Shaw Internet - Magical New Speeds and Lots-o-bandwidth, fickle geeks appeased

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by pylon

In case it has not been mentioned, Shaw will also be launching a Netflix competitor as well. It will be a flat rate movie streaming service, and less than $20/ mth. Also I was told the library of movies and programing will be much fresher. The source on this is mega reliable. Supposed to launch by the end of this year.

If you happen to go on VOD and you find yourself looking at a back catalog movie that you just can't seem to order......



In SD only.. For now..

[KTrain]

The new Shaw internet plans are available now:

http://shaw.ca/internet/

[photon]

Originally Posted by KTrain

The new Shaw internet plans are available now:

http://shaw.ca/internet/

Nice, thanks!

Called in and they said I could either order it and have the new DOCSIS 3.0 modem shipped, or pick one up from retail, so maybe I'll go in tomorrow morning and get one from Shaw.

[Burninator]

My usage meter has been updated to the new maximum. 250GB for extreme.

[photon]

Yeah looks like the meter is accurate too, I'm seeing numbers closer to what I was recording back when the thread started. 160GB for the last month, I really don't need to upgrade but that 5Mbit upload is going to make a difference for me, waiting to upload server code to a remote server is annoying, even the upgrade to 2Mbit was very noticeable.

[Jimmy Stang]

For those of you currently on Extreme, what sort of speeds are you seeing? I'm almost always somewhere between 8 and 15 Mbps, rarely at 17 or 18, and never above 20. It doesn't seem to matter what server I select to test on (using Speedtest.net), the time of day, whether I connect directly or through my router, whether or not I reset my modem, etc.

A few months back, my speeds were abysmal (was about 10% of the advertised upload speeds) so I swapped my modem and things improved quite a bit. But I have never seen that magical space between 20 and 25 Mbps download. Am I expecting too much?

[photon]

Servers have to be able to deliver those speeds too, even the speed test sites don't all seem to be able to deliver that kind of bandwidth all the time.

I've had sustained at 2.8MB/s which works out to 22.4Mbit, and I've seen it get up to 3 for short spans of a few seconds.

There's also the overhead of the protocols themselves, so knock 5% or more right off the top for that.

[Meelapo]

What are these fancy Wi-Fi modems?

The Broadband 50 sounds good but they don't say how much it'll be after the three month introductory price.

Also, their Manage Account link goes to: http://myshaw-test.shaw.ca/customercentre

so it looks like things are still under construction.

[eyipyip]

I picked up my new modem from Shaw this afternoon, activated the Broadband 100 plan, getting 57 mbps down, 5 mbps up at 3:41pm, I know it's not gonna be around 100mbps but maybe it's because my area is pretty high traffic :P. At 57 mbps down, the internet is still pretty fast. most of the pages loads instantly with no hiccups.

[jayocal]

On hold right now upgrading from Extreme to BB50. Gotta get the new modem!

They said it would cost me an extra $10 a month with my phone bundle package....no cable tv.

[You Need a Thneed]

I've got a couple of months left on my current 12 month promotional rate, which includes High Speed Extreme. So far, the bundle pricing page doesn't seem to have any of these new packages available.

I'm not too worried about upgrading yet, as I don't really need the higher speeds, but would they upgrade me for free-ish?

Hoping I can get a retentions deal or something again that will give me the new gateway TV system, plus really fast internet.

[NuclearPizzaMan]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

I've got a couple of months left on my current 12 month promotional rate, which includes High Speed Extreme. So far, the bundle pricing page doesn't seem to have any of these new packages available.

I'm not too worried about upgrading yet, as I don't really need the higher speeds, but would they upgrade me for free-ish?

Hoping I can get a retentions deal or something again that will give me the new gateway TV system, plus really fast internet.

If you are already on a promotional package, getting another one right away will be like pulling teeth with a bazooka.

[You Need a Thneed]

double post

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by NuclearPizzaMan

If you are already on a promotional package, getting another one right away will be like pulling teeth with a bazooka.

I think you have to cancel one service for a month or something right? Last year, I had cancelled only our TV service for about a month and a half or two months before I decided to start again.

Last August I got:

Shaw Home Phone Basic + Free Long Distance (instead of 4c/min)
High Speed Extreme
HDTV+
Free 12 month rental of new Motorola PVR
Free Lifetime rental of current digital box (cheap one)

for $85/month.

And I had never cancelled the home phone or internet, just the TV for a short time.

Hopefully, I can get something similar to that. My wife doesn't want to give up the PVR, it's so useful when your schedule revolves around you kids.

[DownInFlames]

I called first thing to upgrade to the Bandwidth 100 package, but they're having difficulty getting it done. Someone is supposed to call me back when they figure it out. Anyone else have issues with Shaw CSRs not knowing how to setup the new plans?

[photon]

The CSR I talked to sounded ready to do it, but I'd rather stop and pick up the modem than wait for it to get mailed to me.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

I think you have to cancel one service for a month or something right? Last year, I had cancelled only our TV service for about a month and a half or two months before I decided to start again.

Hopefully, I can get something similar to that. My wife doesn't want to give up the PVR, it's so useful when your schedule revolves around you kids.

Last year they were desperate to keep customers from Telus. That's how I got a smoking good deal on TV+Internet. They wouldn't budge at all this time. I downgraded some TV packages with the plan personalizer and bought a new PVR as I couldn't live without it anymore. I went from $65/month to $99/month, but I figured I couldn't ride the gravy train forever.

[sclitheroe]

I upgraded tonight on the way home to the 100/5 package. Got home about an hour later, and I'd say within about 15-20 minutes of plugging in the modem it was ready to go.

One interesting note - you can ask for the modem as either a wifi router, or as a straight modem. As far as I can tell, you get the same SMC DOCSIS3 box either way, but the wifi and routing functions on mine are very definitely disabled - it doesn't hand out DHCP leases, I can't get to its web interface, and my Airport Extreme picks up an externally routable IP address. Further, the Airport Extreme does not report a double NAT condition, which it normally does if its tucked behind a NAT device.

Performance wise, I am able to get 60-65 megabits per second down, and almost exactly 5 upstream according to Shaw's performance tester. Testing with speedtest.net is spottier, I think its hard to find servers out there that can deliver that kind of bandwidth consistently. This is with some light network stuff running in the background, like my VPN connection to work.

Another interesting note is that I can't get my 802.11n 5Ghz Macbook Pro to go more than about 35 megabits, so I'm able to top out my wifi connection before my internet now. Probably some of you have a better 802.11n than my single antenna Airport Extreme, but its something to keep in mind.

[DownInFlames]

The SMC wireless router is a piece of garbage. It wouldn't even do port forwarding. I exchanged it for the regular DOCSIS3 modem.

Shaw still hasn't called me back, and the office is closed now so I'm going to have to call them back tomorrow. I talked to three people and none of them knew how to do the switch. I don't know how I got so unlucky since everyone else seems to have had no problems.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by DownInFlames

The SMC wireless router is a piece of garbage. It wouldn't even do port forwarding. I exchanged it for the regular DOCSIS3 modem.

Shaw still hasn't called me back, and the office is closed now so I'm going to have to call them back tomorrow. I talked to three people and none of them knew how to do the switch. I don't know how I got so unlucky since everyone else seems to have had no problems.

What is the regular DOCSIS3 modem? Fortunately, I don't have to deal with the crappy router side of the SMC I have, since it was disabled out of the box.