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Re: [ALL] Ask a Shaw Rep

Shaw_Alex:

Vic West is brutal during a longer and longer peak period (no seems to run from 7-10:00 PM. This is making my work VPN sessions and any gaming painful. Any idea when the network upgrade is going to happen here.

My account is covered through work - basically more than 20 accounts, and with the complaints my boss is starting to make noises about going Telus. I do not want to go to Telus for internet......

It really depends. The engineers know far in advance when nodes need to be split, so when areas become saturated it's because we haven't been able to solve the issue on schedule. I wouldn't know exactly what the delay would be, but if you send me your account number i'll do my best to find an ETA.

If you could send me your account number or address, i'll ask one of the local techs for more information.

While not my address, this one will suffice:

750 Front Street
Victoria BC

How reliable is your bandwidth usage monitor? It's documented through both first hand experience as well as archived and recent forum postings across the Internet as useless, hence your well known soft cap and consistent fluctuations in formatting the presentation of secure.shaw.ca in attempt to remedy the situation as opposed to ostensibly making it more user friendly.

Your current offering displays a broad stroke one month period that either rounds up or down decimal percentiles with no daily breakdown leaving an incredibly vague and inaccurate measurement, so vague that it cannot be taken serious for your impending bump up program and also likely why Shaw opted against implementing Usage Based Billing.

Now here is my problem with it, your inability to track statistics to a high degree of accuracy has left many people with a false sense of security that going over is casually accepted, but they will soon come to find out that is not the case, instead they will find themselves being pestered by a bandwidth enforcement member that will initially be understanding even to individuals deflecting responsibility by blaming malware, unsecured networks or whatever excuse seems plausible. I have recently received one of these calls, and I acknowledged I'd exceeded my package limit with things like torrents, Shaw and a premium newsgroups along with high quality video streaming.

Now with all cards on the table and sunlights disinfecting properties shining bright on my situation I knew I would have to scale back well within the paltry perimeters of my 25mbit service, and since I feel I've been honest about my usage I hope you can put a modicum of credence into my next observation about Shaw's broken bandwidth monitoring.

Since the start of this months recurring billing cycle I have kept heavy tabs on my usage to compare and contrast against Shaw. Currently Shaw has me pegged at approximately 93 gigabyte usage over the course of 6 days while I show 53 as monitored through Network Connections. The past day I made a conscious effort to sparsely utilize my connection which ultimately resulted in 2 gigabyte usage, Shaw tabulated it at 7. So while tying up some loose end downloads that were ceased after being admonished I am shown to have used nearly half my monthly allotment in less than a week. That is unacceptable, just like I acknowledge my excess was, but this is particularly bad embellishment that will likely happen to more people so long as Shaw demonstrates a glaring deficiency in stat tracking.

And while this statement has gone on for too long I must say Shaw has failed to provide a suitable package for pragmatic consumers, as a "power user" I've yet to experience a single scenario of 25mbit not being sufficient to download or stream hd content or be competitive in online gaming, only the data bandwidth requires a substantial boost, a boost that would happily be paid for so long as it didn't involve acquiring another modem and unnecessary throughput.

As for the egregious and maybe criminal stat padding, I will play it by ear, I suspect another phone call soon enough but I will be sure to have my ducks in a row to combat baseless allegation. Unfortunately Shaw holds the cards and like most ruling bodies acknowledging mistakes at the micro level cannot be allowed so to prevent de-stabilizing a ecosystem and plunging it into chaos through diminished consumer confidence. As such I don't foresee a happy outcome unless your service is sorted on a delivery basis, such as implementing an appealing package at the middle tier price points for users not enticed by a thrill of the first user/keeping up with the jones/carnival mark mindset that you're banking on with your fastest Internet promotion, or permanently fixed statistics tracking.

Shaw is without a doubt the best Canadian ISP, they haven't betrayed their customers privacy, they maybe the last or second to last to offer their own usenet server, but they've failed spectacularly at delivering packages to all kinds.

Your comment only solidifies my stance on their inability to track, you're just on the other side of the spectrum thanks to their ineptitude like I was prior to my courtesy call. Many experience that until you're on their radar, then you'll find tremendous stat bloating which is why I call into question the laid back attitude most customers have grown accustom only to find out this year they'll be charged extra by being bumped into new packages off the back of shoddy tracking, hence the soft cap reference.

Yours is the first I have also seen which indicates it over-reporting. I have only seen it under-report.

The information is not being used for anything at this point, if they start using that data for billing, or anything else, then I would be concerned about how accurate it is.

Right now, it is only used for you to look at it... Bandwidth team usually looks for the top users on a busy node.
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Yes, I am not employed and looking for IT work. Have passport, will travel.

I'll definitely be providing detailed information by the end of my next billing cycle for posterity since this so called irrelevant and highly inaccurate information is Shaw's only point of reference for reprimanding and inevitable plan bumping. I was more then pleased to operate from an ignorance is bliss stand point prior to my outing and I don't mean to hinder others taking advantage but it seems like a good time to open a dialogue on the topic.

Hi Eject,

What services are you using to monitor your home network traffic?
Is it installed on your router or PC?

