Xplornet Information

viasat 1 article video pics

2012-01-08T16:27:00.000-08:00

A walk through on the components of the home users ViaSat1 service.
Your data mileage may vary.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/08/viasat-residential-satellite-broadband-internet-hands-on-video/

http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2012/01/how-viasats-exede-makes-satellite-broadband-not-suck.ars?

Plus a reminder of Hughesnet Jupiter 1 to be launched around mid 2012.
http://www.satbeams.com/satellites?id=2497

version 1 portable internet goes bye

2011-12-15T15:24:00.000-08:00

Lets once again thank greed for removing an affordable choice for remote areas Internet. Call up Ottawa and your corrupt Canadian government and rake their ass's over the coals for moving Canada further into the grave of slow and expensive Internet choices. Better yet though, Stampede Ottawa and demand answers as to why the Canadian government allows crap like this to happen. And don't take" free market" for an answer. Lobbyists tell the government what to do(also known as 1%'ers). Former Telco and Cableco executives run the CRTC and are not 100% willing to put a stop to crappy service that is only excused by "up to" bull shit.

Rogers shutting down portable Internet(Inukshuk) as of march 2012. Will Bell possibly follow depending on whatever excuse to continue at customer affordable levels(a post in the dsl reports link says Bell also shutting down Inukshuk). Or since 1/2 their competition just disappeared, will prices go up while GB's of use per month go down?
A glimmer of hope is the newer rogers LTE network, bla freaking bla. Might as well put your rural home up for sale and move into the big city. If you can sell it that is. New buyers want 'high speed Internet' as a priority for a new home. Oh wait a minute... People want high speed Internet, plus a high cap on the monthly/daily/hourly bandwidth limit.

https://secure.dslreports.com/forum/r26649253-Rogers-shutting-down-Portable-Internet-service

Another thread............
https://secure.dslreports.com/forum/r26648806-Rogers-and-possibly-Bell-shutting-down-Portable-outdoor

http://www.digitalhome.ca/2011/12/rogers-shutting-down-portable-internet-service-and-moving-users-to-more-expensive-3g-service/
In a letter to customers this week, Rogers has announced it will be discontinuing its Portable Internet service on March 1, 2012.

Might as well add the instant media sound bite from those Billionaires that like taking your money and then flinging poo back at the consumers in reply: "Shutting down of the Inukshuk system will obviously be blamed on aging and failing hardware at the towers".
So why no maintenance and upgrades to keep system in good working order for years? Consumers get f*cked hard up the anus again.

***************************************************************************

Xplornets new satellite plans for the new ViaSat1 of ViaSats that should be up and running for consumer use by February.
http://www.xplornet.com/SatPlans.aspx

ViaSat1 satellite coverage. Well at least the map shows more coverage in Canada than earlier data, now just need enough people to get off of the Anik F2 and move to the ViaSat1 in order to free up some bandwidth for the Anik F2.. Edit: Is the Prairies coverage the upgraded spot beams on the older Anik F2? You need to be aware of what satellite you are being put on, for your own technical support.
http://www.xplornet.com/4GSatCoverage.aspx
Eastern half of BC covered to far western Manitoba. Then southern Ontario to southern of east quebec. North west New Brunswick covered.

And how fast can you burn through that tiny consumer monthly limit at 5Mbps speeds? Well don't think that you can be YouTubing and NetFlixing to your hearts content. A 5Mbps speed can easily do over 100GB's per month. That is without filesharing at all.

U.S. spot beam maps....
http://highspeedinternetnow.com/wildblues-12-mbps-coverage-map

000000000000000

A discussion on the new pricing of Wildblues data/speed packages. Some interesting things about how the AnikF2 speeds are going to be increased, but people possibly needing new hardware(modem/dish) to get those speeds.
https://secure.dslreports.com/forum/r26644227-New-qData-Allowanceq-packages

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

CRTC complaint page...
http://www.crtc.gc.ca/rapidsccm/register.asp?lang=e

Commissioner for complaints for telecommunications services.
http://www.ccts-cprst.ca/

Open Media
http://openmedia.ca/

http://openmedia.ca/blog/lobbyists-behind-warrantless-online-spying
Warrantless spying on all your Internet data. What a Republican thing to do by Canada's Republican Prime Minister(also known as George W. Bush's servant).
DPI(Deep packet inspection) can easily harvest all your unencrypted data to see what you are doing online, or just to harvest data to be resold for profit by the ISP(note disclaimers by the ISP of 'not selling personal data', which only leaves 'aggregated data'(called 'non-personal', but can be traced back to individuals)..

Internet censorship(Great Firewall of America and Canada) continues to be pushed by private companies that are failing due to antique business models.
https://secure.dslreports.com/shownews/Internet-Inventors-Warn-of-SOPA-Stupidity-117455

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000

A final note.... Ask your politician where the hell all that broadband build money went too. Whether government gave out money or whether the Internet provider said they spent billions, when they really only spent ???. Did the government give grant money to a big company, resulting in a quality small company being devastated or wiped out?

HTTPS: extension(add-on) for FireFox to encrypt your data streams, based on sites that have encryption. Notation of it will seem slow for satellite users and oversubscribed systems with high LAG. Notice some of the links in this post: encrypted links.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere

FireFox web browser.
https://www.mozilla.org/

internet satellites and the future

2011-10-17T11:53:00.000-07:00

Very important to have backup satellites for your Internet connection. As a new generation of higher speed(same lag) satellites get put up, you need a backup, that uses the same hardware at the user terminal.

https://secure.dslreports.com/forum/r26302400-general-Tooway-KA-Band-Read-
The European "Too-Way" ViaSat1 user terminal should be the same as the North American terminals. A notation is about there being only one send and receive cable(instead of two). The European model also has a self install feature(maybe a hand held unit, along with a user interface in the modem) which would probably be not allowed in North America(government regulations against self install, but a user interface in the modem would be allowed for tweaking).

http://www.spacenews.com/satellite_telecom/111014-hughes-viasat-order-sats.html
Satellite broadband providers ViaSat and Hughes expect to purchase big Ka-band satellites within the next year to back up and expand their existing and soon-to-be-deployed capacity, the two companies’ chief executives said Oct. 13. Hughes’ priority for a second model of its Jupiter satellite now under construction appears to be to duplicate its North American success in Brazil, India or China. ViaSat’s expected order of a ViaSat 2 spacecraft would provide in-orbit backup for the company’s North American business

The interesting part in the article has to due with 'propitiatory hardware' or 'patents' and that's bullshit. Patents are destroying future innovation in the World. It's one thing to create a product and be given a certain short time frame for profit on that creation, but there are companies out there that are using very vague wording to prevent competition, via patents.

Even Apple is suing Samsung out of the Tablet markets, as the Apple tablet is black with a glass screen and the Samsung tablet is black with a glass screen. And so is every other Tablet as well. There are many products out there that the only difference is the makers brand name on the product. There are products that are 100% the same, except the maker sold labeling rights to a discounter of the product.

Dankberg said intellectual property rights over the ViaSat-2 satellite’s design will be a focus of the contract. ViaSat had voiced suspicions that Hughes’ Jupiter spacecraft bore too close a resemblance to ViaSat-1, which Dankberg said the company designed pretty much on its own.
“We feel like some of the IP [intellectual property] around our first satellite wasn’t protected as well as it should have been,” he said. “This time we’re going to do better.”
Space Systems/Loral, prime contractor for ViaSat-1 and Jupiter, strongly denied that it had taken ViaSat proprietary technology to build Jupiter.
Dankberg said that in addition to patents over high-throughput Ka-band satellites that ViaSat expects to register, the company will take extra care in structuring its ViaSat-2 contract to assure that no technology slips away.

anik f2 glitch

2011-10-06T20:39:00.000-07:00

The anik f2 satellite had a glitch(solar flare? or Software glitch?), that stopped all communications on it. Service restored several hours later. Edit: Software issue. http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20111007/communications-satellite-telesat-111007/
Telesat says a software error that occurred during a routine manoeuvre triggered its Anik F2 satellite to shut down, causing many Canadians to lose communications for much of Thursday.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/story/2011/10/06/north-satellite-phone-outage.html

http://netnewsledger.com/2011/10/06/anik-f2-satellite-anomaly-causing-service-disruptions/

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=146496

https://secure.dslreports.com/forum/r26399762-Anik-F2-down

Telesat PDF
http://www.telesat.com/sites/default/files/telesat/files/news/Anik_F2_Anomaly_Press_Release_FINAL.pdf
TELESAT’S ANIK F2 SATELLITE EXPERIENCES ANOMALY

OTTAWA, CANADA, October 6, 2011 – Today at approximately 06:36 EDT Telesat’s Anik F2 satellite experienced a technical anomaly that resulted in loss of satellite services to its customers. Telesat is in control of the satellite and all indications are that it is healthy and can be returned to service. Telesat is now undertaking to return the satellite to normal operations and is working with its customers on Anik F2 to restore traffic in an orderly manner and minimize the impact to their networks. Anik F2 supports a variety of services in Canada and the United States, all of which are affected by the satellite anomaly.

search engine hijacking

2011-08-06T11:23:00.000-07:00

A report came out about how some ISP's in North America are tapping into people search engine(google, etc.) searches, by rerouting of traffic through a proxy to be able to easily see what the user is searching for. Or even possibly modifying the search returned results.
DPI(deep packet inspection) could also tap into people searches if set up just right.
Some ISP's use DNS redirection to force their customers to go to a 'ISP sanctioned' search engine, when the user mistypes a name for a website in their browser(also called a 'search helper', instead of DNS hijack). 'Sanctioned' meaning that the ISP gets paid by the search engine site, to force the customers away from Freedom of Choice(Freedom of Communication via Constitutional Rights).

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/07/widespread-search-hijacking-in-the-us
Earlier this year, two research papers reported the observation of strange phenomena in the Domain Name System (DNS) at several US ISPs. On these ISPs' networks, some or all traffic to major search engines, including Bing, Yahoo! and (sometimes) Google, is being directed to mysterious third party proxies.

These proxies collect the users' web searches and the corresponding search results, mostly forwarding them to and from the intended search engines. This allows Paxfire and/or the ISPs to directly monitor all searches made by the ISPs' customers and build up corresponding profiles, a process on which Paxfire holds a patent. It also puts Paxfire in a position to modify the underlying traffic if it decides to.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/08/small-isps-turn-to-malicious-dns-servers-to-make-extra-cash.ars
Nearly 2 percent of all US Internet users suffer from "malicious" domain name system (DNS) servers that don't properly turn website names like google.com into the IP addresses computers need to communicate on the 'Net. And, to make matters worse, the problem isn't caused by hackers or malware, but by the local ISPs people pay for access to the Internet.
Though the 2 percent number might sound low, it's astonishingly high for a core Internet function, as is clear from the fact that no other country—apart from Haiti—sees more than 0.17 percent malicious DNS servers. What has gone wrong in America?
According to researchers from Microsoft and from the Polytechnic Institute of NYU, the malicious DNS servers exist to make a little extra cash for Internet providers.

If you use FireFox, you can encrypt many of your search engine searches(on Google), as well as some websites that support encryption over the entire or part of the site. (Noting that with a slower internet connection, your speeds will slowdown, during encryption).

Encryption extension for firefox.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere

FireFox browser.
https://www.mozilla.org/

FireFox add-ons(extensions).
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/?browse=featured

Adblock plus(and subscriptions). You can whitelist sites to always allow ad's. As some sites may have an Ad before a video, and depending on Ad blocking rule sets, is the video may not play without the Ad being allowed(white listed).
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/adblock-plus/

FlashBlock(blocks flash ad's and videos). Note that with some sites for video's, is there is a flash based cookie(you may see a flash icon in the top left of the page during blocking), that if it does not load, is the video will not play. You can white list a site to be able to always allow flash.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flashblock/

Encrypted Google search. (Note that some Google buttons may not be there for other things).
https://encrypted.google.com/

Encrypted Google news.(U.S. version).
https://news.google.com/news?ned=us

Note that with the Google searches/news, is that once you click a link to a site, the Google encryption stops.

Alternative DNS IP's. Noting that some ISP's will force the ISP's DNS to be dominant, via the Modem firmware or some form of DNS hijacking(hacking of the user data streams).

Open DNS. https://www.opendns.com/
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

Google DNS. https://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

Put DNS numbers in your computer or router.

