[Brian69]

Thanks for that. I'll ask the Teksavvy tech rep once we are moved in to find out what we can expect for speeds.

 

[Kitsune]

I've been up in Sudbury for the past few months, will be back home in Toronto in January - my question whats the fastest that is currently offered in Toronto and for how much? I know in Sudbury I can get 15 mbps for 80 or so dollars a month, and I'm very much addicated to this speed now (I can download torrents in the 8 to 10 mbps range, its damn insane).

 

[cacruden]

I've been up in Sudbury for the past few months, will be back home in Toronto in January - my question whats the fastest that is currently offered in Toronto and for how much? I know in Sudbury I can get 15 mbps for 80 or so dollars a month, and I'm very much addicated to this speed now (I can download torrents in the 8 to 10 mbps range, its damn insane).

Although the only ones that offer 15mbps service (throttled) are Rogers and Bell. CRTC has not setup regulated tariffs for any speed about 5Mbp residential or 6mps commercial. 15mps is ADSL2+, the other one is ADSL. Now sometimes Bell does accidentally setup some people on a higher profile ADSL2+ than required (they are very error prone - in everything they do).

ADSL2+ can only be configured as "interleave", as opposed to ADSL that can be configured as "Fastpath". "Fastpath" can be setup on fairly clean lines, where the difference is that "Fastpath" has a lower latency (lower latency is better for VOIP, gaming, and responsiveness). "Interleave" interleaves the data over more bytes -- which is better for error correction. ADSL2+ may be tariffed in the next year, but we will see.

Rogers I thinks throttles around the clock, and Bell (currently) typically throttles between 4p and 2a.

If your willing to learn a little and build your own do-it your own solution, you can get 2 or more ADSL (phone lines) into your place and "bond" them (if your DSL provider is willing - Teksavy does - even though not "officially" supported). This configuration can also used to bypass the throttling problem. A few threads on the Teksavy forum deal with how to do this (DSL Reports). This would provide you with 10Mb down/ 1.6GB up (higher upload speed). Total cost for this solution is $30/month * 2 + $10 for a dry line (second line without a phone).

 

[cacruden]

Question

I know in Sudbury I can get 15 mbps for 80 or so dollars a month, and I'm very much addicated to this speed now (I can download torrents in the 8 to 10 mbps range, its damn insane).

Question, which company are you with? Is it Bell Canada Sympatico? If you are having torrents at that speed - a lot, what is the breakdown on your bill? Bell's Sympatico costs around $80 with a cap of 100GB, another 30GB (insurance) is another $10, bundled - you might get a discount (although if you have been there a short while - you will likely get hit at cancellation time). If you go way over that - you end up getting in more trouble eventually.

If you do the bonded two line solution - it is $30 * 2 + 10 for dry line = $70 - which gets you 400GB limit. You can also bond unlimited contracts - not sure if you need one or two lines for that (whether it is $30 + $40 + $10 or $40 + $40 + $10).

 

[Kitsune]

Persona - Sudbury is fortunate not to get stuck with any of the big bad wolves. Also, I have yet to the cap - and I typically hit about 100 gigs a month right now. And there through cable as well.

 

[MetroMan]

If your willing to learn a little and build your own do-it your own solution, you can get 2 or more ADSL (phone lines) into your place and "bond" them (if your DSL provider is willing - Teksavy does - even though not "officially" supported). This configuration can also used to bypass the throttling problem. A few threads on the Teksavy forum deal with how to do this (DSL Reports). This would provide you with 10Mb down/ 1.6GB up (higher upload speed). Total cost for this solution is $30/month * 2 + $10 for a dry line (second line without a phone).

Thank you very much for that cacruden. I think that this solution may satisfy me. I assume you meant 1.6Mb up rather than GB

I need a fast upload because I regularly send clients large photo and video files.

One thing that I don't understand is why I can never get higher than 120kbps upload on my FTP, even if I have a 1Mbps uplink connection.

 

[000]

One thing that I don't understand is why I can never get higher than 120kbps upload on my FTP, even if I have a 1Mbps uplink connection.

