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

[HotHotHeat]

Heads up to anyone switching from Telus... Shaw's HD channels are pretty annoyingly bad. A few issues I've noticed

- No HBO East (only provider in Canada to not provide both feeds)
- No CTV HD Atlantic (SD is there)
- Major US networks are Spokane instead of Seattle (might affect Seahawks games) and Eastern are.. I don't even know where, not Boston like Telus has.

I can't actually believe non HD channels are still a thing.

[Finger Cookin]

Originally Posted by 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.

With regards to DNS settings, I've found that namebench is a pretty useful tool for seeing if you need to tune up your DNS servers. I've had a set-up with three Shaw DNS servers specified in Windows, with Google as my fourth option, for a while now. The three Shaw servers are all in different cities - one's north of Vernon, one's in North Vancouver, and the last one is in the Shaw building in downtown Calgary. The set-up's been pretty solid for a while.

[accord1999]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

- Major US networks are Spokane instead of Seattle (might affect Seahawks games)

Spokane is in the Seahawks area. Shaw previously had Seattle networks for but switched back to Spokane because there's a long-time affinity between Spokane stations and Alberta viewers.

and Eastern are.. I don't even know where, not Boston like Telus has.

Detroit for ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox Rochester, NY.

[kermitology]

Upgraded on Telus to 150/150 after first being told about it by a friend at Shaw, then seeing it here too.

All told, I'm saving about $15 a month by upgrading.

I love competition! Now if only there was competition for streaming hockey.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

Heads up to anyone switching from Telus... Shaw's HD channels are pretty annoyingly bad. A few issues I've noticed

- No HBO East (only provider in Canada to not provide both feeds)
- No CTV HD Atlantic (SD is there)
- Major US networks are Spokane instead of Seattle (might affect Seahawks games) and Eastern are.. I don't even know where, not Boston like Telus has.

I can't actually believe non HD channels are still a thing.

I don't even know why there are two HBO feeds. It doesn't make any sense. People don't really watch live anymore and it doesn't even matter if you do, there are no ads, it's purely subscription so who cares if people watch sunday at 5, 10, monday, tuesday as long as they keep paying. Pretty much the dumbest thing Shaw has.

[Jimmy Stang]

Is anyone having their Hitron modem go offline randomly, requiring a power cycle?

So far it has happened twice at home in a little under a month. No big deal - just power cycled it and everything came back. But it also happened once at work over the weekend (also a new Hitron modem), and we have people remotely connecting. That time I called Shaw and they said that there was a very brief outage, and the modem didn't reconnect properly afterwards. They could "see" the modem remotely, but it hadn't "grabbed an IP". So they forced a reboot and after that everything was back online.

Just wondering if this is a flaw with the Hitron modem that others are seeing. This never happened before at home or work, and now I've had three occurrences in the first month with the Hitron.

[Superflyer]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

Is anyone having their Hitron modem go offline randomly, requiring a power cycle?

So far it has happened twice at home in a little under a month. No big deal - just power cycled it and everything came back. But it also happened once at work over the weekend (also a new Hitron modem), and we have people remotely connecting. That time I called Shaw and they said that there was a very brief outage, and the modem didn't reconnect properly afterwards. They could "see" the modem remotely, but it hadn't "grabbed an IP". So they forced a reboot and after that everything was back online.

Just wondering if this is a flaw with the Hitron modem that others are seeing. This never happened before at home or work, and now I've had three occurrences in the first month with the Hitron.

Actually happened to me this morning. Only had it for 2 weeks so far.

[keratosis]

It's happened a couple of times to me as well. Going to have to talk to Shaw and see if I can get the Cisco modem instead.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

I don't even know why there are two HBO feeds. It doesn't make any sense. People don't really watch live anymore and it doesn't even matter if you do, there are no ads, it's purely subscription so who cares if people watch sunday at 5, 10, monday, tuesday as long as they keep paying. Pretty much the dumbest thing Shaw has.

I love having the east feed for HBO and TMN.

I get to watch all my favorite weekly shows and movie premieres at 7pm instead of 9pm. It just gives more flexibility on a busy Sunday line up. Instead of having all my favorite shows air at 9pm, it allows some staggering.

When everything airs late, I end pvring everything and watching monday, otherwise I have to stay up late. Sometimes I PVR and it doesn't matter. Other times I feel a great sense of superiority to be able to post in the GoT thread 2 hours before anyone else.

[Inglewood Jack]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

Is anyone having their Hitron modem go offline randomly, requiring a power cycle?

confirmed that the Hitron is quite the janky piece. Shaw's forums are filled with customers pining for the relative stability of their old Cisco. Shaw's response is that they're working with Hitron on a firmware fix, no ETA.

what happens on mine is that the LAN port hooked up to my router will suddenly go dead. seems like a lot of the people affected are Asus router users, though it hasn't been confirmed that has anything to do with it. I'd be more understanding if the Hitron were brand new and they're only finding bugs now because of the big 150 rollout, but I'm pretty sure this modem's been around since early 2015 at least.

