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 Review by Kemistry 
UPDATED: 119 days ago
member for 1.8 years, 695 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Canada
 $49 per month
 about 7 days
 "Fast consistent speeds, Unlimited Bandwidth, No Throttling, Local CSR's."
 "Some CSR's don't seem very knowledgeable."
 "For quality & value of service in N.B. choose Aliant!"
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I am going on my 5th month of service with Aliant and hardly have a thing to complain about. I continuously get consistent speeds which are actually faster than advertised, about 5420/620 (advertised as "up to" 5000/640. Also, I get unlimited bandwidth and no throttling of BT. I haven't had any issues since the service was activated but before I had to deal with a couple CSR's which were a bit misinformed but other then that it's been great!
I was previously with Rogers on the Express tier and experienced nothing but headaches such as daily disconnects, throttling and of course monthly caps. I am so glad I made the switch to Aliant. Like I mentioned above I am only 5 months in so I will periodically update this review with any changes if they happen but judging from the present I don't think that will be necessary.
*Update* 10/31/2008:
I'm still with Aliant, I now have a value package consisting of home telephone, T.V. & ultra high-speed Internet. As far as internet is concerned (because that was the focus of my initial review) I have never experienced a single moment of downtime, I have never experienced any throttling and there are still no caps. Overall it's been well over a year now and I am satisfied with all Aliant services and plan to never choose Rogers again.
*Update* 5/14/2009:
All is still good in Aliantville however I've learned not too long ago that they have changed their name to none other than...BellAliant. I hope despite the name change that we will get the same quality of service in Atlantic Canada, meaning no caps or throttling unlike their practices in Ontario & Quebec. Actually I do have one minor complaint and that would be for them to finally upgrade their backbone so that they can offer faster speeds to T.V. subscribers since they have all of 14 Mbps total bandwidth available. Oh well they are leaps and bounds above Rogers any day of the week.
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 Review by insomx
UPDATED: 286 days ago
member for 6.8 years, 2818 visits, last login: 13 days ago
Canada
$45 per month
about 2 days
"Customer service is english speaking, unlimited download, no throttling"
"Great Company"
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Feb 15 09
I now have Aliant in Fredericton. I'm rather far from the CO so it took them a couple weeks to provide me with a stable connection. It's been steady since, but we do see large speed flucations at which the modem sycs at. Sometimes it's 3mbps, sometimes its' 6mbps. Either way we still like it a lot more than anything Rogers can provideo as there aren't any limits or restrictions of any kind.
So overall Aliant is one of the few ISPs left that don't trottle, and that alone is enough to rate them highly.
April 17 08
They seem to have stopped throttling! It may have been some time ago but I don't get to go home much. They are not blocking any ports or throttling anything at all. Makes you wonder why such a small ISP can handle their network w/o thorrtling while Bell and Rogers can't.
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Dec. 24 '07:
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Why do good things never last? Our one year contact ended a couple months ago and I was planning on staying off contract so I wouldn't be locked in. Guess what they did? They automatically signed me up for another one year contract for 10 dollars more a month for only 1.5mbps. I called them up and asked why this happened. They said they automatically renew contracts and you have to call and tell them if you don't want this to happen. Their rates also have gone up A LOT over the past year and the new contract did not make that much better.
So now long story short, I got out of the contact they auto-renewed me for (after tons of pain), but I'm at 1.5mbps for a whooping 45 bucks a month!!
It looks like they have also started to throttle lightly...what a tick off...
I heard rumours that TekSavvy will be coming to NB in the spring, I sure hope this is true...ditch this crappy ISP...even though Rogers isn't any better.
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Oct. 27 '06:
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Great service! It's an unbeatable price of $35 for a one year contract. Rogers is $52 for the same speed, but crappier service.
I still can't get over the no-throttling on Bit-Torrent. I can download at full speeds 24/7. I could only attain around 3-10kB/s with Rogers.
There aren't any download caps, nor any hidden caps. Completely unlimited and it is advertised as unlimited also.
Only thing I don't like is the modem/router they give out. It's unreliable for heavy downloading, but that is only when using it in Router mode. I let my own router control my internet and use their modem just as a bridge. This way works fine. Keep in mind I am a VERY HEAVY internet user with 2 computers and a server running.
Excellent service!
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Sept. 29 '06:
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I love Bell Aliant DSL. It is really fast, no bit torrent throttling, no download caps and really reliable. For $35 a month, it can't be beat! To compare to their competitor, for $52 a month you get the same speed, a 100GB download/upload cap a month, massive throttling on bit torrent so it becomes dial up and terrible realiabilty. All this for 17 a month more!
