Thinking of switching to Ebox Fibre, had some q's for those on it (Toronto)

trymion

Hello!

I'm currently on TekSavvy, paying $75 for 100/30 cable.
I started looking around to see if there were any cheaper alternatives and Ebox looks extremely enticing.

I tried to email them from their website with my questions and a Sales associate answered with "We're glad for your interest! Reply with your address and we can get you started right away!"

If anyone can answer any of these, I'd be grateful!

1) Does anyone with an R7000 run it as a router successfully?
I tried to do some research on this and it looks like I should be able to use this router (current) as long as I adjust some VLAN settings that I think I can access from the router. Something about enabling VLAN bridge and adjusting the VLAN ID.

2) While doing some research, I found a post a few years old that mentioned "not to get Ebox in toronto" because their "Exit node" was in QC and that person's ping times were horrible. I'm assuming that only one post in all my research mentioned anything about ping makes me doubt it, but it now has a small seed of doubt in my head. Can anyone say anything about ping times in Toronto?

3) How has the reliability been in Toronto?

4) Have they ever raised prices very much since you've been with them? I already see there's a thread about a price increase being unusual so that might've answered my question.

Thanks!

WalterDnes

I'm in Vaughan, one short block north of Steeles Ave, on the 60 mbps fibre plan. That should be "close enough".

trymion

trymion I tried to do some research on this and it looks like I should be able to use this router (current) as long as I adjust some VLAN settings that I think I can access from the router. Something about enabling VLAN bridge and adjusting the VLAN ID.

From my "customer zone" home page...

If you are using the router provided to you, no configuration is required, as it is pre-configured and ready to use.

If you are considering using your own router, you need to ensure that you make the necessary settings for the PPPoE username and password as well as VLAN information.

Please note that not all routers allow VLAN configuration in PPPoE.

To establish the connection, make sure that the PPPoE configuration is done using the VLAN ID 40 option. Additionally, if your router requires you to configure the MTU value, it must be set to 1492.

Next.

While doing some research, I found a post a few years old that mentioned "not to get Ebox in toronto" because their "Exit node" was in QC and that person's ping times were horrible.

I just ran a test on speedtest.net https://www.speedtest.net/result/17327398931 The ping times are OK, notwithstanding the Montreal server. (I'm not a gamer, so I don't know how it affects things). Was the poster on EBOX cable or fibre or DSL? That makes a difference. I don't know if it's just me, but EBOX "over-delivers" on the speed. My 60/10 plan consistently gives around 78 down and 93 up. I'm not complaining.

How has the reliability been in Toronto?

It has been solid for me

Have they ever raised prices very much since you've been with them?
Not for me. My price history...

starting Nov 2020 (10/1) cable $39.61 (tax included)
starting Jan 2024 (migrate to fibre) $39.55 (tax included)
Note: Bell bought EBOX in Feb 2022 https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/bell-acquires-longueuil-based-internet-provider-ebox-819104090.html

Back in the DSLReports forums I vaguely remember a thread about EBOX imposing a $5 "legacy" surcharge on cable customers. It seems that Bell did not like being a low-margin TPIA customer of Rogers (giggle)

A final software item. If you exclusively use 3rd-party email services like Gmail or Yahoo, this does not apply to you. If you want to use smtp.ebox.ca for outbound email, you need to use port 587. It uses TLS v1.0 (YES!).

EBOX does not give you an email address by default, but you can ask. I had to do it when sending emails to my new doctor who's on Gmail. Gmail is now anal about SPF records, and I had not configured my personal domain SPF record. I used EBOX email with Gmail until I got my personal domain SPF working, but I keep the EBOX email address around for emergencies.

trymion

Thank you for the detailed reply!

You've answered everything, and then some and I think I'm essentially going to be switching to ebox very soon.