 Review by Deadpool 
UPDATED: 1.7 years ago
member for 8.6 years, 3258 visits, last login: 7 days ago
 Canada
 $49 per month
 about 4 days
 Bell Canada
 "Fast, reliable, no downtime"
 "Customer Service, Traffic Management"
 "Most reliable for ME"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)
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New Review TODAY (Feb 20 2008):
Disclaimer:
I do work for Bell Canada, however I'm not going to write anything along the lines of "Sympatico is the best", or "They do everything right", etc...That will just invite a flame war to no end and is pointless.
However, I will say that my personal experience, as a customer first, has always been good. I live in Ottawa so FTTN is out of the question (at least for now), and I'm currently getting a 5 Mbps service.
I use the 2Wire 2700 modem and the only issue I've had with it in the 6 months I've had it is a hiccup with the Wireless piece where for about a week it was intermittent. I was able to resolve that by changing the security settings (odd to say the least).
I've had some form of Sympatico DSL service since 1998, so long before I started working for Bell Canada, and I've never suffered any significant downtime or otherwise (and if I did it was usually combined with a POTS outage as well).
Installation was simple, but I'm tech savvy so I didn't anticipate it would be difficult either.
I recently moved into a new home last August and have not suffered any problems with my DSL service at the new location, and it was up and running the day I moved as I had requested (and no, I didn't pull any strings to get it done).
As for tech support, I haven't had to use them but the last I did, it wasn't an issue (mind you it was a simple problem as well).
Traffic Management is my only sore point. I understand the need to do it, however I, like many others, can be impatient and want it NOW when I know it could be now if I wasn't being traffic managed.
I don't want to speculate on other DSL ISP's, but who's to say they'll never do it either one day? So as a consumer, it's a cat and mouse game.
Overall the service isn't perfect, but no service is with anyone, nor can they be, so to expect as much is unfair and impossible to achieve (no one guarantees 100% anything for a good reason).
Thanks!
(zips up bullet proof vest) 
Previous Review from 5 years ago:
I'm pretty happy with my Sympatico HSE service. The value is worth it, especially considering the amount of HSE I use. Although I don't go over the 10 GB cap, it's nice to know that it's not 5 GB anymore.
My speeds are always consistent, and I leave my system connected for weeks at a time without shutting it down, and I don't get any lag (no Access Manager - running XP).
I'll soon be setting up a Linux box for my HSE, which I'm already running dual-boot with my XP (I'll be seperating the two very soon). I'll be using a HUB to network them also, and I don't suspect any problems.
It's a dynamic IP service, but I'm running a Dynamic DNS service to access my PC remotely from work, or anywhere else in the world. Although the upload sucks for HSE, the download is pretty damn good.
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