I've had no complaint yet of my downloading, and it's been overall great.
It is a PPPoE service with dynamic IPs. I just let the router perform the login stuff so I don't need to worry about it.
My profile is 7.2mbps down, but I'm on interleave so I get 20ms pings on my first hop and about 60-70ms to google.ca. When I first signed up I was on a 1mbps profile, I called and 2 days later I was bumped up to 7.
Followup comments:  
Matt_s
@aliant.net | Bittorrent throttling has started at Aliant Please note the statements about Aliant not throttling bittorrent traffic are no longer true as of December 2007 (and probably a month or two before that). | |
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insomx
Premium
join:2003-01-26
Canada | Re: Bittorrent throttling has started at Aliant I'm at university at the moment, so I cannot test this, but this really sucks if that's true. | |
| VeryGood
join:2006-02-04
Tignish, PE | It's not true... Aliant does not throttle at all. | |
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insomx
Premium
join:2003-01-26
Canada | Re: It's not true... Which I mentioned in my latest review | |
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Review by Samson27
UPDATED: 1.8 years ago
member for 1.9 years, 43 visits, last login: 349 days ago
Bathurst,NB
$45 per month
about 1 days
 Bell Canada
"Reliable"
"New modem seems to limit uploads to 5080kbps"
"Very satisfied"
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Good service - have never seriously considered switching to cable. Can't see that I would benefit. Have managed to get the speed above 5080 a few times but suspect that it is the reliablity of the test and not the actual speed.
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 Review by thecid12345
Posted: 2.1 years ago
member for 2.3 years, 17 visits, last login: 87 days ago
Halifax,NS
$44 per month (12 month contract)
about 2 days
"Quick,reliable,no hassle."
"Techs seem to have trouble diagnosing problems."
"Is well worth the bill every month."
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It was only a dispute with aliant vs. eastlink, aliant was much cheaper with a bundle, as well as eastlink telephone services fail with power outages here. I ordered the basic which gave me a speed around 1.5mbps and I am currently switching to their ultra. They included prof. installation for free and all equipment needed, it was a deal at the time.
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 Review by DaJinx
Posted: 2.1 years ago
member for 2.3 years, 180 visits, last login: 1.8 years ago
Moncton,NB
$34 per month
about 10 days
"Fast consitent speeds, Unlimited Bandwidth, No Throttling, Local CSR's."
"Some CSR's aren't very knowledgeable"
"For quality & value of service in N.B. choose Aliant!"
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I am going on my 3rd month of service with Aliant and hardly have a thing to complain about. I continuously get consistent speeds which are actually faster than advertised, about 5420/620 (advertised as "up to" 5000/640. Also, I get unlimited bandwidth and no throttling of BT. I haven't had any issues since the service was activated but before I had to deal with a couple CSR's which were a bit misinformed but other then that it's been great!
I was previously with Rogers on the Express tier and experienced nothing but headaches such as daily disconnects, throttling and of course monthly caps. I am so glad I made the switch to Aliant. Like I mentioned above I am only 3 months in so I will periodically update this review with any changes if they happen but judging from the present I don't think that will be necessary.
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Review by Vunachar
Posted: 3 years ago
member for 3.7 years, 8 visits, last login: 2.9 years ago
Wilsons Beach,NB
$45 per month
about 3 days
"I ordered the install package and it was delivered within 3 days"
"Speed was good at first but dropped to less then half 5 months later."
"OK, but can't seem to get any real answers on why the speed dropped."
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I signed up for the - Ultra High Speed Package. (I pay 44.95 - Monthly on my phone bill) PPPoE - Dynamic IP.
The install package contained Documentation, Instructions, Software CD, Line filters and the Aliant - (Siemens) Speedstream 6520. The instructions were straight forward and I had it up and going within 2 hours. I was pleased with the speed for downloads, as it was around 4.9 Mbps and Upload was around 59 Kbps.
About 5 months later, the speed dropped off to around 300 Mbps and again in November (2006) to around 2.10 to 2.30 Mbps. Upload speed not changing all that much. It seems to stay between 54 and 59 Kbps. I called the tech-support about this and was told "anything above 2.0 is considered Ultra High Speed." I think this is a canned or poor answer and I wonder if this is what other callers will hear if they ask why their speed dropped?
This is what it reads on their site:
Up to three times as fast as Aliant High-Speed with speeds up to 5.0 Mbps.
