Discussions

Anyone else having issues with westman internet the past 3-4 weeks? Facebook and twitter take forever to load photos and videos. My speeds check out nice and fast yet lots of sites are loading slow. Switching off WiFi and using LTE off my phone works perfect though. Streaming video off nhl gamecenter no longer works either.

Not with Westman but I've had nothing but issues with MTS last couple months. I have the 50M plan, speeds are 40 at best, most days high 20s. Pages load slow, pixelate, buffer. Smart devices, hubs constantly going offline and rebooting.  
 
Phoned numerous times to complain. Customer service is beyond helpful. They either tell me to unplug everything and reboot, send a tech who replaces my modem (had 3 now clearly that's not the problem) or other days they do their test and tell me "everything is normal". I hate to say it but ever since Bell took over no one seems to care. I was contemplating switching to Westman as I've heard less issues but maybe that's not the case?

Having an awful time with MTS also. Exactly the same issues described above , no idea what’s going on but obviously it’s affecting more than one household.

Sounds like you guys are experiencing the same thing as westman. Streaming is also being affected. Netflix, YouTube and crave work about 90% of the time but I also have nhl gamecenter, wwe network and ufc tv and all 3 are unwatchable for over a month now. Worked great for the past 3 years since I started and then 1st week of December everything went to crap. Plays about 5 seconds before pausing and playing and pausing every 2 seconds. So frustrating

has been having lots of issues since they incorporated Netflix and Youtube into the Prism boxes. Yes, we have alternatives to watching on the cable box; but it's more convenient than having to switch inputs etc. frustrating!! They're coming in tomorrow for the second time in as many weeks.

Install Wifi Analyzer on your phone or WifiInfoView on your computer and check to see which channels have the fewest people on them. Then go into your router and change the channel to one of those channels.  
 
Link for WifiInfoView  
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wifi_information_view.html  
 
For MTS go here for the address & info.  
https://www3.bellmts.ca/mts/support/internet/high+speed/2wire+or+pace+gateway+port+forwarding+and+dmzplus+guide  
 
For Westman  
https://support.westmancom.com/article.php?article_id=:95  
 
Edited by HammerHead, 2019-01-13 12:31:48

I have Westman. No problems as usual. for internet. Lately, occasionally the cable been a bit slow, just enough to be noticeable.

With BellMTS and I agree that last couple of months have been crappy. In fact I got a page unresponsive message just trying to load this ebrandon page! LOL If Westman isn't any better, what other options are there?  
Tired of worse service and paying more money.

It's not a WiFi issue its a connection issue. I have issues on all wired connections and wifi. It is not a channel or interference problem.

That's what I've been trying too. However, the problems still arise, so I wonder if that's doing more harm than good. At one point, I gave up and reset the PRISM to factory settings and lost Internet. Because the TVs are in used all day, resetting again wasn't an option until the end of the day.

And careful playing around with channels and settings in your network as you can cripple your connection completely if you don't know what you are doing... or so I've been told

Been in contact with Westman the past few weeks. They are fully aware there’s a issue in their network somewhere. The weird this is, activating a VPN fully fixes the issue but I would rather not have to pay a extra 5-10$ a month for a VPN when westman worked fine for years until last month. Changing the westman dns to a 3rd party dns also helps slightly.  
 
Edited by TheMovieGuy, 2019-01-13 14:03:31

What areas is everyone from.?We too have had issues since the beginning of December with Bell/MTS. Same problems as everyone else here

I believe that's the issue here. Im not touching it anymore just in case.

Dauphin/Ste Rose area

Could be a problem with a downstream route that the traffic keeps getting routed through. VPN probably ends up making the traffic go down a completely different route. It can be pretty hard to convince a downstream network that something is wrong.

I have found my regular web serving by wifi plus tv watching etc by hardwire are similar. They both have screwed up at the same time. One fix last year to fix both was a rebooted box and my 11 wireless devices moved to another channel. That was mts last year I think

We have nothing but issues with mts. Speeds are around 30 on average. Supposed to be 50. All they do is throw a modeum at it. Been contemplating going to wesman as well

And it’s absolutely terrible. Had techs out numerous times. Thinking of switching to fiber optic but the install fees are outrageous.

Nobody seems to realize that its not always the ISP's fault or the physical connections that are to blame. I am not saying in your specific case its 100% not a connection issue but there could be other factors at play.  
 
Sometimes websites have servers down and they are slow to load, sometimes the route your IP takes to get to that server is slower than another route for a multitude of reasons.  
 
