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Review by matt_r6 See Profile

  • Location: Dartmouth, NS, Canada
  • Cost: $60 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 7 days
Extremely Fast Download
Extremely Slow Upload
Great if you never plan to upload
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

This is the better provider in Nova Scotia for high speed downloads.

As others have said, the tech support/customer service works on a "sorry, but no" basis. Only way to get any kind of "yes" response is to talk to a manager, or the managers manager. When I first started getting charged, they were double billing me and initially refused to reinburse me for the second billing! (settled it now, finally, months later)

My main problem with eastlink is if you do any kind of online gaming, there is not enough upstream to host a game. In some games (ex. Formula One:CE for PS3) if you get designated as host (you don't get to choose), the game will start but it will fail shortly thereafter. In Warhawk for PS3, you get tested before you can host a game, and this is a game that supports up to 32 players. I can not host a game larger than 10 players. Most people can do at least 24. Some 32.

I use bittorrent legally to get the YDL Linux for ps3 (freeware). Eastlink throttles bittorrent so bad I was lucky to break the 10KB/s barrier on my upstream. It took days to download what should have taken hours (they throttle download too). I know they are throttling because once I started using encrypted transfers, the speed started to rise to what seems to be a blanket upstream cap of 30KB/s. I know torrents only perform as well as the swarm, but it was obvious throttling after downloading it 5 times from different trackers.

In any event. Download good (except torrents), Upload terrible.

member for 16.5 years, 5 visits, last login: 16.4 years ago
lodged 16.5 years ago


townie2
@eastlink.ca

townie2

Anon

encrypted transfers?

please tell us newbs more about encrypted transfers, what they are and do. how can we speed up downloads? mine are pathetically slow. using utorrent.
jerak
join:2006-07-06

jerak

Member

Re: encrypted transfers?

I am a long time eastlink user, and have not noticed any throttling re. torrent protocol. I have not encrypted my transfers, (you can do this with programs like UTorrent) and routinely see download speeds over 500k/s. Are you using a static ip on the box you are downloading with?

I have had problems with eastlink re. intermittent drops in speed/line quality which I am routinely told by tech staff are either not occurring or an issue on my end (not just typical cable full-pipe issues either). I have recently moved and upgraded to their 15M connection, and I currently see no difference at all from the 5M connection I was on.
jericho7
join:2001-07-20
Halifax, NS

jericho7

Member

Re: encrypted transfers?

thats cause there isnt much differece, even a superviser at eastlink opened his bigmouth on another forum and said that they are throttling almost every protocol except for some http, and nntp is throttled to 4mbits and ftp is throttled to 5mbits and the only time you will see anything over 5 mbits is either there http speedtest or possibly a premium newserver nntp port other then 119 unless they have started throttling the other ports all these premium newservers are using now which i heard they have started to throttle those as well.

Murph
@eastlink.ca

Murph

Anon

No Throttling, Bittorrent or otherwise

There is no throttling of bittorrent, downloads, or uploads with eastlink. If you cant host games or arn't connectable for bittorrent, you should make sure you have all the proper ports forwarded to the proper devices. Also try putting your PS3 on the DMZ zone of your router, this will allow anyone to connect to it. I used to have that problem with my 360, but as soon as i gave it a DMZ address I havent had a problem with it
jericho7
join:2001-07-20
Halifax, NS

1 edit

jericho7

Member

Re: No Throttling, Bittorrent or otherwise

Murph , your either very stupid or are an employee with eastlink ,i think you are the later. They are throttling ports and protocols so don't come on here and say they aren't throttling anything until you actually do some research which i and others have already done and also the fact that eastlink has admitted to throttling so theres not much more to say. theres even an article up in the coast paper where they even admit to the throttling so nice try.

