$60 to spend on Broadband

xtortion · 11th August 2004, 10:29 PM

Hi guys, I'm here to seek advice on which ADSL provider I need to get. At the moment, I'm currently with OZFORCES dial-up @ $27.50 a month. It's got unlimited downloads and sessions. Now, Reviewing my monthly telephone bills, our local calls payments range from $25 ~ $35 + phone line rental (optus) which is $22.

With Broadband prices and plans getting reasonable as time pass, I guess this is the perfect time to switch, not to mention the trouble OZFORCES is giving me. They used to be very reliable but now service has just dropped from 9 to 5 on the scale of 10.

With a quick browse on the forum's sticky and Whirlpool, The Exetel 512/128 first my criteria perfectly. Under $60, and 20Gb + Unlimited 12Midnight to 8AM. Now, I use bandwidth quite alot, my monthly OZFORCES stats tells me I average 12Gb of downloads on a 56K connection a month. I download alot of trailers, demos, stream music and play FPS games around 2~3 hours a day, maybe 5 on the weekends.

I have a couple of questions to go with which ISP sould I sign up at.. First..

-What is 512/128K like?
-What will I benefit besides faster upload on a 512/256 or 512/512 plan?
-Searching WP, only Exetel matched my criteria, are there any other ISP that I'm not aware that I should reconsider?
-How does 512/128 internet surfing compare to 512/256|512? IIRC, surfing is considered as a download.
-What's a reliable ADSL modem to get? The internet will be shared by 4 machines on which 3 of them will only be used for MSN Messenger, a little bit of surfind and checking emails.

Thanks for the help in advance. I will have more questions after I finish dinner.

xtortion · 12th August 2004, 1:11 PM

Hi..

GTR · 12th August 2004, 1:35 PM

Good day Xtortion,

Can't give you much information about Exetel. I just joined TPG with their HomeUnlimited 256/64 plan. Its a bargain at $49.95 per month, plus you get a free modem although the setup fee is $129. The modem itself is worth $95 at DSE. Its truely unlimited so there are no speed caps after a certain usage period. I guess if you are doing a lot of gaming, you should opt out for a 512k plan, although 256k is pretty fast anyway.

kooliez · 12th August 2004, 1:48 PM

id go for internode as your ISP

59.95 per month 512/128 connection, 12Gb DL's dynamic IP (not a great thing imho but some some people like it.)

Id go for a Billion 5100 4 port adsl router. They can be had for under $100 new and are quite the beastly little unit...

Hope that helps a bit..

Oh, and for surfing/msn/gaming usage, 512/256|512 is not a great deal better than 512/128. Gaming does benifet but not enough to warrent the price hike.

xtortion · 12th August 2004, 2:10 PM

Thats's a pretty good deal GTR, I might have a look if they have 512/128 REAL Unlimited. Kooliez, 12gigs is a bit tight.

Ta guys. Anymore should I take into consideration? This will be my first broadband switch.

Herbo · 12th August 2004, 2:39 PM

Dude I'd recommend iinet I'm on the $59 a month 512/128k with 12gig peak/12gig off peak. Peak = 8am - 12am, Off peak 12am - 8am. Does me well. recommend the service too as you don't get some bloody indian guy you can't understand on the helpdesks.

Cheers.

EDIT: Link to the new price lists.

Rogue · 12th August 2004, 2:49 PM

Swiftel offer a 512/128 16GB plan with dynamic IP for $55/mth, and are quite a reasonable provider. They even SMS you if there is a network outage!

As for modems, I would recommend either a Billion 4 port router or a D-Link 504. Both are very reliable units, have the required 4 ethernet ports, and are not overly expensive.

You will not find a 512/256 plan being offered by Telstra or a Telstra wholesale provider. The common formats are 256/64, 512/128 and 1500/256. There is a 512/512 offering, but it is still ADSL, not SDSL, and is well above your $60/mth threshold.

Tekin · 12th August 2004, 3:13 PM

i'd have a hunt to see if you can get telstra cable.

you may not be able too...but if you do, you should be able to get it with a free install. and given the shithouse way their billing system appears to not work, you probably won't get charged for the first few months either.

( i got 3 months free, free install...and the 4 month cost $15...a friend of mine is on his 5 month for free...and he's been telling them!!)

none the less. it does have a 10gb cap. but is significantly faster then adsl.

the 10gb cap is a bit of an lie as well. i've pulled down close to 20gb each month and only been capped once.

