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Review by kLavack See Profile

  • Location: Canada
  • Cost: $39 per month (month by month)
  • Install: about 6 days
None
unreliable for website browsing, horrible for game play, to many spikes
I used to like it but now i hate it
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

ISP - Shaw Cable

Location - Ontario

Cost - 39.95$ / month

Shaw makes their internet sound better than it actually is. I chose shaw over the DSL company because of their commercials, saying they were 'blazing fast speed' and '24/7'. Well, ive had this cable now for 1 - 2 years, and my speed is maybe as fast as dialup, and goes down at least twice a week. When I call my shaw tech support, i get put on hold for 40 minutes, so the guy could run some 'tests'. When he gets back he says he ran some thorough tests and it seems that NOTHING is wrong with my cable line, and that it must be my pc (2.6 Ghz, 256 DDR Ram, 533 FSB, Intel 10/100 VE NIC, recently formatted because i was trying to solve the issue thinking it was something i did) So anyways, i've called them 3 times and now they're saying its the nimda and worm viruses fault, and that they're 'working on it'. Well, ive been expierencing this crap for 2 months now, and if they dont solve the issue by january im switching to dsl, im not to eager to switch to dsl because its capped at 1250 down, 512 up. I was very happy with my cable service before but now im disgusted with this crap.



member for 20.4 years, 27 visits, last login: 20.2 years ago
lodged 20.3 years ago

raenrfm
join:2002-06-18
Thunder Bay, ON

raenrfm

Member

Interesting.

Just curious. What do you consider to be dialup speed? 1200 down and 512 up is actualy quite respectable. Most I've gotten down on my Shaw here in Thunder Bay is 1700. Pretty damn good actually. Beats the hell out of a T1 which costs $1500/month. Are you directly connected to your modem or are you using a NAT device like a router?

asws
Opinion Matters
Premium Member
join:2002-01-21
Canada

1 edit

asws

Premium Member

Not Everywhere

Yikes, You must be in a horrible area. Yes, Shaw is very inconsistent with Speeds and ping in different areas.

But is is not like that everywhere, I am in a area on the shaw network in Shaw is ALOT faster than any other DSL provider (SaskTel) in my area.

mad cable guy
@65.248.x.x

mad cable guy

Anon

shaw does not care

Shaw does not care about its employees much less its customers. Tech support guys get little to no training on how the modem works, much less how to trouble shoot it. Management tried to get the field hands to work for min. wage, 6.50 an hour but thank goodness that did not go through. Even though shaw was turning a good profit (80 million 3 years ago) they were still cutting people right and left. Some of the texas people had been there 20 years, fired and given 30 minutes to get their stuff and off the property. I know all this because I used to worek for them. When you call shaw, just remember, they do NOT care.
LeonDiggler
join:2002-03-12
Kelowna, BC

LeonDiggler

Member

Re: shaw does not care

So this is coming from a former employee? Gotta figure he's gonna be bitter and biased...
Did you actually work in the Texas office or are you just spouting rumours?

Turftech
Flying on empty
Premium Member
join:2002-01-03
Up the River

Turftech to mad cable guy

Premium Member

to mad cable guy
Yes the folks on the end of a phone line aren't the greatest when trouble shooting an issue, but if you ask, they will put you on to someone who is.

Maybe it's a Texas thing, but up here the field guys are very well paid! (I know two of them and believe me, they ain't hurtin'!)

Unfortunately, the good old days of a "job for life" are gone. That's not Shaw's fault. Blame Wallmart and McDonalds...

I am happy with Shaw. (Beats Telus hands down! Unless you're into abuse...)

Another Former Cable
@gtconnect.net

Another Former Cable

Anon

Re: shaw does not care

No....Shaw does not care, they canned all of us and are now heading back down the road to using contractors--watchout customers

shaw CSR
@shawcable.net

shaw CSR to mad cable guy

Anon

to mad cable guy
I *do* work for Shaw, this sounds like you are bitter. I get paid 14.95/hr plus commissions in customer care - I pull in about 4,000 a month... thats not minimum wage.

When a company doesnt have contracts, doesnt charge internet install and gives you free tech support I wouldnt say they dont care.

From what you said, you sound like you worked for Shaw when we were with Rogers, and were a completely different company running the @HOME system. Things have changed. Why do you think we are the leading internet company in Western Canada?

Try Telus then we will talk customer care issues =)

enough already
@shawcable.net

enough already

Anon

Re: shaw does not care

GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS. Your face is probably blue through and through. This is a forum to discuss modem speeds not employee relations. Shaw is not a family company the are a money making corporation just like every other ISP.
CatRx
join:2003-07-30
Edmonton, AB

CatRx

Member

2 Cents

Give it some time, I had terrible problems with my cable for about 2 months but I never called. Then 2 weeks ago it cleared up and I`m going as fast, or faster then ever. Avoid trying to game during peak hours because obviously it`s not going to be fast at that time. As soon as the clock hits 7:00 my download speed goes up from 500 kbps to 2800. I don`t believe a word of that speed testing on their website though, they show a minimum speed of like 1800 kbps or something, yeah.. right.
kLavack
join:2003-10-27
Canada

kLavack

Member

Shaw.

Ive given shaw 3 months to fix this, and they just change their story every time. I live in port arthur, and dialup speed is about 8k/s, im actually signed up for dsl now, i should have that in about 6 days

Turftech
Flying on empty
Premium Member
join:2002-01-03
Up the River

Turftech

Premium Member

Re: Shaw.

I find this an amazing story/thread. I have had Shaw for 3 years now, and have had excellent technical support, fast repairs to any line damage that has occurred, and have speed that borders on nuts! Remember that as Shaw moves out into new areas, they are saddled with the existing lines from the previous cable company. Do you have underground lines? Did you ever request an installer come out and test at your end? Your db. levels may be low for many reasons. They will come out if you ask. It might just be a matter of removing a resistor... Most times though, the lines are not up to standard, and Shaw is constantly upgrading lines etc. They may not have gotten to your area yet. Identifying a problem "loop" usually speeds up the upgrade in your area. At least it did here. I was upgraded to 1/2 inch over head line after one call out. And I'm miles out in the boonies. They are replacing the grid all over the place.

Also, if your dialup is 8k/sec., your DSL will bite as well. Same issues with what the line can handle.

zlinboy
@shawcable.net

zlinboy to CatRx

Anon

to CatRx

Re: 2 Cents

Yeah strange, I've had shaw cable (Sault Ste Marie, ON) for the past 8months, and since the first day we had it, it's been blazing fast. If I'm connected to a quality sender, I can get up to 600k/s downloads, though it's typically around 300k/s (honestly). As for gameplay, it is a bit questionable.. I dont know if its the servers I connect to or if it's Shaw.. but a lot of them have some lag (choppy). My pings in games are usually below 140ms, but it still gets choppy. Bugs me.

But anyway, conclusion.. try and tweak it, if it doesn't work.. just switch (or move)! Complaining to us doesn't help you download quicker.

xhjbta89721
@tru.eastlink.ca

xhjbta89721

Anon

that sucks

shaw seems to suck speed wise...i have eastlink in nova scotia and i get 4500 down and 900 up or 600k/sec downloadinh and 100k/sec uploading which is faster than most shit, and it also costs 39.95/month

Review by LittleStone See Profile

  • Location: Winnipeg, MB, Canada
  • Cost: $35 per month
  • Install: about 17 days
Extremely fast, only if it works
Crowded node in Winnipeg remained crowded even you complaint
Get it only if your neighbour's experience on Shaw is good
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Ordered the service on September 4, 2003, and installation could not come before September 21, 2003 (the same day I ordered satellite TV service, and the satellite TV is working 4 days later.)

The installation went smoothly, and the connection was good during the day. But before september 30, 2003, the download speed went down to 80KBps or below (even from support.shaw.ca server's speedtest). Called Shaw at 11:00pm, and was onhold for 50 minutes before an agent picked up the phone. Went through a series of test to make sure my computer is working properly. They send a technician 3 days later and check. The technician determined that the node was overcrowded and splitted the node the day before he came to my apartment. The speed went up to 130KBps and we were happy. The technician was saying that because we lived closed to University of Manitoba, there are so many students who are bandwidth hog.

Two weeks later, the speed dropped to 60KBps or below, any time of the day. Mid-October is the time I discovered that my computer got so many pings from people who were infected with the worm. I did all the tests I did with the technicians last time, and also the test results from the Tools section here, and send the results to Shaw by email. 2 days later they replied that they need to perform more test with me, and ask me to call their support number. Still the same onhold for more than half hour and I was running out of airtime, so I called the next weekend when I get more airetime. I explain I had send the email and the technician just ask me to defrag the hard drive and apply the tweak from www.speedguide.net to my computers. I asked whether my node is overcrowded, he said the loading is only 32%. I told him that I have two computers which are newly installed, but he insists they did not have any problem on their side anyway.

