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  • Colba.net review

    So Like I mentioned in my last post I have new Internet so now i feel is an apt time to review my old ISP

    http://colba.net/main.php?lang=en

    Choosing MY ISP:

    first off I was paying a lump sum of $481 annually as it gave a discount over monthly payment this included the internet service($299.4) and dry loop(119.40) and tax or ~$40 per month. I purchased my modem(tp-link) from amazon for $20 instead of renting or buying($90) one from colbanet (zone)

    the service I was paying for was ADSL2+ max speeds of 24mbps/1mbps unlimited bandwidth at the time of subscription it was the best option  all other options bell, videotron, electronic box,distributel; were either more expensive for the same service (or way out of my budget), blocked critical inbound server ports(80,25,21), had tiny bandwidth caps (i.e.100gb combined/month), and/or were shitty companies.

    Service hookup request:

    very straight forward sales rep wasn’t pushy, I told her what service option I wanted and that was it set up install date paid and done. 10/10

    Service install:

    because its an independent ISP (used to be the first ISP in Montreal 56k/16k modem service) they lease Bells phone lines for ADSL service we have the bell tech come to install our line now we live in an old apartment building (circa 1910-1920s) our old twisted pair was rotted and was practically unusable so he went beyond the minimum (like many of bells techs have a reputation of doing) gave us some brand new cat5 straight out to the buildings distribution panel (mind you he did it during a downpour) and ran the drop exactly where i wanted it inside. I was verry impressed I would have given him a tip if i had any cash at the time.

    10/10

    equiptment:

    modem: tp-link td8816 (solid fucker never had to reboot it only ever was off when the power went out)

    router: started with a Dlink dir-601 (running DD-WRT) sometimes slows down and needs a quick power cycle (currently being used as a switch/ wifi AP)

    later/current:TP-link TL-WDR3600 (stock os) (no complaints but nothing super postive to say about it)

    i  owned it all so it dont matter I did have some experience with there Zhone modem didn’t like it so bought my own

     

    Service:

    I was getting 15mbps down and .6-.8 mbps but very few network outages there was a period of about a month where the speed was very bad. it turns out bell/colbanet were upgrading equipment and the speed jumped and stabilized at 15/.8 once they finished ,so it did get better and also latency was excellent 10ms-40ms was common and rarely saw it above 100ms

    the office hours for the administration kind of suck for the end user 9-5 mon-fri the tech support is 24/7 though

    7/10

     

    cancellation:

    not a fuck was given

    me:i would like to cancel

    sales rep: ok, i need your phone,name,etc

    me: X,Y,Z

    SR: ok you will be disconnected on the last day of your billing period (jun 13th) and your account will be closed on the next day

    and done, total time:5min. Absolutely no attempt at customer retention or even asking why i was terminating service with them

    9/10

     

    so the reason i left was first I needed better speed  and the “better” options were $50+ a month for a slight bump in download and 7mbps upload and also included a 300gb bandwidth cap  + dry loop fee

     

     

    overall: 8/10

    if you are tech savvy they are the best option for ADSL (they offer IPTV now as well) I do recommend them if you are on a budget but if you can spare an extra $10/month i would recommend a different ISP


  • Followup to vistaprint

    so i got my vista print order about 5 minutes ago let me first go on to say the address labels are useless absolutely useless for their intended purpose. Because I used the template based editor I wanted something else ware the “address line fields” were so i put it there so I wouldn’t have to play with the formatting too much but of coarse they use the same fields for the “promotional” address labels. so I guess the only application for them is as a name tag.

    On to the card itself. The paper quality is about what I expected, standard business card stock and the edges are clean. The font size is smaller than I expected i should have gone with 1 or 2 points larger the graphic print quality is ok but the bold text is full of white spots from low resolution printing and even the black text feels feathered because of the low DPI. I had a QR code put on my card and it has a white boarder and a thick boarder at that because of coarse they don’t give the option for a transparent boarder. In short don’t use vista print its a shady company that wants to up sell you on everything and give you the lowest quality print job they can.