***********ARCHIVED POSTS************
Edit:::: Is Xplornet nothing more than a shill company for Telesat? Has Telesat set up Xplornet as the main re-seller and support center to avoid legal complications of providing a sub-par service? As well as hiding all evidence of the fact? Has Telesat done this to avoid CRTC regulations as a communications provider? Email Telesat to ask these questions if your service barely works.
info@telesat.ca
Starting with wireless.
Some towers with the Motorola Canopy system in the east, Are not having enough bandwidth available by Xplornet for the customers on the tower. So you end up with people ordering the 3meg package, and only getting speeds below the 1.5meg package. Why is this? Well Xplornet tries to cover it's butt ,saying the 3meg is burst speed('up to'). Possibly only achievable in the overnight hours. Otherwise customers on a oversubscribed tower are being 'capped' at the lower speed to save in purchasing more bandwidth costs. So purchasing this 3meg package is overpaying for the product. If you do indeed order wireless. Please check into the capped speed on the tower. Paying for 3megs and only routinely receiving 1.5megs, or less, is fraud with a capping system in place.
There is no FAP on the wireless towers"""EDIT:FAP is as described in the above paragraph."""". But you do not get a real world IP and the tower is your router with the real world IP.(You can purchase a static IP).
Notice on wireless speed tests that your ISP says either Ontario Hydro or Storm internet. They are Xplornets bandwidth providers. Xplornet contracts out most of operation to avoid large expenditures.
A speed test to check your speeds. Do about 4 tests over 24 hours to see if you are being 'capped'. Otherwise, you are being ripped off.
http://www.testmy.net/tools/test/d_load.php
Satellite section.
What can we say, but.......The Anik F2 satellite that provides the internet service by Telesat is oversubscribed(The only 2 spot beams on the Anik F3 are covering part of Ontario and the second one is just pointed at Canada). Whether it's each spot beam or the satellite ground stations(that is why the Anik F3 has a beam pointed at Ontario). There are two channels on the spot beams. Carrier 'A' ,which is for VOIP, gaming(big lag at times) , etc. and has more open ports.(At this time until DAMA is applied to it too). . . . . Carrier 'B' is DAMA controlled and is setup for websurfing and email and has many ports blocked. The DAMA system allows more people to be crammed onto the system by constantly releasing the bandwidth that 'you have idling during use to decrease ping times or lag'. DAMA increases these ping times.
Reports indicate 1 spotbeam on the Anik F2 serving the Wildblue customers in the United States has failed and hopefully there should be a spare on the satellite to be repointed to the affected area.
The more customers Xplornet puts on the system. The more Telesat has to throttle back speeds for everyone on the satellite or spot beams or ground stations. Because the Canadian government regulates the satellite to be kept alive and not overloaded. But the government does not care about the regular internet end users. You are not important and don't need to have 'true high speed internet' available at your house. Contrary to government propaganda.
Wildblue in the United states has actually stopped putting new subscribers on some Spot Beams on the Anik F2 ,due to oversubscription.
Can you watch Youtube videos?
With the FAP policy floating up and down, You can watch about 2 to 3 videos an hour(FAP resets at every hour). And that all depends on the file size. FAP could be 24 megs or 16 megs or even less.
Can you stream video? Buffering..........In primetime, , , , You will need about 330k to be able to create a stable stream. accounting for lag and resent packets.
But if you use the bandwidth monitor. You can see that you can use up 10megs of download/upload just web surfing for an hour.
http://www.rokario.com/
Can you download 'paid for' movies?
Simple answer is, no. Unless it's the middle of the night.
Music?
How many megs is that album or list of songs?
Can you stream music? Sure. As long as it's not primetime to prevent ......bu...ffer...in....g.
Can you do file sharing?
The system Restricts any file sharing to very low speed (6k? or maybe up to 60k). Even though file sharing is legal in Canada.Some have been able to get higher speeds. But standard Satellite uploads are topping out, at about 80k on some systems. So then you say,,,,"But my friend with DSL get uploads of about 600k and downloads of about 3megs". This slow upload is needed on satellite to allow for higher download speeds. Steal from the uploads to get more users on the system.
So when can you download large files?
Between about midnight and 5am. You can download all you want without FAP kicking in. So set up your system to auto download or just stay up all night.
There is the 30 day guarantee to try out the system. But record and save your speeds during these 30 days to see if your average speeds drop after the 30 days. . .Everyones account is a small program on the server that tells the system what your settings are supposed to be in regard to speeds and such.
Contract.
The literature from Xplornet moves people to get the 3 year contract to save up to $199 system access fee for a 3 year contract. A no contract choice would be better. But after the 30 days on any contract ,you still have a satellite dish that makes a nice bird feeder, or Ebay item. The entire satellite setup is, One months rent or food for a few months or part of your mortgage payment. . .Tell the kids to write a nice letter to their government representative about how they are losing out on the fabulous opportunities that high speed internet has to offer. As well as another copy to the biased new media.
A note about canceling your service and paying out your contract..There is a 'suspend service'. Meaning, instead of paying out at $$ per month you pay out about $25 per month..
But pay a hundred bucks to the court system and sue your way out of the contract. Fraud(Xplornets pages say 'high speed' and list sites that have large downloads that will get you FAPped...Apple movie trailers,being one. And also degrade the service for others if you use them.) And over-selling the service is a good start. And since Xplornet does not guarantee the service?? Why should you pay for a service(Meaning a usable product) that is 'not' usable, even though the Xplornet pages say all the things you can do with your "High Speed" internet connection.. . .And of course the part in the contract about"Xplornet provides the service on a reasonable efforts basis", "And does not guarantee upload or download speeds". That means Xplornet should not be overselling the system. A reasonable effort could be not allowing any new installs when the system has reached a certain saturation point ,as to not degrade all users 'being able to actually use the system when they want'.. A speed test showing speeds below 200k will show that there are too many users on the system. Satellite does not work very well at those speeds with the amount of 'lag' that has been created on the system.
