Thread: Internet options

Originally Posted by Tombie

Telstra for us and all of our friends has been a nightmare.

We all jumped onto Bigpond from Internode for the big deals.

It was false economy.

Poor latency, slow pings and drop outs, oh the drop outs...

Went back to internode (iinet / agile) and will never make the mistake of going away from them again.


"Where the Desert meets the Sea"
'Did I mention some great 4WDriving is just 5 minutes from home?'

Internode were good but have now been bought out by iinet. There was a change to Westnet when they were bought out by iinet a few years ago and it wasn't for the better.

Originally Posted by woody

.......Dodo ADSL2+ unlimited for $40 a month gets me between 14 and 18mbit downloads depending on source with no download limit. The product is great but you need to know just a little bit as after sales and technical is not a strong point......

I'm with Dodo now, and for $39 a month for unlimited ADSL Regional package (I have to laugh at the "Regional" bit, as what it means in reality is "you're a long way from the exchange so tough if it goes slow") you won't find me complaining. None of the other ISPs could get anywhere near that price on our exchange.

But yes, the telephone support is a little patchy - the whole focus is on sales, sales, sales.

Originally Posted by mikehzz

Internode were good but have now been bought out by iinet. There was a change to Westnet when they were bought out by iinet a few years ago and it wasn't for the better.

Simon Hackett the previous owner of Internode took 7.5% of iiNet and a seat on the board along with remaining in charge of internode.

Sounds like he still has a vested interest in how things are run.

Originally Posted by mikehzz

I deal with a lot of internet providers and unfortunately believe that Telstra is the best. Usually, the initial setup is a traumatic experience, but once up and running, their gear works best. Also, if there is a problem it is fixed quicker.
[snip]

Oh Lordy, how true is that

It took something like ten weeks to get ADSL here, purely because their system doesn't allow for anything that doesn't fall within certain parameters.

Total losses aren't measured but calculated off the copper cable plan, if the losses exceed xxdB, you won't get ADSL.

My problem was that the plan was wrong.

Ever tried fixing something within Telstra from outside ?

It was an interesting exercise in patience.

Originally Posted by rick130

Oh Lordy, how true is that

My problem was that the plan was wrong.

Ever tried fixing something within Telstra from outside ?

It was an interesting exercise in patience.

TRY fixing something from inside - its nigh on impossible.
At least if your on the outside there are a few words that you can utter & make them pull all stops out.
The Media shock jocks names will get them sitting up, Alan Jones, Derryn Hinch, Steve Price sometimes The Telecomunications Ombudsman (no so effective)

As an EX Telstra ADSL CT , Installer & Repairer I know only too well that on MOST jobs in the area of 4.5 or more klm from the exchange I am going to have issues, Its Not just that most plans ARE WRONG, you also get major problems where there are Aluminium Main pairs (Ringwood) , Landrover Owners know only too well the problems of corrosion where dissimilar metals join, try Auminium - copper conductors joined with a steel connector. And then you have conductor size changes, multis etc that set off reflections.
ADSL2 was supposed to solve this with up to 20klm theoretical distance from the exchange but in reality it still won't go much past 4klm , A real bonus if you close tho.

So if you are on copper It dosent matter a damn who you are with really whatever ISP ( read "Billing Company" ) you are with you still have to go thru the absolute crappiest distribution network in the world.

We're getting OT here, but I was lucky as;

1. I knew enough (to be dangerous )
I knew that the losses to the exchange should just scrape under the limit as I know where the various cables run.

When the call centre tried to tell me I was being knocked backAS there were possibly no more ports left in the exchange, I was able to refer them to Telstra Wholesale's site and show that there were 10+ ADSL 1 and 80+ ADSL 2 ports available as of the previous week.

2. I lucked into getting someone here in Oz rather than the Manila call centre second time around and she just happened to be a case controller (although I tink she may have gotten in trouble for trying to help me )

3. I know all the local techs. (Big plus, although I only asked after the nice lady on the help line said hell yes, ask them to check the plan for you)

4. Of the two cables running back into town to the exchange, I'm on the old copper one rather than the new (aluminium ?) grease filled one.
The new cables losses are far too great for the 8km back to the exchange.

Bottom line was that the plan showed loading coils that didn't exist.
Remove the loading coils and voila, "yes sir, you may have ADSL"

Of course it didn't end there, there were a few more stuff ups and another four weeks before we went online.

Originally Posted by VladTepes

.

I’m out of touch coz I’ve had Optus cable at my old house for as long as I can remember.

I have no idea how many Gb / month I’d need and can’t seem to get a report from optus as to how much I’ve been sing at home historically. I tend to do a bit of internet gaming, watch a bit of youtube (and upload the occasional 1 Gb video) but aside from that not much data intensive stuff just forum browsing and so on.

Thanks

Hey Vlad,

If you currently have Optus cable you should be able to get your usage history here:

https://memberservices.optuszoo.com.au/myusage/history/
(You will need to log in obviously)

That should at least give you some something to base volumes on.

A bit late..but hope it helps..

Mark

I am with Club Telco with normal phone line (with dedicated number) plus Voip (with dedicated number) plus unlimited download all for $95.00 peer month.
Club Telco is the only provider that I know that do not charge for national phone call done in Voip.
With Voip, OS call to South America cost me less that $5 for 1/2 hour call.
I use toe normal line to recieve calls and the Voip to call out.
I am not happy with my Netcomm modem