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Review by manilaice 
Posted: 8.1 years ago
member for 8.4 years, 1410 visits, last login: 132 days ago
 analogavenue
 $29 per month (12 month contract)
 "Fast. Remarkably. Currently rated as #4 in the DSLR community. Cheap. Widely Available."
 "Unreliable connection, frequent timeouts (although I have a tester modem, non-standard to clients)"
 "Good value, although disappointing due to the restrictions (data cap/speed cap), especially in such a reportedly high-tech city."
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Ordering Videotron had to be one of the riskiest moves I had made. I had heard about their speed caps, their data limits, and their basic fear of the anglophone population of Montreal. But after discovering that the land lines running around my area were too old to support DSL, Videtron was my last resort. So I questioned even getting any broadband at all.
But I did, and they showed up at my door promptly, within the week which meant less than a 5 day wait for installation. Besides running cable through the apartment and putting the uplink somewhere along the line, the serviceman did little else. A quick installation on a Sunday morning, at that!
Imagine my surprise to find out I have a tester modem. Instead of getting the usual Motorola Surfboards prescribed to people in the downtown core of Montreal, I found sitting on my desk a Scientific Atlanta WebSTAR DPX110. This unit has similar if not better specifications to the Ericsson tester modems they currently use for the Rogers@Home service in the Greater Toronto Area (c.Sept '01)
Be forewarned though, caveats are abound. The reported speed caps ARE in place, as my speeds do nothing close to the theoretical of either cable, or the modem itself. I would provide a number here, but I've heard so much variance from both official and non-official sources that it would simply be misleading. There is also a monthly data transfer cap, which is 6gb down and 1gb up. Luckily, there is no way to track this using my tester modem, although those with the usual Motorolas may want to be prudent with the bandwidth.
Overall, after tweaking, I'm thoroughly impressed. Why do I give it an average rating though? The service and the complete Videotron package is nothing to be impressed about at all. They are mediocre at best, but something about them just makes me satisfied. It might simply be the relief I get from finally getting a stable connection, or the mere fact that it's only 30 dollars in Canadian currency to get an incredible transfer rate. I've been known to travel and I know that across the border, and even overseas, this is an incredibly cheap price for almost premium service.
Auxilliary information: Subsidized rates are available through the Quebec government, you may be required to actually BUY a cable modem which will up your cost significantly, but spanned over a year, it should still not exceed 40 dollars a month.
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Review by quebecsurfer
UPDATED: 8.3 years ago
member for 8.3 years, 793 visits, last login: 1.4 years ago
Ontario
$39 per month (12 month contract)
 about 5 days
"quick easy install, good custumer support, stable speed"
"slow to repair network problem, sales representative ill informed"
"great value for speed"
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I ordered service from an independant representative on June 3 and installation was to take place in 2 weeks. The representative was ill informed, and did not give accurate information. This was cleared up in later phone calls (there is a possibility of a language problem, i am english, and the sales rep only spoke french, so the sales pitch was done in french)
Install took place in only 5 days  Cables laid, computer configured, and online in 10 minutes...speeds of 100 k/s download promised... up to 400 k/s delivered.
Technical support very well informed and helpful, with bilingual support staff...on July 6 the connection was interrupted. A technician was sent out the next business day, and a work around was put in place. For one more week i had unstable but workable service until the problem was permanently solved (knock on wood!) on July 16. A technical support staff member phoned me personally after the repair was made to explain to me the nature of the problem, and to confirm what he saw from his end... that my modem was sending and receiving, and also he gave me information to maximize my performance.
The install was free, with a technicians visit.
The modem is $126 Can to rent for 12 months, and $169 to buy (motorola sb4100 usb modem, $227 us to buy from an online store)
The service is 3.2Mb down, 128Kb up for $29 can a month
I am very pleased with the service in general, i am hoping the connection problem was just a glitch.
Aug 3...
connection problem seemed fixed, but in the last week or so, my connection speed dropped from 3200 to about 1400
I was almost at the point of making a complaint, when the connection cut out briefly this morning, for about an hour or so... after which the speed shot up again in excess of 3500
I am assuming that the speed problem was fixed during the outage (at 5am ) and continue to be pleased with their service
ping times are also very good... to sites within north america usually under 50, average about 30
I think with more dsl choices in the Qu bec city area, vid otron is aware it must keep performance up, and so far I am pleased with their efforts...btw for tweaking, i have found with my connection and latency, that a rwin of 51100 is optimum, if that helps any in the same isp and area as I
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Review by RogueNine
Posted: 8.4 years ago
member for 8.4 years, 13 visits, last login: 4.1 years ago
Dollard-Des-Ormeaux,QC
Contract price not specified.
"Good download speeds"
"Completely erratic ping in games"
"Great for downloads, but for gaming it has been dissapointing."
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Things were great when i first got cable over a year ago. Since then however their service has gone to hell. My ping in UT used to be a nice consistant 50-200 (depend on the server) Now it can go anywhere from 100 to 2000. It jumps all over the map. The worst part is that I sent in an E-mail informing them of this problem over 5 days ago, still no response. Not even an automated "We've recieved your mail and are looking into it." For all I know it got deleted by some bored tech 4 days ago. 