PingPlotter freeware. Use to see the path that your traffic takes to it's destination.
http://www.pingplotter.com/freeware.html

Also noted is some ISP's have used DNS to block websites. An example is where an ISP redirects a user from various 'speed test' site's, in order to redirect the users to the ISP's own speed test site, in order to cover up ISP congestion issues with the ISP's connection to the Internet. It's a crime to redirect or block sites without a legally justified 'open' court order. 'Secret courts' are a pain in the Constitutional ass of the World.
An ISP could even prioritize speeds(fraud), when it see's the user is on a speed testing site.

And DPI(deep packet inspection) could also harvest various user data(log data of certain sites during the website visit, or just log the sites visited), if someone at the ISP were inclined to be a criminal. Not that users would even notice their data being harvested. It's how governments collect the data on users, from the users ISP's.

viasat1 launch date

2011-07-23T17:07:00.000-07:00

Editing: http://www.viasat.com/news/viasat-1-launch-scheduled-for-mid-october-following-proton-m-configuration-issue
ViaSat 1's launch date moved yet again, to mid October.... Imagine all the souls crying out if it has an accident and never makes it to service. Technology sure is damn fun at times.

edit: OCT 19 2011 is the firm launch date, with service expected in January(which is after in-orbit testing). http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/oct/06/viasat-1-set-launch-oct-19/
By the way. Xplornet has it's own ViaSat1 launch page(watch live launch). So if you click on one of ViaSat's or ILS launch links and you get redirected(which I do not know if it is happening or not).. Complain. Complain. Complain. DNS hijacking/Hacking by anyone's ISP should be a crime(and judging by some real case studies... It is a crime). Some ISP's in North America have gotten into a bad habit of manipulating the end users online experience in order to be dominating over the users.
http://www.ilslaunch.com/mission-control/mission-viasat-1
http://www.viasat.com/viasat-1-launch
Xplornet's launch page, where they seem to be calling the ViaSat 1, theirs("carrying our new 4G satellite"). Must be a misunderstanding in the translation. Some people would of put, 'carrying the new ViaSat1 satellite that will transform satellite broadband in parts of North America(including parts of Canada)'. http://www.4gsatellite.ca/ Xplornets proper write up on it. http://www.xplornet.com/4gsatellite.aspx "Xplornet Communications Inc., Canada's leading provider of rural broadband, has purchased 100% of the Canadian Ka-band capacity on the satellite".
ViaSat's news update page. http://www.viasat.com/news/viasat-1-launch-scheduled-for-october-19

the viasat1 satellite launch is moved to about september 28 2011, with service expected in november.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/jul/21/viasat-1-satellite-launch-pushed-back/

the satellite will not be covering a north to south area on the prairies and plains states.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/jun/24/viasats-space-gamble/

predicted spotbeam map.
http://www.satbeams.com/satellites?id=2462

viasat site for details on launch steps.
http://www.viasat.com/viasat-1-launch

Hughesnet Jupiter(high throughput capacity) will be launched around mid 2012.
http://www.satbeams.com/satellites?id=2497

net neutrality in canada does it exist

2011-07-19T13:19:00.000-07:00

net neutrality in canada does it exist?

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/5918/135/

if you wondered on why Xplornet is now showing a more detailed traffic management policy

http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/07/18/xplornet-asked-me-not-to-write-this/

freedom of the truthful media is designed to keep things in balance.
without people reporting on various instances of a consumer being wronged, corporations may take advantage of the consumers ignorance of things.
the provinces have departments set up to help the consumers and various rules and regulations to prevent consumers from being wronged. but the consumer needs to check with those departments in order to see if they are being wronged.

--***--**--

online protests. a compilation of how protestors online are exposing corruption in various world governments.

http://www.alternet.org/story/151664/the_13_best_hacker_attacks_against_military_security_
companies%2C_the_fbi%2C_the_kochs_..._and_arizona/

governments and corporations hate it so much, they have declared online protests to be an act of war. well, the hacking part being war, but otherwise, governments are keeping too many things secret. and keeping secrets from the people of the land is an act of: war, treason, disrespect, corruption, propaganda, slavery, pure bull shit? pick one.

Last Post

2008-12-30T19:23:00.000-08:00

Last Post.

Edit:::::: If some links do not work(since they are now old) you could use Google to find stuff. https://encrypted.google.com/webhp

Hi.

I may update some older posts, otherwise no new posts..

End of line. Shutting down. Hibernate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

But you also have so much information available now in various places to make educated choices on the products, that was not there in the past.

Post your reviews of the Xplornet service at http://www.dslreports.com/reviewit
Please post a detailed description of your experience with the service and the speeds that you experience. And what particular method of transmission you are on(Telesat, Hughesnet, or wireless). And what is your package name.

********************************
edit:july 16 2011
looks like xplornetsucks.com has had it's data base kicked off to the side.

****************************

edit: august 4 2011.......
There is a new forum for Xplornet users(not much activity on it). no affiliation with this blog.

http://www.xplornetsucks.freeforums.org/

Also...
http://testmy.net/ipb/forum/110-xplornetcom-canada/

Edit: aug 25 2011: Hughesnet users.. Hughesnet owned forum.
http://community.myhughesnet.com/hughesnet/

************************

Edit: july 6 2011.... the blocked sites seem to be unique to the former everus wireless users.
http://www.xplornetsucks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1341
Edit:::: june,22,2011.. As per a posting..."There still seem to be sites in the 119.x.x.x address range that remain blocked". Otherwise the 173. IP range is accessible again.....
Edit::: Any problems getting to Xplornetsucks.com or some other sites??? from about june 15th 2011???(posted on june 19 2011).
From a posting """Xplornet has blocked many servers in the 173.x.x.x range"""
It would seem that Xplornet blocked an IP range and is apparently 'working on it' to 'fix' the issue....
proxy servers are a nice way to get where you are going to, when an ISP makes it hard for the user to get somewhere.

*******************************************

Check out,
http://www.xplornetsucks.com/forums/
For issues you may have, that others have experienced already.

ViaSat 1 specifications YouTube video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA78RAnCJ8w
the specs in the video do not show the holes in viasat1 service area. so prairies, you are out of luck for getting service from it.

Canada's definition of broadband is 1.5Mbps minimum.(edit: and it may go to 4Mbps minimum) So that would assume no throttling to below 1.5Mbps, otherwise recipients of any Government money in rural expansion programs would be in violation of the programs criteria, if they allow or make speeds to below 1.5Mbps.
http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/719.nsf/eng/h_00001.html

--------------------------
Edit: july 2 2011: xplornet has listed their traffic management policies for all platforms for public viewing.
http://www.xplornet.com/legal/xplornet-traffic-management-policy.aspx

dec 15 2010. Xplornets new wireless traffic management policy to take affect on March 1 2011.
march 4 2011, Caps delayed? http://www.xplornetsucks.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8016&postcount=14
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,25191677
And a new Petition to protest the new bandwidth caps. Feb.4.2011.
http://www.gopetition.com/petition/42649.html

-----------------------

Feb 8 2010
And from the, 'Not this shit again' department. for Telesat satellite at least. And Wireless.
It's been confirmed that Xplornet is reducing download speeds on such sites as, RapidShare. The throttling lifts during the FAP free time overnight and is then reapplied.
So it's not you or the site. It's Xplornet.
It's one thing to throttle P2P, but when you make a site useless for what the site is, that is not right.
So whats next? Slowdown Windows updates? Which Microsoft would be all over in a heartbeat.
People are paying for the service at these websites, but can not use them, except when the cage door opens for a few hours overnight.
And to add.... A user posted this on Xplornetsucks.com for Telesat satellite -----
usage on your Xplornet account has been significantly higher than the usage of an average Xplornet customer (approximately 7GB/month). Therefore, Xplornet will be introducing a maximum monthly usage of 20 GB per month on your service beginning April 1st 2010. Xplornet will be monitoring the bandwidth consumption on your account over the next 30 days. We request that you work to reduce your usage to the above-stated level. If you do not reduce your usage, Xplornet will begin limiting your Internet access connection speed to a maximum speed of up! to 128kbps for any consumption beyond the monthly 20GB usage threshold. If you wish to return to your original package speed, you will have the option of doing so by purchasing additional bandwidth at a fee of $2 per GB.

--------------------------------

Canada's Privacy Commission and DPI(deep packet inspection).
http://www.priv.gc.ca/information/pub/sub_crtc_090218_e.cfm

-------------------------------------

Dissolve the CRTC
http://dissolvethecrtc.ca/

-----------------------------------

To check and see if a site is available to everyone but you......
http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/
Or if the site is just down to everyone.

----------------------------------------------------------------
Got a question or problem with your Xplornet system? Post on DSLreports.com or Xplornetsucks.com

Also a quiet forum at DSLreports.com
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/cover,2584
Note: Xplornet Forum to be deleted soon, as not enough traffic to it(many quiet forums soon to disappear).

DSLreports Canadian broadband forum.
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/canbroadband

TestMy.net Xplornet forum.
http://www.testmy.net/ipb/forum/110-xplornetcom-canada/

DSLreports Hughesnet and WildBlue forums.
http://www.dslreports.com/forums/56

WildBlue Owned Forum.
http://www.wildblueworld.com/forum/

Hughesnet users forum.
http://thebetateam.com/forum/

Another one from the beginning of Xplornet. http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?s=e3e52bcaaf6bc4b80bb23ecabd4ee391&t=47143
EDIT: March 31 2010. It looks like DigitalHome has decided that they don't like Ad blockers(FireFox AdBlockPlus and Chrome AdBlocker). The excuse is, they say the newish forum code is too blame.
I don't like ad's(so I block them) and I can't give revenue, due to never, ever clicking on Ad's. Clicking on ad's gives the site's revenue. Some ad's on sites make money via page views.
The blocking is the reading of the contents of threads if you are using an ad blocker.
And you can just go into blockable items and disable the "hidden" filter. Click the arrow next to the adblockplus stop sign, then 'open blockable items'. Should be the first one on the blockable items list. And right click to disable. And the thread contents show again without ad's.
Some have noted the code on the site shows whats up with posts not showing.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Hughesnet Faq's pages.
http://www.consumer.hughesnet.com/faqs.cfm

Hughesnet newer usage meter.
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r23723844-Hughesnet-Download-Allowance-Status

http://services.hughesnet.com/service_tools/

----------------------------------------------------

Canadian government website to find Internet, or complain about the Internet you have now from whatever provider.
http://www.ic.gc.ca/app/sitt/bbmap/hm.html?lng=eng

http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/ic1.nsf/eng/04943.html

--------------------------------------------------

Dec. 2009.
Link to Xplornet's traffic managing information.
http://www.xplornet.com/legal/xplornet-traffic-management-policy.aspx
Edit: Dec 2010. So Xplornet is now hiding their traffic management polices from the public. You have to be a user of Xplornet(myxplornet.com) or know what questions to ask the call support agent on what type of throttling there is on the particular platform you intend to purchase/use.

----------------------------------------------------
EDIT: jan 2010: Hughesnet(executive customer care) and WildBlue(executive escalations) in the States, now have teams to try and deal with customers Satellite Internet issues.
This is different from the normal script reader support, that some users find more frustration with, without resolving the users issues.

-------------------------------------------------------

A reminder that many Call Support Agents read from scripts and may not have any computer technical knowledge. And Xplornet(and some other ISP's) do not endorse or take any responsibility for what support tells you to do with your computer, as in upgrades, etc., to speed up your connection.
So you may be encouraged to spend a large amount of money on your perfectly working computer, for what is a ISP network problem.

------------------------------------------------------------
Edit dec. 2009: New Xplornet speed test site. http://speedtest.myxplornet.com
By the way. The Anikast speed test site is looking like it is now on the Telesat/Xplornet server. Meaning that is does not give Internet speeds. Just the connection between the user and the NOC(network operations center). So if the speed it shows is great(high) in PrimeTime and your websurfing is slow. Try a Internet based speed test to see your actual Internet speed.
http://www.testmy.net/speedtest/d_load.php
Make a donation for bandwidth if you can. With faster speed connections doing tests, it can eat up a lot of bandwidth.

And if you ever wondered how SpeedTest.net speeds can be wrong?
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?s=8e833bbb1528f97c61733c19ca9cd720&t=103314

--------------
Xplornet also knows what parts of it's system have lots of bandwidth and what parts are short of bandwidth. It is all part of the system monitors/diagnostics/data logs. So if you notice certain times are slow, Xplornet already knows about it.
And everyone is a small program on the system. All your account settings are in there.

