View Poll Results: Which tech do you have ?
FTTP - Fibre baby, the good stuff
7
28.00%
HFC - it's fibre, but ...
1
4.00%
FTTN - the Trunbull special
2
8.00%
FTTC - better than FTTN
1
4.00%
Mobile Broadband - feel the money burn
2
8.00%
ADSL, still
12
48.00%
I'm a luddite.
0
0%
Voters: 25. You may not vote on this poll
So who's on the NBN?
May 10th 2018, 12:49 am
#106
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 14,040
Re: So who's on the NBN?
I wouldn't give a second thought to leaving iiNet, and if Optus give you what you want then all the better. Assuming you are also on FTTC you should be able to work out what speed you are likely to get from what your neighbour achieves. Your $80 should get you 50/20, although as you know, Optus are lagging the practical speeds of the others. The football will only be 720p IIRC.
One thing to bear in mind, phone points will be disconnected and you really want the best, smoothest, most unadulterated copper to your house and to your modem to get the best speeds. In theory you can then connect the wiring from the phone ports to the modem to get those ports working again, but I see little info about people actually doing it. I guess landlines are old tech and most accept only one phone in the house.
One thing to bear in mind, phone points will be disconnected and you really want the best, smoothest, most unadulterated copper to your house and to your modem to get the best speeds. In theory you can then connect the wiring from the phone ports to the modem to get those ports working again, but I see little info about people actually doing it. I guess landlines are old tech and most accept only one phone in the house.
May 10th 2018, 1:00 am
#107
snɐןɔ ʎʇıuɐs
Thread Starter
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 6,558
Re: So who's on the NBN?
For $5 a month, it makes sense for me to keep the number active etc. That was particular true when I was on the Optus network and reception was dodgy. One day I'll get around to getting the PBX working and get all the VoIP connections all routed (including to the mobile).
May 10th 2018, 1:05 am
#108
Crazy Cat Lady
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 65,493
Re: So who's on the NBN?
We have to have a landline. Our mobile reception is fairly shite in the house. My voicemail tells people to call the landline. As soon as we get to the end of the road our mobiles go haywire with texts and missed call alerts. Unfortunately 'Telstra Tech Support' ring the landline a lot but we have a whistle blutacked to the phone now.
May 10th 2018, 1:20 am
#109
snɐןɔ ʎʇıuɐs
Thread Starter
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 6,558
Re: So who's on the NBN?
We have to have a landline. Our mobile reception is fairly shite in the house. My voicemail tells people to call the landline. As soon as we get to the end of the road our mobiles go haywire with texts and missed call alerts. Unfortunately 'Telstra Tech Support' ring the landline a lot but we have a whistle blutacked to the phone now.
Part of keeping the landline is if I get things working properly I should be able to so a similar trick for the landline number - just receiving and making calls on the mobile via the PBX from any route.
May 10th 2018, 1:34 am
#110
Crazy Cat Lady
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 65,493
Re: So who's on the NBN?
There are attempts at "Wifi Calling" to route mobile calls via home wifi - but typical of aussie carriers, they haven't done a good job of it. Can potentially help though if you don't get signal in the house (foil in the roof kills signal strength for me).
Part of keeping the landline is if I get things working properly I should be able to so a similar trick for the landline number - just receiving and making calls on the mobile via the PBX from any route.
Part of keeping the landline is if I get things working properly I should be able to so a similar trick for the landline number - just receiving and making calls on the mobile via the PBX from any route.
May 10th 2018, 2:53 am
#111
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 15,526
Re: So who's on the NBN?
Gave up my landline with this new connection as well, as I've not had a phone connected to my modem in at least 2 years. If your MiL is on a mobile plan in the UK she should be able to call an Aus mobile for the same price as calling a Aus Landline. It works the otherway from Aus like that for most plans thesedays. I'd assume it would be like for like?
Whoops you've got crap mobile connection..... scrub the above....
