What broadband ISP?????????Confused

[StarLane]

What internet service provider do you recommend for ADSL/ADSL2 broadband etc??. I would like to connect to one that's reliable and reasonably priced, willing to pay alittle more for reliability. They all seem to require a 12 or 24 month contract so I want to know what companies are the best before I commit.

Who do you guys use???? How much, how fast, what's the download limit, how much extra per mb, and how is the service????...reliablity, outages, do you get slow speeds during peak periods, have they provided everything promised?? etc etc.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Confused,
Paul.

[Lee]

I've been with iiNet now for about 7 years - always found them to be good value, with few issues.

[Ian Robinson]

They are all rip offs .... and all seem to want you to sign up for telephone as well.

[Glenhuon (Bill)]

Been with Westnet (recently gone into partnership with IInet) for over 5 years and have no complaints. No need to take the phone bundle if you don't want to (I didn't), but it saves $10 a month on the broadband connection if you do. Avoid that well known phone company like the plague.

Bill

[JethroB76 (Jeff)]

aanet and TPG are two that have been good for me.

Have a look on Whirlpool - there are forums there dedicated to the major ISPs and an easy search function to weed out providers based on your needs (speed, DL limits), location etc

Just say no to telstra

[tnbk00 (Daniel)]

Ive been with TPG for a couple of years now and it has been pretty good.

I would steer clear of the big telco's (AAPT, Optus and Telstra) their pricing seems to be very unrealistic....and thats coming from someone who worked for one of those companies as a network engineer.

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

I need a static IP address to work from my home when I'm there, so to most ISPs I'm a business customer and pay about $20 a month more than a standard home user across a typical list of plans.

After a truly miserable year with that dead bird company, I'm now with TPG after MUCH research and asking colleagues' opinions who are also in the comms industry, as I am. I'm on an 8Mbps, 18Gbpm plan with a static address for $20 a month LESS than my last plan with that old bird.

Whirlpool seems to rate the top three, pretty consistently, as Internode, iiNet and TPG, so any of these are a pretty safe bet.

Agreed - avoid big blue.

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by Ian Robinson

They are all rip offs .... and all seem to want you to sign up for telephone as well.

For adsl2+ I had a choice of Optus, Netspace and TPG. TPG were the only ones that were not forcing a phone bundling plan and still offering competitive rates so i went with them.

I have seen a lot of complaints about the quality of TPG phone support ( I haven't had to use it) , but at least they answer the phone within a couple of minutes, unlike 40 minutes for Netspace.

[TrevorW]

I use Optus ADSL2 bundled with home phone costs $70 a month for 2G download before its shaped and includes all local and interstate phone calls for free. Have had for several months now and never had an issue ie: apart from my daughter using up our quota downloading music.

[DJDD]

TPG (if not bundling phone)


(maybe a poll is required?)

[wasyoungonce (Brendan)]

Many others have mentioned "Whirlpool". It is a good resource for all things DSL. Here's a link to their plan search and FAQs on choosing a provider:

http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/?tag=Ch...Provider%20FAQ

http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/bc/?action=search

There is an absolute plethora of providers out there now. There are many plans without 12 months contracts. Your first foray into DSL is sometimes the most difficult so go for a "named company" like: TPG, Internode; iinet; Netspace. Stay away from Bigpond!

Look for a plan that has plenty of download limit. I cannot guess your requirements but don't get a plan that has exorbitant excess usage charges...like Bigpond does. If you read their forum you'll find plenty of posts with monthly excess bill of $k of dollars. So keep away from plans with high excess usage.

A better bet is a plan that "Shapes" your excess usage. That is slows your connection speed if you go over your limits but does not charge you extra.

A good 1st time provider is Internode or TPG. The have good help desk support. Try for at least a 512K plan or faster…256K is too slow.

Lastly look for a provider that has ADSL2+ infrastructure in your local area exchange. Many of these ADSL2+ plans are cheaper than ADSL1 as they do not have to pay use Telstra's line charges and the bonus is you get much faster speeds.

http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/bc/?action=list


Good Luck.

Edit:
I forgot to mention many providers have bundled plans. That is you bundle you internet plan with their telephone service. This is something that I avoid..it's a personal choice.

edit edit:
We use on average 8Gb to 10 Gb a month plus with a family of 3 kids.

[White Rabbit]

I use tpg as well. I had a few problems with them when I first started but they were faults at the exchange and as always telstra was playing dumb. After that go sorted out it was find. It's the cheapest one around I pay 49.95 for 18 gig download. I occasuionally have to reboot the modem about once a month. Other than that they are fine.

With regards to Tech support, I think people will always have a bee in there bonnet when they call for help and it's a call centre somewhere in india or the Philippine's. I found the help line to be just as helpfull as any that read from a script, and they all read from the script. If there steps dont work then it gets esculated. Thats just way tech support works. Most problems would be user error and can be fixed from the script.

[mark3d]

been with internode for 4 years now. had < 4 problems in that time, not a bad average.

[madtuna (Steve)]

I'm with Optusnet and looking to change,
I sort of get a bit miffed at Raj in New Deli telling me there is no problem at my exchange or in my area when the entire street is without internet.

Raj also tells me I an unable to get Broadband where I am even though I've had it for 3 years.

Raj is awfully polite though, even after frustration sets in and I let fly with a bucket load of profanities.

I think I'll send him a Christmas card this year

[wasyoungonce (Brendan)]

Originally Posted by madtuna

.....
Raj also tells me I an unable to get Broadband where I am even though I've had it for 3 years.

Raj is awfully polite though, even after frustration sets in and I let fly with a bucket load of profanities.

I think I'll send him a Christmas card this year

Classic....I love it.

This is the type of provider help that drives new users to pull their hair out!

I'm with aanet but I think as a new user TPG or internode may be the OPs best option (for a new user).

AAnet's ok but it's really not for new users as their support is lacking. That's fine for me but it would frustrate new users very rapidly.

[snowyskiesau]

As others have mentioned, whirlpool.net.au is the best place to get info on broadband availability and features.
Another site you might find of use is www.adsl2exchanges.com.au
which gives a more detailed map of ADSL speeds available from your local exchange.

[Fox]

Hi StarLane, lots of mention of TPG here, and I will second that. My first ADSL provider was Telstra - not good. Cost me $39.95/month for only a 400MB download limit. But for the same price, TPG gives me a 6GB limit & ADSL2, so there is no comparison.

Despite all my enquiries with Telstra, they were totally inflexible in offering me anything else, until it was too late and I had swapped over to TPG, then Telstra called me up and offered all sorts of 'exceptional' plans to try and get me back. Fox.

[Lee]

Telstra = tossers.
Even when they try to woo you back with their exceptional plans - they are generally still nowhere near the value of the other anyway.... Telstra are for mum and dad users who don't know better.... or for those with no other choice!

[matt]

Originally Posted by Lee

Telstra = tossers.
Even when they try to woo you back with their exceptional plans - they are generally still nowhere near the value of the other anyway.... Telstra are for mum and dad users who don't know better.... or for those with no other choice!

I wouldn't change a word of that, Lee.

Someone should put that description in the dictionary

[wasyoungonce (Brendan)]

Originally Posted by matt

I wouldn't change a word of that, Lee.

Someone should put that description in the dictionary

You'all forgot to include the biggest bottom feeders, "Bigpond" in your profanities!