Time to try a new ISP…

I’ve had Rogers “Extreme” cable Internet for over a year now… and although connectivity has been solid, the speeds have become slower, and slower, and slower. It’s at the point now where on average my DSL line moves 3x-4x more data than the cable line every day.

The main reason for the speed decrease is that Rogers is restricting how much information certain programs can move over their lines. In the past they mostly restricted “Peer to Peer” (P2P) programs… but now they’re also throttling encrypted traffic as well. When most other ISPs are selling you unrestricted Internet access it doesn’t make much sense to pay for a premium package from Rogers that is actively trying to slow you down.

Throttling of encrypted traffic doesn’t make much sense to me. If anything the Internet would be better off with more of it’s day-to-day traffic being encrypted… and Rogers is essentially saying that if they can’t read the information coming out of you personal computer they’re going to slow it down. It’s sort of like the post office saying they’ll deliver postcards (where everybody can read what you wrote) at the regular speed… but anything you send in an envelop will take 10 times longer. Read more here:

Original Site
Slashdot gets in on the act

So, I’m going to price out a dry DSL line from Sympatico or TekSavvy instead. Rough back-of-the-napkin math shows I should save $5-$10/month, and also get a faster connection to boot. What’s not to like?

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