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Comptons Cable = Slow Downloads and a busy Network

Hello Aaron,

Yes, you sent us that information, and then told us you were leaving to go to Sympatico Ultra (which is $27 per month more than our service) anyway. Under those circumstances, we chose not to go investigate your problems. If I remember correctly, you sent the captures after you told us you were leaving, so how seriously did you expect us to take your problem? We actually had technicians that were going to stop by your house the day you told us you were leaving.

Do you mean 60 kilobits or 60 kilobytes? If at the best of times you were downloading at 300 kilobits per second, that's not real impressive, and somehow I don't think that's the case.

In any case, we recently upgraded our backbone connection by 50% and further upgrades are on the way. I'm glad you're happier with your current provider - that's the great thing about competition.
[text was edited by author 2003-05-14 15:28:38]

Yep Sympatico is much better, I get unlimited bandwidth, I can download at 350 kilobytes per second steady no matter what time it is. Also, what would this technician have done? Perhaps pinged a few servers and tested download speed? We already know it wasn't a problem with the line as I could get full speed early in the morning! Also, I was talking in kilobytes, not kilobits. Sympatico is much more reliable, and that extra 27 dollars give me 640 kilobits up compared to 192. Also can't beat that dynamic IP it sure beats changing the MAC address. But then again uncapping is tempting, but when it comes down to it I want reliable internet. I think everyone already knows about the speed and reliability problems common with Cable internet.

There is a 20 GB cap on Sympatico Ultra.

You're not a cable technician, nor am I, so I don't presume to say what he would have done. The point is, you chose to not give us the opportunity to fix the problem. There could have been something physically wrong with your cable lines. You had an opinion as to what was wrong, which was unproven, and chose not to have us try to solve the problem. Since you're not qualified to diagnose problems in a cable plant, your analysis of the reasons why you weren't getting the speeds you felt you should isn't valid.

Our IPs are dynamic, though they don't release very often. Most Internet users seem to like having an IP that doesn't change very often. Those who get themselves banned from chatrooms and such seem to be more fond of dynamic IPs that change frequently.

I'm afraid that it's not possible to uncap our service, and I seem to recall a conversation we had in our online help function where you were asking if it was possible. In any case, if someone did it, we'd catch them quickly.

Since it's been 6 months since you disconnected, you can't really speak to the status of the service today. As I said, significant upgrades have occurred and more are planned, so your review is out of date.

I'm sorry that your experience with our service was less than optimal. Given that it was so long ago, however, it might be time to let your grudge with us go.

You need common sense, not a technician to notice that you can download 300kilobytes/ps @ 2AM and 60kilobytes/ps @ 4PM. Obviously not a problem with the line. Also, my friend who lives down the street, pings about twice as high as me. Pretty crappy service Powergate is, keep it simple stick with Sympatico.

Well, I'll let people draw their own conclusion based on what's been written in this thread.

reply to Yoda2003
Don't try and make this post irrevelant by saying I'm being unreasonable, as I am not.

I'm not saying you're being unreasonable. I'm suggesting that you're not a good current barometer of the quality of the service at this time, since you disconnected more than six months ago.

reply to Yoda2003
Note I also said my friend currently has the service and yes I have seen it recently and yes he is on my street.

I guess the irony is that we did find that the upstream in your area was too crowded, and we split it about a week ago. If only you had stayed on, we might have found the problem sooner.

Oh, we're increasing the upload to 400 kbps, too.

reply to Yoda2003
Well I figured as much but it's good you finally fixed the problem. My friend will be happy and I'll soon be getting Sympatico for $59.95 a month with unlimited bandwidth. So really I'm paying 20 extra dollars for 640 over 400 kbps. Right now I think I'll check out my friends cable because it's oftly tempting to change back to Powergate again.

Yes, I see they're offering Ultra at $59.95 with a 12-month contract, and unlimited bandwidth. We're raising our caps to 40 GB. Basically that will affect about 0.7% of our users, based on typical patterns.

reply to travisc
I had no problems with Powergate what so ever when I had the service. Usual download speeds from most servers were always around 300-400ks, while downloading from the right servers I could get upto 700-800ks steady.

Currently with the Sympatico Ultra I never get over 350ks steady. And my bill is always about $100mnth due to it being $70mnth plus $30mnth in bandwith overcharges.

I only had a problem with my connection once and it was fixed that day.

The only reason I don't have Powergate anymore is I moved out of their service range.

reply to Yoda2003
Well you must have lived in an area that isn't busy. Also unlimited bandwidth is standard now without a contract when you have Sympatico Ultra. My bill for Sympatico now is a steady $60 per month and I think the extra $15 for month is worth it. Although right now I must admit I am having some reliability problems with Sympatico, PowerGate was always there at least even if the speed wasn't the greatest.