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| What company is the fastest ISP in Australia; Internet Providers | |
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| Topic Started: May 9 2009, 03:40:34 PM (3,375 Views) | |
| jasperbell_cam | May 9 2009, 03:40:34 PM Post #1 |
True Blue Mate
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Does anyone know what the fastest ISP provider is the fastest? Or do they all run at the same speed? |
  
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| dave2006 | May 9 2009, 08:34:55 PM Post #2 |
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True Blue Mate
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http://whirlpool.net.au/ is a good place to research this question. |
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| TerritorianTori | May 9 2009, 10:24:08 PM Post #3 |
Dance to disco
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 Whirlpool is a great site with lots of info, and very knowledgeable people in the forums. |
 South Texas to the Northern Territory - since 2004 I'm a huge fan of... Angry Video Game Nerd | The Big Bang Theory | Doctor Who | Pet Shop Boys | Yanks Down Under ~ Americans living in Australia Avatar by Sketch Shop Boys | |
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| Lisa66 | Jun 15 2009, 12:54:48 AM Post #4 |
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True Blue Mate
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FWIW, at my [small - but in a close-in area on a major rd with lots of other offices] office, we have Optus, and it drops ALL. THE. TIME. At home [residential area just a block from a shopping centre on a major rd] we have ii.net and it ROCKS. Never have a problem. Not sure if the issue at work is us or them ... but it leaves me assuming that ii.net is the bees knees. Not sure if this is corroborated on the Whirlpool forum ... I assume so, based on anecdotal info ... |
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| TerritorianTori | Jun 15 2009, 01:33:22 PM Post #5 |
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Dance to disco
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Well, I'm perhaps not the most unbiased source when it comes to Obtuse (Optus), so I'll leave THAT one alone  ... but we were with iinet for 3 years and absolutely no problems. I suppose it can also depend on the lines/service availability in your area.
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South Texas to the Northern Territory - since 2004 I'm a huge fan of... Angry Video Game Nerd | The Big Bang Theory | Doctor Who | Pet Shop Boys | Yanks Down Under ~ Americans living in Australia Avatar by Sketch Shop Boys | |
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| gpierce | Jun 15 2009, 06:00:22 PM Post #6 |
True Blue Mate
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Generally Cable modem will be faster than even ADSL2+, regardless of provider. I just switched from Telstra Cable modem to TPG ADSL2+ because I wanted a better plan $/Gig ratio. With Telstra I could get about 18Mbps with my download accelerators, but only about 8Mbps with my TPG connection. That's OK I can live with it for 50 GB per month, plus free VOIP calls to all of Australia land lines. Their international rate is very good too, I call the US for .0199 cents a minute with a .10 connect fee. I had to buy their ADSL modem to get this service, but will get this back in call costs. Greg Greg |
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| Del Mar | Jun 26 2009, 01:14:17 AM Post #7 |
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Anklebiter
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The first order of business is what is available at your particular home address. Having just moved into our home two weeks ago, we have just gone through all of this. Most of the major providers, you can type in your address and they will let you know what is available to your home. Our home only has the option at present of Optus Cable, none of the ADSL+2 providers service our specific street. The next shocker here, is that you are limited to X-amount of bandwidth as there are no true unlimited pipelines of bandwidth like in the States! Some plan advertise unlimited, but it is a bit deceitful. Lets say you are on a 20gig a month plan, when you reach 20gig of useage in that month, your bandwidth pipeline speed is WHACKED down to anywhere from 256k to 128K and then it is "unlimited. Anyway. We get 15 megabit downloads on Optus cable and about 1.2 up. Hope that helps. We use Magic Jack for all of our States calls and have for quite a while. Just re-up'd Magic Jack for $59 for 5 years, so $12 a year for unlimited calls to and from the States. |
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| JasonP27 | Jul 1 2009, 07:11:34 PM Post #8 |
Yacker
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Optus was not available in my area, though I see it advertised on Channel 9 here in QLD all the dang time. When I arrived here my Aussie girlfriend had the Bigpond Wireless 3G Broadband Internet plan (Bigpond/Telstra). When she signed up for the Bigpond Wireless the guy at the Telstra shop told her nothing else, other than dial-up, was available to her. The guy also told her if something else became available that she could switch to a different plan for free. To get the advertised price she had to switch her land-line phone to Telstra of course. This guy was an idiot. First, he messed up switching the phone to Telstra, so after waiting the initial waiting period of 21 days she was told it would take another 21 days if she wanted to keep her existing phone number. He also was wrong when he said she could switch plans for free. You can only upgrade your plan for free, not downgrade. Cable is still not available, but ADSL is now. So when we switched to ADSL2+ with BigPond recently, we faced sending in a form to try to avoid the $270 cancellation fee, which luckily we didn't have to pay. Now, all I can do is tell you how the service and speeds are for both BigPond Wireless and BigPond ADSL2+ in my area (Booval, near Ipswich, QLD). I thought that the Wireless 3G had a max down speed of 3 or 4 Mbps, but when I did a speed test I got actual speeds near 4Mbps, so it must be a higher maximum speed than that. The ADSL2+ with BigPond says speeds of up to 20 Mbps, but if you look at their website they say that 50% or more will achieve speeds of 10 Mbps or greater. We must be in the other 50% of course. However, it is faster than the Wireless 3G and we get more bandwidth for the same price. Here are the results of the Speedtest.net speedtests I did before and after switching: Wireless 3G:   ADSL2+:   Hope this helps you! |
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| Del Mar | Jul 3 2009, 12:15:55 AM Post #9 |
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Anklebiter
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Here is what we get on Optus Cable. I was at 22mbit down and 2.2 up in San Diego, so this isn't too bad at all.
