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High Speed Internet 24mb/1m ADSL2+ $17.95/month with Colbanet/Colba.net [QC only]

Posted: Apr 21st, 2010 1:22 pm
by deal_king
ADSL2+ up to 24mbps/1mbps on the Montreal island, unlimited bandwidth with http://www.colba.net. $17.95/month if you prepay for one year. Dryloop is $7.63/month more. Activation fee is $30.

Speeds will vary drastically according to your location. Colba has their own DSLAMS, so the closer you are to their COs, the faster your speed will be. Go to their map and plug in your postal code. If you are somewhat close to one, you are lucky. If you live right next to one, then you've really hit the mbps jackpot: http://www.colba.net/map2plus.php?lang=en

There are negative reviews on dslreports but they are old. Most people who use their service currently are pleased with their speed. The ones who are not did not follow the directions below:

1. Call them and they will check your address and tell you the speeds of any clients they have on your block.
2. If you are over 1.5km away from a DSLAM and there are no examples on your block with Colba service, then don't bother.
3. If you live less than 0.5km from a DSLAM and there are no examples on your block, then take the chance anyways.
4. If you find someone in your building or block who has very good speeds, you may not get the same if the wiring in your building is older.

A couple things to remember which make Colba.net ideal and not-so-ideal:

- Be realistic: If you don't live close to one of their COs (<1.5km), then don't bother.
- Ask for speeds of people living next to you. If they can't give you a very close sample, then don't bother.
- Apparently they don't have a vacation hold, so if you go away for a month, you can't put it on hold.
- Cancellation fees are 50% of remaining monthly fees, NO MAXIMUM. (No longer legal for contracts signed after June 30- because of Bill 60. Can anyone comment?)
- You can try it for a month at the no-contract price of $35/month +$30 installation, and then switch to the $17.95 deal.
- Reviewers have mentioned that they got an average speed with their own modem, but got a much higher speed when they tried the modem which Colba recommends.
- This is not Bell. Their technology is solid, but expect very delayed response times to technical problems and even sales inquiries.


Check the map and let us know if you are one of the lucky ones living next to a CO!

UPDATE July 27, 2010:

A couple things to remember with Colba which have been repeated countless times in many forums:

1. You may have an ADSL2+ modem, but most people get horrible speeds with non-Colba modems. Once they get the modem which Colba sells, most people see a huge boost in speed. Nobody has any idea why this is so, but it is worth a shot.

2. Are you in a building with an intercom? Highrise or residential buildings downtown have intercoms that are hardwired to the phone link/jack in your apartment. The link will create massive interference. In the basement of your building will be a room with all the telephone wires and intercom lines for the entire building. You will need the Bell technician to go there and install a filter between your line and the intercom. Every phone line will require a separate filter.

3. Make sure your building is equipped for Fibe 25. If so, then Bell has upgraded the wires in your building to support very high speeds. If not, your speeds will be somewhat lower. This is not something you can request- Bell is doing it one building at a time.

4. Check your TCP/IP settings. Many MTU and TCP/IP optimizers will turn your connection into a turtle. If you have fiddled with these settings and it didn't get faster, then get the program to revert them back to the Windows default settings.

My suggestion is to:

1. Sign up for Fibe 25 with the current promotion
2. Bell will upgrade your connection and make an appt for a technician.
3. Ask the technician to install a filter in the downstairs room between your line and the intercom. Most are lazy and won't do it without you pushing them.
4. Ask him if your building has been upgraded for Fibe 25. It will give you an idea of your potential speeds.
5. Then switch to Colba.

Almost all problems with Colba speed have to do with things out of their control. For the price of $17.95/month you can't expect Colba to send a technician to start troubleshooting on Bell's wires. I have two people in the tower next to me- one is getting 5mb DL without a filter and the other is getting 18mb DL with a filter.



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Re: High Speed Internet 24mb/1m ADSL2+ $17.95/month with Colbanet/Colba.net [QC only]

Posted: Apr 21st, 2010 1:28 pm
by Mobius_MTL
Whats considered close? Im about 2-3km away a DSLAM..

Re: High Speed Internet 24mb/1m ADSL2+ $17.95/month with Colbanet/Colba.net [QC only]

Posted: Apr 21st, 2010 1:33 pm
by deal_king
Mobius_MTL wrote: Whats considered close? Im about 2-3km away a DSLAM..
"Close" is probably considered under 1-2km.

Re: High Speed Internet 24mb/1m ADSL2+ $17.95/month with Colbanet/Colba.net [QC only]

Posted: Apr 21st, 2010 1:47 pm
by daedalus2004
qc only? heh, shouldnt it say montreal only :rolleyes:

Re: High Speed Internet 24mb/1m ADSL2+ $17.95/month with Colbanet/Colba.net [QC only]

Posted: Apr 21st, 2010 1:49 pm
by Emporium
Last I checked with them (late last year), they only had thier own DSLAM in the downtown core. And even reports from people in the downtown core were were horrifying... Check DSLreport.com and you will see all the nightmares with colba and thier ADSL2+ network (I checked last year when I was considering it).

They were planning to expand, but not sure when they were going to do it.. I hope they have changed, but just be warned to tread carefully...

For now, I will stick with Vianet... Not the cheapest around, but have had no issues so far... Sometimes price is not the only factor.

