Rogers to Teksavvy Shift, process and preparation

[eskimono]

Recently moved to a new place in Toronto and the house i'm at is currently on Rogers highspeed. Needless to say, price is inflated with a capped product, and being the rfdeal'r that i am, I can't accept that blasphadeal any longer!

So, upon reading many, many, many positive reviews here on teksavvy, i've been motivated to make the move. I've given myself 7 days to make the switch, so I'll stay connected while i sort out the fundamentals for the Teksavvy setup.

There are some concerns I have, hopefully, we can get them sorted in this thread:

1. I don't want to have to buy a new modem unless its necessary. I have an old ADSL modem from an old contract with BELL in 06. I've been told that that will work only if its already unlocked by BELL! How do i know that its unlocked? Any tips in case it is locked.

2. IF that modem is useless, I'll consider buying a modem according to the many recommended here:

• Thomson 516, $50 INFONEC
• TP-LINK TD-8816, $25 PCVillage
• CANERIS Modem, $24 or $40

Are there particular advantages to some over others? What are your experiences and advise. Keep in mind that I'm a torrent movie/show junkie and i'd like to avoid any throttling issues.

3. I don't have a house line active with BELL (i have a vonage line), even though the house is using BELL (above me) and has used BELL where I'm at. To avoid the hassle of filtering all my above neighbours phones and inconveniencing them with a phone line stretching down, dry-loop will probably have to do. Are there any risks that I should prepare for in case the old lines are fcuked from BELL, need servicing, etc?

4. Any advise in dealing with Teksavvy, or requesting particular services that may be helpful in the transition? (like on-site installation, etc)

I'm also currently using a Belkin Wireless N router if that makes any difference.

Thanks so much guys, I appreciate all the help i can get!

[Dave98]

1. A modem from 2006 should work just fine with the current infrastructure. Don't worry about 'unlocking'. Chances are, as long as you go into the modem configuration and change the username/password to Teksavvy's, it'll work fine.

I'm surprised you still have the modem as Bell usually finds a way to charge you for unreturned modems within a year or so.


2. Any of those modems should technically work fine. A 516 would just happen to provide more functions that some people would already have in a router, for example.

All ISPs that go through Bell BAS's will be affected by throttling. Yes, this includes Teksavvy. If you search here on RFD, you'll find a method to bypass this by using a Linksys WRT54GL router and modified firmware. None of these modems, by themselves, will relieve of you any throttling. Your Belkin router won't do the job either, I'm afraid. This means when you get Teksavvy service up and going, chances are good that your torrents will be throttled.


3. If you don't have landline phone service, you'll need dry loop anyway. There is an extra cost to this each month, if you didn't already know. In most cases in the GTA, this is an extra $9.10 per month with Teksavvy.

If for whatever reason, the lines in your house aren't in good condition then connection and speed issues are a possibility. Line issues within the house are your responsibility. Bell takes care of the line issues outside of the house.


4. Can't think of anything here except the fact that it's Bell who does any technical work outside of the house for any installation issues. Teksavvy just provides the internet service. They have to go through Bell for a lot of the technical work, for example, if they ever have to send a technician to your premises, it will be a Bell tech.

[Hello-]

Hey esk,

I made the switch from Rogers express to Teksavvy in June. The only problem I had was my line speed when they first activated my line. It was 3000kbit down and 800kbit up. Slightly short of the 5mbit which I was told was due to my distance from the DSLAM. For some reason a month later the speeds were bumped up to 5mbit/800kbit and they've been stable for a month.

1. Not sure.
2. I use the Thomson Speedtouch st516 from Infonec. It has some semi-useful features but a good router will far surpass whatever features the st516v6 offers. I think any modem that can run in bridged mode will work well. You'll also want to look into a WRT54GL router to bypass the Bell throttling using Tomato MLPPP firmware.
3. If you have a dedicated phone line which you can register a bell phone number, running dry loop should work. If you plan on using the phone line as a voice line in the future you might want to invest in a pots splitter. Instead of putting a bunch of line filters at every phone jack you just install the pots splitter where the phone line enters the house but you'll then need one dedicated line running from that to your modem.
4. For me the hardest part was getting the line activated. Teksavvy works pretty hard to solve any issues but you have to keep calling them to check up on any progress. Can't think of any special requests you might need unless problems arise.