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| gpierce | Jul 3 2009, 10:48:00 PM Post #10 |
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True Blue Mate
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My ADSL on TPG:
Edited by gpierce, Jul 3 2009, 10:55:11 PM.
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| Joesta | Jul 4 2009, 06:05:43 PM Post #11 |
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Piker
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I'm from Melbourne and joined Optus adsl2+ not long ago. I was only getting 1.70Mb/s on speedtest.net. I've since changed to Telstra Bigpond Cable:  The results speak for themselves! |
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| nomadbb | Jul 4 2009, 06:12:40 PM Post #12 |
True Blue Mate
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Cable on Telstra (12MB Liberty plan). Upload is serious crap  , but download isn't bad. 
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| gpierce | Jul 4 2009, 10:27:49 PM Post #13 |
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True Blue Mate
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Dude, that's seriously awesome speed. I had Bigpond for a while, and the best I could really do with actual downloads was about 14 Mbps, and that was with a download manager. Speedtest.net showed higher than that. I get about 6 Mbps with a download manager on TPG ADSL. However, with Bigpond my plan was 25 Gig a month, then rate limited to 64K for about $90 a month. On TPG, I get 25 peak, 25 off peak, plus 500 free VOIP minutes a month to Australian landlines. That equates to about 50 calls a month, all for $50 per month. They don't have that plan anymore though. Had it for a couple months now, now complaints. Greg |
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| TerritorianTori | Jul 4 2009, 11:11:08 PM Post #14 |
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Dance to disco
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Ladies and gents, we have a winner!  ...although, honestly, I would rather walk on burning hot fire coals than sell my soul to the BigPond, superfast speeds or no! Really, I'm jealous of all of you. There is no ADSL2+ where I live. And it shows:   
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South Texas to the Northern Territory - since 2004 I'm a huge fan of... Angry Video Game Nerd | The Big Bang Theory | Doctor Who | Pet Shop Boys | Yanks Down Under ~ Americans living in Australia Avatar by Sketch Shop Boys | |
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| Joesta | Jul 5 2009, 02:38:48 AM Post #15 |
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Piker
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Greg, I'm on the same plan that you used to be on, 25gb for $90 on the Telstra Cable Extreme. However I have the first 9 months for half price for bringing my home phone with telsta and signing up for online billing. If I get a mobile phone with Telstra they will give me a further 3 months half price. So at the moment i'm happy with $45 a month for 25Gb at fast speeds. Once the half price offer finishes I will prob drop down to the $60 plan. I would have been happy with 6Mb/s on ADSL2+ but I couldn't get it, even happier now with Cable. Sounds like you got a pretty good deal with TPG anyway. Joe |
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| minx | Jul 5 2009, 02:39:01 AM Post #16 |
True Blue Mate
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Dang, Tori!  I thought mine was slow, but judging from this thread, I'm not too bothered anymore.
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| Joesta | Jul 5 2009, 02:44:53 AM Post #17 |
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Piker
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Bigpond have been really good. I was with them 3 years ago and was only getting speeds of 8.33Mb/s which was still good. It took over 2 years before I had my first dropout which annoyed me. They must have improved something since then because the speeds now are way faster. It's only been a couple of weeks, but no dropouts yet. Cross my fingers. If they become available in your area I would recommend them to you. |
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| JasonP27 | Jul 5 2009, 05:03:26 PM Post #18 |
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Yacker
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looks like I started a trend with this thread and the Speedtest.net tests It really makes it much more helpful to see the results of actual speed tests... I could see people changing their plans because of information gathered in this thread |
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