I hate my ISP

  • Thread starter Shannon
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Shannon

Shannon

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Okay. Here's the story. I went over to a new ISP to get ISDN on and they gave us the first month free. That is good but because they were paying for it, they gave us less download limitations - 300MB! Can you believe how crap that is. Anyway, I went over it and they kicked me off until the next month started up - we signed up on the 27th so our next month started on the 27th of the next month and we got our proper download limitations back. Anyway, I was blocked off the internet for 11 ****ing day! :mad: I hate my ISP so freaking bad. When I get DSL though (hopefully soon) we will have unlimited download limitations.

And yes, before you say so - Australia is a rip-off when it comes to internet.
 
That's not good! I hope you're getting a refund for the 11 days. I tend to become a REAL nuisance to ISPs when I can't connect. And since I help to manage our company's Wide Area Network (82 sites and rising, plus remote connectivity and internet), it means that British Telecom know me real well!
 
Originally posted by GilesGuthrie
That's not good! I hope you're getting a refund for the 11 days. I tend to become a REAL nuisance to ISPs when I can't connect. And since I help to manage our company's Wide Area Network (82 sites and rising, plus remote connectivity and internet), it means that British Telecom know me real well!
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:lol: about that British Telecom stuff.

No I won't get a refund.
  • I signed up or ISDN
  • They gave us first month free - we don't have to pay
  • ISP pays for first month out of there money
  • Because they pay out of there money they give you less downloads
  • I went over them
  • They block me off internet for 11 days.
  • No refund because they were paying for the first month
  • Telstra are the scum of the Earth
 
However, if we get broadband through that ISP (Telstra) we have unlimited downloads and hours - we have unlimited hours as it is. The downside is that Telstra are the only company in Australia that provide broadband and DSL isn't exactly cheap - $400 bucks. :eek:

I've saved up $150 so far. :lol:
 
Ouch! So the 11 day cutoff was part of the 30 'free' days? Oh well then, you takes your chances! What are your ISDN and DSL charges in Australia? I'm on high-speed cable here. You can choose two levels of service, 512Kb/128Kb for £25 per month, or 1024Kb/256Kb for £35 per month. We also get our TV and phone from the same company - if we didn't, both charges would increase by £8/month.
 
No. I went over the 300MB download limit they gave me in the trial plan right. I went over the 300MB limit 11 days before my next period started and I went onto the proper plan where you have to pay.

Every 27th of each month is the start of a new period because thats when we signed up with Telscum. So, I went over the 300 meg on 16th and couldn't get back on until the 27th which is 11 days apart. Get it now.
 
Monthly charges.

With ISDN you have to choose a plan. From Internet Light up to Internet Mega. There are about 4 or 5 different plans - the cheapest one having the least amount of downloads and the most expensive maving the most. I am on Internet Mega which is roughly $35 a month. You don't choose your speed - ISDN is around 128kps.

With DSL I'm not quite sure whether you have the 1 plan or whether you get to choose out of the other 4 or 5 but there is another, more expensive plan with unlimited everything. The last plan is something like $54 a month and I'm not quite sure what speed DSL is.
 
Originally posted by eddy_2790
Hey Giles, got a question for you. What is faster - DSL, Cable or Satellite?
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The technologies are all capable of delivering quite large bandwidth, so the speed depends upon what you set it at. DSL and Cable can both deliver up to about 3Mb, and it's up to the ISP how they parcel this out. This is a physical limit of the cabling, in the same way that an analogue phone line is limited to 56Kb by its technology. Normally the connection in the exchange can handle a certain bandwidth, and then all the users connected to the exchange 'contend' for that bandwidth. When you buy a bandwidth-based package, the ISP will always say that it's the maximum-attainable, and that real world speeds may not represent this yada yada.

Some ISPs are using bandwidth-throttling on the exchanges to control the use of certain services, such as peer-to-peer file sharing like Bearshare or Kazaa. This is because these applications will typicall grab all the bandwidth available, and will choke the links. On the whole I'm in agreement with this policy as long as it's properly advertised and real technical information is available about it, so that customers can make an informed decision.

Satellite is a different matter, and it's not something I know too much about. I know that another company is using it to deliver DSL to a remote Scottish island, and they are getting download speeds consistent with a 512Kb connection. However, he couldn't answer my questions about latency, so he's going to come back to me on this one.

What's latency? It's the length of time it takes a signal to get from your machine to the target machine. It's also known as 'ping time', because the most common method of measuring this is by using ping. Want to measure your ping time? OK, open a DOS prompt, and if you're on 95/98/Me, type 'winipcfg'. Select your ISDN adapter, and look for your default gateway address. If you're on NT/2000/XP, type 'ipconfig /all' and look for the default gateway address. Now, go to the DOS prompt, and type 'ping' (without quotes) and the address of the default gateway. The response from the PING will give you the latency of your connection to your ISP. Obviously, the further you go from your ISP, the longer the latency as the signals have to go through more steps.

Here's what I get (I'm on Windows 2000, and I'm masking my IP address)
Code: 
C:\>ipconfig /all

Windows 2000 IP Configuration

        Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : talisker
        Primary DNS Suffix  . . . . . . . :
        Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
        IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
        WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : 3Com EtherLink 10/100 PCI For 
Complete PC Management NIC (3C905C-TX)
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-01-02-9D-00-2E
        DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : xx.xxx.xx.xxx
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.128
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 80.195.73.129
        DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 62.31.64.115
        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 62.31.64.115
                                            62.31.64.116
        Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 28 September 2002 10:41:36
        Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 29 September 2002 08:26:24

C:\>ping 80.195.73.129

Pinging 80.195.73.129 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 80.195.73.129: bytes=32 time=41ms TTL=255
Reply from 80.195.73.129: bytes=32 time=20ms TTL=255
Reply from 80.195.73.129: bytes=32 time=10ms TTL=255
Reply from 80.195.73.129: bytes=32 time=10ms TTL=255

Ping statistics for 80.195.73.129:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 10ms, Maximum =  41ms, Average =  20ms

C:\>

Now, the latency for this connection is an average of 20ms, which means it takes 10ms for my ping to get to the gateway, and 10ms for it to get back.

Latency plus bandwidth give you your connection speed experience. If you're transferring large amounts of data in single transactions (i.e. downloads), then the bandwidth is the more significant parameter. But if you're playing an online game, then latency is the more significant parameter.

So to answer your question, Cable and DSL will be faster than satellite due to lower latency. But whichever has the higher bandwidth will be the fastest connection. However, you should watch for the 'contention ratio' (the number of people on the same exchange), as that can affect your speed too.

Sorry, went off on an explanation-rant. Hope it's useful!
 
:eek: Wow! Lot of new stuff I didn't know in there GG. Thanks.

So your saying that DSL and Cable are roughly the same speed. That is good then because we can't get cable where I live for some strange reason, but we can get DSL.
 
Originally posted by eddy_2790
:eek: Wow! Lot of new stuff I didn't know in there GG. Thanks.

So your saying that DSL and Cable are roughly the same speed. That is good then because we can't get cable where I live for some strange reason, but we can get DSL.
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You're welcome!

There are some differences between cable and DSL, and I think I would prefer cable over DSL, as it's more reliable (DSL has something of a reputation for dropping the connection), but the thing is that you're going to find either cable or DSL such an improvement over your existing situation that it's going to take you a while to care!
 
My Outlook Express was screwed up yesterday.:( It kept telling me to log on even though I don't have dial up.:mad: Turns out I was using the wrong username.:rolleyes: Now it's fine.:)
 

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