Read:

»www.thecoast.ca/119846.1 ··· .subpub=
matt_r6
join:2007-09-14
Dartmouth, NS

matt_r6 to Murph

Member

to Murph
There is nothing wrong with my network setup. I already have my ps3 in the DMZ, but it will work fine without it. I do not use DHCP. Everything is set up for static IP's. I have checked all of the settings and tried a lot of things to improve performance (like removing router from the equation) with no luck. The ps3 is wired into the router.

Like I said I can host games I just don't have enough bandwidth available to host a full sized game. Eastlink could care less about this because the majority of customers do not use the internet in this manner and therefore do not complain about the issue.

I can connect to bittorrent, and it is pretty obvious that the speed the restricted on the upstream, which likely means it is restricting my ps3's upstream in the same manner.

At the end of the day this will never get fixed until the average user starts running into this problem and starts complaining more frequently.

Review by thparkth See Profile

  • Location: Bedford, NS, Canada
  • Cost: $56 per month
  • Install: about 10 days
Genuinley very fast, very reliable, good (non outsourced) tech support
Can't self install; first modem supplied was a dud (replaced later same day)
The best option in Halifax without a doubt
Pre Sales information:
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Value for money:

Previously had Aliant "ultra" DSL. Actual speed delivered by Aliant was around 3Mpbs. Eastlink is much faster and more reliable for basically the same price.

member for 16.5 years, 4 visits, last login: 13.1 years ago
updated 16.5 years ago







Review by corman420 See Profile

  • Location: Halifax, NS, Canada
  • Cost: $68 per month
15mbps down! 1.5mbps UP!
10 times better than any other HSI provider I've ever had. Hands down!
Pre Sales information:
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Value for money:

Eastlink 15mbps is wayyyy better than Aliant's 1mbps which caps a lot of protocols. Installation was painless, the guy even ran a new cable from the pole to my modem just so I'd get the best possible speed. Motorola modem supplied - sufboard 5101. Torrents download over 700KB/s and can download up to 1.3MB/s. I can download from nvidia, microsoft and many other sites at nearly 2.5MB/s. Im serious when I say that. I just downloaded my graphics driver at 2.22MB/s.

member for 18.6 years, 12 visits, last login: 15 years ago
updated 16.5 years ago


Nighthawk6001
@eastlink.ca

Nighthawk6001

Anon

Eastlink rock!

I just switched back to Eastlink after using Aliant's so-called "High-Speed Ultra" service for about 4 years. Supposedly paying for 6mbit (which was downgraded to 5mbit) for the same price as Eastlink's 15mbit service I figured what the heck, why not switch.

The service I got was great, from the order to hookup, everything was done in a professional manner and both the phone and the internet works great. I'm able to pull down files from Microsoft.com's download center at around 2.8MB/sec in Internet Explorer which is insane, and downloading FEAR Combat Multiplayer (which is around 1.6GB I believe?) took about 20 minutes as I was downloading the torrent at over 900kb/s.

Review by hinchesk See Profile

  • Location: Upper Tantallon, NS, Canada
  • Cost: $87 per month
15Mbps (in theory) for the price of 10Mbps
Lots of bandwith throttling on certain protocols, not sure how to use 15Mbps
Very good service but unfriendly to nntp/ftp downloaders
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

The service costs a total $87.29 for the local phone (no LD) + high speed 15 bundle. The only other option in the area is Aliant. Service is reliable and support has been helpful but only used once or twice and for easy stuff. Order / install was painless. Motorola modem.

The service package seems good for the money other than the throttling via what I believe is the Ellacoya product. Expect max 4mpbs for nntp transfers. Speed tests will report 15Mbps since they use a different protocol. Throttling during business hours or up until 10pm etc would be ok but why 24/7. Planning to review Aliant feedback closely to evaluate whether or not a switch is worth it.