Dedicated High-Speed service** with Unlimited online time
Exclusive access to Aliant.net for High-Speed
Plus 5 hours per month of Dial-up Internet access
5 e-mail accounts, and 5 megabytes of personal web space
Toll-Free, 24/7 technical support
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This from their FAQ:
Q: How fast is Aliant High-Speed Ultra?
A: Aliant High Speed Ultra is up to three times as fast as our regular High-Speed service! Download speed (receiving information, surfing the web) is up to 5.0 Mbps with a minimum speed of 2.0 Mbps. Upload speed (sending information) is the same as regular High-Speed and is up to 640 kbps
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Overall, I would be pleased if my speeds had not changed. Since they have dropped to less then half, I am not pleased with the service.
Vunachar .. Wilson's Beach, NB, Canada
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Review by poker
UPDATED: 5.3 years ago
member for 6.3 years, 83 visits, last login: 1 days ago
canada
$44 per month (12 month contract)
"Stability, never get slowdowns."
"PPPoE is the worst crap I ever seen in my life."
"They are decent ISP."
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I have nothing to complaint about the speeds, I love the speeds, the prove, I've just renewed my contract for another year last month. I got Ultra High Speed, and I always get in the 2.1-2.2Mbps range downloading speed, converted to Bytes it gives me 280kB/s. As for Uploading speed I always get in between 460-512kbps, about 60-65kB/s in Bytes convertion.
I called the tech support two weeks ago to see if they could fix that disconnecting problem I get when playing online games like Quake 3. He came in my house to do some testings and he said the line is good. I asked him if it could be possible that the phone line to my room could cause me problems. Since its a wire that've been cut in between the box outside at the Electricity meter and my phone jack in my room(it's two 25 feeth phone cords connected together to make the 50 feeth way to my room). He said its possible but he don't think it would be the problem since the test he did was with that same wire and they were good and all. But he said if I wanted to test that he will give a new wire for me to install and see if it improves, but when I've cut the vinyl to get the coloured wires out I saw it wasn't a phone line it's a freaking Networking wire I think lol. What am I supposed to do with that? Its not the same colours of wires and all, so I said fudge it, I'm not installing this.
The tech support is poor on these Strike days I call tell you. He was too lazy to install it for me and to top that he gave me the wrong type of wire. Sure I have no doubts it would still work with that wire but I'm not a fish. I won't install something and later on when they come to fix other things they laugh at me for installing something that doesn't belong there. Plus, the headhacke to associate a specific colour from that wire to a phone line colour is not worth it, I'm sure it won't improve. Phone line has red, green, black and yellow colour wires and we only use the red and green ones to connect a phone line. That wire he gave me has, 4 white wires each of them has some dot colours, white-green, white-orange, White-blue, White-brown and there are a green and an orange and a blue and a brown wire, in total it does 8 wires. On the cord its writen: NORDX/CDT (L) C3 STATION/BLOCK WIRE 4PR/24 C(ETL)US CMX OUTDOOR CMR 030710 03:54A 370 FEET 112 METRES.
PPPoE is real crap thats all I have to say. Its like having a high speed dialup connection, it connects by dialing and disconnects when you are doing something important. Its just a speed improved dialup connection in my opinion. Its not the ideal connection for gamers thats for sure. I'd say its more of an ideal line for downloaders, they download at HIGH speed and disconnect and reconnect and got a brand new IP. If it'd always stay connected, that'd be the perfect connection for everything, sure maybe not the safest but they still could make packages that the customer would choose from. Always on connection with static IP package or the PPPoE package, the customer would choose what he wants at affordable prices on both sides. I know other peoples may have different opinions than me for PPPoE but it all depends on the usage you do with your internet connection. PPPoE is the safest high speed internet connection you can get out there, the IP changes very often. But when you need an Always on high speed connection, PPPoE is not what you should get.
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Review by pacific_wing7
Posted: 5.3 years ago
member for 5.3 years, 1 visits, last login: 1.7 years ago
St John'S,NL
Contract price not specified.
"no bandwidth cap (yet), fairly reliable"
"200 connection limit / block of port 25 / block inbound traffic for known P2P ports/ slow as ADSL goes"
"A good alternative to Rogers. Not for gamers or speed demons. Good for heavy DLers that don't care about speed."
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»www.nl.aliant.net/at_home/warpsp···ew.shtml
Two packages available, as listed here:
»www.nl.aliant.net/at_home/warpsp···es.shtml
This review is for the High Speed internet package. A review for Ultra might come later, if I upgrade.
I ordered ADSL service in my apartment two weeks after Aliant announced a major work stoppage. It took them nearly a month to get it going. If you are setting up this service in the near future, make sure you check in with them regularly to ensure they don't bugger something up. I'm still getting calls asking if I still want to go ahead with the install (even though it was installed and working as of two weeks ago). Clearly the left hand isn't aware of what the right hand is doing.
