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