Re: High Speed Internet 24mb/1m ADSL2+ $17.95/month with Colbanet/Colba.net [QC only]

Posted: Apr 21st, 2010 1:49 pm
by Emporium
daedalus2004 wrote: qc only? heh, shouldnt it say montreal only :rolleyes:
more like Montreal, Downtown core...

Re: High Speed Internet 24mb/1m ADSL2+ $17.95/month with Colbanet/Colba.net [QC only]

Posted: Apr 21st, 2010 2:04 pm
by deal_king
Emporium wrote: Last I checked with them (late last year), they only had thier own DSLAM in the downtown core. And even reports from people in the downtown core were were horrifying... Check DSLreport.com and you will see all the nightmares with colba and thier ADSL2+ network (I checked last year when I was considering it).
The reports on dslreports are all very old and are from when Colba was first creating the service. The people I know who are using it now are quite pleased with it. One word: LOCATION.
Emporium wrote: more like Montreal, Downtown core...
Montreal downtown, Rosemont La Petit Patrie, Plateau, NDG, St-Michel

Re: High Speed Internet 24mb/1m ADSL2+ $17.95/month with Colbanet/Colba.net [QC only]

Posted: Apr 21st, 2010 2:08 pm
by Koslov
Damn...St-Laurent not included.
Out of curiosity, what is the cheapest (but reliable and fast) ISP with unlimited monthly bandwidth in Montreal? I pay a lot with Videotron for 100GB/month only. It pisses me off

Re: High Speed Internet 24mb/1m ADSL2+ $17.95/month with Colbanet/Colba.net [QC only]

Posted: Apr 21st, 2010 2:11 pm
by Excessiveplayer
I live 5min away from their office and there's no coverage in my house.

I asked them if they had ADSL2+ at their office and they said no, they have fibre optic...odd since they don't resell that service.

Re: High Speed Internet 24mb/1m ADSL2+ $17.95/month with Colbanet/Colba.net [QC only]

Posted: Apr 21st, 2010 2:15 pm
by Shade0a00
They're probably running on a bell business line.

Re: High Speed Internet 24mb/1m ADSL2+ $17.95/month with Colbanet/Colba.net [QC only]

Posted: Apr 21st, 2010 2:22 pm
by Jonick
I can vouch for Colba.net.

I live about 1.2km away from their CO and when I called, they estimated about 8mbps.

Fast forward 2 weeks, line installed, tested my speed: 11.8mbps.

I download at ~1-1.4mb/s.

The traffic is unthrottled, so torrents download at FULL speed all day. I've had Colbanet for about a week and i'm nearing 100gb of download/upload already! :D

Colba is great if you live nearby their CO, best is to call their customer service, and ask for an estimate.

Re: High Speed Internet 24mb/1m ADSL2+ $17.95/month with Colbanet/Colba.net [QC only]

Posted: Apr 21st, 2010 2:25 pm
by vp675
i dont see the promo price on their website..
i guess i have to call and check?

edit..
nvm- its on their home page..
apologies

Re: High Speed Internet 24mb/1m ADSL2+ $17.95/month with Colbanet/Colba.net [QC only]

Posted: Apr 21st, 2010 2:32 pm
by a in yul
thks, nothing higher then %Mbps in my area; but good pricing and will call back in 6 months...!!

Re: High Speed Internet 24mb/1m ADSL2+ $17.95/month with Colbanet/Colba.net [QC only]

Posted: Apr 21st, 2010 2:40 pm
by vp675
well-
i can only get adsl in my area - 5mbps

price is 30$ + 7.5 for dry loopp


are there any other alternatives?

i dont want bandwidth caps --

thannnks!

Re: High Speed Internet 24mb/1m ADSL2+ $17.95/month with Colbanet/Colba.net [QC only]

Posted: Apr 21st, 2010 2:40 pm
by lithiumli
i wish we had this in toronto :(

Re: High Speed Internet 24mb/1m ADSL2+ $17.95/month with Colbanet/Colba.net [QC only]

Posted: Apr 21st, 2010 2:48 pm
by FinderRO
lithiumli wrote: i wish we had this in toronto :(
+1

Re: High Speed Internet 24mb/1m ADSL2+ $17.95/month with Colbanet/Colba.net [QC only]

Posted: Apr 21st, 2010 3:03 pm
by chinese zzz
lithiumli wrote: i wish we had this in toronto :(
Agreed... :(

Re: High Speed Internet 24mb/1m ADSL2+ $17.95/month with Colbanet/Colba.net [QC only]

Posted: Apr 21st, 2010 3:07 pm
by Dash
lithiumli wrote: i wish we had this in toronto :(
+1!!!!!

Re: High Speed Internet 24mb/1m ADSL2+ $17.95/month with Colbanet/Colba.net [QC only]

Posted: Apr 21st, 2010 3:26 pm
by The_dream2k
I wish we had this in the west island of Montreal!

Re: High Speed Internet 24mb/1m ADSL2+ $17.95/month with Colbanet/Colba.net [QC only]

Posted: Apr 21st, 2010 3:34 pm
by crazyp
Is anybody using ADSL2+ from Colba right now? I am very interested, but I don't know how reliable the service is.. I read some reviews on dslreports.com and they are all or almost all negative.. So I would really like to hear from you guys! thanks