ISP recommendations [not IInet!!]?

admin · December 2013

Hi guys - shifted house and advised my ISP [IInet] on the 11th Dec. Now 2

Koffee_Kosmo · December 2013

on 1388183029:

Hi guys - shifted house and advised my ISP [IInet] on the 11th Dec. Now 2

Beanz · December 2013

I have used Internode for years for VOIP & Internet. Excellent service. Support always fast and efficient via phone or email when needed Whirlpool.net is an excellent place to review ISP's and the services available in your location http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/

hiphipharar · December 2013

on 1388185098:

I have used Internode for years for VOIP & Internet. Excellent service. Support always fast and efficient via phone or email when needed Whirlpool.net is an excellent place to review ISP's and the services available in your location http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/

INternode = iiNEt. They merged almost two years ago. http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1835906 A: You don't mention your location but the biggest question is what options are available then ask the question based on what is available. You are best asking your nearest neighbours about Internet options in your area and understand that what is good for some isn't good for you due to factors like distance from exchange (for ADSL) or mobile reception (for mobile broadband).

Koffee_Kosmo · December 2013

on 1388186865:

INternode = iiNEt. They merged almost two years ago. http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1835906 A: You don't mention your location but the biggest question is what options are available then ask the question based on what is available. You are best asking your nearest neighbours about Internet options in your area and understand that what is good for some isn't good for you due to factors like distance from exchange (for ADSL) or mobile reception (for mobile broadband).

Yes that is good advice Some carriers will have better coverage in some areas and poor in others So checking what others use in your area and why it very good advice

UNM · December 2013

Exetel have a free install special at the moment. 12 month contract with a prorated early cancellation fee. $39.99/ month for phone, adsl2+, 100GB. http://www.exetel.com.au/broadband.php Mynetfone are known to be good, but slightly more expensive. Edit: Just signed up with Exetel. Will see how they go. Been with iinet for ten years now and time for a change - too expensive and when I moved house they dicked me around.

mycuppa · December 2013

Folks, What seems to be lost on most people when contemplating a change of ISP is the simple fact that unfortunately at the moment one company owns 99% of the loop cabling and that all other companies need to "engage" with that company in order to mange the provisioning and service quality. So, while you may look at deals, features and options bear in mind that when something goes wrong at a physical level (street cabling, local exchange DSLAM's, etc.) your selected provider needs to log service requests with the "owner" and there are standard SLA's that govern the response times. These SLA's can be 48hrs in many cases. The issue A. you are referring to regarding your supplier is very common and many of my friends have experienced the same issue - some of them run their businesses with that provider and have endured outages of up to 21 days when relocating. Many of the smaller players are re-selling bandwidth that has been purchased wholesale and in some cases at price points that define a different grade of service, e.g. think Gold, Silver and Bronze. When congestion occurs on particular trunks, the lower grade services drop packets, effectively reducing the overall performance. Whilst it is true that some ISP's have their own equipment co-located in Exchanges, they don't have the arms and legs to service this equipment when there are issues - so the tasks are out-sourced. As per the advice above - check with people in the vicinity but also keep in mind if you take up special deals with smaller players you may find the service is not easily managed when there are issues because of the numerous outsource models required to deliver the service.

UNM · December 2013

What mycuppa says is true, but also consider your distance from the exchange. If you are a long way from the exchange (like me), it doesn't matter if they have great bandwidth capability as you may be unable to use it. NBN will be along shortly anyway. Maybe. One way low cost players cut costs is in customer service. If you have problems, they may not offer any phone support, then bill you if it turns out to be a fault in your equipment. If, like me, you rarely use a support line, why pay for one? Lots to consider, but for the money, Exetel looks worth trying. I can afford two separate broadband connections from two providers for less than iinet was charging me.

