O Canada! > Canadian > Shaw > TELUS vs SHAW for Personal Home Hosting.

TELUS vs SHAW for Personal Home Hosting.

AUP-wise, I'd recommend Telus, since running any sort of server on a residential connection is a violation of the terms of service with Shaw.

And with Telus, connections tend to be a bit more stable.

What I'd recommend is you call Shaw up, go for the free install and 1 month, try out the Xtreme for a month along with it (I think the promo is still on. Haven't looked this month, but I'd guess it is), and see how it is, side-by-side with your current Telus package. Online games wouldn't require too much bandwidth to run a server, but you'd at least be able to get a good feel for the overall latency offerings of both packages, which is what would really matter.

Both companies use different routing, both in and out of their network, which can cause different choke points before it hits the general Internet, and often Shaw is dinged by customers for having higher latency on average. ADSL by what I hear, is typically a lower latency affair, with more constant speeds, even if your maximum may be lower (due to distance from the equipment). See if Telus has any offerings right now to try out their Turbo upgrade without requiring a commitment, and go side-by-side for a month to see which suits you better.

reply to TranNetworks
Thanks for your feedback. I appreciate it! : )

reply to TranNetworks
Both AUPs disallow running servers. TELUS actively blocks incoming HTTP, HTTPS, and SMTP. Shaw does not.
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Xenophase - British Columbia's premier online gaming community.

Yes, but as a Shaw employee, I can't very well be advising him to break the AUP in favor of using Shaw.

But shaw does SMTP outgoing which really makes life harder for using my mailserver (well not really, I just also run it on port 587, problem solved).

reply to TranNetworks
Well I have tried it before quite a while ago on both Telus and Shaw and here is what I found.

Telus overall is a lot more consistent and I had no problems with them.

Shaw in general was ok. The issues is in bandwidth if you host a popular server you can consume quite a bit in 1 day. The problem is you start reaching your bandwidth limit you will have to make sure you fall under. Also expect your account to be flagged...when I quit hosting even months after if I just turned on the server for 5 minutes to test something (only traffic between me and the server no other players) and my internet would seem to slow down to a crawl.

Overall both options will be good for your needs. I personally never had any issues with Telus, however, with Shaw I had a few issues.

reply to TranNetworks
Regardless, best bet is to try both options.

Sometimes Shaw is better. Sometimes Telus is better. The normal problems arise from local issues (Telus/Shaw to the house), rather than within Shaw or within Telus. As such, it's always possible that Shaw is better all day for one customer, bur one block over, it's worse (and vice-versa).

Try both, and see. And don't just run the server and solicit opinion, but try playing yourself on other servers and see which one seems to give the best experience.

reply to Mac Write

reply to TranNetworks
Most 3rd party mailservers will listen to port 587, which is reserved for authenticated SMTP. The mailserver will then relay your mail to the target via normal SMTP. The only reason outgoing SMTP is blocked is because the vast majority of it was used for sending spam.

As for SPF records, Shaw publishes SPF records. All you need to do is set your SPF records to say that Shaw's servers are allowed for your domain. It will mean that a tiny portion of spam will appear to legitimately come from your domain, but it's a tiny portion, and short of querying every domain, it's very difficult to find a list of domains that will work with a particular SMTP server. I believe you just use +include:shaw.ca or something.

include:shaw.ca ~all

reply to TranNetworks
Also my mail server has 100% uptime unlike Shaws mailserver. I will never use theres ever. There is absolutely nothing Shaw can to do get me to use their mail server period. Security is top priority for me and Shaw fails that big time.

reply to TranNetworks
I think you need to consider the small office commercial version both Shaw and Telus offer them. So you’ll be able to host otherwise you are limited in terms of AUP and amount of data you can upload and also handicapped by inbound ports being blocked. Well some of them…

I've been around and as a Shaw user; I truly can not recommend Shaw. Yes - Shaw is **incompetent** in delivering consistent service. They get you in by saying…oh our pipe is bigger, but in real world, what matters are stable service, acceptable bandwidth, and low latency? Even if you opt for hosting package with static IP, your connection goes up & down like a yo yo and they don’t care about it. When you call them, TSRs have no clue and blame your system. If get lucky and go up to tire2 support, then they ignore you! Telus Service is slightly slower on download side, but they give you consistent service, low latency. Don't get me wrong Telus is not far that great. They do tend to outsource most of their support and sometimes fall short with pricing. It is just that their cell switching ATM technology is slightly more stable and consistent
when delivered with Telco mentality…. not because they are any better at serving their customers. I think best solution is already offered here earlier….. to go trial on both Shaw and Telus and try them side-by-side for a month and come here and share your experience. The truth is always in the pudding as they say. No bull.