Review of Cogeco CableAll reviews of |  about |
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My connection is consistently around 2 Mbps, regardless of the time of day. Other than a problem with a setting in the box outside, the connection has been totally reliable. Bad points: The initial 1 week wait seemed to be a bit much. I also had to wait nearly another week to get a technician to come look at the line problem (above) I was having. The fact that there's no documentation on the modem I received is a bit distressing. There is also no documentation for other services offered (mail, nntp, dns). The tech who did the initial install had to write the pop and smtp servers on my copy of the "subscriber agreement". I would suspect this has to do with the demise of @home. All in all, the experience has been pretty smooth. I'd recommend Cogeco to anyone looking for a fast ISP who isn't Bell.  Followup comments:
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Tech support has always sucked rocks. I have yet to get anyone on the phone that actually knew what TCP/IP was. They all know how to reboot modems, reboot PCs just fine but not much more than that. It is impossible getting escalated to somebody who can understand an even remotely technical problem description. You never get call-backs when techs say they need to "go find out and will call you back", they just forget about you. Service has been off and on but mostly on I would say. My major gripe now is the "no servers" BS. It used to be OK because you ran you own little (personal) server, low bandwidth, all incoming (downstream) and nobody bothered you. You were not being a "problem" on the network. Now I am not talking hosting warez, or porn or any business type services, just a little personal mail server for example (and not for spamming). Now they are enforcing the "no servers" policy by installing port filters. Do they filter the ports for the "high bandwidth" P2P applications out there, or the warez servers, etc. Nope. They block the port for e-mail. A low volume, non-bandwidth-hogging service. Now if they would run a decent mail service, that had a reasonable uptime & low-latencies, and allowed me to use my own domain name and had decent, customizable spam control, then I wouldn't need to run my own mail server. But they don't. They limit my bandwidth usage amounts but don't allow me to take the appropriate measures to not waste my limited bandwidth on spam. I also don't want to have an e-mail address at a domain I am not in control of. I don't want @cogeco.ca, or @yahoo.com, or @hotmail.com because with all of those domains, you are at the mercy of the domain owner. Don't like their service anymore? Start contacting all of your friends and family and anywhere you have given your e-mail address to to have them change it. It's a major hassle! So, if COGECO continues with the nazi-network lockdown tactics I will be changing ISPs. I know folks who have dumped COGECO because of this already and I know folks who will be dumping it. We want Internet. If we wanted content-controlled web-browsing, we would all sign up with AOL, now wouldn't we? Followup comments:
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A friend had it and was getting speeds easily double HSE at 7:00 PM on a Friday night so the myth that cable speeds suck during heavy load times is false and I can vouch for this as I am getting the same results with mine. After you call to get them to come out expect to wait a long time. I called a few days before christmas and got up on January 19th. The installation went quickly but the tech didn't leave an extra RJ-45 patch cord so i will have to go buy one now to replace the one Bell lent us. He also left no documentation, software or information regarding e-mails. My biggest gripe is the bandwidth limitations. 5gb down/1gb up. That is really ridiculous. 56k users will trasfer more than that in a month. Why would they give us this much speed if we aren't allowed to use it? If any Cogeco guys see this I would like to know what percentage of users are actually UNDER this. 5% maybe? If they were to implement a system where users have to pay for extra bandwidth they would lose a HUGE portion of their customers. I believe they claim that you can download huge files, watch streaming video etc. Well, you COULD, but you are going to go over their bandwidth limits. They claim this is to prevent users from "abusing". Abusing would be setting up a warez ftp and uploading 30 gigs a week to your hax0r buddies. 5gb/1gb is nothing more than using. Bell allows you to transfer as much as you want and even run game servers. Just so long as you pay the bills and don't do illigal stuff. If cogeco were still under @home it would have been bearable. @home doesn't have all these crazy restrictions and has a wonderful news matrix. Cogeco has a solution to the uploading issue - they provide servers for us. Well these servers are as follows. Counter-Strike x2 - Where is the Day of Defeat? Webserver - i can't find any information on this but i hear it is 20mb with no mySQL or PHP The reason people set up webservers at home is so they have unlimited space and control over what they install on the server - no mySQL or PHP? No forums in that case. Followup comments:
