Shaw Forcing Upgrade To DOCSIS
When my family first switched from dialup to Shaw Cable for internet some 10 years ago, we got a Terayon TeraPro TCM200 as part of the package. We have used that modem up until today. Unfortunately, this modem does not support the newer DOCSIS standard for cable modem communication. For a while now, I don't know exactly how long, Shaw has been giving new customers DOCSIS compatible modems, but pre-existing customers have been using whatever they were given originally. It looks like Shaw is finally going full DOCSIS because today they sent us a new Motorola SB5102 in the mail, and are asking us to send the Terayon back to them. This modem is DOCSIS 2.0, which is sufficient for anyone using less than the Nitro package (the fastest residential package from Shaw). DOCSIS 3.0 would've been nice, since there is better support for IPv6, but Shaw just isn't ready for that yet. I decided I would do some bandwidth tests to see if the new modem will affect my speeds (we have the second-slowest internet package, so I wasn't expecting any boost at all).
All values in Mbps (I don't think these are very accurate, so Mib vs. Mb is probably pointless)
Apologies for the extra space before tables. I think my hand-written html is compliant...
Old modem:
| Server | Down Speed | Up Speed | Ping |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speakeasy Seattle | 3.52 | 0.48 | null |
| BandwidthPlace.com | 2.68 | 0.474 | null |
| Speedtest.net Vancouver | 3.79 | 0.47 | 116 |
| Speedtest.net Burnaby | 3.8 | 0.477 | 126 |
| dslreports Toronto | 2.48 | 0.477 | 98 |
| dslreports Los Angeles | 3.035 | 0.482 | 99 |
Now for the new modem:
| Server | Down Speed | Up Speed | Ping |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speakeasy Seattle | 7.15 | 0.25 | null |
| BandwidthPlace.com | 6.135 | 0.189 | null |
| Speedtest.net Vancouver | 5.19 | 0.47 | 52 |
| Speedtest.net Burnaby | 8.11 | 0.28 | 46 |
| dslreports Toronto | 6.285 | 0.264 | 141 |
| dslreports Los Angeles | 4.744 | 0.239 | 55 |
Not very scientific. I only did one test at each server. No statistical analysis, but we can see a bit of a trend. Unfortunate about the upload speeds dropping a bit, but download looks nice. The two modems were tested within 30 minutes of each other, so time of day has no effect here. I'm sure my brother will appreciate it :)
