Home phone, Broadband and wireless laptop plans

fan4collingwood · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 11:23 am

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?

noddy, · Joined: 21 Nov 2006 Location: sydney

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.

Syd_Magpies_Girl · The Russell Street Pole Dancing Bogan Joined: 08 Feb 2007

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?

stui magpie · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 1:45 pm

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.

Proud Pies · Joined: 22 Feb 2003 Location: Knox-ish

Syd_Magpies_Girl · The Russell Street Pole Dancing Bogan Joined: 08 Feb 2007

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.

Proud Pies · Joined: 22 Feb 2003 Location: Knox-ish

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.

stui magpie · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 2:56 pm

Expensive is relative, I pay $70 a month for the fastest cable they have, slowed down (throttles) after 10 gig with no extra charges.

David · I dare you to try Joined: 27 Jul 2003 Location: Andromeda

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 Razz

Syd_Magpies_Girl · The Russell Street Pole Dancing Bogan Joined: 08 Feb 2007

eddiesmith · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 5:49 pm

stui magpie · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 6:38 pm

Dunno when that was Eddie, the Bigpond service centres have been open last and on weekend for years.

eddiesmith · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 6:50 pm

member34258 · Joined: 05 Nov 2006

Joel · Joined: 23 Mar 1999 Location: Mornington Peninsula

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/