# Aliant High Speed Service



## davey-nb (Sep 15, 2004)

Aliant started offering this service in New Brunswick yesterday and so far it's no improvement for me.
Is anyone else using the service with a Mac?
They make you change the connection method to PPPoE and it has made my connections much slower.


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## DrewNL (May 23, 2005)

This service has been available in NB for years. What did you use before as a basis for your comparison? Original Vibe....cable? I use Aliant PPPoE with my mac but I run it through a router first.


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## moonsocket (Apr 1, 2002)

Aliant High Speed has been in NB for years. It used to be called Vibe and they didnt use PPoE.

We have Rogers nowbecause our apartments phone lines can't seem to handle Aliant High Speed. Too bad really as Aliant was really fast and no bandwidth cap.


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## ErnstNL (Apr 12, 2003)

I'm upgrading to Ultra High Speed in the next few days. I've had Warp 1 for 3 years. (Newfoundland)
I'll report on my findings in the next few days. 
There better be an improvement or I will just go back. 
There's a 30 day satisfaction guarantee.


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## pcronin (Feb 20, 2005)

Aliant, formerly NBTel, has had high speed in NB for about 10 years. they were the first HFC provider in North Amr, if memory serves.

Whatever you do, DO NOT install the pos software from them.
http://ca.huji.ac.il/services/internet/connect/adsl/sam_macx.shtml is a very good and brief tutorial about the built in PPPoE client in OS X. Either that, or get yourself a router, plug your Aliant user/pass in, and not worry about connecting. (also you'll have wifi, depending on the router).

DSL tends to give a better end to end user experiance, as the only sharing of bandwidth is at the ISP level, unlike cable that happens in the community level. 

Aliant is not avail in my area (aprox 3 months I"m told, for the last 8 years), so I've gone to Aernet ( http://www.aernet.ca ), who are a WiMax provider of high speed (1 Mbit) to rural areas. I can max out around 120, so it's the same as the original vibe used to be. When I move, I'm hoping that Aliant is available, as Rogers and I don't get along very well.


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## NBiBooker (Apr 3, 2004)

Aliant just rolled out a new high speed wireless network in Halifax, EVDO. It's about four times faster than dial-up and a little slower than robust DSL. It's mostly for cell phone / PDA / Blackberry users. It's also expensive as hell. 

I've used Rogers Hi-Speed Internet for the past two and a half years and I don't have any complaints about the service.


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## pcronin (Feb 20, 2005)

yeah, evdo is crap for home use, but a lot better than nothing/dun over cell for being in remote locations.


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## okcomputer (Jul 18, 2005)

I've had Aliant high speed since it was first available in my town when I was in high school. Inititally, there were no caps at all - speed or otherwise. Then they put in a 1mbps cap in modems they gave out. Eventually they began offering Ultra High Speed (2 years ago now I believe), and I upgraded then, which gave me 2mbps.

They just upped certain areas to 5mbps, and my neighbourhood in Halifax is one of them. There IS 10mbps available, but there is no official word on it. Some say that if you get Aliant TV, you'll have 10mbps connection.

Either way, with Ultra High Speed I get 650k/s downloads. Still only 60k/s uploads though. Arg!


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## ErnstNL (Apr 12, 2003)

My existing downloads max out at 50K. Usually hover in the 30 - 40K range. High speed Ultra better deliver!


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## davey-nb (Sep 15, 2004)

*It's New...but not improved*



DrewNL said:


> This service has been available in NB for years. What did you use before as a basis for your comparison? Original Vibe....cable? I use Aliant PPPoE with my mac but I run it through a router first.


This is new, it's High Speed Ultra!
Can anyone tell me what difference it makes if I connect through PPP as usual instead of PPPoE?
The PPPoE really slows the connections down to a crawl!


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## davey-nb (Sep 15, 2004)

*Got it!*

I removed the previous (but optional) DNS addresses from the TCP pane and now my service is finally Ultra fast!

Thanks all!


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## DrewNL (May 23, 2005)

ErnstNL said:


> I'm upgrading to Ultra High Speed in the next few days. I've had Warp 1 for 3 years. (Newfoundland)
> I'll report on my findings in the next few days.
> There better be an improvement or I will just go back.
> There's a 30 day satisfaction guarantee.



Sorry to say that there is no way that you'll ever get a static IP back. Once you're on PPPoE you're never going back. Don't know who told you that here in St. John's, but they were wrong.

D


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## pcronin (Feb 20, 2005)

glad we've managed to coble together a coherent answer for ya 

PPPoE is the only way to connect. if you want to connect with just PPP, then you'd be going back to dial up


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## Kingshurst (Aug 11, 2001)

I use Aliant Ultra High Speed and have been very happy with the speed. Just don't call them for service as they will say they don't support macs. Generally have to solve any tech problems yourself or with limited help. I am running wireless through an Airport Base station with an AirPort Card (not extreme).

I just ran Cogeco Speed test and got the following results:

dslreports.com speed test result on 2006-03-07 20:46:22 EST:
2444 / 475
Your download speed : 2444 kbps or 305.6 KB/sec.
That is 15.8% better than avg. other reports from aliant.net

Your upload speed : 475 kbps or 59.4 KB/sec.
That is 6.7% better than avg. other reports from aliant.net


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## pcronin (Feb 20, 2005)

Kingshurst said:


> I use Aliant Ultra High Speed and have been very happy with the speed. Just don't call them for service as they will say they don't support macs. Generally have to solve any tech problems yourself or with limited help. I am running wireless through an Airport Base station with an AirPort Card (not extreme).


If yuo look here : http://productsandservice.aliant.ne...productsandservices/facts_51_4.jsp&curbody=51

they support Macs:

Minimum System Requirements*:

Windows Macintosh† 
166 MHz processor or better Power PC Processor G3, G4 or G5 
Windows 98SE/Me/2000‡/XP Mac OS 9+ 
Mac OS X 
Windows 98SE - 32MB RAM
Windows Me/2000/XP - 64MB RAM 
(128MB RAM recommended for Windows XP) 64MB RAM 
(128MB recommended) 
250 MB free 
hard disk space 250 MB free 
hard disk space 
Colour Display Colour Display 
Ethernet Card Ethernet Card 
CD-ROM Drive Required CD-ROM Drive Required 
*In all cases, system hardware must meet or exceed the minimum hardware required for the Operating System used.
‡Windows 2000 users must have the latest service pack installed.
†Macintosh systems do not support Net Assistant, our High-Speed Internet self-help tool. 


what they don't support is the airport, or indeed any wifi/router that you're not leasing from them. that's all there is to that. next time you call them, tell them you're running a mac, but "forget" to mention the router, or just plug direct from the wall to the mac, and they will help you.


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## davey-nb (Sep 15, 2004)

*You use a Mac?*

...Aliant Technical Help asked me.
Yup, I said, don't most people?
Na ah, said the Help Desk, You're on your own, I don't know anything about Macs, have a nice day.


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