As others here have said, when I do tracert tests all my first hops that used to be 10-20ms are now anywhere from 10-100. Thats just shoddy service. If they're not careful they will lose alot of people to DSL. (The route I'm thinking of going.)
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Review by tenorman26
Posted: 8.4 years ago
member for 8.4 years, 3 visits, last login: 8.1 years ago
Montreal,QC
$29 per month (12 month contract)
about 5 days
"Cable is great, not too many outages"
"Customer service sucks, the worst I have ever seen"
"Modem is fast, find your technical support online, learn how to search on your own."
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The Videotron newsgroup is kept secret now, only for us customers now with only old archives at Usenet for the former Videotron newsgroup. Anyway, I thought my being an anglo (almost bilingual, not quite there) and new to Quebec had something to do with the treatment I've received but I've heard native Quebecers, whatever their language, receive the same abuse. Examples: technicians arriving on wrong days, hang-ups after waiting hours on the phone, accident?, being rushed on the phone, ignoring some of their contract stipulations (they'll cut your connection if you are late paying, I was late one time, no phone call, e-mail, or snail-mail to negotiate the payment like the contract says, monopoly? Damn straight.). Basically Videotron needs to get organized so the telephone reps can transmit the info to the technicians, wow, what a concept.
Modem is fast, actually faster now since I found this website via the Copernic Pro search engine I use, thanks to the other "SB4100" users with info on tweaking. The technician had to give me this newer modem when I moved so I'm glad and there's no limit on usage, FOR NOW. Of course, the technician didn't tell me that there was no limit, that's how it is, go online and ask someone else or wait an hour on the telephone to speak with a Videotron representative.
Is my modem up to par? On this site (11:00 a.m. EST) I received 734k download and 131k upload. I see many others have faster but I think mine is better than just okay. Let me know in a reply if it should be faster, if you don't mind.
Videotron has a nice product, I hope one day they will hire more staff to answer to the customers rather than laying them off. People are paying a lot of money per month for cable internet and digital t.v. (just got it) and we just want some answers sometimes as opposed to an automated message service that treats us like we're ten years old. If you ever want a laugh and can afford the call, call Videotron's customer service, it is a very good special and when cameras are implemented HBO should air "Videotron & The Customers", it'll be a huge hit and TMN.ca would show it as well.
Pet Peeve-Videotron calls themselves "Untitled Document" on their webpages and some links do not exist.
I heard NetAxis ( I think that's the name) offer cable connection in Montreal but I believe it's a lot more expensive because they have to pay Moronotron. I also believe that Hell Canada (Bell Canada) is worse than Videotron, tell me if I'm wrong.
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 8.5 years ago
(review was emailed from domain hrdc-drhc.gc.ca)
undisclosed location
$35 per month (12 month contract)
"it's reliable"
"the speed caps, bandwidth caps, tech support"
"i guess when the only 2 hispeed providers here are sympatico and videotron, and sympatico isn't available.. no choice.."
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I have had videotron for about 7 months now.
I really hate their upload and download speed caps.
It's actually 15KB/s upload. And download is 1.5Mb/s which would mean...
187.5KB/s.
Not quite 200.
I also really hate their upload and download monthly bandwidth caps.
They give us speed, but no bandwidth to download stuff with it.
1G upload and 6G download is GARBAGE.
I might do that in a DAY.
Their technical support personnel are idiots.
I used to work for iStar, Interlog, PSInet etc.
90% of the people at the company were morons.
It's closer to 98% here.
Obviously, when I tell the technical person that my pings to _every_ server
in Unreal Tournament and _every_ webpage I am visiting is SLOW, I
don't want to hear how it's the server I am visiting that is causing the
problems.
I did tech support long enough to know that it's whatever router/switch that
videotron was using to get my traffic out on the 'net.
But you know, Sympatico is almost as bad.
Same speed limits.
But, they don't have any bandwidth caps.
They have dumb software however.
Which is the lesser of two evils here...?
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Review by nachoman415
Posted: 8.5 years ago
member for 8.5 years, 49 visits, last login: 4.1 years ago
Hoh 0h0
$30 per month (12 month contract)
about 5 days
"BLAZING SPEED, reliable connection, DOCSIS modem"
"Slow upload"
"Excellent, reliable service."
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Modem Puchase: $159.95 (12-month contract)
Installation: Free with modem purchase (promotion), free installation of cable outlet
Monthly: $29.95
Equipment: Motorola SURFboard Modem
Claimed line speed: 3200/128kbps
Actual line speed: approx. 4800/120kbps
IP: DHCP
AMAZING SERVICE!!!!!!! Much much faster than Sympatico HSE. My line speed is significantly faster than Sympatico, with download speeds in excess of 600kiloBYTES/sec. Upload is constant however, at a slow 15k/s. My IP hasn't changed since the service was installed! Also, my pings are very good. On Napster, I get pings around 14 - 22 most of the time.
Installation was scheduled between 7:30am-12pm, tech arrived at 12:15. Called first to say he would be late, however. Installation was fast and simple, installed new cable outlet and set up my computer. This modem has a built in USB port, eliminating the need for a NIC or USB interface.