I don't know much about the technical side of DSL so this is just my personal experience setting it up. Hope it helped a bit.

[cechlin]

I made the switch from cogeco to teksavvy last week.

Used my neighbors old bell speedstream 5200. Still on bell firmware(cant find any alternative)

Works fine just put in my teksavvy username and password they provided.

Im on dryloop also. Unlimted bandwidth.

I get speeds of about. 500kb/s and 75kb/s upload.

Those are both maximums so far.

[darkprince]

any1 wants to do a group buy? i need 3 more ppl

[shadow_cruiser]

I ordered Teksavvy on Aug. 13 and said it would take a minimum of 5 days to activate. So I called back today the 21st and they said it should have been activated on the 19. The tech guy said its all dependent on Bell's side for the activation. So now I'm waiting to hear if I will get activation or not. On the plus side, the CSR's were very very friendly and helpful.

One good thing about Rogers is it was activated on the spot. Just a word of advice is wait 5 days and if you don't get activation by the 6th day, make a call to tech support. He said this happens to a lot of people and the customer has to call in for them to know about it otherwise they wouldn't.

[cechlin]

i ordered on the 6th, they said it should be activated on the 13th, i figured id get an early start and hook up my modem and everything, it was activated within 48 hours...

[Humpa]

i am in for the group buy!

[shadow_cruiser]

Wow, this is just f'in ridiculous. I called again today and they said they weren't sure whether a technician needed to come here to activate service and then I called back again and they said a technician won't be able to come out until 4 business days which is the 28th!!. This was a huge mistake cancelling Rogers.

The customer service is good at Teksavvy but they are relying on what Bell says and has no say in this matter. I ordered on the 13th and now service may be activated on the 28th. Just be warned guys. I've heard of this happening before but I didn't take the advice of others.

That means no internet for me for a week

[ah802]

When I made inquiries, the tech at Teksavvy suggested I wait for full DSL support before I cut Rogers... as it turned out Rogers cut me without notice and it took 5 business days to get back into a connection. I ordered Friday, and was up fully the next Friday.

[eskimono]

Hi Dave, thanks for your quick and detailed reply: I appreciate it!

1. A modem from 2006 should work just fine with the current infrastructure. Don't worry about 'unlocking'. Chances are, as long as you go into the modem configuration and change the username/password to Teksavvy's, it'll work fine.

The modem i have from bell is the Speedstream 4200, which bell has so kindly provided us with how to configure it! If that don't work, you know i'm gonna be asking you guys here!

I'm surprised you still have the modem as Bell usually finds a way to charge you for unreturned modems within a year or so.

Don't worry about BELL! They kept charging my cc for the good part of a year! $300 which they said 3 times they would RETURN and they haven't.

2. Any of those modems should technically work fine. A 516 would just happen to provide more functions that some people would already have in a router, for example.

All ISPs that go through Bell BAS's will be affected by throttling. Yes, this includes Teksavvy. If you search here on RFD, you'll find a method to bypass this by using a Linksys WRT54GL router and modified firmware. None of these modems, by themselves, will relieve of you any throttling. Your Belkin router won't do the job either, I'm afraid. This means when you get Teksavvy service up and going, chances are good that your torrents will be throttled.

I'm guessing i'm already being throttled by ROGERS, even though at times, i get torrent downloads for several files accumulating speeds of up to 600KB/sec. So both being equal, Tekksavvy wins out by cap limit. I don't know if i want to down another $50 for a WRT54GL router (i may though).