---------------------------------------------------------------
Satellite latency????? Best is 600ms. But with various software on the system to allow for many, many users. It is more like 1000ms and up. That is a problem some have noted. Forget the text books on what satellite latency should be. It's all in the software of the system.
----------------------------------------------------------------

EDIT: July 8 2009 Petition closed.
Adding a link to an online Petition that someone has posted for Satellite users.
http://www.gopetition.com/online/24568.html

------------------------------------------------------------

Xplornet gets New Brunswick Government contract for final 100% Province coverage and a mandated "No Contracts". Back dated to July 1 2008 and speeds will soon be increased to 1.5Mbps at the price of $49.99 per month.(at least for the Spaceway3 platform, at the moment).
http://www.highspeednb.com/
Xplornet to be deploying 'up to' 200 hundred wireless towers.

-----------------------------------------------

SaskTel is not going to provide 100% land based wireless/wired Internet. Refers people to Xplornet.
http://www.gov.sk.ca/news?newsId=3483cf76-a6f7-47fc-9eaa-7ddbbc30cf4f
SaskTel customers using Xplornet Satellite should do support via SaskTel to start.

Someone posted that 825Kbps is a minimum speed, even during primetime(evening), for Sasktel Satellite Internet customers.
Office of the President of SaskTel.
http://sasktel.com/forms/email-the-president.html
......Sasktel customers--call the Sasktel #1-800-727-5835 and use their menu to get to Xplornet tech support. There are few more steps, but when I did this this morning I got straight to level 2...
This avoids level one support and also lets SaskTel know there is a slowdown with your connection.

-------------------------------------------------

Remember that if Xplornet over charges your bank account, by taking out more payment than Xplornet is entitled too. Xplornet is responsible for any banking overage charges.

--------------------------------------------------------

Update June 19 2009.
Hughesnet next KA band satellite to be launched in 2012. A third generation satellite to provide a large amount of bandwidth.
http://www.ssloral.com/html/pressreleases/pr20090616.html
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/hughes-to-launch-100-gbps-high-throughput-satellite-in-2012
Possibly a ViaSat1 satellite.
http://www.viasat.com/broadband-satellite-networks/viasat-1

Note that Loral will also have a ViaSat1 launched sometime in mid 2011.

EDIT: AnikG1 will go next to the AnikF1r. http://www.spacenews.com/satellite_telecom/100601-loral-build-anik.html
To possibly be called the AnikG1. And going in to the AnikF3 space slot.
Edit: note that specifications keep changing on where the satellite space slot will be.
Anik G1 to be new Shaw Direct satellite TV satellite.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Hey look Hughesnet in the States doing bait and switch. 30 day guarantee applies there.
http://www.testmy.net/forum/index.php?topic=26554.msg307263;topicseen#msg307263
And an add on thought.
http://www.testmy.net/t-27068.msg313975#msg313975

-------------------------------------------------------------

A rather interesting happening with Hughesnet users in the States who get the upgrade from the KU's to the KA HN9000.
http://hughesnet-internet.com/
New users are not being throttled in the evening on the same beam location, but upgrade users are being throttled.

--------------------------------------------------

EDIT: July 8 2009 Xplornet to use Gmail as the email provider.
Here is the Gmail support pages link.
http://mail.google.com/support/?hl=en

------------------------------------------------------------

http://adstandards.com/en/

Or Competition Bureau , as they also take complaints of false advertising.
http://competitionbureau.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/eng/home

---------------------------------------------------
Public DNS servers
http://www.tech-faq.com/public-dns-servers.html

---------------------------------------------------------

Canada's Office of Consumer Affairs.
http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/oca-bc.nsf/eng/h_ca02149.html
With links to various Provinces.
http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/oca-bc.nsf/eng/ca02387.html#a38_2

Consumer protection BC
http://www.bpcpa.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=194&Itemid=132

Consumer Protection Alberta
http://www.servicealberta.gov.ab.ca/index.cfm?fuseaction=section:consumers/

Consumer Protection Saskatchewan
http://www.justice.gov.sk.ca/cpb

Consumer Protection Manitoba
http://www.gov.mb.ca/finance/cca/consumb/index.html

Consumer Protection Ontario
http://www.gov.on.ca/MGS/en/ConsProt/
Fixed the link..
Newer link..
http://www.sse.gov.on.ca/mcs/en/pages/default.aspx

http://www.sse.gov.on.ca/mcs/en/Pages/Cancel_a_Contract.aspx

Consumer Protection Quebec
http://www.consommation.info.gouv.qc.ca/en/index.asp

Consumer Protection Nova Scotia
http://www.gov.ns.ca/snsmr/consumer/

Consumer Protection New Brunswick
http://www.law.unb.ca/cpwala/moreinfo.htm

Consumer Protection Prince Edward Island
http://www.gov.pe.ca/attorneygeneral/index.php3?number=1006678&lang=E

Consumer Protection Newfoundland
http://www.gs.gov.nl.ca/cca/

-----------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------

Free or Donation computer security programs.

HiJackThis. Finds running process's in your computer and identifies them.
http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/tools/security_tools/hijackthis
Automated HiJack Log checker
http://www.hijackthis.de/

Open Office. Office application
http://www.openoffice.org/

FoxIt. PDF reader
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/

Bandwidth monitor.
http://www.rokario.com/

Bandwidth monitor.
Net Meter http://www.metal-machine.de/readerror/

ThunderBird. Email client
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/
Plus WebMail Interface
http://webmail.mozdev.org/

FireFox. Browser
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/products/firefox/

Opera. Browser
http://www.opera.com/

Comodo. Firewall
http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/index.html

ZoneAlarm. Firewall
http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/home.jsp
http://www.filehippo.com/download_zonealarm_free/

Avast Anti-Virus
http://avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

BitDefender Online scan
http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8/ie.html

Free AVG. Anti-Virus
http://free.avg.com/download?prd=afe

Free-AV. Anti-Virus
http://free-av.com/

Ad-Aware. Anti-spyware
http://lavasoft.com/

SpyBot. Anti-Spyware
http://safer-networking.org/en/index.html

MalwareBytes. Anti-Malware
https://malwarebytes.org/

SuperAntiSpyware. Anti-Malware
http://www.superantispyware.com/

------------------------------------------------------------------

British Columbia Civil Liberties Association.
http://bccla.org/

American Hughesnet Class action lawsuit

2008-12-06T18:55:00.000-08:00

EDIT: Lawsuit(class action) against Xplornet will not proceed as of July 28 2009.
But if you are not getting service that was advertised, you can always go it alone via your own lawyer or consumer protection branch of your province.

American Hughesnet class action lawsuit
(Dec 15 2008...Developing.....And now collecting names for Xplornet's various Internet services as well.)

Another place to check out if Your satellite service is the shits... Contact the law firm to sign up for the Hughesnet class action or see if you can get a class action going against Canadian owned Telesat....errr.. I mean your 'official' service provider Xplornet. As Xplornet is going to have to answer to the Hughesnet lawsuit as well when the class Action is expanded to Canadian re-sellers.

Telesat Ka band Anik F2. AnikF3..... Wildblue in the States also uses the Telesat AnikF2.
Hughesnet Old KU band satellites and the new Spaceway3 KA band satellite.

http://www.druginjurylawyerblog.com/...n_against.html
The law-firm of Pogust, Braslow, & Millrood, LLC, recently filed in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, a lawsuit against HughesNet, Inc., Hughes Communications, Inc., and Hughes Network Systems, LLC, for breach of contract and fraudulent business practices involving the marketing of the HughesNet® Satellite Broadband Network System.

http://www.druginjurylawyerblog.com/...s_actio_1.html
HughesNet Canadian Class Action? Xplornet, C-Com, and Galaxy Broadband

Following the HughesNet Class Action lawsuit filed by the law firm of Pogust, Braslow & Millrood, LLC, which in part asserts claims by subscribers for unlawful early termination fees (ETF) and fraudulent business practices involving slow-broadband service, lack of Internet accessibility and connectivity, there have now been a number of inquiries from Canadian residents with similar Complaints.

If you or someone you know is a Canadian resident, subscriber of a HughesNet authorized channel provider(Xplornet, Galaxy Broadband, C-Com) and have experienced similar service related complaints, please contact our law firm for a free evaluation.

The law-firm of Pogust, Braslow, & Millrood, LLC
http://www.pbmattorneys.com/contact.php

Please note:: It looks like Xplornet 'Wireless' users and Telesat satellite users can contact the Law firm to increase the lawsuit parameters as well....

An Update......
http://www.druginjurylawyerblog.com/2008/12/overselling_of_broadband_invol_1.html
Overselling of Broadband Involving Xplornet’s Partnership with Motorola: Wireless Broadband Subscribers also at Risk?

If you or someone you know is a Canadian resident, Xplornet Wireless Broadband Subscriber, or any HughesNet authorized channel provider and have experienced similar service related complaints, please contact our law firm for a free evaluation.

----------------------------------------------------------

Edit: May 20 2009. Another lawsuit filed against Hughesnet.
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/05/satellite-net-service-sued-for-caps-paltry-bandwidth/

---------------------------------------------------

Having DNS problems? Can't get to a site? Try to use OpenDNS servers.
http://www.opendns.com/
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

How to set up routers, etc..
http://portforward.com/guides.htm

Internet Packet Spoofing

2008-11-22T09:46:00.000-08:00

Internet Packet Spoofing.

Detecting Packet Injection.
Or in other words. Your ISP will invade your privacy with deep packet inspection(DPI), to see what you are doing online. The excuse of 'No Human will ever see your inspected data' is a farce in some countries..... The ISP then will see that you are filesharing(or some other types of data transfer) and then at some point in the data transfer, will inject a fraudulent package in to your data stream that will tell your computer and the other computer that the file transfer is completed. Or maybe the data stream only gets 'Interrupted' on a continual basis, but only during file transfers and not during standard webpage viewing....
For a simple description...This is like having a snail mail Penpal for a set period of one year, come hell or high water.. And then for no reason, at the 6 month mark, you get a letter from the Penpal saying that they are done communicating with you as it's already been one year and to end communication. And they also receive one as well. You look at the letter and it looks authentic, but upon deeper inspection, you see that it is a fake letter the mail service created as they think your Penpal letters are plugging up the snail mail system. And they also don't like the content of what you are sending back and forth.. But since you noticed, they will deny it initially, but when your lawyer calls to file a lawsuit on fraud and invasion of privacy charges.........

Some links...

http://www.eff.org/wp/detecting-packet-injection

http://www.eff.org/related/4938/blog?page=1

http://www.eff.org/wp/packet-forgery-isps-report-comcast-affair

Programs for packet sniffing any Fraudulent activity by your ISP.
http://www.wireshark.org/

http://www.eff.org/testyourisp

And the newest one from Google.
http://www.measurementlab.net/
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/New-Google-Tools-Test-ISP-Traffic-Discrimination-100522

Deep Packet 'Injection' has been used by Roger's Internet in Canada for 'Hacking' webpages just before they open in your browser. They use deep packet 'inspection' to see what you are surfing for and then replace ad's on other peoples webpages with Rogers own ad's for products that clients pay Rogers to Inject. The owners of these webpages also claim illegal censorship since Rogers does this. But the Canadian Government does not care if webpages are censored by their good old friend Ted Rogers, of Rogers Internet...... Roger's will put system notices in to the white space of webpages for your convenience. That is still hacking. You can block the IP range of the Rogers(or ISP's) via the host file in your computer, to stop ad injection. Even though you still will have your 'data mined' to make the ISP blood money with illegal packet inspection of your surfing habits.
May 1 2009. Rogers Internet continues to Hack and screw up Rogers Internet users Internet connections. One IP quoted by users is 64.71.251.10

----------------------------------------------------------

If you happen to get your connection Hijacked by your ISP with a type of DNS redirect or Ad injection..

»www.opendns.com/

DNS servers of...
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

If it's just an ad, then using Firefox
»www.mozilla.com/en-US/
with Add-Ons of Adblock or Adblockplus could help to keep it out of view.
There is also the Add-On of 'FlashBlock', for flash based ads.

Then theres the hosts file to block it's IP server/address , if that does not interfere with other pages of your particular ISP's webpages.
www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hostsfaq.htm

But some companies(Dlink and Belkin have done it.) will put a DNS hijack software in to the modem, that may over-ride your DNS preferences. Hackers get in trouble for the same thing, but why not your ISP or Router manufacturer?

Email is for alerting customers of ISP notices. Hijacking your webpages is a crime.
What if someone suddenly stood in front of your newspaper with an Ad?
What if, because of the Browser hijack Ad, you just had your online purchase screwed up or lost?

---------------------------------------------------

Freedom of Communication.
It's a right. Not that the Canadian Government gives a crap about your rights..

http://bccla.org/ BC Civil Liberties Association. For help with rights suppression issues.