It could be that you are using all your available bandwidth up at that time with the combination of IPTV's running and lots of devices on WiFi. Even devices you aren't currently using but are connected to the wifi or lan could still be drawing data. Could be updates, continuous syncing of something, could be a dirty lan card or wifi card causing congestion on your internal network.  
 
It could also be as simple as your computer is slow and a combination of other things.  
 
If you really want to figure out what is going on disconnect all wifi and lan devices from the modem/router and start adding them 1 by 1 until you get the big slow down. That last device is the problem then its on you to figure out why its causing issues on your network.  
 
Again, I am not saying that Bell or Westman don't have line issues or network issues because its very possible. The copper feeding most of this city is very old and needs to be upgraded to fiber but thats VERY expensive for any ISP.  
 
ISP's are only responsible to get the modem and IPTV operating in your home, the internal network is your ball of wax to deal with. Both ISP's in brandon do offer in home wifi but there are no guarantees on wifi because its a massively unreliable technology with all the interference that exists in todays world.  
 
Everyone thinks because " i am paying for 50bmps or 75bmps i should get that 50/75 always on wifi and lan on all of my 13 devices on my network" Well, no that wont ever happen. Its split between all devices and your tv's.  
 
Call your ISP for a service call and have the tech disable wifi, unplug all devices from the modem except 1 hardwired PC and test your speed. I bet its right where it should be based on the plan you are paying for!  
 
If you want the perfect home network its gonna take time and money.

Most areas in town are based on copper or coax, so quite alot. Maybe if you could convince a whole neighborhood however, it could be manageable.  
 
Also, this is why the whole "Fibe TV" thing annoys me ever so slightly. Almost seems like false advertising. Maybe Fibe TV . . .to the node.  
 
Anyway, I haven't noticed any internet issues of late. A bit of pixilation in the cable stream at times, but also on a TV that's fairly far from the main terminal. Nothing to noticable.  
 
Downtown.  
 
Edited by Simonwalcal, 2019-01-14 00:12:49

That in its self is also not true then. Fibe TV to the node doesnt exist.  
 
All copper areas for Bell are fed via Fiber to the Node, correct, but the network card is at that location. So nothing is converted to IPTV until in a customers house and the modem deciphers IPTV from standard internet.  
 
So saying fibe tv to the node is not correct. I personally don't like the Fibe TV and Fibe Internet because too many people magically see the missing "R" and think they are getting fiber to the home.  
 
SHEBEAR - Copper has limitations on bandwidth and overall throughput due to distance and quality of the cables. Fiber however, technically has no limitations except for the equipment on either end of it. Its the same end user modems provided as on copper so that 1gbps plan you have could end up being 25mbps up to maybe 300mbps depending on the device and wifi interference.

Check your DNS settings. If you are using westman's DNS, which are "216.36.128.4" and "216.36.128.5", try switching to 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1 and see if it makes any difference.  
If you were using a laptop, try connecting to your router via ethernet cable instead of using wifi.  
Check for computer viruses or any malwares.  
Is your wifi router secured? I know some people do not have any pw to their router settings or left their wifi opened and no pw. If so, anyone nearby can access your home wifi and piggyback on your network.

Being an ISP has to be a tough gig. So many different reasons there could be a slowdown and more of them to do with external factors than internal ones. If you happened to have been using this site over the last hour or so, its not them its me  
 
Just did some server stuff to address, will keep an eye over the next hour to make sure all is good!

So after about 40 plus days of issues with Westman, it’s been 100% perfect since about 6 pm last night. Everything streams smooth , NHL gamecenter, wwe network, ufc tv 100% working. Facebook and twitter photos and videos loading very fast.  
Funny, all it took was a post on eBrandon to get them to fix it. Lol.  
They did tell me last week though that they were aware of a issue and working at it.  
I wonder what it was... very curious why half the streaming sites worked while half of them did not.  
Netflix and YouTube and crave always worked while NHL, WWE and UFC did not to name a few.

The tech was here for almost an hour and swapped out the main power plug of the PRISM master box as well as removed an extra amp in the downstairs wiring. Plus, awhile back, I had plugged an extra ethernet cable into our home theater when its barely used for Blurways anyway and the downstairs player works fine with no Internet. The things you never think of!! So far so good!! The Internet seems snappier too. Might be because of Google DNS. Haha!!  
 
Kudos to Westman for the swift response!!  
 
Edited by camfarrsuperstar, 2019-01-14 18:26:25