I was pissed, and decided to switch service to MTS already. But to prove that Shaw's support in Winnipeg is sub-par, I did do the defrag and tweaking. Re-run all the tests and get the same bad results. I called again at 2:00am, was onhold for more than 15 minutes before another agent answer my call. I told this agent the story, and he ran some tests (for 5 minutes or so) on their side and he told me that the node is running at maximum load. I said, so, Shaw is going to fix it, right? He said, yes, they need to hunt down the problem, and he gave me a reference number such that I can refer to it next time I ask.

A week gone by, there was still no improvement (except the Sunday morning is always to good time to use internet.) I send in an email with the reference number to ask about the progress, and made clear of myself if there is no concrete answer from Shaw, I was about to stop subscription. I still have not received any response from Shaw after 3 days.

I asked my friend who lived in the same building as mine, he has the same problem.

I heard some other part of Winnipeg is getting decent speed from Shaw. I would not recommend their service given their support quality. It pissed customers off when they deny their network problem and put the blame on customers. But to be fair to Shaw, ask your neighbour's opinion before you order. If there is no problem in your area, you may not experience problem in your side. But if there is an existing problem in your area, it may not be resolved in a timely manner.

BTW, the longer version of my story with Shaw can be found here,

»Long term battle

To those people who like to bash users with bad experience with Shaw: I used Rogers High Speed and Bell Sympatico High Speed before, although they do have their problems, but their service and technical support has not been as bad as Shaw in Winnipeg. If you have good experience in Winnipeg, tell us your area, I would move there.

[updated Nov 22, 2003]

I cut my service today. We went to Shaw in Winnipeg in person to return the modem. The customer service said the technical support is under-staffed for sometime already, and it normally took them a long time to answer the phone (something like since August?) They did not bait us to stay with Shaw though, I guess that's how much confidence in their technical support to resolve the issues.

member for 20.4 years, 838 visits, last login: 4.4 years ago
lodged 20.3 years ago


Review by n_reddy See Profile

  • Location: Surrey, BC, Canada
  • Cost: $39 per month
  • Install: about 7 days
Tech support was always available.
They weren't very good, and were experts at lame excuses.
Look for another ISP.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Hi there. I've been using Shaw "High Speed Internet" for quite some time. Close to a year now, and I can honestly say it is not worth the money, and put bluntly; a disgrace to the term "High Speed".

My story;

Back in January 2002, when I first recieved Shaw, it was downloading about 200-300 kb, and about 50-60 up. Not thinking this was slow, or familiar with Telus ADSL, I continued using Shaw, and joined several development groups, which required tremoundous amounts of download (bandwidth). Not thinking much of it, I continued, and eventually around May 2003, my monthly download limit peaked at 50 gigs a month.

Not too much right? Especially since I was chugging along at 30-40 kb download, and 5-10 kb upload. Absolutely pissed off with the slowness, I contacted Shaw, only to recieve the answer, "we cannot do anything about it, it's reasonable". Already pissed off, in May I recieved a warning to limit my bandwidth consumption to much MUCH less (15 gigs). I asked why? This is "high speed" internet, and hell most of the time it's slower then 56k, so what's the problem. Apparently 15 gigs is their undefined limit.

"Alright" I said, but I specifically asked for a warning if my bandwidth ever got too high again. They replied yes, as in YES we will call and make an attempt.

Time passes to July, and my bandwidth again goes too high to 30gb and a gloomy morning later, I wake up to find my internet shut off. Wondering why (I knew it might have been the bandwidth issue), I called them up. Apparently I was using too much bandwidth _again_, but here's the hook;

It wasn't their responsibility or obligation to WARN ME before they suspended my service for a full week even though they have verbally confirmed they would. I know verbal agreements don't have much meritt, but then again the phone operator had taken "foot notes" of what occurred during my first warning. Apparently I was told to install a independent bandwidth monitor, and to watch myself, the usage. I asked, what about the phone call warning agreement I asked for. "Nope it wasn't mentioned, or asked for, and it isn't our responsibility". What a crock of shit!

Not their responsibility or obligation? How long would it take them to phone me once, to warn me, or to mail me? "Sorry sir, it's not our obligation".

The End

So you tell me, pathetic or not? I think so. One; their bandwidth limits are reaching 10gb a month, and anyone with a brain would know that "high speed" internet will easily reach this goal within days, especially if you actually use broadband for the purpose for which it was designed for, and secondly; "It's not our responsibility, or obligation". That's absolutely pathetic. It takes only 5 minutes to leave a message, and only 2 weeks to mail a warning (like Telus does). Apparently with the mail, "it may be too late before we could reach you". Real sad. I highly recommend you do not use Shaw, as it is slow, has it's proxies blocked by deviantart.com, and several other popular forum communities, and their tech support taking the easy way out.

And the punch line? They can give you a payment warning 1 day after it's due, but not a AUS warning. Larf :|

member for 20.6 years, 16 visits, last login: 19.5 years ago
lodged 20.6 years ago


FireBird187
@209.5.x.x

FireBird187

Anon

Shaw is not Slow Everywhere

Please realize that Shaw is not slow anywhere, it can be really fast and reliable in some areas. Also, once Docsis 2.0 Hits Shaw, they will be #1 ISP guranteed!
n_reddy
join:2003-08-17
Surrey, BC

n_reddy

Member

Re: Shaw is not Slow Everywhere

But does it really matter? Did you catch the part with bandwidth caps :P ?

It's really pathetic. Why bother offering 'high speed service' when you (the isp) get antsy as soon as they start downloading a reasonable amount.

And the thing is Shaw buys their bandwidth from Telus so I dunno.

Snid
@198.53.x.x

Snid to FireBird187

Anon

to FireBird187
Check your facts, man. Shaw does not buy their bandwith from Telus. Telus leases space on the Shaw backbone, as with most other providers in Shaw's area. This backbone was built about 1 1/2 yrs ago (when Shaw changed from @Home to High Speed), because they had been leasing off a company out of Sacramento.
Goes to show-don't believe everything you read on a forum.

mymusic
@68.208.x.x

mymusic

Anon

been there done that

they usually warn you by email as well.
pyber
join:2003-08-19
Powell River, BC

pyber

Member

Re: been there done that

I've never once received an e-mail from Shaw. Not even they're monthly newsletter (Don't ask me what it's called, but I know I don't get it in my Inbox).

pyber
<****|****>
Iris Network Security Services
kobra98
join:2003-03-31

kobra98 to mymusic

Member

to mymusic
They do not warn anymore by email if it's a multiple offence and you have previously been notified of their AUP process.

They don't jump on those who download gigs and gis, but upload 10+gigs/month over a couple months.

As with ANY service provider, if you don't like the answer if you aren't getting what you are paying for, ask for someone else to talk to. That is your right as a customer.

Shaw's minimum level of service is still alot better than Telus as they only will give you 800/100 support where Shaw will come out if your conx is giving you only 1200/300 conx speeds.

name1
@209.53.x.x

name1

Anon

Shaw sucks...period

Shaw is horrible. They're technical support is a crock...they're a bunch of liars. Telus is waaaaaaaaay better.
Ponderosa0
join:2003-08-18
Nukem, MI

Ponderosa0

Member

Re: Shaw sucks...period

Actually Shaw buys their bandwidth from BigPipe. And, Telus is not the greatest either. They are a bunch of money scamming crooks. Their billing system is horrible! The DSL modems they support are not very good either. Especially the LinkSys modems.
carnesr
join:2002-11-16
Sault Ste Marie, ON

carnesr to name1

Member

to name1
actually shaw owns bigpipe which is where the get there bandwidth, wich is 75% of the network infrustructer of canada east of ontario
carnesr

carnesr

Member

Re: Shaw sucks...period

sorry that should be west of ontario

Right
@shawcable.net

Right to name1

Anon

to name1
Telus better? keep dreaming.
That's all i'm going to say

xiolastarr
@107.188, 24.69

xiolastarr to name1

Anon

to name1
Shaw are a bunch of *^&%$$# - 20 dollar processing fees on top of late payments - and no complaints dept. They were slammed with viruses over the past couple of weeks - why doesn't that surprise me?

Snid
@198.53.x.x

Snid to name1

Anon

to name1
Wow, $20 processing fees. That sucks, eh? You know what I found as the best way to get away without them? Pay your bill, dumbass. Your bill has to be at least 4 months behind to get hit with one of those. One month I didn't pay all of my Telus bill because they double charged me for something, and instead of crediting it that month they credited for the next month-I got hit with a processing charge. It was a percentage, so I don't know how much it was.
Snid

Snid to name1

Anon

to name1
Oh yeah-and, what was the number for the Telus complaint department? That's right-doesn't exist. That's what customer service is for. If Telus had a complaints line it would probably be much busier than their customer service line.

Wolvie-5
@204.209.x.x

Wolvie-5 to name1

Anon

to name1
Actually, I have never seen better support from anyone else. Normally there are to many idiots that messed their system up calling and expecting them to fix it for them. They don't understand that it is internet support not PC support.

