Xplornet High Speed Satellite Service

[macspectrum]

Here is the email I received directly from infosat (with names removed to protect the not-so-innocent)

"As per our phone conversation this morning, unless you want to move up to a more expensive solution in the Ku band there would be no advantage in switching your Ka service over to us. Performance of the system would remain the same."

[Sirius Guy]

My experience with Barrett/Xplornet has been 100% completely different and a retailer/installer.
Always got thru walled garden , no problems. Never left a home without install being complete.
No mad customer's calling us to complain about their service.
There was an issue with the outside TRIA unit, hardly Xplornet's fault but any calls we made to replace we were paid within 30 days no exceptions.
Latest TRIA version appears to be more reliable with better SNR levels and so far no failures.

We have wireless internet available here as well, another provider, but 80% can't get it due to LOS issues whereas sat internet works everywhere.

We used to install wireless TV (same type of technology as wireless internet) tower system and always had people complaining about service outages, started with Starchoice 10 yrs ago and never looked back.

As new software upgrades etc come down the pipe I am thinking the speed issues (high volume traffic related during peak times) will be eased.

[macspectrum]

no "mad" customers calling you to complain about poor speeds or service?
you've got to be kidding or lying
everyone admits the beams are over loaded and over sold
just that xplornet and telesat have been selling service on a service that is way overloaded, making tons of money and providing sub par service

with so many complaints about the service, how come you're the only one with such a "sparkling" record?

[TKG26]

An update on my wireless speed issues..

Short recap: Both myself and neighbor had great service for a year plus. now we got no speed at all. Xplornet sent dealers out they said we both need towers, there is low level noise. ITs not the main tower ect ect its our problem, we faught with xplornet they said take it or leave it. I had no choise but did not want to drop $600 to fix there problem. So i dropped to the zip .3meg service, my neighbor dropped the $600 and got the 25ft plus tower to fix his problem................................................... The techs told him great single great power, but could only show him 1.5meg service on various speed tests... 50% of his subscribed 3meg service


Ok here we are a week or so later. Im on my .3meg service and i consistantly get .25meg to .4megs..... My neighbor and his 600$ tower and 3meg service...... is getting .25 to .3 meg!!! he is absolulty furious.... He called got level 1 who sent him to level 2 who said level 3 would call him back.. He had the installers out yesterday, they attempted to point him at 3 area towers... no improvements, the tech called xplornet complaining to level 3 that there is issues with the kemptville tower........ Everyone is waiting for answers.. my neigbor the local installers and me as well.



So glad i held my ground and not spend money to fix the companies problem that in the end does not fix the problem... Do i expect free install when they say its free? DAMN STRAIGHT I DO!

My poor neighbor is not going to get a refund...

Stay tuned

The tec

[TKG26]

FYI the installers at DIGITAL CITY here are great guys, i dont blame these guys at all, they had nothing to do with the orignal install, but they are contracted out to attend service calls and upgrades. ITs unfortunate that xplornet does not warranty anyones work, they dont stand behind the work they authorize to have done and when repairs such as installing towers for 600$ dont work they dont refund the customer or the contractors.
Digital city guys have been very good dealing with us and are hassling xplornet to figuer out why there is issues. They mentioned that a repeater or substation(short tower?) could be installed in our neigborhood to boost the speed..

[squidley100]

I have had Xplornet since 2003. Initially the service was very good, I had up to 2MB running or 3 networked computers. But over time the speed has gone down, and they have had continuing problems with their DNS servers and their mail servers, and they don't tell you when you call in that they have a problem on their end. It takes 45 minutes to more than an hour to get an answer on their support line, and then the level 1 & 2 people don't know what they are talking about. I started on the Ku band, and upgrade to the next level paying $109/ month. They are overselling capacity, and not providing service. The Ku was so bad, I upgraded to Ka in dec 2006. It was good for 1 month, and then it went bad, and support was not able to help. I was paying for 1.5Mb, and was getting no more than 300kb download and typically 25-50k upload, and often the mail servers were down. I just cancelled the service in January 2008, and they refused to cancel my service and billed me $2112.00. I have gond to a local wireless service, and am getting and average of >2MB download consistently, so I know ther is no problme with my computer as they always like to blame it on the customer. So now I have to fight to get my $2112 back. All they said to me is we don't guarantee any level of service. My wirelss provider is Andrewswireless and it is fantastic. The setup took 5 minutes. and cost $45 / month for an average of 2MB.

[rob1]

Check these number's from Telus (should be the same for Bell)

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/show...3&postcount=20

using a EVDO card. The card is a Rev 0 - Rev A should give you better uploads and a bit quicker upload.