Tech support is nothing beyond typical. Basically minimum wage employees in another province (or country) reading from a tech manual. If you're using linux or BSD, forget it. You're on your own.
Connection is ADSL through PPPoe login. You are not required to use any of the software they give you. The hardware is one of four custom built ADSL modems (in my case, the Comtrend CT-301). Modems from other networks (telus, bell, etc) WILL NOT WORK.
Speed caps are not advertised (at this time) for the lower package. My max is usually 140kB/25kB. There is a Ultra package which offers a 300kB download speed, but I've heard it never goes that high. From what I've heard and experienced, there is no monthly bandwidth limit on either package. Some people claim to transfer close to 80gb without a problem. I expect this will change though.
Aliant blocks 25 both inbound and outbound. There is a 200 port connection limit (if you exceed that limit, your PPPoe session is dropped). I've not even bothered to try and get them to explain what this is all about. They also block inbound traffic for classic kazaa, bitorrent, and misc P2P ports. This isn't a huge hassle, since you can just change to another port. Aside from the 25 inbound connection blocking, there is no good reason for any of these other measures. I question if their techies really know what they're doing.
The two provided DNS servers are slow and incomplete. I recommend using another set (maybe earthlinks). The POP server tends to go down about once a week. This is annoying cause they won't let you switch to an external one easily.
You are supposed to get additional POP accounts as well as some web space. There is no web control panel for this, which means you have to actually call someone to get it activated. I've not experimented with this yet.
Overall, Aliant gives you what you pay for. I would recommend it over Rogers for any casual users as well as download junkies who are more worried about bandwidth caps than speed caps. In St John's, Rogers still wins in terms of speed, customer service and gaming.
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 Review by Coriolis3
UPDATED: 5.4 years ago
member for 8.7 years, 818 visits, last login: 3.3 years ago
Fredericton,NB
$54 per month
about 14 days
"Reliable service and setup a breeze"
"Speeds not great (see caveat below)"
"Only ADSL in town, and it's better than dial-up."
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Fredericton NB. Home of Aliant (formerly NBTel) and Rogers cable. Didn't want cable, so went with Aliant "High Speed". Despite being on power strike, which happened the day after my wife submitted the work order req for telephone hookup and internet service, Aliant did manage to have our phone and internet service available on the day we requested -- June 1, the day we moved into our house.
Although they somehow sent me the wrong account information in the set-up package, a simple call to their CSR line was all that was needed to get the correct information.
Speeds are not that great, from all indications. I did some tests when I first set up the connection, but the results were miserable -- like 56k modem miserable. Things have greatly improved but I think I'm only getting a port speed of about 384/90, which sucks (when you used to get EL/Covad 1536/384 cheaper). Last speed test was 290/80.
Caveat #1 -- I'm not tweaked yet. So far, my internet use with Aliant has been on my wife's laptop, which was the only available computer to set things up (having just moved). I best not mess with my wife's registry, so I'll just wait until my clunky desktop is setup to try the connection on a machine that has been finely tweaked. However, an rwin boost is not likely to make much difference, in relation to speeds others report.
Caveat #2 -- a big one, in fact -- I just moved into an old house with an ancient phone system. There's no NID, just a clump of angry wires nestled in a blanket of dusty cobwebs. Once Aliant are off strike (hopefully soon), I will have the phone systems upgraded (all CAT3 cable) and have a NID installed. My expectation is that this will make a big difference.
Will return to update review when the above deficiencies are addressed.
UPDATE: June 29, 2004
Just tried the ADSL connection using my old trusty, and finely tweaked, Win98se PIII box, and am getting much better speeds -- 1297/228 was the best result. Not bad at all.
Updated "value for money" up one notch as a result. 
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 5.6 years ago
(review was emailed from domain nbnet.nb.ca)
E2M5H
$29 per month (12 month contract)
"The abuility to fine tune my machine"
"None at this time"
"Verry good service"
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Thanks for the use of this site, now I have a much better
interaction on the web. I have an older computer that was not up to
speed for using the internet. The computer is a Compaque 9536, 120Mhz
with 73meg of ram.
When I first got Aliant DSL (Vibe Light) I was barely able to use the
service and wanted to be able to do more, and now this computer is
almost as fast as my neighbour's, who has a much better and faster
machine. We actually have contests to see who's machine is better, and
thanks to your site, my machine is now giving his a run for his money so
to speek.
Thanks.
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Aliant Communications
slow aliant