Sass
@telus.net

Sass

Anon

Blah Blah Blah

Not happy! then cancel and get yourself a T1 line, what do you expect for $39 a month. Stop complaining you idoit.
Ponderosa0
join:2003-08-18
Nukem, MI

Ponderosa0

Member

Re: Blah Blah Blah

No kidding, these people expect a 10Mbit Fiber line for $40/month.
pyber
join:2003-08-19
Powell River, BC

pyber

Member

Shaw HS dl/ul record holder

Reading all of your gripes about Shaw Cable Internet. I agree that Shaw has some pretty piss-poor customer service and bandwidth regulations. When I hooked up with Shaw a few months ago, I did the usual thing that someone does with a new computer, and went out and about downloading whatever software and other stuff I wanted or needed (Including .mp3s, game demos, some anime vids, and various pieces of software). 9 days (yes I said NINE days) after my Shaw account was activated, I received my "friendly warning" phonecall from the regional office (Nanaimo, BC), to inform me that my bandwidth usage was "unnaceptable". I was averaging (according to their usage monitors) 5.95GB download and 9.5GB upload per day, which works out to approximately 123GB total traffic in the first 8 days. Needless to say, with their usage cap at 10GB (In BC anyways), they were none to pleased with this. The service rep that I spoke with told me, and I quote, "You should be proud of yourself". Indeed I was, somewhat. This was more bandwidth usage than a BUSINESS account user would use in an average or two MONTHS. Since then, I have not entirely slowed down with my usage, playing online games like BF1942 and Unreal 2003, doing work (I test network security by contract for local companies), and of course downloading .mp3s and such once in a while. In the last 2 months, according to my own bandwidth monitors I have moved a total of 156GB worth of data in and out of my systems (I have a 3 machine network sharing one connection via a router), and have yet to be cut off. Also, I have not received a single phone-call or letter (electronic or snail) from Shaw regarding my usage. It seems that the BC branch of Shaw is a little more leniant than other parts of the country.

To conclude, if you have problems with Shaw's bandwidth cap, just shatter it, and they will leave you alone. At least, that's the way I see it. Oh, and as a side-note, I have no complaints at all about the overall bandwidth I have at my disposal, and never seem to get anything less than a couple of hundred K per second, no matter what I'm doing. If some of you are having such bandwidth troubles, my suggestion is to check you system for spyware and such, because they can have a surprisingly large impact on your available bandwidth. As for Shaw compared to Telus DSL, the DSL service here sucks, with constant stopages and long ping delays for anything that requires streaming information of one kind or another, such as online gaming and audio/video streams. Also, my cable connection is on average 15-30% faster than any local DSL user gets, depending on server loads and network packet handling.

That's my 2 cents, take it or leave it.

pyber

Iris Network Security Services
pyber

pyber

Member

One more thing...

One more thing. According to the Shaw service rep I spoke with 3 months ago, the standard procedures for bandwidth usage penalties are as follows:

First phone-call: Basically a "friendly warning"

Second phone-call: 48 hour notice to "cease and desist"

Once the 48 hours is up, if you have not cooperated, you get a one week suspension of service.

If anytime after the one week is up, and bandwidth usage remains overly high, you have your service cut completely for a minimum of 6 months. Once the 6 months is up, you can re-apply for a new account.

If for some reason any of the above policies have been changed in the last 2 months, I am unaware of them.

pyber
<****|****>
Iris Network Security Services
Ponderosa0
join:2003-08-18
Nukem, MI

Ponderosa0 to pyber

Member

to pyber

Re: Shaw HS dl/ul record holder

Pyber: I entirely agree with what you have to say. And a good number of people that post about such terrible speeds with Shaw. I bet you that their computer is loaded with spyware, and trojans that they don't know are on their machine which use up a good huge amount of bandwidth each day, slowing their connection down a lot. I used to have a Mac, and that was one of my favorite reasons for owning a Mac, is that there was hardly any type of Viruses/Trojans being spread around to hit Mac OS computers. I have a PC now, but I know what I'm running and I use spyware removal programs and check weekly for spyware. So for the people that complain about their Shaw speeds, I advise you check to make sure you know everything that is running in the Windows Task Manager process list before complaining to Shaw.



Have a nice day.
kobra98
join:2003-03-31

kobra98 to pyber

Member

to pyber
With bandwidth hogs like you, it's no wonder that Shaw gets a bad rap in a few neighbourhoods. Half are complainging that you can't download/upload 10s of Gigs/month, the rest are complaining cause they have no bandwidth and therefore can't justify the cost of the service. I feel for the latter case.

If you abuse the residential service, you deserve to get kicked off.

not at home
@cc.umanitoba.ca

not at home

Anon

Re: Shaw HS dl/ul record holder

I think with more and more people coming online, add the improving multimedia aspect of the internet, how can they NOT expect usage to go up? Especially for residential where many people tend to play games, watch videos, share home movies, stream/download music, all of which take a lot of bandwidth usage per month. And 1 month is a long time! Eventually, ISPs will have to compete not only by speed but also by usage.

Review by TutyMan See Profile

  • Location: Richmond, BC, Canada
  • Cost: $39 per month (12 month contract)
Its can go fast sometimes
Way to many to list
Don't get it its not worth it
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Shaw is fast well that wat it says but it is slow for me my connection is 795/100 and shaw claims it is 8000/1000 and this is high-speed. They use proxy servers which doesn't allow you to go to some sites. They share ips, they basicly suck

member for 20.6 years, 12 visits, last login: 20.1 years ago
lodged 20.6 years ago







Review by snarkyguy See Profile

  • Location: Winnipeg, MB, Canada
  • Cost: $39 per month
  • Install: about 30 days
No discernable good points.
Too many to list
Shop around for another high speed access provider.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I initially signed on for cable internet service about 3 years ago. At that time, the cable company that provided the access was Videon Cablesystems. The installation went OK, but it did take some time to iron the kinks out. I didn't have any problems communicating with the ISP at that time. Some time later, Videon had farmed out the internet access to @Home. Quality of tech support had started to deteriorate. Access speeds were acceptable, and there were very rare problems with email and news servers. Most recently, Videon Cablesystems was bought out by Shaw Cable. Very rapidly speeds had dropped, email and news servers kept dropping out of service, and it has become virtually impossible to contact anyone at Shaw via telephone or email for tech support. On the occasions that I have the patience to wait to speak to someone, I am often given wrong or misleading information. (examples: being told to buy new cables and network cards when the problem turned out to be the modem itself, being told that they didn't provide support for accessing email for people using Outlook, being referred to Microsoft tech support when it turned out that my IP address was being blocked by their new email server). It seems that each and every time I contact tech support via telephone, I am given incorrect information. Technical support via email is even slower (once taking two weeks for a response) and the canned responses do not address the concerns that I had originally written about.

I consider myself a resonably savy computer user. Until recently, I had not a lot of occasion to speak to tech support. More often that not, I am usually trying to get a hold of them to find out the status of the email/news servers. Overall, my recent experiences have been a source of great frustration. I am currently shopping around for a new high speed access provider.

UPDATE (10/17/01): I am now an MTS DSL subscriber! (See review: »Review of MTS by snarkyguy ) See yah Shaw!

UPDATE (07/19/03) Recently, Shaw has been offering a promotion where you can purchase a digital cable box and a cable modem for $100 and then you recieve a $10 programming credit for 10 months. As I was paying about $80/month for my business DSL service from MTS, I decided to give Shaw another chance. I checked here for recent reviews of Shaw and it seemed that their service has improved. I ordered the equipment/installation near the beginning of this month. The technician came to install the equipment about a week later. He checked to make sure that all connections were in proper working order and left. Speed tests here and even on Shaw's own web site showed the fastest speed that I could get was about 50KB/sec. That is only 1/3 the speed that I get with my business DSL service. I contacted Shaw's tech support to find out if there was something that could be done about the speed. After a bit of troubleshooting, the tech guy suggested that the problem was my router. I thought this was very lazy troubleshooting. Why is it that tech support people always point at something other than themselves as the problem. I told the tech guy that I was getting the proper speeds (and then some) from my business DSL service when it is connected through the router. After a bit of back and forth, the tech guy agreed to send someone out to look at the problem. A week later someone from Shaw comes to look at my set up - which consisted of pinging a couple of servers and downloading a test file. Tech guy said there was no problem. I told him that he can take the equipment back as I would rather have the higher speeds of the DSL service. 50KB/sec is not an acceptable speed for cable modem service. I refuse to pay the same price as everyone else, but not get the same level of service. Tech guy said that he will arrange for a 2 week credit on my account so I can wait for Tier 2 to look at the problem. Tech guy suggested that there were too many connections on this node and it should probably be split. 2 days later I get a call from tier 2 support. I wasn't able to answer call. I returned their call today (07/19/03). I set up the modem with a connection directly to my desktop and ran the speed tests again. Speed tests showed same results as speed tests through router connection. Tier 2 puts me on hold for about 5 minutes. Tier 2 comes back and says that the last time I asked for someone to come out, the call was cancelled. ?!?!?!?. I told Tier 2 guy that someone was out on the 16th and just pinged a couple of servers and made no attempt to fix anything. That is why the problem was escallated to him. Tier 2 guy says he needs to talk to a manager and will call me back. After hanging up, I realize that if the notes claim my service call was cancelled, that must mean I didn't get the 2 week credit either. I call Shaw back and get another person on the phone who in turn contacts Tier 2 guy. Nobody knows anything about a 2 week credit. Well, I say that I am currently paying for 2 high speed internet connections (I haven't as yet cancelled my DSL account) and that I refuse to continue doing so while they get their act together and do something about my connection speeds. Girl says that she can arrange for a credit but will have to talk to manager first. Manager isn't in right now though. I will have to wait til Monday to find out if I even get a credit, much less if anything can be done about the slow service. I cancelled all services with Shaw - I am sick and tired of waiting for even an answer about if anything can be done about the speed or about a credit or anything. I waited 3 weeks already and I refuse to be any more patient with them seeing as they want me to wait for even an answer much less a resolution. If you are considering switching your internet provider to Shaw, I strongly urge you to consider what has happened here before you do.

