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 Review by DS256 
UPDATED: 129 days ago
member for 4.9 years, 485 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Beaumaris,ON
 $30 per month
 "Cheaper than Bell ; no contract or credit card required"
 "Connection influenced by weather (I think) ; usage not available yet"
 "For what I need it for ; working 1 day a week from the cottage ; works great"
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I have a cottage outside of Windemere in the Muskoka region of Ontario, about 3 hours north of Toronto. I wanted an inexpensive internet solution I could use from May to October and suspend/cancel during the winter months. I had all sorts of trouble getting information from Bell (of which I have satellite at the cottage) so ended up going with Rogers after looking through Forum discussions.
I believe the tower I run off of is visible from the the front of my cottage. I have the modem in the rear of the 2nd floor. Get 1-2 lights there and it works well. If I take it to the front of the cottage I get 3-4 lights.
Just like at home, beware if you connect directly to the modem and make sure you have good firewall software installed. I actually picked up a TrendNet Wi-Fi router for $30 from Tiger Direct. This means my portable internet now is Wi-Fi wireless 
I've been using it for about 3 weekends now with no problems except I can see my usage on-line. I have a 10GB cap and would like to see my consumption rate. Called Rogers and they flagged my account that no overage charges will apply this month.
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 Review by Adam20
Posted: 184 days ago
member for 1.2 years, 474 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Sarnia,ON
$45 per month
"good price/no contract"
"inability to provide useful support"
"not sure"
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********UPDATE MARCH 23/08
After all was said and done I still was not able to get the connection functioning properly, even though I was blanketed with coverage, and many calls and tickets to support did not fix anything.
I must say the attempts that I had from technical support were very polite, curteous and very professional, which was very surprising to me.
Billing credited me all amounts that were charged during bills received from signing up for service, some 250$, it only took a handful of charges, although each agent told me they would credit charges, there was a glitch in the system, even the Supervisor told me theres strict notes to credit the charges for my experience.
No harm done, gave me something to play with after work.
I updated the rating to reflect what I feel to be correct.
___________________________________________________________________________
So I got the package today with my rogers wireless modem, after only 2 days i was surprised and happy, I got real good deal with it too. I was excited to try out the new technology since I sell it on a regular basis. Get it, plug it in... nothing, call them get transferred 7 times and then the last guy says, we are going to open a ticket. You should get a call within 24 hours.
24 hours wtf, this is supposed to be plug and play. No troubleshooting done either other then unplugging the power and plugging back in. Also I had 4 bars of service, not just one at one point.
So far. Service Sucks, Support Sucks. Product Sucks.. I will update if/when I get online with it.
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Review by jblackrupert
UPDATED: 184 days ago
member for 200 days, 15 visits, last login: 40 days ago
Vancouver,BC
$50 per month (12 month contract)
"Easy to setup, portable"
"Requires power outlet, POOR customer support. Too expensive for speeds offered"
"Great with it works and you don't need tech support."
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I'd had Rogers portable in Vancouver for just over a year now.
Setup: EASY...EASY EASY. just plug it in and go
Getting an account setup is no different then a pay-as-you-go cellphone.
* Futureshop employees were clueless about the service so
I ended up buying my modem from a Rogers outlet.
Speeds: 1.5Megabit connection for $50/Mth
Pretty stable: 175Kbps DOWN - 35kbps DOWN. Bursts of up to 210-220kbps
Tech support: USELESS. Rogers seems to have put the most useless. clueless
employees on the Rogers portable support lines. Some of whom appeared
to have no idea how Rogers portable worked. One I spoke to didn't even know
it was a wireless internet service. another had no idea what a network card was
yet another hadn't heard of USB and no idea what VOIP was. It is very clear
that many of the employees at Rogers have less computer experience then many
5 year olds. (at least in the Portable department)
Everything was pretty smooth for about 6 months with the odd outage
which mostly appeared at between 10-10:30pm every friday and lasted
no longer then 1.5 hours. Not a big deal and was at least predictable.
The last 6 months of service has been outages getting more frequent
and lasting longer and longer. Outages of a couple hours are now
turning into 1-3 days at a time.
