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Review by bn880 
member for 3.2 years, 48 visits, last login: 8 days ago
updated 170 days ago
 Vanier,ON
 $33 per month- (month by month)
 about 10 days Bell Canada "Pretty reliable, fast on HTTP traffic, inexpensive" "15 day 50GB transfer limit followed by drop to secondary serv, port 119 throttled to unusable state, usual torrent throttlin" "Great only if you do NOT use P2P & never intend to use a newsgroup on port 119 & dont mind Bell throttling creeping up."
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I have been with VIF for several years. The connection itself is very stable and I have only had about 3-5 real disconnects in those years, which is nothing. The pricing is great and HTTP traffic speed is great for the money. (512kB/s down in a condo, 80kB/s UP))
Problem with VIF is they keep throttling more and more ports and traffic such as torrents and port 119, which is throttled to the point where you can not connect to any news server on some days, and on others you need to retry 4 times for 1 success.
There is also a 15 consecutive day quota of 50GB UP+DOWN, meaning if you DL + UL 50GB or more in any 15 days, your connection is shifted to a super slow server, so slow that you are better off using a dialup modem as most web pages do not load.
VIF needs to learn how to throttle to reasonable levels, like port 119 which for newsgroups could be limited to 10kB/s to offer perfectly good newsgroup use without allowing abuse for software piracy. They also need to DISCLOSE their throttling changes to all customers via post or telephone when they occur, otherwise they are causing their customers potential damages/losses. especially for IT support costs.
Edit: It is now August 2010, and the secondary servers that you get put on by Bell are no longer so slow as to render your connection useless. The performance is decreased on average by 30%.
Edit2: By 2011 the swap to secondary server makes no difference at all, but of course lots of stuff the free world uses is still throttled by Bell.
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Review by (hidden by request)
(review was emailed from domain gmail.com)
lodged 1.3 years ago
- l3r
- $34 per month
- Bell Canada
- "price"
- "Non-existent service"
- "is Customer the king? .."
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Been with Vif for over 7 years now. Moved from two different residential
location and service has been quite good except for few outages. When i
signed up with VIF [7yrs ago] i was aware of all the bad reviews that was on
DSL reports and canadian isp.com sites. But the only reason why i decided to
go with them was ability to use a NAT-'d server. For my courses it was very
helpful to do assignments and practice coding etc. They have been slowly
going downhill after they removed newsgroup support, put bandwidth cap,
throttled connection. Past few months the support has gone from bad to
worse. They have reduced the customer support hours and worst CSRs who dont
care about the customer. Last one i dealt with told me to "change the way i
describe the problem otherwise he (CSR) will hang up". I never raise my
voice (tone) or swear at a CSR, as i have done telephone rep job and knows
the stress that's associated with the job. But not doing a proper address
move and blaming it on me saying, there was no call logged for the change of
address, when the system has my new address, was the last straw that broke
the camel's back. in my opinion, the CSR was very rude, did not address my
issue but kept telling me that it was Bell problem and wont apologise for
the mistake they made on the account move. I have referred few of my
friends over the period of time and am regretting that, as this company does
not stand behind its service anymore. And the wait time on any given day to
reach a CSR is minimum 20 mins. Bandwith is throttled (blame it on the
modem), high latency on the line, (online RPG = horrible exp).
The upside is price and no-setup fee. Oh, dont buy the DSL filters from
them. I recently referrred a friend who orderd the modem/dsl filter from
them.
»img1.topfreebiz.com/o2010-5/ADSL···9928.jpg
is
the filter they have provided, so there's chord all over the place. And the
$20 next day delivery took 5 days, and the fee still applies whether you say
next day or it took 5 days.
dexter
--
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if it exists. it is possible
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Review by rho88
member for 4.1 years, 30 visits, last login: 1.7 years ago
lodged 2 years ago
- Pierrefonds,QC
- $29 per month
- Bell Canada
- "Reliable, decent speed, good customer service"
- "100gb cap"
- "Good ISP for the no fuss user"
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I've been with Vif for the past 3 years. I never had problems with them. They are throttled just like any other DSL reseller, but other then that the connection is reliable. I average around 100gb a month.
They have a 100gb cap, after which you get put on a secondary server that is not that reliable. But resetting the modem usually does the work. Anyways the cap is clearly indicated on their website and I was well aware of it before signing up. So I can't complain.
I rarely have to deal with customer service... other then to update my payment info or check if the network is down. But everytime I had to call them I get to talk to someone who gives me straight answer.
Price hasn't increased in the past few years so that's a bonus. They were one of the cheapest when I signup and i'm still happy with them.