Not sure what benefit the 15Mbps is to me with the throttling... can't tell a difference over 10Mbps.



member for 18.6 years, 17 visits, last login: 16.1 years ago
lodged 16.6 years ago

acrufox
join:2004-07-14
Fort Wayne, IN

acrufox

Member

workarounds...throttling

...you just need to find the workaround to their throttling Even with their childish throttling protocols they are a heck of a lot better than what Aliant offers. Lame PPPOE dialer and speeds just over 1-2 Megabits in most cases.
jericho7
join:2001-07-20
Halifax, NS

jericho7

Member

Re: workarounds...throttling

yeah i noticed also that the ftp protocol seems to be throttled as well to 5mbits, no matter how many slots you open in ftp the speed stays at a constant 615kb/s, all these speed increases are just a marketing ploy to get new customers bottom line. I've said it once I'll say it again , whats the point of the speed increases if we are not able to use it? http seems the only thing that isnt throttled but who needs 15mbits to load web pages anyway? I understand having to throttle p2p like bittorrent as they are a big hog on upstream but throttling ftp and nntp is pretty pathetic.
acrufox
join:2004-07-14
Fort Wayne, IN

acrufox

Member

Re: workarounds...throttling

...but not so pathetic when you compare what the rest of Canada is getting :P Well for one, when you have more than one computer in use at any one time. Sure you may only go at 615K/sec but that still leaves plenty of room for other things like HTTP and or NNTP running at the same time.

In the end though more upstream would be useful, sending photos and other digital media to family and friends is rather cumbersome as barely 1 megabit doesn't cut it these day and hearing how sending said photos slows everything to a crawl is also very annoying :S

Review by MadmaxVTX3 See Profile

  • Location: Dartmouth, NS, Canada
  • Cost: $45 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 3 days
Hasn't been down in over 8 months
Tech Support
Passing grade for reliability and Speed(15Mb) but Tech-Support
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Eastlink has always had a good connection in both places I have lived but if they can see your router throught there cable moden than your out of luck for getting good support, the main reply is "My end of the connection to your home is good, therefore there is something wrong with your setup"... when it rains it has trouble remaining in synch. Meanwhile I have been telling them that it drops off whenever it feels like it when it rains, I have , connected directly to one system and still did the same thing. After it stopped raining for 3/4 days, one tech comes in and said signal way to strong, so he puts a 75dbm in line with it and cuts my signal strength to almost zero, now it drops off if you blow on it (When it rains), 3 or 4 days after the rain, second tech comes in, cable is bad from panel in home to cable modem, what is this 75dbm whoa too much signal drop there... puts everything back together...seems to be working fine. Next day it rains....same problem, same answer from tech support and I told them to get a guy out here now while the cable is wet. One of there contract Tech comes in, I told him its either from the connection on telephone pole or going into home, he asks what happens, your right, I will change the cable, unplugs cable from pole, water pours out, well alot for water ingress into a cable, he hopes that it isn't the other way (towards company vice towards my home) Changes cable, goes down to where the modem is and curses and throws away the 75dbm inline, and now I have never had a problem since. Stormed last night, never lost cable, never lost any signal.

member for 17.1 years, 19 visits, last login: 15.1 years ago
updated 16.6 years ago

acrufox
join:2004-07-14
Fort Wayne, IN

acrufox

Member

Eastink

Originally when I was on Dartmouth Cable I never had a problem. Going from Shaw and then to Eastlink my connection would die for most of the night and when it rained as well. Originally these complaints fell on deaf ears with techs sent out to tell me the line needed replacing(was replaced 2 years previous)

After being told there was a "bad node" in the area and I was one of the only people signed onto coax internet that they couldn't/wouldn't fix it unless a tech was out at the pole while it was occurring I switched to Aliant. A couple years later I switched back and obtained a new modem, haven't had any downtime since

Review by stukindaguy See Profile

  • Location: Sydney, NS, Canada
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
  • Install: about 5 days
Fast Connection, no throttle, great service, Quick Installation, and were honest about their fees, didn't try to hide anything
Occasionally you will get a support rep who knows absolutely nothing and tries to pull something out of their behind
Best possible ISP on the East Coast
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

The first thing I want to mention is that Eastlink does NOT throttle connections (at least not anymore, I get the full 15mbps on speed tests (even as far as New York)...after that and depending on the site it will get slower, and thats why many people say that they are throttling (or maybe they actually used to, but don't anymore). I also don't notice a 30GB cap that some people are stating, and believe me, i use over 30GB/month.

