Upgrading the Interwebz

[Grennan]

Ok looking to upgrade my internet from this old Optus Cable (mainly because apparently now I am paying for the bill and I dont want to be stuck on it anymore).

Looking for suggestions, as a gamer Ive been told iiNet is the way to go (will not touch Telstra) because of their freezone and their speeds.

Now Im not to cluey when it comes to the terms and what not, theyve got Naked DSL and Broadband. From what I can gather Naked DSL is like what Ive got now - Cable internet - without the phone line etc its just plugged directly into a line in the wall. Is that correct? I want to avoid the whole phone line fees and rubbish because I dont have the need for a second phone particularly in my bedroom.

But yeah any help appreciated.

[sweefu]

hey mate i'm with iinet and they are pretty good to talk to however exspensive.

i am about to change back to TPG, they have a deal for $50 where you get 40gb on / 40gb off peak with 500mins of VOIP included.

Good luck with it mate.

[levymetal]

there's 3 different types of internet:

1. cable, which actually requires a special socket to be installed in your house, not available in many areas really unless they have cable lines installed. i think cable is around 10mbit but it can differ because it's shared between you and everyone in the street (the more you pay - the higher the guaranteed minimum speed)

2. adsl - nearly everyone can get this, max speed of 8mbit (8mbit is expensive though, most commonly 1.5mbit), modem plugs directly into a phone socket.

3. adsl2+ - only adsl2 enabled exchanges can get this, it's cheaper and faster than adsl (with the right provider), max speed is 24mbit (no one gets this though - depends on how far away you are from the exchange. 6-12mbit is normal).

naked dsl is adsl2+ without the need for phone line rental, so your exchange has to be adsl2 enabled if you want to get naked. if you go to tpg.com.au and punch in your phone number then they'll tell you what you can get.

iinet is good but as above, expensive. i'm currently with tpg and their support is shit but they are really cheap, and worth the money really. i live 60km from melbourne and get better ping than most people on most games

[Grennan]

Yeah Ive heard quite a few bad stories from people with TPG though which was my first hesitation in going with them. I might give a few places a ring monday.

[callum_88]

yeah ive also heard that there unreliable, but if your having no problems then it cant be bad, heard internode is really reliable, im going to go for them when i get a house coz telstras too expensive

[blackdoggg]

im with optus cable too now, but as soon as the contracts up wanna get back to TPG
was with them for like, umm 4-5 years prolly. I never had any troubles with reliability at all, always ran well and fast. Im VERY pro tpg :P very cheap too

[JBDrifter]

I'm with iiNet on ADSL2+ and can testify to their fantastic service! I live just a couple hundred metres from the exchange so I get very close to the maximum speeds (~22Mb/s out of a possible 24Mb/s)... and even on the thrillseeker setting, which is the setting for fastest speeds but least reliable, I only get one drop out every few days, if that. So it's still very reliable for me.
Their customer service is great... but you'll find that you don't even need to use it because the service is rock solid. They have decent plans too, I don't find them too expensive at all.
It's worth noting that your uploads are counted towards your monthly quota on the Naked plans, but they aren't counted on the standard broadband plans. This will mainly affect your decision if you use bittorrent a bit, but if you don't use it then Naked should be fine for you.
Also if you have an Xbox 360, iiNet is great. ALL downloads through the marketplace are quota free... so you can download as many demo's, game trailers, XBLA games and DLC as you want without ever having to worry about it affecting your download limit for the month. For me, that has been a great feature. I love trying out demo's for up and coming games and sometimes they can be quite large files (1GB+).

For more info though, visit the whirlpool forums, they have all the info you'll ever need to know about broadband providers in Australia, including specific sub-forum's for the most popular ISP's, including iiNet and TPG.
Whirlpool Forums

[bezz]

Maybe give internode a look at too. Good for games as they got a crap load of servers and I believe all their plans have unlimited uploads.

[HoZy]

Yeah Ive heard quite a few bad stories from people with TPG though which was my first hesitation in going with them. I might give a few places a ring monday.

I'm with TPG $49 month, ADSL2+ 50gb peak 50gb off-peak..

No issues here mate, Been with TPG for 6months or so already.

Cheers
MaT

[STEALTHY™]

I'm with Iprimus, mainly for their high usage. Same deals as TPG, but higher usage for the same money meaning, same contracts etc)

Can't tell you about their naked service, as I have a phone line aswell.

[1vngal]

Yeah Ive heard quite a few bad stories from people with TPG though which was my first hesitation in going with them. I might give a few places a ring monday.

