Internet service provider
Submitted by Colin Hay on Thu, 2008-09-18 10:24
Hi all, I have just dumped my home Internet service provider because they couldn't explain why my charges went up fourfold this month. (You can guess which company that was).
Does anyone have a suggestion on which provider is the best value for a home ADSL service,
Many thanks, Colin Hay
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boofhead
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im just about to look at
im just about to look at iinet..... that big nasty company that says they cover 99% of australia with broadband are kidding themselves.... i live in metro and they cant supply me with adsl....they are bloody useless
cheers Jes
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Colin Hay
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They are a joke Jes (but I am not laughing)
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original teenage
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what company are we talking
what company are we talking bout??or is it a secret.?
the more u fish..the less stress u get....
Colin Hay
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No secret OT
Just safer not to name names and not bring any potential libel suits agianst this site.
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boogernissan
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i know who we talkin about
i know who we talkin about as i am with them too
the big nasty one
roberta
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I'm
not with them but 3wireless broadband no problems so far & just up to 7GB, very fast also.
SPEWIE LEWIE
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Colin Hay
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I am think of going with 3 Roberta
They seem pretty reasonable.
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roberta
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yes
I've never been on the internet before Colin but have asked everybody and they say they are faster than broadband, so I can't compare landline dial-up, we went wireless as we got rid of the landline from THAT big company our bill was less than the bloody rental every month, with wirelesss you can take it anywhere, saving up my pocket money for a laptop so I can take to Leeman. The problem in Leeman with westnet, apparently not enough phone lines (that big company) going out from Jurien and can take two days for your email to get where ever you send it. $49 for 7GB a month & Skype is through google and you can sign up for very very cheap phone calls overseas and local.
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7739ian
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Mongrels
we are on Dial Up - best we can get from the unknown company who have billed us too much for eons and buggered up my son's credit rating over $90 even though we explained he was overseas. - changing to Westnet Satlelite as we are too far away for any other sort of coms and 2 of my brothers outside the metro use them and swear by them.
Neander
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I am currently using Amcom
I am currently using Amcom and have no issues with them.
http://www.amcom.com.au/
till
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Really amcom or iinet is the
Really amcom or iinet is the go, especially if you got for their naked dsl products. hard to argue with the price when iinet will give you free wireless calls on that deal.
Colin Hay
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Thanks Dave and Jamie
I will have a look at that. Really appreciate your input as I know you two are IT gurus. (Jamie - I assume naked means basic).
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till
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Not really. Naked means that
Not really. Naked means that no dialtone is provided on your phoneline.
Instead of getting a line from telstra, and getting dsl put over it by iinet you get dsl from iinet, and then iinet puts dialtone over it.
Its what all the telcos have been clamouring over for the last 5-7yrs, it gives them two bites at your bill, and more importantly, cuts telstra out of the (local) loop. Your local number is ported to the iinet VOIP service, and then delivered over the ADSL2 network.
I deal with voip for my day job, so bug me if you have other questions.
Provisos: it won't work in a power outage unless your router is on a ups, won't work with alarms that do line clamping, or eftpos (may work with some, but not st george as they lock their terminals to 33.6k), they don't advertise it working with faxes, but plenty of reports of it working on wingepool, just some combos just won't work.
alfred
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Wireless calls? 18
Wireless calls?
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till
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Not to sure what you mean
Not to sure what you mean Alfred. You can either use an ATA device with a regular cordless dect phone, or you can get a sip-native IP dect, or even sip native IP wifi phone exist, just they're hella-spendy.
I can, if I'm feeling pigheaded, make my mobile a local sip extension of my IP PBX, and when I'm in range, take local calls on my mobile as IP calls via wifi.
Colin Hay
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Thanks Jamie
I am not sure what all of that means, but I get the gist of some of it. The most important question is will it cut down my internet costs?
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Dreamweaver
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Handy Timing........ Till?
Thanks for starting this thread #1, I was considering changing my ISP as well, from ADSL1 to ADSL2 via VOIP - mainly just to save money.
BTW, though Westnet is a seperate entity, they were bought out by IInet earlier this year. Nothing necessarily wrong with that, just letting you know.
As for that 'other company', I used to work for them and wouldn't touch them with a sterilsed barge pole.
Till, is the ADSL2 wireless VOIP connectivity provided through the mobile network? If so, I could be pretty screwed because reception here is marginal.
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Colin Hay
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Mate, I am an IT dummy
How does switching from ADSL1 to ADSL2 via VOIP save you money? Not trying to be smart - just don't know enough about this stuff (That's how that other mob caught me out).
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Dreamweaver
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#1...