I can't state the price I pay because it's integrated in a bundle with digital cable and telephone service...but it is a great price.

From fast sites with regular traffic i can usually get about 800-1000kilobytes per second average. (under the 1800 advertised but lets face it...that's not gonna happen unless you pay for fiber...and even then, not always)

I initially had Sympatico dial-up (by Bell) and well...what can i say...it was dial-up...then I considered Aliant High Speed DSL...but it's not that much better priced, and it's much slower, so I went with Eastlink and couldn't be happier.

The connection never goes down, unless it's for scheduled maintenance, which they schedule for late at night when most people are asleep (and even if your using it, it's usually not down for more then 15 min.)

member for 17 years, 2 visits, last login: 16.6 years ago
lodged 16.6 years ago


SickandDisgusted
@eastlink.ca

SickandDisgusted

Anon

Eastlink WILL NOT ANSWER TO ANYONE.

I just filed a complaint with the CRTC regarding Eastlink's arrogance.

As of this morning, August 28, 2007, my computer keeps freezing whenever I use a Torrent client (Shareaza, Bittorent and Azureus all do the same).

My downloads have been capped at 3kb per second on a cable modem. I can not believe this! It also crashes my web browsers, both IE and Firefox if I open a Torrent client with them running.

I telephone Eastlink to ask them if they made any changes to their service or put any restrictions on it. Rather then answer, they told me they do not discuss their network with customers. I asked to speak to a supervisor, and was told to cancel my service if I didn't like their policies.

No one at Eastlink wants to talk, is there anyone else having these issues?

Riker
@eastlink.ca

Riker

Anon

Re: Eastlink WILL NOT ANSWER TO ANYONE.

Crashing doesn't sound right, you really should check your computer to ensure that there isn't something wrong with it. That could explain the slow speeds, crashing and other freezing issues.

Try some anti-virus and anti-spyware software scans first. Then if nothing changes, try another computer (if you have one). This might provide you some solutions.

In the worst case you could have some hardware issues. Windows could simply be messed up.

Review by clicker6660 See Profile

  • Location: Whites Lake, NS, Canada
  • Cost: $162 per month
  • Install: about 7 days
Great speed!
Customer service is not that great, on par with the other providers.
Wouldn't trade it for anything else in Halifax!
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Now with 15 Mb service, definitely rocking!

member for 18.7 years, 1 visits, last login: 16.6 years ago
updated 16.6 years ago







Review by deanrw See Profile

  • Location: Charlottetown, PE, Canada
  • Cost: $45 per month
Great Download Speeds, Low Latency, Clean Network
Wish we had higher than 1 mbit upload
Pretty Good Deal overall
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
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Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Eastlink seems to have bumped up everyones speed beyond 10/1 now. They have not advertised it yet, but speeds have jumped at least 50%

hitting 14/1 - 17/1 in various tests online

Can anyone confirm?

UPDATE: Official today: they bumped all 10/1 customers to 15/1 free of charge!


member for 21.3 years, 193 visits, last login: 7.5 years ago
updated 16.6 years ago

dimension
join:2006-10-16
Charlottetown, PE

dimension

Member

Eastlink Speed

14.4Mbs down ...900 KBS up






Review by magwa999 See Profile

  • Location: Louisbourg, NS, Canada
  • Cost: $41 per month
  • Install: about 4 days
?
line compression
for the money and location not a bad deal.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
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Tech Support:
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Value for money:

As with any cable company you never get the advertised speed but seems really less with this one. I have used several different ones throughout Canada and US and find that Comcast had the best speeds with little or no compression. The bottom line is having cable internet on Cape Breton is a blessing compression or no compression this beats dial-up by a mile but as with any luxury in life it costs!

member for 16.8 years, 2 visits, last login: 16 years ago
lodged 16.8 years ago


Review by ericmcbride See Profile

  • Location: Halifax, NS, Canada
  • Cost: $55 per month
  • Install: about 5 days
Good Techs, CAN be very fast, Good modems
Now and again you get a tech who totally pulls information out of her ass
Eastlink is the best thing in Halifax
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Two years ago when High Speed 10 came out I had a modem which gave me 9700kbps. Unheard of. Then I moved downstairs and had a one-generation older modem and got 8600kbps. Yay.