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 Review by Jan J
member for 3.2 years, 30 visits, last login: 96 days ago
updated 3.2 years ago
- Montreal,QC
- $26 per month
- about 1 days
- Bell Canada
- "Customer service, cheap prices, speed when they're not putting you on a 56K server, instant order processing"
- "Once you've downloaded more than 100GB, they put you on a VERY UNSTABLE and a VERY slow server for 15 days"
- "Unless you are a lite user or a gamer, I do not recommend this ISP for"
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AVOID THIS ISP AT ALL COST, HERE'S THE MESSAGE I RECEIVED AFTER SENDING A MESSAGE TO LUCAS, AN EX-VIF EMPLOYEE:
If you want support, contact viftech@vif.com, I am no longer an employee of VIF Internet.
(Read: I don't give a flying fuck about people that constantly nag about not reading policies and then wonder why they have issues because they decide to download a complete Housewives season in ultra-high DVD HD resolution in one day).
Cheers,
Lucas.
The original review follows:
I've been a Bell Canada customer for over 4 years, and I must say that I was relieved once I switched to VIF Internet, not only because of its prices but because of its awesome customer service unlike Bell Canada which was the exact opposite.
I've used VIF Internet for a month, with no problems at all, speeds were amazing, like advertised until... we got the second month (November) where I downloaded 15GB in a day (Yes, that's big, but still) and the next day, the speeds dropped suddenly.
I started getting interrupted connections, very frequent timeouts, and my son who plays games has been getting very high response times (lag) in his games.
We were already aware that if we downloaded a high amount of GB, we would be moved to a slower server for 15 days. However, we weren't aware of the "slowness" of the new server, as soon as we were hit by it.
Like I've mentioned earlier, very slow loading times, from 20 seconds to a minute to load a simple page and sometimes even when it's loaded, it's still missing some parts like images, so I have to refresh and wait another minute.
They do not provide any modem/router with any package, so we have to buy a modem/router at our own expenses which is another bad point since it took me almost two weeks to find a modem/router and I found it on NewEgg.ca, very bad for the average user.
The ordering process was instant, just give the bank account number and you're subscribed to VIF Internet and you just have to change the older settings with the newly acquired ones from VIF in your modem configuration page and off you go.
In summary, avoid this ISP if you are a heavy downloader, but if you are a lite user/gamer, go for it.
I now have to wait 15 days so they put me back on the normal server... and that's 15 days of frequent timeouts and speeds slower than 56Kbps!
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Review by Enkerli
member for 3.8 years, 3 visits, last login: 3.4 years ago
lodged 3.7 years ago
- Laval,QC
- $30 per month
- (month by month)
- Bell Canada
- "Fast, reliable, easy to setup, can use other modems, no nagging, no contract."
- "Could be slightly cheaper."
- "Straightforward service, good value."
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Looked at RadioActif.net, ElectronicBox.net, TekSavvy.com, Acanac.ca, Bell.ca, Videotron.ca, Velcom.com, and Montreal-DSL.com. Most DSL plans were quite similar, apart from Bell which was more expensive.
Go the standard DSL monthly plan: 5Mbps/800kbps at 30$/mo. without a contract (no installation fees).
Order was very straightforward: complete a short form online (including choosing a PPPoE username and password), call to give a credit card number. That's it. No nagging. The delay was reasonable and I had to postpone the setup date because I was moving.
Install was even more straightforward than order: send the PPPoE info to the modem, and that's it.
Didn't get any equipment from Vif. Using a Broadxent.com Broadband Blaster 8012-V and a Belkin.com Wireless G Router (F5D7230-4).
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 Review by En Enfer
member for 8.5 years, 3770 visits, last login: 1 days ago
lodged 3.8 years ago
- Montreal,QC
- $30 per month
- Bell Canada
- "Tech Support and value"
- "THROTTLING and routing issues"
- "Good average ISP"
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I'm with VIF since summer 2002 when I flushed AEI Internet (they were disconnecting me regulary to obtain "stats"), and VIF welcomed me instantly. Back then it was 35$/month for 3Mbit or 30$/month if you pay the whole year in advance, and all traffic was going through Cogent (and QIX/TORIX) with peer1 backup (normally took 15 minutes everytime to get it started), and it was truly unlimited. I used my own modem and they were fine with it.
Nowadays, price is 30$/month for 5Mbit or 29$/month for the whole year in advance, dry loop is offered, they peer with Bell Canada and Peer1 (QIX/TORIX are still being used), and they are throttling since the last 2 years. They also advertise unlimited with a fine print reference to a Soft cap of 100Gb (both ways). They won't charge for going over, cut you off or call you, but anyone going over this limit will be switched to their secondary slow server.
A few years ago, they had monthly problems where their upstream provider (Cogent) gets cut off at 2am and we had to wait until 8am the next day to get service back. Those days are (or seems to be) gone now.
Traceroutes to some destinations uses Bell Canada's network, which normally goes down to Chicago before going anywhere else, which is a bad thing.
