This applies to everywhere I guess, but to Canadians in particular.
I live and work in Toronto (downtown) and in the last 2 weeks I have had both Sympatico HSE (ADSL) and Rogers Cable internet. Now, if you're curious as to which is better, I'll lay it out for you.
Service:
Rogers intallations are nightmares. If yo uhave their TV service, this is the same thing only worse. They stood me up twice before they finally showed up. On the other hand, they are always easy to get on the phone, and do attempt to be helpful.
Sympatico: I did a self install, and it went pretty smooth. I signed up online and they sent me the package by courier. Their phone support can be lacking at times, as I'm pretty sure that they do not have many people who know that much about ADSL or how it works. Finally, Sympatico billing is hopeless. If you have delt with them before, you probably know what I mean.
Software:
Rogers software is actually pretty slick. They include security tools and a support tool if you're having problem with the service. A very nice touch is that they had the drivers for the included network card on the CD, which was good because I blew my floppy drive while trying to set up the NIC. On the down side, you still have to set up the network section of the control panel by hand in Win9X systems, and I could do without the Rogers@home browser overlay (Think Neoplanet, just not customizable.)
Sympatico: The software installed fine, but the user still must set up the Network settings in the control panel, and the proxy setting in the internet options. Additionlly, the service requires you to 'dial in' over the ADSL line, not unlike a standard modem (Rogers acts more like a standard network connection.) I have noticed that the Sympatico connection requires a noticeable amout of system resources on my P2-350.
Performance:
Here's the part everyone is interested in. These numbers are estimations based on actually using both services for a while. I tried to choose arbitrary test sites that would favour wither niether or both services.
1) News server downloads:
You can argure that one service may have a better Usenet server, or that one may have less users that another, and that this is not a fair test of the connection. You're right. But, I don't care how fast the connection can be, I care how fast it is when I'm using it. A Ferrari might go 200 MPH, but if you're in traffic, give me somthing with comfy seats.
I tested both services with X-News by downloading multiple 800K files (inline binaries) off of random binary newsgroups:
Sympatico News: Start: 60-80 kb/s Mid: 140-160 kb/s High: 200 kb/s
Rogers News: Start: 150-160 kb/s Mid: 220-240 kb/s High: 310 kb/s
Next I downloaded a file from http://idirect.tucows.com (if you are in toronto, or the surrounding area, there is a building on front street between Union station and SkyDome where 90% of all internet traffic in Toronto passes through. Idirect has their Tucows affiliated servers in this building. It will always be the fastest possible download for anyone in the toronto area.) I chose this site because it is hosted by Idirect (which is now LOOK) so it's a good impartial test. The test was a 5 meg file through IE5.5
Sypmatico: average: 140-150 Kb/s
Rogers: average: 210-240 Kb/s
Finally, just to test a theory, I used one connection to ping the others DNS server. This is a test that can mean either nothing, or alot, depending on how you interpret it.
Sympatico connection, pinging the Rogers DNS server:
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 118.824/139.887/157.342/12.818 ms
Rogers connection pinging a Sympatico DNS server:
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 86.971/102.033/170.167/24.703 ms
I'm going to refrain from making too many comments and just let every one draw their own conclusions. In case you're curious, these tests were done between 12 and 1 AM on Monday nights (one this week, one last week) This eliminates the Sympatico peak hour bottle-neck, but may also effect the number of users on the Rogers network.
Please post any comments or thoughts.
I live and work in Toronto (downtown) and in the last 2 weeks I have had both Sympatico HSE (ADSL) and Rogers Cable internet. Now, if you're curious as to which is better, I'll lay it out for you.
Service:
Rogers intallations are nightmares. If yo uhave their TV service, this is the same thing only worse. They stood me up twice before they finally showed up. On the other hand, they are always easy to get on the phone, and do attempt to be helpful.
Sympatico: I did a self install, and it went pretty smooth. I signed up online and they sent me the package by courier. Their phone support can be lacking at times, as I'm pretty sure that they do not have many people who know that much about ADSL or how it works. Finally, Sympatico billing is hopeless. If you have delt with them before, you probably know what I mean.
Software:
Rogers software is actually pretty slick. They include security tools and a support tool if you're having problem with the service. A very nice touch is that they had the drivers for the included network card on the CD, which was good because I blew my floppy drive while trying to set up the NIC. On the down side, you still have to set up the network section of the control panel by hand in Win9X systems, and I could do without the Rogers@home browser overlay (Think Neoplanet, just not customizable.)
Sympatico: The software installed fine, but the user still must set up the Network settings in the control panel, and the proxy setting in the internet options. Additionlly, the service requires you to 'dial in' over the ADSL line, not unlike a standard modem (Rogers acts more like a standard network connection.) I have noticed that the Sympatico connection requires a noticeable amout of system resources on my P2-350.
Performance:
Here's the part everyone is interested in. These numbers are estimations based on actually using both services for a while. I tried to choose arbitrary test sites that would favour wither niether or both services.
1) News server downloads:
You can argure that one service may have a better Usenet server, or that one may have less users that another, and that this is not a fair test of the connection. You're right. But, I don't care how fast the connection can be, I care how fast it is when I'm using it. A Ferrari might go 200 MPH, but if you're in traffic, give me somthing with comfy seats.
I tested both services with X-News by downloading multiple 800K files (inline binaries) off of random binary newsgroups:
Sympatico News: Start: 60-80 kb/s Mid: 140-160 kb/s High: 200 kb/s
Rogers News: Start: 150-160 kb/s Mid: 220-240 kb/s High: 310 kb/s
Next I downloaded a file from http://idirect.tucows.com (if you are in toronto, or the surrounding area, there is a building on front street between Union station and SkyDome where 90% of all internet traffic in Toronto passes through. Idirect has their Tucows affiliated servers in this building. It will always be the fastest possible download for anyone in the toronto area.) I chose this site because it is hosted by Idirect (which is now LOOK) so it's a good impartial test. The test was a 5 meg file through IE5.5
Sypmatico: average: 140-150 Kb/s
Rogers: average: 210-240 Kb/s
Finally, just to test a theory, I used one connection to ping the others DNS server. This is a test that can mean either nothing, or alot, depending on how you interpret it.
Sympatico connection, pinging the Rogers DNS server:
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 118.824/139.887/157.342/12.818 ms
Rogers connection pinging a Sympatico DNS server:
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 86.971/102.033/170.167/24.703 ms
I'm going to refrain from making too many comments and just let every one draw their own conclusions. In case you're curious, these tests were done between 12 and 1 AM on Monday nights (one this week, one last week) This eliminates the Sympatico peak hour bottle-neck, but may also effect the number of users on the Rogers network.
Please post any comments or thoughts.
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