And the big one. The FAP (fair access policy). This policy is not "properly" described anywhere on Xplornets site. Unless you Google and see an old one for KU band service(Not listed as either KA or KU). Customer support can not tell you what the FAP is, in current data rates(other than you were FAPped this many times)...Fair Access Policy should mention that FAP happens at a certain data transfer..
.And finally the part about '30 day notice for System changes'. This should be for the DAMA controls on the system now. If carrier "A" has DAMA put on it? That is a system change that must be notified... Or were you even notified about DAMA being put on the standard install of carrier "B"? . Can Xplornet customer support say when DAMA was instigated on carrier "B"? And when the communication to you was sent out? If they can't? No more valid contract.
The phone book probably has a listing of a 10 minute free lawyer(Or $50) who will look over the contract and say which parts to go after Xplornet for cancellation of the contract. . .If Xplornet can not guarantee the service? That should really say""If the satellite should fail, then the service is over and done with"".
Another thing about lawsuits...Don't have the lawsuit end with a "confidentiality agreement". What this means is, that when you win. The case is sealed and you can not tell your friends or country how you won and how much you got. It may take longer, but in the end everyone wins.
Dish alignment.
If your dish moves out of alignment, you need to call Xplornet and have them check your alignment on their computer and then they send out a work order to call the installer to realign the dish at a cost of about 200 dollars. But there is a 90 day guarantee that the installer is supposed to honor for his install, which any realignment is free during the 90 days.. . . .Only install the dish on a solid ,stable object, like the side of the house. Alternate install areas need to be stable and not subject to movement or twisting during the years. . . .Dish should also be properly grounded. This is too reduce static buildup and lightning strike damage to your home. . . .There is a second generation Tria(the bit at the end of the dish that does the transmission/receiving), That should not have the moisture leakage problem that has killed many of these Tria's. The circuit board inside will corrode and cause loss of service.
Primetime on satellite.
It is about from about 5pm to 9:30pm (or sometimes 2pm). It is a time when you can expect to get upset at your satellite system for taking so long to load a webpage, with timeouts and page loading errors.. But since you work all day and only use the system between these times????? Back to good old reliable dialup.
Xplornet customer service.
It's a call center and when you call in the first time and any new calls 30 days after the last call. You will have to waste a half hour rebooting your whole system(computer, modems, and disconnect any evil routers.Including going into 'safe mode'.). The call center person assumes your computer is too blame for all the problems in speed your are having. And routers do not play nice with Xplornets system. Something to do with your IP refreshing. . . .If level one can not find anything. Then you can get bumped up to level two. Level two have more job security and some will tell you the truth about why the system is so slow. Oversubscription. . . .
Some call center employees will try to 'upsell' you to a higher, faster package. Do not do this. As you will soon realize that your speeds are only slightly higher or ,as reports indicate, may get worse.
There are some reports that the call center will no longer take "speed complaints" and will tell you that, or just hangup on you. That is an admission to oversold bandwidth.
If you think that Xplornets advertising is not telling you the whole story or is deceptive.....Contact the "Ad Standards Code".
http://adstandards.com/en/
A newish government complaint site for Telecommunications Services(Kinda like the BBB).
The Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services
http://www.ccts-cprst.ca/en/
Xplornet is not a member, but that should not stop you from filing a complaint.
Contact Xplornet head office.
So email or call the boss's and CEO of Xplornet and get the truth. Customer support has become a game. Call in to waste you time, to diagnose that nothing is wrong with your system. So it must be Xplornets system.
Contact information for Xplornets parent company exec's.
http://www.barrettcorp.com/contact.asp
Scott Mazerall. Customer Affairs Liaison ScottMa@Barrettxplore.com
John Maduri - CEO Barrett Xplore johnm@barrettxplore.com Tel: 403-807-8000
Malcolm Barrett - Chairman Emeritus macb@barrettcorp.com Tel: 506-328-1221
Bill Barrett - Co-Chief Executive Officer billb@barrettcorp.com Tel: 506-328-1212
Ed Barrett - Co-Chief Executive Officer edb@barrettcorp.com Tel: 506-328-1224
Harold Reiter - President Barrett Corporation haroldr@barrettcorp.com Tel: 905-792-6053
Contact information for your federal government leaders.
http://www.canada.gc.ca/directories/direct_e.html
Contact information for a new Canadian Government Telecommunications Complaints site. Kind of like the BBB.
The Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services
http://www.ccts-cprst.ca/en/
Contact information for Telesat, satellite internet provider for Xplornet(re-seller of satellite service).
http://www.telesat.ca/
And the CRTC to just get the complaint numbers up in their files. Even though they do not care.
http://www.crtc.gc.ca/RapidsCCM/Register.asp?lang=E
Is your new service 'good for 30 days'(Of the guarantee) and then speeds drop off after that? A recurring pattern that is reported.
Telesat. Satellite provider with the Anik F2 and Anik F3, providing service to Xplornet/Wildblue.
http://www.telesat.ca/
Cellular internet.
A decent alternative to the high cost of a satellite system.
Cellular internet....................
Rogers Portable Internet. Subject to slowly expanding areas....
http://www.shoprogers.com/Store/Cabl...t/portable.asp
Bell portable internet. Subject to slowly expanding areas....
http://www.bell.ca/shop/Sme.Sol.Inte...plug.Home.page
