jengersnap Review by jengersnap
UPDATED: 4.6 years ago
member for 9.2 years, 223 visits, last login: 233 days ago
 Ridgeway,ON
 $49 per month
 about 14 days
 "Install tech was great, tech support is friendly"
 "The 'bads' are pretty moot at this point"
 "It works, it's fast, it's reliable. Get it if you can."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings well above consensus)
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Update 4/20/05:
Wow, its been a long time since I updated!
Four years have passed, and things have changed since my last update. After trying two of them, we ditched the blue COM21 DOXport 111 modem for an old Samsung grayish-white brick twice its size, and overall service improved. But the speeds slowed every afternoon for a while, and we had another dispatch made. They found an issue with my card in their interface box, put me on a brand new one, and it's been smooth sailing ever since. I've now got 3 computers (Compaq 1.5 Gig Desktop w/ SMC wireless card, Medion 2.9 Gig Desktop w/ SMC wireless card, and Dell Inspiron 3.09Gig laptop w/internal wireless) hooked up to it via a wireless "G" D-Link router, and the whole system works like a well-oiled machine.
I've probably had 2 outages in the last year or so, both for only a couple of hours. I've pretty much forgone using the provided email accounts for anything but my eBay stuff. A tech (who I got to in a little less then 15 minutes, whoo hoo!) tipped me off to www.mail2web.com for checking Cogeco email online, and I do use that occasionally, but have no real feelings, good or bad, for it. Its kind of chunky but convienant when I need it.
I haven't run a recent speed test, but Cogeco's advertising says I'm getting 5Mbps/640kbps for my money, but since the bill's automatically paid I might even still be on some grandfathered slower plan. My last test was 1391/591 kbps, but that was a few months ago and I have a feeling it's faster. It's still pleanty fast enough for me, my husband, and that third computer to not notice any slow page loads whatsoever. I'm very happy with my service. Since we're looking to move, I'm having whatever the potential new home to be site surveyed first. I really want to keep Cogeco!
Original Review 2.19.01:
Having had both DSL (Sympatico) and Cable (Cogeco@home), plus being a DSL support technician myself, I think I can speak with pretty accurate knowledge of the high speed business.
Cogeco@home came to my city in November 2000 (2 months after ILEC DSL), offering a free month (Radio Shack offered 2 and a web cam the next week), free modem, free installation, "upstream data transfer speeds of 128Kbps and downstream speeds up to 100 times faster than a 28.8Kbps modem." The speed quote comes from their website and their literature. Never have I found a download "speed", even an "up to" speed. So, doing the math, 2880 kps?
I signed up the 2nd day it was available, and kept DSL a month longer to compare.
Bad Stuff:
I encounter frequent "dead" spots, where server-connected programs like AIM and Napster loose their connections, and my dial up laptop next to me keeps chugging along with both running fine.
Durring these dead spots (from a few seconds to 10+ minutes) the COM21 DOXport 111 modem only has the power, cable, and PC (equivolent to a Enet light?) lit up, and the data and test lights (which flash back and forth when data is transfering) stop entirely. I will say some days are better then others. It might be a bandwidth problem with the new area, but I've heard there are a few bad cards in our area, and I might be on one, being one of the first hooked up. I contact Tech support on days where I've the time to play the waiting game. Never have I called and not heard "the approximate wait time is greater then 15 minutes". Usually around 20 min. Where I work in the states, supervisors freak if the queue is over 5 minutes. I ding TS for being too busy. Hire more people, and I might raise the 4 stars.
Of course, these dead spots I talk of occur for 30min-1hr, with service going up and down, before I decide to call (I need to invest in a headset) and by the time you reach them, they ask the standard questions and run the line test, it will come back normal, which you could have told them yourself, because the trace route and line quality tests on DSL reports have come back normal by then.
***MAIL SUCKS*** They changed Mail Servers at the turn of the year, and it should have been seamless. Three weeks later I was still getting mail from the beginning of January. The delay of when I send from any of my 8 email addresses, from 8 different computers and connections no less, can be from 2hrs to 2 days. Really bad between 2p-8p, M-F. Two hrs is normal there. Open a Yahoo account. Tech Support knows its bad. They change the subject fast, and you can hear the smile when you tell them you don't rely on your @home address. I've accused my husband of not emailing me all day, to find 5 messages in my work inbox at the end of the day, and that's about the first time he'll hear from me too on those bad days.
I had to call 4 times, and get 2 different confirmation numbers before they issued my free month. By the way, the first rep refused to give me my free month on my first billing. He said he would if I was cancelling though. I was tempted....but did not call for the supervisor. I got the free month this month after asking for a supervisor. At least I hope I did.
Good Stuff:
When working normal, I'm 15-27ms from my first hop, and it looks to be fairly local, with a cgocable IP.
I've speed tested it day and night on both this and toast's sites, and came up with highs around 1100, lows around 300, median crusing speeds of 500-700. Uploads are constantly in the 300 range. Today its 633/331. I can live with that. DSL with Sympatico was faster, more like changing channels, though.
Installation was painless, I left my non-technical husband, told him not to let the tech into the CPU, the NIC he needed was already installed, and the installer was early. At first he didn't think my NIC was right for the service, but turns out I had the same D-Link NIC installed that he brought along. So I've a spare he left me.
He even left a floppy with another person's email address and password for me (I think it was suppose to be my info) so I immediately changed my password and username with the instructions. The ugly old email address (picture last name and a number) became something liveable, and the "password of the day" that the tech said everyone is given on installs for that particular day was easily changed.
Tech support people are friendly, and know the answers we need to make sure the service will do what we need. Customer service does not. They transfered me to TS when I asked difficult questions.
No proprietary software, and Outlook Express is happy running on it. CS told me it won't work with Outlook, and I forgot to ask TS, but I'm sure it will. Not sure if the address is static. I didn't care, I've no use for Static quite yet.
Service is running on a 433 PII 128 Ram and is quite happy when its working like it should.
Some days I think back to Sympatico (940/120, self inst, $39.95 month, only goes down when it rains....bad copper here).
Cogeco was originally OK, but the dead spots are just getting worse and worse. Now they SUCK.
AND DO NOT rely on the mail!!!
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