On Mon, Jan 02, 2012 at 04:49:08PM -0500, H. Kurth Bemis wrote:
> On Mon, 2012-01-02 at 16:27 -0500, [email protected] wrote:
> > Hello Hroðgard Skjöldung!
> > 
> > From the quote below (taken from Colba's website):
> > 
> > "..Over the last four years, ColbaNet has installed its own equipment in
> > nine Bell central offices on the island of Montreal. This project is
> > being conducted according to the CRTC’s competition policies and
> > principles. Thanks to its installations, ColbaNet is able to offer a
> > unique service: Unlimited residential ADSL2+ internet access without
> > throttling for as little as $20 per month..."
> > 
> > Does this mean they are independent? Are they the only ISP with the
> > capability to assign IP addresses without the control of the Big Three? 
> > Sustain
> > 
> 
> No.  No provider is independent, unless you buy from someone who owns
> their own lines (Bell, Videotron, Rogers maybe).  Colba simply co-lo's
> it's gear in Bell central offices or in carrier hotels around the city.

I use taksavvy.  I have no problems with them; I have no difficulty 
talking to tecnically competent support personnel when necessary.  The 
line goes down sometimes, but not anything like multiple times a day.  
Usually just restarting the pppoe process on my network gateway is 
enough.  I can't remember the last time I reset the modem.  I gather 
from other comment on this thread that others have different 
experiences.

My son uses colba.  He says its service is excellent and fast -- when 
it works.  It often has downtime, though.  I gather from the other 
replies on this thread that others have different experience with colba, 
too.

Having equipment colocated in the Bell exchanges at least has the 
potential of bypassing any throttling the Bell might be doing -- the 
throttling seems to be done in the access concentrator.  But I suppose 
it depends on what equipment is located there.  And once the connection 
gets to colocated equipment, it can be further sent through the ISP's 
own lines, if any.

Before I signed up with teksavvy, I used dsl.ca, which was taken over by 
wiznet, which was taken over by magma.ca, which was taken over by 
primus.  Dsl.ca provided competent texh support, even to the point of 
advising which Linux drivers to use and where to get them.  The next 
time I needed support was after I had been shunted to Primus, which 
explicitly did not provide Linux support.  To get them to do anything I 
had to run a piece of Windows-only software on my server, which was 
just not in the cards.  This was not the kind of service I had 
originally signed up for.  I dropped them like a hot potato and switched 
to teksavvy.

I have a permanent IP number.  The only trouble I have with my service 
is that some spam-hunting organisation has apparently decided that I 
have a temporary IP number, and as a result anyone that signes up with 
them cannot get any email form me.  The spam-humter doesn't seem to want 
to listen to anyone as to the true status of my IP number.  I suspect 
the spam-hunter's customers are pleased by the number of messages it 
blocks, rather than whether it blocks the right ones.

> 
> IP addresses have nothing to do with it.  Often the DSL traffic is
> backhauled to the providers network (via ATM or something) and hits the
> net from there.  To the end user, you appear to be a client of your ISP.
> You get an IP from their range (if the provider does this), you're
> routed through their connections/IX agreements/etc.
> 
> And like I said, IME people either get good service  from Colba, or
> totally crap service.  YMMV.

I once had problems maintaining a connection in the dark ages when I was 
using sympatico temporarily while looking for a better ISP.  Bell came 
out repeatedly to fix the problem and each time told me that the line 
was fine, and indeed, when they showed up it was.  I only had trouble 
while it was raining, and they would show up after the shower.  The 
problem didn't get fixed until the second escalation to a higher-level 
network person.  That technician understood something, listened to my 
description, including the story about rain that the others poohpoohed, 
and went up the poles, climbed ladders, and so forth, until he found the 
trouble -- a squirrel had gnawed through some insulation and rain caused 
a partial short.

That was clearly Bell's problem.  They did fix it eventually.

> 
> ~k
> 
> > 
> > On Mon, Jan 2, 2012, at 04:17 PM, Hroðgard Skjöldung wrote:
> > > Hej,
> > >   I am not a client however, http://www.colba.net has a handful of
> > >   connections.  I am not sure if they are outside of the oligopoly that
> > >   canada has, but they have better connections that  other (most)
> > >   providers in quebec.
> > > 
> > > Gleðilegt nýtt ár! Godt Nyt År!
> > > hro
> > 
> 
> 
> 
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