• Welcome to the Green and Gold Rugby forums. As you can see we've upgraded the forums to new software. Your old logon details should work, just click the 'Login' button in the top right.

Internet Service Providers

Status
Not open for further replies.

cheezel

Bill Watson (15)
My bigpond internet contract has finally run out, and it's way too expensive to carry on for what I'm getting.

Currently I'm paying approx $120.00 a month for a home phone no one uses, and for 12GB (allegedly ADSL2, but it's very slow) of data. I've scoured the whirlpool forums for advice and think it's down to either internode or iinet. Has anyone had any experience with either of these? Any others I should be looking at?

Thanks in advance
 

Moses

Simon Poidevin (60)
Staff member
I know a bit about this topic, having worked for OzEmail (now iiNet) in call centre support around the turn of the century, and more recently at Bigpond consulting on a billing system upgrade. I've personally used BBSs (2k), Acess One (28k), Ihug (28k), OzEmail (56k), Bigpond (cable 10M), Internode (wireless 2M), Interode (14M) and TPG (14M) and from my experience would say that every ISP in Australia is cheaper than Bigpond, and all the ones I've used also offer a better service. The vast majority also don't count uploaded data in your quota, something that Bigpond never had a problem doing.

There's a handy plan finder on whirlpool that will let you know the options in your area, sounds like naked ADSL2+ would be the go for you. If you really want a home phone there are other providers that do them cheaply as well. You can't underestimate the value of a quality modem, if you don't own a Bigpond one then I'd buy a Netcomm NB6 for around $90 rather than getting a bundled piece of crap.

The best ISP I've had was Internode, however I switched over to TPG as I was downloading LOTS of linux distributions and spending half the month capped or buying extra data blocks. Now with TPG I'm on a 150GB plan for 69.95. But then again, I had some problems with my port at the exchange and it took TPG about 4 months to fix it, but that was 15 months ago and I haven't had a problem since.
 

RugbyFuture

Lord Logo
dads a head computer guy, yet still refuses to change from bigpond, but when looking iinet get the best reviews, with TPG, aapt and Bigpond the worst, thats from general industry knowledge too
 

Moses

Simon Poidevin (60)
Staff member
If ISPs were stores, this is how I would group them

David jones: Internode, Optus, iinet
Big W; TPG, Exetel, iPrimus
Franklins: Dodo
7 Eleven: Bigpond
 

James Buchanan

Trevor Allan (34)
I use internode and I am extremely happy with their service. They are not the cheapest ISP on the market but they have several positive qualities which I find very useful at times. My exposure to them was due to their focus on internet gaming, which requires quality over quantity, which sums up internode very well in my mind.

The majority of their plans do not count uploads, which is nice. They generally don't do the peak/off peak thing either, so while you tend to get less total GB per month from them than you would from their competitors it is usable whenever, which generally means you get more peak downloads. As I've mentioned, my experience with them has suggested that they provide a high quality service with very little downtime. One feature that seems unique to their service that I really like is what they call 'data blocks' - extra downloads that you can purchase for each individual month on an ad hoc basis (eg: if I find myself in a situation where I am going to be capped with a week to go and absolutely need top speed internet for that week because of uni assignments or the like, I can purchase an extra 2, 5, 10 or more GB for that month). Every experience I have had with their technical support staff has been absolutely top rate too, they're always knowledgeable, polite and understandable and they often go the extra mile - one time when my mobile died mid tech support call, they rang me back 3 times, trying to get back in touch with me. Oh, and one thing you may appreciate (coming from Bigpond) is that they tend not to lock you into contracts.

I haven't looked into what iinet provides recently because I've been so happy with internode. However, when I was looking a couple of years ago, they seemed to use the peak/off peak model which means that you get more total downloads per month, if that is what you are looking for. From what I have heard from several friends, they provide a generally good service - although not of the quality I have experienced with internode; although they do have a similar quality connection.

