I’ve been using Telus DSL for my home internet connection for a few months, after being a Shaw cable internet subscriber since 1997. I’m growing increasingly frustrated by the unbelievably non-broadband performance of Telus DSL. I have run multiple bandwidth tests on various services, and typical throughput ranges from 11K/sec to a whopping 18K/sec. On a service that promises 1500 kilobits per second. I would get almost the same performance with a 56K modem!
I’ve sent several requests to Telus “support” to see if they can figure out what’s going on. They responded by accusing me of attempting to attack their DNS servers (which appear to be poorly configured or just plain underpowered since they take up to 30 seconds to respond).
I just ran the same test, from the same server, on my desktop machine on campus. The result? 3MB/Sec. It’s not the website that’s slow.
Anyone know of decent, fast, and inexpensive home broadband in Calgary? Oh, and so The Goog will find this later: TELUS SUCKS.
Update: It’s 2 days later, and a Telus tech just phoned me. We spent just over 20 minutes trying to figure out wtf was going on with my connection. He gave me some more DNS servers to use, and that appears to have solved the up to 30 second DNS lag. Also, bandwidth appears normal now (just tested using bandwidthplace.com again, and got 811 kilobits per second – slightly below average for DSL in Alberta – acceptable, but not great). The Telus guy was really trying hard, and was as frustrated as I am because this bandwidth problems appear to be so transient and intermittent. Oh, well. It appears to be working now…
I’ve been using Telus DSL for my home internet connection for a few months, after being a Shaw cable internet subscriber since 1997. I’m growing increasingly frustrated by the unbelievably non-broadband performance of Telus DSL. I have run multiple bandwidth tests on various services, and typical throughput ranges from 11K/sec to a whopping 18K/sec. On a service that promises 1500 kilobits per second. I would get almost the same performance with a 56K modem!
I’ve sent several requests to Telus “support” to see if they can figure out what’s going on. They responded by accusing me of attempting to attack their DNS servers (which appear to be poorly configured or just plain underpowered since they take up to 30 seconds to respond).
I just ran the same test, from the same server, on my desktop machine on campus. The result? 3MB/Sec. It’s not the website that’s slow.
Anyone know of decent, fast, and inexpensive home broadband in Calgary? Oh, and so The Goog will find this later: TELUS SUCKS.
Update: It’s 2 days later, and a Telus tech just phoned me. We spent just over 20 minutes trying to figure out wtf was going on with my connection. He gave me some more DNS servers to use, and that appears to have solved the up to 30 second DNS lag. Also, bandwidth appears normal now (just tested using bandwidthplace.com again, and got 811 kilobits per second – slightly below average for DSL in Alberta – acceptable, but not great). The Telus guy was really trying hard, and was as frustrated as I am because this bandwidth problems appear to be so transient and intermittent. Oh, well. It appears to be working now…
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I’m pretty happy with my Shaw@Home connection. DNS seems a bit sluggish at times, but the actual data transfer rates are good. I typically get about 30 KB/s up and 200 KB/s down.
Here’s what bandwidthplace.com says about my current connection.
2.1 megabits per second
Communications 2.1 megabits per second
Storage 251 kilobytes per second
1MB file download 4.1 seconds
Subjective rating Great
Yeah… I’ll probably be switching back to Shaw after my lovely “New Telus Subscriber 1 Year Probation” period is up – if I break the agreement early, I get to pay a couple hundred bucks to Telus. That kinda sucks, but will get me to put up with crappy connectivity for a few more months…
I’ve tweaked my wireless settings and managed to eke out a few more k/sec – nothing too dramatic, but every byte helps… 🙂
Here in Vancouver I use Shaw. It’s been pretty good for me over the years. When I convinced my dad to switch to broadband at his place in Surrey (a municipality in the area), however, he’s had quite a few problems. I’m not sure why, but the connection goes down a lot in his area.
As long as it stays neutral I am happy. If you think it’s bad now, it could get quite a bit worse. In terms of improvement, you’re absolutely right with the exception of Shaw Xtreme… But considering that a T1 line costs $600.00 and the prices of hard lines are as static as ever, I write it off to the nature of industry. If we start laying our own fiber though, we could change all this… or get the government to lay the fiber on our behalf, that would be good… Telus would fight it with what one of their VP’s termed their war-chest… But in the end it would rock for us 🙂 Good way to gurantee that the internet stays a commodity market.
