# Rogers High Speed-- any good?



## Snubnose (Sep 28, 2003)

I have HAD IT with Bell, and want to get them out of my life. Not that any big company is good, but I still need/want high speed. Who out there is using Rogers Cable Internet on their Mac? Any good stories? Horror stories? Am I making the biggest mistake of my life? Do tell.

It is tricky because Sympatico High Speed is the one Bell product that has always worked well for me (the only one).

Cheers,
Snubnose


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## scootsandludes (Nov 28, 2003)

why fix what's not broken?

If it works fine, just leave it alone. By switching, your just taking money from one crook and giving your money to another crook.

If they were forcing you to use their msn service, then I can understand, and I would switch too. But really who cares, stick with what works for you.

vince


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## razz (Sep 21, 2003)

Don't get Rogers. Just don't.


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## TommyC (Apr 9, 2005)

Ive had mixed experiences with rogers. At times it has been fine but at others the connection has been extremely slow. Their tech support is a pain to deal with as well. 

If you are set on switching from Bell, have you considered magma.ca? My house switched to them (from rogers) and we've been extremely pleased. The transfer rates are good (usually 200KB/s+, often 300-350) and there has been very little downtime. When we have had problems, the tech support staff has always been extremely helpful at tracking down the problem and they don't force you to go through a standard script before actually discussing the problem. We've switched to a business package but I think they have switched their residential packages to unlimited quota too (except on the very basic packages). if not, it's at least unlimited from midnight to 7am with a fairly generous (40GB/Month each way) during the day. Im sure some people would use more than that but it should be sufficient for most people. One other nice thing is that they allow servers, unlike rogers. It is nice to be able to ssh into my computer at home when I have forgotten some files. We actually had our service cut off by rogers when we tried to do that.


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## simon (Nov 2, 2002)

I think Bell is the lesser of the two evils ... so maybe staying with the devil you know would be better, especially when you say Sympatico works for you


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## DJM (Feb 21, 2005)

Snubnose said:


> I have HAD IT with Bell, and want to get them out of my life. Not that any big company is good, but I still need/want high speed. Who out there is using Rogers Cable Internet on their Mac? Any good stories? Horror stories? Am I making the biggest mistake of my life? Do tell.
> 
> It is tricky because Sympatico High Speed is the one Bell product that has always worked well for me (the only one).
> 
> ...


 Hey Snubnose, why do you want to switch from Bell? I'm just curious because that's what I'm using too. I wanted to switch to a cheaper Bell DSL plan (DSL basic) but they have a stupid 2GB dl/ul cap which is no good for me. I'm looking for cheaper alternatives...


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## Klaatu (Jun 3, 2003)

*Sheesh*

You guys need to get in a pc-frame of mind for this. Rogers and Bell and not the only kids on the block anymore. In Toronto I use Look and so far I've had no issues. Slightly cheaper then Bell, but the same service. 

If your area doesn't have Look, just Google search for providers that offer dsl in your area. Whatever you choose, you'll be better off.


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## Kosh (May 27, 2002)

simon said:


> I think Bell is the lesser of the two evils ... so maybe staying with the devil you know would be better, especially when you say Sympatico works for you


I'd have to refute that, I think Bell is the worse of the two evils. Bell steals more money than Rogers, in my opinion, and has worse service. A week to fix a phone, give me a break! How come Rogers can generally be there that day to fix a problem! I'll agree with you that they are both evils, though.


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## Jmain (Apr 30, 2005)

At Work we have DSL. We are getting our DSL from Sentex.net. The Service is great. However, our DSL connection has been down several times over the last few months. This isn't Sentex' fault but Bells. All DSL providers are using the Bell infrastructure.

At home I use Rogers. I have had 1 outage in 2 years. This was caused by a cable being cut when a Technician disconnected someone elses service.

Speed has been great. Always getting 250 - 300 KB/s on good sites. My neihbour has the 5 Mb modem and is getting even better download rates.
I am thinking of updating to the 5 Mb modem soon so I can get more upload. I am using a VoIP ATA box for phone ( No Bell at all at my house) But If I am uploading a lot on my Mac phone conversations tend to suffer a bit.


