[andrewkw]

Rogers is now 100% unusable for me. 10k upload. Before I could still get 40,50 even 60k.

Are these speeds possible on Sympatico? I also see they only throttle during peak hours, but this could change any time and I'm not sure it would be worth switching for this.

I also had plenty of bad experiences on sympatico which I'm still bitter about where they basically told me to switch to rogers. So I'm not eager to switch back.

I am not a heavy BT user, but I do use it semi frequently, sometimes I want to share things quickly (legal live music recordings). Would it be worth switching or should I just buy a VPN? Suggestions welcome.

 

[apn]

I don't have direct experience, but my FIL and some friends/colleagues are on Sympatico and don't like it at all.

If you want to continue using BT unfettered, then your best bet is to go with an indie ISP; a cable reseller (Rogers is not yet throttling reseller ISPs: Teksavvy, 3web/Distributel and Acanac) or move to DSL.

If you must switch to DSL, I'd highly recommend Teksavvy, who can offer MLPP ($4/mo) to avoid throttling as long as you have a router capable of running MLPP-equipped firmware (Tomato or ddwrt).

A word of caution on DSL: Bell is about to screw customers of GAS-contracted indie ISPs e.g. Teksavvy, with the recent approval to start UBB billing in January.

VPN is certainly a valid option, but you could also use the newsgroups. The latter have unlimited monthly (~$10) and data-block packages.

 

[ScaryBob]

If these are files you own the copyright to, you might want to look at other options such as web hosting and/or http/ftp. P2P is throttled by Bell/Rogers but most other protocols are not. Web hosting is available for free or a low price from third parties. The servers are usually on the internet backbone so there is no speed limit. You do want to keep an eye on data/download usage with web hosting since it is billed on a usage basis and the free plans often have very low caps. Most ISPs also include it or offer it as an option. As for providers, stay away from Bell. Teksavvy is much better and is available in most areas served by Bell. They can also do web hosting.