*sigh*

they're useless. but it works.

stmok · 12th August 2004, 5:56 PM

Yeah, its because they haven't finished implementing their capper yet, that's why you can pull 20GB. Once it fully kicks in, then you'll see the 10GB usage quite clearly.

Although, I find Telstra's cap easier to deal with than Optus's. I own both cables, and when you get capped on Optus, it seems to mess up a few things, pings skyrocket and you have to adjust to 576 on MTU. You also have to deal with the pain of 3.5KB/s!

(This is JUST barely livable...Think of a drop of water in the desert.)

On Telstra, it doesn't seem to be as bad, pings are still pretty good and the capped speed is higher. (Games a playable and its quite livable...If you can still kill an enemy as before the cap, then everythings cool.

)

As for ADSL...

I would go for Internode. The service is very good compared to Optus and Telstra.

(They do have a smaller customer base, but that often means they can provide a better service when it comes to tech support.)

In addition, Internode has made redundancies (backups) in their network, not implemented by Telstra or other ISPs.

From my experience in helping a friend install ADSL, Internode is a good ISP to go with.

It up to you...Just remember, its not about how much you can download at a price...Its also about good service as well.

PureData · 12th August 2004, 7:48 PM

I just hooked up with Exetel's 512/128 plan. Seems good. I'm used to 2/2 at work so it feels a bit slow, but it's very usable. Much better than dialup (which is what I had at home before).

I don't think 512/256 is a valid option.

512/512 would be best when you need to send lots of data both ways, eg, if you run a VPN to your work, you host any servers, and you share the connection with a few people, all of whom use voip. From what you said it's overkill, web surfing and MSN wouldn't be any faster.

As for the modem I think any brand would do, you don't need any special features.

xtortion · 12th August 2004, 10:23 PM

Hi again. Thanks guys for the help. I'm looking at Internode and Iinet now. Also browsing for Billion and the D-Link modems.

PureData, what's 2/2 and feels a bit slow? Is this on the Exetel 512/128 as well?

vinhsta · 13th August 2004, 12:08 AM

I'm with iiNet, their service is great for me, friendly tech support, excellent speeds.

I'm on 1500 myself.

elephantman · 13th August 2004, 12:38 AM

I have been with exetel since they first started which wasnt very long ago, I have had no problems what so ever im very very happy with it, believe it or not I havnt even been disconnected once yet.

Im on 1.5mbit but, my mate is on 512 and hes loving it as much as I am.

Only thing is, if you download over 20 or so gigs in the freetime they put you in the dedicated bandwidth pool with all the other leechers and you get crappy speeds in the free time period

setting up and connection was really quick aswell
you'll love em

bryn · 13th August 2004, 12:23 PM

I've got 3 Exetel services here, at different sites. Never gone down, very very reliable. Cheap to!

With modems, Exetel offers the Netcomm NB5580W for $200, about $100 less then retail....thats a Modem, proper SPI Firewall, 4 Port switch and 802.11g Wireless Access point. Couple of these to, no problems whatsoever. Very happy with them.

xtortion · 13th August 2004, 3:29 PM

Hi guys, well, Exetel it is. Now just the modem. They're selling a Netcomm NB1300+4 (With 4 ethernet ports) for $100. Is that good?

11th August 2004, 10:29 PM	#1
xtortion Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Bankstown Sydney Posts: 3,914	$60 to spend on Broadband Hi guys, I'm here to seek advice on which ADSL provider I need to get. At the moment, I'm currently with OZFORCES dial-up @ $27.50 a month. It's got unlimited downloads and sessions. Now, Reviewing my monthly telephone bills, our local calls payments range from $25 ~ $35 + phone line rental (optus) which is $22. With Broadband prices and plans getting reasonable as time pass, I guess this is the perfect time to switch, not to mention the trouble OZFORCES is giving me. They used to be very reliable but now service has just dropped from 9 to 5 on the scale of 10. With a quick browse on the forum's sticky and Whirlpool, The Exetel 512/128 first my criteria perfectly. Under $60, and 20Gb + Unlimited 12Midnight to 8AM. Now, I use bandwidth quite alot, my monthly OZFORCES stats tells me I average 12Gb of downloads on a 56K connection a month. I download alot of trailers, demos, stream music and play FPS games around 2~3 hours a day, maybe 5 on the weekends. I have a couple of questions to go with which ISP sould I sign up at.. First.. -What is 512/128K like? -What will I benefit besides faster upload on a 512/256 or 512/512 plan? -Searching WP, only Exetel matched my criteria, are there any other ISP that I'm not aware that I should reconsider? -How does 512/128 internet surfing compare to 512/256\|512? IIRC, surfing is considered as a download. -What's a reliable ADSL modem to get? The internet will be shared by 4 machines on which 3 of them will only be used for MSN Messenger, a little bit of surfind and checking emails. Thanks for the help in advance. I will have more questions after I finish dinner. __________________ Got Adobo?

