Rogers Internet download speed increase

Hoags wrote:

tim1_2 wrote:
Yeah, the "free" ride will probably be crippled at some point. But the logic to not switch because that may happen "eventually" is bat Dung challenged. It’s very easy to switch - all the same hardware works, and you don't need a tech visit. So, you could get better, cheaper service starting now with the threat of (OHNO) having to switch back eventually, or you could just stick with craptacular Bell or Rogers, because that's who you think you'll end up having to use inevitably.

I hear switching is a pain in the Donkey.

Rogers cuts you off early so you can have days without internet until teksavvy is turned on, not to mention when they disconnect your rogers internet they kill your TV as well by accident.

I might switch soon as we nearly hit our 60GB limit watching Netflix HD, lucky we had 1.5 GB left and it rolls over today.

I switched from Bell DSL to TekSavvy DSL and it was seamless. I have no personal experience with their cable service, other than a couple friends that had no issue switching..and no significant (more than a day) gap in service.

Cable is available in my area so I'd go with that. I use VOIP if I were to get DSL it'd have to be a dry loop so pricier too.

Since I have TV+internet+home phone with Rogers I get 15% discount. I also have a rent-free PVR and small rebates for the rent-free modem and second digital box. Even with the $20 surcharge I'm paying $156 this month, and that includes VIP (lots of channels -- about the only thing I miss is West Coast HD and TSN-HD), additional outlets, 10 MBbps internet (up-to12 is what they say), home phone with 500 NA LD minutes -- more than I need, and 3 features. If you tell me I could save by unbundling and getting only cable from Rogers and internet+landline from Teksavvy, then I'm listening.

Until this recent problem my highest usage was 44 or 45, well short of my cap. If I had a 300 GB limit I probably would have never found out that someone was leeching from me.

I guess it comes down to what you need.

I have 6Mbps DSL ($40/month) and home phone with TekSavvy ($30/month, no long distance plan). I then have my cable with Rogers (VIP package) for $85/month…though I get TSN-HD and all the time-shifting channels (not sure why you don't??).

So I pay $155 (inc. tax) total, same as you, but I have a lower top speed on my internet and no long distance (although there are 3rd party services that offer good savings). And I think our cable packages are the same (except you lack TSN HD for some inexplicable reason…I think this is a part of the VIP package). Also, I own one PVR, and get another one free from Rogers. I get 300GB per month, and stream all the HD I like from Netflix, download constantly, and haven't come close to my limit.

So, you may not be able to SAVE money, but you do have alternatives in the same ballpark.

I just ordered TSN-HD for a dollar or two extra per month.

Watching hockey in SD should be illegal.

tim1_2 wrote:I guess it comes down to what you need.

I have 6Mbps DSL ($40/month) and home phone with TekSavvy ($30/month, no long distance plan). I then have my cable with Rogers (VIP package) for $85/month…though I get TSN-HD and all the time-shifting channels (not sure why you don't??).

So I pay $155 (inc. tax) total, same as you, but I have a lower top speed on my internet and no long distance (although there are 3rd party services that offer good savings). And I think our cable packages are the same (except you lack TSN HD for some inexplicable reason…I think this is a part of the VIP package). Also, I own one PVR, and get another one free from Rogers. I get 300GB per month, and stream all the HD I like from Netflix, download constantly, and haven't come close to my limit.

So, you may not be able to SAVE money, but you do have alternatives in the same ballpark.

I have VIP, which does not include TSN-HD (it's in the extra-HD package with the time-shifting HD networks for an extra $9/month). With bundling discounts I pay $68.35 plus taxes for my Cable (this includes the HD-PVR and second HD terminal -- the PVR is rent free and I get $2.99 back on the second terminal and another $2.99 back for something else).

With bundling discounts I pay $39.19 for internet and $31.12 for phone. Take away the $14.15 bundling discount I would lose on my cable if I switched and you get $56.26. My LPIF fee would go up by 1.5% of the $14.15 bundling discount I'd be losing, which is $0.21, for a total of $56.47.

By comparison, for a 10 MB/s TekSavvy internet and a similar home phone plan (only 100 NA LD minutes vs. 500 but I don't use them anyway) I would be paying $56.94.

It would be worth the switch (or at least a call to Rogers) if I needed that 300 GB cap, but my records indicate that, with the exception of this month, I was under 50 GB.

tim1_2 wrote:I guess it comes down to what you need.

I have 6Mbps DSL ($40/month) and home phone with TekSavvy ($30/month, no long distance plan). I then have my cable with Rogers (VIP package) for $85/month…though I get TSN-HD and all the time-shifting channels (not sure why you don't??).

So I pay $155 (inc. tax) total, same as you, but I have a lower top speed on my internet and no long distance (although there are 3rd party services that offer good savings). And I think our cable packages are the same (except you lack TSN HD for some inexplicable reason…I think this is a part of the VIP package). Also, I own one PVR, and get another one free from Rogers. I get 300GB per month, and stream all the HD I like from Netflix, download constantly, and haven't come close to my limit.

So, you may not be able to SAVE money, but you do have alternatives in the same ballpark.

I checked TekSavvy and it's $41.99 for internet, not $40. And I was actually looking at their $14.95 home phone plan.

Does your Rogers $85/month include a HD PVR and a second HD box? I doubt it, not for $85/month. Does that even include the 13% HST? If you want to compare you have to compare apples to apples.

