Originally Posted by eullwm

Currently trying to decide between Teksavvy's residential DSL or Cogeco's business package. House of 5 people.

Cogeco: http://www.cogeco.ca/cable/on/en/bus.../forfaits.html
Teksavvy: http://teksavvy.com/en/res-internet.asp

From what I've been told, Cogeco is far and away the better option. The 7Mbit is supposed to be more along the lines of 10Mbit, the 120GB is a soft limit (ie. they won't charge if you go over) and the house is probably already set-up for Cogeco. I've also been told that Teksavvy DSL is just re-sold Bell and that, once you go beyond 40 or 60GB, they tend to throttle. As well, the farther you are from a hub, the weaker the connection gets and I'm very unsure of whether there is a Bell/Teksavvy/whatever network hub in the area. Not to mention that the modem would have to be rented/purchased, whereas with Cogeco the rental fee is incorporated into the rates.

However, the price per month is basically half of Cogeco's Business Starter (sans modem), which makes it god damn enticing.

I'd like to hear what people have to say about both services, or even just Teksavvy--I can hear plenty about Cogeco from the friends who recommended them and said to avoid Teksavvy and Acanac Canada.

A lot of incorrect information you got there.

-You *might* get upto 10mbps, but that is highly unlikely. The 14mbps profile used to be 10mbps, so 7mbps to 10mbps doesnt make sense.
-Cogeco stopped soft caps a long time ago, sometime in 2008. You will get charged overage fees if you go over (cogeco has openly admitted to this).
-Teksavvy uses Bell's line, but their own network. You will be throttled on torrents no matter how much bandwidth you use, whether it is 1gb, or 200gb. There are ways of bypassing it though.
-Yes, DSL speed can vary on distance, however, cogeco (cable) speed will vary with the number of nodes in your area
-A modem costs about $20-25 to buy for DSL
-TekSavvy has amazing customer service, Acanac CS isnt as good.

Originally Posted by blackdragon

A lot of incorrect information you got there.

-You *might* get upto 10mbps, but that is highly unlikely. The 14mbps profile used to be 10mbps, so 7mbps to 10mbps doesnt make sense.
-Cogeco stopped soft caps a long time ago, sometime in 2008. You will get charged overage fees if you go over (cogeco has openly admitted to this).
-Teksavvy uses Bell's line, but their own network. You will be throttled on torrents no matter how much bandwidth you use, whether it is 1gb, or 200gb. There are ways of bypassing it though.
-Yes, DSL speed can vary on distance, however, cogeco (cable) speed will vary with the number of nodes in your area
-A modem costs about $20-25 to buy for DSL
-TekSavvy has amazing customer service, Acanac CS isnt as good.

Considering Cogeco seems to be the only Cable Internet company in Hamilton that should be quite high, unless a lot of people are using DSL instead.

Originally Posted by blackdragon

A lot of incorrect information you got there.

-You *might* get upto 10mbps, but that is highly unlikely. The 14mbps profile used to be 10mbps, so 7mbps to 10mbps doesnt make sense.
-Cogeco stopped soft caps a long time ago, sometime in 2008. You will get charged overage fees if you go over (cogeco has openly admitted to this).
-Teksavvy uses Bell's line, but their own network. You will be throttled on torrents no matter how much bandwidth you use, whether it is 1gb, or 200gb. There are ways of bypassing it though.
-Yes, DSL speed can vary on distance, however, cogeco (cable) speed will vary with the number of nodes in your area
-A modem costs about $20-25 to buy for DSL
-TekSavvy has amazing customer service, Acanac CS isnt as good.

The friend who recommended me Cogeco has a 200GB limit but goes over it consistently by a fair margin--100-300GB per month--and gets no additional charges. Not sure if he had his Internet in 2008 (probably did), so maybe they don't apply the new policies retroactively to existing customers?

Going by Teksavvy's website, they list the cost of the cheapest modem at $75, with $10 shipping. The cable service has a listing of acceptable modems, and the lack of listing for DSL leads me to believe that there is no such restriction for the DSL service. Correct? Which means I can just find any modem online and use it, or will Teksavvy decide to Jew me and tell me otherwise?

Probably going to call them up later and see what they're saying.

You could go for Cogeco's "High Speed Internet Standard" package which will cost you 56.95 + tax. It gives you 60GB download limit. And if you exceed the limit then a maximum of $30 can be charged. So basically you get unlimited download at $98.25 all inclusive at 14 MBPS if you care about the speed. Otherwise if speed is not a big issue then you could go for Teksavvy.

You can get a TP-LINK modem from Canada Computers or online for under $30. usually $20-$25

Originally Posted by blackdragon

You can get a TP-LINK modem from Canada Computers or online for under $30. usually $20-$25

My friend uses this; I can vouch for it :p.