12th August 2004, 1:11 PM	#2
xtortion Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Bankstown Sydney Posts: 3,914	Hi.. __________________ Got Adobo?

12th August 2004, 1:48 PM	#4
kooliez Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Caboolture - Qld Posts: 1,065	id go for internode as your ISP 59.95 per month 512/128 connection, 12Gb DL's dynamic IP (not a great thing imho but some some people like it.) Id go for a Billion 5100 4 port adsl router. They can be had for under $100 new and are quite the beastly little unit... Hope that helps a bit.. Oh, and for surfing/msn/gaming usage, 512/256\|512 is not a great deal better than 512/128. Gaming does benifet but not enough to warrent the price hike. __________________ RIG: Antec 4u22-i3 2130, 32gb ram, 1x 60gb SSD, 2x500gb hdd - Win7 6x17cm MF Panoramic Camera, Light Meter, Film Processor and Film Scanner FOR SALE - $1500

12th August 2004, 2:10 PM	#5
xtortion Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Bankstown Sydney Posts: 3,914	Thats's a pretty good deal GTR, I might have a look if they have 512/128 REAL Unlimited. Kooliez, 12gigs is a bit tight. Ta guys. Anymore should I take into consideration? This will be my first broadband switch. __________________ Got Adobo? Last edited by xtortion; 12th August 2004 at 2:12 PM.

12th August 2004, 2:39 PM	#6
Herbo Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Posts: 8,307	Dude I'd recommend iinet I'm on the $59 a month 512/128k with 12gig peak/12gig off peak. Peak = 8am - 12am, Off peak 12am - 8am. Does me well. recommend the service too as you don't get some bloody indian guy you can't understand on the helpdesks. Cheers. EDIT: Link to the new price lists. __________________ 2nd Place in the EA Play 08 Crysis Tounrnament in Singapore OCAU Weight Training Club Member #3 Over 40 Successful OCAU Trades Last edited by Herbo; 12th August 2004 at 2:39 PM.

12th August 2004, 1:35 PM	#3
GTR Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Sydney Posts: 1,241	Good day Xtortion, Can't give you much information about Exetel. I just joined TPG with their HomeUnlimited 256/64 plan. Its a bargain at $49.95 per month, plus you get a free modem although the setup fee is $129. The modem itself is worth $95 at DSE. Its truely unlimited so there are no speed caps after a certain usage period. I guess if you are doing a lot of gaming, you should opt out for a 512k plan, although 256k is pretty fast anyway.

12th August 2004, 2:49 PM	#7
Rogue Old Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Kellyville NSW Posts: 3,679	Swiftel offer a 512/128 16GB plan with dynamic IP for $55/mth, and are quite a reasonable provider. They even SMS you if there is a network outage! As for modems, I would recommend either a Billion 4 port router or a D-Link 504. Both are very reliable units, have the required 4 ethernet ports, and are not overly expensive. You will not find a 512/256 plan being offered by Telstra or a Telstra wholesale provider. The common formats are 256/64, 512/128 and 1500/256. There is a 512/512 offering, but it is still ADSL, not SDSL, and is well above your $60/mth threshold. __________________ In a perfect world... spammers would get caught, go to jail, and share a cell with many men who have enlarged their penises, taken Viagra and are looking for a new relationship. Power corrupts. Power failure corrupts absolutely.