3. If you don't have landline phone service, you'll need dry loop anyway. There is an extra cost to this each month, if you didn't already know. In most cases in the GTA, this is an extra $9.10 per month with Teksavvy.

Dry loop it will be, and i can confirm $9.10 .

If for whatever reason, the lines in your house aren't in good condition then connection and speed issues are a possibility. Line issues within the house are your responsibility. Bell takes care of the line issues outside of the house.

The owner of the house would have cover those repairs, however, the downtime/hassle will be on me.

4. Can't think of anything here except the fact that it's Bell who does any technical work outside of the house for any installation issues. Teksavvy just provides the internet service. They have to go through Bell for a lot of the technical work, for example, if they ever have to send a technician to your premises, it will be a Bell tech.

I'm expecting there to be some, but not many, issues. The house is in good shape, the owner was using BELL in my apartment not long back (2-3 years). I anticipate a smooth transition from this vantage point, but i'll prepare for the worst (i.e. keep the rogers connection going until its completed).

[eskimono]

Hi there hello

Hey esk,

I made the switch from Rogers express to Teksavvy in June. The only problem I had was my line speed when they first activated my line. It was 3000kbit down and 800kbit up. Slightly short of the 5mbit which I was told was due to my distance from the DSLAM. For some reason a month later the speeds were bumped up to 5mbit/800kbit and they've been stable for a month.

Well, thats a relief! I don't know how far i am from the DSLAM, i am in a pretty dense residential house area though right in the middle of Toronto. So i don't think that the DSLAM will be TOO far away!

Where were you located?

1. Not sure.
2. I use the Thomson Speedtouch st516 from Infonec. It has some semi-useful features but a good router will far surpass whatever features the st516v6 offers. I think any modem that can run in bridged mode will work well. You'll also want to look into a WRT54GL router to bypass the Bell throttling using Tomato MLPPP firmware.
3. If you have a dedicated phone line which you can register a bell phone number, running dry loop should work. If you plan on using the phone line as a voice line in the future you might want to invest in a pots splitter. Instead of putting a bunch of line filters at every phone jack you just install the pots splitter where the phone line enters the house but you'll then need one dedicated line running from that to your modem.
4. For me the hardest part was getting the line activated. Teksavvy works pretty hard to solve any issues but you have to keep calling them to check up on any progress. Can't think of any special requests you might need unless problems arise.

I don't know much about the technical side of DSL so this is just my personal experience setting it up. Hope it helped a bit.

Thanks for the technical information you provided, i'm sure it'll come in handy. I may consider the WRT router depending on the speeds i'm getting.

I hope i won't need to work too hard to get the Bell modem to work, if i do though, i'll pass some of that burden on to you and your technical savvy .

Thanks again hello.

[eskimono]

I made the switch from cogeco to teksavvy last week.

Used my neighbors old bell speedstream 5200. Still on bell firmware(cant find any alternative)

Works fine just put in my teksavvy username and password they provided.

Im on dryloop also. Unlimted bandwidth.

I get speeds of about. 500kb/s and 75kb/s upload.

Those are both maximums so far.

Wicked!!!

If i get those speeds and the hassle free part on the bell modem, i'm a happy camper !

Thanks dude

[eskimono]

Wow, this is just f'in ridiculous. I called again today and they said they weren't sure whether a technician needed to come here to activate service and then I called back again and they said a technician won't be able to come out until 4 business days which is the 28th!!. This was a huge mistake cancelling Rogers.

The customer service is good at Teksavvy but they are relying on what Bell says and has no say in this matter. I ordered on the 13th and now service may be activated on the 28th. Just be warned guys. I've heard of this happening before but I didn't take the advice of others.

That means no internet for me for a week

Your advise is Gold! If thats any consolation.. Sorry about your down time, may be a good idea to find a naive neighbour with an open wireless connection for the time being!

goodluck and keep us posted!

[eskimono]

any1 wants to do a group buy? i need 3 more ppl

I'm in prince!

We got another one here too, so thats 1 left (if you haven't already found them).