[oclug] Alternatives to IStop?

[Brad Barnett]

On Wed, 30 Jun 2004 11:01:38 -0400 (EDT)
"Rod Giffin" <rod at giffinscientific.com> wrote:

> Brad Barnett said:
> 
> > Mark would probably not be happy with outage, when running Asterisk
> > and doing VOiP calls on a bargain ISP.  This are _normal_ usage
> > patterns in 2004, this isn't 1998 any more!  People should expect to
> > use VOiP approaching the stability of a normal phone (please note, I
> > said approaching ;).
> 
> The most stable service which relies on an physical layer will not be
> more stable than the physical layer.  For *reliable* VoIP I wouldn't use
> ADSL for anything more than as a backup if at all.  If I was
> experimenting with VoIP, it wouldn't matter what I used, and I wouldn't
> be as concerned with 8 minutes of downtime when I wasn't even home.
> 

While I realise you are not talking about cable as an alternative to
ADSL stability, I find that it seems to be making leaps and bounds.  This
is obviously due to Video on Demand, which both Rogers and Videotron are
selling now.  Obviously, if you can't get the video you want on demand, or
are displeased with the speed or quality, you'll leave.  

I'm not sure how Rogers is doing recently.  However, as an example, this
entire year with Videotron I've experienced no slowdowns, no lag, no ping
loss, no disconnects on their internal network.  I'd the most incredible
ISP I've ever used. It actually freaks me out a little bit.  This is my
primary link.  I work on it in excess of 10 hours a day, and I play on it
a little as well. There are obviously days where I spend 18 hours on this
link. 

Of course, ensuring that Rogers' or Videotron's backbone network runs rock
solid, does not help if they peer or use backbones that are of low
reliability. So far, I've found this to not be the case with Videotron. 
Believe it or not, I would actually be able to recommend VOiP for business
use with Videotron.. but I have no recent experience with Rogers.


> The point I was trying to make though, is that there are lots of
> alternatives in Ottawa to both Magma, and iStop.
> 

Certainly.. probably well in excess of 100.  Canadianisp.com only lists
some.. not all.. ISPs.