I've only just starting looking at prices, there is a mob down here that's offering free instal and the first year for $9.95, then $29.95 therefafter. But just did a google on them (won't mention names) and a whirlpool thread wasn't exactly complimentary, though the thread dates back to 2007. Things may have improved since then.
I'm sure some of the other guys like Jamie could give you more info.
Colin Molloy
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Colin Hay
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Thanks mate
Some of this lingo just spins my head.
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till
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ADSL2 cannot be wireless, it
ADSL2 cannot be wireless, it has to be delivered over a phone line, you may be screwed anyway because you need to be close to your exchange to get a good rate. I'm close to my exchange and I get 21mb.
Colin Hay
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Jamie, Sorry about this,
but you could get flooded with questions now.
I am wondering do Amcom supply the modem. They don't appear to have a local office, so I guess they will have to courier the modem if they supply it.
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Maverick
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Naked
You have to make sure there is the infrastructure in your exchange as I wanted to go naked but they said there is no dslam or something in my area yet and it would take up to 2 weeks without any phone or internet till they get around to hooking you up anyway, one of my friends went naked and had to wait 7 weeks before they hooked him up , everything had to be done over his mobile till they were back online, that ate up all the savings they were going to make on it by going naked.
if you leave you have to get a new phone number as well.
I was told to think hard on it before going naked , I just went with westnet instead as they do a good mid range deal for me ,my phone and adsl bill has never gone over $90 a month since, my old Iprimus account was never under $120 and we now have my son on the net in his bedroom as well as my daughter wireless laptop as well as me surfing, and it's twice as fast as the iprimus speed.
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Colin Hay
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Thanks Mav
Sounds like a pretty good deal there. I have two teenage daughters - hence the need to try and find the best deal I can.
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till
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That sounds pretty
That sounds pretty trainwreck Mav. My friends lost their phone number in the morning about 9am and had incoming naked calls running by lunchtime. I set it up myself.
Maverick
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Location
I think it depends on your location , maybe the technitian was in that area to connect it up, when I was looking into it the website even said it was an average of 2 weeks wait for it to be hooked up.
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till
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Its all done at the exchange
Its all done at the exchange really, no need for a tech or visits, so who knows.
Maverick
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Yeah
Thats what they told me, something about the technitian having to switch it over at the exchange or something ,was a while ago and can't remember exactly what went on.
I didn't mean for it to sound like a home visit is needed , so if anyone was misled I am sorry.
Like I said , the westnet bundle suits me for speed and price Data load is 5gig peak and 7 gig off peak @ 1.5mb so I never get close to going over, I'm an insomniac so I can be awake till 4 or 5 in the morning, so I download big stuff in the offpeak timeslot.
CHEERS , THE SCARE CROW.
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HuggyB
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I'm with the big bad Telco
And I'm on ADSL2+ unlimited and my internet/phonebill is about $80/month. I run my desktop hardwired and wireless network my HTPC and iPod touch off it - so it cops a fair download hammering.
Cant fault them really.
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Dreamweaver
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OOPS LOL........ Till?
Ooops, got a bit confused. Of course ADSL2 is via phone from the exchange DOH!
So let me rephrase my question. with Naked ADSL (VOIP) an antenae is installed etc...right? Then asside from the points you raised, you can get rid of your home phone line. How do you know if your place is compatable?
There's one mob only offering it down hear but I've done further whirlpool thread searches and the posts aren't exactly glowing.
Colin Molloy
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till
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Naked isn't wireless, it
Naked isn't wireless, it doesn't involve antennas, it just adsl delivered over a line that has no dialtone on it.
Its naked from naked pair, as in you get two wires that dont have dialtone, just adsl. Then the dialtone is provided over the adsl layer via voip.
Dreamweaver
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Ahhhh! I hope LOL
LOL, must be getting old. Got It! ( hope) So it's delivered over the copper (telephone) network then - which doesn't have a phone service activated. Right? LOL Oh hell, go for broke LOL - so all ISPs (that supply naked ADSL) have access to Telstra network to provide this?
Colin Molloy
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till
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Not really, its all about
Not really, its all about cutting telstra out.
To get naked, the isp really has to have their own dslam in at the exchange because telstra doesn't offer naked at all.
boogernissan
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that bit confuses me,im on a
that bit confuses me,im on a 24 month contract with "those who we do not speak of" and i get half price for first 9 months then full price after that,im payin 69.95 when it goes to full price and its adsl,ive got minimum speed of 256kbs and im fairly happy with i guess,i would like faster speed and unlimited downloads cos i keep hitting my 12gb limit every months
dpost80
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geeks
;)
saltatrix
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BTW, though Westnet is a
BTW, though Westnet is a seperate entity, they were bought out by IInet earlier this year. Nothing necessarily wrong with that, just letting you know.
Ouch!