member for 22.4 years, 35 visits, last login: 20.6 years ago
updated 20.7 years ago

Mbrown2480
join:2001-03-20
Vancouver, BC

Mbrown2480

Member

Sorry to hear

It is too bad that Shaw's service and support weren't there for you. Have you complained about the poor support to internet.help@sjrb.ca , here is some info they want, »support.shaw.home.com/he ··· ault.htm , and maybe you should email them your review also.

Why not list some of your gripes at the Canadian Forum, maybe some others that had or have some of your problems may offer some solutions.

snarkyguy
join:2001-10-08
Winnipeg, MB

snarkyguy

Member

Re: Sorry to hear

said by Mbrown2480:
It is too bad that Shaw's service and support weren't there for you. Have you complained about the poor support to internet.help@sjrb.ca , here is some info they want, »support.shaw.home.com/he ··· ault.htm , and maybe you should email them your review also.


I wrote this review this morning. At the time, I had just finished firing off an email to them. I was also waiting on the phone for someone to answer at their helpdesk. I dialled the helpdesk number at 2am. After an hour of non-stop ringing, I hung up and dialled the main number for Shaw cable. After being assured that there was in fact 24hr tech support available, I called the helpdesk again. By 8:45am (I am NOT exaggerating) there was STILL no answer on the phone!! The only reason I stayed on the line that long was that it became a morbid curiosity to find out how long it would take for them to actually answer. By 8:45am I was so angry at them, I hung up and signed up for MTS DSL service. As soon as I receive my install kit, I will be returning all my cable equipment.

I really don't feel like I should have to work that hard to receive a service that I am paying for.
Mbrown2480
join:2001-03-20
Vancouver, BC

Mbrown2480

Member

Re: Sorry to hear

You are correct. If Shaw is not working to deliver the service, you should not have to work at it. I hope you have a better experience with MTS DSL.

ThePowerOfADream
@shawcable.net

ThePowerOfADream

Anon

Re: Sorry to hear

If you dial a Shaw number and all it does is ring, most times there is a problem with there phones. Due to they have a automated answering machine that tells you that you are in the Queue and someone will answer soon.

blueschooner
Down-Tuned To A Stool Loosening Roar
Premium Member
join:2001-03-03
Edmonton, AB

blueschooner

Premium Member

Cripes!

Cripes man. These are exactly the same problems I have been having. It's taken me 2 months of constant emails and phone calls (how about those 99 minute waits!) to get my problem diagnosed. Shaw is supposed to be out this week to replace my modem. One good thing I have to say for their tech support is that they truly want to help. They never seemed to just give up, but just seemed to not be all that well informed. I've persevered because I want some of that sweet, sweet speed back!:D
Mbrown2480
join:2001-03-20
Vancouver, BC

Mbrown2480

Member

Re: Cripes!

In Vancouver, the odd time I have called support, the longest wait has been a couple minutes, and sometimes I get right through. Email gets answered within 24 hrs.

blueschooner
Down-Tuned To A Stool Loosening Roar
Premium Member
join:2001-03-03
Edmonton, AB

blueschooner

Premium Member

Re: Cripes!

said by Mbrown2480:
In Vancouver, the odd time I have called support, the longest wait has been a couple minutes, and sometimes I get right through. Email gets answered within 24 hrs.
I used to get right thru back when it was Videon@Home but when Shaw took over the wait times went thru the roof. I wait around 3 or 4 days to have an email answered. Does Shaw have a central tech support center or are they individual for each city/area?
Mbrown2480
join:2001-03-20
Vancouver, BC

Mbrown2480

Member

Re: Cripes!

Yes Shaw has a central support Web site. The link is above. It eventually goes to your local support for a response, but I imagine it gets read at the central site also.

snarkyguy
join:2001-10-08
Winnipeg, MB

snarkyguy to blueschooner

Member

to blueschooner
It's good to see that I'm not alone in my experiences with Shaw. I have decided to go with MTS DSL. From what I've heard, the access is slower, but a heck of a lot more reliable. As a test I called Sympatico's tech support line. I was shocked to find a live person on the other end of the phone right away!! Needless to say, I rushed to their online site and signed up right away. I can't wait to get my install kit.

blueschooner
Down-Tuned To A Stool Loosening Roar
Premium Member
join:2001-03-03
Edmonton, AB

blueschooner

Premium Member

Re: Cripes!

Have you gotten an @shaw.ca email address yet? I did about a month ago and have had absolutely no problems at all with it. I still use my @home addy and it still goes down at least once a week. Maybe give the @shaw.ca a try until your MTS kit arrives.

snarkyguy
join:2001-10-08
Winnipeg, MB

snarkyguy

Member

Re: Cripes!

said by blueschooner:
Have you gotten an @shaw.ca email address yet? I did about a month ago and have had absolutely no problems at all with it. I still use my @home addy and it still goes down at least once a week. Maybe give the @shaw.ca a try until your MTS kit arrives.

Umm... Yeah I did get an @shaw.ca email address. All told, it took almost two weeks to get the darn thing set up. After playing around on the sign-up site for about 2 hours (even though it was asking for the modem serial number, the site wouldn't accept it - turns out that it wanted the MAC address). Then I tried accessing the email address via Outlook. Wouldn't work - received generic error messages. The two week part was the time spent holding for tech support to answer the phone. The first time I called, it turned out the email server was down - please try again. The second time I called, I was told that they did not provide support for accessing email using Microsoft Outlook - and to please contact Microsoft.(I'm not making this up!). The third time I called, it turned out that my IP address was in fact being blocked from accessing the email server. At that point the support guy tried assigning me a new IP address. After generating a ton of IP addresses (and a call to Calgary), he was finally able to assign an IP address that could access the email server. All was fine since. (Winnipeg folks - If you are trying to access the @shaw email server and your IP address starts with 204 - call and get a new one assigned)

canadianguyonshaw

Anon

they'll get better, i promise

im in vancouver, when it was rogers , they had 202 tech 3rd party support agents.

average wait was 45 mins

now they have added a 500 (over 700 agents at latest count)

and wait times are about 20-30 mins

they are still adding more people to phones, but right now its real hectic with shaw digital cable, improving of internet services, the new tv channels, transistion of rogers to shaw etc.

i anticipate by year end these problems will be cleared and phone lineups will shorten and all we be good

blueschooner
Down-Tuned To A Stool Loosening Roar
Premium Member
join:2001-03-03
Edmonton, AB

blueschooner

Premium Member

Re: they'll get better, i promise

That's good to hear! One good thing about their phone-in support is being able to leave your name and # so you don't have to sit there with the phone stuck to your head for an hour. I would like to see the email tech support guys be available 24 hours. The last time I talked to a tech he told me that they only work regular business hours. He said that here in Wpg they only receive around 80 or so emails a day. He couldn't figure out why it was taking 3 or 4 days for them to get back to me. I've found the email guys to be the most knowledgeable though.

snarkyguy
join:2001-10-08
Winnipeg, MB

snarkyguy to canadianguyonshaw

Member

to canadianguyonshaw
I noticed an ad in the help wanted section here in the local paper (Winnipeg). Seems Shaw is looking to hire more installers and sales people, but not a single mention of hiring more tech support. I can't believe it! They are looking to expand, yet they can't seem to provide the support for their current subscriber base. Color me infuriated!

peachykeen
@shawcable.net

peachykeen

Anon

They're hiring!!!

Actually, Shaw just hired phone reps for their customer care centre here in Winnipeg. They are still training them to handle the phones right now. Hope that helps...it should improve the service anyway.