CRTC is Corrupted

2008-11-20T20:05:00.000-08:00

CRTC is Corrupted.

So the corrupt CRTC says Bell can throttle Wholesale competitors on their DSL lines.
Time to get rid of the CRTC and get in an independent un-corrupt Board.
Anyone on Bell DSL should sign up with the DSL competition immediately.
And anyone not on Bell DSL should email the CRTC with a full complaint of unfair competition in this fecking country and all the Internet and U.S. Television censorship that goes on, Via the rich assholes in charge of Canadian Television.
http://www.crtc.gc.ca/RapidsCCM/Register.asp?lang=E ..Use 'Other' on the second page of the form..
And CC: to....
sos@globaltv.com
Even contact the Prime Minister of Canada..
pm@pm.gc.ca

Something simple like "The people of the CRTC should all resign immediately. Signed, the Canadian people".

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3530/125/

http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/11/20/canadian-isps-lose-traffic-shaping-case

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/CRTC-Rules-Against-Indie-ISPs-In-Throttling-Dispute-99206

"Based on the evidence before us, we found that the measures employed by Bell Canada to manage its network were not discriminatory -- Bell Canada applied the same traffic-shaping practices to wholesale customers as it did to its own retail customers," said Konrad von Finckenstein, Q.C., Chairman of the CRTC.

Finckenstein appears to not understand either the definition of discriminatory, or how throttling wholesale ISPs (not just resellers) kills off Bell competition on multiple fronts. Bell's decision effectively eliminated the right of independent wholesale ISPs to offer an un-crippled connection if they're willing to pay for the bandwidth. It also gives Bell Canada's un-throttled video store an unfair advantage over Canada's more limited field of competing P2P Internet video services.

In other words, after delaying a request by concerned independent ISPs several times, they're ruling in favor of Bell Canada, and effectively offloading any additional discussion of the issue until summer. They're also supporting Bell Canada's argument that congestion made this move necessary, despite no real evidence by the Canadian incumbent. The move gives incumbent operators in Canada a blank check in their efforts to derail competition and limit consumer choice under the false specter of network congestion.

Lets end this Nazi Hitler style of corrupt control over the people of Canada.
We want our 'Freedom of Communication'.... Not Fascism.....
Canada continues to turn more inward under the false veil of 'Multiculturalism' and 'Heritage protection'... We need to access other countries 'full media', to see how things are in other countries....

'The Great Firewall of Canada' may show up next year after the CRTC decides whether to 'fully admit' that they regulate Canada's Internet.

Some more complaint links

2008-10-29T11:57:00.000-07:00

Some more satellite complaint links.

Good reading. Also allows you to learn what some installers do to make an extra 100 bucks on the install or repairs.

Both from the United States.

Wildblue .
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/internet/wild_blue.html

Hughesnet.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/internet/hughes.html

And some people say how nice it is to get ISP tech support that is from your own country. But is the ISP's tech support still reading from the same script that would of been outsourced to another country?

An update... If you need repairs to your purchased equipment and the support worker says you have to extend your contract to get repairs? You are being scammed. You do not have to extend your contract to get repairs. The support worker makes more money in bonuses for the more people that they can get to sign up for an extended contract..

Feb 17 2008...
Also a complaint from some Hughesnet users in the States. Outside of contract and system just dies. No problem with the equipment. User calls in and Hughesnet(even WildBlue in some reviews) will want to send out a tech for about $100 minimum, to 'fix' the customers unit. Customer disagrees and won't have that happen. System mysteriously comes back to life 5 minutes later. Or customer gets hooked in to a new two year contract for 'upgrading' older equipment and old system comes back to life.
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r21941901-
http://www.dslreports.com/reviews

---------------------------------------------------

Adding in another Bloggers post. The interesting thing in the post is where the user complained about speeds to support and then for about 8 hours had proper speeds before they dropped down again. Coincidence? Or Xplornet/Telesat upping the speeds during the time tech support tells the customer to test their speeds and reports them back to Xplornet. More users have reported this on Xplornet services, Wireless and Satellite. Remember you are just little programs on the system. Where your speeds can bet set to certain parameters.... But thats why you do tests throughout your service term, so when you call support, you have un-biased numbers.
http://ruralmanitoban.blogspot.com/2008/12/why-xplornet-and-satellite-internet-in.html

----------------------------------

Heres one for users that get the run around when their WireLess signal keeps dropping out.
http://www.lakesidelair.com/2008/07/internet-service-rant.html

Hughesnet Ka band in Canada

2008-10-26T17:48:00.000-07:00

Telesats spot beam map of the Anik F2..

Click to enlarge.
Beam 19 , 28 , 6 , are closed as of this posting. The two beams of the Anik F3 are covering the Ontario portions that are closed. Or if you go to Xplornet.com and type in your Postal Code and the packages displayed will tell you what is still available.... So you will know that if you call support and they blame you for your connection being slow, you can see that beam capacity is a good reason.

-------------------------------------------------------

Hughesnet Canadian Spot beam map of the Spaceway3.

Hughesnet Ka band in Canada.

Click to enlarge.
Hughesnet, Spaceway3 KA band satellite.
Is covering the southern portion of Canada. The second generation KA band consumer Internet satellite. Reviews at the time of this posting are about 60% good, 40%bad, but some people did not know they were on it, and no time scale noted for the tweaking to be finished. As the satellite is still being tweaked to operate at the best efficiency. One million estimated users to be put on it. The HN9000 modem is how you easily tell what system you have. The heavily loaded KU band satellites have the HN7000 and the HN6000 and the older 4000 modems. And as far as I've been able to find online, is that the Spaceway3 does have DAMA on it for home users. service ranging from a constant rate to on-demand bandwidth allocation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demand_Assigned_Multiple_Access
For some reviews.
http://www.dslreports.com/reviews

Link to Spot Beam map for entire Hughesnet Spaceway3 satellite.
http://www.satelliteguys.us/attachment.php?attachmentid=22691&d=1205204215

Most Spaceway maps show only the 112 uplink beams, rather than trying to show the 784 microcells used for downlinks. Microcells used in order to be able to push out more bandwidth to the needed areas in a spot beam.

Being sold by Xplornet(since Telesats beams are filling up or full) and Galaxy Broadband. Xplornet is enticing customers to get the 3 year contract by various signing bonus's. But No contract is more consumer friendly and helps the supplier keep customers by providing great service. Instead of a one sided contract that does violate consumer protection laws.... In the United States, contracts like this are being killed by the Government and Judges for being anti-consumer.

FAP policy is a certain MB of data transfer and then you get throttled to sub-dialup speeds for 24 hours...... Upload speeds are still crap..... So you still need to be careful on any downloading, videos, streaming music, etc.
And a reminder that Hughesnet has continued to drop FAP levels. But hopefully they have hit the bottom.
No FAP between 3am to 6am eastern time. Thats when you do the big downloads.
Also remember that with just browsing, you could generate 10 MegaBytes of data transfer over an hours time. So YouTube videos could be about 7 to 20 MB per video or Apple movie pre-views could be about 20MB to 30MB.... Music streaming at 100Kbps could generate a large amount of data, So you try to find a station that streams at 30Kilo bits per second.
So don't expect the world of the Internet to be at your knees groveling for you to see it all.
Nov 11 2008 Update(probably for Canada as well) Currently, the hours of unrestricted use for a subscribers with a DW6000, DW7000 or HN7000S model modems are 2:00 AM to 7:00 AM eastern time The hours of unrestricted use for subscribers with a HN9000modem are currently from 3:00 AM to 6:00 AM eastern time, with plans to expand these times in the month of December.
From http://customercare.myhughesnet.com/fap_faqs.htm

Home packages
Basic lite 200 MB 512Kbps
Basic 200 MB 1.0Mbps
pro 300 MB 1.2Mbps

business packages
Pro plus 425 MB 1.6Mbps
Elite 500 MB 2.0Mbps
Elite plus 500 MB 3.0Mbps

Hughesnet FAP policy.
http://go.gethughesnet.com/fapolicy.cfm?hf=0

Hughesnet Expected Speeds.. How accurate?
http://go.gethughesnet.com/speed.cfm

Rogers Portable Internet. Availability is limited, but expanding..
http://your.rogers.com/store/cable/InternetContent/PI_compare.asp
There is also Bell as well with the same system.

And here is a link to the newest, third generation KA band consumer Internet satellite.
http://www.viasat.com/broadband-satellite-networks/viasat-1
Bringing Subscribers What They Want.Current satellite systems aren’t designed for the high bandwidth applications that people want, such as video, photo sharing, VoIP, and peer-to-peer networking. The solution is to increase the capacity of the satellite and give customers more bandwidth at the same price.
This ones name should be the AnikG1 , according to some information from a couple of years ago. Estimated user capacity is 2 million users. But how Telesat will integrate it in to the current satellites without upping the price by 3 times or dropping prices on the current satellites by half.. Even though the current satellites Anik F2 is set to expire in about 2019(15 year life span from 2004). And Anik F3(15 year life span from 2007).

And heres a link to a failed TRIA (The thing at the end of the dish that the cables connect too)..
http://oceanfalls.org/misc/trias/trias.html
It is probably a first generation unit. The first and second generation units had water infiltration problems.
And selling things with known deficiencies is alway wrong and punishable.

Personal tower

2008-10-23T11:13:00.000-07:00

Personal tower.

Heres an interesting thought.
If your county or town gets a wireless provider in to install AP's(access points), but instead of installing these AP's on actual 100 foot plus towers, the ISP puts the AP's on farm silos or tall building's(50 feet tall)..... And the end consumer is then forced to spend $500 to $1500 dollars on their own personal tower to mount the SM(subscriber modual). Is it fair to the consumer?
These ISP's should be mounting the AP's on their own dedicated towers. It can also reduce the number of towers as well, especially when the terrain and trees can block rooftop SM units from connecting to a tower that is too low..

Also the government agency that is funding these Wireless expansions in Ontario...
http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/rural/ruralconnections/guideline.htm
Notice in the linked page....
For the purposes of this program, broadband is defined as a high-capacity link between end user and access network suppliers at a minimum download speed of 1.5 megabits per second.
So does that mean if your Xplornet or other ISP's connection drops below 1.5Mbps, that they are in breach of the funding contract?

CopyRight Mafia

2008-10-05T21:59:00.000-07:00

CopyRight Mafia.

Also check out.......It has to do with the CopyRight Mafia and secret government treaties to further erode your online rights. This actually goes beyond File Sharing. Many of you may not know that the CopyRight Mafia does not want to go to court. Since they know they will lose, without hard evidence of illegal activity. So they download full files from a set IP and then send a notice to the ISP to forward on to the user of the IP at the time. Then the user is expected to give a very large amount of money to the CopyRight Mafia, without evidence that anyone else ever downloaded that file from the shared folder.
But with the treaty, the Mafia could monitor that users connection for illegal activity without a Judges sanctioned order. And a Judges order guidelines are 'enough evidence of illegal activity to sign out a warrant'. So users who use 'Legal' FileSharing applications, but unfortunately do not turn off "allow others to share files in the shared folder", can be unjustly punished for a bad default setting on a program.

And it is illegal for the law enforcement to stop you to check your music player for illegal copies. They need evidence of illegal activity to do that. Thats what the law says. Even though they don't really care about enforceable law. Just an excuse to further stomp on your rights.

http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/09/17

September 18th, 2008

U.S. Trade Office Withholds Documents on Secret IP Enforcement Treaty

Public Kept in the Dark About Serious Civil Liberties and Privacy Issues

Washington, D.C. - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Public Knowledge have filed suit against the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), demanding information about a secret intellectual property enforcement treaty that the government has put on a fast track to completion.

The United States, Canada, the European Community, Switzerland, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Jordan, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates are currently negotiating the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). The full text of the treaty remains secret, but a document leaked to the public shows that ACTA could include criminal measures, increased border search powers, and encouragement for Internet service providers to cooperate with copyright holders. Despite the significant impact ACTA could have on consumers and the lack of official information available to the public, treaty proponents want a deal signed by the end of the year.

"ACTA raises serious concerns for citizens' civil liberties and privacy rights," said EFF International Policy Director Gwen Hinze. "This treaty could potentially change the way your computer is searched at the border or spark new invasive monitoring from your ISP. People need to see the full text of ACTA now, so that they can evaluate its impact on their lives and express that opinion to their political leaders. Instead, the USTR is keeping us in the dark while talks go on behind closed doors."

Because of the questions raised by ACTA, EFF and Public Knowledge filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in June for records on the treaty and the negotiations surrounding the deal. EFF and Public Knowledge later clarified the scope of their request in July in response to concerns raised by the USTR. But the USTR still failed to provide any relevant documents.

