What's your Internet connection like?

[admin]

My ISP has just changed it's policies, and now in order to get the service I used to get, I have to pay triple what I did before (and even then, it still isn't the same as before).

Company/Country : I am now on cable, provided by Optus (a telecommunication company). I live in Australia.

Speed Caps : No download speed caps, and an upload speed cap of 128kbps (14 kB/s).

Bandwidth : Unfortunately, there is a new download limit of 3 GB per month (used to be up to 10 times the network average - the average being about 80 MB per day, so up to 800 MB per day was acceptable, which adds up to about 20+ GB per month).

Actual download speed : My download speed ranges from 500-600 kB/s for local downloads, and around 50-100 kB/s for most other downloads (can reach 200 kB/s when downloading from "major" web sites).

Cost : I am paying AUD $70 per month (which is about US $35), including modem rental. If I exceed my monthly bandwidth allowance, my connection is capped to 28kbps - there are no "overuse" fees.

The other major telecommunication company here in Australia (Telstra) offers a similar deal for $87.95 per month, but you pay $0.139 per MB of overuse (that's a hefty AUD $139 per GB!!).

Anyway, I was just wondering what kind of net connection everyone else has, whether I am pretty luck to get the connection I have, or whether I should be jealous of your connection.

[BoF]

arf

56k for a 3 PC network - he he

[Enchanter]

Telstra ADSL (3GB cap - 512/128kbps) and a 56K dial-up connection. Explains everything well enough.

[admin]

Thanks for the replies.

Enchanter : How well does Telstra ADSL work (speed, uptime, etc...) ? I might be moving into an area without Optus nor Telstra cable in the near future, and ADSL may be my only choice for broadband

[techno]

That's unfair!!! poor Admin...that is bad....

tell them that u r famous and they should give u the whole lot for free!

I have a cable modem and will have a T1 connection in maybe a month from now....it's £35 sterling.

[hacker_on_fire]

i got 56k for £15 sterling a month. i think this is a rip off. i live in britain and think everything is more expensive. canada and america are the lucky ones along with scotland from what techno says. all the forementioned places have cheap(er) broadband. in britain to get broadband u have to pay £65 to activate your line, £90 or more for a adsl modem and £10 for phone filters. which in total is £165 + £30 per month for the isp.

so we really have the bad deal, which onyl gives 512kb d-load and 256 upload speeds. so i think other are lucky.

if u need info on broadband take a look at:

https://www.adslguide.org

i wish i had broadband

@Techno what speed is T1 compared to adsl

[techno]

@Hacker:

hmmm....Telewest say it is faster than ADSL!!! - but that I think is bolluks - but then again...that's telewest for u!

[Enchanter]

Ahh, sorry for the late reply, admin. Telstra ADSL works fine for me. The network is hardly down nowadays, now that Telstra has officially promised customers of some sort of rebate (Can't remember exactly how they put it) should the network ever be down. Speed maxes at 55kB/s (as per my plan), though it has always averaged at 12-22kB/s when downloading from overseas servers. I'm very sure Optus cable does give better download speed (I always have difficulty believing those magical download speed numbers that many posters on other forums give).

[admin]

Thanks for the reply Enchanter. I will probably go for an ADSL connection, probably not with Telstra (probably with one of the ASDL resellers). I might get a 5GB/1500/256 plan, since I need a faster uploading speed (I am on 128 kbps right now with optus) and more bandwidth (current 3GB optus is making me too nervous about what I can download, considering I used up about 20% of the limit on the first 3 days of this month because I needed to download a large file).

[Enchanter]

3GB is pitifully small even for a medium downloader. Some US and Canada users say they use 2-3GB in one day. Imagine what kind of heart attack they would get were they to move into Australia.

[Fluffy]

I have IDSL from Speakeasy. 16Kbps up and down. unlimited bandwidth, and totaly reliable (we have had it over a year now and only have had one outage) Unfortunately, its slow, and expensive ($100 a month) The reason for this is that it is outdated technology that ISP's dont really want to support. (its an offshoot of ISDN) We have digital lines in our town ruling out A/SDSL and we are to far away from a CO anyways. so unless we want to go with AT&T broadband and put up with constant outages and terrible technical support, we dont have a choice.

An interesting fact AT&T was supposed to give us Cable modems last july ('01) they have only managed it late this july.

I hate AT&T

[Apnoea]

hacker-

If you'repaying 15 pounds a month already, you might want to pay the extra 5 for adsl! There are apparrently upto 5 places that do adsl @20sterling/month... i only know of pipex though

you pay more startup (but not connection) to buy the microfilter and a router would be about the same price as their modems, so about 100 pounds startup fee & 20/months would do it.

That's a 512k connection i think

I'm not in my country right now, but I get 15 pounds of free voice calls with unlimited net time with NTL. Not the best connection in the world but it does for now. Maybe ADSL when I get back.

Apnoea

[hacker_on_fire]

thanks, i'll check in to.

HoF

[techno]

adsl for £20?????????????????????????????????????

TELL ME NOW B4 I SHOOT UR BRAINS OUT

cause I pay £25 for cable modem and add an xtra 5 I get a T1 connection, but I ain't payin for that, why pay (if) adsl is cheaper?

is that true hacker? ol' buddy, ol' pal?

[techno]

oh, and LOL @ Enchanter

man, ur not makin me stop laughin! LMAO