Now I have been shopping for high speed. I currently have dial-up, and have for a long time as it suited my needs ok. Until the last couple of months when I have had problems with web sites connecting slowly, timing out and in many cases failing to resolve the domain names. First let me say that I ma a computer and electronics tech and have been for a long time so troubleshooting system and network problems isn't anything new. After going through my windows 98SE machine (don't ask), my XP laptop and my two linux computers without finding a hint of a problem I called Aliant/Sympatico support to find out if the was a network problem or a DNS issue. Now support from Sympatico over the years (until the last couple) has been superb on the few occasions I've called. This time was NOT one of those. First off I was told that "we don't use DNS" but somehow couldn't explain how they resolved domains names otherwise. Then I had a virus (not on my systems - especially the Linux ones), then it must be spyware according to the supervisor he checked with (again it affects 4 systems and three operating systems that have already been checked but it's just GOTTA BE.

Surprisingly (or not) the problem cleared up within 45 minutes. Sadly that solution only lasted about 3 days before it started all over again.

A friend that switched to high speed said he had similar problems and was told off the record be an employee that some of the unresolved recurring "problems" of dial-up users were to encourage a switch to DSL. That wouldn't surprise me but at this rate I'm more likely to switch to Eastlink for broadband. They could hardly be any worse.

In searching about for Aliant high speed I found a reference on a website ( http://www.milner.ca/article/retrograde-technology-broadband-in-canada-and-north-america ) that's a three years old and it seems not much has changed since then.