Welcome to the self-proclaimed
Rural Ottawa High-Speed Internet Blog. High-speed Internet access is virtually
ubiquitous in the urban and suburban areas of Ottawa, but when I started this blog in 2005, only about 60% of the
rural areas of Ottawa have coverage.
However, even for rural citizens, high-speed Internet access is becoming as necessary as telephone service.
Happily, high-speed coverage for rural Ottawa has increased significantly, and not only is coverage
reportedly
above 90%, many rural residents and businesses now have more than one choice of high-speed ISP.
This purpose of this weblog is to track news and events related to high-speed (broadband) Internet access in the
rural areas of Ottawa and, to a lesser extent, in nearby townships.
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Postings & Moderation
I've opened up this blog to allow anyone to post to it. However, I continue to moderate and will remove any inappropriate content, e.g. anything not related to high-speed internet access in the rural Ottawa, the Ottawa Valley, Eastern Ontario, and the Outaouais.
Seeking advice on high-speed internet in Dunrobin Shores
I just got this request from someone looking at moving from out-of-province to Dunrobin Shores. If anyone out there can provide guidance or advice, please comment.
We're considering a home on Armitage in Dunrobin Shores. Not familiar with Internet here (we are out of province) but have a home-based business that is dependent on high speed. Any advice
I'll open with the usual list of Bell (TurboHub), Rogers (RocketHub), Xplornet, NorthWind, and Pioneer. Links to all of these ISPs are available on this blog site (usually in the right-hand margin of the page).
Bell and Rogers seem to be hit-or-miss in any given area even though they claim to provide excellent coverage over virtually all of eastern Ontario (e.g. Bell is quite good at my home near Manotick but Rogers' signal in the same location is very poor).
Xplornet seems to have high latencies (ping times) and can't seem to maintain reasonable speeds. This too may also vary from location to location.
NorthWind and Pioneer are small local companies. I have no personal experience with them, but in the main, comments from blog readers seem generally positive.
-Chris
17 Comments:
According to me,Rogers (RocketHub) will be the best for high speed internet in Dunrobin Shores.I haven't heard more about the rest.
Northwind Wireless provides free internet access at Dunrobin Pizza and from what I hear their service is pretty good.
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Most high-speed Internet connections are faster than 802.11b (don't go by maximum "claimed" speed - 802.11b won't come close to 11mbps in actual use, not to mention I don't think manufacturers are making any 802.11b-only products anymore).
Alberta high speed internet
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This response is probably a bit late, but I live on Armitage in Dunrobin shores. There are few options here. I currently use Xplornet fixed wireless, which is absolutely horrible compared to their predecessor, Storm. We are waiting and waiting for DSL - most other communities in our area have it now - but I would not count on this any time in the near future.
We are now trying to upgrade to Xplornet's 4G Alvarian system, which I have heard accounts of being much faster and more reliable. Unfortunately, in order to get the current promotion an additional 2-year contract is required for existing customers, and data usage fees do apply. However these are more reasonable than using a Bell or Rogers Turbo/Rocket stick.
Other options along Armitage are Northwinds Wireless and possibly Pioneer Wireless - both offering line-of-sight services. Availability of better speeds increases significantly if you are on the water and can receive signals from the Quebec towers.
Don't count on Pioneer getting you set up quickly. From what I understand, first priority is existing customers, which is great, but getting a new installation can be very difficult.
I am hoping that Xplornet's new 4G offering will solve our immediate needs until DSL becomes available, but please do yourself a favour and explore the alternatives. My firm opinion is that Xplornet is a large, even unscrupulous company fighting to monopolize the market. They do not deliver on their promises, and do not like to put any contracts in writing. The only reason that I am remaining with them is the cost to change, when I am really holding out for DSL, and my optimistic personality - hoping the 4G Wireless service will be better.
Although I am sure your friend has already moved here and made their decision, I thought I should post for future readers. Or if they have found a solution they're happy with, I would love to hear about their results.
Spudson, now that you've had the new Xplornet 4G, how's it working?
Any updates on the Xplornet 4G wireless as per performance?
Because of our lication, Bell and Rogers arent viable. We have Xplornet 4G, overall it is still a hit or miss. Constant average pings are between 700-800 ms with a max of 5.0 Kb/s downloading, which gets worse in high traffic times and with bad weather. Overall it's not too bad for just web surfing, if you aren't in a rush, but online gaming, downloading and streaming become tedious tasks. I am also holding out for DSL.
hi all, we liveon Armitage Avenue in Dunrobin, experiencing the same thing - only have Xplornet, havent' tried 4G but from the feedback, it still looks like its hit and miss. Just called Bell (we call them every 6 months) and they still don't have service here....any other ideas? any at all? Our kids are getting older, wanting to download more and are unable to do so....
Do you have any updates on the Xplornet 4G wireless as per performance?.
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I am a pioneer customer (not for much longer) and I pay for 3mbps and for the past week don't even get close to 1mbps. They never answer the phone and when they took over to my old company was told tons of upgrades would be done so when the winter hits I won't lose service again... oh look it's January. ..
They show up for repairs when they feel like it and once told us nothing was getting done for a couple of days because he deserves time off. Well last time I checked you owned your own company and talking to customers like that will get u bankrupt. Good luck on your search I'm going back to dsl
I am a pioneer customer (not for much longer) and I pay for 3mbps and for the past week don't even get close to 1mbps. They never answer the phone and when they took over to my old company was told tons of upgrades would be done so when the winter hits I won't lose service again... oh look it's January. ..
They show up for repairs when they feel like it and once told us nothing was getting done for a couple of days because he deserves time off. Well last time I checked you owned your own company and talking to customers like that will get u bankrupt. Good luck on your search I'm going back to dsl
Hi Chris and all,
My partner and I are moving to carp in 2 weeks and are desperate need of some internet provider advice. We are coming from moving downtown, where we have bell fibe, and are accustomed to high speed for streaming movies and such. any advice on which providers to check our or which to avoid will be most appreciated. i have already contacted bell and rogers, and both can offer me the rocket stick or whatever the bell equivalent is. based on the comments of this blog- id like to avoid xplorenet. moving to william mooney rd and wilbert cox drive.
Thank you!!!
(Chris- I wanted to post this to you directly but could not find a way to do so, so alas, i resorted to posting a comment. Hope it doesnt get lost! )
To A. F.
I am also moving into the same Carp area in 2 weeks from now. Have you find any reliable provider in the area yet? Let me know.
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