BoO_Ya4
join:2001-10-02
Canada

BoO_Ya4

Member

Re: They're hiring!!!

yes they are hiring lots of new people...the average wait for me was 30-40 min.....at 9:00pm!!! its a long wait but not worth it sometimes...i thought my speeds were slow, and they did nothing, but its better now...
yac898
join:2002-12-06
Stony Plain, AB

yac898

Member

dsdg

the tech support should be able to tell you what your transmit & receive signal levels are at. Also wondering if you had a lazy installer. How may splitters are b4 your modem? 2 seems to be the max. sometimes even a nic/gouge out of the center conductor can throw things out of whack. Splices in the line from your modem to the main line can also be a problem. Phone the inet installations supervisor, and demand that your house be inspected for quality of work (somthing that edmonton has been doing for years). If all of this checks out to be ok, then your node is probably full, or someone is running a server of some kind. hope this helps.
songdove
join:2002-11-28
Kelowna, BC

songdove

Member

Re: dsdg

I agree.

I had stories similar to snarky's that caused me to leave another isp and move to Shaw because there isn't another broadband alternative here in Kelowna. All other broadband companies in town use either Shaw or Telus as their backbone for residential service.

But I definitely agree that there are more reasons for poor quality of service than simply tech guys. I am a tech. I don't work for Shaw, but I know that the problem can stem from something as simple as partially connected cables between your plug and computer, a router that needs its firmware updated, a bad wire job from the box at the road to your home, a dead port(which happened to me at Telus) at the closest node, a dieing router on the network between your isp and the closest node and your house, as well as too many users on your portion of the grid. Here in Kelowna, there are some grids on Shaw that are slower than 28.8 modems when everyone on the grid gets on the 'net at the same time. Yet there are other grids in town where you get top speeds because there are so few people sharing the network connection.

If you've updated your router's firmware, doublechecked that all connections are good and tight, and had your wiring inspected by a qualified inspector, and all is in good working order, then the problem is on Shaw's network somewhere and its a matter of hunting it down.

j_a_t_h
join:2002-04-29
Calgary, AB

j_a_t_h

Member

I had the same problem for 5 months

It took 5 months for Shaw to fix the problem. I would have changed ISP but my company would only pay for Shaw. Well it turns out that is was noise (of lack off) on my cableline. The first Shaw guy added noise reduction to my cableline when it was not needed. Finally after 5 months of poor speed a guy check the line for noise remove the noise reducer and it has worked well since.

spammansam
@shawcable.net

spammansam

Anon

Re: I had the same problem for 5 months

I got Shaw today becuase I moved to Mill Bay, thwy were the only ones in the area. The huy came at 10am, he was around 16. Very knowledgeble, even showed me how to uncap my modem(he said only do it at 3am for a sec)
girl_hugger
join:2003-07-07
Lamont, AB

girl_hugger

Member

Stick with it

I know Shaw has horrible customer service, I have it too! lol We cancelled our cable TV service with Shaw because they were jerking us around too much. A few years later we all got sick of dial up and decided that we would try out Shaw cable internet. Aside from a few billing mistakes they have been pretty good, especially if you use the Shaw proxy server. Since I set up my internet to use the proxy server my speeds are almost always above 250Kb/s, my fastest ever was 925Kb/s (at 2:00 in the morning of course)
My advise to you is that you stick with your business DSL, if it works good for you stick with it!

matt

Review by (hidden by request)

  • Location: undisclosed location
  • Cost: $40 per month
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (»www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.478 / Virus Database: 275 - Release Date: 5/6/2003

(review was emailed from domain shaw.ca)
lodged 20.8 years ago







Review by minidan See Profile

  • Location: Winnipeg, MB, Canada
  • Cost: $30 per month
Lite speed is $13 less than High speed
It stalls on downloads frequently
Were it not for the stalling I could live with Lite Speed
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I have been trying out the Lite Speed service from Shaw for a couple weeks and have found that on average it is about twice as fast as dial up (average 13 KBytes/Sec) when I am downloading. If you are coming from a telephone connection lite speed would be a good option but stay away from it if you have tasted a high speed connection. The stalling which I was told by a Shaw support rep is a common thing when calling to see if I could get the stalling fixed will really turn you off of lite speed service. Maybe they want to turn you off of lite speed so you will get high speed service who knows. The stalling happened on sites ranging from the windows update site to »www.rleeermey.com. I want to fully explain what I mean by stalling. I will have the download of a file started or say a sound byte is downlaoding as part of a website like at »www.rleeermey.com and the download will stop and won't start up again of it's own volition. I can start other downloads so I know the modem has a connection but I have to cancel and restart the download or reload the webpage. The stalling happens on webpages too. A webpage will start to download and then stop before it is complete and I have to reload it sometimes 5 to 6 times to get it to display.

All in all the lite speed service from Shaw is not a good value as it stands. I hope Shaw can improve the lite speed service by eliminating the stalling and upping the speed so I can average 20 to 24 KBytes/Sec.

How laughable my service stalled when submitting this review.

member for 21 years, 1 visits, last login: 21 years ago
lodged 21 years ago


emmpeethree
Twizzling Flagella
Premium Member
join:2001-04-13
Richmond, BC

emmpeethree

Premium Member

connections

with a slow speed connection, just like dial up connections will stall

doing anymore than one connection at a time sometime just seem to overload the downstream bandwidth and cause downloads to stop

solution:

a) download one file at a time (websurfing while downloading counts as more than one download!)
b) download with a download manager

not sure why you havent been told to use one in the first plae.

mad cable guy
@txucom.net

mad cable guy

Anon

shaw does not care

Shaw does not care about your quality of service. They are unfair to their employees, monitor the bandwidth their customers use, and if you upload or download too much you will be put on an abuser list. Drop them and get dsl.

BSB
@204.209.x.x

BSB

Anon

Re: shaw does not care

I totally disagree!!! They're great and I have friends who work there and LOVE IT!!! Your upset because your an abuser!

PRMETHEU
@shawcable.net

PRMETHEU to mad cable guy

Anon

to mad cable guy
FCUK OFF tosser, your just us Shaws ass coz you know people that work there! and they class you as an abuser as soon as you go over 6GB of download!! thats peoper easy to go over! In the UK I used a cable company called NTL and you got to DL/UL as much as you wanted! (this month i downlaoded a whole of 87Gb....SWEET!) and shaw said they r gonna cut me off.
jimbyreturns$
join:2003-02-01
Canada

jimbyreturns$ to mad cable guy

Member

to mad cable guy
They are unfair to their employees...
According to whom? Best company I have worked for-by far!
Chris A
join:2003-04-05
v6d 8s2

Chris A

Member

shaw not that bad

shaws not that bad...... i know a close person who works for shaw and they aren't that bad.... but in my opinion i belive that Rodgers was way better then shaw. and yes they do say they will cut you off if you exceed the 6 gig max downloate rate..... they lie........ months after months i average about 13-18 gigs... maybe even more on good months..... and nothing has happened... i only had one encoubter with them...... when one summer i downloaded 15 gigs in 5 days.... thats when they cut me off but i got it back up again because i had connections.... but they are a huge b***** on uploads..... i can barely upload a song to people without shaw on my ass... but all in all its pretty good.... i get above average ping playing online games. but i am thanking baout a connection with better upload... any suggestions? for a cheap price ofcourse

Review by Infinitel00p See Profile

  • Location: Canada
  • Cost: $42 per month
Reliable and Fast connection
6GB download Cap and 2 GB Upload cap. Claiming UNLIMITED ACCESS!
If you use the internet often 6GB is nothing. Watching a few movie trailers for 1 hour in 1 day will use up 15-20% Of that cap
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

*I HAD been with shaw for 1 year on the home internet package with digital TV service. The internet portion was $42.95(tax inc) per month and included with the TV package I was paying $89.92(tax inc) per month. The connection was pretty much always fast and reliable and that was defintley great but with that small download cap what's the point of having it as fast as it was. You're just going to eat that cap up even faster.

~Quoted from shaw.ca website

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------

"With speed like this you'll never think twice before hitting the download button again. "

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------

*And it's the truth! With the download cap you better watch out when downloading or you'll receive a phone call from big brother saying you're over the limit. A more reasonable download cap would have been in the 10-15GB range instead of 6GB. The internet has changed drastically since shaw first started up. Multimedia out on the web is huge. If i wanted to watch the Animatrix and Matrix trailers in 30 minutes of my time enjoying those trailers I've already eaten up about 400MB of data IN 30 MINUTES!!!!!.