We pay $40/mo. for Bell, no contract, free HD Dual-tuner PVR, basic channels, time shifting + the main sports (Rogers S-NET O/E/W/P/SENS/ONE, TSN, TSN-2, TSN-M). It SHOULD be $60 but we get a $20 monthly discount for as long as we are with them.

Hoags wrote:

rooneypoo wrote:
I have a limit -- 300 GB per month, which is more than I need. The difference is, Teksavvy's upper limit is higher and cheaper to buy than Rogers' (I paid $60+ a month for 100 GB with Rogers, compared to $47 a month for 300 GB), and they don't "throttle" my downloads like Rogers, which causes them to take extra long. Best thing I ever did was walk away from Rogers.

I think the CRTC will find some way of pushing UBB onto companies like TekSavvy. It's one reason why I've been reluctant to switch, the free ride will end at some point.

I don't even think it's a 'free ride' -- it's smaller companies not taking their customers for granted and acting like they have a monopoly. Rogers' pricing, cap limits, and throttling techniques are outrageous -- there are dozens of companies out there that will give you a better deal.

To me, this is just like what happened to big banks that charged $10+ a month for a chequing account. As soon as there was an alternative, people fled to them -- and then the big banks had to adjust to keep a hold on their dwindling client base.

Teksavvy is a re-seller of Rogers/Bell services... so, eventually, they'll probably be subject to the same restrictions. They've been fighting it for a while. But the big boys will win in the end I think.

shabbs wrote:Teksavvy is a re-seller of Rogers/Bell services... so, eventually, they'll probably be subject to the same restrictions. They've been fighting it for a while. But the big boys will win in the end I think.

It can't happen, the differences in bandwidth restrictions is the only differential between Rogers/Bell and the resellers.

Companies like Teksavvy won't be able to compete and UBB will send our internet into the dark ages.

So, getting back to my problem. The two devices I wasn't sure about turned out to be my PS3 and my wife's laptop. For some reason my PS3 is listed with no device name when I had clearly set up a system name.

Anyhow, that takes care of all devices/MAC addresses in my router's "DHCP List". If all of the are present and accounted for, does it mean that it *wasn't* someone leeching from the outside? I suppose someone could have been spoofing the MAC address of one of my devices?

I have changed from WEP to WPA with a 20-character passphrase, hid my SSID (I don't think I was broadcasting it but when I reset my router I guess that setting is reset to default) and enabled MAC filtering. Currently I've got just my laptop, PS3, printer and BB in the list. I'll add the rest later. Or not.

But if someone was spoofing one of my MAC addresses then all that protects me is teh 20-character passphrase. I've made it more difficult but certainly not impregnable.

Yesterday's download/upload dropped to 1.7GB/15MB. I had disabled my home profile on my BB, my son's iPod has not been re-added and I did not reconfigure the PS3 until nighttime, and we watched about an hour's worth of Neflix (SD). And I hardly used my laptop at all yesterday. 1.7GB is still a lot of data -- what the heck was using it?

About the only thing I haven't checked out is my old desktop. It has uTorrent installed on it but I haven't used it in ages. Plus the desktop randomly resets all the time. Well, actually it doesn't reset but becomes totally unresponsive and I have to hard-reset it. Hmm, maybe there's something there. I'll have to check it out.

Yeah, may want to check out that old desktop. Run a scan on it, make sure it's firewall and av software are up to date. If you're not using it, turn it off.

Checked it out. No active torrents, checked the download folder and there is nothing there. I'm beginning to suspect my kid and his iPod. He didn't bring it with him on Saturday -- are there P2P clients for iPods? What could he be downloading that would use up an extra 9-10GB over two days?

And then I keep going back to yesterday's 1.7 GB when nothing was in use until we watched 1 hour of Netflix at night. Bizarre. I think I need to upgrade my routers -- have been meaning to get a better one for a while. The one I've got now is a G-only, single small antenna, low on features. For stats it keeps track of bytes sent/received on the WAN port, the LAN ports (single aggregate total for all 4) and the wireless port. I'd like to see per-device totals as well as a few more bells and whistles.

iCloud backup ?

wprager wrote:Checked it out. No active torrents, checked the download folder and there is nothing there. I'm beginning to suspect my kid and his iPod. He didn't bring it with him on Saturday -- are there P2P clients for iPods? What could he be downloading that would use up an extra 9-10GB over two days?

And then I keep going back to yesterday's 1.7 GB when nothing was in use until we watched 1 hour of Netflix at night. Bizarre. I think I need to upgrade my routers -- have been meaning to get a better one for a while. The one I've got now is a G-only, single small antenna, low on features. For stats it keeps track of bytes sent/received on the WAN port, the LAN ports (single aggregate total for all 4) and the wireless port. I'd like to see per-device totals as well as a few more bells and whistles.

Not sure if you own a compatible router or not, but chances are if it's older, it's supported.

http://tomatousb.org/

Hoags wrote:iCloud backup ?

Hey, you, get off of my iCloud!

He's been downloading some inexpensive games and watching youtube. Or so he tells me.

Is there a router that will keep track of browsing history on a per-client basis?

Number Twenty Nine wrote:
Not sure if you own a compatible router or not, but chances are if it's older, it's supported.

http://tomatousb.org/

They only have one D-Link listed and it's not the one I have (I've got the WBR-1310).

I think I need a new router. Something with wireless-N, two antennae, more stats and features.