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Bandwith ftl. I'm not capped so the only problem I experience is computer problems.

; n ; *hugs you* I hope you get your internet back (or can afford to switch to a better company that isn't so lame) soon.

That doesn't make any ******** sense. If you paid for a certain amount of bandwidth, you should be entitled to use ALL of it, not 70%. There is no reason for them to slow you down, other than the fact that they are a cheap, siphoning ISP from one of the big boys in the US like Comcast or Time Warner. If they have slowed you down to the point that you cannot even load websites in a timely manner, you need to change ISPs. Now. It's not hard to find an ISP with better service than that. I could launch into a rant about how full of s**t all the ISPs are (especially here in Canada), but I think I'll save you guys the energy of having to read a wall of text. The TL;DR of it is, ISPs bandwidth cap because they're too cheap to upgrade, and they make more money by giving you ridiculously small bandwidth caps and then charging you insane overage fees.

I live in a house with 4 other people. The internet connection provided by our landlord has a bandwidth cap of 60 GB. First of all, that's not very high if you use the Internet for anything even remotely beyond web surfing and e-mail. If you transfer any kind of files, if you download games, if you watch streaming video, this is very low. I know what you're thinking, OMG PIRACY, right? That's what ISP's say, it's to keep pirates from slowing down everyone else. Unfortunately, just because a file is large, doesn't mean that it's illegal, and there are plenty of places to watch legal streaming video of TV shows and movies. (i.e Hulu, Netflix, and every major network's website.) In fact, these legal services could very well replace the cable TV you pay 30 bucks a month for. Of course, the ISPs don't want that, and since they control your Internet, they would rather just cap you, and anyone who uses the Internet for these purposes will either get overcharged, or they will be forced to pay for a more expensive connection with speed they don't need just for the higher bandwidth cap. Either way, the ISP makes their money back on the lost cable customer. It's ******** bullshit, and I really hope laws get put into place so that this crap doesn't happen. If it does, we'll eventually just be paying a monthly fee for speed, and a per MB charge for bandwidth on top. It's ridiculous. Imagine paying a penny per MB? Sounds cheap, right? There's 1024 MB in 1 GB. 1 GB=roughly $10.24. A half-hour streaming video typically requires about 700-800 MB, just to give you an idea of how little 1 GB of bandwidth really is. It's ******** bullshit, especially if you live in a house with multiple Internet users, like I do. My landlord's solution was to just force everyone to adhere to 12 GB/month, which is ******** retarted. Unfortunately, since all my roommates do nothing on the Internet except Youtube and the occasional music download, they don't really care. I'm kind of getting screwed over, but whatever. Imagine if you're a family with two spouses and 2 kids? Imagine if you all use the Internet for various things? 60 GB could easily pass you by in a week. This scenario will be more and more likely as time goes on. ISP's are ******** con artists, don't let them tell you otherwise. Anyone else have any ISP horror stories?

EDIT: I told you guys I'd save you the energy of reading a wall of text, and then I got so mad that I wrote a wall of text for you to read. GG to me. *facepalm*

Oh man, that's not fair. I'd totally try and switch companies if I were you!

Rogers > Bell

In fact, despite my loathing of Rogers, and the fact that they're not that different from everyone else, they're still probably the best choice of ISP in Canada right now. Here's why.

Fastest Service in Canada
No, it's not just a marketing ploy. Rogers really has been proven to be the best overall service provider in terms of speed. The problem with Bell is that they use DSL technology, which relies on the phone system. If you live to far away from the phone-switching station, you will definitely not get the advertised speed that you are paying for. This is a physical limitation of the DSL technology, and there's nothing Bell can do about it. Rogers, however, uses coaxial cable, and therefore doesn't suffer from such issues. It's also just generally faster.

Technical Support Reps were Born Speaking English
Rogers Tech Support is, more or less, very helpful. I've had to call on them in the past, and never have I once been re-routed to India. They're definitely based in Canada, my friend used to work as a Rogers rep. They send out trucks ASAP if you need on-site assistance, and while you can potentially be waiting a day or two, the trucks are never late on the day and time they say they'll arrive. I don't know if Bell is any better or worse, but I can vouch for Rogers on this point from personal experience.

Guaranteed Service
Rogers has bandwidth capping, just like every other ISP. It's a bullshit practice, I know, but it's something that has to be tolerated for now. The good thing about Rogers is that no matter how much you go over your bandwidth cap, your Internet connection will remain working at the standard speed you have paid for, and they will never pre-emptively take action before you've hit your limit. The only downside to this is that they have some pretty stupid overcharges. Rogers will charge you 2 dollars for every GB over your bandwidth limit to a maximum charge of 25 dollars per month plus tax. This usually comes out to a little under 30 bucks. Trust me, it doesn't cost them 2 dollars to run a GB of data across their network. More like 25 cents, if even that. Regardless, if your dad is the one paying the bills, maybe the overcharges will be a good way to change his mind. On another note, maybe he'll just suck it up and pay the extra 25 dollars a month for as much bandwidth as he wants. Either way, the rest of your family will not have to suffer through garbage Internet when you go over the limit.