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fan4collingwood
Joined: 17 May 2002 Location: Seaford Rise , Adelaide SA Australia
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Post subject: Home phone, Broadband and wireless laptop plans | |
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I am thinking of changing my internet provider. I am now on un unlimited Broadband plan with Home phone and this cost me around $100 a month. I have a PC and a laptop that has wireless connection, that I can only use at home.
I want to be able to use the laptop away from home, while on holidays, but don't want to pay big bucks for this.
I have heard about those USB Cards you can insert in the laptop, but not sure of the cost or how they work. Or do you just take your modem with you when you go on holidays?
Any suggestions or recomendations on good plans around at the moment? _________________ Kaylene.
Member of the SA Magpies, http://samagpies.magpies.net
Official Supporters’ Group of the Collingwood Football Club |
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noddy,
Joined: 21 Nov 2006 Location: sydney
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kaylene - whirlpool is a good site for researching broadband plans:
http://www.whirlpool.net.au/
iinet and internode (SA company) are generally considered to be good isp's, although i think that internode recently jacked their prices up.
don't know much about portable wireless devices. wireless notebook cards apparantly work well, but you're right, you would need to know about costs before getting into it.
other portable solutions are things like "unwired" but i have a feeling they are limited in that they only work in some capital cities. _________________ i like beer. |
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Syd_Magpies_Girl
The Russell Street Pole Dancing Bogan
Joined: 08 Feb 2007
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I highly recommend iiNet!!!
Unwired is proven to be a rip off, and not exactly the most reliable service. Wireless cards are good, but how are you going to set this up? Are you going to have a main pc in your home set up via a broadband phone line, then a laptop with a wireless router, or different to that? _________________ Insert useless signature here -----> |
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005 Location: In flagrante delicto
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I'm with Telstra and have wireless broadband at home which I can connect to with a laptop using the inbuilt wireless connection.
You can use the same thing at wireless hotspots around the place without any extra gear.
If you want complete mobility, Telstra also has the Next G wireless USB modem which gives you the same coverage as you would have with your mobile phone.
Don't know what the pricing plans are though.
Whirlpool is a good place to compare ISP's I agree, they don't like Bigpond very much because they count uploads in your download limit. _________________ Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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Proud Pies
Joined: 22 Feb 2003 Location: Knox-ish
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stui magpie wrote: | I'm with Telstra and have wireless broadband at home which I can connect to with a laptop using the inbuilt wireless connection.
You can use the same thing at wireless hotspots around the place without any extra gear.
If you want complete mobility, Telstra also has the Next G wireless USB modem which gives you the same coverage as you would have with your mobile phone.
Don't know what the pricing plans are though.
Whirlpool is a good place to compare ISP's I agree, they don't like Bigpond very much because they count uploads in your download limit. |
And Optus have just launched a new plan which also counts uploads and other ISP's are thinking of doing the same due to the high amount of uploads to things like Myspace and UTube. _________________ Jacqui © Proud Pies 2003 and beyond |
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Syd_Magpies_Girl
The Russell Street Pole Dancing Bogan
Joined: 08 Feb 2007
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I'd be careful with Optus though. My parents were with them for a long time til recently, and continuously had issues with the service dropping out, not to mention, their crappy customer service centre.
Telstra are also very expensive, but are usually most up to date with their services. _________________ Insert useless signature here -----> |
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Proud Pies
Joined: 22 Feb 2003 Location: Knox-ish
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most expensive and over-rated service is from Telstra......they charge for every little thing. Whirlpool are quite right in their assessments of Telstra's BigPond.
yes, yes, i'm with them too, i know, but where i live, i can't get anything else. _________________ Jacqui © Proud Pies 2003 and beyond |
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005 Location: In flagrante delicto
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Expensive is relative, I pay $70 a month for the fastest cable they have, slowed down (throttles) after 10 gig with no extra charges. _________________ Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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David
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003 Location: Andromeda
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We're with TransACT. I've been running into problems recently because I want to download movies, but I'm not sure what our download limit is, or what happens if I exceed that (my Dad doesn't seem to know anything about it either).
So yeah broadband kind of confuses me _________________ All watched over by machines of loving grace |
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Syd_Magpies_Girl
The Russell Street Pole Dancing Bogan
Joined: 08 Feb 2007
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David wrote: | We're with TransACT. I've been running into problems recently because I want to download movies, but I'm not sure what our download limit is, or what happens if I exceed that (my Dad doesn't seem to know anything about it either).
So yeah broadband kind of confuses me |
What gets me is that ACT is the Capital of this country, but their broadband and FOXTEL servicing is CRAP! _________________ Insert useless signature here -----> |
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eddiesmith
Lets get ready to Rumble
Joined: 23 Nov 2004 Location: Lexus Centre
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Syd_Magpies_Girl wrote: | I'd be careful with Optus though. My parents were with them for a long time til recently, and continuously had issues with the service dropping out, not to mention, their crappy customer service centre.
Telstra are also very expensive, but are usually most up to date with their services. |
But Telstras customer service was non existant, not there on weekends and shut by 6 each night
Although just looking at their website they have rectified this problem at long last
When i get my new laptop this week I will probably look for a new internet provider as well with wireless |
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005 Location: In flagrante delicto
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Dunno when that was Eddie, the Bigpond service centres have been open last and on weekend for years. _________________ Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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eddiesmith
Lets get ready to Rumble
Joined: 23 Nov 2004 Location: Lexus Centre
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stui magpie wrote: | Dunno when that was Eddie, the Bigpond service centres have been open last and on weekend for years. |
The customer service was not open a couple of months ago on weekends, the bill said only Mon-Fri 8-6 and I tried them and got that message they were shut |
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member34258
Joined: 05 Nov 2006
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stui magpie wrote: | Expensive is relative, I pay $70 a month for the fastest cable they have, slowed down (throttles) after 10 gig with no extra charges. |
My friend! You are being ripped.
I pay $79.95 per month for 1500/264 20/20 GB!
Thats 20Gb betweem 7am and midnight and 20Gb from midnight to 7am.
Throttled if you go over the limit, but only throttled for the 20Gb that you have broken.
http://www.netspace.net.au/
http://www.netspace.net.au/broadband/plans.php
Been with this mob for over 2 years and they are excellent. Never had an outage, never had a tech problem.
I pity anyone who are with Telstra. As soon as you can get the hell out of your contract. |
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Joel
Joined: 23 Mar 1999 Location: Mornington Peninsula
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I highly recommend Internode for home broadband.
I'm on ADSL 2+ 20G, which costs $60. However, this is only available at exchanges with Internode equipment installed in them.
Internode recently raised their prices on most plans, but you will get highly reliable Internet.
Really do your reasearch, and definitely read Whirlpool. I chose Internet based on my research via Whirlpool.
Make sure you checkout Broadband Choice on whirlpool: http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/
You can do a plan search. See what suits you then either post back here, or in the the 'Choosing an ISP' forum on Whirlpool: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-threads.cfm?f=92
For wireless coverage around Australia, you will have to choose someone like Telstra (NextG)for complete coverage. Though, they are expensive. There are alternatives but the coverage isn't as good.
Btw, if you have the right hardware, you can take advantage of VOIP (voice over internet protocol) which allows you to makes calls over the net. Like I said, you need the right hardware. With Internode I pay 18c for untimed local and national (STD) calls. Calling other people with Internode VOIP (Nodephone) costs nothing. I call family and friends with Nodephone
for as long as I want for free.
http://www.internode.on.net/ |
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