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Review by nbinont See Profile

  • Location: Waterloo, ON, Canada
  • Cost: $45 per month
Mostly rock solid, once it's working
Complete inability to address node congestion
Good service, but node congestion is a gamble
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Got TSI Cable about 4 months ago after hearing good reviews online. Install was very well coordinated. Modem came in the mail on time, and the service person called a few minutes before they arrived so I could ensure they had access. Ultra professional - thanks!

The start date of my service was off a few days (typo), but a quick call resolved that.

About a week after the service was installed, a number of sites began showing poor performance ( »[Cable] Traffic shaping on my TSI Cable connection.. ). This persisted for about a week, then the problem was identified as an issue with one of TSI's transport providers, limelight, and quickly resolved ( »Re: [Cable] Traffic shaping on my TSI Cable connection. ). The identification seemed to take longer than I would have expected for this class of problem (expected under half a week), but it was resolved.

A few weeks after that, my area started to suffer from significant node congestion in the evenings ( »[Cable] 1mbps cable in Kitchener ). About the same time, TSI's POI hit capacity in the evening as well. A few weeks later, the POI capacity was doubled ( »[Cable] Kitchener Upgrade Complete! ), which resolved the problem for people experiencing only the POI capacity limits.

Unfortunately for my area, we were also experiencing node congestion, and the POI upgrade had little to no effect. I was only receiving ~2Mbit of my 12Mbit connection. TSI was not able to conclusively identify the node congestion as the problem, so they did nothing. This is probably the most scathing part of my review, all the other stuff happens sometimes, you identify it, fix it and move on - not a big deal. This one however couldn't even be identified, so the fix was massively delayed. TSI urgently needs a procedure to identify node congestion and a process to engage with Rogers to get it resolved. I understand these upgrades do not come quickly, but the current approach of just ignoring it and hoping Rogers eventually fixes it is ineffective.

About 2 months since this problem started, Rogers upgraded my node (I got new channels bonded), and I was happy. Unfortunately others (who were in worse shape, and for much longer) had no resolution, and ended up cancelling after ~3 months ( »[Cable] Kitchener Upgrade Complete! ).

Overall, I'm pleased with my service. But my recommend comes with the warning - if it works, it will be exceptional - if not, good luck - it's a gamble until the node congestion is handled.

PS: A big thanks to TSI Martin and TSI Gabe for their help!

****UPDATE Jan 2012:

Some sites don't resolve using the TSI DNS servers reliably. The first few DNS queries are lost/ignored/timed out, then eventually TSI's DNS server has an answer, and you're good for a few minutes. But next time you ask, it doesn't know again. This makes browsing some sites frustrating. Made no progress in the direct forum. My recommendation is to append some non-TSI DNS servers to your list of DNS servers so you still get an answer when TSI's servers are not returning an answer.

****UPDATE Sept 2012:

Moved to a new location and transferred my service there. Transfer was a bit difficult to setup - you have to phone in as they don't do it online (ok, that's understandable), but the representative got a bunch of details wrong and we went back and forth for a week or so trying to get the details right (yes, the details were right in my e-mails and TSI Direct posts - but we need to make these changes on the phone, remember?). Install date came and the install went smoothly. Connection has been reasonably stable since. Had a KW wide outage: »[Cable] Kitchener/Waterloo DHCP issues also? , then an issue with their DHCP: »[Cable] Kitchener down for anyone else?

And the DNS issue still persists. Sigh.

****UPDATE Oct 2012:

The DNS issue has finally been resolved! ( »Google DNS versus ours ) I'm much more happy!

****UPDATE June 2013:

Had a 5+ hour outage of all of KW ( »[Cable] cable down in waterloo, anyone else? »Cable Outage [Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge] 07/06/2013 ) that took way too long to resolve. Only TSI was affected. This length of outage shouldn't happen any more than every few years - not multiple times a year! I'm hoping the move to ATPIA in a few weeks will improve the reliability.

****UPDATE Sept 2013:

Decided to move on, as I was concerned about the experience level of TSI front line staff (especially with regards to "RF issues"), and the wait time to have potential issues looked at. TSI is certainly the cheaper option, but for the time being, I'm willing to pay a bit more for accurate diagnosis & resolutions of potential problems.

member for 13 years, 947 visits, last login: 3.7 years ago
updated 10.5 years ago


JenSuisUn
Premium Member
join:2006-02-23
Chatham, ON

JenSuisUn

Premium Member

Sept 2012 update

Hello,

There has been many maintenance/upgrades causing issues in Kitchener as of late. Be advised that these are out of TekSavvy hands.

If you are currently having issues, please feel free to contact me JenSuisUn See Profile or post in the »/forum ··· avdirect & we'll take a look at your service if you are having issues.

Regards,
Martin
nbinont
join:2011-03-13

nbinont

Member

Re: Sept 2012 update

First of all - thanks for following up! Much appreciated

Most of the issues mentioned were transitory and were resolved - except for that DNS issue (TSI David called and is investigating - we'll see where that goes this time).

Don't take my post as a displeased post - overall I am pleased with the service.

TSI Andy
Premium Member
join:2012-11-22
Chatham, ON

TSI Andy

Premium Member

Your Review

Thank you for providing an update on your experience, we do apologize for that outage. I can assure you that in the event of such issues we do all we can to have everything running smoothly again as we can and regret that the outage took that amount of time.

Our goal is always excellence and we will continue to work towards that goal by improving in every way we can. Thank you for your loyalty.

Martin

TSI Andre
Premium Member
join:2008-06-03
Chatham, ON

TSI Andre

Premium Member

Sept 2013 Update

Hi there,

Thanks for posting an update. I am sad to see you go however I can certainly understand. Unfortunately, we are extremely limited in the tools we have access to provide us better visibility into our vendor's network. We try our best with what we have.

We also have a lot of new agents so it will take some time for the learning curve to be caught up. I hope one day you will consider us again

Andre