Shaw 150 MBPS deal- $80 (Telus rumoured to match) [Split from Shaw TV]

[oilyfan]

Originally Posted by StrykerSteve

It's not an "old" PC, but it's not new either. It's probably 6 or 7 years old at this point. In tech terms, I guess it's pretty ancient, lol.

Just took a look...

PC has Realtek PCIe FE Family Controller, which is apparently a 10/100 card.

What's the best solution to replace it with?

edit - would this be a good choice?

https://www.amazon.ca/TP-LINK-TG-326...etwork+adapter

Looks fine to me, go for it.

[photon]

I prefer Intel network adapters, though it is more expensive.

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX29347

[Fuzz]

Make sure you buy the right version, and have a spare slot for it. Ideally the PCI-E, but PCI would be fine too, as long as you have an open slot of either.

[stampsx2]

Originally Posted by homestand

Only Telus 100 is available in my area. No Telus 150/150.

Telus has 100mbps down? I thought it was either 50mbps max or 150mbps. You're either on two pair or fiber?

[oilyfan]

Originally Posted by stampsx2

Telus has 100mbps down? I thought it was either 50mbps max or 150mbps. You're either on two pair or fiber?

Fibre customers still have the choice between 150 and 100. Bonded of course maxes out at 100

[StrykerSteve]

Originally Posted by photon

I prefer Intel network adapters, though it is more expensive.

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX29347

I picked this up today.

Just installed it.





Thanks folks.

[TSXCman]

I cancelled Shaw a couple weeks ago and got a "special" call from a department for my complaints about the service and charge fluctuations. I know have:

$65/month for first 6 months
$86/month for month 7-12 (cancelled movie/HBO packages)
$126/month for year 2

I got:
Internet 150
Personal Cable
-HBO Package ($8/month for first 6 months)
-Movie/AMC Pack (Free for first 6 months)
2 Cable Boxes
$100 rebate

Surprised that they pulled out the big discounts, but I did deal with some crap.

[BananaPancakes]

So I switched from Telus 50 to Shaw 150, and I noticed performance has actually been worse for streaming sites (YouTube, Twitch, etc.) Anyone else experiencing this?

Now that I'm on Shaw, I find that videos and streams have to buffer for way longer (sometimes 15+ seconds) and sometimes I have to switch to 720p for smooth playback. Speed tests look fine. 175mbps up, 15mbps down, 11 ms ping. On Telus I was getting 2-3ms ping but I don't think that should matter much right?

Does Shaw throttle these websites? Or is it something with my setup?

[Minnie]

We've had a couple of instances of super low speeds the past week or so, but on Wifi/just one laptop. A couple of times, right down to 30 mbps download. Just ran another test and it's up to 121 mbps on the laptop, which I'll take. 150 would be better but eh, it seems to be 150 or better on the desktop and the other laptop and they get the most use. I think it's likely just the age of this laptop. We're getting another desktop in the next few weeks, so we'll see how things pan out there.

I'm more annoyed with the Gateway system losing signal all the time. Without fail, every night, after midnight, is the worst. I am rarely watching TV at that point, but one of the kids is (chronic pain keeps her up many nights), and she'll be in the middle of a show and boom - gone. Or, it cuts in and out at the most inopportune times. We've had it happen a few times in the early part of the evening, never in the daytime. Once or twice it's up scheduled downtime, which I understand, or an actual system wide issue affecting multiple others but for it to be this regular, they need to check this out. Going to have to call them today and see what they think.

[Mccree]

Originally Posted by BananaPancakes

So I switched from Telus 50 to Shaw 150, and I noticed performance has actually been worse for streaming sites (YouTube, Twitch, etc.) Anyone else experiencing this?

Now that I'm on Shaw, I find that videos and streams have to buffer for way longer (sometimes 15+ seconds) and sometimes I have to switch to 720p for smooth playback. Speed tests look fine. 175mbps up, 15mbps down, 11 ms ping. On Telus I was getting 2-3ms ping but I don't think that should matter much right?

Does Shaw throttle these websites? Or is it something with my setup?

Are you using own router? I am and I am having similar issues. Wonder if it is my router or a shaw issue.

[BananaPancakes]

Originally Posted by Mccree

Are you using own router? I am and I am having similar issues. Wonder if it is my router or a shaw issue.

Yeah I'm using an Apple router that has ac so it should be fine. Actually, after doing some testing, I'm 99% convinced that Shaw is throttling YouTube.

I tested the YouTube site and app on various devices and the problem instantly goes away as soon as enable my VPN.

[keratosis]

Originally Posted by BananaPancakes

Yeah I'm using an Apple router that has ac so it should be fine. Actually, after doing some testing, I'm 99% convinced that Shaw is throttling YouTube.

