How is Shaw Communications Internet in Western BC, Canada?

[cosmokanga2]

I'm wondering if my fellow Canadians could give me some advice. My family is moving to Whistler BC and we will need an internet provider. Looking at Speedtest.net it seems Shaw is fastest but is there any other providers in the area that are good.

How reliable is Shaw as well? Telus I've heard for example drops connections often.

We're moving from Alberta so any knowledge would be great.

Thanks!

 

[snberk103]

I have very limited experience, but for what it is worth....

We had Shaw's high speed lite, When we lived in Vancouver's West End, which is a very densely populated area. Starting at 4pm, and progressively getting worse for a couple of hours, the speed of the service got noticeably slower and slower. My understanding is that Shaw uses a node system ie a number of subscribers in an area share a node. When they all come home and start surfing, service speed suffers.

We have an ADSL connection on a gulf island now. It is a local provider, but they are repackaging Telus ADSL connections. In the 5 or 6 years I think we have two problems that lasted more than a few minutes. One of the times was when Telus added a considerable number of new customers to their system, but didn't add the connections to get the traffic off the island. That caused sporadic slowdowns and hard to reach servers for a couple of days.

Overall I prefer the ADSL, despite the occasional glitch. The Shaw service affected every week day.

I have heard that Shaw Tech support is better than Telus. And I know people who have switched to Shaw for that reason. These people had serious internet needs however (servers at home, etc)

Hope this helps.

Welcome to BC. Don't wear cotton socks in the rain, you'll be a lot happier.

 

[alanlindsay]

I'm in BC (Van) and use Shaw. I don't have a main line in my house as I just go by cell and I believe Telus will only supply you TV if you have a phone line with them. I wanted TV&internet but not phone so I went with a Shaw and its decent so far.

Alan

 

[cosmokanga2]

I have very limited experience, but for what it is worth....

We had Shaw's high speed lite, When we lived in Vancouver's West End, which is a very densely populated area. Starting at 4pm, and progressively getting worse for a couple of hours, the speed of the service got noticeably slower and slower. My understanding is that Shaw uses a node system ie a number of subscribers in an area share a node. When they all come home and start surfing, service speed suffers.

We have an ADSL connection on a gulf island now. It is a local provider, but they are repackaging Telus ADSL connections. In the 5 or 6 years I think we have two problems that lasted more than a few minutes. One of the times was when Telus added a considerable number of new customers to their system, but didn't add the connections to get the traffic off the island. That caused sporadic slowdowns and hard to reach servers for a couple of days.

Overall I prefer the ADSL, despite the occasional glitch. The Shaw service affected every week day.

I have heard that Shaw Tech support is better than Telus. And I know people who have switched to Shaw for that reason. These people had serious internet needs however (servers at home, etc)

Hope this helps.

Welcome to BC. Don't wear cotton socks in the rain, you'll be a lot happier.

Thanks for the info! I never thought about the evening slow downs. I download a fair amount of movies and music so I have another look.

Thanks for the tips on the socks too! We lived in Penticton three years ago so we're moving from hot and dry to cool and damp. It's going to be fun.

 

[snberk103]

Thanks for the info! I never thought about the evening slow downs. I download a fair amount of movies and music so I have another look.

Thanks for the tips on the socks too! We lived in Penticton three years ago so we're moving from hot and dry to cool and damp. It's going to be fun.

Yeah, if you get feet wet in cotton socks, they're wet and cold the whole day. Wool or synthetic don't do that.

Are you going to be in Whister for the 2010 Olympics?

 

[cosmokanga2]

Yeah, if you get feet wet in cotton socks, they're wet and cold the whole day. Wool or synthetic don't do that.

Are you going to be in Whister for the 2010 Olympics?

Hope so. We are going to manage an Inn so we're there for as long as the contract works out. We're actually already booked for the games!