best etobicoke/toronto ISPs

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deejizzle

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I just got booked by Bell with a large bill. I'm tired of shelling out money to these big companies with their hands up the CRTC's a**hole. Now I'm looking for a new ISP. I've tried several before, but before I ask, why the hell do they charge us extra for more usage? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think it costs bell and rogers more for data, so why charge us?

Anyways, my criteria for a new ISP are:

- high speed, maybe 6mbs or more (no dial-up)
- must be unlimited usage
- cable or dsl (doesn't matter, although I don't know how cable works. Ive done third party DSL services before)
- modem rental or purchase, not looking to buy a modem/wireless router though. I love my router
- preferably no set-up fees (although I beleive is hard to find this now adays)
- preferably less than 40 bucks, give or take a few bucks if the service is that great

i will not be needing a dry-loop.

a lot of my usage contains:

- netflix
- mild-heavy downloading
- ps3
- whatever my parents do (basic email, skype, bills)

I'm more of the heavy user.

Appreciate your opinion. I already know some of the alternatives out there, including Teksaavy and Acanac. I've done my research, and there are a whole bunch of small companies that I've never heard of. Not to sure I want to shell out my money to these companies without some solid backup from real users.

Thanks!
 
Teksavvy.

I switched 4 weeks ago from Bell, great service. Cheapest cable is $35/month for unlimited (6mbps). Word on Netflix: get the higher speeds. If someone is on Netflix, I have the router set up next to my PS3, but with someone watching everything else gets noticeably slow, but I also have Netflix set on the highest quality setting. But I can play online games on PC/PS3 without any hitches or lags.

This will be the same affect on higher speeds, just the slow-ness won't last "as long". But we can have 2-3 people on laptops while Netflix is running and it won't stop the buffer. Only if I"m downloading something insane will it slow Netflix down.

Teksavvy has no setup fees, you can buy the $100 modem from them OR use one of the compatible ones. Note: the modem from them is not wireless, so I had a spare router I used to make it work.
 
Mr.Azim said:
Teksavvy has no setup fees, you can buy the $100 modem from them OR use one of the compatible ones. Note: the modem from them is not wireless, so I had a spare router I used to make it work.
Click to expand...

I wish that was the case for their 25/10 dsl. They told me it's crtc mandated that they HAVE to rent the modem and charge me even if I provide my own modem? Wtf?

Sent from my SH-02E using Tapatalk 2
 
silverbullet132 said:
I wish that was the case for their 25/10 dsl. They told me it's crtc mandated that they HAVE to rent the modem and charge me even if I provide my own modem? Wtf?

Sent from my SH-02E using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...

Big brother gettin' richer off your a**. Always has been, always will be.
 
I just switched to Teksavvy (they are supposed to swing by today to install the 25/10 service). I've been with Acanac for the past 3 years and for the most part I was happy with the service. But their billing and retentions department is beyond retarded and they WILL employ unethical tactics to avoid ever giving your money back. I've posted my experience on gtam and dslreports so if you decide to go with them be weary of this.

There are some other indie ISPs such as Velcom, Primus, etc but Teksavvy and Acanac seem to offer the best packages with greatest coverage.

silverbullet132 said:
I wish that was the case for their 25/10 dsl. They told me it's crtc mandated that they HAVE to rent the modem and charge me even if I provide my own modem? Wtf?
Click to expand...

Yep. It makes absolutely no sense but it's a Bell requirement from what I understand. If you buy your own modem all you're doing is saving Bell about $100. Some bs about ensuring that all customers have consistent experience by allowing remote modem upgrades, blah blah...
 
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Another +1 for TekSavvy. Get the cable. don't look back.
 
How does cable work out? I know for dsl you jut state the name an provider f your landline service, so does the same apply for cable?
 
deejizzle said:
How does cable work out? I know for dsl you jut state the name an provider f your landline service, so does the same apply for cable?
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not quite sure what you're asking.

go here: http://teksavvy.com/en/residential/internet/cable
punch in the postal code. They tell you what services are available to you. Choose the service. and that's that.
Takes a couple days to setup. Then it's all gravy.
 
nfq said:
not quite sure what you're asking.

go here: http://teksavvy.com/en/residential/internet/cable
punch in the postal code. They tell you what services are available to you. Choose the service. and that's that.
Takes a couple days to setup. Then it's all gravy.
Click to expand...

What I meant was I though it was a different process than hooking up dsl, but it seems to be the same.

Teksaavy is nice but they don't offer unlimited in my area for some reason. However acanac does, so I'm starting to swing towards that way. I'm kinda hoping for an underdog to come and sweep me off my feet.

As for dsl vs cable, I hear cable is the way to go, but what are the downsides?
 
They're both good and indistinguishable to most users. DSL may be a little more prone to line quality issues depending on your distance from the CO (central office) or DSLAM (basically a remote central office). Cable is a shared resource right down to your neighbourhood so throughput will fluctuate with the number of active users but, really, this is the case for any network technology at some point in the infrastructure.

I personally chose Teksavvy DSL 25 over the competing cable package because it offers higher upload bandwidth, up to 10 Mb/s. Just had it installed today and loving it so far.
 
silverbullet132 said:
I wish that was the case for their 25/10 dsl. They told me it's crtc mandated that they HAVE to rent the modem and charge me even if I provide my own modem? Wtf?
Click to expand...

AF4iK offered a good basic rundown.

Your modem rental fees pass through Teksavvy and go direct to Bell. The lowdown is that Bell has a very short list of approved modems (there was only one when I signed up for a VDSL2 service but I think they added one or two) and none of them are available on the retail market. Mine was mailed out from Bell, definitely used, needed cleanup while wearing latex gloves.

There are other options out there. I'm with Velcom, no issues whatsoever, found their tech support to be a little faster to pick up the phones than Teksavvy and they were cheaper for VDSL2 plans. Start is another option, the new posterchild for the fanbois, haven't heard major warranted complaints about them. They also offer cable.

For most residential users, cable is the best option as long as you don't do lots of uploading as it's more stable even if you have to pay a bit of a congestion penalty. Considering the fact that you're using plain-old telephone service which can add interference issues (filters and splitters notwithstanding), it also means that you may have a few jacks around your place and each one of them can be a point of failure, with you calling your ISP complaining that their service isn't working ;) If you decide to go with DSL, make sure any cordless bases are double-filtered (you daisy-chain 2 filters) and have a bunch of spare filters lying around. They are dirt-cheap ($3 a pop) and good insurance in case you start experiencing connectivity issues. Go with cable if you can.
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