Eitherway.....I think I will be canceling my Xplornet this month since I'm not on a contract.

The Evdo foot print has expanded in our area...even though there was no notice given.....so check your area if you can.

Cheers

[opustwo]

I have had to endure two years of absolute grief with Xplornet so called Hispeed Satellite service. It is very restrictive and definitely not worth the money..

I have had nothing but troubles with it! Slow speeds, nonexistence technical support. For example tonight two hours on hold just to go to an answering machine. Rain or snow makes it unusable so basically go read a book because you are not surfing.

Think long and hard before considering it..

[Sirius Guy]

You obviously have faulty equipment, probably old 1st gen TRIA unit is crapped out. Weather should NOT effect your service, if you can watch sat tv you can surf the internet.
When your service is up, call them and ask for your current SNR (signal to noise ratio) reading on telesat - if must be over +10 on a normal day to compensate for bad weather - we normally get +12 on our installs - in central MB - they can tell you what your target SNR should be. Demand a service call , it will be free to you if the service guy has to replace equipment.

I tell all my new customers to not tolerate service outages , nobody has yet to call me back to complain.

[jayoldschool]

I am a current Storm customer just outside of Ottawa. With the sale of Storm to Xplornet, I am very leery of going with a contract with them. Storm has been great - fast (as advertised) connections, helpful customer service. The Xplornet rep called me over a week ago to start the switch process, and I haven't called back yet. I have read more negative reports than I can count. Are there anyother options for me in the $50/month for 3 meg service? Or should I just make the switch?

[TKG26]

im in kemptville area i tried bell unplugged on the weekend but have to return it no signal even though they said i was eligible..

Im stuck with xplornet and from what i understand most in my neighborhood are not getting good service

[bigfoot2]

ok..here's the latest scoop on satellite internet. Xplorenet and Netkaster are now maxed out with subscribers !!! Also Netkaster shares their statellite with bev. The fair access policy is their scape goat to attracting more customers. You see once you subscribe in any package, their system scans all subscribers every hour and anyone who has absorbed more time in that hour then they are supposed to get flaged or flopped. I know because I gave up my dial up just so I can download some bigger files and paid the price for it. However as explained to me that their service is only for email and surfing, what the heck I can do that on dial up, dummies. This system sucks. I was flopped three times in one day and was told what times they were and yet my speed all day was at dial up speed down from 1Mb. (I tried to download an 90 meg file, nothing else all day what a crock ) I don't think these companies are honest, the govenment needs to step in and regulate their unscruplous activities. Does anyone know how I can return this crap?

[lonnie]

i haven't used my xplornet ka system for a few months now since we got adsl from telus at home. i moved the dish and modem to the office in town to use for checking out trias and modems that were suspect. ( i'm an installer ) last night i downloaded a traffic monitor program to a laptop to see what was happening when i used it for downloading large files. to test it i went to yahoo and clicked on one of the video news stories. i could see from the chart that the net traffic monitor was showing i had about 10 seconds of the normal upload/download speed i should have and the video was playing normally. then the picture began to breakup with sound dropouts and i could see that the traffic on the chart had changed from short bursts of high data rates to continuous flow of a low data rate. it went from 500kbps/90kbps to 60kbps/6kbps for up and down speeds. if i exited the browser and went back in i would get the same result, a few seconds of high speed in short bursts with small gaps in between and then it would drop down to a continuous data stream but at a much slower rate. i wonder if there was some way to make the data transfer in shorter bursts or wider gaps between bursts so that your speed would remain at a higher level. something like this might fly under the radar of fap monitoring. that might allow users to get better performance. maybe someone out there can come up with a program to make your computer ask for data in short enough bursts and long enough gaps that you don't get cut back right away. after all most people don't need to see streaming video immediately as soon as the download starts, we just want to get to work without having to wait for antivirus and operating system updates to finish downloading before we can get the first email message.

[Slybel]

I got switched from my superb STORM service to the not so famous Xplornet... I was promised the 2.4g satellite.. only to find out that I can only have the 900mhz at 3mbs (truelly 1/3 of that speed).

I called the Tech support... wow.. what a farce! Told him about speed issues... he kept asking me to test my dl speed.. but I was not at home!!! Useless call that was! Can't speak to anyone else there... no supervisor or managers whatsoever!

I MISS MY STORM!!!!!

Now... my kids can't play Call of Duty anymore!!! WTF?????

This is ridiculous....

[CyberStorm]

Is Xplornet the only satellite provider for high speed in Southern Ontario? I'm trying to find a solution for my CEO who now lives outside of both Bell and Rogers' WiMAX coverage in Puslinch. Right now, I don't like what I'm seeing from the posts in this thread.