That might be true, Sami, but broadband in Calgary has been essentially the same for 10 YEARS now. My broadband connection is no faster than it was in 1997, for about the same price.
In the same 10 years, my computer is over 30x faster, hard drive is 50x bigger, ethernet card capable of 100x throughput, all for half of what that all cost in 1997.
But “broadband” is the same. No Moore’s law. No noticable improvement at all, actuallly. Except for the clever ads about how much faster it is than dialup. So, what? Nobody’s been using dialup here for years now…
Just be glad you don’t live South of the border! It really sucks down there!
I found this site through Google…I am not on Telus as I am a rural subscriber but instead am one link away from SuperNet via a wireless connection through CanadaSurf.com Broadband Surfer is its other name..Anyway, outside of Edmonton, there are few choices but with this recent setup, I get variable results but your comment about what is average in Alberta, is what I am writing about as I understand that the average T1 download rate is about half of what T1 can deliver or .73 Mps…I often exceed that when I do various broadband tests, depending of course as to where they originate. Typically I get 700-860 Kps but considering the alternative which is another ten year stint with a modem at 26k, I feel in heaven…It all depends on overall traffic. I noted that when I tried to use video iChat to someone just thirty miles distant I was getting pixelation but this was on a Saturday night and the date rate for the both of us was just 90 KPS…hardly T1…The Alberta Advantage is that we all have computers, all spend time downloading and uploading and running bandwidth tests galore and so for that we get slower connexions than what is theoretically possible…Just think of my poor modem when things slow down!
Neil, I guess it is better than a 26K modem, but companies are selling broadband promising 1.5MBps, and I rarely get over half of that. If they want to charge half price, that would be cool with me 🙂
It's exactly what they advertise.
1.5 mega BITS per second… not bytes. 1.5Mbps not 1.5MBps
riiiiight… except I’m getting 148.6 kilobits per second, not 1500 kilobits per second. there’s a missing order of magnitude in there somewhere… If you read the post, you’d have seen that I was mentioning that Telus claimed to be offering 1.5Mb/sec (== 1500 kilobits per second), but that I’m typically seeing 1/10th that rate, at 148.6 kilobits per second.
I’d love to be getting the promised 1.5 mega BITS per second.
Although, I used to get around 1.5 mega BYTES per second almost a decade ago on my old cable modem…
dnorman, If you see your download speed going 148.6 per second, thats BYTES not BITS, 1.5Mbs = 192 KBPS (Default measuring speed shown in windows during downloading) so your getting the speed you were promised, or close too. not a magnitude by any means. Check for spyware, could easily be whats causeing the small deficit.
@Tokiac: not sure I follow your math here… The screenshot clearly shows that the utility was reporting “148.6 kilobits per second” – definitely not “kilobytes per second” or even “KBPS”. There is definitely an order-of-magnitude difference in performance observed.
I am on Telus High Speed Extreme. Overall, I have been very satisfied. By the way I am in Medicine Hat. Originally I was on the Telus Home Networking Package (2.5Mbps). The package was discontinued and replaced by the Enhanced High Speed (3.0Mbps). I called and they upped the speed (albiet not much of a jump) for nothing. Then they started offering the Extreme Package (6.0Mbps) and I switched to that. No complaints on speed. If I download from a good site, my transfer speeds are right around the 650KB/s mark which is essentially 87% of the advertised speed. Using bandwidth tests from various places (primarily http://www.dslreports.com), it usually tops out just above 5.1Mbps. All in all no real complaints. Pretty much the same can be said for the upstream tests, usually come in at 850Kbps.
There was only twice when I wasn’t satisfied, and when I called the problems were handled quickly and professionally. Once while still on the Home Networking Package, I found my speed consistently at 1.5Mbps. I called and the tech could see that my modem for some reason was training at 1.5Mbps rather than 2.5Mbps. The problem was fixed in less than 24 hours. A similar problem occurred when I first switched to 6.0Mbps. The speed just wasn’t there. I called them and this time it took them a few days to sort out and tweak the line. As for outages, not a single one since 2004.
Just a couple of tips for those that have to call Telus help, some may seem fairly obvious or silly, but nonetheless to save time, do them.
1. Remove all your own networking equipment (ie anything that wasn’t provided by them) such as routers (wireless or not). The best is to connect directly to the modem via ethernet. If you don’t do this beforehand, they will have you do it and end up wasting a bunch more time.