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## bmovie (Jan 18, 2003)

I have had Bell for 3 years and never realized that the speeds I should have been getting were not even close...so I complained and they did nothing!!!! I complained again and again nothing was done. They gave all sorts of ideas on what to do from unplugging all phones to not using a line extension...NOTHING worked!
then they told me that the switch hub for my area might be damaged. I said ok what are you going to do about.......NOTHING! was what they did

finally I told them cancel my subscription....I went to Rogers and have been happier than a PIG in S___T!

my rogers speeds are faster then bells even during peak hours!

so i'm happy with Rogers


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## dmpP (Jun 1, 2004)

I've been using rogers high speed (not the lite, or extreme) for the last 6.5 years... a few outages... maybe 6 or 7 days in total over the years... 

it all depends on where you live and how many people in the area have it...

I was (at one point) able to download at 1.2MB/sec (megabytes not bits) - I have a screen capture somewhere....

I had rogers at my parents house for about 4 years and now 2 yrs in my condo.

My parents have bell (they got scammed - in my opinion - by the 'bundles') and they're considerably slower than when I had rogers there. They're probably going to switch back.

Having said that... if you have a laptop that you take to work or whatnot, you probably know that if you have your own domain name and you use that for e-mail, in order to send mail your outgoing server has to be set to one of the sympatico smtp servers. With rogers, that's not the case.


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## Toca Loca Nation (Jun 22, 2004)

i have used both and have found sympatico to be unbearably slow in comparison.


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## macsackbut (Dec 15, 2004)

Snubnose,

Let me just second TommyC's vote for Magma.ca. I went with them orginally years ago because they were a small private company. They have since been bought up by Primus, but their GREAT customer service/tech support hasn't suffered since the buyout. Check them out if you're in the east. I think they provide service to T.O., Ottawa and Montreal. Not sure about other areas.

MacS


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## TommyC (Apr 9, 2005)

macsackbut said:


> Check them out if you're in the east. I think they provide service to T.O., Ottawa and Montreal. Not sure about other areas.


I'm actually in guelph, about an hour west of Toronto, so it is available in at least one other area  The only unusual thing is that I get an ottawa*.magma.ca dns.


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## TroutMaskReplica (Feb 28, 2003)

anything bell offers stinks. i've had both and rogers is far better of the two. i mean, there's no comparison.

if sympatico works now then great but god forbid you ever have a problem - they will do NOTHING for you, and you will quickly discover all of their employees have been zapped with some sort of brain melting thought control ray that renders them completely useless.

the same gangrenous rot that has set in at the phone side has poisoned the internet side.

can you tell i'm not a fan of bell?


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## modsuperstar (Nov 23, 2004)

I can give votes to Execulink and Look for good DSL service. There are so many DSL providers out there I just hop around to whoever offers me the best deal. I'm with Bell at the moment for $24.95 a month, but as soon as the price goes up, I'm gone.


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## modsuperstar (Nov 23, 2004)

macsackbut said:


> Snubnose,
> 
> Let me just second TommyC's vote for Magma.ca. I went with them orginally years ago because they were a small private company. They have since been bought up by Primus, but their GREAT customer service/tech support hasn't suffered since the buyout. Check them out if you're in the east. I think they provide service to T.O., Ottawa and Montreal. Not sure about other areas.
> 
> MacS


 Magma is available elsewhere in Ontario. I live in a small town in south western ontario and they offer service here.


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## Ramboman (Dec 13, 2004)

We switched from Bell to Rogers and took the High Speed "Lite". I have been fairly pleased with the speed and reliability. If there is a problem, the service is not great for Mac users but eventually all is worked out. We dropped Bell altogether for our phone and switched to Telus.


