I agree with Chris. Since he went all technical, I'll go with lame man terms.
From all my experience with both, I have never had a good experience with MTS... Ever!! While with shaw I have got great solid reliable connections. And when I went over their workmanship it was as expected cheap and fast... However I was able to completely rewire the setup, document and photograph it all.. I called customer service to complain and they provided apologies and a free PVR. So I love Shaw! Done Cheers!! > On Mar 12, 2014, at 7:05 PM, chris kluka <asd...@asdlkf.net> wrote: > > The simple answer is that either ISP *can* suck at times, because they are > both huge ISP's and they both have crap service departments. > > You can get lucky and get good service from either, and you can get lucky and > get good equipment from either, but you can't make the blanket generalization > that shaw or mts or voi or les.net or any of the other ISP's in winnipeg are > the best. > > Generally speaking, Shaw has a better class of internet service. They have > more peers, and bigger pipes than anyone else. They have a larger installed > user base, and cable (DOCSIS v3) is capable of FAR greater bandwidth than any > class of DSL in use in the city is capable of. (if you order >= 100Mbps > internet service from shaw, you will get a Cisco device, which is a 4-port > NAT/router and bridge in one device. It's capable of up to 250Mbps, but they > won't turn NAT off on this device). If you order shaw >= 100Mbps and want NAT > turned off (you just want a cable modem), they will give you a Motorola > DOCSIS 3.0 device instead, which is far superior, but requires that you > purchase your own NAT/Router (I'd recommend the ASUS RT-56NU, as it can do > almost 1000Mbps LAN/WAN routing). > > If you order shaw < 100Mbps service, they will give you DOCSIS 2.0 grade > equipment, which is the gear that currently has the "congestion in my > neighbourhood" issue. If you get a DOCSIS v3 modem, you won't have a > neighbourhood congestion issue. there are 16x as many channels available in > DOCSIS 3.0 so yea. > > > > With MTS, either it works, or it doesn't. You will have fairly consistant > service, but that service will be (probably) slower (raw throughput) and > laggier (higher latancy) than shaw. > > > Basically, if you can get shaw, and your service is good (your cabling > infrastructure is not damaged to the house), you will probably have the best > experience with shaw. > > If your COAX cabling is damaged with shaw, you'll have to failover to MTS, > unless you are too far from a distribution point (generally, only good to > about 2 miles from one of their distribution points. Beyond 2 miles, you > won't get more than about 10Mbps and the signal might drop out from time to > time with the weather). > > > > Interestingly, cellular 4G internet is becoming a somewhat feasible > alternative. We still don't have access to any kind of unlimited data > transfer package, so if you need to do anything more than basic email > checking and browsing the web, you will tear through your 3GB/month data > transfer limit quite quickly; However, once plans become available, the > cellular towers are in place in some of the city to get up to 35 Mbps down, > 19Mbps up on rogers 4G. (tested with a Sony Experia Z Ultra). > > > > If you want the best possible experience, order Shaw, and order something > from their "new" pricing tiers (i.e. 100Mbps per month), and get them to turn > off NAT (tell them you want bridging mode *ONLY*. This will cause them to > give you one of the new Motorola modems, with DOCSIS 3.0 service. Then, get > yourself a good router (check out > http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/router-charts/view for a list of the > best performing routers). Make sure it has a high-ish LAN/WAN routing > capability, and a high-ish number of TCP connections. > > Have Shaw install your modem as close as possible to your upstream tap (don't > make them install it in your living room, get them to install it in your > breaker box. Run CAT-5e or CAT-6 cable from your modem to your router to get > your router where you want it to be. The length of CAT5/6 won't affect your > connection at all. Extra unnecessary consumer-grade COAX can. > > > As it was mentioned by Colin Stanners, MTS gives out 2Wire routers, which > *CAN NOT* be placed into briding mode. The only way to get around their > forced NAT is to put another device into a DMZ. Even so, this is > questionable. Avoid the 2Wire boxes if you can. > > >> On Wed, Mar 12, 2014 at 2:24 PM, <cstann...@gmail.com> wrote: >> DOCSIS vs DSL doesn't really matter when either deployment can be done with >> great or newer equipment or 10-year old or crappy equipment. Not to mention >> network design differences... >> >> MTS provides questionably reliable 2wire routers with their VDSL2 service >> which will never let you get a real IP on a good router, so I recommend >> never using their service unless you get the old (under 7mbit?) DSL and use >> your own router. >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Kevin <m...@iamkevin.ca> >> Sender: discuss-bounces@lists.skullspace.caDate: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 14:12:50 >> To: <discuss@lists.skullspace.ca> >> Reply-To: discuss@lists.skullspace.ca >> Subject: [SkullSpace-Discuss] ISP Preferences: Shaw vs MTS >> >> Hello everyone, >> >> I am sorry to bring up such a nonsensical ISP battle thread here, but >> lately the MTS connection I've been using where I am living. My >> landlord is nice enough to pay for the Internet and include it in the >> rent, so I really can't switch over even if I wanted to... >> >> When I normally have the choice of ISP, I normally go with Shaw >> Cablesystems. To me it personally makes more sense that a coaxial >> cable can carry bandwidth better than a twisted pair. Not entirely >> sure how true that statement is, but to me, it seems right. Whenever I >> had Shaw, I never had to deal with broken connections, lag, and other >> nonsense that I've been struggling with over the past weeks. There are >> actually times where I just stop using the MTS connection and tether >> through my smartphone to get a more reliable connection. I find that >> odd, that a cellular network connection is more reliable than a >> landline connection. >> >> A few examples of issues I've been experiencing lately on MTS: broken >> SSH connections, webpages sometimes just don't load at all, and the >> connection breaks so badly that my plasma Gmail widget crashes my >> entire desktop. I'm still on an older version of KDE4, so I assume >> when a connection breaks on newer version, it won't bring down all of >> plasma. >> >> Anyways, when I was on Shaw, or even my Telus cellular connection, I >> don't experience all of these headaches mentioned above. I want to >> know if you had any similar experiences with any of the local ISPs. >> >> I also wouldn't mind a nice break down on each service in terms of >> how one can potentially be more reliable than the other. I've heard >> some interesting things about ADSL and how someone in the neighborhood >> can basically slow down the entire area, and heard that with >> Cablesystems this isn't the case, and it's more of how far you are from >> the so-called "head office". I'd rather get some proper education on >> how both of these systems work, rather than relying on possible >> misinformation I learned before. >> >> An interesting thought for a class to be held at the space, would be >> education on how ISP works in general, and compare ADSL to Cable >> without all the marketing bullshit. I am sure there are people at this >> space whom work for either MTS or Shaw, and having them at such a >> presentation would be a nice idea, perhaps both to get a better >> perspective. >> >> -- >> Kevin <m...@iamkevin.ca> >> _______________________________________________ >> SkullSpace Discuss Mailing List >> Help: http://www.skullspace.ca/wiki/index.php/Mailing_List#Discuss >> Archive: https://groups.google.com/group/skullspace-discuss-archive/ >> _______________________________________________ >> SkullSpace Discuss Mailing List >> Help: http://www.skullspace.ca/wiki/index.php/Mailing_List#Discuss >> Archive: https://groups.google.com/group/skullspace-discuss-archive/ > > _______________________________________________ > SkullSpace Discuss Mailing List > Help: http://www.skullspace.ca/wiki/index.php/Mailing_List#Discuss > Archive: https://groups.google.com/group/skullspace-discuss-archive/
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