2. Gather a bunch of information on ping times, traceroutes, and bandwidth testing. The more information you have available the more seriously they will take you. They will still have you do their thing, but once this proves to be inline with your own testing, they will escalate the call to their Tier 1 tech support (if they’re not able to fix it themselves).
In terms of bandwidth testing, I like to use Telus’ FTP site (ftp.telus.net) using the command line ftp program. Login is ‘anonymous’ and the password is an e-mail address (I always used my telus e-mail address, but I’m sure it will work with any e-mail address). Once in switch directories (cd pub > cd size-test). Once in the size-test directory, issue the command ‘get eight_meg’. It should download a junk file of 8 megs into C:\Documents and Settings\(your username)\ . Once downloaded, ftp should issue an average speed. This is likely to be the best transfer rate you can get with a Telus connection as it comes right off their own network. Also it couldn’t hurt to confirm the information at another bandwidth testing site (www.dslreports.com, http://www.pcpitstop.com, etc).
I am the first to complain when things don’t go my way, but really I can’t support the bashing of Telus as my experience personally and professionally (I am an EET) has been excellent. Nothing is perfect, but they will try their best to correct any problems you have (if the problem is their responsibility). I also can’t comment on how well Telus compares to Shaw, I have no experience with Shaw’s as an ISP. If it’s anything like their cable TV service though, I’m glad I passed. A friend of mine back in the 90’s was a Shaw internet user in Calgary. He complained that his service was down more than up and he was continually fighting to get pro-rated for the time his service wasn’t available. In fact it was his experience with Shaw that convinced me to go to Telus straight away.
for speedtest @ telus try http://speedtest.telushosting.com/
hey guys, stumbled upon this site and while the thread was started quite a while ago i thought i’d add my 2cents… i used to be on telus adsl in Delta BC (outskirts of vancouver) and generally averaged about 170KB/sec down and 60KB/sec up, which is what they advertise. The thing i liked about telus was that those speed were constant, it really didnt matter what time of the day i was using the internet i always got those speeds. anyways recently i moved and decided to try the local cable co (Delta Cable, DCCNet) its like shaw only a smaller provider, anyways after using telus for so long i almost crapped my pants when i started downloading torrents again, i was getting in excess of 600KB/sec or about 5Mb/sec on the download end of things, the upload was a little worse though, about 55KB/sec max i find. also when there are lots of people using it, my speeds drop into the 180 – 200KB/sec range, which is still faster than dsl so i guess i cant complain. one thing i didnt like about DCCNet is that a few months ago my total bandwidth was over 200gigs for the month and they throttled me down to 60KB/sec.. lol i guess its my own fault, but it kinda pissed me off.. 60KB/sec seems painfully slow after getting 10 times that on average!
overall id say they both have their benefits, but i will personally stay with cable for now as the speeds are WAY faster.
Hey, one of my friends actually sent this to me to take a read, send me an Email sometime and i will see if we can do anything to compensate you for this, assuming it has not already been done.
One of the issues with ADSL/DSL is range, from the problems your discribing im guessing it was not range, I have recived a few calls about these problems but some nonetheless.
Its good to see that they solved the problem for you, did they ever say what exactly it was they did? where i work i have seen multiple issues that could cause what your issues were ranging from Using an old modem all the way to Bad wires all the way up on the pole =X.
I really am sorry to hear about this bad experiance you have had with us =(. Im glad they were eventually able to fix it for you tho.
Colin, no compensation necessary. It’s definitely better now than it was when I wrote this post, but it’s still nowhere near what I was getting on Shaw. We’ve got TelusTV now, and it looks like bandwidth might be a problem there as well – lots of compression artifacts often making it unwatchable.
Great site D’Arcy!
Hey Telus,
I’m the Guy that you keep phoning to sign back up with you for a long distance plan. Nah, I had enough of your crap after you took the Yak unlimited away. I’ll stick with Primus.
I’m also the Guy you keep charging $6.95 system access (?) a month plus 911 fee on his cell phone every month. Heard recently that the cell phone market will be opening up to more providers. Can’t wait, ’cause I’ll also cut my cell off with you Clowns.
Also been listening to you promise me on 26k that high-speed is coming……………8 years now. So, I signed up with a small, wireless, private provider and gladly pay them every month. ANYONE is better to give my hard-earned money to as opposed to you bastards with your licence (CRTC) to print your own money.
I highly reccomend more people do the same.
Direct Energy, you’re next!