Internet Service Providers In Victoria

[xALmoN]

There's just 23days left before i fly over, so, i wanna get to sorting out things quick when i arrive, before i start school anyway.

What ISPs do people here use? Their customer service and internet plans?

I need a service that is fast and unlimited bandwidth, well, it doesn't have to be all that fast but 5mbps and above would be preferred. I currently use a 8mbps cable connection in Singapore.

Thanks all in advance!

[Kaz200]

try this:

http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/bc/?action=search&loc=1

whirlpool forums are a good source for all things IT-AUS-related

[blind_elk]

www.westnet.com.au

[alex1991s]

www.tpg.com.au cheap, realiable and fast

[ujin]

hey alvin.. u wont get a deal as good as starhub's cable.. use tpg lol i heard its good!

Edited June 1, 2009 by ujin

[xALmoN]

First of all, thanks to all who replied.

I'll check out westnet and TPG and DingoBlue.

DingoBlue has the fastest and cheapest plan, what do people think of them?

Hey Ken, i'm hoping at least the equivalent of pacnet's 1.5mbps plan, i don't even mind if it's a little more expensive, i need my anime.

Edited June 1, 2009 by xALmoN

[paulr33]

dingoblue? didnt that die in 1992, it was a sub-offshoot from optus from memory?

they had unlimited dialup and went bust. you could dial in once in the month, and the modem would never drop out

it was great back in 1992......

if you want fast and it to just work check out bigpond

its not cheap, but premium service

theres not many unlimited ISP's in australia

[BigDirtyJase]

It all depends on how much you want to spend.

Unlimited plans are hard to find these days

Internode are really good but a bit pricey....but the price you pay you get back in really good customer service and service reliability

if you really want unlimited downloads and don't care about speed (which is highly unlikely) - you can go with dodo - they have 256k unlimted for $45 bucks

*runs away and hides for recommending a dodo plan*

[R31Nismoid]

iinet or internode - the only two i will use.

Both have great customer service, myself and most of my mates have been with iinet for 4-5+ years now

I know too many people that have had issues with the two large Telco's (optus, telstra), and a lot of issues with TPG... Just search whirlpool forums and you'll see how many issues people have with TPG, especially of them artificially clamping your connection for no reason/warning

[FATGTS-R]

Yeah I'm with TPG and during there off peak times when you want to download things the speed mysteriously vanishes.

I can honestly say I have been with them for around 4-5 years I think and I have only had to call customer service about 3-4 times max as it just works. Very slowly at times but it works.

But if you do have to call customer service be prepared for a nightmare. They cant speak english very well and also seem to struggle to read english from there cheat sheets there reading from.

[R31Nismoid]

^ yup pretty much TPG in a nutshell - TPG are KL based support i think, i forget exactly where but its somewhere between KL and India!

The shaping/slowness of the TPG really is annoying i must admit, few years ago i had TPG and they were doing it back then... most people dont care enough though to ring support and abuse em... i need my internet for working from home @ all hours... so its gotta be fast all the time day/night/whenever

[saff_cossie]

I am just going through the process of sussing out new ISP's myself. I have been with netspace for 3 years on and off but have just used my quota for the first time in months so am stuck on crap speed for a few more days!

A guy at work recommended Exetel I think however I have used all my patience loading this page so will check it out tomorrow at work!

[Jap_Muscle]

if ur lookn for unlimited dls you cant go past TPG, because they will be the closest you can get.

150gig for 69 bux or something.

at the end of the day if ur rich and dont care about price, Telstra is always gonna be the fastest expensive as shit but u pay. all providers rout through telstra servers, so it only makes sense that you start at the front of the line rather then at the end.

[R31Nismoid]

150gig's isnt unlimited and for $69... does that include the mandatory phone line connection of $30 as well?

If it does then thats not bad... if it doesnt then i'd take a lesser quota and better service/speed over TPG anyday.

iinet - I get 100gig (40p/60op) a month for $130, that includes the phone line rental for ADSL2+ with uploads NOT counted to my quota, so 100gig/month and i use 100gig/month

Im synced @ 22,000mbps which in ADSL2+ terms is about as fast as one can ever realistically expect.

(well, mate of mine is so ill be the same when im connected this week after moving).

So im expecting around 1.5-1.7Mb/sec download which is exactly what i want from a decent ISP, damn fast internet!