I moved down the road and sadly into another node which techsupport says is "shared among a lot of others" (CROWDED NODE!) and I am getting 3600!! The tech fed me some nonsense about getting 9000 only if you're a business. BS. I got 1.1MB/s all the time for 2 years.
What the hell is that? I lost more than 60% of my service.
No doubt the node IS crowded, there's a pile of people in this building versus my old one...but techsupport says "there's only a problem when your connection is 3000."

I am paying HighSpeed10 price for 30% of HighSpeed5 performance.

Tech support has good training. Not always the best tho. No apology for my disappointment. Perhaps there are too many splitters on one cable? What do I do now? This speed drop is totally unacceptable for $55/month especially compared to previous speeds.

UPDATE: After I called back and asked that tier 2 call me, someone called back and sent me to trade in my Motorola "BS"4100 to a new SB5101.
Speed test: 10730kb/s, Real World local download: 1.2MB/s

Thankyou tier 2! What a piss off it was to have some girl tell me that "9000 isn't possible, that's only for business". I shouldn't have had to escalate this to tier 2 anyway. She should have investigated further instead of bullshitting me.
Perhaps you should get a job at SuperStore sweetie...

member for 17.3 years, 13 visits, last login: 16 years ago
lodged 17.3 years ago


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

emmpeethree

Premium Member

swtich to teh slower plan

why not just pay less and switch to the slower plan.

or better yet, threaten to cancel or switch to slower plan if you don't get better speeds quiclkly

just bitch and you'll get what you want, always ask to speak to a supervisor
ericmcbride
join:2006-12-12
Halifax, NS

ericmcbride

Member

Re: swtich to teh slower plan

I asked them what would happen if I downgraded and they said t he speed would go down. If the node is crowded, that would be an expensive fix and no amount of bitching would get them to actually upgrade. If it's because they did something stupid like split the cable too many times then they need a repeater to speed it all up (lossy cabling).
But I'm going to call back and ask for supervisor and tier-two.
ericmcbride

1 edit

ericmcbride to emmpeethree

Member

to emmpeethree
You're right! Bitching is great.

ISP admin
@eastlink.ca

1 recommendation

ISP admin

Anon

speed results

The diffence in speed results was as a result of moving to a different server , not node. The server connection you had been on, used what they call a different Quam setting. When you transferred your service, you found yourself on a new server with different Quam settings and as a result the older cable modem was unable to meet the demands of the new network an unfortunate side effect of upgrading speeds and servers settings. The vast majority of users will never see a difference but occasionally the "firmware" and internal electrical components of an older cable modem will fail to "autocorrect" itself. Resulting in slower speeds. New Modem, better speeds! The rep you were speaking to was also reading that the possible slow speeds were possibly a result of disfunctional customer equipment, which in all likelyhood is usually the case, almost 90% of the time.

Nodes also autobalance, so the number of users is never an issue. That is something that only older networks have an issue with not Fibreoptic/coax networks like Eastlink runs. The network/nodes are newer equipment. Hence the reason Eastlink consistently receives one of the highest ISP speed results in North America. No small task I might add.

It is good that your service was corrected and I am happy that the Tier2/supervisor support was able to assist you. Go Eastlink!

For more information on cable modem hardware and speed capabilties please websites such as Tom's Hardware and of couse the various Modem Manufacturer's websites.

Signed, ISP Admin/Satisified Eastlink Customer.