~Quoted from shaw.ca website

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------

"24 hours a day unlimited access, all for one low price. "

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------

*I'm sorry shaw but that is a blatant lie if you have your cap in effect. The low price is true if you're A NEW SHAW CUSTOMER. I have been a long time (about 1 year) shaw internet customer and I was paying 42.95$ (tax inc) per month for the service. If shaw raises the cap to about 10-15GB I may return (I'm currently with Telus and the first month free next 6 months 24.95$ and then 39.99$ deal)

member for 21.6 years, 57 visits, last login: 9.6 years ago
lodged 21 years ago

Infinitel00p
join:2002-08-06
Canada

Infinitel00p

Member

I forgot to mention

I live in Prince George BC Canada and overall the area I lived in I never noticed much of a slow down (I use the net often). There were times say on Sundays in the afternoon to 5pm that it was a bit slower than it usually is but that's just because of the amount of people in the neighbourhood using it. Overall though the area I was in wasn't fully of download maniacs so it was fine.

robinwpg
@shawcable.net

robinwpg

Anon

shaw suxs

i have shaw as well and i live in winnipeg
since they have closed the winnipeg tech support line and centralized it in calgary its been the shits
they moved the office that was down the road from me and when that happened my download speeds went from consistently getting 300-500 k/sec to 120 or worse
i have had them out 5 times to fix it but i cant bring myself to switch to dsl as my uploads are still faster than theirs .... any ideas on what to say to shaw to get them to fix this?

unhappy
@shawcable.net

unhappy

Anon

telus will have hard cap within this year

don't be so happy with telus.
Telus is adding an new hardware to determine ALL UPLOAD and DOWNLOAD CAP on individual basis within this year. They already started on the Eastern side of Canada. They are extending to the Western side of Canada....

Douglasss
@telus.net

Douglasss

Anon

Re: telus will have hard cap within this year

I called up telus and asked them about this and all they said was they weren't enforcing it yet

Don't know where you got your information of them overbilling you out of nowhere and with no warning. I'd like some evidence on that if you'd be willing

unhappy
@shawcable.net

unhappy to unhappy

Anon

to unhappy
you don't have to believe me.
You will see it by the end of 2003. They are working on the plan (hardware) right now.
Do you think the operator know the future plan ?
even they know, do you think they will tell you this secret ?

I am currently a SHAW user, I received a call from SHAW because of the internet overuse (40 GB UP and 40GB DOWNL in 30 days). They warned me that if I do not reduce both my upload and download usage, they will terminate my internet connection for 7 days if they notice this again on the next maintaince checkup. Therefore I am planning to switch to Telus from SHAW 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately My friend told me this bad news. Now. I have no choice ....

I am a student right now. There is no advantage to me whether you use SHAW or TELUS.
If you have any friend from Eastern side of Canada, ask them about the cap...
if they do have cap on eastern side, we (western side) will have soon...
mighty82
join:2001-08-14
h0h 0h0

mighty82

Member

nothing really to complain about...

.......

Review by keith2468 See Profile

  • Location: Winnipeg, MB, Canada
  • Cost: $50 per month (month by month)
  • Install: about 14 days
good - speed, like any good cable modem or ADSL
not good - reliability, tech support, speed generally not as advertised in here
acceptable price for fairly good speed and fairly good service
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I've been on MTS's DSL for a couple of years now. See the review here:
»Review of MTS by keith2468

March 29 Update
The email server problem appears fixed. I now get all of my email on all of my accounts on the first attempt at least 95% of the time.

March 23 Update
Shaw is advertising its speed in here as 8000 kbps download and 1000 kbps upload. Looking at the results I have had on my two computers I get about 1500/500, so a big variation between what they advertise and what ordinary consumers like me in my ordinary neighbourhood actually get.

Still, this speed is adequate for my purposes. When surfing or downloads are *noticably* slow (500-900 download), if I try a web site in a different city (west coast/east coast) it speeds up, so the problem is on the sending end with the sending server or sending ISP or trunk lines in the US. Remember, slow connections can be caused by problems anywhere from/including your computer and to/including the computer at the other end, which includes your ISP, the ISP at the other end, and all of the networks inbetween. By trying to access a website in a different region you can get an idea if the problem is at the other end.

I would say that of my colleagues (programmers and analysts) at home, now 40% use a cable modem and 20% ADSL and 30% dialup. Of those on cable and ADSL, about 60% of us use either a hardware or software (zonealarm) firewall.
----------------
This report applies to Shaw in the South St. Vital area of Winnipeg, Canada as of November, 2001.

I used to have problems with the connection to my two computers dropping (they have separate IP addresses). I'd have to do winipcfg and release and renew all. I've since cleared that up.

If you have that problem and are using Linksys NICs (network interface cards/ethernet cards) try installing a 3com NIC. This problem went away on my machines when I did this. And I did it separately on each machine ... so I know it wasn't something that changed on Shaw -- it was an incompatiblity with the Linksys and Shaw. The Linksys cards worked fine to connect my 2 machines together, it was only connecting with Shaw that the intermittent problems occured.

In practice my speed has varied from 724kbps to 3600kbps with it normally being around 1500kbps. Nowhere near the 8000k on the Shaw page here. Maybe they converted bytes to bits twice.

In any event, if I was Shaw I'd be more concerned with security, reliability, slowdowns and outages, than the maximum speed. Usually the actual maximum speed is adequate for my purposes, but not always.

(Speed of specific sites is sometimes less. That is because of the ISP of the site or the sites server, or routers in between, nothing to do with Shaw.)

It has been a long time since *I've noticed* a full outage, although a couple of times a month I can't get my mail when I first try. I try again in the morning and it is okay. So reliability of the service being there at all is good.

I have yet to receive a warning about a planned outage. I presume they occur.

The IP addresses are setup to be dynamic (DHCP), but they don't change for months. Changing IP addresses are only a problem for people running servers. (For the rest of us they changing IP addresses would probably be beneficial for security reasons.)

Installation was good and prompt. They kept their appointment. The
installer was very nice and very informative.

Tech support is very polite.

Their tech support has a great feature where they will phone you back if the
queue for support is more 5 minutes. You keep your place in the queue, but
don't have to sit waiting next to the phone.

However:

1. Tech Support is too quick to assume the problem is at the customer end.

Twice I've called up to ask, "Is your DNS in Winnipeg down?" Twice I've
spent about 2 hours debugging my system with the support rep on the phone. Once the debugging ended with, "Oh, I've just been handed a note that the DNS there is down." The other time it ended with, "Oh, we have a router down there
and you are on it."

They need better methods and equipment to detect problems with their equipment in a timely manner.

2. Hackers can see your IP address in your email and newsgroup posting
headers.

Sure Shaw needs to be able to determine the source of spam, but something
other than hacker targeting info could be used.

It is kind of like getting snail mail with your Social Security Number
(Social Insurance Number in Canada) on the outside of the envelope. (No
offense hackers, just pointing out the seriousness of Shaw's security
breech.) Most ISPs do this same thing. With dial-up though, your IP address changes each time you connect, so it doesn't matter.

3. You will be probed. You will be probed on dial-up too. Either way, expect probes several times per hour, from hackers and by virus infected computers. If you have File and Printer Sharing (F&PS) turned on, be sure to use strong passwords. Only provide write passwords if you really need to have other computers writing to your disk. Don't install F&PS if you don't need it (you can check in Start/Settings/Control Panel/Network).

4. I wouldn't be using a cable modem if I didn't have a firewall. I have 2
computers networked together here, so I need F&PS installed. I take all the precautions listed on GRC.COM, including unbinding F&PS from TCP/IP. (Look for "bondage" on the grc.com site.)

On top of that I use the free firewall at www.zonealarm.com.

If you have a problem, one of the early things Tech Support does
have you do is uninstall your ZoneAlarm. You should have a firewall if you are going to use a cable modem or ADSL. It may be okay to remove it for debugging, just re-install it later, or install another firewall.

4. I'd like to see all ISPs provide better security.

(a) ISPs should push for mandatory egress filters for all ISPs, to get rid
of the competitive advantage that comes with the reduced hardware speeds
needed when no filter is present.

(b) ISPs should have monitor robots that sit there, on unused IP addresses
in the customer ranges, and watch for random probes. These robots should
then automatically report to the ISP of the probing system that the probing
computer is being used (remotely or locally) by hackers.

You can use the service at www.myNetWatchman.com to automatically digest your firewall logs for the purposes of reporting intrusions to the ISP of the offending machine.

Reporting infected and hijacked machines is the only easy way to reduce the number of zombie machines available for use in DDoS attacks. And it is an effective way to reduce break-ins in generally.

member for 23.1 years, 1252 visits, last login: 5.9 years ago
updated 22 years ago

achaudhary
join:2001-02-06
Cortlandt Manor, NY

achaudhary

Member

Wrong ISP

If your review is for Shaw@Home, shouldn't it be under Shaw, and not DirecTV DSL?

keith2468
Premium Member
join:2001-02-03
Winnipeg, MB

keith2468

Premium Member

Re: Wrong ISP

I tried to move it. I sent an email to corrections.

zedsdead
Premium Member
join:2000-08-24
Burlington, ON

zedsdead

Premium Member

PPP??

>The IP addresses are setup to be dynamic, but mine haven't changed in over a year. It is PPP.

Shaw doesn't use PPP, it's straight ethernet. What did you mean by that?

keith2468
Premium Member
join:2001-02-03
Winnipeg, MB

keith2468

Premium Member

Re: PPP??

I was thinking of the POP3 mail server. Thanks for pointing this out.