Something i wouldnt get from TPG being a friends mrs (who lives in the same block) has 2+ and isnt getting the speeds as the lovely people @ TPG are artificially capping her and denying it of course

Anyway.. I've been doing some more thinking and here is a different approach, a better on for selecting a ISP in Oz.

Alvin - perhaps letting us know your area, your budget and what you want to use the internet for?

That will help us give you a recommendation on which ISP, which service and so on as there are many factors.

The type of DSL is one factor:

ADSL

ADSL2+

Naked ADSL

Going "Naked ADSL" means your uploads count to your overall quota... which is shit if your using it for torrenting purposes of totally and utterly legal file sharing...

Also to consider, ADSL2+ might not be in your suburb yet (although ive had it in mine for 4 years ... hehe).

If you are after ADSL2+ your ISP of choice might only have limited ports in that exchange which will restrict you to which ISP you can actually use if you WANT ADSL2+

ADSL however i think most urban suburbs should have well and dusted by now, but that is slower than 2+... ADSL is still OK just for general web browsing/email

[Omurru]

I'm looking at getting adsl2+ at the moment (currentley on cable) and looking at either dingoblue or dodo (yes I know i'm ashamed). Does anybody know how the capping works with the unlimited plans on dingoblue, when you read the plan details there are all sorts of things about how torrent ports are capped at certian times etc? Anyway the reason i'm interested in dodo is for the same price as tpg the off peak times are 1am-1pm as opposed to 3am-9am with tpg....

[xALmoN]

Oh yes, i will be living in Blackburn when i come over, postal code 3130.

Thats as far as i know about where i'm living. I will find out when i arrive there, since the owner of my house is my girlfriend's dad and i'm going to be bunking in with my girlfriend.

And basically i will be using it for torrenting.

I'm still not sure about the difference between ADSL and ADSL2+. Whats the difference? Is ADSL2+ an upgraded version of ADSL? As far as i know, they can be run on the same equipment.

[khunjeng]

I just used Bigpond Extreeme. 30Mbps...60gig

costs a lot then again I dont pay for it anyway but its the shit whe you wanna download lots of torrents fast like 10 at a time...its great. I have found the resolution service pretty decent also - most ADSL issues will require a telstra callout anyway! Its also good I have a media centre, a few PCs in different rooms with people doing stuff and doesnt matter whats going on its always fast.

As for the modem, needs to be ADSL2+ compliant its not the same as ADSL. However you might find when you movie in you can get your line speed to 4-8Mpbs on ADSL anyway

[R31Nismoid]

^^ ye Extreme is the shit if you can afford it, only issue is Telstra still haven't unlocked the upload speeds to anyone but businesses for the moment... dirty kents!

The network can support it, yet they lock it

Plus you get the best ping's to overseas with Telstra (always been the case), just the price is even too offensive for even me!

Alvin - Torrenting, IMO ADSL2+, 2+ is basically 700KB-1.2MB / sec download. ADSL is closer to 150-300KB/s.

Plus i believe upload speed is a tad better with 2+

ADSL2+ requires a ADSL2+ compatible router/modem or whatever... you can either get it bundles with the ISP (they will give you one, but youll be on contract) or you can buy your own.

Now, how much do you have to spend per month? And how much do you intend to download per month?

[justin911]

dry your eyes and stay up the extra 2 hours ?

I got tpg nakid dsl recently and its pretty good.. they do torrent shaping (most of the big companies do it except.. telstra/optus) and im downloading right now at like 800kb/s over 3 files.

You want to sign up with a company who has there own equipment in the exchanges like iinet, tpg, internode etc etc... not dodo.. or dingoblue..

I'm looking at getting adsl2+ at the moment (currentley on cable) and looking at either dingoblue or dodo (yes I know i'm ashamed). Does anybody know how the capping works with the unlimited plans on dingoblue, when you read the plan details there are all sorts of things about how torrent ports are capped at certian times etc? Anyway the reason i'm interested in dodo is for the same price as tpg the off peak times are 1am-1pm as opposed to 3am-9am with tpg....

Edited June 1, 2009 by justin911

[R31Nismoid]

lol - or get utorrent and use the scheduler... takes 5seconds to setup.

iinet is 2am-12pm offpeak, so not bad either and 110% do NOT shape torrents