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by Inglewood Jack

confirmed that the Hitron is quite the janky piece. Shaw's forums are filled with customers pining for the relative stability of their old Cisco. Shaw's response is that they're working with Hitron on a firmware fix, no ETA.

what happens on mine is that the LAN port hooked up to my router will suddenly go dead. seems like a lot of the people affected are Asus router users, though it hasn't been confirmed that has anything to do with it. I'd be more understanding if the Hitron were brand new and they're only finding bugs now because of the big 150 rollout, but I'm pretty sure this modem's been around since early 2015 at least.

Originally Posted by keratosis

It's happened a couple of times to me as well. Going to have to talk to Shaw and see if I can get the Cisco modem instead.

Originally Posted by Superflyer

Actually happened to me this morning. Only had it for 2 weeks so far.

Thanks for the confirmations. Hopefully they get this ironed out. It actually happened to me this morning as well, which prompted the question. My router (an ASUS, interestingly) reported in the logs that the WAN connection went dead just after midnight. Figured I'd try rebooting the router, as I could do that from my throne during my morning ritual, but no luck. Had to unplug the modem in the basement, and all was fine.

The biggest problem will be at the office. Luckily Shaw seemed able to remotely reboot it, but that's still a hassle. Especially if colleagues travelling in the East are wanting to connect at 7am ET. That's going to result in a few early mornings for me.

[FlameOn]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

Thanks for the confirmations. Hopefully they get this ironed out. It actually happened to me this morning as well, which prompted the question. My router (an ASUS, interestingly) reported in the logs that the WAN connection went dead just after midnight. Figured I'd try rebooting the router, as I could do that from my throne during my morning ritual, but no luck. Had to unplug the modem in the basement, and all was fine.

The biggest problem will be at the office. Luckily Shaw seemed able to remotely reboot it, but that's still a hassle. Especially if colleagues travelling in the East are wanting to connect at 7am ET. That's going to result in a few early mornings for me.

Is this some kind of compatibility problem? I've been running for over 30 days of uptime with no problems on my Ubiquiti router.

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by FlameOn

Is this some kind of compatibility problem? I've been running for over 30 days of uptime with no problems on my Ubiquiti router.

It very well may be. My office router is also an Asus with a Hitron modem. We do have a second IP here that we use for an open wifi hotspot, and that device (non-Asus) also wouldn't get an IP after the outage until the modem was restarted.

I'll have to do some digging around the Shaw forums. Hopefully this is fixable by firmware!

[DownInFlames]

Originally Posted by Inglewood Jack

what happens on mine is that the LAN port hooked up to my router will suddenly go dead. seems like a lot of the people affected are Asus router users,

This happened to me once. I have an ASUS router as well. If it happens again I might have to swap it too.

[OldDutch]

Originally Posted by accord1999

Spokane is in the Seahawks area. Shaw previously had Seattle networks for but switched back to Spokane because there's a long-time affinity between Spokane stations and Alberta viewers.

Detroit for ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox Rochester, NY.

Ahh Spokane you got me through my youth. I would say since the advent of digital cable and more than 12-30 channels less so. However, I do fondly remember as a kid wanting to drive down E. Sprauge and shop at river front square. Plus listen to Randy Shaw tell me about all the meth busts and murders.

Now I have to settle for a slightly larger but still sketch as ###### Detroit. I love that I can continue feeling good about Calgary just by turning on local American NBC.

[Finger Cookin]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

Is anyone having their Hitron modem go offline randomly, requiring a power cycle?

I've rebooted mine once since I signed up. I think I've rebooted my own router (a Linksys/Cisco) twice since I signed up. So my Hitron has been fine.

[McG]

i have had my internet wifi just drop on me; i have been trying to work on my netgear router as i have been blaming it all along.

reading the comments about the hitron though, i have started to wonder. often, my wifi drops at midnight, and then comes back up a few minutes later. it has done this a number of times.

i took my wired network apart completely on the weekend and rebuilt it from scratch. so far, stable, but i will be watching for wifi and network drops much more closely now.

as i said to a buddy, what do non technical people do when these things don't work?

[calgaryblood]

Ever since switching to Shaw my Netflix always signs me out. Maybe a security issue/glitch?

[Finger Cookin]

Originally Posted by McG

as i said to a buddy, what do non technical people do when these things don't work?

Wait for a minute or less for the wifi to come back up? And if it's not a typical minor outage, power cycle their equipment? Just like they've done with any way they've ever accessed the internet?

[McG]

Originally Posted by Finger Cookin

Wait for a minute or less for the wifi to come back up? And if it's not a typical minor outage, power cycle their equipment? Just like they've done with any way they've ever accessed the internet?

agreed. waiting and power cycling remain under-rated as they address many issues.

I should have been more specific or written my comment with more clarity. I meant to reference DNS and reconstructing networks better.

If a person knows how things work, does that make them more impatient with the tech? I think it does.