Brett H · December 2013

on 1388200883:

Folks, What seems to be lost on most people when contemplating a change of ISP is the simple fact that unfortunately at the moment one company owns 99% of the loop cabling and that all other companies need to "engage" with that company in order to mange the provisioning and service quality. So, while you may look at deals, features and options bear in mind that when something goes wrong at a physical level (street cabling, local exchange DSLAM's, etc.) your selected provider needs to log service requests with the "owner" and there are standard SLA's that govern the response times. These SLA's can be 48hrs in many cases. The issue A. you are referring to regarding your supplier is very common and many of my friends have experienced the same issue - some of them run their businesses with that provider and have endured outages of up to 21 days when relocating. Many of the smaller players are re-selling bandwidth that has been purchased wholesale and in some cases at price points that define a different grade of service, e.g. think Gold, Silver and Bronze. When congestion occurs on particular trunks, the lower grade services drop packets, effectively reducing the overall performance. Whilst it is true that some ISP's have their own equipment co-located in Exchanges, they don't have the arms and legs to service this equipment when there are issues - so the tasks are out-sourced. As per the advice above - check with people in the vicinity but also keep in mind if you take up special deals with smaller players you may find the service is not easily managed when there are issues because of the numerous outsource models required to deliver the service.

It's running close to the end of the year and I think Jeff's post here may have edged ahead of my previous contender. I reckon you've out-whirlpooled whirlpool Jeff. Kudos!

admin · December 2013

Thanks guys, yes Jeff understand, although that still doesn't explain the lies & stuff-ups over this whole drawn out process via Iinet on the [mobile] phone

admin · December 2013

actually just checked out the Exetel site - looks great; only one thing concerns me: "Please note that the service speed that Exetel will deliver to you can vary (ADSL1 in place of ADSL2+) when Exetel submits your order to our wholesale supplier." not sure if you can tell, but wondered if this is this their 'way out' for charging such a great price - i.e. that you only get ADSL1???

hiphipharar · December 2013

on 1388266187:

actually just checked out the Exetel site - looks great; only one thing concerns me: "Please note that the service speed that Exetel will deliver to you can vary (ADSL1 in place of ADSL2+) when Exetel submits your order to our wholesale supplier." not sure if you can tell, but wondered if this is this their 'way out' for charging such a great price - i.e. that you only get ADSL1???

It's a standard disclaimer which pretty much says they won't guarantee you will get ADSL2+. How do you know that by switching to Exetel that you won't encounter the issues you are currently experiencing with iiNet? It is a reseller of ADSL so it is at the mercy of the wholesaler . Read mycuppa's post again and consider whether, by moving aware from iiNet, you are going to get a better experience. Read this first: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=2197080

Lwowiak · December 2013

Personally, I always stick with Telstra. When I lived in SA, I signed up to cable broadband when it became available, and stuck with them. I still have my original email address, which is very important to me. I now live in QLD and have stuck with them purely because of the service (great). Yes, Telstra charge like a wounded bull, but you can negotiate with them and I have to say that their service has been very good. I have had modems exchanged without question, and technicians sent out when problems arose. I work from a home office and to be honest, just prefer to pay for the best when it comes to internet. I am on cable, and found anything else too slow. For the same reason, I stick with Telstra for mobiles. Downtime costs me too much. I tried Optus once, many years ago, and would never go back. Many friends and family have seen the light and joined Telstra (in SA) simply because they have been let down so often by other providers. Put service above price. The hassles you are experiencing are just not worth it. Good luck.

Lacehim · December 2013

Also depends on where you moved to. Australia's broadband is a mess (I'm being polite). Where I live it's RIM hell where Telstra are the only provider or via there wholesale arm. Cost more, get less. Some places have no ports, or are still on ADSL1. When I moved here we had an ADSL1 RIM with a lack of backhaul. It was so congested we couldn't even surf the web at peak times. Now we have a Top hat installed which gives us ADSL2+ and no congestion! You may well have gone from iinet's hardware to Telstra hardware and there is a disconnect reconnect period. Still having good tech support is a bonus. I'm with internode but they have separate support from iinet, and offer other things iinet don't. They are not like Westnet (yet) that off iinet plans etc with a different name. Good luck. If you need help with anything let me know.

UNM · December 2013

My application for an exetel service was bounced. They cannot provide ADSL2+ to my home 'not suitable for ADSL2 speeds' Probably due to distance from exchange, but that didn't stop iinet taking my money and delivering relatively low speed. Ah well, was worth a try.

admin · January 2014

well, it's come through [the new line] - been almost a month to the day [quoted as 10- 20 days']