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Following the demise of @home, Cogeco has had nothing but a world of problems. I've spent more time with tech support than I have in all my years of ISP experience (I've been with seven ISPs in 6 years). Email service was badly disrupted, news server was touch-n-go...and overall connectivity was a joke. Tech support was frustrating at best (gotta love 45 minutes of brain-numbing muzak ). Tech support in St. Kitts sends me to Niagara Falls to exchange my Com21 modem for an even older Samsung model (which is what I originally had). Niagara Falls blasts tech support in St. Kitts for suggesting this, and instead gives me another new Com21 out-of-the-box. This seems to solve a few of the problems for us now - but we're still experiencing considerably more downtime on occasion than in the past with the @home service. Tech support suggests its due to a server/router overload in the local Welland area ("its all run on one server/router," they say). Meanwhile, my wife runs Sympatico DSL downstairs, and has had virtually no probs with it in the last 10 months of service. Granted, her speed isn't quite as high as the cable (when cable is working), but she's had no loss of connectivity (not to mention she has 56k dialup backup in case DSL service goes down). In all, I've not been pleased with Cogeco since the end of @home, and I'm considering taking my $500/yr. over to Sympatico in the very near future if things don't improve. Followup comments:
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I used to install for COGECO through a contractor called "GLOBEX" and I myself, after working there can tell you that they are the WORST installers in Niagara, infact I URGE you to make note if you order the service NOT to allow a GLOBEX installer in your premises. PVS and CONNECTIONS or COGECO themselves are excellent. As for the service itself, not to shabby, It's rare that there are any issues of connection loss in my area, or packet loss. But I must make note of one thing. If there ever is a problem, a 6 year old child could solve the issue or be more helpful than a COGECO TECHNICIAN. There answer to everything is; "Do you know where your local COGECO office is...GREAT bring your modem there and get a new one" Guess what! It's NOT ALWAYS THE MODEM! They really need to get a hold of that aspect. I have gotten a couple really good techs that actually knew what they were talking about, and I KNOW, I do Cable Internet Tech Support for an American Company and I know exactly what to listen for and what to ask. Price isn't bad! Could be better....especailly due to the upload CAP of 48kbs Comcast is getting around 143kbs...Come on COGECO show us the speed! Thanks! Followup comments:
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Content-Type: Multipart/Alternative; boundary="------------Boundary-00=_JVL3BHK0000000000000" --------------Boundary-00=_JVL3BHK0000000000000 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable I am running on Cogeco@home=0D for the last 3 weeks the download and upload test results are pretty steady =0D 1400/375 =0D however 3 people in our local receive 5-10% packet loss in the first hop = of a trace route virtually to any site .=0D Making things such as file transfers and online gaming pretty well impossible to enjoy.=0D i have been in contact with them all along during this. and they =0D don't seem to recognize theres a problem.=0D i could see if it was just my computer in just my area.=0D but, we have tried 2 other computers on the otherside of the city and its the same problem. =0D This problem started approx. around the same time as the informed everyon= e in our area to change from @home to @cogeco. =0D i am not sure if there is relevance. --------------Boundary-00=_JVL3BHK0000000000000 Content-Type: Text/HTML; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable I am running on Cogeco@home= for the last 3 weeks the download and upload test results are = pretty steady 1400/375 however 3 people in our local receive 5-10% packet loss in the= first hop of a trace route virtually to any site . Making things such as file transfers and online gaming pretty = well impossible to enjoy. i have been in contact with them all along during this. and th= ey don't seem to recognize theres a problem. i could see if it was just my computer in just my area. but, we have tried 2 other computers on the otherside of the c= ity and its the same problem. This problem started approx. around the same time as the infor= med everyone in our area to change from @home to @cogeco. i am not sure if there is relevance. =09 =09 =09 =09 =09 =09 =09 ____________________________________________________ IncrediMail - Email has finally evolved - Click Here --------------Boundary-00=_JVL3BHK0000000000000-- --------------Boundary-00=_JVL312S0000000000000 