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## aircooln (Apr 13, 2005)

I've user Rogers since they first introduced the service many years ago. I love them to death. Near static IP's as they seem to change about once a year. No blocking of port 25, so you can use POP mail at other service providers if you _really_ wanted to. Speed is perfectly acceptable. 60Gb a month transfer allowed, and a limit I can never even get close too.

Give 'em a try.


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## iPetie (Nov 25, 2003)

Well, don't get me started on Bell. I love Rogers High speed extreme. We are as fast here as anyone and the reliability has been rock solid.
However, check out your neighbours performance on Rogers before making a switch. Newer upgraded Cable connections destroy DSL for speed and are unaffected by neighbourly usage. Older networks are a different story, they can really bog down.


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## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

Bell is a piece of crap when it comes to customer service. i tried to sign up for their service TWICE when i was still living downtown when they first started offering service in my area. at the time i had no choice since rogers wasn't available in the area. it was a complete horror story and the one of the most fustrating experience EVER!!! the speeds were crap as well when i finally got hooked up and cancelled right away. i didn't even bother finishing the free trial period. i would avoid them like the PLAGUE!!!


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## adagio (Aug 23, 2002)

The decision of which provider to use really depends where you live. Bell was gawd awful for me. I had lousy speed and frequent disconnects. Tech support was a joke. I know someone who had poor Rogers speed and is doing better with Bell.

I switched to Rogers last fall and wish I'd done it sooner. Last week I upgraded to their Extreme service. I'm blown away by the speed I'm getting. My experience with them has been rock solid.


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## Snubnose (Sep 28, 2003)

> Speed has been great. Always getting 250 - 300 KB/s on good sites. My neihbour has the 5 Mb modem and is getting even better download rates.
> I am thinking of updating to the 5 Mb modem soon so I can get more upload. I am using a VoIP ATA box for phone ( No Bell at all at my house) But If I am uploading a lot on my Mac phone conversations tend to suffer a bit.


That is the real reason I want to go to Rogers- I want to switch to VoIP...but if I stick with Sympatico, Bell will continue to make me pay for my phone line as well (extra $20 a month, which blows). If there was a way to just keep sympatico for my $45 a month alone and go to VoIP, I might do it.

BUT SCREW BELL! Rogers likely are bad too, but they CANNOT be as bad as Bell. In Ottawa anyways, I need only chat with the person next to me to hear yet another horror story about them.

But now I look on the Rogers site and realize I have to sign up for cable TV to get Rogers Internet...<groan>

Snubby


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## qualia (Apr 25, 2005)

*Rogers*

I used to be with Shaw cable before Rogers took over our area, it was a awful everytime I had a problem and call them they would sometimes laugh at me because I had a Mac. Which they knew nothing about, so I would sit waiting on the phone while someone would go and get their MAC manual. Since Rogers took over things have been great!






Snubnose said:


> I have HAD IT with Bell, and want to get them out of my life. Not that any big company is good, but I still need/want high speed. Who out there is using Rogers Cable Internet on their Mac? Any good stories? Horror stories? Am I making the biggest mistake of my life? Do tell.
> 
> It is tricky because Sympatico High Speed is the one Bell product that has always worked well for me (the only one).
> 
> ...


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## eatr (May 1, 2005)

i gotta stick up for bell in this one. sounds like there have been some horrible customer service representatives, but when i phoned because my internet was down, i got one really awesome guy. apparently he had a mac at home and he fixed my problem reaaaally fast.

one complaint i have is the long time i was on hold....
also the first 2 times they sent me the internet software they sent pc versions even tho i repeatedly asked for the mac version....

but all in all ive had great speeds.... all mp3 downloads end within 3 minutes, within 20 seconds on a good day.... and once i had 800kbps/s dl speed.


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## Rob777 (Dec 17, 2002)

I have Roger's internet and did not have to get their cable TV. They pushed it at every step of the ordering process, but it wasn't a necessity. If you do have more than one of their services they do offer a discount. 

I have had no problems with Roger's. I hate the big, evil companies as much as the next guy, but I have very good service so far. I am sure that will end someday.