I tested the YouTube site and app on various devices and the problem instantly goes away as soon as enable my VPN.

I found the same only for me it was the store. If I updated an app or downloaded movies using wifi on my tablet... Severely throttled. Using LTE? Download in a heartbeat. YouTube seems okay so far.

[psicodude]

Originally Posted by BananaPancakes

Yeah I'm using an Apple router that has ac so it should be fine. Actually, after doing some testing, I'm 99% convinced that Shaw is throttling YouTube.

I tested the YouTube site and app on various devices and the problem instantly goes away as soon as enable my VPN.

No they aren't. YouTube is probably the most heavily used service on the web. If Shaw was throttling it that bad, their customers would be freaking out. I can watch 4K YouTube videos without any issue whatsoever.

Try watching a video and, assuming you are on a PC or Mac, right clicking on the video and selecting "stats for nerds". It will tell you what sort of bandwidth you are getting.

Maybe try a different browser or resetting your router as well.

[BananaPancakes]

Originally Posted by psicodude

No they aren't. YouTube is probably the most heavily used service on the web. If Shaw was throttling it that bad, their customers would be freaking out. I can watch 4K YouTube videos without any issue whatsoever.

Try watching a video and, assuming you are on a PC or Mac, right clicking on the video and selecting "stats for nerds". It will tell you what sort of bandwidth you are getting.

Maybe try a different browser or resetting your router as well.

Cool, I didn't know about that stats for nerds option, but after enabling it it's actually showing me some weird data. When I'm using a VPN the bandwidth quickly hits 2000-5000 kb/s with no delay. When I'm not on a VPN it hangs at 0 kb/s for a few seconds at the beginning and then hovers between 500-2000 Kb/s. I don't know much about throttling, but isn't this a clear case that this is what they're doing?

I guess I was exaggerating about how bad it is. It's not buffering for 15+ seconds every time I watch a video. That's happened, but usually it's about 2-3 seconds before the video starts, and another 2-3 seconds whenever I skip ahead through the video.

This never happened on Telus, and there's a chance most people wouldn't even notice if they've only been with Shaw.

[GWSurvey]

@bananapancakes

Shaw does not throttle the connection whatsoever. With YouTube, what may be happening is the route your device takes to a YouTube web cache may be heavily utilized in comparison to another route going to another YouTube web cache. Or the web cache itself is experiencing issues.

go onto community.shaw.ca to have someone looking It. There are engineer that are also present in there that can have a look into it. There was a time period where YouTube was broken similar to what you are experience for everyone east of Alberta. Shaw figured it out afterwards and resolved the issue.

Looks like there is an open thread about this.
https://community.shaw.ca/thread/35397

[Finger Cookin]

FWIW, I'm on Shaw and am seeing 20,000-25,000 kbps on the youtube nerd stats. I have noticed the occasional youtube video struggling to play and buffer in 1080 lately. I assume it's a youtube thing, not a Shaw thing.

[TSXCman]

So far with Shaw 150:

Galaxy S6 - 30mbps down and 15 mbps up
Lenovo y710p - 80mbps down and 16 mbps up (802.11a/b/g/n)

Was expecting better so far.

[cmyden]

Upgraded to Shaw 150 today....



... but after enabling passthrough to my Linksys RT-N16 router running Tomato DD-WRT, the download speed maxes out at 130 Mbps every time.

Looking into it, it looks like this might be getting into speed territory that Tomato compatible routers can't handle (when running Tomato). If there's anyone that keeps up with the Tomato developments and knows of a Tomato compatible router that can handle faster speeds, please share.

[Stealth22]

I haven't noticed any issues with Shaw so far, even on YouTube. I clicked the "stats for nerds" option for one video (1080p60), and I was getting 10~15000kbps for the connection speed.

Originally Posted by TSXCman

So far with Shaw 150:

Galaxy S6 - 30mbps down and 15 mbps up
Lenovo y710p - 80mbps down and 16 mbps up (802.11a/b/g/n)

Was expecting better so far.

Was that on 2.4GHz wireless, or 5GHz? How far away was your laptop from the router? Are you using the wireless on the Shaw modem, or your own router? What speeds do you get on the laptop with a CAT5 cable?

There are many factors at play here that affect wireless performance.

[OldDutch]

Interesting experiment I ran last night. I think I isolated the configuration change that was giving me slow performance on my Netgear router. I had set Google Public DNS servers (8.8.8.8) as my DNS lookup, as opposed to Shaw.

Very basic test, but ran fast.com and got 80mbps on 2.4ghz wifi. I then set to Google DNS, and re-ran and got 25mbps. I then set back to Shaw DNS and re-ran and was back up to 80mbps.

I am going to try again tonight with a bit more rigor, but for now I think that may have been my slowness issue. Anyone having slowness their self may want to try this if they are using Google Public DNS.