items they specifically said they would be tackling.
And judging by the comments over the past few weeks, it seems overall that
Shaw is a big improvement over Rogers.... unless you need a static ip that
is.
> Setup-Fee - I really do not want to pay for any setup fee,
With the Telus quick connect kit, IIRC there is no setup fee, just your time
to install the stuff and then get on the phone on hold with Telus when it
doesn't work ; - ) and/or is really slow.
Can't remember what the story is with @home. When I got it, I bought the
install kit at Radioshack for like $35 which gave me one or two months free,
plus a network card and $100 off the installation. You can have the techs do
it for you or do the "self install" which is what I did. Nonetheless the self
install does require a tech to come out to your home/office. S/he will
install and test the modem and confirm connectivity and leave you with a nic
and some paperwork so you can get your computer setup.
> as I can do most on my own.(This is on my computer, hooking
> up cables/NIC's etc.), not talking to CO.
As above the @home guy still has to come to you with self install method.
> When - As soon as possible(this week maybe?)
Cable's probably your best bet then as the wait with cable more often than
not seems to be with scheduling someone to come out whereas with adsl, you
may be waiting on a dslam/co port for your area. I am in the same boat as I
am cancelling my adsl service with Internet Gateway (I'll be mailing list
about that later today or earlier tomorrow) and Telus and Radiant both told
me all the ports in my area are full...<sigh>, so I'll be switching my
network back over to @home while I wait. This was the reason I originally got
cable as I was one of the original MMG (Multimedia Gateway, BC Tel's name for
adsl when they first brought it out) subscribers and was going to switch from
MMG to Intergate's Fatwire so that I could get static ip addreses. I am very
glad I did as it took about a month to get a port and then couple of months
before the adsl connection worked again. Intergate's techs and Telus' techs
both came out multiple times to try and solve why the connection didn't work.
Eventually it got sorted out but by then I was so used to cable that I just
stayed on there and paid for adsl that I wasn't using for months, until just
recently (like maybe 2 or 3 months ago) when the blocksync problems with the
Lancity modems started happening on a regular basis and I switched over to
adsl.
> 1) Radiant = $79 basic + $150 Setp Fee + $35 Cable modem
> rental..yikes
That sounds high, AFAIK, they have a $65/month package + setup and modem
rental. Also the setup fee is basically them getting you a port at the CO
and couriering you the modem which you install yourself...
> 2) Linkx - $150 per month
Never heard of them so no comment there
> 3) Hermes(I have dial-up throgh them since last 2 years..had
> problems only once), and their price is $99 plus setup fee.
Sounds okay, what are specs on connection? You need to compare apples to
apples as some isp's offer different connection speeds for the same price.
With Intergate, I pay $65/month for a 2.5mb connection (most isps don't seem
to offer this option anymore), and no modem rental charge, I think because I
was such a good customer or something ; - ). Problem with interagte was that
they used PPPoE rather than bridged ethernet so that could be a bit tricky at
times.... Also check how many ip's (static or dynamic) you get with the plan,
number of pop mailboxes etc. I have to say this is where Radiant impressed
me a lot, as they were more than willing to add extra pop boxes for free etc
when some of my clients needed them.
Seems to me someone told me that IHermes was about to go out of business, not
sure where I heard that though....
> 4) Telus - Looking at threads, I did'nt give them a call as
> they take an awfully long time.(Unless someone can help me
> pay > pay someone@telus a few bucks and get it faster *Evil Grin*)
Actually, you might be in luck, I've heard stories from people at other dsl
providing isp's of:
-Person calls isp to get adsl
-isp calls the Telus Advance Comms folks and is told there is no port avail
-next coulple of week isp calls telus and gets same answer about ports
-person calls telus direct and is told, no problem we have a port and can set
you up in a few days
-person then calls back isp who calls telus again and is told, sorry no ports
available
Of course YMMV ; - )
>
> I really don't wanna go to cable, hearing nothing but horror
> stories on this list, but If someone can convince me
> otherwise...I am looking for reliability...
If you are in an area where Shaw has taken over, and you get the new Terayon
modem and you don't use thier mail server, you should be fine ; - )
Realistically, other than the mail server issues, cable (at least in my area)
is actually pretty good.
Harondel J. Sibble
Sibble Computer Consulting
Creating solutions for the small business and home computer user.
help@pdscc.com (use pgp keyid 0x3AD5C11D) http://www.pdscc.com
(604) 739-3709 (voice/fax) (604) 686-2253 (pager)
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