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## ArtificiaLard (Feb 8, 2005)

Does Bell still have a data transfer cap? Rogers just implemented one and it's a real bummer. Yes, it's 60GB Up/Down which seems like a lot but I use BitTorrent heavily to download TV shows and that does eat up bandwidth...


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## tizerfish (Jun 8, 2002)

http://www.canadianisp.com/cgi-bin/ispsearch.cgi?sp=ON

Find another DSL company and sick with them


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## depmode101 (Sep 4, 2002)

high speed extreme is great for me - never down - and as for the cap - i dont think a 60GB cap is that strong - 
and as far as tech support, i also havent had any problems with rogers.

people are gonna have their opinions about every company - sometimes you get good service, and sometimes not so good - some people prefer dealing with smaller companies and hate the "big evil corporations" while others dont mind dealing with bigger companies - i think that its pretty idiotic to hate a company just cause there a big company.



> But now I look on the Rogers site and realize I have to sign up for cable TV to get Rogers Internet...


 if you dont have cable, you have to pay an extra $10 on top of the internet fee per month - they dont force you to get cable just to get the internet.


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## bmovie (Jan 18, 2003)

ArtificiaLard said:


> Does Bell still have a data transfer cap? Rogers just implemented one and it's a real bummer. Yes, it's 60GB Up/Down which seems like a lot but I use BitTorrent heavily to download TV shows and that does eat up bandwidth...



When did they implement a CAP? I was just talking to a rep about 1-2 months ago (can't remember exactly how long just know it was in 2005) and he told me that they don't have a cap! Because unlike Bell Rogers owns their network and that is why they don't have a cap. That is what i was told. 

I to use bittorrent for TV shows. I will have to call and ask again. about this cap.


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## GreenBastard (Mar 1, 2005)

In tillonburg, we have bell and execulink as the major two dsl guys... I had execulink and loved them except for one thing, if they have a problem with the lines, guess who has to take care of it? Bell and i swore up and down they would leave your problem a low priority because you were a non bell dsl customer.

I switched to rogers high speed and on most sites I get 600 kilobytes (not bits) a second downloads.... and their service is great.


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## razz (Sep 21, 2003)

Anyone here use Cogeco?


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## kevs~just kevs (Mar 21, 2005)

tizerfish said:


> http://www.canadianisp.com/cgi-bin/ispsearch.cgi?sp=ON
> 
> Find another DSL company and sick with them



good link! thanks!


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## Kosh (May 27, 2002)

bmovie said:


> When did they implement a CAP? I was just talking to a rep about 1-2 months ago (can't remember exactly how long just know it was in 2005) and he told me that they don't have a cap! Because unlike Bell Rogers owns their network and that is why they don't have a cap. That is what i was told.
> 
> I to use bittorrent for TV shows. I will have to call and ask again. about this cap.


I never heard about a cap either. I heard they were considering it, but I've never heard about it. Unless I threw out some junk mail from them that I should have read.


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## expergo (Feb 28, 2005)

Cap was implemented in mid-March.

Go to rogers.com and for all the packages you'll see they have a limit on dl/ul.


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## bmovie (Jan 18, 2003)

expergo said:


> Cap was implemented in mid-March.
> 
> Go to rogers.com and for all the packages you'll see they have a limit on dl/ul.



OH GREAT!!!!!! must have slipped that into some bull**** mailer that I don't read and in a 5pt type in the corner somewere that looks like a generic disclaimer in a serif font so it would break up because it was done in 4 colour process!!!!!


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## Boomcha (Jan 29, 2004)

Rogers never publicly announced their 60GB cap. Not in form of a email or even a printed piece, it just became common knowledge over at rbua.org and people there were trying to get more people to call and complain which I encourage (UNLIMITED is not 60GB). I have found that rogers tech support is pretty decent though, I don't like the sneaky nature of their business practices but support has been good. Reliability is simply fantastic. I have Rogers at home for my personal stuff and we have the 8MB speed at work (business account) and its really fast.