Their website is bilingual and easy to use. The online timer counts bandwidth used and your shows login history.
Technical support is helpful, they do not read a script and doesn't take customers for idiots (like Bell or AEI).
If you don't mind throttled service and use less than 100Gb per month, VIF is a good provider. They are located downtown Montreal.
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Review by netester
member for 3.8 years, 3 visits, last login: 3.8 years ago
lodged 3.8 years ago
- undisclosed location
- $33 per month
- Bell Canada
- "service clientele"
- "Bandwith - price"
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Hi ,
Is there anyboy who is living in Rosemont near St Leonard and having VIF Adsl? If so please let me know if the service is good in this area., what is the maximum bandwith they give? True 5mb or less?
Also need info about VOIP with VIF.
Your answers are welcome. Let me know.
Thanksm
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Review by xgmranti
member for 6.2 years, 96 visits, last login: 256 days ago
updated 4.2 years ago
- Almonte,ON
- $29 per month
- about 5 days
- Bell Canada
- "Good speeds, cheapest ISP out there"
- "Softcap"
- "Great if you're a light user"
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Had these guys a few years back to replace Storm Internet. They had a nasty 10GB cap up/down so I decided it was time to switch. (2006)
As far as I can remember they were a pretty decent ISP. Their website was well layed out and ordering by phone wasn't too bad, besides a bit of a thick English (based in Quebec).
They did have minor outages but you were warned two weeks ahead of time and the downtime occurred between 2-4am.
They had occasional reliability problems but again nothing serious and never lasting more then a few hours.
The biggest downside was the softcap at 100GB. Once you hit that limit, regardless of 101GB a month or 500GB a month, you are moved to a secondary network. Web browsing slows to a crawl (near dialup speeds).
I wouldn't consider myself a super user, but occasionally I do pass the 100GB threshold. Spending three weeks on the secondary network was enough to make me drop them.
For decent service, as long as your a lite user, with a price that can't be beat, try VIF.
Note: I scored them neutral for Tech Support since I never had to call in.
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Review by Dave Lewis
member for 7.8 years, 271 visits, last login: 1.3 years ago
lodged 4.2 years ago
- Nepean,ON
 Business customer- $212 per month
- about 12 days
- Bell Canada
- "Very knowledgeable Staff, Especially the Owner, easy to work with."
- "Slightly pricy for what I’m getting, BUT that is Bell’s DSL Sync Issue not VIF’s. No Bad Points with VIF"
- "Worth every penny."
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When I went to VIF, they were the middle of the road cost wise. At the time I had a horrible experience with IStop, and VIF were very quick to reply to questions about their service, and accommodated every request I had. I ended up ordering the 6meg Bridged Connection (no pppoe). The install went smoothly on VIF's side. Had some hiccups with Bell not moving my PVC from my old provider to VIF. The thing that impresses me the most is that they are very candid with their outages. If you ask and it was their fault they will tell you (although the outages in general are few and far between). Most ISP's I've seen fail to admit when it was their issue.
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Review by BreYers
member for 5 years, 1 visits, last login: 4.8 years ago
updated 4.8 years ago
- Montreal,QC
- $35 per month
- "Easy subscription, no hassle billing, good service... at first..."
- "Technical service and big network problem since end of 2006..."
- "Not at the monent, go see somewhere else!"
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I subscribed almost two or three years ago and it was amazing! In the first two years, the only moment I had to called them was to give them the number of my new credit card! this was the good years...
I tried to joined them by email to know why we are not able as user to modify the propreties of a file on their FTP server (so I can use a PHP script) and they never wanted to explain to me how they say they support PHP and we are not able as user to modify propreties of a file on their FTP server to enable a PHP script?!?!?! If you don't know, get someone who know!!!
Also, my connection problem started in the autumn of 2006... Speed was getting amazingly slow in the evening! I did say a thing at first, but after a couple of weeks i started wondering « WTF! ». There was a problem with and OC3 line they said and it was going to be fix soon... It was fix at the end of December. it went well for a couple of days, but only for a couple of days... The service is completly horrible since the last couple of months... its amazing! I can donwload at 400 k/s from their server, but I get between 5-15 k/s from other domain than Vif.com!?!?!
I considere now switching to another ISP and this why I came here in the first place... to get information on other ISP in the Montreal area!
if you thing about subscribing to Vif.com... wait... not now... to much problems...
****************update on April 4th 2007***************
Good Lord! I have been (***bad word***) by Vif.com for over a year now! They have lower their monthly fee to 29.95 instead of 34.95 but they never made the adjustement to my bill. A customer representative told me he can modify my present bill, but for all the past bill there is nothing they can do.
12 x 5$ = 60$ = two month of service
I'm probably not the only one in this case, there must be a lot of customer in the same case than me...
Good Lord!
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CAPS and port 119 throttling