Service is reliable, and I haven't experienced ANY downtime. Getting faster speeds than they claim. Little slow-down during peak times; connection never falls below 2500kpbs. Tech support is a joke. You spend hours waiting for NOTHING. Just hope nothing goes wrong!
All in all, it is the best service around Montreal for the money.
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Review by hman83
Posted: 8.6 years ago
member for 8.7 years, 6 visits, last login: 8 years ago
Dollard-Des-Ormeaux,QC
$40 per month (12 month contract)
"Incredibly Fast Downloads for the Price"
"Uploads are really slow for a broadband connection"
"It is the best widely available broadband provider in Montreal"
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Excellent download speeds for what you pay (usually around 2.8 Mbits/s if the server is fast enough). Late at night, speed is incredible, usually around 4 Mbit/s though I've hit 5.5 Mbit/s a few times.
Uploads on the other hand are brutal, I never got over 18 kbit/s, so if you're going to be uploading loads of material look elsewhere.
Ping time is good, 82 ms with doctor ping, although a lot of the ones that bring up the average (100 ms and more) are in the south-west coast of the US and I'm in the Eastern part of Canada.
Installation was painless (and free), 2 technicians came and got it working in about an hour: they installed a splitter on my coaxial cable, a realtek (read "cheap-ass") ethernet card in the computer and set up the email. I would have done it myself but hey, you can't argue with free.
Haven't used tech support yet but i hear they're pretty clueless.
Anyways pretty sweet service if its mostly for web browsing and viewing righ-media content especially if you compare it to the cost a similar service would cost in the US
btw i'm using a samsung modem so the 6 gig download / 1 gig upload doesn't affect me
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Review by simon_f
Posted: 8.6 years ago
member for 8.6 years, 1 visits, last login: 8.6 years ago
Sherbrooke,QC
$18 per month (12 month contract)
about 15 days
"download speed , always connected stability"
"uplaod speed"
"modem buy for 159.99$ + tax"
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very good in download around 200k/s average max i get is 650k/s but upload doesn t go over 16k/s 18$ is because the quebec gov rebate if not 35$ a month
network card :realtek 10mb
modem :com21
no limit (they have a 6gig/1gig limit ) but they not check it
* kbps (from 6000 to 1000 about )/128kbps
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Review by jaysona
Posted: 8.8 years ago
member for 9.6 years, 77 visits, last login: 49 days ago
Toronto,ON
$39 per month
about 10 days
"Simple setup pseudo static IP address"
"Shared connection"
"If you can't get Sympatico DSL, this is a great alternative"
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In November of 1999 I decided to give my parents highspeed Internet access as a Christmas persent.
They live in Montreal, and I checked with Bell, they were too far from the CO for ADSL, so all that was left was Videotron Cable Internet.
I called Videotron, asked if they could install the service, but bill me for the Internet access portion. They could, I got my mother on the phone, conferenced her in the call so she could authorize the changes (cable tv is in her name).
A week and a half later the cable guy was there, running the cable to the computer room, installed the NIC in their computer and got them all setup.
They have a DHCP assigned IP address, but if they keep the computer on all the time, or at least for a hour every day, they keep the same IP address. This is great for videoconferencing, they have had the same IP address for about 7 months now.
I still get the bills delivered to SF every month, and Videotron doesn't change any late fees either. The payments never make it in on time due to the mail to and from the US being what it is.
I can think of any bad things to say aboyut Videotron or the cable Internet service, I'd use it if I ever had to move to Montreal, sure beats Bell's Sympatico.
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 Review by ericbeaudoin
Posted: 8.9 years ago
member for 8.9 years, 19 visits, last login: 4.5 years ago
Montreal,QC
$39 per month (month by month)
about 15 days
"Good download speed"
"Upload is bad, email is slow, custermer service is horrible"
"It's still better then the only other high-speed option"
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The installation went well. The guys they sent to the house knew their business and was able to set everything real fast (I'm using a dual boot W2K/Win98).
The download speed is good nearly all the time. The ISP limits the upload. I did a lot of download and upload when I first got my connection and never had to pay extra although Videotron states that there is a limit of Gigs of upload and 1 Gig of download. The bill doesn't include any information on the usage so it is possible that I didn't go over the limit. [update: I just read elsewhere that since I have a Samsung CableModem, Videotron doesn't know how much I upload and download.]
The TCP/IP configuration is driven by a DHCP server. Every two or three weeks, the address change. When that happen, I lose the connection if I'm online -- very annoying.
I've had the service for a year now and only had one downtime. It lasted 9 days :-(. The tech support are worst I've seen for any telco company. The telephone system is loaded with menu options, when have to wait for half an hour before talking to someone and when you finally talk to someone, they don't know a thing. I would give them the ticket number I was given on a previous call and they would unable to find it. I got three different ticket numbers before the problem was resolve. BTW, this problem was affecting the entire neighbourhood, not just me. I fear to think what would have happen if I were the only one having problem...
The price is fair if you already have cable. If you don't have cable, you are better off with Bell DSL solution.
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