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Review by sikk$ 
member for 11.2 years, 398 visits, last login: 10.2 years ago
lodged 11.2 years ago
 Canada
 $44 per month about 7 days "Nice and fast" "Wait for service. Next to no documentation with install package" "Definitely the best choice for my current situation. Thumbs up."
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Good points:
My connection is consistently around 2 Mbps, regardless of the time of day. Other than a problem with a setting in the box outside, the connection has been totally reliable.
Bad points:
The initial 1 week wait seemed to be a bit much. I also had to wait nearly another week to get a technician to come look at the line problem (above) I was having.
The fact that there's no documentation on the modem I received is a bit distressing. There is also no documentation for other services offered (mail, nntp, dns). The tech who did the initial install had to write the pop and smtp servers on my copy of the "subscriber agreement". I would suspect this has to do with the demise of @home.
All in all, the experience has been pretty smooth. I'd recommend Cogeco to anyone looking for a fast ISP who isn't Bell. 
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Review by shred000
member for 11.2 years, 12 visits, last login: 11.1 years ago
lodged 11.2 years ago
- Amherstview,ON
- $40 per month
- about 5 days
- "Speed"
- "No [personal] servers limitation, tech support sucks rocks"
- "I will be changing ISPs soon, hopefully cogeco can turn around"
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When I first got Cogeco@Home I was happy with it. It was fast, installation time was good.
Tech support has always sucked rocks. I have yet to get anyone on the phone that actually knew what TCP/IP was. They all know how to reboot modems, reboot PCs just fine but not much more than that. It is impossible getting escalated to somebody who can understand an even remotely technical problem description. You never get call-backs when techs say they need to "go find out and will call you back", they just forget about you.
Service has been off and on but mostly on I would say.
My major gripe now is the "no servers" BS. It used to be OK because you ran you own little (personal) server, low bandwidth, all incoming (downstream) and nobody bothered you. You were not being a "problem" on the network. Now I am not talking hosting warez, or porn or any business type services, just a little personal mail server for example (and not for spamming).
Now they are enforcing the "no servers" policy by installing port filters. Do they filter the ports for the "high bandwidth" P2P applications out there, or the warez servers, etc. Nope. They block the port for e-mail. A low volume, non-bandwidth-hogging service.
Now if they would run a decent mail service, that had a reasonable uptime & low-latencies, and allowed me to use my own domain name and had decent, customizable spam control, then I wouldn't need to run my own mail server. But they don't. They limit my bandwidth usage amounts but don't allow me to take the appropriate measures to not waste my limited bandwidth on spam.
I also don't want to have an e-mail address at a domain I am not in control of. I don't want @cogeco.ca, or @yahoo.com, or @hotmail.com because with all of those domains, you are at the mercy of the domain owner. Don't like their service anymore? Start contacting all of your friends and family and anywhere you have given your e-mail address to to have them change it. It's a major hassle!
So, if COGECO continues with the nazi-network lockdown tactics I will be changing ISPs. I know folks who have dumped COGECO because of this already and I know folks who will be dumping it. We want Internet. If we wanted content-controlled web-browsing, we would all sign up with AOL, now wouldn't we?
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Review by wizard_cgt
member for 11.6 years, 10 visits, last login: 11.3 years ago
lodged 11.3 years ago
- undisclosed location
- Contract price not specified.
- about 26 days
- "Speed, Fast Installation"
- "Bandwidth limit, terrible news server"
- "I am probably going to go back to HSE asap"
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I switched to Cogeco from bell HSE last month in hopes of greater speeds.
A friend had it and was getting speeds easily double HSE at 7:00 PM on a Friday night so the myth that cable speeds suck during heavy load times is false and I can vouch for this as I am getting the same results with mine.
After you call to get them to come out expect to wait a long time. I called a few days before christmas and got up on January 19th. The installation went quickly but the tech didn't leave an extra RJ-45 patch cord so i will have to go buy one now to replace the one Bell lent us. He also left no documentation, software or information regarding e-mails.
My biggest gripe is the bandwidth limitations. 5gb down/1gb up. That is really ridiculous. 56k users will trasfer more than that in a month. Why would they give us this much speed if we aren't allowed to use it? If any Cogeco guys see this I would like to know what percentage of users are actually UNDER this. 5% maybe? If they were to implement a system where users have to pay for extra bandwidth they would lose a HUGE portion of their customers.
I believe they claim that you can download huge files, watch streaming video etc. Well, you COULD, but you are going to go over their bandwidth limits. They claim this is to prevent users from "abusing". Abusing would be setting up a warez ftp and uploading 30 gigs a week to your hax0r buddies. 5gb/1gb is nothing more than using.
Bell allows you to transfer as much as you want and even run game servers. Just so long as you pay the bills and don't do illigal stuff.
