# Sympatico High Speed slows down to a crawl every night



## sketch (Sep 10, 2004)

Is anyone else experiencing this? Every night, around 7ish I noticed and definitely after 10pm, my high speed c-r-a-w-l-s making dial up look great. I noticed this as websites take a long, long time to load (simples ones like google and gmail) and my podcasts take forever tod ownload when usually they are there within 2 minutes-- and it's not that many).

I know it can't be because people in my neighbourhood are all using sympatico because that happens on cable, not dsl  Could it be my router? My router is a netgear. Last night I reset it in a huff as the speed on my father's pc (connected to the router by network cable) was slow. It's an old pentium iii but I didn't have time to check if reseting it helped (I'll do that tonight after work). 

Just wondering if anyone else had experienced this before I fight with Bell.


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## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

What did Sympatico say when you called them?

(310-SURF)


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## sketch (Sep 10, 2004)

I haven't had a chance to call them yet. When I usually call, it's after their business hours.


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## The Doug (Jun 14, 2003)

There's been tons of discussion of this on DSL Reports. 

I switched to Videotron Cable in early July and have found it rock-solid all the time. No slowdowns, no problems whatsoever. Prior to my switch to Videotron, my Sympatico service had the aforementioned slowdown practically every evening; it was highly frustrating. 

You're probably not going to get anywhere with them at all, if you call about it.


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## SoyMac (Apr 16, 2005)

sketch, I'm noticing slowdowns on Sympatico at any time of day, and very very often. I think it's ridiculous that they upped the price a few months ago and their service is deteriorating. I'm switching to keynetz here in Ottawa.


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## scootsandludes (Nov 28, 2003)

I've been having a really bad experience with Sympatico lately. Called tech support to let them know that my connection kept dropping, they said they would send a techy over, I've gotten a new modem, still same problems. last time I spoke to technical support they tell me that i can only have basic, which is bs since I had high speed for the past few months (just moved here), one thing over and over again though was they kept referring me to my previous phone number. Said no that line has been gone for a few months now. Called accounts, and complain and told them the service I've gotten in not acceptable, and told them to discontinue my service at the end of the month, and reminded them I've been a customer for over 6 years. They're giving me 4 months of free service, and I'll cut them off for good after that. They promised me that internet would be back to normal today, so far it hasn't been. I will give one day grace since I demanded that my service should be back to normal asap on Monday, they said the best they could do is thursday, or today, but had originally told me friday should be up and normal again.

Those moron Sympatico techs couldn't fix a stamp onto an envelope, how can they fix a real problem!


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## MannyP Design (Jun 8, 2000)

The Doug said:


> There's been tons of discussion of this on DSL Reports.
> 
> I switched to Videotron Cable in early July and have found it rock-solid all the time. No slowdowns, no problems whatsoever. Prior to my switch to Videotron, my Sympatico service had the aforementioned slowdown practically every evening; it was highly frustrating.
> 
> You're probably not going to get anywhere with them at all, if you call about it.


Ditto, here. When I first moved to Hull in '99, Bell had absolutely no high-speed service in my area so I had no choice but to go with Cable... and I've never been happier with the service since. Fast, dependable, and rarely a slowdown (if any at all.)


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## miguelsanchez (Feb 1, 2005)

Lots of good info here re: service, speeds, and slowdowns, not to mention how to deal with CSR's:

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/sympat

Good luck.


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## sketch (Sep 10, 2004)

Well I for one am shocked to hear others reporting the same problem! I kinda figured it was just me and my cursed house. but no.... well, for the time being, I guess I can downgrade my service to basic dsl. No use paying premium for such stupid service.

I'll check out that link now, miguel.


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## RevMatt (Sep 10, 2005)

I have a mid-range Bell plan, and we don't get slowdowns at night. It must be something about your local hardware (the neighbourhood switch box, I mean, not in your house). That would certainly make me an unhappy camper if I had that problem.


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## ColBalt (May 16, 2005)

I'm on Sympatico as well. At times, speeds do feel slower then norm after my connections been on for several day. I would reset my connection and everything is fine again.


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## RicktheChemist (Jul 18, 2001)

*


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## scootsandludes (Nov 28, 2003)

Just wanted to bump this thread.

I just got off the phone with sympatico's billing people, and she put me on the line with a high level tech, apparently there's a few level, when you call, you get a level 1, and if not a windows issue, they send you to level 2. If you give them any reason to leave, they put you on with a 'get connected tech'. I'm thinking finally I might have my problems solved, as this tech is gonna be talking to a systems engineer in main central server to help figure out my problem.

It was kinda funny listening to the tech freak out to discover how bad my connection really is on computer looking at my connection log.


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## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

I have Sympatico Ultra with the Siemen's 6250 modem, which is a piece of ..... ( I shall not use the word I wanted to utilize, because this is a family website). I find that I have to turn off the modem and turn it back on every few days. A tech person explained that it might not be the modem but their software on the server in the central station (which is a few hundred meters from my house). When it slows down, you might want to turn off your modem for a few seconds and see if that helps. Just a thought.


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## SoyMac (Apr 16, 2005)

My Sympatico connection is now even worse then I reported previously. Actually, the speed is better (still not great) but my mail keeps getting disconnected. Usually my web connection is fine (sometimes it drops too), but I get mail error messages daily, about the port not being accessible. The drop can last for a few minutes or 20. It's intolerable, as we run a business and rely on email much of the time. I'm dumping Bell and switching to Keynetz as soon as I get a free minute to call them.


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