Last edited by ozzieeagle; May 10th 2018 at 3:04 am.
May 10th 2018, 3:01 am
#112
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 15,526
Re: So who's on the NBN?
I wouldn't give a second thought to leaving iiNet, and if Optus give you what you want then all the better. Assuming you are also on FTTC you should be able to work out what speed you are likely to get from what your neighbour achieves. Your $80 should get you 50/20, although as you know, Optus are lagging the practical speeds of the others. The football will only be 720p IIRC.
One thing to bear in mind, phone points will be disconnected and you really want the best, smoothest, most unadulterated copper to your house and to your modem to get the best speeds. In theory you can then connect the wiring from the phone ports to the modem to get those ports working again, but I see little info about people actually doing it. I guess landlines are old tech and most accept only one phone in the house.
One thing to bear in mind, phone points will be disconnected and you really want the best, smoothest, most unadulterated copper to your house and to your modem to get the best speeds. In theory you can then connect the wiring from the phone ports to the modem to get those ports working again, but I see little info about people actually doing it. I guess landlines are old tech and most accept only one phone in the house.
The Telstra connection I did for a neighbour went into the old phone point. I did have to plug the phone into the modem, same way as the ADSL. One thing I didn't realise with FTTC is you can have active ADSL and FTTC at the same time, through the same phone connection.... at least thats what I've been led to believe. I may give that a burl, just for curiosities sake, before I cut of IInet connection.
One hassle I had overlooked, which was silly, was my 15 or so must have Email contacts which all use my IInet account..... banks/utilities/netflix/racv/citilink etc etc. I can pay IInet 25 bucks a year to keep my address or go through the hassle of getting a new address for all my financial contacts.
May 10th 2018, 3:28 am
#113
snɐןɔ ʎʇıuɐs
Thread Starter
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 6,558
Re: So who's on the NBN?
The Telstra connection I did for a neighbour went into the old phone point. I did have to plug the phone into the modem, same way as the ADSL. One thing I didn't realise with FTTC is you can have active ADSL and FTTC at the same time, through the same phone connection.... at least thats what I've been led to believe. I may give that a burl, just for curiosities sake, before I cut of IInet connection.
One hassle I had overlooked, which was silly, was my 15 or so must have Email contacts which all use my IInet account..... banks/utilities/netflix/racv/citilink etc etc. I can pay IInet 25 bucks a year to keep my address or go through the hassle of getting a new address for all my financial contacts.
May 10th 2018, 3:42 am
#114
Crazy Cat Lady
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 65,493
Re: So who's on the NBN?
Gave up my landline with this new connection as well, as I've not had a phone connected to my modem in at least 2 years. If your MiL is on a mobile plan in the UK she should be able to call an Aus mobile for the same price as calling a Aus Landline. It works the otherway from Aus like that for most plans thesedays. I'd assume it would be like for like?
Whoops you've got crap mobile connection..... scrub the above....
Whoops you've got crap mobile connection..... scrub the above....
May 12th 2018, 2:18 am
#115
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jan 2009
Location: Brisbane
Posts: 20,821
Re: So who's on the NBN?
She threw out her never used mobile at the same time. In fact I think they may have thrown it out one time we were driving to a funeral and they said to call them if we got lost. We got lost, called them to find they'd turned it off. Finally got to the funeral, asked them why they'd turned it off to be told 'oh we don't like to waste the battery so always turn it off after we've used it'. Ok then.
May 21st 2018, 6:03 am
#116
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 15,526
Re: So who's on the NBN?
I'm up and running with Optus on FTTC now. It was an easy install, however they did stuff up the hardware delivery. I only received one part of the connection package, the NBN gizmo that activates the FTTC part of the connection and no Optus modem at first. A tip with Optus is do not bother phoning them. Use Webchat and you will be fine, they respond really fast and take action very quickly if you take that route. To cut a long story short I've connected easily, I do now have two modems though. It also took me quite a while to connect to Optus sport as my Fetch TV connection kept asking to agree to a 15 dollar subscription fee, whilst I waited for them to activiate the service on my Fetch box. Apparently you have to accept the 15 dollar subscription fee and then they refund you automatically on their billing. I've confirmed that on Webchat and will wait and see.