If cogeco were still under @home it would have been bearable. @home doesn't have all these crazy restrictions and has a wonderful news matrix.
Cogeco has a solution to the uploading issue - they provide servers for us.
Well these servers are as follows.
Counter-Strike x2 - Where is the Day of Defeat?
Webserver - i can't find any information on this but i hear it is 20mb with no mySQL or PHP
The reason people set up webservers at home is so they have unlimited space and control over what they install on the server - no mySQL or PHP? No forums in that case.
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Review by kdmullen
member for 11.3 years, 1 visits, last login: 11.3 years ago
lodged 11.3 years ago
- Windsor,ON
- $39 per month
- "good price for service"
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Over all A good value
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Review by DaMisfit
member for 11.4 years, 3 visits, last login: 11.3 years ago
lodged 11.4 years ago
- Lower Sackville,NS
- $42 per month
- (12 month contract)
- "I'll pass them along if I discover any"
- "Poor newsserver, email is sporatic, tech support is a joke"
- "I'm considering switching to Sympatico DSL"
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I've been a Cogeco cable subscriber for well over 2 years (in both Niagara Falls and Welland areas). During the @home era, service was good, reliable and generally painless.
Following the demise of @home, Cogeco has had nothing but a world of problems. I've spent more time with tech support than I have in all my years of ISP experience (I've been with seven ISPs in 6 years). Email service was badly disrupted, news server was touch-n-go...and overall connectivity was a joke. Tech support was frustrating at best (gotta love 45 minutes of brain-numbing muzak ). Tech support in St. Kitts sends me to Niagara Falls to exchange my Com21 modem for an even older Samsung model (which is what I originally had). Niagara Falls blasts tech support in St. Kitts for suggesting this, and instead gives me another new Com21 out-of-the-box. This seems to solve a few of the problems for us now - but we're still experiencing considerably more downtime on occasion than in the past with the @home service. Tech support suggests its due to a server/router overload in the local Welland area ("its all run on one server/router," they say).
Meanwhile, my wife runs Sympatico DSL downstairs, and has had virtually no probs with it in the last 10 months of service. Granted, her speed isn't quite as high as the cable (when cable is working), but she's had no loss of connectivity (not to mention she has 56k dialup backup in case DSL service goes down).
In all, I've not been pleased with Cogeco since the end of @home, and I'm considering taking my $500/yr. over to Sympatico in the very near future if things don't improve.
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Review by mostly_1
member for 11.4 years, 4 visits, last login: 10.2 years ago
lodged 11.4 years ago
- St Catharines,ON
- $39 per month
- about 7 days
- "Download Speed Is Pretty Good...Very Reliable Connection"
- "Upload Cap Is Pathetic! Americans Complain Aboute 143kbs Try 48kbs"
- "Increase Upload Cap And RETRAIN Your Tech Support"
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Cogeco got off to a rocky start when the introduced comcast to St. Catharines, but I understand that, new services take time to perfect...especially after ROGERS left them their mess to clean up.
I used to install for COGECO through a contractor called "GLOBEX" and I myself, after working there can tell you that they are the WORST installers in Niagara, infact I URGE you to make note if you order the service NOT to allow a GLOBEX installer in your premises. PVS and CONNECTIONS or COGECO themselves are excellent.
As for the service itself, not to shabby, It's rare that there are any issues of connection loss in my area, or packet loss. But I must make note of one thing.
If there ever is a problem, a 6 year old child could solve the issue or be more helpful than a COGECO TECHNICIAN. There answer to everything is;
"Do you know where your local COGECO office is...GREAT bring your modem there and get a new one" Guess what! It's NOT ALWAYS THE MODEM!
They really need to get a hold of that aspect. I have gotten a couple really good techs that actually knew what they were talking about, and I KNOW, I do Cable Internet Tech Support for an American Company and I know exactly what to listen for and what to ask.
Price isn't bad! Could be better....especailly due to the upload CAP of 48kbs
Comcast is getting around 143kbs...Come on COGECO show us the speed!
Thanks!
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Review by (hidden by request)
(review was emailed from domain cogeco.ca)
lodged 11.4 years ago
- undisclosed location
- $39 per month
- "Upload and download speeds are fairly consistent"
- "Horrible packet loss right out of the first hop 10-25% making the upload and download times worthless"
- "Poor tech support, Dont call us we will call you type attitude. and zero intention to solve the problem"
| Pre Sales information:
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I am running on Cogeco@home=0D
for the last 3 weeks the download and upload test results are pretty steady =0D
1400/375 =0D
however 3 people in our local receive 5-10% packet loss in the first hop =
of
a trace route virtually to any site .=0D
Making things such as file transfers and online gaming pretty well
impossible to enjoy.=0D
i have been in contact with them all along during this. and they =0D
don't seem to recognize theres a problem.=0D
i could see if it was just my computer in just my area.=0D
but, we have tried 2 other computers on the otherside of the city and its
the same problem. =0D
This problem started approx. around the same time as the informed everyon=
e
in our area to change from @home to @cogeco. =0D
i am not sure if there is relevance.
