I was thinking the same thing. I would like to get a two...

[rickatk]

@mdk I was thinking the same thing. I would like to get a two year plan which I incorporates all my various promotions due to expire over the next few months, least of all...Shaw.

I will likely initiate a new 2 year plan when the XB7 Gateway becomes available in my area. 

@KRISTIANALDRIN Great to hear XB7 performance is better!!

[langley834721]

Just got the XB 7 modem (Langley), it is perfect for me (using in bridge mode), super simple setup, just powered up and after ~5 min the LED was white (modem online).
External power brick (no internal fan unlike XB 6)... no noise coming from that modem, what a welcome change (I have the modem on my shelf and could hear the XB 6 fan spin up and down....).

[mdk]

@langley834721 -- did Shaw "force" you to upgrade to "Fibre+ Gig 1.5" speed (for a few more dollars), or what speed is in your current contract?

Note that the "1.5" is the speed coming in to the XB7. The XB7's LAN ports are 1 Gbits/second (a multiple of 10), which is reported by the Shaw Speed Test as being 940 Mbits/second (a multiple of 2).  So, if you run the Shaw Speed simultaneously on 2 computers, the sum of the download speeds should be the "1.5" that Shaw advertises.

Similarly, purchase a "1 TB" disk-drive, and Windows will report it as "940 GB". Base-10 versus Base-2 arithmetic.

[langley834721]

Yeah, that sucks but they only give you that modem if you upgrade but I think there may be a way to avoid it, not sure however... probably depends on what your plan is and how many services you are "subscribed" to...
Now the white modem sits on my shelf behind my desk, before I had to put it away on the floor due to that noise...

[rickatk]

I live in Parksville. I installed my XB7 today. This after re-signing a new updated two year plan yesterday. 1.5Gb, Total TV, four Wi-Fi tv boxes and a landline. Saving $20.00/mo in the process.

Activation took a couple reboots and logging in an out of my Blue Curve account. I was able to preserve my settings in the process however.

WiFi performance is very good with better reception in the nether regions of my house. I will probably be able to return my Super Pod and save $10.00 per month. Download speed is about the same at about 750Mbps on average. My New iPhone SE seems to have the best performance. I haven’t tried downloading over Ethernet as it is not too important these days. I am confident if demand was placed on my network it would be responsive. 

The Shaw tech confirmed my account is provisioned for 1.6Gbps. None of my devices can do that...yet!

The whole upgrade and activation was pretty slick. Everything seems to be working well.

Cudos to Shaw!

[mdk]

@rickatk -- my account is provisioned for 1.6Gbps. None of my devices can do that...yet!

1.6 ? Typo?

I looked online for network adapters for my desktop that support faster-than-1000 speed -- they still are expensive.

Plus, what web-servers on the Internet have faster-than-1000 adapters, and the "horsepower" (including SSD disk-drives) to push out data at those speeds?  But, if you have a house-full of "boomerang-offspring" on their home-office computers, more speed is always better.

[rickatk]

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@mdk wrote:

@rickatk -- my account is provisioned for 1.6Gbps. None of my devices can do that...yet!

1.6 ? Typo?

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 @mdk that is what the Shaw tech told me - 1.6Gbps. Makes sense for a Fibre plus 1.5 plan.

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@mdk wrote:

I looked online for network adapters for my desktop that support faster-than-1000 speed -- they still are expensive.

Plus, what web-servers on the Internet have faster-than-1000 adapters, and the "horsepower" (including SSD disk-drives) to push out data at those speeds?  But, if you have a house-full of "boomerang-offspring" on their home-office computers, more speed is always better.

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Indeed, that is why I am not so hung up on download speed. Rather, I am interested more bandwidth to accommodate all the new wifi toys entering the home including wireless tv and multiple simultaneous users. I am in particular looking for stable internet and IPTV and better wifi saturation which I seemed to have realized with this XB7 setup.

[rickatk]

@rolyat77 Nice picture. I am curious why the bridged router. Does the XB7 not do the job itself?

[rolyat77]

Hi, that wasn't my pic 🙂, but since I am here, I did try bridged mode as I had been set that way previously. O live in a 3200 sq ft home and had found the XB 6 a bit lacking. This was partly due to my router being in the basement and my need for ethernet in a few locations. 

After experimenting with and without my 4 Linksys AC 2200's I tried just the XB7 but ot couldn't get wifi to the whole house. I did want to get max speed though as my pc has a 2.5 gig NIC and wifi 6, and the switch is in the basement with the pc. I ran Teo cat 7 and cable inside the wall up to my bedroom, which is on the main floor and moved the XB7 upstairs.   This solved the distribution of wifi for the whole house and the two Cats cables go down to the switch (1 Gb) and the 1.5 goes to the pc which has another cat 7 from the pc to the switch. This allows me 1.5 from my pc and 1 Gb for the rest of the network. The switch has about 15 ethernet connections and works perfectly. I get about 1.55 Gb down on the pc and 120 Mb up. Wifi is excellent throughout the house and everything works great! All I have to do now is sell 4 Linksys AC2200's that work great for a 1 Gb system. One final mention, I have approximately 90 devices running at any given time. Couldn't be more pleased with the upgrade...

[rolyat77]

Btw, sorry for the typos, I have big thumbs 😁, and for what it's worth I am in Surrey/Cloverdale, BC.