Their Mac support has been great to me.

Jorge


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## Cliffy (Apr 18, 2005)

Cable internet relies on the cable system in your neighbourhood being in good condition. If you have problems with TV signal, then the internet would not be a good connection either.


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## TheBat (Feb 11, 2005)

I've been with Rogers for around 4 years, both in Newfoundland, and now London. I have the extreme service, and have had no problems. Customer service has been good. I really cannot see any reason not to go with Rogers.

Yes, there is a 60GB cap. My usage, vith VOIP, is around 3GB/month. Anyone want to share my cap.....?? (kidding, off course)


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## kps (May 4, 2003)

It's nice to know that Roger's is getting better. Options are good. 

I signed up when it first became available and was on the @HOME network, later when that went bye, bye, Roger's had a lot of trouble during and after the transition. 

The service was so bad I switched to Sympatico and have been with them since 2001. For about 6 months I had both Bell ADSL and cable. I found cable to be down constantly both internet and mail. I have yet to have Sympatico to go down and it's been 4yrs.

How often do you need to call tech support? It should just work. The last time I needed to call Bell support was to get an updated modem. I got through right away, told the guy to check my service and upgrade me. In two days I had a new modem...done.


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## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

tizerfish said:


> http://www.canadianisp.com/cgi-bin/ispsearch.cgi?sp=ON
> 
> Find another DSL company and sick with them


I was wondering when someone was going to post that link.
I need new DSL service in Montreal and found that web site very helpful especially the user ratings. I eliminated every provider below a 4.5 rating (with at least a reasonable number of responses) and then looked for the best deal.
On the monthly rate you really need to look at the fine print on the ISP web site - some have low cost introductory deals that show up in the table, but after a few months the rate jumps.
I'm currently with KOS and am pretty happy with them - service is always up - tech support was very good the odd time I needed it (to understand what was happening to bounced emails and spam rather than a connection issue). They even have techs who know the Mac quite well - unfortunately they don't offer service in Montreal.

If anyone knows of a good DSL ISP in Montreal please post. I'm currently leaning to go with Montreal DSL (which is actually a company in Ontario  ) but haven't signed up yet.
Cable in Montreal is not an option - cable in Belleville with Cogeco is not reliable enough fo my needs, it goes down once in a while, a few times a year - never had my phone line go down in the last 30 years.


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## chy (Feb 3, 2002)

I moved and changed from [Cogeco] cable to Bell [business service].

I tried Cogeco's ultra-hi-speed service and I got no more performance than their spandard 5 meg service. My business Bell DSL is 4 meg but it is a consistent 4 megs. And given that I use VOIP, the latency and speed variations wih Cogeco just were not happening. VOIP fax didn't work at all, and VOIP sometimes sounded like a bad fringe cell call. 4 meg DSL here 'feels' way, way faster than Cogeco's 5 meg service.

Bell's customer service has been awesome. Having said that, my folks use the Sympatico service and they complain consistently about customer service; I don't know whether it has been luck of the draw or Bell puts more priority on business service. 

Bell offers several necessities that Rogers currently does not offer -- static IP, allowing me to run the particular type of server I use, and no bandwidth cap. I can easily go through 100GB of bandwidth in a month as each project coming in to the server is generally 20 - 40 GB in size. I understand that the 60 GB Rogers cap is a hard cap with no billing escalation for bandwidth overages ie. if you go through 60 GB in 3 weeks, you have no internet until the billing month ends. 

YMMV for what service features you need. For my ISP needs, Bell was the only game in town ... 

 

R.


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## steadfast (Jul 23, 2004)

it's the old guy again. I had problems with Bell and Hank from this board tried his best to give all the help in the world. In the meantime Bell never returned my calls and the last word from them was they would post it up the line(?) and someone would call me. No Luck. Tonight I went over Hank's memos and tried again after a restart and BINGO I now receive in Mac Mail. I'm stuck for 2 years with the bundle I have but that doesn't mean I'll not tell people about Bell and "Mac"


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