MOQ · January 2014

As a former ISP unfortunately this sort of take it or leave it attitude is symptomatic of the way the industry has gone. Which is why I got out ... we provided totally customer-focused service but even with that, everyone still wanted everything for nothing. Can't be done. We resold Telstra ADSL as one of their first wholesale ADSL customers and everything we have here is Telstra (using my equipment though) for the same reasons as Lwowiak ... better reliability, excellent responsiveness, etc. It was critical to my business that when a customer called that their connection was down that Telstra responded quickly, and they never let me or my customers down. One of the first ADSL connections was into my brother's office. When I quit the business we set up a new connection with a different business-orientated provider. I couldn't convince him to stay with Telstra for some reason. However before the migration we thought back on how often the connection went down in 13 years. TWICE. That's f**king exceptional in anyone's books. Mind you it didn't stop him having an enormous whinge about it at the time. The major players have their own DSLAMs in the Telstra Exchanges, along side Telstra's DSLAMs. Port availability is dependent on whether that ISP's DSLAM has a free port. If not they will tell you "ADSL not available". This means "sorry, we can't plug your line into any of OUR DSLAMs" This could also be that the only DSLAMs with free ports are ADSL1. Get a Service Qualification check done with another provider, or better still, since TLS owns all the exchanges and has the most rack space, ask TLS. As far as distances go, if you're beyond 5km from the exchange don't expect anything. Between 3km and 5km you can get away with ADSL1 because ADSL2+ will be the same speed (DL) anyway. I'm about 4km from my exchange and whether we had ADSL1 Open or ADSL2+, the best we can achieve is about 3Mbps. Then it depends on how good the copper is between you and the exchange, whether the pit is full of water, corroded contacts ... the list goes on! One other advantage with going with TLS is the copper is theirs. If there's a problem with the copper ANYWHERE causing noise, drop-outs, etc. they'll investigate it and fix it. We have a 30pr cable coming here from the pillar (from our dial-up modem days), and when we were having problems with one of our ADSL connections the guy tested every pair, found the cleanest one and moved the line to it. All I had to do was a quick re-cable in the MDF, 20s work. Compare this to a situation where one of my IT customers was experiencing very poor performance with an aforementioned ISP (they had the connection before I started doing their IT stuff). One of the basic tests is "noise margin", tells you how much electrical crap is going on interfering with the ADSL performance. Typically if the noise margin is poor, it's a cable problem. So in order to eliminate premises cabling being the problem in a 100+yr old building we re-cabled the place with CAT5e, new MDFs, etc. Cabling from the network boundary was perfect. Performance was still a problem (slightly better) so conclusion ... the copper to the exchange. Called the ISP ... tough luck buddy, the cabling in the street is the problem and there's nothing we can do about it (because it's not ours). There's a lot to be said for getting Telstra on your side, and that starts with paying them for services. Paying a bit more saves money, hair pulling, teeth gnashing, getting sloshed, psychological counselling ...

MOQ · January 2014

Oh, forgot to mention ... Telcos have new service block-out periods between 2-4 weeks around Christmas/NY. The line guys take holidays too. Ordering a connection mid-Dec generally means early to mid Jan delivery. As to why your ISP did NOT tell you this is another matter, shame on them for over-promising and under-delivering.

admin · February 2014

on 1389511250:

things like: the day after confirming my address change on 11th Dec, getting an sms to say my new modem will arrive on Friday; I ring up IInet and say I've already got a modem and didn't order another one, whereupon was told that this was a freebie extra since I'd been a great customer [always paid bills on time!] for four years

Lacehim · February 2014

I just moved from Internode to Telstra. Telstra had a $20 off deal so I went from $107 (internode) to $85 (telstra) and still have enough data (dropped 50Gb). I'm on a Telstra Wholesale RIM anyway so my connection shouldn't change. Good luck with iinet. They have great plans but I contacted them a few times to ask questions and they gave incorrect vague replies I just didn't trust them. Telstra for all their issues have good online support. I had a few online live chat conversations with a rep to ask bundling questions and I could do this while I did something else. It beat being on hold for an hour!

They also have their crowd support website, facebook and twitter. Internode take about 2 days to reply to an email, if your lucky!

MOQ · February 2014

Over 7 weeks? Take up the incorrect charges with the TIO and cancel this, they don't deserve your business. If you have an ABN ask Telstra about their BizEssentials packages. The mid & top plans include fixed line rental and all local & national calls. If you put your mobiles onto the same account, calls between the mobiles as well as the landline are free. Should save money this way. I'm not a fan of VoIP, I'm hearing impaired and having to converse with a VoIP call that chops in & Out (like GSM did) is very frustrating. With free fixed line, free local & free national calls over POTS, BizEssentials is hard to beat especially with their superior service.

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