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Getting Connected to Broadband Service in Montreal

- 2004.08.27

This past week I moved up to Montreal, Quebec, Canada to start school at McGill University. Instead of going into the residences, I ended up getting my own apartment, and it turned out to be closer to campus anyway.

This meant getting my own Internet access, as McGill only provides it in the residences. I obviously didn't want to get dialup Internet access if I could avoid it, so I started taking a look at the local high-speed Internet providers.

It seemed that the major high-speed Internet provider in Canada was Bell Canada's Sympatico DSL service, which was available at speeds as low as 128k (why anyone would want "high-speed" Internet barely faster than dialup is beyond me). Unfortunately, I didn't have much luck with getting their website to tell me whether service was available in my area, so I moved on.

Next I looked at cable companies. Rogers is one of the biggest cable providers in Canada, but it appeared that they didn't cover my area. I noticed that Vidéotron did, however. Vidéotron offered several different options for cable Internet, however all but the highest speed option had a download limit of 25 GB per month.

While I probably won't download quite that much, I don't like the idea of having a limit, so I signed up for the 4.5 Mbps option for $59.95 per month. Keep in mind that's Canadian dollars, and given that cable Internet back in Connecticut costs around US$50 per month, it's actually a bit cheaper. What's also interesting is that they install it for you, rather than giving you the hardware and leaving you on your own to set it up.

They actually seemed pretty Mac friendly when they came to set it up. Both my blue G3 and my 12" PowerBook were already configured to access my cable Internet at home, so no settings needed to be changed. The guy actually had me do most of the work, but the "installation" was free anyway. It seems to me that they didn't actually need to have someone come out to install the cable modem, since I was the one that basically did the installation.

The speed of cable Internet up here seems to be about the same as back in Connecticut, but I do notice a slight delay when sending IMs and opening the home page in a browser that I didn't notice back home. Downloading files isn't a problem, and the download speeds seem to range upward of 300 kb/sec.

What's interesting about signing up for cable Internet these days is that they almost expect you to use a cable modem router and more than one computer. When we signed up for our cable modem package in Connecticut, they wanted to sell us a modem for each additional computer! Their policy has since changed (that was over five years ago), probably because so many people just went ahead and used a router anyway.

I may at some point decide to get a wireless router so I can use my PowerBook wirelessly in my apartment. Prices for those seem to be going down* (if you buy non-Apple), and they're getting to the point where it's starting to become extremely affordable to connect just one wireless computer.

Right now, I'm just using the PowerBook connected to the router, and that takes care of most of my needs. I'm sure that once I start classes, I won't have much time to use the Internet, but at least I'll know that it's all working when I do need it.

* Editor's note: I've seen 4-port 802.11b routers for as little as US$50 and 802.11g for US$70 - and US$10 mail-in rebates on top of that. If you're buying a router, it hardly makes sense to buy one that doesn't offer wireless support these days.

However, keep in mind that most non-Apple routers don't support AppleTalk packets wirelessly, so a 'Book with an AirPort card may not be able to access shared files on an older Mac, print to a LocalTalk printer, etc. For instance, the Belkin router at home does support AppleTalk, but the USRobotics one I have in my apartment doesn't. dk

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