"The lack of transparency in this process is incredibly alarming," said Public Knowledge Staff Attorney Sherwin Siy. "Whatever form ACTA eventually takes, we can be sure it will be used to justify further international agreements and laws. The agreement text needs to be made public to ensure that it doesn't encroach upon the rights of users, consumers, and citizens to access knowledge, information, and content."

Earlier this week, EFF and Public Knowledge joined more than 100 public interest organizations from around the world calling for answers about ACTA. The coalition is asking for treaty negotiators to immediately publish the draft text of the agreement, as well as pre-draft discussion papers.

Some updates

2008-09-17T16:58:00.001-07:00

Some updated information for quick reference.

With Xplornet(Telesat provides the satellite service). http://www.telesat.ca

The Anik F2,, Some of the beams are full or almost full.

The Anik F3 has two spot beams and is using them already).

Hughesnet Spaceway3(Ka band) is providing some new capacity in the southern reaches of Canada(but is still being tweaked to work reliably for residential users).

Hughesnet KU band satellites are mostly full, according to many posts on various forums. http://www.hughesnet.com

This section obsolete. Don't know what the KA beams are for. Maybe Bells offering for high definition TV or such..
Nimiq4, which is for Bell satellite TV, may be running by early next year without major delays(has 8 KA band spot beams on it for Telesat's internet, for use in Canada).
Update:: Satellite is launched, but will the NOC's(Network Operations Centers) be updated to allow for it and more bandwidth capacity?
Old news link to information. 13 February 2006
http://www.space.com/spacenews/archive06/Wild_021306.html
Telesat also has ordered eight Ka-band spot beams to be included on its just-ordered Nimiq4 direct-broadcast television satellite. The Ka-band payload will target those areas of Canada -- mainly southern Ontario and southern Quebec -- in which broadband demand has been strongest, Telesat Canada Chief Financial Officer Teg Ignacy said.
Update::::
Also from Telesats site for the KA part of Nimiq4..Makes you wonder where the KA will be used for then.
The second, smaller payload has 8 Ka-band channels for advanced services such as high definition television. The satellite will be located at 82º West longitude.

http://www.galaxybroadband.ca/
As a Hughesnet reseller.
And FAP limits continue to slowly drop on Hughesnet. 200MB limit, per 24 hours, on some packages, before being reduced to dialup speeds(Bucket system refills at dialup speed, to refill MB bucket).
Telesats system for Xplornet, is FAP resets hourly, so speed initially reduced when you hit the 'magic' limit and then if your are a good person, it will reset at the hour to full speed again.

http://www.netkaster.com/
As the northern re-seller of Telesats satellite Internet.

And Telesats Fair Access Policy(FAP), is on all re-sellers. The below is from NetKaster. And you won't see Xplornet's version any where near this....

Benefits and Privileges. This Acceptable Use and Fair Access Policy (the “Policy”) governs the use of Telesat Canada’s (“Telesat”) satellite provided Ka-band high-speed internet service (the “Service”).

11. Excessive Consumption. In order to ensure fair access to the Service by all users, and to protect the integrity of the Service, Telesat shall be entitled to take steps to prevent improper or excessive consumption of Service bandwidth by users of the Service. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, Telesat reserves the right: (1) to limit throughput rates of certain bandwidth-intensive activities such as, but not limited to, audio and video streaming, and automatic file exchange applications; (2) to discontinue the provision of the Service via specific ports or communication protocols; and/or (3) increase or decrease the relative priority of any or all traffic flows.

And satellite Internet providers do not want you to do anything more than basic web page surfing and email. So don't pay much attention to the advertising of 'Fast' or 'High speed' Internet, or 'Discover the online world'. Even the providers in the States have shifted to a lease system(purchase still available), to further reduce upfront costs to the consumer during the current depression in the market place. And trying to get more customers on to their systems.

And why do some review's keep coming up with "It was my only choice(satellite)". Well dialup is also a choice.

Saw an article the other day, calling DSL "The New dialup"(compared to Cable speeds). Well comparing the speeds of DSL with dialup, if DSL is dialup, then Satellite is the Telegraph line of the Old West(according to the speeds offered to consumers between Satellite and DSL)..

Review links

2008-06-22T19:06:00.001-07:00

I'm just going to post the links to various forums and some other sites and information. People are getting quiet. Maybe that means service is good or service is crap and they are unwilling to fight for whats right. People thought they were getting one thing, as per advertising, and then got something else. Some people have even shelled out even more money for a dial up account for 'Prime Time'(Wildblue and Xplornet. Telesat is the satellite provider for both. With Hughesnet satellites for KU and Spaceway3 KA band).

Read through them. Make up your mind on whether to leave stable dial-up and try something that 'advertises' as faster. Or just save your money and send many letters to the government to get 'Wireline' internet to your house or business. Wireless or satellite is not always the best solution. Many small communities could be hooked up for a low price(government grants well spent), leaving the remote homes to get some type of wireless internet.

Do these government grants ever get checked up on? Does the government just give out the money to whatever ISP and thats it? The money is meant for 'high speed' internet. What if the speeds are good for a short time and then slow down? Does the government come back with more money? Or does the government say "No more new users on your system until you find more money for more bandwidth." ? Some government grants just keep ISP's from going broke. A couple more years of life, unless some foolish investor comes in and disposes of his cash in to the system that needs major upgrades from the Mom and Pop operation that started it all.

Xplornet thread from the beginning.
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?s=5ad051bcc616d5c853177e3717db115c&t=47143
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=28

http://www.testmy.net/b-109

http://wildblue.cc/wbforums/index.php

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/cover,2584

And a new one that is run by WildBlue satellite internet, for WildBlue customers.
http://www.wildblueworld.com/forum/

And the Nova Scotia Government details link...
http://gov.ns.ca/econ/broadband/

------------------------------
Internet Law Blog
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/

---------------------------
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9898118-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
• 200Kbps speeds are no longer considered "broadband." Until this point, the FCC has considered any service that produces 200Kbps speeds in the upload or download direction to be "high speed." With Wednesday's vote, that methodology is no more. Now, 768Kbps, which is the entry-level speed offered by major DSL providers like Verizon, will be considered the low end of "basic broadband," a range that extends to under 1.5Mbps.

--------------------------------
Reliable Speed test. Based in Dallas Texas and will give you a very accurate result. Don't be fooled, with the excuse that your posted Xplornet(or other ISP) speed is only good from your system to the Xplornet server. You surf the internet.
http://www.testmy.net/tools/test/d_load.php

--------------------------
EDIT: January 14 2009... Note that since OpenSRS has had another failure on Cluster 'A', which is what Xplornet users were on. Xplornet has informed customers that they will no longer be the provider of the outsourced email service. About 3 firmware upgrades failed, causing outages from one day to one week,, Over about 8 months time..
EDIT: Jan 16 2009.... OpenSRS problems were caused by 'Undiagnosed Hardware failures on Cluster 'A''. Resulting in the tested Firmware causing the crashes on Cluster 'A'.
Xplornet outsourced Email service.
http://services.tucows.com/services/email/
EDIT:: New link to outsourced email service.
http://opensrs.com/email/

--------------

When you call in to support. Your computer or router will be blamed for any problem you are having with the ISP's system. The support agent must waste a half hour of your time(according to their script) , by having you reboot all your equipment and disconnect any routers. Plus doing at least 4 speed tests over 24 hours. . . . This is too blame you for the ISP's slow performance and to get you to stop calling, as per the ISP's that have problems giving customers what the customer thought they had bought in the first place, according to advertising.
The Cable internet industry has made extra bandwidth allowances on their networks for when everyone comes home and then gets on the internet connection at once. So you could roughly figure that 70% to 80% of users could be online at once, at full bandwidth.

-----------------

Satellite users.
Carrier 'A' for VOIP, gaming(Standard satellite Lag), online banking, etc.
Carrier 'B' is DAMA controlled and has big Lag times and higher traffic shaping to slow you down.
DAMA from Viasat allows more users on to the system. and DAMA does not play well with various internet protocols , as it constantly releases your ' Standby bandwidth', Meaning longer ping times.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demand_Assigned_Multiple_Access
Demand Assigned Multiple Access (DAMA) is a technology used to assign a bandwidth to clients that don't need to use it constantly. DAMA systems assign communication channels or circuits based on requests issued from user terminals to a network control system. When the circuit is no longer in use, the channels are then returned to the central pool for reuse by others.
And the FAP(fair access policy). 12megs? 24 megs? 32 megs? It varies depending on amount of users online. But no FAP between about midnight and 5am. Plus the Telesat FAP resets hourly.
The Spaceway3 KA band has a bucket system of a certain amount of megs data transfer and then you go to dialup speed. Bucket always refills at dialup speed til full again.
Check your speeds for a couple of months after you are installed.
And the TRIA on the end of your dish? They have many known failures, yet they want to charge for new replacement ones after the warranty has expired. What a scam.

---------------------------------
Wireless users
Here is the link to the Motorola Canopy site.
http://www.motorola.com/business/v/i...84 06b00aRCRD
And the link to the Support section with Knowledge base.
http://motorola2.motowi4solutions.com/support/
Motorola feedback page. Log complaints here.....
https://www.motorola.com/feedback.jsp

Wireless FAP policy. The quoted rates are 'Burst' speeds. And your actual speeds are 'Sustained' speeds. This 'Sustained' speed varies on amount of users per tower, and on the towers available bandwidth. Check your speeds for a couple of months after you are installed. Your location or tower may not allow the full speeds. And why pay for more than you can get.

-------------------------------------
This clip from an article From a while back, to do with Telus blocking the website of striking workers. Censoring websites is illegal. We have a constitutional right to 'Freedom of Communication', and no one shall remove that right.
http://www.opennetinitiative.net/bulletins/010/ONI-010-telus.pdf
EDIT:: Fixed link.. http://opennet.net/bulletins/010

This poses questions as to whether the Canadian
Telecommunications Act has been followed to the letter. Section 36
of the Act states that, without the approval of the Canadian Radio-
Television and Telecommunications Commission, a "Canadian carrier
shall not control the content or influence the meaning or purpose of
telecommunications carried by it for the public," and Section 27(2) of
the Act prohibits a Canadian character, in providing a
telecommunications service, from "unjustly discriminat[ing] or
giv[ing] an undue or unreasonable preference toward any person,
including itself, or subject[ing] any person to an undue or
unreasonable disadvantage

http://xplornetsucks.blogspot.com/2008/04/accessing-xplornetsuckscom.html

-------------------------
But please also remember EVDO. Which is cellular internet.

Rogers Portable Internet. Subject to slowly expanding areas....
http://www.rogers.com/web/content/internet-portable

Bell portable internet. Subject to slowly expanding areas....
http://www.bell.ca/shop/Sme.Sol.Inte...plug.Home.page

Cellular internet, antenna hack.
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=61999
New antenna. Post link.
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/show...5&postcount=35
Plus a summary post link.
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/show...&postcount=146

-----------------------------
Contact information for your federal government leaders. These elected officials keep turning a blind eye to your "High Speed Internet" problems. Or in some cases will reply back with 2 year old information and then ignore your reply to the outdated material.
http://www.canada.gc.ca/directories-repertoires/direct-eng.html

-----------------------------
Contact information for a new Canadian Government Telecommunications Complaints site. Kind of like the BBB. But Xplornet is not a "volunteer" member.
The Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services
http://www.ccts-cprst.ca/en/

--------------------------------
http://www.telesat.ca/
Satellite supplier of the Anik F2 and Anik F3. Ka band.

------------------------------
Maritimes Better Business Bureau.
http://www.maritimeprovinces.bbb.org/WWWRoot/SitePage.aspx?site=156&id=25b5e336-b043-45c7-bf38-7630e2f7331a

-----------------------------
Contact the "Ad Standards Code". If you feel some type of advertising is fraudulent in any way.
http://adstandards.com/en/

---------------------
And the CRTC to just get the complaint numbers up in their files. Even though they do not give a crap about you and will tell you to go away forever.
http://www.crtc.gc.ca/RapidsCCM/Register.asp?lang=E

-----------------------
Contact information for Xplornets parent company exec's.
http://www.barrettcorp.com/contact.asp

Scott Mazerall. Customer Affairs Liaison ScottMa@Barrettxplore.com

Allison Lenehan. Chief Marketing Officer allisonl@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

Eddie Drganc - Vice President Customer Care
506-324-6689 EddieD@barrettxplore.com

• Billing inquiries - billing@xplornet.com

----------------------------------------
Alternate DNS server settings. Put in your router or computer. If Xplornets DNS servers are not working fast enough for you.

