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Review by EUS See Profile

  • Location: Montreal, QC, Canada
  • Cost: $34 per month
  • Install: about 2 days
Allows servers, no port blocking, affordable(34.49 3008/800 1static ip)
They have recently switched to cogentco - SUX!
Good deal
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I've been with them for a couple of yrs now.

BAD)When i joined they had connection with Peer, now they run through congentco which is proving to be problematic, as there always seems to be HUGE latency on that network (usually starting @ 9pm EST).

GOOD)Static ip's, knowledgable service, allows servers, no port blocking, affordable. Also residential can sign for VPN service if need be.

Update, signed on to dedicated service, and now am synch'd at 4032/800. Very nice.

*Edit*July 10th 2005

Dumped about 5 months ago in favor of Electronicbox.net due to outages, and terrible cogentco network. Cheap? Sure, but terrible, left a bad taste in my mouth.

Electronicbox.net is SUPER! More $$$/mth, but I will pay a premium to get 18ms to NY. They are peered with Peer1 among others, and I am in love. They also allow servers, /29 subnet or more if you want (even for residential). I would write a review for them, but they are not listed here. So I'll give them accolades instead of that other ISP I used to use. $50/mth (taxes in), 3meg down/800k up, 8 ip's (6 usable). No port throttling/blocking, unlimited transfer.

Thanks Electronicbox.net!

member for 21.5 years, 6683 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 18.7 years ago


Thanh
join:2001-09-25
Pierrefonds, QC
·gemstelecom

Thanh

Member

Cogentco ???

That's not entirely true. They've added a Cogentco link (via THT) but they didn't dithed NAC.

Tracing mail.yahoo.com gives:
1 20 ms 20 ms 20 ms ip1-165.tor.istop.com
2 20 ms 20 ms 20 ms ip161-167.tor.istop.com
3 20 ms 20 ms 30 ms 0.fa3-13.esd1.tor.nac.net
4 30 ms 40 ms 40 ms 0.so-3-2-0.gbr2.nwr.nac.net
5 40 ms 51 ms 40 ms 0.so-0-2-0.gbr1.ash.nac.net
6 40 ms 50 ms 60 ms exchange-cust1.ash.equinix.net
7 50 ms 50 ms 60 ms vlan220-msr2.dcn.yahoo.com
8 50 ms 50 ms 50 ms vl49.bas1-m.dcn.yahoo.com
9 121 ms 150 ms 90 ms login1.login.vip.dcn.yahoo.com

EUS
Kill cancer
Premium Member
join:2002-09-10
canada

EUS

Premium Member

Re: Cogentco ???

There are multiple routes istop takes, when it goes through nac.net, or peer1, its great!
However, there are many instances where traffic gets routed through Cogentco, and that is when ping times go up (on my end).

Review by Thanh See Profile

  • Location: Pierrefonds, QC, Canada
  • Cost: $36 per month
  • Telco party Bell Canada
  • CLEC party: Bell Canada
Cheap, stable and tech-friendly ISP
Some downtime
Great value
Pre Sales information:
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My Other Reviews

·gemstelecom
Except a few glitches (rare downtime, usage page is frequently down), their connection is stable. For 36$/month, that include the basic self-serve package (PPPoE) + a static IP.

Using an Alcatel Speed Touch Home moden + a Linksys BEFSR41 router

Their tech-support is actually tech-people, not script-readers like Sympatico !!!

Speed results: 320kB/s - 80kB/s

Update - feb. 2004 - : After the last big fiasco, ISTOP has been fast & reliable. They changed their cap policy by offering unlimited uploads. The 30GB peak-time cap remains, but only for download traffic. They seems to have ditched NAC for residential customers since all trafic now seems to go through Cogent or Torix.

member for 22.5 years, 1418 visits, last login: 43 days ago
updated 19.1 years ago


Review by stark2 See Profile

  • Location: undisclosed location
  • Cost: $30 per month (month by month)
  • Install: about 2 days
  • Telco party Bell Canada
Cheap. Friendly, knowledgable, helpful service (when it wasn't busy), Static IPs, Did I mention Cheap?
Speed isn't the greatest; Tech support isn't an 800 line. And during a system-wide outage the phone number is busy.
Ok service at great price
Pre Sales information:
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I've used istop.com for a couple years now. They're not the best out there but
they're not the worst either, and what do you expect for $29.95/month with
generous bandwidth cap at peak hours and unlimited off-peak?