12th August 2004, 3:13 PM	#8
Tekin Member Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Elsewhere. Posts: 3,636	i'd have a hunt to see if you can get telstra cable. you may not be able too...but if you do, you should be able to get it with a free install. and given the shithouse way their billing system appears to not work, you probably won't get charged for the first few months either. ( i got 3 months free, free install...and the 4 month cost $15...a friend of mine is on his 5 month for free...and he's been telling them!!) none the less. it does have a 10gb cap. but is significantly faster then adsl. the 10gb cap is a bit of an lie as well. i've pulled down close to 20gb each month and only been capped once. sigh they're useless. but it works.

12th August 2004, 5:56 PM	#9
stmok Member Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Sydney Posts: 8,874	Yeah, its because they haven't finished implementing their capper yet, that's why you can pull 20GB. Once it fully kicks in, then you'll see the 10GB usage quite clearly. Although, I find Telstra's cap easier to deal with than Optus's. I own both cables, and when you get capped on Optus, it seems to mess up a few things, pings skyrocket and you have to adjust to 576 on MTU. You also have to deal with the pain of 3.5KB/s! (This is JUST barely livable...Think of a drop of water in the desert.) On Telstra, it doesn't seem to be as bad, pings are still pretty good and the capped speed is higher. (Games a playable and its quite livable...If you can still kill an enemy as before the cap, then everythings cool. ) As for ADSL... I would go for Internode. The service is very good compared to Optus and Telstra. (They do have a smaller customer base, but that often means they can provide a better service when it comes to tech support.) In addition, Internode has made redundancies (backups) in their network, not implemented by Telstra or other ISPs. From my experience in helping a friend install ADSL, Internode is a good ISP to go with. It up to you...Just remember, its not about how much you can download at a price...Its also about good service as well. __________________ "Haters gonna hate." => "I have no logical rebuttal to your criticism so I'm going to say something simple and meaningless to make myself feel better."-crabjokeman from Techreport.com forums. "The politicians don’t just want your money. They want your soul. They want you to be worn down by taxes until you are dependent and helpless."-James Dale Davidson.

12th August 2004, 7:48 PM	#10
PureData Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: _Sydney_ Posts: 263	I just hooked up with Exetel's 512/128 plan. Seems good. I'm used to 2/2 at work so it feels a bit slow, but it's very usable. Much better than dialup (which is what I had at home before). I don't think 512/256 is a valid option. 512/512 would be best when you need to send lots of data both ways, eg, if you run a VPN to your work, you host any servers, and you share the connection with a few people, all of whom use voip. From what you said it's overkill, web surfing and MSN wouldn't be any faster. As for the modem I think any brand would do, you don't need any special features.

12th August 2004, 10:23 PM	#11
xtortion Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Bankstown Sydney Posts: 3,914	Hi again. Thanks guys for the help. I'm looking at Internode and Iinet now. Also browsing for Billion and the D-Link modems. PureData, what's 2/2 and feels a bit slow? Is this on the Exetel 512/128 as well? __________________ Got Adobo? Last edited by xtortion; 12th August 2004 at 10:24 PM.

13th August 2004, 12:08 AM	#12
vinhsta Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Melbournian Posts: 445	I'm with iiNet, their service is great for me, friendly tech support, excellent speeds. I'm on 1500 myself.

13th August 2004, 12:38 AM	#13
elephantman Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: 2111 Posts: 1,574	I have been with exetel since they first started which wasnt very long ago, I have had no problems what so ever im very very happy with it, believe it or not I havnt even been disconnected once yet. Im on 1.5mbit but, my mate is on 512 and hes loving it as much as I am. Only thing is, if you download over 20 or so gigs in the freetime they put you in the dedicated bandwidth pool with all the other leechers and you get crappy speeds in the free time period setting up and connection was really quick aswell you'll love em __________________ I am locust Avatar by Gnato BC2 BF3

13th August 2004, 12:23 PM	#14
bryn Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Sydney Posts: 1,427	I've got 3 Exetel services here, at different sites. Never gone down, very very reliable. Cheap to! With modems, Exetel offers the Netcomm NB5580W for $200, about $100 less then retail....thats a Modem, proper SPI Firewall, 4 Port switch and 802.11g Wireless Access point. Couple of these to, no problems whatsoever. Very happy with them.

13th August 2004, 3:29 PM	#15
xtortion Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Bankstown Sydney Posts: 3,914	Hi guys, well, Exetel it is. Now just the modem. They're selling a Netcomm NB1300+4 (With 4 ethernet ports) for $100. Is that good? __________________ Got Adobo?