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

From
http://www.opendns.com/
DNS server is the thing that tells your computer where the website that you want to go is. If a DNS server screws up(glitch)or blocks a site, you won't be able to go where you want to go.

------------------

British Columbia Civil Liberties Association.. Please donate if you can.
http://bccla.org/

Join the Blue Ribbon Online Free Speech Campaign!

Internet Law blog information

2008-05-13T13:59:00.000-07:00

Internet Law Blog.

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/

Dr. Michael Geist is a law professor at the University of Ottawa where he holds the Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law. He has obtained a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, Master of Laws (LL.M.) degrees from Cambridge University in the UK and Columbia Law School in New York, and a Doctorate in Law (J.S.D.) from Columbia Law School.

Dr. Geist has written numerous academic articles and government reports on the Internet and law......

What is Highspeed or Broadband?

2008-05-10T18:09:00.000-07:00

Test your speed and see the results.
http://www.testmy.net/tools/test/d_load.php

What is Highspeed or Broadband?

This article is from the States, but maybe in a couple of years our Canadian government will notice and set into stone what 'minimum constant speed' constitutes 'broadband' or 'highspeed' internet.

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9898118-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

• 200Kbps speeds are no longer considered "broadband." Until this point, the FCC has considered any service that produces 200Kbps speeds in the upload or download direction to be "high speed." With Wednesday's vote, that methodology is no more. Now, 768Kbps, which is the entry-level speed offered by major DSL providers like Verizon, will be considered the low end of "basic broadband," a range that extends to under 1.5Mbps.

And lets not forget your freedom of communication rights..
http://xplornetsucks.blogspot.com/2008/04/accessing-xplornetsuckscom.html

May the internet always be free and allow you to travel anywhere you want, without censorship blocking your way..

But when censorship does happen. Make sure that those responsible, are locked in a dark cell for many years, to learn how it is, when you are forbidden from simple freedoms by greedy corporations.





Join the Blue Ribbon Online Free Speech Campaign!

Use of Xplornet service?

2008-05-08T17:20:00.000-07:00

Did you know that you may be illegally using your Xplornet service? The below part of the contract, says that you are prohibited from using the service. The contract has been like this for over a year and maybe longer.

http://www.xplornet.com/legal.php?id=2

4. USE OF SERVICE: You are prohibited from using the Service and shall use reasonable efforts to ensure the Service is not used for a purpose or in a manner that is contrary to laws including, without limitation, all copyright, trademark and obscenity laws applicable to any content or information transmitted via the Service.

Proper rough wording, should be,,,
USE OF SERVICE: You are prohibited from using the Service for, and as well, shall use reasonable .....

Accessing Xplornetsucks.com

2008-04-06T16:04:00.000-07:00

Note: Use Google cached result, if needed, to read this blog....Are you an Xplornet customer having trouble accessing Xplornetsucks.com ? Some Xplornet users can not get to the site.
EDIT::April13. Some users that were blocked, can now get to Xplornetsucks.com once again.The access was not instant, but like a system glitch, that started to restore access, that came and went and then full access again. Hopefully the site will always stay accessible. The right of "Freedom of Communication" and all that goes with it......Unless this is just a fluke.......Edit::April 15..Still some issues getting to Xplornetsucks.com.......Edit:::April 20. Seems satellite users able to get to the forums again. Please be patient with the 'Server Busy' message.It has to do with the way the site is hosted(A shared server with some other sites. And one site is taking up the majority of server time ,as of late, so the Forum database can not be properly accessed). Just click 'refresh' in your browser, sometimes, to advance from 'server busy' message. Or try later evening or in the early morning. Hopefully the Xplornetsucks.com Admin there can get the issue resolved soon....EDIT::April 24 , site settings adjusted so easier access..
EDIT:::April 26, still some Xplornet/Telesat glitches to get to Xplornetsucks.com .

Update:::With some initial correspondence I have received, It appears that the Prairie Provinces are the ones having trouble getting to Xplornetsucks.com..And the block is tied into the Xplornet users account Or the NOC(satellite ground station). A computer from a Xplornet connection can be taken to another ISP's connection and can connect with Xplornetsucks.com . Call support and get to the level 3, with a 3 way call with Telesat, to see what settings are on your account. Hopefully you will not be forced to waste a 1/2 hour of time rebooting to get there.
Xplornet * support@xplornet.com
Phone* 1-866-841-6001
Fax* 1-866-485-4156

If you can not get to the Xplornetsucks.com/forums site , Please email to

EDIT:::Email address now finished. You have your freedom of communication back. But will return if needed............\0/............
(This is a temporary email, as this site has no email account.)

Have been seeing some various internet posts, about 'some' people not being able to access the site there. While many others can access the site.
It will be a help to figure out whats going on... Also.... Due to current 'glitches' with the new Xplornet email service, You may not be able to send to a Yahoo account from an Xplornet account. So send from another domains email account instead, if needed and complain to Xplornet that you may be losing or missing emails because of it......

A simple email of "On Satellite" or "On Wireless" , And not able to access the site,,, will be OK. As well as for how many months you have tried to get access to the site there. And also a rough location of Prairies, Maritimes, or BC. . .. . .(Won't reply to email, unless needed. But will be a gauge of how many users can not get to the Xplornetsucks.com site).

An Alternate DNS server is opendns.com .Edit::: The DNS change does not seem to affect access. But even with the usual IP refresh/change, the user still can not access xplornetsucks.com . It appears, at the moment, to mainly affect satellite users from 'up to' 3 months..

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

EDIT::: Try this link to the forums. http://tinyurl.com/69g3q4
EDIT:::Message from Xplornet satellite users using this link.. "Error: Unable to find site's URL to redirect to." . . .

Or how about the Google back door. Use the 'Cached" link. These pages will be older.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&as_q=&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&num=10&lr=&as_filetype=&ft=i&as_sitesearch=xplornetsucks.com%2Fforums&as_qdr=all&as_rights=&as_occt=any&cr=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&safe=images

Or how about Google.ca
http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&as_q=&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&num=10&lr=&as_filetype=&ft=i&as_sitesearch=xplornetsucks.com&as_qdr=all&as_rights=&as_occt=any&cr=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&safe=images

Also try tips from this link to see if possible problems are on your computer or browser. From the Firefox help forums. As Xplornet blames everything on the user, as per the user contract.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Error_loading_websites

*********

British Columbia Civil Liberties Association..
http://bccla.org/
They may be able to help you, even if you live outside of BC.. Since Xplornet Satellite users report that they have no problems getting to any other site, that they want to go to.

*************

This clip from an article From a while back, to do with Telus blocking the website of striking workers.
http://www.opennetinitiative.net/bulletins/010/ONI-010-telus.pdf
EDIT::: New Link
http://opennet.net/bulletins/010

This poses questions as to whether the Canadian
Telecommunications Act has been followed to the letter. Section 36
of the Act states that, without the approval of the Canadian Radio-
Television and Telecommunications Commission, a "Canadian carrier
shall not control the content or influence the meaning or purpose of
telecommunications carried by it for the public," and Section 27(2) of
the Act prohibits a Canadian character, in providing a
telecommunications service, from "unjustly discriminat[ing] or
giv[ing] an undue or unreasonable preference toward any person,
including itself, or subject[ing] any person to an undue or
unreasonable disadvantage

Heres another forum for you to post on(unless it gets blocked too).
The Mods there do keep things controlled. So no off the wall posting. Just post your Xplornet experiences, as per usual. This thread goes from the start of Xplornet to the present. Starting from about May 2005.
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?s=28f6875f1b0f1c3612d60bf859a55d99&t=47143

There is also this link below, for the United States side of the Anik F2 satellite that you connect to(Wildblue). Some differences are..A monthly FAP. A oddly performing Proxy that lets you read 'cached' pages instead of the real page. Free Google mail, for the price of paid for mail. But the same capacity issues, meaning slow speeds.
http://wildblue.cc/wbforums/index.php

Xplornet forums page at Testmy.net
http://www.testmy.net/b-109

DSL Reports.com
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/cover,2584







Join the Blue Ribbon Online Free Speech Campaign!

So you're here, Now what?

2008-03-05T22:30:00.000-08:00

jan 27 2010: Edit: site may be dead in a few months.....
For Reviews and complaints from Xplornet customers, check out http://www.xplornetsucks.com/forums
Over a years(since Feb 2007) worth of information on various issues with Xplornet(Telesat as the satellite provider). And various information that you may not of thought about, from looking at the glossy Xplornet advertising flier that you got in the mail. The Admin there, setup the forum to bring Xplornet issues to light and give users someplace to vent their frustrations on the service, or lack of service in some cases.
Satellite and Wireless forums. And even Dealer/Installer issues.
So you've got to notice that if you've left dialup and have gotten some higher speed. Are you getting what you are paying for?
http://www.testmy.net/tools/test/d_load.php
Use the largest test to ensure accuracy.
Or start a download from http://www.openoffice.org (the site can support fast downloads to you) and see what the download box speed(KB) says for at least 3 minutes, to avoid the 'burst' or 'up to' speed from skewing your results, that may show a higher speed than you regularly get(sustained rate).

So you are here because you either are looking for reviews on Xplornets services, or, are a Xplornet customer who is having problems with the Xplornet service. The below contact information is for various government agency's, if you are having problems. But why not contact them anyways and ask why you can't get cable internet or DSL at your house when the providers were given many dollars to expand wireline internet into unserved areas. But Xplornet was also given government money too and is spreading across Canada with some mixed service results. You need to notice that Xplornets contract with you, does not guarantee service. And it is your responsibility to ensure that you have a service, via not doing any more than email and light surfing in the evening. . .
It's just too bad that we are falling behind in the internet structure in Canada, by relying on wireless internet connections(last mile providers). If the towers hardware and bandwidth connections are not upgraded as more customers come onto the system,,You end up with poor speeds and the usual excuse of "We expect to upgrade your tower in about 1 month or in reality, 5 months", Or "A customer with an infected system was just removed from your tower"(A total Bull Shit answer).
The next Ka 'spot beam' satellite to go up, is in about 2011.

*****

Some Canadian government agency's are actually quoting, that there is 'broadband' available to about 90% of the Canadian population. So without doing a fairly simple calculation based on population density in the cities and towns, compared to the countrysides population density's, and various terrain issues. The number is probably closer to 60%. Numbers have been falsely upped, due to satellite coverage and wireless coverage in other areas. But is the broadband option affordable to people outside of wireline internet areas? This last figure would then drop the 60% broadband internet coverage area to just the wireline areas, due to higher equipment and install costs of satellite and wireless. Having to use your credit card to extend the payments out for satellite/wireless equipment/install does not make it affordable. And also figure in the almost double monthly payments for comparable to wireline service, in some cases.

******

But please also remember EVDO. Which is cellular internet.

Rogers Portable Internet. Subject to slowly expanding areas....
http://www.rogers.com/web/content/internet-portable

Bell portable internet. Subject to slowly expanding areas....
http://www.bell.ca/shop/Sme.Sol.Inte...plug.Home.page

**

Contact information for your federal government leaders. These elected officials keep turning a blind eye to your "High Speed Internet" problems. Or in some cases will reply back with 2 year old information and then ignore your reply to the outdated material.
http://www.canada.gc.ca/directories/direct_e.html

Contact information for a new Canadian Government Telecommunications Complaints site. Kind of like the BBB. But Xplornet is not a "volunteer" member.
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

Contact the "Ad Standards Code". If you feel some type of advertising is fraudulent in any way.
http://adstandards.com/en/

Rights being erroded.

2008-01-28T12:32:00.000-08:00

This is a bit off topic but is very important for all Canadians.

Coming in 2009 to BC... RFID drivers licenses(enhanced). A small chip that will allow the police and government to track you wherever you go in BC.... Premier Gordon Campbell says it's in regards to make it easier to cross the United States border(by order of President George W. Bush). But since the chip can be read from at least 30 feet away .It makes it the perfect anti-innocence tool available today. Police will just park on the side of the road with a scanner and scan vehicles going by. No scan on a car after a certain date? Driver must not have his license on him. A case to pull the driver over to illegally search the vehicle. But if you have your license on you? A very good cause to take the government and the police to court for violating your right to privacy and innocence. Or the officer scans someone known to the police. Good enough cause to look for criminal activity? One again, Illegal.