Content-Type: image/gif Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64 Content-ID: R0lGODlhFAAPALMIAP9gAM9gAM8vAM9gL/+QL5AvAGAvAP9gL////wAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAACH/C05FVFNDQVBFMi4wAwEAAAAh+QQJFAAIACwAAAAAFAAPAAAEVRDJSaudJuudrxlEKI6B URlCUYyjKpgYAKSgOBSCDEuGDKgrAtC3Q/R+hkPJEDgYCjpKr5A8WK9OaPFZwHoPqm3366VKyeRt E30tVVRscMHDqV/u+AgAIfkEBWQACAAsAAAAABQADwAABBIQyUmrvTjrzbv/YCiOZGmeaAQAIfkE CRQACAAsAgABABAADQAABEoQIUOrpXIOwrsPxiQUheeRAgUA49YNhbCqK1kS9grQhXGAhsDBUJgZ AL2Dcqkk7ogFpvRAokSn0p4PO6UIuUsQggSmFjKXdAgRAQAh+QQFCgAIACwAAAAAFAAPAAAEEhDJ Sau9OOvNu/9gKI5kaZ5oBAAh+QQJFAAIACwCAAEAEAANAAAEShAhQ6ulcg7Cuw/GJBSF55ECBQDj 1g2FsKorWRL2CtCFcYCGwMFQmBkAvYNyqSTuiAWm9ECiRKfSng87pQi5SxCCBKYWMpd0CBEBACH5 BAVkAAgALAAAAAAUAA8AAAQSEMlJq7046827/2AojmRpnmgEADs= --------------Boundary-00=_JVL312S0000000000000-- Followup comments:
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When I first signed up I saw speeds of around 200K - 800K down and thought this was excellent. Slowly over time my connection got worse. It became rare that I saw speeds over 100K and dslreports.com were giving tests of around 600kbps and 202kbps. They stated it was poor because of so many users and they would be upgrading their Fibre lines in my area. They did and the performance kept getting worse. They then sold the company to Cogeco @ home. Once this occured my connection became so unstable and useless I wanted to give it up. As of tonight (11/28/2001) I tested my connection here at dslreports.com and received a download of 53kbps and an upload of 3kpbs. Yes that says 3. I frigging 14.4 baud modem gets a better reading then that. Just to proof I am not lying, I uploaded the screen shot I took to my clans server and you all can admire it at »www.smakclan.com/images/reviews/speed.jpg I thought of calling Technical Support but everytime I do they tell me the same exact thing. Tech: "You live in the Belleville/Trenton Area" Me: "Yes I do" Tech: "Yeah, we are having problems with our servers out there" Me: "Is there an estiamte on when they will be fixed?" Tech: "Nope" That sums it up. Alot of customers would escalate or complain, but I also work for a major company's tech support line and truly know what happens. The tech places you on hold, makes fun of you to his collegues, gets the closest supervisor which may turn out to be a tech of the same level, depends if a manager is busy or not, then if you get one, they just try to come you down and pass you back to the previous tech. A Complete waste of my time. Sorry for all spelling mistakes, my grammer isn't on par with most peeps, and the exessive amount of data that has been presented, but I felt it important to get my point across and NOT recommend Cogeco@home. Followup comments:
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anyway, as a said were not many users on my node and its giving so great result first is the reliability... ive been one of the first customers of cogeco here and since the bigining the connection only crashed one time and it was for like 5 minutes or so... (btw im 24/7/7 connected on irc so it is obvious when somethins going wrong) but i did panic the first month (well... the first 5 days...) while my report showned that i had downloaded 6.2g (when the limit is at 5g) so i emailed them (not true... i try their numerous message board first that were all down...) asking what was the deal... you know that kind of long email full of prve that thing happened that way and so... anyway i never received an answer... and after waiting 2 days i emailed them again asking when they will answer... that time i was answered being told that never received just thing... good thing i keep all my email in a folder... but resending them the first email just showned the same result... no answer... and while waiting i received the bill which hadnt any penalty so i wasnt i big deal (and even better... i did dl 10g one time and never received any penalty so )i also moved last month and it only took them 3 days gettin my connection workin in my new home btw... both time the instalation took like 5 minutes so their tech are efficient when reachable now with a 384kbps up and an 2200kbps down i only have to wait for the others to be faster (but havin such speed for the same price as adsl could be arguable if u have to pay for overdownloading) and performance on fps are great (but do is dependable on the location of the server) oh.... and another great thing... static IP  (regenerated if u dont use your connection for a week... ahh summer break ) Followup comments:
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Now if only I can figure out how to uncap this modem Overall, I have had a great experience with Cogeco and love the service. Followup comments:
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Cogeco Cable
(23)
(49)
(12)
Canada
$44 per month
about 7 days
"Nice and fast"
"Wait for service. Next to no documentation with install package"
"Definitely the best choice for my current situation. Thumbs up."
Business customer