Im with Westnet. Have a second account with Westnet now but took a couple of weeks to get wired due to no dial tone when moved into new rental.
DSL is copper phone line
Cable is fibre
Westnet is pretty good with support which I hope the new IINET owners wont stuff up along with their billing nightmares.
I have had little drop outs with Westnet in a decade.
If you intend on getting a wireless ADSL modem be careful you dont have a 2.4 GHZ cordless home phone. The phones interfere with the DSL line. Each time I pick up the phone my hardwired modem DSL connection drops out.
Basically Ive been told to throw the 2.4GHZ phones in the bin.
Some cheap ISP plan deals dropout all the time, are slow etc etc.
Wireless is generally slower than a hard wired connection.
Beware of low download plans as your windows updates and things like ISP server pings will chew through small download plans real quick taking you over the download limit into more expensive excessive download pricing rate or shaping your speed which slows your connection down to dial up speed.
You want at least a 1 Gigabite a month download amount and 256 kilobits to 1.5 megabit speed.
If you want to do some research here is a good start.
http://whirlpool.net.au/
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Dreamweaver
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saltatrix...
Yeah, the move to Westnet was announced in one of their last newsletters. I agree. I've rarely had to contact Westnet, but when I have, they've been very good, only with one exception. I emailed them on an easier way of accessing web mail. I have five email addressed (1 default, 4 secondaries) and if I use webmail I have to log in and out of each one, which is tedious. I didn't get a response.
I was with IInet a while ago, when they first started up as a Perth ISP, then I found that, when they expanded into the Eastern states market, there was some issues. So I went with Westnet - which has been bought out by Iinet - ironic I suppose :)
I have a std ADSL1 256/64 service with Westnet and it's very rare that experience any connectivity (or other) issues.
Colin Molloy
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Soon to be de "dreamweaver" ed!
UncutTriggerInWA
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Westnet
Hi Colin.
I have had much experience at the technical level with ISPs. I am a strong supporter of Westnet primarily because I have had a really good run with them and their support is outstanding in comparison to anyone else. Just look at their customer service award record.
People will always argue on technicalities and drive you crazy with techno jargon and have an arguement for what is best. It really comes down to a simple set of paramaters that meet your own persoanl needs. I hardly think you are into gaming so forget about all the performance talk. Look at price and service.
Cheers, Vince
------------------------------
Work Smart - Fish Often
Vince.
Work smart and fish often.
Member and die-hard supporter of the mighty West Coast Eagles.
Dreamweaver
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Yup, agree Vince
I've had umpteenth calls from 'that big company', asking me to churn (swap) my Internet to them and and I give them a HUGE and definitive no. It staggers me the amount they (have to) spend on advertising. Whereas I can't even remember seeing an add for Westnet - they don't need to advertise.
Also, 'that big company' can't do full domain name delegation within their ADSL network (at least when I was with them) - no big issue, unless you have and are deploying a domain name. (They get (got) around it using a 'catch all').
(The DNS guys in here will know what I mean.)
I used to get a free staff dial up account (pretty generous eh for such a 'small' company
) - but it was so unreliable that I went external and wanted ADSL anyway. The Manager of Domains at Westnet was pretty curious and ammused, given my employer. (I wanted a definitive answer on full (and proper) domain name delegation because, at the time, I was considering setting up a web site with my own domain name - and I was escalated all the way up to the Manager of Domains at Westnet). Honest and impressive service. 
Colin Molloy
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Soon to be de "dreamweaver" ed!
UncutTriggerInWA
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Struth Ruth
Colin. I received a phone call last week from someone purporting to be from that big company TELSTRA!!!!! It was about fine tuning my home phone and offering this great deal about ADSL2. I showed some interest but said I would look at the doco when it arrived. Guess what... yesterday my ADSL account with Westnet was churned by Bigpond and my server went down from the internet. No letters, no communication at all. I only found out why my comms were down by ringing Westnet support.
Fortunately I am smart enough to work out how to get connected to Telstra via the router and get emails flowing again using Westnet domain. FFS... did I ask for this???
You know mate, the funniest thing about all of this is that the phone is in my wife's name and her surname is different ROFL (we decided that was good for business). I wonder what the Ombudsman is going to have to say about this when he gets my letter.
Cheers, Vince
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Work Smart - Fish Often
Vince.
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Dreamweaver
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Vince
As far as I am aware, the churning (moving from) from one Telco to another requires a very strict protocol (procedure) where they have to record your agreement. Not sure on how that works with your ISP.
In your case, you haven't changed your phone, but, as you say, have 'fine tuned' the service (perhaps some credit was involved?).
How the TIO will see that will be quite interesting! LOL
Colin Molloy
(Colin 2 - Co-founding member of the prestigious Colin Club)
Soon to be de "dreamweaver" ed!