Tracking drivers via micro chips in drivers licenses.
How to disable(break). Shine a bright light behind license while looking at it. See the dark spot(RFID). Mark it. Take hammer to chip area(not too hard so you don't damage license). No more tracking of you. . . .Hopefully this information will prevent it from coming to British Columbia(Oops. To late). . . . By the way, That digital drivers license photo and signature? Already in Canada's crime computer. The Government only needs your thumb print next, to have a complete set.
This guarantees your right to privacy and to not be tracked by the government for innocent activity's.
And it does not deface the license.

Edit: Solicitor General John Les says Enhanced licenses at the moment are voluntary and only used for border crossing, and come with a sleeve to prevent reading of license while not in use. So in other words. Test them out for a couple of years, then dump on the masses.

****

And starting in BC, on Feb 1 2008. .. Prepay for gas before filling up. Once again, innocent people being accused of being criminals. The excuse is Workmans Compensation Board rules to keep attendants safe, but the real criminal here is the police of BC , who refuse to answer gas and run crimes. Why? The police avoid doing their job to save money. The police would rather set up illegal roadblocks to look for crime, instead of the only allowed use of roadblocks, which is to look for drunks. The police would rather not have to waste 2 hours booking the driver into jail and instead give illegal 12 or 24 hour roadside suspensions. No ticket? No jail? No crime. Drunks are supposed to go to jail for at least 12 to 24 hours and then in reality should be seeing a judge for bail to get released.

Contact BC Premier Gordon Campbell at
premier@gov.bc.ca

Contact The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association at
info@bccla.org

Contact the Prime Minister for when it gets to your province at
pm@pm.gc.ca

Your rights are already gone. But don't let what little memory is left of them disappear overnight.

Xplornet for Email and Surfing only?

2007-12-27T15:10:00.000-08:00

So Xplornet has been updating it's web page. And something has disappeared. The below information, that would suggest that they no longer want anyone, who does anymore than Email and web page surfing..A http://www.apple.com/trailers/#section=genres movie trailer can get you FAPped (Satellite FAP resets at one hour increments)..

And also someone at Xplornet thinks that you can use an alternate browser to do 'windows update'. Must be an Internet Exploder confirmed user writing the information. Windows update is written for Internet Explorer and it's dangerous Active X control (dangerous when you allow a random website to download a control that will take over your system.Generally from a bogus popup). Mozilla Firefox does not allow Active X.

""Discover the World with Xplornet""
http://www.xplornet.com/guide.php?id=5

"""""""""""""Downloading movies, music (for purchase)

» Music
* Napster - www.napster.com
* Itunes - www.apple.com/itunes
* Puretracks - www.puretracks.com

» Movies
* Free DVD Direct - www.freedvddirect.com
* Movies Direct Pro - www.moviesdirectpro.com
* Mac movie trailers - www.apple.com/trailers

Streaming video, music (for free vs. purchase)
» Pandora - www.pandora.com
» Yahoo - www.yahoo.com
""""""""""""""""""""""""""

So lets see what packages and their descriptions. Remember, top speeds below on satellite ,are not ever achieved, due to various internet protocols taking up about 17K off the top of the download. . . . And Wireless speeds on some towers may be Capped at a lower actual speed(initial micro burst to full speed and then drop to a preset lower speed).
On satellite you will crap your pants when you see the price for these speeds below(I'll let you check those out yourself). Providing you don't need those speeds during 'prime time'(about 5pm to 10 pm). . . . Satellite 'Lag' is being extended a rather large amount with DAMA, which is on Carrier 'B' and not(as of yet) Carrier'A'. . . .Sign up with Carrier 'A' to be able to use the internet normally, with restricted file sharing, gaming, VOIP, etc.. And satellite upload speeds begin at about 80K and don't get much higher than "advertised" 'up to' 500 Kbps with the top KaBoom package.

These package descriptions should not be ignored. It tells the story of how Xplornet does not want to pay for full bandwidth. If speeds were kept 'up to', the KaZam package listed 'up to' speed, you could do quite a lot with the basic package. But FAP gets in the way for any current web surfing expectations(Youtube, News vids, Software updates, etc.). But if you don't ever sleep....'No FAP' between about midnight and 5am. . .But what is the guaranteed, lowest speed on any package???

Satellite.....
KaZam package...512 Kbps..Email/Light surfing.
KaZoom package...1.0 Mbps..Casual surfing.
KaBang package...1.5 Mbps..Moderate surfing/Online transactions.
KaBoom package...2.0 Mbps..Music downloads/File sharing.

Wireless.....
Zip package.300 Kbps.. Email/Light surfing.
Zoom package.1.5 Mbps..Moderate surfing/Online transactions.
Xpress package.3.0 Mbps..Music downloads/File sharing. Even though you may be Capped at a lower speed.
Xtreme package.5.0 Mbps..Intense surfing/Video downloads. Even though you may be Capped at a lower speed.

Feb 20 2008 EDIT: The price on the 1.5 meg wireless package is now $5 less than the 3 meg package. Someone pointed out that this could 'persuade' people to buy the 3 meg package and still possibly only receive speeds slower than the 1.5 meg package. Interesting marketing plan you have there, Xplornet. If one plan goes up, then all plans must go up, according to the typical, industry standard rate increases.

And never sign a contract. Pay the system access fee and be more secure in being able to walk away if the system(as is being advertised) can not meet expectations....Maybe thats why the download music/video information disappeared from Xplornets pages. . .Honesty in advertising.

So what we know about Xplornet.

2007-12-12T11:40:00.000-08:00

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

So many customers and so many complaints about slow satellite service.

2007-11-06T21:31:00.001-08:00

Some complaint sites about Wildblue satellite internet. The other user on the Anik F2 satellite (run by http://www.telesat.ca/).

http://wildbluesucks.info/

http://wildblue-sucks.com/

http://www.wildbluescams.com/

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/wildblue-communications-inc-c1920.html

What should be a good ping time on satellite? 800 ms is the best you can get(Maybe 650ms, but depending on how satellite system is set up). So why are ping times 'up to' 1800 ms? Various software on the system designed to add more customers on.
58 ms is a nice speed for wireline highspeed internet.
To see your ping times. In your computer click ..start..click run..type cmd ..type ping google.com ..Then see your ping times and average.
Check your internet speeds at http://www.testmy.net/tools/test/d_load.php

An interesting thought..... Xplornets contract says they do not guarantee service or upload or download speeds. Does that mean they could just stop the satellite portion of their service and still bill you the contract amount per month until your contract is up? Does Xplornet think this?. Contracts have flaws in them and it is all up to a provincial or federal judge to decide if portions of Xplornets contracts are legal or just a way to take your money and offer poor service in areas with many, many subscribers....Here is an example of an illegal contract in California to do with contracted, red light camera operators being paid a percentage of the amount of revenue they generate. It's illegal but not till someone goes to court in every county to stop it from happening...http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/cameras-private-light-1917123-city-revenue

Government wasteland

2007-08-26T23:31:00.001-07:00

Is the investment in a satellite system is worth it or not.
If you are one of the many with problems...Contact your MLA or MP
http://www.canada.gc.ca/directories/direct_e.html
to get them to look into business practices of 'any' internet provider. Some government officials quote two year old information. Slow speeds and poor support can only be ignored for only so long. You want what you pay for. What if you were buy a gallon of milk and only get "up to" a gallon and only receive half a gallon..
And by the way..The 'up to' quote before each package speed is actually the "burst speed". But seems it would be more fair for Xplornet to quote the standard expected speeds on each package(The range of speeds expected and Honesty in advertising rules).. But that would not take into account over selling the spot beams,or not enough server bandwidth on the ground stations, resulting in speeds that get to be real slow during 'peak times'.

My Xplornet experience

2007-02-22T11:19:00.000-08:00

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadband
Definition of "broadband". It's not what you think it means.
""""""""""However, broadband in data communications is frequently used in a more technical sense to refer to data transmission where multiple pieces of data are sent simultaneously to increase the effective rate of transmission, regardless of actual data rate. In network engineering this term is used for methods where two or more signals share a medium."""""""""""""

Scroll down about a quarter the way down for original post...Lets just say that Wireless and Satellite internet sucks(no minimum bandwidth requirements)..The government is too blame..But suits in the big city don't care about us country folks..Wireline internet is the only way to go..
Try cellular internet if available from Rogers or Bell.

July 29 2007...
Poor people on spot beam 5 in the western half BC...You've been oversold so much that Xplornet is having to modify the bandwidth use controls on that beam. As well as not allowing new customers to have VOIP or private virtual networks...Where is the government to check into this blatant sale of a non-existent bandwidth?????
http://www.wildblue.cc/wbforums/showthread.php?t=4784

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/
Firefox Browser.
May give you some extra speed..When I did some testing when I was on satellite,,I noticed Internet Exploder was slower..But my Firefox is also tweaked to some degree..
Extensions of .. Adblock .. User Agent Switcher .. Flashblock .. Adblock Filterset.g Updater ..

May 29 2007 update.........
Wouldn't it be interesting if the testimonials page on Xplornet had dates to go with the reviews..As well as contact information for the reviewers...Could we contact "Jacob. One boys journey..." to see how his service is after 2 years??

May 9 2007 update....
Email account still active....(May 29 2007.Still active)(Email accountis dead now).
Why do people defend a poor product..Is it the fear of dialup...Or is it the realization that they signed a 3 year contract and they are stuck for that term...If you stay stuck in the mud...You will eventually sink to the bottom....And no one will hear you...

April 20 2007 update...
So it's been since March 7 that I canceled the Xplornet service....So....The email account of mine there is still active..I check every once in a while to see if it still exists...Telus cancels your whole internet experience in a matter of hours...But since Xplornet contracts out their various services....Well the head does not see what the hands are doing....
Coming soon to Xplornet in the fall of 2007...VOIP...From what I have read...The VOIP modem requests a higher set speed from the system and locks it in so the VOIP will function cleanly...Too bad for the internet surfers, as the VOIP will steal from them...But with hundreds of new installs per month....Complain to Xplornet...\0/..
July 3 2007 update.....
Word is that the newest users on the BC spot beams will not be able to get VOIP ,as of about June 6 2007 ,Due to over subscription on the beams...Cram more people on and don't dare try to surf during peak times....

March 21 2007 update.....
New site out there for people who have issues,etc. with Xplornet. Not affiliated with this page.....
xplornetsucks.com (jan 27 2010: soon too be defunct.)

March 30 2007...
Dish removed..

March 11 2007 update....
So back on dialup and just waiting for the refund (have refund now) and the installers to come and get the dish off of the wall...

March 9 2007 update....
So Wildblue (130,000 customers), The main other satellite internet provider off of the Anik F2 satellite that Xplornet uses...Wildblue has launched their own satellite(to triple Wildblue capacity)..It should be done with it's testing in about a month..So heres the thing..Will Wildblue Sell bandwidth to Xplornet for use (for new installs or shift Xplornet dish 3 degrees at $200,,,If they have any overlap into Canada.). Or will Wildblue transfer some of their customers off of the Anik F2 satellite.(april 10 2007..Wildblue transfering the bigger complaining users to Wildblue1).. Wildblue has said that they will use the Anik F2 as a backup...So will Xplornet find more bandwidth sometime in the future???
http://www.wildblue.com/company/doPressReleaseDetailsAction.do?pressReleaseID=18
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=wildblue+1&btnG=Google+Search
April 10 2007 ..Anik F3 launched. Only two KA band transponders on it..Too expensive to launch all KA band satellite..But if they did not put the KA transponders on the satellite...Well they could of lost the space position to another provider with KA transponders on it..""Using for more bandwidth for Ontario..""
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/ILS_Proton_Successfully_Launches_Anik_F3_Satellite_999.html
(June 8 2007. Next all KA band satellite.....2011)

April 10 2007..Wanna bug the CRTC?
http://www.crtc.gc.ca/RapidsCCM/Register.asp?lang=E
And get a reply of "We do not and will not regulate internet"..Bunch of lies on their behalf, but thats government.

And with "Freedom of Communication" as a right in Canada...well,, it is blocked by the CRTC, for your Canadian heritage protection..Otherwise there would be free enterprise and no monopoly's and open competition in any type of communication...Do you want DSL or Cable internet or even uncensored American television? No way says the CRTC..You have to suffer with alternate non-wireline providers who keep over-selling bandwidth, before wanting to spend their pennies on more bandwidth,Which the wireline providers have to provide or else the wireline providers will be punished...

March 6 2007 update...
So I see I had a troll respond to my post on dslreports.com. The first reply post could be valid (not really, As they said they were from Ontario). But the second post just took my March 5 anikast speed tests and posted them, changing the speed numbers..But it became quite obvious ,because the numbers did not properly match each other for each speed test. So nice try Mr. Troll...Also the two anonymous reply posts were from the University of New Brunswick..Or unb.ca .But dslreports keeps track of where you are coming from and various other tracking data..Maybe they will get a hold of you to find out why you posted wrong data...