Typical with Rogers. Rule #1. Blame the customer and NEVER
admit to any network problems. Spend as much time blaming them
as you like instead of a simple. "Yes there is an problem in your area and we are working on it".
The only way to get anything done with Rogers when there is a problem
is to ESCALATE from the beginning, don't waste any time with level 1 tech support. Level 1 tech are useless and trouble tickets that are supposed
to be created to alert technitions of a network problem with probably
not get sent out or will be created incorrectly creating even longers delays.
A friend of mine who has Rogers portable in the same building
but facing a different direction and most likely connects to different
access points had the same Friday outages as in the beginning
but they have since disapeared.
VOIP/SKYPE (With video): Works fine when the network is ok
Rogers of course will tell you that VOIP will not work unless you
use Rogers home phone. That is a LIE. (Love asking Rogers how my phone sounds when I call them and have them say. "You sound fine, clear". and then I tell them its VOIP. One guy swore up and down VOIP will not and CAN NOT work.
BitTorrent: First 6 months everything was fine, no blockages, no shaping.
but the last 3-4 months it appears traffic from non-private trackers
(IE... Piratebay) is being delayed. Torrents from private trackers. No problem at all.
.
Basicly Rogers portable is a WAY overpriced but easy to install alternative
to Wi-Fi. If you do a lot of hopping around you may not notice the outages
my experience has been connecting to 2 or 3 antennas outside my home window.
facing south from Pender/Carrall/Tinseltown area.
UPDATE: I enquired about the Business Rogers portable a few days ago
double the speed for $10/mth more. Seems Rogers is forcing customers who
already have the regular service and a modem to buy another modem claiming
the modem they bought is not able to go faster. Sounds like bull to me
since Wi-max and the modems they are selling are capable of going several
more times the speed.
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 Review by Deep Dish
UPDATED: 197 days ago
member for 2.1 years, 524 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Canada
$50 per month
 about 30 days
"Quick and easy to install. No Rogers technicians coming to your house. Network owned by Bell and Rogers partnership."
"Very expensive for only 1.5mbps service"
"Very easy and convenient, just too expensive for the speeds they offer"
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I purchased the 1.5mbps service from Rogers (fastest as of March 24 2008), as well as I paid for the wireless modem. I paid $100 for the modem (one time), other wise I would be paying approximately $10 monthly for modem rental.
From what I experienced, the Internet runs best with a " 5 light " signal strength as it gives you the full 1.5mbps (burst up to 2.5mbps from my experience). When I placed the modem in my basement, the best I could get was " 2 light " signal strength, which was comparable to 33.6kbps modem connection, so it's best to place the modem on the top most level and near a window.
I did have some issues having the modem turned on for a long period of time (i.e.: 1.5 - 4 days) where the connectivity would just become slow, which the quickest way to fix is just power cycling the modem. Since I like to have my modem on 24/7/365, I simply use a timer (the ones used for outdoor Christmas lights) to power cycle the modem for me at night.
The disappointing aspect of this is that the service has been out for about 2 years now, and the speeds remain the same. For about $2 cheaper, I could potentially have a 7mbps cable link to my house (in my case, I had issues with Rogers technicians in the past to which I resulted in going with this service instead).
However, the network to which the Portable Internet runs off is owned 50/50 by Bell and Rogers. It seems as if they have money to invest this technology to further improve the speeds and service, but I could be wrong. The partnership network is call Inukshuk, and the website is: »www.inukshuk.ca/
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Review by snoball
UPDATED: 220 days ago
member for 3 years, 24 visits, last login: 15 days ago
North Vancouver,BC
$55 per month
about 7 days
"Reliable instant on metro area portable wireless internet connection"
"Low/slow upload speed"
"plug it in anywhere and your online - super portable"
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virtually problem free and easy to use, just plug it in (after a onetime initial phonecall/setup/auto-register process), it's not extreme high-speed service but more than adequate for browsing and email, download speed is adequate for software updates, only one brief service outage experienced in eight months of constant use
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Rogers Portable Internet
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