Depends which units your software measures data rates in, 1 megabit is technically 128 kilobytes, so 120 after protocol overhead is about right

I use Rogers Extreme (10/1Mbps) and haven't had any problems. This is a touchy subject because it's extremely area dependent. I've heard a few stories of people moving exclusively for broadband. Lol..

P.S. CRTC are huge brown nosers

 

[MetroMan]

^ ok.. I thought it may be related to the conversion between Mb and KB. I wish I could get something faster though. What do companies that depend on transferring large do?

 

[afransen]

It's a marketing thing. They can refer to speed in bits, just to make it sound 8 times faster.

 

[000]

Toronto Hydro Telecom (now Cogeco Data Services) has a municipal fibre coverage map here: http://www.cogecodata.com/customer_centre/tech_specs/NetworkMap.jpg

If your building is fibre-lit you can get a private line through Cogent, they sell bandwidth at $10/Mbit, symmetrical.

Otherwise there's the option of bonding copper pairs with TekSavvy, e.g. four 4.5/0.66Mbps ADSL lines can achieve 18/2.7Mbps combined throughput with MLPPP. Or if ADSL2+ ever sees the light of day to 3rd party ISPs, Annex M. will give 24/3.2Mbps multiplied by the number of pairs. Bell sells their 16/1 ADSL2 'Optimax' service at $77.95. For 10Mbit up in a theoretical configuration (Bell doesn't support MLPPP) you'd be paying $779.50/month. If your business is in THTs footprint, fibre is cheaper and usually offers symmetrical speeds.

Most companies don't publish their rates publicly, but you could enquire:
http://www.cogentco.com/us/pns_dedicated.php?On
http://www.siliconvalleynorth.com/ethernet_internet_access.html (I think this is only available in the Liberty Village BIA)
http://www.allstream.com/services/ipc/dedicated_access/ethernet_internet/
http://www.cogecodata.com/products_services/internet.htm

 

[cacruden]

Toronto Hydro Telecom (now Cogeco Data Services) has a municipal fibre coverage map here: http://www.cogecodata.com/customer_centre/tech_specs/NetworkMap.jpg

If your building is fibre-lit you can get a private line through Cogent, they sell bandwidth at $10/Mbit, symmetrical.

I would be tempted to go with them, but it would be a big price increase -- and right now I have decided to try and pay down half my mortgage in the next 3 years..... but what is the lowest price that they offer for that type of service?

 

[000]

I would be tempted to go with them, but it would be a big price increase -- and right now I have decided to try and pay down half my mortgage in the next 3 years..... but what is the lowest price that they offer for that type of service?

Now their website says $4/megabit.

You should really contact them for an accurate quote on *dedicated internet access, there can be a few factors that play into the final cost, most importantly whether or not a fibre infrastructure is in place at your location: http://www.cogentco.com/us/contact_sales.php

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

It's a marketing thing. They can refer to speed in bits, just to make it sound 8 times faster.

yup. 1 byte (B) = 8 bits (b).

 

[cacruden]

Now their website says $4/megabit.

Also notice they say $4/mebabit not $4/megabit per second. i.e. it quite possibly is exactly that - you pay for the data (burstable rate)

 

[MetroMan]

So the saga continues...

I noticed a web ad for Rogers Business solutions. I looked up the details, they seemed attractive so I left my info to be contacted. That week, I received a call from a Rogers Business Sales Agent.

They offered me a great deal that satisfied my needs (10Mbps up, 1Mbps down, unlimited usage).

He set things up on his end and a few days later, I receive a confirmation of my order.... which was completely different than what I had agreed with the agent.

I email the agent repeatedly and have called both his office and mobile phones and left messages: he hasn't replied in 2 weeks.

I restarted the process and nobody can offer me the deal he was giving me.

How can I complain? Navigating through the phone directory leads me to dead ends where nobody can help.

I'm so frustrated with this. Is it possible that living smack downtown (Bathurst+Richmond) of Canada's largest metropolis, I can't get decent reliable internet? WTF?