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charset="iso-8859-1"
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I am running on Cogeco@home=
for the last 3 weeks the download and upload test results are =
pretty
steady
1400/375
however 3 people in our local receive 5-10% packet loss in the=
first
hop of a trace route virtually to any site .
Making things such as file transfers and online gaming pretty =
well
impossible to enjoy.
i have been in contact with them all along during this. and th=
ey
don't seem to recognize theres a problem.
i could see if it was just my computer in just my area.
but, we have tried 2 other computers on the otherside of the c=
ity and
its the same problem.
This problem started approx. around the same time as the infor=
med
everyone in our area to change from @home to @cogeco.
i am not sure if there is relevance.
=09
=09
=09
=09
=09
=09
=09
____________________________________________________
IncrediMail - Email has finally evolved - Click
Here
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Review by GGunter
member for 11.4 years, 19 visits, last login: 10 years ago
lodged 11.4 years ago
- Trenton,ON
 Business customer- $140 per month
- about 3 days
- "Decent Customer Support"
- "Poor connection, freq. outages in service, useless Technical Support, No contractual obligations"
- "Was a great ISP until Cogeco bought them out."
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QuinteNet was the name of the Original ISP. They were the first High Speed provider in my area and they were excellent to deal with. I was promised (via. phone) to receive 2000 down 200 up. I am an avid online gamer and requested as much bandwidth as they would be willing to sell and under $500/m. They outright refused more then 200kbps upload but stated they would increase my download to 3000. For $140 (Canadian) a month I thought that was decent enough. They provided 15 pop3 email addresses and 1 static IP. I could handle that as well.
When I first signed up I saw speeds of around 200K - 800K down and thought this was excellent. Slowly over time my connection got worse. It became rare that I saw speeds over 100K and dslreports.com were giving tests of around 600kbps and 202kbps. They stated it was poor because of so many users and they would be upgrading their Fibre lines in my area. They did and the performance kept getting worse. They then sold the company to Cogeco @ home. Once this occured my connection became so unstable and useless I wanted to give it up.
As of tonight (11/28/2001) I tested my connection here at dslreports.com and received a download of 53kbps and an upload of 3kpbs. Yes that says 3. I frigging 14.4 baud modem gets a better reading then that. Just to proof I am not lying, I uploaded the screen shot I took to my clans server and you all can admire it at »www.smakclan.com/images/reviews/speed.jpg
I thought of calling Technical Support but everytime I do they tell me the same exact thing.
Tech: "You live in the Belleville/Trenton Area"
Me: "Yes I do"
Tech: "Yeah, we are having problems with our servers out there"
Me: "Is there an estiamte on when they will be fixed?"
Tech: "Nope"
That sums it up. Alot of customers would escalate or complain, but I also work for a major company's tech support line and truly know what happens. The tech places you on hold, makes fun of you to his collegues, gets the closest supervisor which may turn out to be a tech of the same level, depends if a manager is busy or not, then if you get one, they just try to come you down and pass you back to the previous tech. A Complete waste of my time.
Sorry for all spelling mistakes, my grammer isn't on par with most peeps, and the exessive amount of data that has been presented, but I felt it important to get my point across and NOT recommend Cogeco@home.
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Review by WomTiki
member for 11.8 years, 5 visits, last login: 9 years ago
lodged 11.8 years ago
- Sarnia,ON
- $39 per month
- (month by month)
- about 3 days
- "Fast Installation, GREAT SPEEDS!!!"
- "sporatic email problems"
- "Great ISP, highly recommended"
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Installation was very very fast. Ordered the service on a saturday (yes, sales reps were available on a saturday) and had the guy out on the following monday to install the modem. Had a problem after 3 months with my Com21 modem, called on a saturday again, had the cable guy out on the monday to replace it with a Samsung Inforanger modem. Tech support has always been easy to talk to and get ahold of. I have had a few email outages but it's not overly concerning to me.
Now if only I can figure out how to uncap this modem
Overall, I have had a great experience with Cogeco and love the service.
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 Review by weirdwillie
member for 11.9 years, 438 visits, last login: 34 days ago
lodged 11.9 years ago
- Welland Ont.
- $39 per month
- (month by month)
- about 3 days
- "Great consistent speed/Very rarely down/Install Tech went out of his way to do a great job"
- "I cannot imagine going back to dial-up"
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You hear lots of horror stories about cable but my experience has been great. I would highly recommend Cogeco to anyone. As far as tech support is concerned I've never had to call them.
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