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Review by batt149 
Posted: 40 days ago
member for 40 days, 0 visits, last login: 40 days ago
 Lanark,ON
 Business customer
 Contract price not specified.
 "it exists, heavy-duty dish looks pretty cool, flashing lights"
 "$800 install, $100/month, 300ms ping, heavy-handed shaping, frequent weather outages (mist, snow, rain)"
 "go with the homing pigeons carrying 16GB USB sticks."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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There are no other broadband options in my remote area. I ordered the KaZoom package (1mb down, 384kb up) , $95/month. Equipment and install totalled ~$800. 3-year contract requirement. The following services are simply not feasible on this service given the 300ms round trip:
- online gaming on PC or Xbox 360
- VOIP
Surfing modern AJAX-style sites, which are very chatty in terms of sequential round trips, are very slow for a broadband connection. Older style sites load OK.
FTP of files approaches advertised bandwidth.
P2P is heavily throttled during day/evening hours, although in off-peak hours it may approach advertised bandwidth. Difficult and slow, but that file will arrive eventually (days instead of hours)
I do not use any of Xplornet's mail, news, hosting services and cannot comment on their quality.
XBox 360 sometimes has difficulty with the sluggish (300/500ms) latency of the connection and might give up on downloading game/OS patches.
I really expected better for $100/month. I expected the high latency (44000km round trip), but the traffic-shaping is a real deal-breaker.
Billing is via credit card-only, which is not favorable for me.
I purchased the equipment and installation from a 3rd-party, a small satellite shop in the Ottawa area. The installer did a great job, very professional, all wires square-routed and tacked, holes caulked, etc.
My cost over 3-years is around $4000. At this rate, my money is better spent on projects to get me to the nearest wireless/wired ISP (tower, lay cat5, etc).
I will not be renewing and would recommend:
- DO NOT purchase if you have any other non-satellite options.
- purchase the lowest level of service. The extra $$ does not get you much unless your primary usage is straight FTP at 4am.
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