JumboShrimp
@shawcable.net

JumboShrimp

Anon

Security

Security ought to be the responsibility of the person. When you buy a car, do you expect the car salesman to force you to get a security system, adding extra cost, time for installation, and maintenance. It's the same thing for an isp. They're only there to provide the connection, not spend time filtering ports and looking for hackers, time which could be better spent upgrading the network and service. I think what you're asking for is just plain idiotic, what's next filtering our e-mails for us so we don't get offensive materials, or monitoring our content in case we start thinking of doing illegal shit, gimme a break. I'm rather glad shaw doesn't do any filtering, because it could lead to a whole new AOL dictorship like rule. Instead I would be given the choice of when and how I do my own security for my computer, instead of having someone else do it for me.
Oh, btw there is nothing more inherently secure about dsl, it's on 24/7, just like cable, so it's subject to the same kind of attacks that cable users can have. On the subject of cable users sharing the same line, most cable companies have implemented ways around this by such methods as encrypting data, or directing data on to the specific subscriber. Get your facts straight.
System

Anon

Re: Security

Yes, we don't do any blocking or provide any firewalls at all for our service because, it would cause more problems then it would solve (except, for some prominent hacker ports). There are so many different programs that would potentially stop working because we started blocking or implementing a firewall which is why we leave it up to the customer to decide.

"(a) ISPs should push for mandatory egress filters for all ISPs, to get rid
of the competitive advantage that comes with the reduced hardware speeds
needed when no filter is present."

I have no idea what you mean by this please explain further.

keith2468
Premium Member
join:2001-02-03
Winnipeg, MB

keith2468

Premium Member

Re: Security

Hackers often spoof the origin IP address, so attacks look like they are coming from someone else's computer. Unix, Linux and Windows2000 all make it easy to spoof the origin IP address by providing raw sockets. WindowsXP will also provide raw sockets. (Go to grc.com to read Steve Gibson's excellent paper against Microsoft following industry norms because of the flood of DDoS attacks he expects from WindowsXP zombies.) Even without raw sockets, origin IP addresses can still be spoofed.

An egress filter ensures that packets leaving a router have an origin address within the address range of that router. This makes the origin of spam and hack attacks easier to determine. You do not know the IP address of the attacking computer immediately, you still have to check some routers. But you have narrowed down the range of routers to check.

Unfortunately, running the egress filter option in your router requires a wee bit of router cpu cycles, which means you need to step up to a faster router a wee bit sooner.

Therefore, in order to maximize profits by minimizing overhead, some ISPs do not activate egress filters.

I do not know whether Shaw@Home ( or @Home) runs egress filters, and it doesn't matter that much.

What does matter is whether the other ISP, the ISP of the computer making an attack is running egress filters.

Security is more an industry issue, than something one company or one individual can tackle alone.

(To laypeople. I only mention this here because Shaw is my ISP, and I want my ISP to lobby for better industry security standards. To the best of my knowledge Shaw@Home is no less secure than any other mainstream ISP.)
[text was edited by author 2001-07-10 21:02:07]
keith2468

keith2468 to Anon

Premium Member

to Anon
Shawhelp, just as a point of interest. I did a pole of my fellow programmers at work. (None are security specialists.)

Only 20% use a cable modem. None use ADSL.

When asked why, the reasons are pretty evenly split between:
1. Don't have time to use it that much (people with young children)
2. Use a computer at work, don't want to sit in front of one at home.
3. The lack of security on always-on systems. (I did point out that there is nothing stopping them powering off the machine when they aren't using it.)

Only 2 others had made more than one internet purchase. Most had never bought anything online. In this case security was the only reason my colleagues didn't make more online purchases.

So there is a poor perception of security on the internet by educated consumers.
keith2468

keith2468 to JumboShrimp

Premium Member

to JumboShrimp
All cars sold in Canada come with security systems, door and ignition locks being the legal minimum security system. Unless we buy our car in a small town, we expect the salesperson to try to sell us a security upgrade, including remote locks, ignition locks, and alarms.

But let's not discard this opinion so quickly. Could Jumbo apply individual responsibility to national defense? How about rented cars? How about Canada Post, or USPS, mail in transit? How about the security of your money in a bank?

My internet security depends on the security of all the systems I deal with on a trusted basis.

Now someone can say, "Don't use e-commerce", and someone can say, "Don't give out your real name" but then we loose much of the value, service and functionality the internet has to offer.

Internet security is a joint problem, an off-premises problem, a multi-company problem, a multi-industry problem, and a multi-national problem.

It is not an individual problem.

The physical security of your computer is a personal problem. Viri on diskettes are a personal problem. Those issues better fit Jumbo's model.

Besides, providing more security is a way for ISPs to deliver customer value and to differentiate themselves from competitors.

-Why not provide security to those customers who want it and who will only buy the basic service if you provide security?
-Why not provide deluxe security to those willing to pay a premium?
-Why not discontinue or suspend service to those who intentionally disrupt your business and your customers' business for fun or profit?

The @Home site says most probes come from Zombie systems. These are computers owned by innocent third parties. They are under the remote control of hackers using Trojans. The innocent third party owning the probing system is unaware of the misuse being made of their system.

If the Trojan is Sub 7, not only is the innocent third party's computer running probes for an off-site hacker, the contents of the hard drive and all keystrokes entered into the computer are available to the hacker.

With probes and hacks, a vital part of the defense could be a decoy running similar software that contains no vital info. When the decoy is attacked you observe how and from where.

1. You gain advance knowledge of what is going to attack your production (or your customers') system.

2. You can notify innocent third parties that the security of their computer has been violated by a trojan, so they can get rid of the trojan and change their credit card numbers.

3. By curing Zombie machines of their trojans, ISPs make them unavailable for use in DDoS attacks.

To suggest that each customer have their own decoy is to either misunderstand the suggestion, or to not understand the ramifications. This wouldn't be surprising since the decoy methodology is not often discussed in public forums.

Each decoy requires its own IP address and computer. The ISP at the hacker end has to process the probe and hack reports.

(a) Hundreds of thousands of customers generating hundreds of thousands of reports is too much administrative work for ISPs!

(b) The cost of equipment and connections for customers would be ridiculous.

Decoys would be a very effective real-time anti-hacking tool, if deployed by ISPs as a industry standard, if each ISP had a team to deal with probes, and if each ISP had an on-call team to deal with actual attacks in progress.

Decoys would allow hackers to be dealt with before they perfect the next tool, before they can do serious damage.

Firewalls and virus scanners all have one problem. They react to known methods and tools of attack.

Firewalls do not warn of successful break-ins in progress, just the unsuccessful ones. (They will tell you about successful DDoS attacks in progress.)

Virus scanners report known viri, and in heuristic mode, report files that contain code similar to that of known viri.

A decoy gives the industry advance knowledge of what is coming.

There are security measures that the home user cannot take.

1. The decoys described above.

2. With spam, the best defense is to check for mass almost identical mailings. You would need to monitor many instances of mail, monitor spam complaints, and then re-call the mass mailing if it became clear it was spam.

This anti-spam methodology requires an automated scan of email on a mass basis, so this kind of anti-spam service must always be optional on an opt-in on-request only basis.

3. Disconnecting offenders from the internet, including hostile governments and commercial organizations.
[text was edited by author 2001-07-10 20:44:46]

[text was edited by author 2001-07-10 21:05:36]

[text was edited by author 2001-07-10 21:22:32]

alex4life
Alex4life
Premium Member
join:2001-06-22
Delta, BC

alex4life

Premium Member

Good Review

Good Review. Very informative. It should be very helpful for people in your area looking in to broadband.

keith2468
Premium Member
join:2001-02-03
Winnipeg, MB

keith2468

Premium Member

Update to my review

One criticism was that Shaw had never sent me notification of a planned service outage. That appears to now be resolved !

I'm pleased to let you all know I just got an email notification that there will be a service outage on Thursday, December 6, between 2 and 5 am.

So, I got notification in advance, and it is a time when I definitely won't be on (i.e. not the wee hours of Friday or Saturday night).

Also, there had been short periods (hours) where I couldn't get at my mail. That too has been fixed. Any problems getting my mail in the past few weeks (maybe even serveral weeks) have been momentary ... just re-tried 2-3 minutes later ... and I was able to get it.

jlupien
Premium Member
join:2001-02-20
Ladysmith, BC

jlupien

Premium Member

Well said

Thanks for the feedback! Very well written. I have forwarded your excellent ideas off to out technical management team.

Jer

keith2468
Premium Member
join:2001-02-03
Winnipeg, MB

keith2468

Premium Member

Thanks guys.