March 5 2007 update...
So in the last couple of weeks. Looking at my bandwidth monitor. I have been fapped at 19 megs and at 10 megs. Was quite evident as the speeds dropped in half. With a 'fap' policy that is changing without warning...How can you be sure what video clip or small program you want won't put you over the 'fap'.
Quote"""""Xplornet does not and is unable to publish the FAP data transfer rate in megabytes. Xplornet are not given these rates from Telesat the actual provider of the service. Xplornet is a reseller of this service and therefore does not have access to this information. The main reason Xplornet does not have this information is due to the fact the FAP rates on KA satellite change depending on the network usage and other factors out of our control.""""""""Unquote.. Now if only they would put this on a page for people. Imagine how many would look at that and go,,,,Hmmmmm. So if you can't control your bandwidth? ??????

Speedtests today from Anikast site.
9:48 am pacific time.
Download #1
------------------------------------------------------------------
File size transferred : 1.04 MB (1090681 bytes)
Total time taken : 23.84 seconds (23844 milliseconds)
Throughput : 45.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.05 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 360.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 0.36 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]

Download Statistics
------------------------------------------------------------------
Best Speed = 0.36 Mbps, Average speed = 0.36 Mbps
Worst Speed = 0.36 Mbps, Average time taken = 23.84 secs
*********************************
3:49 pm pacific time march 5
Download #1
------------------------------------------------------------------
File size transferred : 1.04 MB (1090681 bytes)
Total time taken : 38.55 seconds (38547 milliseconds)
Throughput : 28.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.03 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 224.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 0.22 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]

Download Statistics
------------------------------------------------------------------
Best Speed = 0.22 Mbps, Average speed = 0.22 Mbps
Worst Speed = 0.22 Mbps, Average time taken = 38.55 secs
*********************************
6:09 pm pacific time .

Download #1
------------------------------------------------------------------
File size transferred : 1.04 MB (1090681 bytes)
Total time taken : 91.63 seconds (91625 milliseconds)
Throughput : 11.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.01 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 88.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 0.09 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]

Download Statistics
------------------------------------------------------------------
Best Speed = 0.09 Mbps, Average speed = 0.09 Mbps
Worst Speed = 0.09 Mbps, Average time taken = 91.63 secs
*******************************************************************
8:38 pm pacific time

Download #1
------------------------------------------------------------------
File size transferred : 1.04 MB (1090681 bytes)
Total time taken : 88.7 seconds (88703 milliseconds)
Throughput : 12.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.01 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 96.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 0.1 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]

Download Statistics
------------------------------------------------------------------
Best Speed = 0.1 Mbps, Average speed = 0.1 Mbps
Worst Speed = 0.1 Mbps, Average time taken = 88.7 secs

Feb 23 2007 update...
So got replys from the CEO and their consumer affairs person today after a few emails....So extended the 30 guarantee. And now we shall see what happens with the speed till march 24....So I will update then...And they replyed to the better business bureau saying there was a "fap" on the account from start..But they don't keep data for more than 10 days supposedly...

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Origional post %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Feb 22 2007
So the first 30 days of service was decent then in the evening of the last day of the guarentee, speeds started to suck and still have not properly recovered to during the first 30 days usage.(no "fap" ever showed up in the guarantee period)(Apples movie previews should of kicked it in easily).Please contact the Better Bussiness in your area to file a complaint against Xplornet. And don't forget your provincial consumer complaints department of the government. Plus contact the parent company of Xplornet at.....

Barrett Xplore inc.
300 Lockhart Mill Road
PO Box 9060
Woodstock NB
E7M 5C3
Care of ..John Maduri - CEO

Links to various Barrett corp officials...
http://www.barrettcorp.com/contact.asp

The Better Business Bureau®
Serving the Maritime Provinces
1888 Brunswick Street, Suite 805
Halifax, NS B3J 3J8
(902) 422-6581
www.bbbmp.ca

And of course your glorious Canadian Government and it's broadband for the people site..
http://broadband.gc.ca/pub/index.html?iin.lang=en

Since I emailed on the last day complaining of poor speeds, I should be well within my legal right to have the gaurentee extended. The legal mumbo jumbo on the user agreemant is more fluff than enforceable. If you have no bandwidth to use...the service is unuseable and the contract can not be binding....There is no government policy for minimum bandwidth....So all that stuff about "broadband for the nation" is just fluff..So complain to your local represenative too.....

"FAP" policy is 24 megs per hour on basic package..But I also got fapped at 19 megs... And 36 megs an hour on next package up.......For all those who think the old policy of 168 megs has anything to do with the KA band of satellite..

Tests to the xplornet system are done on
http://www.speedtest-west.anikast.net
Or
http://www.speedtest-east.anikast.net
and then the report button will report to them..Plus you call in and find out why you are so slow..
Telesat is the main carrier of Xplornet. They are responsible for bandwidth problems. A basic package is about 490k tops..But they say no problem that is drops down to 100k during heavier usage..That cause lots of page loading problems...
By the way..I'm not a downloader..But I can easily do 10 megs an hour with just web pages that are getting so bloated that I had to get off of dialup....

My speeds over about 24 hours....Notice how at 10 pm the speeds magically boost up to full speed over a half hour of time..My satellite spot beam is only pointed at British Columbia...

A free bandwidth monitor...
http://www.rokario.com/
And it's clean...

One thing to remember is that your speeds are set by the system. So what package you subscribe too is your peak..System usage can float your speeds..Or a system can set your speeds to remain in the same general area. Which is apparently what happened to me..But no one will admit that.."We can't control your speeds". Sure. Tell me another one...Delay a person to the point that they give up or miss out..That is the first techs duty...

Start 11:22 am Pacific time. End 11:26 am Pacific time .. Feb 21 . IP ...3 tests cycle...

Download #1
------------------------------------------------------------------
File size transferred : 3.02 MB (3167484 bytes)
Total time taken : 52.94 seconds (52937 milliseconds)
Throughput : 59.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.06 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 472.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 0.47 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]

Download #2
------------------------------------------------------------------
File size transferred : 3.02 MB (3167484 bytes)
Total time taken : 52.94 seconds (52938 milliseconds)
Throughput : 59.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.06 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 472.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 0.47 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]

Download #3
------------------------------------------------------------------
File size transferred : 3.02 MB (3167484 bytes)
Total time taken : 52.94 seconds (52937 milliseconds)
Throughput : 59.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.06 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 472.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 0.47 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]

Download Statistics
------------------------------------------------------------------
Best Speed = 0.47 Mbps, Average speed = 0.47 Mbps
Worst Speed = 0.47 Mbps, Average time taken = 52.94 secs

Actual speed 490k

#######################################################################################

Start 2:20 pm Pacific time. End 2:24 pm Pacific time .. Feb 21 . IP ...2 tests cycle...

Download #1
------------------------------------------------------------------
File size transferred : 3.02 MB (3167484 bytes)
Total time taken : 113.7 seconds (113703 milliseconds)
Throughput : 27.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.03 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 216.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 0.22 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]

Download #2
------------------------------------------------------------------
File size transferred : 3.02 MB (3167484 bytes)
Total time taken : 103.83 seconds (103828 milliseconds)
Throughput : 30.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.03 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 240.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 0.24 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]

Download Statistics
------------------------------------------------------------------
Best Speed = 0.24 Mbps, Average speed = 0.23 Mbps
Worst Speed = 0.22 Mbps, Average time taken = 108.76 secs

actual speed 265k

###########################################################################################

Start 6:07 pm Pacific time. End 6:11 pm Pacific time .. Feb 21 . IP ...2 tests cycle..

Download #1
------------------------------------------------------------------
File size transferred : 3.02 MB (3167484 bytes)
Total time taken : 133.95 seconds (133954 milliseconds)
Throughput : 23.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.02 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 184.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 0.18 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]

Download #2
------------------------------------------------------------------
File size transferred : 3.02 MB (3167484 bytes)
Total time taken : 135.97 seconds (135968 milliseconds)
Throughput : 23.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.02 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 184.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 0.18 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]

Download Statistics
------------------------------------------------------------------
Best Speed = 0.18 Mbps, Average speed = 0.18 Mbps
Worst Speed = 0.18 Mbps, Average time taken = 134.96 secs

actual speed 215k

###################################################################

Start 7:30 pm Pacific time. End 7:35 pm Pacific time .. Feb 21 . IP ...2 tests cycle..

Download #1
------------------------------------------------------------------
File size transferred : 3.02 MB (3167484 bytes)
Total time taken : 205.06 seconds (205062 milliseconds)
Throughput : 15.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.01 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 120.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 0.12 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]

Download #2
------------------------------------------------------------------
File size transferred : 3.02 MB (3167484 bytes)
Total time taken : 181.33 seconds (181328 milliseconds)
Throughput : 17.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.02 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 136.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 0.14 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]

Download Statistics
------------------------------------------------------------------
Best Speed = 0.14 Mbps, Average speed = 0.13 Mbps
Worst Speed = 0.12 Mbps, Average time taken = 193.2 secs

###############################################################################

Start 9:32 pm Pacific time. End 9:36 pm Pacific time .. Feb 21 . IP ...2 tests cycle..

*******Bursted speed from actual 110k rate******************
*****************************

Download #1
------------------------------------------------------------------
File size transferred : 3.02 MB (3167484 bytes)
Total time taken : 146.47 seconds (146469 milliseconds)
Throughput : 21.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.02 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 168.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 0.17 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]

Download #2
------------------------------------------------------------------
File size transferred : 3.02 MB (3167484 bytes)
Total time taken : 102.58 seconds (102579 milliseconds)
Throughput : 30.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.03 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 240.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 0.24 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]

Download Statistics
------------------------------------------------------------------
Best Speed = 0.24 Mbps, Average speed = 0.2 Mbps
Worst Speed = 0.17 Mbps, Average time taken = 124.52 secs

###################################################################################

Start 9:51 pm Pacific time. End 9:53 pm Pacific time .. Feb 21 . IP ...2 tests cycle..

Download #1
------------------------------------------------------------------
File size transferred : 3.02 MB (3167484 bytes)
Total time taken : 62.2 seconds (62204 milliseconds)
Throughput : 50.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.05 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 400.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 0.4 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]

Download #2
------------------------------------------------------------------
File size transferred : 3.02 MB (3167484 bytes)
Total time taken : 66.53 seconds (66532 milliseconds)
Throughput : 47.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.05 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 376.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 0.38 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]

Download Statistics
------------------------------------------------------------------
Best Speed = 0.4 Mbps, Average speed = 0.39 Mbps
Worst Speed = 0.38 Mbps, Average time taken = 64.37 secs

#######################################################################################

Start 5:54 am Pacific time. End 5:56 am Pacific time .. Feb 22 . IP ...2 tests cycle..

Download #1
------------------------------------------------------------------
File size transferred : 3.02 MB (3167484 bytes)
Total time taken : 52.81 seconds (52812 milliseconds)
Throughput : 59.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.06 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 472.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 0.47 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]

Download #2
------------------------------------------------------------------
File size transferred : 3.02 MB (3167484 bytes)
Total time taken : 52.86 seconds (52860 milliseconds)
Throughput : 59.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.06 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 472.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 0.47 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]

###########################################################################################
And testmy speedtest.

:::::::::::::::::.. Download Stats ..:::::::::::::::::
Download Connection is:: 429 Kbps about 0.4 Mbps (tested with 579 kB)
Download Speed is:: 52 kB/s
Tested From:: http://testmy.net/ (Server 1)
Test Time:: 2007/03/05 - 10:55am
Bottom Line:: 7X faster than 56K 1MB Download in 19.69 sec
Tested from a 579 kB file and took 11.062 seconds to complete
Download Diagnosis:: May need help : running at only 40.97 % of your hosts average (barrettxplore.com)
D-Validation Link:: http://testmy.net/stats/id-RS0VZB3HN

::::::::::.. Download Stats ..::::::::::
Download Connection is:: 152 Kbps about 0.2 Mbps (tested with 386 kB)
Download Speed is:: 19 kB/s
Tested From:: http://testmy.net/ (Server 1)
Test Time:: 2007/03/07 - 10:20pm
Bottom Line:: 3X faster than 56K 1MB Download in 53.89 sec
Tested from a 386 kB file and took 20.797 seconds to complete
Download Diagnosis:: May need help : running at only 14.64 % of your hosts average (barrettxplore.com)
D-Validation Link:: http://testmy.net/stats/id-FQZ1UV78S