careful
@shawcable.net
| Inaccuracies
Shaw and Telus lite-speed services are identical, 256Kbps down and 128Kbps up. For the most part, they always have been identical. This time last year they were both 128 down and 64 up.
High speed is 5 Mbit/sec down and 512Kbit/sec up. Xtreme is 10Mbit down and 1Mbit up, Nitro is 25Mbit down and 1Mbit up.
You cannot (at least through Shaw) buy extended warranties on modems and DCTs. All DCTs sold today come standard with 3-year warranties, which includes as many free replacement units as is necessary. Rental units of course have unlimited warranties. If you subscribe to a digital package then any additional purchased DCT is charged a $1.99 "digital services fee" which goes to the company that maintains and programs the on-screen guide.
Modems essentially have unlimited warranties - you can exchange your 10-year-old Cybersurfer or Terayon for a brand-new DOCSIS for free even if you have purchased the modem, so long as the old modem's failure was not the result of malicious action or theft.
You are not REQUIRED to subscribe to the $10 QoS option for VoIP. It is an optional service which very few people use. Shaw does not intentionally degrade VoIP packets. VoIP is inherently unstable and is subject to the conditions of the network it travels on. With a DOCSIS modem, good signal strength and at least High speed most VoIP products will work just fine.
Port 25 blocking is a common measure used by almost all major ISPs to fight spam. Shaw was the last ISP in Canada to implement it. Previous measures of contacting customers with infected PCs and setting limits on email accounts were tried and proved ineffective, as they are wont to do. Some people simply aren't interested or have the knowledge to secure their PCs. If you require third-party outgoing email servers, most providers will allow you to use authenticated SMTP port 587 for outgoing mail, which is not blocked. |
