DSL Provider in Ottawa?

[bradm]

I've come to the conclusion that I need high-speed Internet access at home, and have decided that DSL is the way to go. (This is based largely on my dislike for Rogers as a telecommunications company, and the fact that my employer's VPN access scheme won't work over cable.)

I've checked, and Sympatico, Magma, and Cyberus all support high-speed DSL to my location, so the question is which provider to use? Cyberus' offering is nice because it's simple to choose: they have one plan, and it's unlimited. Magma's offering requires choice of a plan, with the low-end ones having bandwidth caps. Sympatico's offering also requires choices.

Given that most of the bandwidth I'll be using will be for uploads (taped shows, mostly; up to several a month) and downloads, bandwidth caps don't really work for me.

I'm not that interested in having an e-mail account (I use Yahoo! e-mail for most of my personal stuff, and don't want my "known" address tied to a provider I may ditch in a few years), but will do some heavy newsgroup reading. I'd also like to be able to have multiple machines (say, a big server, a media machine, and a laptop) all going through the same connection, so an offering that doesn't allow that won't work.

My other problem is technological: the computer I want to hook up to the 'net is nowhere near a phone jack. I'm assuming that the DSL modem will have to be close to a jack, so can I just run a long (30' or 40') Ethernet cable, or should I go wireless? (Yes, I could wire jacks in the places in the house where they aren't, but I don't want to do that right now.)

Opinions of Ottawans who have DSL would be appreciated. I'm especially interested in experiences of customer service, availability, security, etc.

Aloha,

Brad

[Blane]

Brad, my buddy used Magma for a long time and liked it. The one downside of all the home dsl service I've used is that the upload is capped at about 17kB/s. When you're uploading 800-1000mb shows that's really damn slow.

[rubberdinghy]

I wouldn't go with Sympatico...Way to many problems, just even getting started up, customer service is horrendous, and tech support is useless...If you are lucky though, you could get it in three days...and this has nothing to do with the fact that I used to work for Bell...

Recently, a buddy, who works for Bell, went to get Sympatico...It took 1 1/2 months to get his modem...and this guy works for the company!

[AdamH]

Brad I'm pretty much in the same boat re:phone line being nowehere near the bedroom where the computer will sit. While I liked having Rogers Cable internet we won't have a tv inour next place so it really doesn't make sense to get it again costwise.

Magma does have the bandwidth caps but there's unlimited uploads/downloads between midnight and 7am. If you time yourself you could use that slot for the shows.

magam was recently bought out by Primus and my co-worker is saying it's going to get sh!tty soon but that seems like a pretty unqualified opinion.

[rubberdinghy]

Brad I'm pretty much in the same boat re:phone line being nowehere near the bedroom where the computer will sit.

This actually is complete BS in my opinion...I ran a 30ft extension and it still worked (not a network cable) ..BTW, an additional jack in your house is basically that...an extension...

[ollie]

I've been with Magma DSL for over three years and love it. They cost a little more than Sympatico but I went with them for their EXCELLENT customer service. I download a fair amount of shows and have never gone over the cap. I'm on the $39.95/month plan.

Don't worry about your computer's distance from the phone jack. I use an extension cord and don't have any problems.

Also, highly recommend buying the modem outright instead of going for the monthly fees. I paid for my modem TWICE in rental fees before I contacted them and worked out a deal where I could buy it at a discount.

We also use them here at work and are happy with their service.

[bouche]

As far as I know Sympatico xtreme high-speed dsl had been a great service for me. However, that was in Smiths Falls.

They don't have any caps either. I always had good service with them too, but I suppose that could have easily changed in the last 2 years.

Guy at work just got DSL in his new apt. and he had his package in the mail within a couple of days. After setting up the modem, he only had to make 1 phone call and they had their end working for him in no time.