Thanks guys.
System

Anon

^404ErRoR^

quote:
2. Hackers can see your IP address in your email and newsgroup posting
headers.
This has absolutely nothing to do with Shaw's system. If you have ever read the SMTP RFC, or any other good description of SMTP, you will know that the SMTP server itself adds this information to the message. If it didn't, it would be out of spec, and therefore proprietary (very very bad on a network as large as the internet email network...), and would definitely cause problems with other mail systems.
Second, why are you so worried about "hackers", having the ip address of a machine is about as useless as knowing someone's phone number, but nothing else. Unless you're stupid and get your computer trojaned up somehow, or leave default file shares set up, it's pretty much impossible to gain access (usefull access anyways) to your machine. Anyways, you'll get scanned just as much if your ip is in your outgoing email as if not, there's no point in using this information unless there's a reason for you to be targetted.

Just thought I'd get in my two cents.

wriley
I'M Sick Of Fixing Your Computer.
Premium Member
join:2001-08-30
Edmonton, AB

wriley

Premium Member

Re: ^404ErRoR^

Good point. People who think they need a firewall are just stupid. Unless you are sharing your files or have a trojan no one has access to your computer. People can't just hack in. I have no firewall and a cable modem, my computer's are on 24-7 for the last 4 years and no one has ever got into either of them. Half the scans your computer gets aren't from hackers they are from computers that have viruses or from dns servers setting up reverse lookup.

keith2468
Premium Member
join:2001-02-03
Winnipeg, MB

keith2468

Premium Member

Need Firewall With KaZaA , Gnutella or ICQ

If you think you need a firewall only with file and printer sharing you are incorrect. Check this out for just one example on KaZaA and Gnutella:

»forum.kazaa.com/forum/re ··· &t=19862

Also, ICQ opens you up to know attacks, as does HP's printer sharing.

Almost anything that lets someone send your computer means opening a port and creating a vulnerability. Web games, other complex IM tools, other data sharing facilities. Just most haven't had hacker attention yet.
keith2468

keith2468 to Anon

Premium Member

to Anon

IP address gives way more than phone number

Yes it does have to do with Shaw, and your IP address says way more than your phone number.

A semi-static (DHCP) IP address is a bigger security vulnerability than the CPUID that Intel wanted to imbed in its PIII chips. Both allow web sites and software vendors to track you, but your IP address also allows anyone else to track things like your newsnet newsgroup postings too.

Also, your phone company and police will take much more effective action if you are getting prank phone calls than your ISP and police can if you are being cyber-stalked. (Cyber-stalkers can still be tracked, but they have to be a much bigger nuisance for police in most jurisdictions to bother with them, due to the extra effort and expenses involved.)

=== Correct this isn't a fault just of Shaw.=== I *did* point that out in my review.

Lack of security is a generalized industry problem, not something that any one ISP or any one operating system vendor alone can correct.

When I first got shaw (shaw@home in those days 2+ years ago) I did a simple deja-news search on my IP address. This is a search of newsnet-type newsgroup postings that anyone can legitimately make.

The previous owner of my IP address was a nurse, I knew what city she lived in, and the chronic illness she suffered from. I may have also known her first name, but maybe she used a nickname. This was just from a couple of posting she made. There were more but I stopped reading because I felt like I was spying, and I had no reason to spy. My ethics took over. Some people do not have ethics.

Several months later, there was a guy posting in a computer consultants newsgroup. He sure didn't sound like a computer consultant. I did a search on his IP address and found out that the same IP address and nickname was used for posts on life insurance sales in Boston. He also did posts on his car, a 1998 Accura. He did other posts too, I probably could have figured out more about him. However I stopped investigating: I only wanted to know if he really was a computer consultant, or was just a disruptive wannabe.

The point is, people can put a lot of stuff together about you using your semi-static IP address if you choose to participate in newsnet newsgroup chats.

Now I could have searched on e-mail address too ... but many many people use dummy return addresses for newsgroup postings, and the return addresses are easy to change.

Not the specific fault of Shaw, but something I'd like Shaw to bring up with its software vendors, at standards meetings, conventions, and so on.

Hackers don't even give their real names in-person at conventions. Hackers know how hard it is to maintain security on anything when you can be so easily tracked. Hackers usually use dial-up to connect when hacking, to provide anonymity, but prefer to penetrate computers on cable and ADSL connections (dial-ups get probed too, about half as often).

Cable and ADSL connections are so much faster that most of us who have them would never give them up. But security is an issue that, industry wide, continues to need attention.
keith2468

keith2468 to Anon

Premium Member

to Anon

Games and Music Sharing Products

Internet game servers, print servers and non-operating system type (music) file sharing products also create a potential need for firewalls.

It is not just your OS that can open ports on your computer.

Also, IM type programs, like ICQ and Yahoo Messenger also act like servers and open ports. They too may create a need for firewalls.

That said, I'm not aware of warez written to exploit the vulnerabilities in these things, other than the HP print server.

Zonealarm is a nice free firewall. www.zonealarm.com look for the free version.

Again, this is a generalized vulerabiltiy, not something specific to Shaw. It would be a factor on dial-up or ADSL too.

wriley
I'M Sick Of Fixing Your Computer.
Premium Member
join:2001-08-30
Edmonton, AB

wriley to Anon

Premium Member

to Anon

Re: ^404ErRoR^

Who cares about ports. They can't do anything. I have lots of ports open on my machine. I have vnc running, and file sharing. I have also had the same ip address for years, and i never turn my computer off. I have no firewall, but i also have no trojans which makes it imposible for someone to get into my system. Unless of course they crack my password. But if someone wants to break into my computer and look at my resume, i couldn't really be bothered. I format my computer and change my passwords every couple months anyway. Get over it.
C4Xplosive
join:2002-02-21
Vancouver, WA

C4Xplosive

Member

Tweakage?

Did you try doing some major tweakage to Windows or your Internet browser (yes that helps up to 50% loading pages)? I have read numerous reviews of people getting a max of 3Mbps with Optium Online but its up to you to get the MAX speed by tweaking your connection to get the advertised speed.

wintr
join:2004-10-13
Calgary, AB

1 edit

wintr

Member

Damn, didn't realise thayt the did that.

Quick check, I'd assume that the hacks can still see our Ip's on shaw in our headers because my host name still resolves with the ip in it. They've been doing this for how long?

Man, that blows... time to tighten down the hatches a little bit more, I haddn't thought about that.

Edit: or is it because their routers provide a originating Ip address in all the headers that it applys after it strips them. Directly tied to my adapter. Sorry, just having a little trouble grasping this concept.

Review by yamla See Profile

  • Location: Edmonton, AB, Canada
  • Business customer Business customer
  • Cost: $60 per month
No bandwidth monitoring
Tech support is virtually impossible to reach. They do not respond to emails and rarely bother to call you back.
There are many other, better, options around.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Calling their tech support is like an exercise in pulling teeth. Last time I called, their automated system claimed a wait time of about 45 minutes but said I could leave my phone number for a call back. I did this and they never bothered to call back. In fact, I have done this three times, not once did they call back. Other times, I have registered a complaint through their web site and requested an email back but, of course, Shaw did not bother to email me back.

My experience with Shaw internet access is that they are _decent_ (though not great) if you never once have to call tech support and are satisfied just hoping that they will resolve any issues that come up without prompting.

member for 22.1 years, 3 visits, last login: 21.1 years ago
lodged 22.1 years ago


emmpeethree
Twizzling Flagella
Premium Member
join:2001-04-13
Richmond, BC

emmpeethree

Premium Member

they do monitory transfer (not bandwidth)

they do monitor, but don't enforce unless you are heavily abusing it.

they do respond to me by email and phone fairly quickly... maybe you are calling between shifts or something?

and also, for your bottom line

what are all these other alternatives other then cable? if your lucky enough to be in the dsl coverage area, then good for you, but if you aren't... well who do you call? sattelite? i dont think thats a worthy alterntive with .5 megabit max downloads and 500 pings, not to mention double the price, more equipment and less reliability

wireless hasn't really rolled out (look communications was goign to, but nearly went bankrupt...)

phenominal_steve
@bbnplanet.net

phenominal_steve

Anon

Re: they do monitory transfer (not bandwidth)

Anyone interested in hearing about a new broadband telephony service that is currently “un-launched” to the public and in Beta - and has yet to be branded - However, it is available for trial

The service is self-provisioning…
· It offers very competitive anytime, anywhere minutes with the same quality as your traditional telephone provider…
· It looks like the first real alternative to traditional residential telephony as a second line service…

I used the service myself and fell in love with it from the moment I used it.

This is incredible!!!! Has anyone seen anything like this?????

LOKII
@shawcable.net

LOKII

Anon

Re: they do monitory transfer (not bandwidth)

if this thing is so great then why don't you tell us more about it where it is whats it called and what the speeds of it are? i am sitting here reading this thinking to myself this guy just might be full of shit....
Firecaster
join:2002-02-10
Edmonton, AB

Firecaster

Member

At least they let you leave a phone number...

I've had to call tech support on a number of occasions when they switched the node I was on. The wait was about an hour on one call (which was at about 10:00 AM), and there was no offer to leave a phone number. The ONLY time I've had quick (5 minute wait) service was at 5 PM on a holiday. Otherwise, forget about calling tech support.

~ Firecaster ~