Shopping for ISP

[BumbleBee2012]

Anybody have a good experience with ISP's other than Bell and Rogers? I live in Kitchener and am searching for an alternative to Bell with unlimited downloads. Who do you use? What's your experience?

[Jimboski]

Teksavvy If they have It In your area, Other then that I would say Distributel If available also?
Acananc Is a no-no..

[BumbleBee2012]

All three are available in my area. I'll check out the first two! Thanks.

[Jimboski]

All three are available in my area. I'll check out the first two! Thanks.

Yeah go by my list respectively..
Teksavvy then Distributel then ???, Avoid Acanac, Lol.

[Lostwords]

I would recommend Teksavvy. I've never have any issue with them. Acanac.... it is a no no

[BumbleBee2012]

Teksavvy has a better rating on Canadian ISP than Distributel. I don't have any problems with my Bell service, just their outrageous fees for internet. I'm leery of switching and having connection problems.

[george__]

Teksavvy for the win. I'm using ~~High Speed DSL 6 Unlimited~~.
Tried 12 but something is messed up in my location where even DSL 6 is "kinda" slow... They told me it was a bell issue. It's been 5 years and still not much change so I got used to it. Beats rogers or bell though (due to the amount of bandwidth I use)

[LazyCanuck]

I recently switched from Bell to Electronic Box. The fastest DSL service available in my area is only the 6Mbps profile. The line is rock stable, but I was paying Bell $75 +tax a month for the unlimited (grandfathered) service. Went with EBox and did a seamless transition. I chose their 6Mbps service for $34 a month. It comes with a 250 GB cap and unlimited between 2 am - 12 pm. They also have a 6Mbps service with no cap for $44 a month, but my typical monthly usage is less than 100 GB. Used my own modem and there wasn't any activation fee.

http://www.electronicbox.net/en/ontario/residential/internet.html

I didn't notice any quality/speed changes to the line after the switch.

[george__]

@LazyCanuck - I wish my line was better

[BumbleBee2012]

Thanks LazyCanuck. I will definitely check that out.

[CatDog]

Acananc Is a no-no..


Acanac Cable is fine.

[kcorscadden]

Start.ca is another option.....

[EPcjay]

I'm using teksavvy here. No issue. In Scarborough though

[Gee]

I'm using Teksavvy cable.

I get the random disconnect. It usually lasts for 30 seconds to a minute. Really irritating, but it still beats Rogers.

[toalan]

Techsavvy and Acanac, both are roughly the same. Go with Acanac to get the first year discounted price, after the first year switch to tech savvy.

I am with techsavvy, the past 2 weeks there have been two 8 hour outages during the day, prior to that it was pretty solid. Acanac, I never really had issues with, any outages were short enough that I do not remember them.

[Gee]

One thing I have to say for Rogers. When I was with them, the service was rock solid. If the service went out, it was for a scheduled maintenance and they do it late at night.

Too bad they impose these caps.

[infamouskid]

im on teksavvy dsl for the past 7 years.
not a problem.. it only goes down when they do scheduled network maintenance or capacity upgrades.
but they email any affected customers a week ahead of time and do upgrades at early hours of the day. between 1 am and 4 am.
honestly despite what you may read about teksavvy complaints most of the customers who are complaining do not even know the problems persist at the companies wholesaling the service and network access... bell, rogers and telus.
the problems are usually at the time of install or after install speed related issues.. both of which are controlled by the 3. i rarely hear issues with telus activations for teksavvy customers out west but i am pretty sure they do exist.
note that this problem is not only to teksavvy customers but any wholesale ISP customer can experience this too... it's rare but it does happen. but just keep in mind that the ISP you choose isn't completely at fault if this does happen because if it is a related topic that can only be addressed by bell, telus or rogers network techs and installers your ISP has to open a ticket with them and wait for those guys to do the requested work. and trust me those big 3 will ONLY allow their staff to do the work. no way around that.
but for my 2 cents.... teksavvy is the best out of all the wholesale ISP's. distributel owns acanac last i checked. so they are one in the same to me.
in the end it comes down to products offered and features... teksavvy offers it all.. from static subnets to webhosting and voip homephone or even POTS telephone if you like the oldschool phone from the walljack. cable or dsl and wireless options as well.

[Gee]

distributel owns acanac last i checked. so they are one in the same to me.

That doesn't sound right. I'm pretty sure that Acanac is not owned by Distributel

Distributel is owned by 3Web.

*** Edit ***

After a quick google search, it does appear that Distributel owns Acanac.

[infamouskid]

That doesn't sound right. I'm pretty sure that Acanac is not owned by Distributel

Distributel is owned by 3Web.

*** Edit ***

After a quick google search, it does appear that Distributel owns Acanac.

yeah i faintly remember. but a few years ago...
3web got bought by CIA then CIA got bought by distributel then they acquired acanac and some other smaller ISP's.
this was how acanac was able to get cable deployment in certain areas faster as 3web and cia already had TPIA agreements in place before teksavvy and other could.
it was a slow cycle of a western company and eastern company gobbling up others moving towards central canada.
also i am pretty sure some american or the companies had american interests as well.
i can't remember off the top of my head which other ISP's were bought though. should ask paul or imelda.
but yeah this was around the time look.ca was looking to be acquired.

[MkmBandit]

Teksavvy broke a personal record today, I've currently been on hold with them for 2h33m. A whopping 1h30m longer then Rogers ever made me wait. Cancelling the moment a rep picks up. So I guess I'm also now on the market for a new ISP.. /lame.

edit: 3hours 4minutes, someone finally picked up. My time with Teksavvy is over at the end of the month. They seemed regretful, but not enough to keep me. Oh well.