> Can you get cable drops to each location? Good question...

[cpt]

> Can you get cable drops to each location?

Good question. I have CAT5 drops to some locations, which go down to the basement mechanical room. I could put the modem down there, and add an ethernet switch to get extra ports. But this is probably not an optimal location for a WiFi router.

> Can you just expand these  Go with the BlueCurve wired TV players and PVR.

The Bluecurve package is out of our budget range. This all started because we needed to reduce costs, and to be fair Shaw was really good about finding a solution. 

> Consider a Shaw Tech visit, they can be very helpful. 

We've had two visits. Shaw said they would send a senior tech if needed. So that's good news.

Also,  as of last night no issues with the hard wired TV, so I think I am on the right track and will hard wire my son's XBOX at least too. 

Thanks.

[mdk]

> We have Internet 300.

> Mathematically, that means no single TV could be using up more than 100mps, so I'm not sure why I'd need CAT6.

Mathematically, you have 300 Mbit/second that can be divided UNEQUALLY among the devices -- have a teenage-boy at your dinner-table to see unequal consumption in action. 🙂

Definitely, you need at least CAT-5E (up to 1000 Mbit/second) between the Shaw device and your own network hub, not CAT-5 (a maximum of 100 Mbit/second), to simultaneously support multiple devices connected to that hub.

If you are thinking "future-proof", any new Ethernet cables should be CAT-6 quality.

When I signed-up for Shaw Internet, I got "Internet 5".  That was a major upgrade-- from receiving at 56 Kbits/second (dial-up) to 5000 Kbits/second.

Soon, I got a no-extra-charge upgrade to "Internet 7.5", and then to "Internet 10 with SpeedBoost", and then to "Internet 15".

I did not predict that today I would have "Internet 300" speed, at the same price as "Internet 15".

Given that the Shaw device is receiving at 300 Mbit/second, and some of your "wired" devices are receiving at 100 Mbit/second, and some of your "wireless" devices are slower, due to the older "G" or "N" wireless protocols, I wonder if the "buffers" inside the Shaw device are getting full, causing packets to drop ???  Maybe.

I once had an antique "CAT-3" cable connected to one computer. Although the computer's network-adapter claimed to connect at 100 Mbits/second, the download speed was very much less than the Shaw device was sending (10 Mbit/second service from Shaw). Changing the cable greatly helped. Moral: use "fast" cables.

[DianneFreer]

This happens on my tv at 5pm on high def. and lasts for at least 4-5 minutes.  In the meantime, I am so frustrated, I turn to CTV news and watch instead. 

[mdk]

@DianneFreer -- This happens on my tv at 5pm 

Daily? Which days of the week?

Which Shaw TV box do you have? Gateway? BlueCurve? Pace? An antique Motorola?

What channel(s) ?

Does it happen to your neighbours who also have Shaw TV?

Do you have some program scheduled to record every day, starting at 5 PM?

[Aline2]

It’s sad. Because this is not the first time it happens.  Never had this problem with satellite dish in the country.  City living is starting to suck

[mdk]

@Aline2 -- City living is starting to suck

Yes, having 3 Starbucks within walking distance, and having DoorDash/SkipTheDishes delivering food to your home is hazardous to your waist-line, but having quick access to a nearby hospital's emergency department -- without a 60-minute drive -- is a "perk" worth having.

Wait until you pay taxes to your city/town/municipality -- that amount really sucks. 

[bordoodle]

Ok.  So this thread was started a while ago BUT...

With the forcing people to go streaming (XiOne box) with coax being discontinued has brought problems.  With coax we never had freezing or channels unavailable (unless the feed to Shaw was having problems).  However that has all changed.

We received 3 XiOne boxes and 2 are in service.  Randomly a channel will freeze with the following sequence.  Screen goes black, repeats last 2-3 seconds of show, goes black, repeats 2-3 seconds and so on.  This is completely random.  5 minutes later problem has not resolved itself.  Only way, so far, is to change channels and then go back to original channel.   Have returned one XiOne to Shaw and the replacement is doing the same.  Last night bedroom TV on channel 101 just went blank.  Main floor TV displayed 101 just fine.  Back to bedroom and still blank.  Then main floor TV  started doing the repeating thing. 5 minutes later bedroom channel 101 came back.  Main floor TV had to do the channel change / back to get it to restore.

Now for the technical details to eliminate any people going off on a technical rant.  Have a XB7 (white BlueCurve) in bridge mode.  WiFi in modem disabled as have my own WiFi in use.  The 2 XiOne boxes are hard wired, NO WiFi.  When viewing 2 different channels simultaneously I see 10-15 Mbps TOTAL bandwidth with occasional bursts of 20-27 Mbps.  Well within the 1 Gbps service that I have.  Normal additional background traffic is less than 10 Mbps.  Even downloading updates, occasionally, has me peaking at less than 300 Mbps.  All wiring is Cat 5E and longest run from modem, to switch, to TV is between 50-100 feet.  Going to Cat 6 (future project) will NOT change anything.  Also signal level to XB7 (white BlueCurve gateway) as confirmed by Shaw was well within normal levels.  

The traffic thuput varies in proportion to the updates to the screen.  More action thus more traffic to handle the number of pixels that have to change.  This is how video compression works.  This will take a while to determine the cause but I'm hedging on more of a systemic problem rather than a in-home box.  I could mirror a port and then use something like WireShark to capture traffic.  The problem with this is that since the problem is random I could be capturing a terabyte of data before the issue comes up again.

The ball is in your court Shaw.

[mdk]

@bordoodle -- recently, in this forum, there are complaints from Calgary residents about the feeds from CTV Calgary freezing/looping. Is that your physical location? Are those the channels that are not working for you?

> occasional bursts of 20-27 Mbps.  Well within the 1 Gbps service that I have. 

Note that Shaw customers can get "20-27 Mbps" for TV streaming, even when the cable-modem is throttling their Internet speed to some very-low rate, e.g., 10 Mbps, as part of their Value Plan contract.  

[bordoodle]

mdk

 Is that your physical location?   I am in Calgary..

Are those the channels that are not working for you?   If you have read another thread that you have posted in then you would know but 101, 104, (various times thru the day) doing repeats and 407 for drops of 5 seconds around 11 PM.  Also 101 and 104 simultaneously complete outages for minutes (up to 5 minutes around 11 PM).

However people in other cities with different streaming boxes than mine, have been having same (and I think different channels) in various times of the day too.  You have to read all posts in here and the other post relating to CTV.  Common thread in all these problems?

Also mdk are you a Shaw employee due to your specific questions and assumptions?

[mdk]

@bordoodle -- are you a Shaw employee due to your specific questions and assumptions?

Current Shaw employees are identified by an identifying tag beside their "handle". My handle lacks such a tag. 

I have never been employed by Shaw.

I have never worked for Shaw.  

Those other threads that you referenced have mentioned some issue between CTV's presence in Calgary and Shaw's systems. Those two companies need to resolve that interface. Within this forum, all we volunteer contributors can do is gripe about the issue, or just click "me too".