TPG Internet any experience
 

Hi all we have finally secured a rental in Caboolture and travel there next week (were in Adelaide at he moment) so I am looking at Broadband deals we were quite heavy users in the UK so we are looking at TPG Internet they offer 50gig for $49.99 just wondering if anyone has any experience of them or any simular deals I should know about.

Why is ther a data limit anyway why can't they do it like the UK so much easier:sneaky:

If anyone has any advice on land line and Mobiles I would be interested too.:thumbup:

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

We have tpg it's good no problems here :thumbsup:

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

We have TPG ADSL2 and its good:

Good fast speed - (we get 14Mbs down , 700kbs up and a ping of 25ms and are 2km from the exchange).

We have a 40Gb/110Gb plan which is plenty (have ONCE used all 40Gb, but never got even close to using the 110off peak since off-peak is only 3am-9am?).

The only thing I will say is tha I've recently started getting "Cease & Decist" letters forwarded from MAFIAA for some BitTorrent activity so obviously I need to take more measures to protect myself from potential prosecution!

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

iinet are meant to be good too.

a good site here:

http://www.comparebroadband.com.au/?...FQ0xawod01d-TA

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

Oops! You can get a bit of software that covers up your torrent activity...

I'm not sure what it is, but Hutch could prob tell you.

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

peerguardian is the software but nothing really keeps you safe. iinet currently doesn't forward the C&D notices.

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

Yeah I've been a bit slack with my security lately (servers dying and being rebuilt, its all been a bit hurried) - 'Peersafe' and 'Peerguardian' programs do hide your details from some malicious lawmen - but are certainly not foolproof. I'm exploring a few different avenues of obfuscation now:

1) IP Blockers (as mentioned above - not foolproof as the list of 'bad guys' is ALWAYS out of date)
1) Internationaly hosted proxies (there's a mob in Uraguay, one in Sweden who look potentialy interesting - might have to read up on Uruguayan law though to see how they regard privacy!!)
2) Usenet rather than BitTorrent (just a plain old fashioned download, so no need to expose my ip address to ANYONE)

..and of course I'm keeping my eyes open for developments in how to stay ahead in the digital rights arms race! :p

yeah - until their legal case is heard. Until thats resolved (and that could be YEARS) - all bets are off as to how ISPs are going to handle this problem! They certainly dont want to discourage heavy downloaders or they wouldnt be able to sell their more expensive data plans, but they also dont want to expose themselves to unnecessary legal risk.
Interesting times ahead for sure. One thing's for certain, TV networks cant win if they 'switch off' the internet tommorow I still wouldnt watch anything on 7, 9, or 10!!!

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

TPG is cheaper but you get what you pay for. They are often the only ADSL2+ provider other than Hellstra. I still stick with Node on DSL1 rather than go with either of those ISPs.

For options goto www.whirlpool.net.au and put in your phone number.

IINet have good reputation as well.

I ran foul of TPG service a long time ago.

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

p2p only exists because its cheaper than shared servers or paid usenet services. If the ISP kill p2p, then the networks would be more conjested with full bandwidth usenet downloads.

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

We're with PGTips, or whatever it's called :p and has been all good so far.

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

I've been with TPG since the days of steam dial up. Prior to that I was with three other ISPs. Have found TPG to be solid and dependable but they do seem to be a bit slow to adapt to new technology. They have no idea about naked internet or wireless internet for travellers.

Most of their staff seem to have a very high level of technical competency but English is not generally their first language, I usually get some most peculiar replies to my e-mails. Mind you that sort of thing happens in MacDonalds when I place a simple order for just a cup of tea to someone who's only language is English.

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

The ISP does not care either way because the congestion will happen at their end either way. The volume of download is the same.

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

Yhanks everyone for the replies looks good then apart from the issues with torrents but there are ways around I suppose if you were to do such a thing ;)

Is it like the UK in the sense that you have to have a land line?

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

Yes and No.....

You can have

1) a land line with telephone and ADSL
2) A land line, no telephone and ADSL ( Naked ADSL )
3) Wireless 3G. (Vodaphone, virgin , 3 ) This is getting cheaper and lots of people are opting for it as its a usb doggle you can use on the move etc.

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

Yes - and theres a trick to this too.

Officialy you can only have a 'shared service' on your telstra line if you have the "HomeLine Complete" phone plan (or higher) costing $27.95 a month. Any attempts to add an ADSL service to a "Home Budget" phone plan ($20.95 pm) will be met with scorn.

The thing to to do is get the Homeline complete, get ADSL all set up and running correctly - then phone Telstra and ask to be transferred to the budget plan. They will winge, moan and remind you that you 'cant' run ADSL on this service, but if you perservere (and dont tell them you intend to continue using ADSL) they will bill you less.

Telstra have data privacy issues the ACCC (Australian Consumer Commision C????) have dictated that internet and phone divisions must NOT divulge customer information to each other without consent and the phone line part of the business CANNOT determine that you have an ADSL service running on the line. As long as you dont tell them there is no way for this to go wrong.

... When I first heard this plan I was sceptical to say the least, but sure enough I now have ADSL2+ service running on a Homeline Budget phone line - so it does work!



(TPG last time I looked didnt have any "Naked DSL" plans - and those that *did* offer naked plans on my exchange had 'double-dip metering' which for me was a deal breaker!)

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

I have this running too - Home Budget with Telstra and ADSL2+ with Internode. I would certainly recommend Internode for your broadband service for two very important reasons:

1) They don't meter upstream traffic, which most other ISPs seem to do
2) Internode have declined to take part in the Federal Government's ludicrous internet censorship filtering trial.


