Review by click170 
Posted: 2.7 years ago
member for 5 years, 8 visits, last login: 2 years ago
 Langley,BC
 Contract price not specified.
 "Fast service - On the rare occasion that it works"
 "Shaw seems to be restricting Bit Torrent downloads to 10Kb a second DL"
 "Shaw completely disregards Net Neutrality, and actively disrupts customer service attempting to compensate for network usage"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings well below consensus)
|
We have been a Shaw customer for some time now. I saw 'we' because I represent a small technology company.
Since my entry into the company, and subsequent accepting of responsibility of the internet connection, we have had nothing but trouble from Shaw.
We download many Linux distributions via Bit Torrent, and recently (March 17th 2007) we have seen our download speeds drop to 10KB/sec with out upload speed essentially non-existent.
This drop in service occurred suddenly, but it is not the first problem we have had from Shaw.
Up until about a month ago, our internet connection would go down, for undefined and seemingly random periods of time. This would occur at around 3am in the morning, which just happens to be when the majority of our staff are trying to work to avoid interruptions from external sources.
We have also noticed that Shaw does not provide the speed they advertise. Shaw advertises a high-speed connection that is, and I quote "Always on", and yet when our internet goes down, and we call them up to discuss the matter, their tech support informed us that our 'outages' are due to BC Hydro problems, and that they are working to resolve the issue by starting their backup generators. This is straight up bullshit, and I will be happy to explain why.
First of all, when the internet drops at 3am, it remains down for periods of no shorter then 30 minutes, with an average downtime of over an hour per incident. I find it hard to believe that it takes someone upwards of 30 minutes to get their generators running. Someone out there must have really sore arms.
Secondly, Shaw seems to be the only company or residence in the area that is losing power.
Thirdly, when we called BC Hydro to inform them that Shaw is blaming them for our downtime, and to discuss the issue with them, we are essentially told that there are no reported outages anywhere on the south side of the Fraser River.
All of this compounded into a recent decision to advise my company that I am no longer able to troubleshoot their Shaw internet connection due to repeated outages by Shaw of which I hold no sway over. I am forced to further advise that the company switch to a Telus business line, a decision which I am further upset by.
I have a Telus residential line at my home, and while there have been no service interruptions at all to the best of my knowledge, Telus is also a vigorous violator of Net Neutrality and I am very upset by having to tell my company that Telus has become the lesser of two evils in the matter.
I personally will be making arrangements to switch our company to a Telus internet connection, a decision that makes me want to throw up in a bucket and die in a corner.
Followup comments:  Assassinx
join:2007-03-14
Bishop, CA | Why not advise your company to get a T3 line? I mean your working in a medium business correct? you could have a Nice stable T3 line put in or even multiple T1s bundled for a little less a month...
if its small i can understand why your not going with T3 and T1 lines. | |
| 
grabeck
join:2003-07-17
Calgary, AB
| Torrents @ 10Kbs? I would think that this is simply a config issue on your end. I've have used torrents for a while for Linux, WoW, among others and have had good speeds (300Kb - 500Kb).
Maybe try using some other Torrent clients to see if you have better results. | |
|  | 
stevepet
@bigpipeinc.com | Re: Torrents @ 10Kbs? how can u config on your end? I am the same. I can only get 7-10KB/s | |
| | | 
erts
join:2003-02-23
Vancouver, BC
| Re: Torrents @ 10Kbs? Turn on encryption your speeds will increase with bittorrent.
There have been numerous distrobution upgrades on the shaw network in the surrey/whalley area over the last several months this is possibly the cause.
You do understand that shaw's grid does not match hydros and that is power is lost to trunk amps or fiber nodes blocks away it can result in service disruptions where homes and businesses actually do have power.
It is possible the person on the phone didn't know the cause and it was under investigation. They are supposed to check with their superiors about that and I have heard of people being told "possible hydro issue" then it becomes a "hydro issue" to the person on the phone. Broken telephone effect. | |
| Derfel
join:2004-06-06
Winnipeg, MB
 ·MTS
| BitTorrent Throttled Shaw has admitted, both publicly and "privately" on service calls, that their company throttles BitTorrent traffic. Encryption can work to get around this for a while, but the issue is that they choose what applications they allow you to use on their network, and could actually decide to shut down BitTorrent traffic altogether if they wished to. Do you really want to deal with a company like that? | |
| | davisx
join:2005-01-06
| Re: BitTorrent Throttled said by Derfel :Shaw has admitted, both publicly and "privately" on service calls, that their company throttles BitTorrent traffic. Encryption can work to get around this for a while, but the issue is that they choose what applications they allow you to use on their network, and could actually decide to shut down BitTorrent traffic altogether if they wished to. Do you really want to deal with a company like that? Ya thanks for generalizing. Shaw does not throttle everywhere, as my BT is fine without any encryption (the client i use does not support it)
I happily deal with shaw getting 10/1 speeds throughout the day. Just because you like to speculate does not mean that this sort of service holds true for everyone. | |
| Choppy2001
join:2000-07-28
Surrey, BC | i'm have no problems I don't know about that, maybe is some area's but i get over 200k-500k on some no problems at all, only problem i find is no one seeds like they should.
i use uTorrent 1.6 | |
| | lokanetra
join:2007-03-14
Kamloops, BC
| Re: i'm have no problems I have no problems either. Fast torrent downloads and everything else seems to be fine. I'm also thinking it's a configuration problem for anyone else that has poor speeds. my last speedtest at speedtest.shaw.ca came out to 8mbits so i'm happy with that. No problems and no worries. | |
|
yerbamate
@shawcable.net
| no problems I have no bit torrent problems in the Kamloops area with Shaw, but I have heard that some people in the Vancouver area seem to have issues with shaw throttling. My parents use Telus in the Vancouver area and have no issues either. It seems like Shaw's throttling is area specific. | |
|
whomever45
@shawcable.net | Also throttling MLB Shaw is also throttling MLB.TV premium, 700kbs, but not 400. It's okay during the day, but when usage goes up, the brakes go on. | |
|
knivez
@rogers.com
| torrent download speeds. 23downloaded so slow. 1. your configuration is not at its proper state. 2. there is not as much seeders then leechers in order to have efficent file sharing. and 3. its mostly their connection not yours. torrent programs are p2p so say if they have a connection of 4mbp down, and a 485kbps up their can't uploading to match your download speed. its set that way by the isp. | |
|
Shaw User
@shawcable.net | ???? A technology based business that requires dependable bandwidth/uptime who doesn't have a least a T1 line. Sounds a little fishy. Also sounds like they need someone else to be responsible for thier internet. | |
|
cst
@globnet.md | use FDM instead of torrents Use FreeDownloadManager instead of torrents. It manages huge size downloads without using any uplink capacity. | |
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