Cons: Speed isn't the greatest, I rarely get more than 1.7MB/s on my 3Mb/s
line. Frequent outages at night, even a few outages during the day. Tech
support isn't an 800 line. And during a system-wide outage the phone number is
busy.

Pros: Cheap. Friendly, knowledgable, helpful service when I spoke to anyone.
Static IPs (starting to be more common now, but was hard to find when I first
signed up). Did I mention cheap?

Unfortunately their network has been through a few too many outages and
failures for me to stick with them. They were out for several *days* after the
north-east power failure. That's unacceptable. I worked for an ISP during the
Montreal ice storm and we never went down at all, even after a losing power
for days and having downtown streets closed. They never offered a credit
either.

Now they've had this billing dispute with Bell that cut me off for two days
again. I do believe their story about it all being Bell's errors and that Bell
cutting them off violated their contract. But it doesn't really matter to me.
Other ISPs just don't let things like this happen.

So I'm going to be upgrading to a more expensive but more reliable service
(electronicbox.net). Or check out igs.net if you want something more reliable
than istop.com. But they're more expensive too. Or there's teksavvy for the
same price but with a 20GB cap.

member for 24.5 years, 104 visits, last login: 18.5 years ago
lodged 19.3 years ago


Review by xoy747 See Profile

  • Location: Schenectady, Schenectady, NY, USA
  • Cost: $30 per month
  • Telco party Bell Canada
Stable connection
No technical support, but I didn't need it
Works for me
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Had ISTOP for ISP for almost 2 years. At first, I was a direct customer, now through one of their resellers (which I work for).

My experience with them was good. Sometimes my service drops, but that happens on average 3-4 times a year and gets fixed without any intervention on my side, so I consider that satisfactory for a home user.

Several people at the office have DSL through ISTOP, all of them are happy except for 1 (he complains about service drop very often), but I don't think it's not ISTOP's fault. Either bad line from the central office or (most likely) stupid user.

member for 19.3 years, 2 visits, last login: 19.3 years ago
lodged 19.3 years ago


Review by kvv25f See Profile

  • Location: k1s5y5
  • Cost: $29 per month
  • Install: about 5 days
All ports are open, can run server, REALLY unlimited from 2am to 10am
Poor customer service and this is not about help desk support
Not bad at all.
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I was charged recently for extra traffic having 25,215MB.
When asked them how big is ISTOP's 1 GB got reply: ISTOP's 1GB=1000MB.
So, be aware it is not 1024x25=25,600, it is 1000x25, so amount of traffic included in the account is actually 25,000MB not 25GB.
Too bad they've done something to their network recently and my Linksys router even with the latest firware update CANNOT connect anymore (getting LCP authentication error).


member for 19.6 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 19.6 years ago


Review by aarono8 See Profile

  • Location: Ottawa, ON, Canada
  • Cost: $32 per month
  • Telco party Bell Canada
  • CLEC party: Bell Canada
cheap, fast, easy
none
you are dumb to have sympatico if you can have this
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awesome ISP... hands down

member for 21.2 years, 578 visits, last login: 17.5 years ago
lodged 20.1 years ago


john_02
join:2005-01-31
canada

john_02

Member

ISTOP

nice






Review by mightybig See Profile

  • Location: canada
  • Cost: $32 per month
  • Install: about 9 days
  • Telco party Bell Canada
Zippy, solid connection speeds, excellent price, great support, good value.
VERY minor connectivity outages here and there, nothing worrisome.
Cheap, fast, reliable, and no hassles for the average user.
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Have been with istop for about a year now without complaint.Using the 1.7 residential self-serve and have routinely clocked 1.5+ continually.(Helps to have the CO two blocks away.)

