Shaw Upgrade from Extreme to new 50MB plan and Gateway

*squeal*. Shaw guy is here installing my new Gateway and 3 portals (1 per TV). I’m also upgrading to their 50MB plan (100mb, pishaw, don’t need THAT yet), from Extreme. (Note, I started this blog post a week ago last Friday and finished it tonight. All this in an effort to match what Telus has been offering for a while, without (EVER) having to have any Telus equipment in my house again.

 

Here’s the Speedtest metrics before he started (I did three to get a rough baseline)…

 

Speedtest.net Before

 

Figure 1 : Test 1

 

Figure 2 : Test 2

 

Figure 3 : Test 3

 

Speedtest.net After

 

Figure 4 : Test 1 – much better down, bit better up, faster ping test

 

Figure 5 : Test 2 – even better

 

Figure 6 : Test 3 – good working average

 

Notes

• The modem is also a wireless router now (Cisco) so they took my Linksys/Cisco device out which freed up a device (spare for office) and I got another wireless AP in the process (nice), plus this is one device optimized for the service (also good, one company to blame)
• Channel guide is SOOOO much better

 

Hardware Screenshots

 

Figure 7 : Back side of one of the ‘portals’, one per TV (3)

 

Figure 8 : Front of Portal. Not very big, nice small footprint

 

Figure 9 : Cisco Router is pretty full featured for an included device and comes with wifi

 

Figure 10 : back of Gateway unit, notice Cat5 inputs amd eSata, stored in garage (near coax feed). I understand I can add esata storage up to 6TB