Thread: Good ADSL providers ?

Originally Posted by incisor

many of the cheapies run up to 18 to one whereas the better quality isp run 8 to one..

Absolutely correct. This is why we pay what we do as a company for our 1:1 contention ratio fibre and microwave links. Big bucks buy performance. They do not necessarily buy service.....

Originally Posted by incisor

i resell eftel, and have been very well looked after by them.

anyone with a comdico or veridas backbone will be crap because of contention ratios and lost radius packets and just plain bull**** tactics.

westnet were okay till they started cougeing customers to bundle...


everyone has good tales and true, and there are many myths...

get the type of plan that suits your usage patterns...

I just joined eftel, will let you know what I think in a while.

We have changed from BigPond to AAPT. Now have twice the speed, 512, no lock in contract and $20 per month cheaper for the ADSL ($39.95 with bundled telephone).

When I look at the overall combined monthly bill I think we are paying almost the same cost between the two providers. Bonus is the no lock in contract and twice the speed.

It took a lot to change from one to the other as they both are pains to deal with. You just have to be persistent, I guess this comes with Land Rover ownership anyway.

Originally Posted by barryj

We have changed from BigPond to AAPT. Now have twice the speed, 512, no lock in contract and $20 per month cheaper for the ADSL ($39.95 with bundled telephone).

When I look at the overall combined monthly bill I think we are paying almost the same cost between the two providers. Bonus is the no lock in contract and twice the speed.

It took a lot to change from one to the other as they both are pains to deal with. You just have to be persistent, I guess this comes with Land Rover ownership anyway.

Yeah I went the 8000k plan

I went with Telstra as they were the only company that could do ADSL2 here (iinet were out of capacity on the DSLAM) but I really wouldn't recommend them.

I think some of the problems with them came from the fact this was one of their first ADSL2 installs, but I found their support staff not only unknowledgeable (Understandable for 1st line and with a new product) but their poor processes made escalation of the issue a nightmare. Suffered several downtime incidents in the first two weeks before finally getting them to acknowledge the issue and make some changes after which it was pretty stable.

Can't recommend specific companies as I haven't been here long enough to experience others, but general good advice is to always avoid the incumbent telco (Personal experience of them being awful in several countries!), nor any ISP who has just had a major expansion as they always head into trouble for a bit while they get sorted with extra staff, process changes, etc., but to try and find one with a decent userbase one level down from all the really big players - they tend to have good tech staff, less beaurocracy, but can still afford good investment in their networks....

The forums at Whirlpool.net are a good place to start, as has been mentioned....

Originally Posted by Omaroo

I'm an IT manager for a reasonably sized (in terms of infrastructure) advertising firm. I have to say that my decision to go with iiNet recently for a couple of remote ADSL tails was the single worst decision of my professional life.

They have grown so fast that their support structure has lagged behind, and I've never known such incompetance within a company. Missed communications and crossed paths is what this company is all about. I have never had so many problems over a simple little thing such as ADSL implementation. They nearly crippled our company for a while and didn't care less.

Rating: Z---

I dont know about iiNET but if you want incompetence then go with Telstra, last august we signed up and I have just cancelled it last week after not having ADSL for not even 1 miniute in that time but having been charged for the last 3 months after them promising me 5 months free.

They are useless pains in the proverbial that cant do anything without being stubborn, rude, insulting and frustrating and that was just the help desk staff, dont get me started on the tech centre and the complaints area which hung up on me because I asked her to call me back in 5 mins as I was out on the course on a machine at the time.

DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER TELSTRA I cant emphasise this enough, when I eventually cancelled the contract they threatened me that they would make it so I will never be able to have ADSL from any other supplier or Telstra so I threatend them again with the ombudsman who had already been involved and civil legal action so they SO nicley didnt block the B codes on our line.

They are bullys and each department wont talk to the other and they dont keep acurate records so if you do have any dealings with them keep acurate records your self so you can proove what was said and what happened.

Good luck, Im finding our trusty old dodo dial up is being reliable but again we had a little trouble with them when we were considering going to ADSL, they started charging us for it when we hadnt agreed to anything and didnt even have an ADSL modem at the time.

Originally Posted by Ruslan

Internode is good. Some goverment departments in SA use Internode network. I have ADSL for 2.5 years and no problems. Support is very responsive. Read carefully every letter in contract before. IMHO Telstra is not on top.

If you familiar with wireless security and you have problems running cables go for it and wireless router. I am in country and know most people who live around me and sure that nowbody will try to use my wireless broadcasting. Also I know how to easy get any wireless network: come, listen, crack, join and go. I am renting house and can't run cables inside walls, etc. BUT I'm running cable network in my house. Why? Stable, secure (internet banking, etc.) and no floating computers. I don't need to spend extra for getting wireless cards for desktops and don't worry about getting good communication between different wireless brands.

Good luck in your choice,
Ruslan

Internode for sure

Checkout The Australian Broadband Survey for 2006

Check- service reliability, customer service etc

We had a phone and dial-up/ADSL bundle with Optus for 5 years. When they recently decided to increase our monthly phone line rental by $15 we decided it was time to change. We have signed up with AAPT for land line, mobile and ADSL which has been connected for just under 1 week. We make a net saving of around $30 per month and have double the download limit. While it has only been a short time, the service so far has been very good.

It is possible to find ISPs are rolling out their own DSLAMs and copper. OnTheNet on the Gold Coast is an example. They will provide excellent service, but you will pay a little more.