So yeah, I recommend internode; they're very good. IInet will give you more downloads but less flexibility - but if you're really looking for *lots* of downloads, from what I have heard you can't go past TPG (who's quality of connection is not quite as good but you do get ALOT of data each month).
 

Moses

Simon Poidevin (60)
Staff member
Well said James, I agree with everything you've said up until the TPG connection being inferior. I've found that it gets the same speed as Internode at my place, just you're pretty much on your own if there is a problem.

Two more positives for Intenode
- they have a call centre based in Adelaide (Manilla for TPG / Bigpond, India for many others)
- their senior technician Mark Newton is fiercely opposed to Conroy's filter and active on twitter: http://twitter.com/newtonmark

Lots of info in the annual whirlpool survey comparing the top 20, well worth a look:
http://whirlpool.net.au/survey/2009/
 

James Buchanan

Trevor Allan (34)
Moses said:
Well said James, I agree with everything you've said up until the TPG connection being inferior. I've found that it gets the same speed as Internode at my place, just you're pretty much on your own if there is a problem.

Never used them, I only go on what I hear. When I was more heavily involved in online gaming TPG was synonymous for unreliable though.
 

Moses

Simon Poidevin (60)
Staff member
I suspect they all use the same equipment in the exchange, I guess a rule of thumb could be if you can fix stuff yourself and need a massive quota then look at TPG.
 

James Buchanan

Trevor Allan (34)
My WAN network engineering knowledge is admittedly limited so I dunno.

It may have to do with usage loads etc... TPG may be more willing to run closer to 100% of their bandwidth than others. it really doesn't matter for most users, but if you're dealing with something which is ping or connection sensitive, they've historically been a bit dodgy. This may have been rectified though. I know people who are very happy with what they get from TPG (and iPrimus).
 

rsea

Darby Loudon (17)
cheezel said:
My bigpond internet contract has finally run out, and it's way too expensive to carry on for what I'm getting.

Currently I'm paying approx $120.00 a month for a home phone no one uses, and for 12GB (allegedly ADSL2, but it's very slow) of data. I've scoured the whirlpool forums for advice and think it's down to either internode or iinet. Has anyone had any experience with either of these? Any others I should be looking at?
Thanks in advance
I've been with iinet on naked service for about 3 years.
Previously with Westnet for about 6 years

iinet tech support is excellent.
Price is competitive
Reliability is excellent

Whoever put up that chart before relating service providers to chain retailers has NFI
 

James Buchanan

Trevor Allan (34)
rsea said:
Whoever put up that chart before relating service providers to chain retailers has NFI

:nta: He's the bloke responsible for the technical aspects of this site. I'd imagine he has some clue about the state of things internetty.
 

Moses

Simon Poidevin (60)
Staff member
rsea said:
iinet tech support is excellent.
Price is competitive
Reliability is excellent

Whoever put up that chart before relating service providers to chain retailers has NFI
It was a joke, however I take it you disagree with iinet being grouped with Internode and Optus and being likened to David Jones who I see as offering premium product and service and charging a premium price.
 

cheezel

Bill Watson (15)
Thanks for all of the info, it's been quite a learning curve.

I found out our exchange only has adsl2 available with
iiNet
Netspace
Primus
Telsta

So it looks like iiNet on a naked plan. The internet being down for 10-20 days won't impress the girlfriend, but cheap voip calls to QLD should win her over.

Thanks again
 

cheezel

Bill Watson (15)
The guy on the phone said 10-20 days. I'm hoping it's a maximum to avoid complaints rather than the average time it takes.

I do like the freezone Super 14 too Brumby Jack, they seem to have every Australian game each week which is pretty awesome.
 

rsea

Darby Loudon (17)
Moses said:
10 to 20 days??? Seems like a hell of a long time...
Apologies. Sense of humour failure I guess
10 to 20 days is a crazy long time but its is pretty accurate for naked
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top