Would you be able to send me a screen shot of your findings?
I'd like to compare it with our reports and with the help of our Network Analysts find out where the differences are coming from.

If you could PM me with that information along with your account number, i'd be happy to look into it ASAP.

Cheers,

I want to upgrade my Internet from High Speed 25 to Broadband 50. Currently I'm using a Motrola Surfboard Modem 5100 which has given excellent service. Do I have to change my modem?
Thanks.

Yes, the fastest plan that the SB51xx series modems would work on is the 25 mpbs internet.

50 and faster require a different modem.
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Yes, I am not employed and looking for IT work. Have passport, will travel.

Thanks. What type of modem does Shaw use for Broadband 50? I read some horror stories about these new modems. Are they true?

All the horror stories I've heard have been about when they're configured as a router/wi-fi gateway. I've had my DPC3825 in bridge mode for quite some time and have had one problem with it (had to reset it once).

Thanks. Never had a problem with my modem for years so that's the only reason I'm being reluctant to change.

The DPC 3825 sure has some poor reviews on Amazon.

»www.amazon.com/Cisco-DPC3825-Wir···08C4HDQA

Bridge it, the Cisco is good as a good modem...

The ISP can make whatever changes they want to it as well, not all of them are good...
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Yes, I am not employed and looking for IT work. Have passport, will travel.

Request For an update on Nelson, BC saturation problems.

"We estimate this new connection will be available as early as mid December 2012, and worst case scenario by mid February. I’ll be sure to provide some updates as we enter December on how things are coming along."
by Shaw_Alex, 2012-11-05 12:52:05.
No update yet?

ALSO: I hadda tech @ my home today and HE said that the finish date for upgrades in Nelson has been pushed back to EARLY MARCH? can someone confirm this? Cuz it WAS early Jan. when I signed up, then it was early Feb., then I was TOLD A DATE!!! Of Feb 16th, at the LATEST!! Now it seems I was lied to?
Please clarify. cuz rite now (and since i signed up 2 months ago!) I'm VERY lucky if i get more than 5Mbps, even @ 3AM!!! Speedtest.net said .87Mbps down, .49Mbps up @3am this morning? with a 26ms ping?

When will it get fixed?

Every day for the last month and a half my Internet goes down for a few hours between 11am to 2pm I called Shaw they said it was congestion and that they are working on it, how much longer will this take. I'm in NE calgary. Oh and how does it get congested at that time I thought peek time was at like 7pm to 10pm?

Shaw_Alex,
I'm in Binrbook, Ontario and I'm experiencing extremely slow speeds with my internet. There's times during the weekend or in the evening when it's practically unusable. This has been going on for a number of weeks and I'd like to know what Shaw's doing to resolve this issue? You can PM me for my account details or contact info.

Sure thing.

Re: [ALL] Ask a Shaw Rep

hello I used to be with shaw but because the node in my area was saturated I could barely get half the speed I was paying for I switched to shaw. now i'm having an issue with a iptv service i'm subscribing to and in testing the connection on a friend's shaw connecting I don't have that issue.

So i'm weighing my options on whether to come back to shaw.
Can someone tell me what the saturation is like in tamarack in southeast Edmonton?

Also, Is shaw ever going to join the open connect network?? its free isn't it?

The Open Connect is interesting, it is free, but not free.

There is a good discussion about it here »Shaw no support new Super HD from Netflix, boo!

Weighing your options, get both installed and try/use both for a couple weeks in your home.
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Yes, I am not employed and looking for IT work. Have passport, will travel.

So I see a price increase for my 100 Mbps plan from 80.00 a month to 85.00 a month starting in april.

So I ask what am I getting for my 5 bucks?

More Bandwidth. Nope
More Download. Nope
Promised 10 Mbps Upload from years back. Nope

I have been with shaw for at least 12 years.

This is sickening.

I'm in Swift Current, SK and we recently have been offered up to 100Mb.

I host DR sites for a number of companies and, as a result, my network usage is consistently between 1 and 3 TB per month. Currently, I'm on the Sasktel High Speed Ultra which is unlimited 25Mbps.

I see residential services are able to get the Unlimited 100 package, but there is no unlimited package for business, only one with a 1 TB limit. I need a static IP, which I don't believe is offered with a residential package.

Do you know if/when an unlimited business package will be offered?

Thanks!!
Riley

Can get both, cheaper business package to get the static IP, and then the unlimited residental.

I haven't heard of any business accounts being bothered by going over the 1TB mark either though.
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Yes, I am not employed and looking for IT work. Have passport, will travel.

Thanks for the reply.

I'm not sure I understand how that would work if I were to get both? How would I end up with the static IP on the residential unlimited connection?

I talked with a Shaw business rep today and was told that if I were to go over the 1TB mark I would receive a few warnings before having my service disconnected.

Thanks!!
Riley

ok here is my question, im on bb50 but bb100 is available to me, however i dont wish to pay more for the service or need those download speeds, what i do need is upload, is it possible my upload be bumped upto the 5mbps of the b100 plan while i stay on the bb50?

Some places you can get 5 upload on BB50, but I'm not sure what the conditions are, or what magic has to happen to the account.
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Yes, I am not employed and looking for IT work. Have passport, will travel.