S

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

I had a client with tpg and found their customer service/tech support team absolutely hopeless.

I am with internode and cannot praise them highly enough

Vivienne

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

With TPG....couldn't get ADSL2, so ASDL which is OK. Not had any problems. Have VOIP with them too...free calls to Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane etc. Spoke to their customer support & found them very helpful. They were recommended to me & I have in turn recommended them.

:thumbsup: from us

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

My VOIP is with mynetfone. If you are a member of www.whirlpool.net,au you have access to a few different accounts not published to general public.

I pay $5 and get free untimed calls Austalia-wide AND UK (amongst other contries)... well worth it.

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

We just took the basic Telstra home budget plan and it wasn't a problem....no questions asked.....

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

Is VOIP the way to go? I've been using Telstra and hardly use my phone yet it's costing me in line rental etc every month. It's an expense I want to get rid of.

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

You could move to a naked package, but they are more expensive, and the additional expense usually only offsets the saving in not having a phone line.


S

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

So not worth doing then? Sorry. Bit of a phone numpty.

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

It's all pretty much of a muchness. Having a look at the costs with Internode:

Extreme ADSL2+, 25 Gb download limit, no upstream limit

Regular Naked

$59.95 $69.95

So a saving of $10/month already, though the minimum VOIP charge is $5/month, for $10 worth of calls, so the real saving is only $5.

An alternative is to get any friends to use Gmail, and just use the Googletalk Voice and Video application, and chat using that for free.

So I keep my landline, as it occasionally comes in handy. I never answer it though.


S

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

Yes I keep asking them but I'm afraid all my family are techno numpties so they don't do it. Even Skype seems too hard for them. :(

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

I was just looking at the Home Budget Plan page and it says :


'HomeLine® Budget customers agree not to acquire services from other carriage service providers by dialing their access override code and must not acquire a broadband service from another service provider which is provided using line sharing technology.'


So how are you guys getting round that?

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

Erm, ignoring it?


S

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

:teeth_smile:


Ok! And there are obviously no repercussions! Cool!

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

I use an international calling card to make all my UK/USA calls, and I use Internode as my broadband provider.

Did it at my last house, for the last 14 months, and nobody has mentioned anything.



S

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

Well no harm in trying!

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

Sorry, that should have read last 14 months, not 114.

But, as you say, no harm in trying, and if they get sweaty, then clear off to Optus.


S

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

Ok. :D Thanks. I'm just chatting with them now trying to sort it. They're reluctant to transfer me due to my BigPond account they tell me. Hmmmmm.

I've asked to speak to someone in the know ....

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

Perhaps I'm not using Line Sharing Technology....what ever that is :lol: I just asked for the most basic installation and got TPG to connect ADSL....hasn't been a problem yet.

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

We keep a Telstra line as our VoiP (which comes with our TPG ADSL2) does not allow calls to 13 or 1300 or 1800 Numbers etc. we still find a need to call them for insurance companies, gov agencies & the like and also mobile calls are vey expensive.
We love $49.95 plan which includes $20 of VoiP calls (or 500 mins) to all cities in AU for 10c untimed anytime & it covers international calls too
We find we haven't actually had a phone bill worth mentioning since we signed up

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

I spoke quite highly about TPG in my first post but was reminded of an ongoing problem on Saturday. ADSL was down, probably not their fault because I found out later that other ISPs in our area were also down. I phoned TPG Help Desk, it doesn't open until 9:00 a.m., had to listen to the recording several times to understand what they were saying, eventually pressed button 1 and was told "There are no known service issues" so then I pressed button 2 to go to the Help Desk and got the message "Due to the influx of calls we are unable to assist you with your enquiry". Clearly there was a serious major problem and they did know about it because they had turned message 2 on but they didn't have the courtesy to tell their customers on message 1. This has happened many times when there has been a major problem, it would be very simple to put a message on their system to tell us all that ADSL is down, not a hard thing to do but they do not seem to have the skills to handle that simple task. I have written to them but if past experience is anything to go by they'll ignore the problem and send their standard letter saying "we apologise for any inconvenience caused".

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

Sounds like a good reason to use a different voip provider to me - I have no problems calling ANY number from the mynetfone account (apart from, for some bizarre reason Pizza Hut - but I've got around that by having our local stores number programmed into the phones address book now!). And being able to call anywhere in the world for untimed at zero cost (apart from $5 a month) is just a winner. We went from a $50 as month to a $5 a month phone bill when we switched! -

Also As soon as we dropped the landline we got ZERO telemarketing calls, not one, NADA - for 30 months now!!!:thumbsup:

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

TPG are in the top 10 ISP's for complaints to the TIO:

http://apcmag.com/named_and_shamed_t...about_isps.htm

Might also be worth doing a search on here before signing up:

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-threads.cfm?f=90

Re: TPG Internet any experience
 

Without trying to defend anything at all - to be in the 'top 10 ISP' list in this country isnt too hard - and given that TPG would be the 4th? biggest in the country it'd be nothing short of AMAZING if they werent in the top 10 for complaints....

Honestly compared with Telstra ANYONE is better, and TPG do offer some very competitvely priced low cost plans... That low cost might come at the expense of quality support, but the old "pay peanuts, get monkeys" addage might be appropriate here.

Perhaps I've been lucky - but my TPG service has been flawless.... (I've never needed to call their support)