Best Internet Bundles

[Gem (Grant)]

Iinet gave us months of hell. Little or no working internet and VOIP unuseable. Nearly a phone call per night for weeks on end and no joy.

Telstra then found the fault day one, fixed it and we have had good, reliable service every since. The extra cash has been worth it compared to the nightmare we had with iinet.

[Mliss (Mel)]

I've never heard so many fond names for telstra

I've been using iinet for a few years (sorry to hear your experience wasn't so great Gem) and i haven't had any dramas at all.

I pay around $130 a month which includes everything, and as i use voip all my calls within Aus are free. (but after reading some comments below i might need to look into other plans)

Sykpe is worth looking into too. it is free and all you need is a mic and speakers and maybe a camera (or a headset) but i find it too hard to sit and stay attached to the pc while i'm talking.

I prefer VOIP and you don't need anything but a normal phone and you plug it in to your modem. You will need to get your isp to activate it at their end and then away you go, just like a normal phone. I pay $9.99/per month for this, but with the number of calls i make it saves me heaps. they WILL charge you for os calls, calls to 13 numbers and mobiles. but if you're only making 6 calls a month it's probably not worth it.

Unlike some providers, if i go over my quota for the month, iinet email to warn you to slow down and after that they just reduce your speeds, but they don't charge per mb or anything. so far we've only come close to our quota twice and with all the downloading in this house, that's not bad.

we've got 2 laptops and one pc and with them all running (which seems to be 24/7) and the kids do notice lag in their games during peek times, but otherwise it's not so bad. and it usually has a lot to do with what they are doing. my dining area looks more like timezone and i'm starting to wonderif i even need a table in here

good luck with it all JJ life is so much brighter without 'pondscum'

[astronut (John)]

TPG...200GB per month, $49.95.

[Mliss (Mel)]

TGP broadband not available in my area. awesome deal tho.

[PCH (Paul)]

Originally Posted by Exfso

Hmm yes Bigpong..I think they have big problems, I have had issues with download speed since I connected to them had all the excuses under the sun, mainly from the call centre people based in the Phillipines, they are worse than uselesss. A couple of them have said I am stuck with the speed I have sometimes as low as 120KBps when I was getting over 750KBps with my previous subscriber out of the same exchange. One clown told me I was not getting ADSL2+ speeds and he would re connect me to plain ADSL, not damn likely! I have had 2 modems supplied by bigpong, both Thompson and they are useless. Bought myself a Billion 7300RA and my speed jumped immediately up to over 700KBps. To put it bluntly, their off shore call centre people are nothing short of cretins.

Hi Peter,

on the strength of your message here, I thought I'd try the same thing. My speed is typically 300-350kbps so the idea of your 700 sounded terrific.

So out I went and bought one of the Billion 7300RAs, they're only $65 so it's no biggie. When I connected it up and stuck in my username and psw, the speed dropped to just a few tens of kbps - about 40kbps and increased ever so slightly as the file continued to download. I swapped between the two a few times to make sure the results were accurate and reliable. Unfortunately they were.

So I reconnected my Netcomm NB5Plus4 in the meantime.

Did you have to alter any of the settings when you installed yours, and has the speed increase remained so impressive?

Cheers,

[Glenhuon (Bill)]

I was with Westnet for quite a number of years, but not having a landline here in the caravan park, I use the WiFi system. Its quite good and reliable (The owner is quite friendly, I'm the only one in the park with a permanent connection, no timed logoff )
I kept a dialup service with westnet for a couple of years to retain my email address, ($12.50/month) until they called me since it was'nt being used, and offered a mailbox at $10/year. Good customer service, works for me.

[OICURMT]

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

LOL
I make like 6 phone calls a month on my home phone.

Then go with Naked DSL and drop your phone line rental and charges all together. Use you mobile instead and that'll get Telstra completely out of your house (the wholesaler can deal with them).

[bobson (Bob)]

As OICURMT said get Naked DSL and save. I am with iinet for the last 5 years or so. Now they have mobile service SIM card only. I pay $20 dollars and get $450 dollars worth of calls and 1 gig of data free facebook and twitter within Australia.

bob

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

I just checked and I can't get Naked ADSL.
only adsl off net.
still searching.......

[The_bluester (Paul)]

Originally Posted by Exfso

John, the lines were/are only telstra.

What he said. Almost without exception, if you have ADSL you are dealing with Telstra in one way or another. If you are "Off net" (To use an IInet (I think) description) as JJJnettie posted, then what they generally mean is that you are buying a service retail from whoever (IInet, TPG, whoever, just not Bigpond) who are in turn buying it wholesale from Telstra. Your service is entirely on Telstra infrastructure.

if it is "On net" what that means is your provider of choice has installed their own DSLAM (DSL Access Multiplexer) in the exchange you are connected to and your service is coming from that, but the rub is that it still goes over the Telstra copper from the exchange to your house.


The only ways around that currently are wireless services (Patchy, unreliable and performance dependent on the number of active users in your cell and what they are doing at the same time as you) or Optus HFC services or in some areas TransAct/Naighborhood cable HFC (HFC is Hybrid Fibre Coax, basically coaxial cables delivering the services in nodes with up to a few hundred houses in them and fibre transmission to the nodes) Plus some odd trial areas where fibre was installed that is not immediately handed over to Telstra and perhaps a few lucky enough to be getting services on NBN infrastructure already.

I would dearly love to give the axe to the swamp (Bigpond) but on a Telstra DSLAM in my experience you save some dollars and gain serious difficulties if there is a problem with the service if you go to a wholesale ISP buying service from Telstra. Even if the ISP has their own DSLAm you end up with them blaming Telstra and Telstra blaming them when it goes pear shaped.