Like all other services there are small connectivity issues. Most average users I have surveyed have experienced outages of varying scales over a number of providers,so far, istop has been
relatively stable with an unannounced 5-10 disconnects infrequently over 80hrs or so of monthly
connectivity. (Barring huge power-grid failures.)

Advantage in buying speedstream 5260 and filters and the installation was a snap.
Static IP available, dial-up is free 20hrs/month. 25GIG monthly with unlimited off-peak.(2am-10am)

Only $20 for activation of self-serve.

2004 will see speed increased to 3.0/800 for the same cost. (or less)

If you want a no-nonsense, stable ISP with good support, check out istop.



member for 20.1 years, 147 visits, last login: 17.9 years ago
lodged 20.1 years ago


Review by SecondLight See Profile

  • Location: East York, ON, Canada
  • Cost: $36 per month (month by month)
  • Install: about 14 days
  • Telco party Bell Canada
  • CLEC party: Bell Canada
Very low cost, speeds as advertised, excellent support
No 24/7 support
Excellent ISP offering very good value for money.
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Service was installed, and running within 24 hours of committed date, speeds were as advertised, and network support has been very knowledgeable. They allow servers. I have a 1.7mbit/384 kbit connection with a reserved IP address over PPPoE.

member for 21.4 years, 26 visits, last login: 19.5 years ago
lodged 20.1 years ago







Review by Savant See Profile

  • Location: Toronto
  • Cost: $30 per month (month by month)
  • Install: about 10 days
  • Telco party Bell Canada
Good no-nonsense service at a good price
Usenet servers could be better
Great value for the money!
Pre Sales information:
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I've been a subscriber at iStop for about 2 years, and I pay on a yearly basis. I find the service to be reliable and efficient.

While the tech support staff are quite helpful and friendly, they don't have a large number of staff to service 'novice' users. So I would suggest that only those who can set up their own modem and PPPoE settings sign up for the 'no frills' package. If you need assistance with your setup, then you should get the package that includes additional tech support for an extra $5 a month. Otherwise, you would really only need to contact them if your service was down.

The only complaints some people have are that the USENET servers are not as reliable as some other ISPs, but that tends to be interpretive. Many people don't even use USENET, and if you don't then you have nothing to worry about. As with everything, things can change, so check the forums and ask around about iStop's newsgroups if they are important to you.

I chose the 1.2M/160K self-serve package, which is now 1728K/384K with the new Bell speed increases. (I'm getting 1450K/350K, I used to get 950K/128K)

I'm happy that I can own my own modem and I do not have to pay rental fees. Connection is PPPoE with a dynamic IP, or you can pay an extra $4 a month for a static IP. They have no objection to you running servers on your connection, but keep in mind they do have bandwidth caps of 15GIG a month during peak periods, and 80GIG during off peak. (2am to 8am)

Mail services include built-in spam blacklists, although you can opt-out by using an alternate istop email address for incoming mail. Up to 5 free email accounts, 10 MEG of web space, and limited free dial-up access (20 hours/month) are also included in the package price.

While based in Ottawa, they service Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and the surrounding areas. They have a solid backbone connection to Manhattan from Toronto (OC-3), as well as a 100M connection from Ottawa to Toronto. (with further expansion plans pending) As they only have a couple thousand customers, there is always plenty of bandwidth to go around, and I ping well to most sites.

Overall I have no complaints, and I am quite happy with the service.

member for 22.6 years, 5806 visits, last login: 1.4 years ago
lodged 20.8 years ago


Review by nomediakings See Profile

  • Location: undisclosed location
  • Cost: $60 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 15 days
  • Telco party Bell Canada
Knowlegable and friendly service people, incredible value
some outages at the beginning
Worth the minor outages for this cheap and smart alternative to sympatico!
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I'd been looking for a way to run a server for a reasonable price, and istop.com had the best price AND the most confidence inspiring staff. Pretty bare bones, no-bullshit website at www.istop.com. You can get a self-setup package for $30, a 3.5mdown/600K up PPOE connection + static like I've got for $60 -- and something like 15G a month bandwidth with $3 per gig after that.

I've had it for three months, it's been great.

member for 21.5 years, 6 visits, last login: 20.6 years ago
lodged 21.5 years ago