I also did a speedtest as the first thing when I connected. It was around 35mbs. I complained and consquently ended up with a 30 dollar credit to my account. The speed is now running at circa 42mbs.... slightly faster on my Wifi than my Lan connections which is odd in my book....must be a reason for that. I've looked at the advanced settings on the modem and decided to leave well alone LOL. There where settings on the IInet modem that you could tweak easily and they guided you through and gave you information that you could loose packets if you tweaked it at certain levels. Nothing like that on the Optus modem though.
So far so good. I'm very happy with their webchat service, which is as good as IInets phone service.... better really as I've scored 30 dollars back of my first bill, on a speed issue that I only noticed via the speed test rather than any thing I could see on my home connections.
As for the Fetch TV box, I personally recommend It. I think I will get two and ditch my HTPC and plug my harddrives into the boxes. Whilst downloading anything I need via my laptop.
Next step will be this.... will be waiting for my retirement though. Right up the top of my wish list this following gadget. I think everyone will be watching TV on one of these in 10 years time, albeit maybe a different brand.
I also did a speedtest as the first thing when I connected. It was around 35mbs. I complained and consquently ended up with a 30 dollar credit to my account. The speed is now running at circa 42mbs.... slightly faster on my Wifi than my Lan connections which is odd in my book....must be a reason for that. I've looked at the advanced settings on the modem and decided to leave well alone LOL. There where settings on the IInet modem that you could tweak easily and they guided you through and gave you information that you could loose packets if you tweaked it at certain levels. Nothing like that on the Optus modem though.
So far so good. I'm very happy with their webchat service, which is as good as IInets phone service.... better really as I've scored 30 dollars back of my first bill, on a speed issue that I only noticed via the speed test rather than any thing I could see on my home connections.
As for the Fetch TV box, I personally recommend It. I think I will get two and ditch my HTPC and plug my harddrives into the boxes. Whilst downloading anything I need via my laptop.
Next step will be this.... will be waiting for my retirement though. Right up the top of my wish list this following gadget. I think everyone will be watching TV on one of these in 10 years time, albeit maybe a different brand.
May 21st 2018, 6:15 am
#117
Proudly Deplorable
Joined: May 2003
Location: Alloha snack bar
Posts: 24,246
Re: So who's on the NBN?
I'm up and running with Optus on FTTC now. It was an easy install, however they did stuff up the hardware delivery. I only received one part of the connection package, the NBN gizmo that activates the FTTC part of the connection and no Optus modem at first. A tip with Optus is do not bother phoning them. Use Webchat and you will be fine, they respond really fast and take action very quickly if you take that route. To cut a long story short I've connected easily, I do now have two modems though. It also took me quite a while to connect to Optus sport as my Fetch TV connection kept asking to agree to a 15 dollar subscription fee, whilst I waited for them to activiate the service on my Fetch box. Apparently you have to accept the 15 dollar subscription fee and then they refund you automatically on their billing. I've confirmed that on Webchat and will wait and see.
I also did a speedtest as the first thing when I connected. It was around 35mbs. I complained and consquently ended up with a 30 dollar credit to my account. The speed is now running at circa 42mbs.... slightly faster on my Wifi than my Lan connections which is odd in my book....must be a reason for that. I've looked at the advanced settings on the modem and decided to leave well alone LOL. There where settings on the IInet modem that you could tweak easily and they guided you through and gave you information that you could loose packets if you tweaked it at certain levels. Nothing like that on the Optus modem though.
So far so good. I'm very happy with their webchat service, which is as good as IInets phone service.... better really as I've scored 30 dollars back of my first bill, on a speed issue that I only noticed via the speed test rather than any thing I could see on my home connections.