When I still lived in Melbourne, we went with TPG. My experience: Useless customer service. Half the time you can't even get through to Customer Support "due to the sudden influx of calls."

We were having problems with incredibly low speeds compared to what I was paying for. After about 2 months and I don't know how many phone calls, forum posts etc. they finally fixed the problem. They'll try and pin the problem on your end and do everything they can to avoid admitting there is a problem with their service. But once it was fixed, I never had another problem.

It was enough however to put me off going back to TPG when I moved. I now go through iinet, and they're fantastic. Never had a problem with our connection, and their customer service is great too. And you can understand them...

[levymetal]

Same deals as TPG, but higher usage for the same money

Are you bundled with their phones as well? They seem pretty pricey to me...
ADSL2
iPrimus 36GB = $79.95/month
TPG 100GB = $49.99/month

ADSL
iPrimus 20GB = $79.95/month
TPG 25GB = $49.95/month

The 200GB plan is ok but most of the usage is off peak.

iPrimus Broadband
TPG Broadband

[Rolla_Rolla']

there's 3 different types of internet:

3. adsl2+ - only adsl2 enabled exchanges can get this, it's cheaper and faster than adsl (with the right provider), max speed is 24mbit (no one gets this though - depends on how far away you are from the exchange. 6-12mbit is normal).

Current Downstream: 23,525 kbps
Current Upstream: 1,433 kbps

[levymetal]

how close are you to the exchange? and where are you getting that information from? do a speedtest

[Rolla_Rolla']

thats the info from my service provider

speed test
- 19.78 Mb/S
- 1.10 Mb/s
- 8ms Ping

Adelaide
i live right next to the interchange sooooo :P

[levymetal]

haha it was still pretty close. you're lucky to live next door to the exchange . i had a friend who lived 3km away from his exchange, ended up getting 6mbit... adsl2 drops off really fast.

[Rolla_Rolla']

hahaha, yeah i seem to go over my 20gig cap in under 12 days each month, really need to upgrade to 40 D:

[HoZy]

hahaha, yeah i seem to go over my 20gig cap in under 12 days each month, really need to upgrade to 40 D:

I downloaded 16.4gb from the time i went to sleep & woke up the next day.

cheers
MaT

[Rolla_Rolla']

I downloaded 16.4gb from the time i went to sleep & woke up the next day.

cheers
MaT

bahahahahahaha, left ur porn channel on ?

[STEALTHY™]

Are you bundled with their phones as well? They seem pretty pricey to me...
ADSL2
iPrimus 36GB = $79.95/month
TPG 100GB = $49.99/month

ADSL
iPrimus 20GB = $79.95/month
TPG 25GB = $49.95/month

The 200GB plan is ok but most of the usage is off peak.

iPrimus Broadband
TPG Broadband

I pay 90 a month for the 200gb plan. Why is that one so dear without the bundle?
I havn't actually bundled it yet, but i've convinced the parents to ditch failstra (they had phone and cable, so i used their phoneline for my internet)
The off peak isn't a problem if you know how to use scheduler (and even for me, wasn't that hard )

And likewise with hozy, i accidentally left mine on, and downloaded 32gb in a 24hour period

[JBDrifter]

Speedtest is useless... your modem stats will tell you exactly what speed it is syncing at. Speedtest will only tell you what speed you were able to download from it's server, which might be a good indication of what speeds you might get from other servers (if they're good enough) but not nearly a good enough indication of what you are actually synced at.

[DevilDRake]

Yeah Ive heard quite a few bad stories from people with TPG though which was my first hesitation in going with them. I might give a few places a ring monday.

Yeah i've heard they've bad, I'm with Iprimus, have had adsl2+ for about 4 days, first 3 days cut out a fair bit, but it doesn't anymore. And it's pree quick.

edit: On $49.95 plan, 40gb on 40gb off peak

[levymetal]

On $49.95 plan, 40gb on 40gb off peak

there must be something i'm missing here. are the plans on their website incorrect, or...?

Broadband Plans, Broadband Internet, ADSL Plans - Primus Telecom

[JBDrifter]

there must be something i'm missing here. are the plans on their website incorrect, or...?

Broadband Plans, Broadband Internet, ADSL Plans - Primus Telecom

Their website doesn't seem to have it listed... maybe they don't want you to know about it lol. But whirpool's site has that plan listed as the "kahuna".

iPrimus ADSL2+ plans and prices

[levymetal]

hahaha so that's what i'm missing. dodgy bastards.