Bell Sympatico is pissing me off!

Has anyone else in the GTA been having frequent disconnections?

It's been happening to me all mourning and the Problem is not on my end, despite what their brain dead tech support staff claim. The only thing I can think of that may be causing it is the Thunder Storm we are having right now, but jeeze, how incompetent do you have to be in order to let something as silly as a thunder storm interrupt service. :shk:

I get my internet from Sympatico as well. I'm not in the Greater Toronto Area, I'm in London, ON, but as far as frequent disconnects go, we certainly have something in common.

When I first got sympatico "ultra-high speed" dsl, several years ago, I was quite pleased. In the last six months or so, however, I have been experiencing frequent "disconnects" which, frankly, I find quite disturbing.

My frequent calls to the fine folks at Sympatico have not met with any results. I'm simply told that, as far as they are concerned, all is good. All I can say to that is...."typical". Anyway, I do suspect that this problem has something to do with available bandwidth at Sympatico. The problems seem to start just about the times when the kids get out of school and it usually gets back to normal around 11 pm at night. I had thought that this sort of thing had been a thing of the past. I guess not.

The problem seems to have resolved itself, right when the Thunder Storm stopped. So it seems to me that their switching station isn't shielded against EMI. :shk: I would consider switching, but I hear that the "competition" isn't much better.

GAH! Get rid of bell... greatest waste of my dollars I've ever spent.

I know most of you would read this and think, he just had one bad experience and he doesnt really know what goes on behind the scenes...

For 3 and a half years it was my job to know what was going on... I was technical support for Time Warner Cables Road Runner Internet Provider... and yes we had to say the entire name EVERY time.

Anyhow, the Bell network is horribly configured. A rediculous number of hops just to get out to a backbone server... most of those hops are overburdened with traffic, and take ages to respond to your computers request.

Go with cable man. I'm on rogers now, and I have to say, I'm damned impressed... I don't know who mapped out their network, but they did a better job than I could.

Cable is worse in my neighborhood. Way too many on the Rogers line and they are the only alternative atm. Shaw doesn't deliver service in my area, satellite is too expensive and Wifi is too unreliable. I'm basically stuck between a rock and a hard place...

Too bad you didn't live in Saskatchewan. I have access communications high speed cable. I get 5000/1000 download/upload rate plus my montly cap limit is 70 gigabytes. I went over it 20 gigs and am at 90 now they didn't seem to mind lol.

Love my ISP

5000 what? I get 580 KB/s max down and 120 KB/s max up. Speed isn't the problem(most of the time), it's staying connected during certain times that is the problem.

Also I just wanted to note that Bell Sympatico phoned me just 15 minutes ago and they said, and I paraphrase "Our infrastructure is currently undergoing upgrades and we plan on offering you a free upgrade to 7 Mb/s line as soon as it's available." I hope they aren't blowing smoke up my ass, but as per their instructions I am getting ready to send my modem back in to swap for a new one.

[edit on 2-4-2007 by sardion2000]

[edit on 2-4-2007 by sardion2000]

[edit on 2-4-2007 by sardion2000]

625 KB/s max down and 125 KB/s up. You should have recorded them saying they are going to upgrade you to a 7mb line because that would be proof enough for them to upgrade you if they did absolutely nothing. Its a sad fact that these days everything needs to be either recorded or in writing.

[edit on 4-4-2007 by CPYKOmega]

Well, how's this for ya. Bell has just lowered my monthly cost from 67 Bucks a Month to 48 Bucks a Month! That proves to me that they are about to go on a upgrade as the last time they lowered the cost, was just before they upgraded me from 3 Mbps to 5 Mbps. Hope it's soon!

Lets hope that these 'upgrades' they are performing means they will be replacing the intermittant node thats causing your issues.

I'm assuming they have you using a SpeedStream modem? The 5200?
It's a pile of crap in my opinion. If the issues persist after the upgrade, see if they have any alternatives.
Just pick the thing up to feel how shoddy it's construction is. They have a horrible habit of locking up after extensive use, and the cache used to buffer data before it's sent through ethernet is severely sub-par.

Essentially, Bell uses them because they're cheap.

If you ever want something to malfunction and look like a defect, just U2U me...

Out of interest whats the biggest ISP in america atm?

Yup, I'm using the crappy Speedstream 5200. I find that it gets really hot at times as well, like hot enough to keep my cup of tea warm . Never liked it, but I just endured as it wasn't that much of a bother until recently. My last 3 Mbps modem was rock solid. I hope they go back to the same company that made that modem. I'm also thinking of asking for their wireless/ethernet combo modem, as my buddy said they feel much more solidly made then the Speedstream one. I just wish they would let us buy our own modems like back in tha day... I NEVER had a crappy modem back then...

[edit on 18-4-2007 by sardion2000]

Originally posted by iCEdTenG
Out of interest whats the biggest ISP in america atm?

I can answer you that one, I used to work for them.
Its the Road Runner branch of Time Warner Cable.
Time warner owns the communications hubs, and Road Runner owns the servers, routers, NDIS's, etc.