As for the Fetch TV box, I personally recommend It. I think I will get two and ditch my HTPC and plug my harddrives into the boxes. Whilst downloading anything I need via my laptop.
Next step will be this.... will be waiting for my retirement though. Right up the top of my wish list this following gadget. I think everyone will be watching TV on one of these in 10 years time, albeit maybe a different brand.
Short throw projector.
I also did a speedtest as the first thing when I connected. It was around 35mbs. I complained and consquently ended up with a 30 dollar credit to my account. The speed is now running at circa 42mbs.... slightly faster on my Wifi than my Lan connections which is odd in my book....must be a reason for that. I've looked at the advanced settings on the modem and decided to leave well alone LOL. There where settings on the IInet modem that you could tweak easily and they guided you through and gave you information that you could loose packets if you tweaked it at certain levels. Nothing like that on the Optus modem though.
So far so good. I'm very happy with their webchat service, which is as good as IInets phone service.... better really as I've scored 30 dollars back of my first bill, on a speed issue that I only noticed via the speed test rather than any thing I could see on my home connections.
As for the Fetch TV box, I personally recommend It. I think I will get two and ditch my HTPC and plug my harddrives into the boxes. Whilst downloading anything I need via my laptop.
Next step will be this.... will be waiting for my retirement though. Right up the top of my wish list this following gadget. I think everyone will be watching TV on one of these in 10 years time, albeit maybe a different brand.
Short throw projector.
Can you get BBC iplayer on the Fetch box? Kodi?
This device does look good but iplayer and Kodi would be a deal breaker for me. The beauty of a HTPC (windows or Linux) is the ability to stream pretty much everything using a browser
Last edited by Amazulu; May 21st 2018 at 6:24 am.
May 21st 2018, 6:38 am
#118
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 15,526
Re: So who's on the NBN?
No, but I'll use a tablet and and chromecast for the missing services 
More portable as well.
More portable as well.
May 21st 2018, 8:47 am
#119
snɐןɔ ʎʇıuɐs
Thread Starter
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 6,558
Re: So who's on the NBN?
Apparently you have to accept the 15 dollar subscription fee and then they refund you automatically on their billing. I've confirmed that on Webchat and will wait and see.
I also did a speedtest as the first thing when I connected. It was around 35mbs. I complained and consquently ended up with a 30 dollar credit to my account. The speed is now running at circa 42mbs.... slightly faster on my Wifi than my Lan connections which is odd in my book....must be a reason for that.
Next step will be this.... will be waiting for my retirement though. Right up the top of my wish list this following gadget. I think everyone will be watching TV on one of these in 10 years time, albeit maybe a different brand.
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/378750
Personal I've my eye on
for when my bulb dies ($1500).
May 21st 2018, 12:07 pm
#120
Proudly Deplorable
Joined: May 2003
Location: Alloha snack bar
Posts: 24,246
Re: So who's on the NBN?
Personally I'd never trust Optus to not continue billing that $15.
It's Optus, and thus not reliable. Also the time to do a test is around now, in the evening peak, that's when it matters. Also try fast.com - which it based on Netflix and more trustable.
Personally I have a projector and it's good for movies, though you do need decent resolution content. Not sure I'd pay AU$2800 for that one, lots of cheaper options for 1080p (under $1000) including this one that went out of stock PDQ.
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/378750
Personal I've my eye on
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmshFsyE6E0
for when my bulb dies ($1500).
It's Optus, and thus not reliable. Also the time to do a test is around now, in the evening peak, that's when it matters. Also try fast.com - which it based on Netflix and more trustable.
Personally I have a projector and it's good for movies, though you do need decent resolution content. Not sure I'd pay AU$2800 for that one, lots of cheaper options for 1080p (under $1000) including this one that went out of stock PDQ.
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/378750
Personal I've my eye on
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmshFsyE6E0
for when my bulb dies ($1500).