NBN- is anyone onboard yet?

[edz]

Hey Ed I take it it was a sunny day in Armidale and not a cloud in sight or the risk of one passing by, Either that or the Techs up that way are built tougher than their coast counterparts .
 Our Big T NBN tech ran and hid because the weather forecast was for a possible shower today .which happened about 15 minutes ago .

[eventyr]

Fizzie, totally agree.

Old Copper wire system was always there unless someone cut a cable between you and the exchange.
Powered by the exchange, it didn't need a power source at the customer end.
It was an invaluable life saving system.

Whoever came up with this new system, needs to be put into a situation where it all goes pear shaped.
Politicians who forced this on the general populace included.

I was under the impression that the NBN install box has a battery backup installed with it (for free) which will last 48hrs+ with no power, and if you need more you can install more backup batteries relatively easily?

[paceman]

I was under the impression that the NBN install box has a battery backup installed with it (for free) which will last 48hrs+ with no power, and if you need more you can install more backup batteries relatively easily?

Fibre to the premises, yep (but not by default, I think)...  fibre to the node, nope...

http://www.nbnco.com.au/connect-home-or-business/already-connected/nbn-equipment/battery-back-up-service-information.html

[Paddler Ed]

Hey Ed I take it it was a sunny day in Armidale and not a cloud in sight or the risk of one passing by, Either that or the Techs up that way are built tougher than their coast counterparts .
 Our Big T NBN tech ran and hid because the weather forecast was for a possible shower today .which happened about 15 minutes ago .

You got the same one as we did a month ago.... a storm was forecast... yes it hit town, but we live 3km from town, and unless it comes from the east of the hill, we won't get it...

Yep, overcast day but this morning you could see the towers; this arvo and evening no sign of them!

The guy I had this morning knew that the storms and rain here on the whole is flash and go, although today was wet rain all day (No real heavy rain, just constant rain); he had another 3 jobs today on top of mine, and was out the door by 9.15 having turned up at 8am.

[Gunsrunner]

I was under the impression that the NBN install box has a battery backup installed with it (for free) which will last 48hrs+ with no power, and if you need more you can install more backup batteries relatively easily?

Yep unless the tech mounts the box 6 inches to far away from the dedicated power point lol, in our rental property this is what happened. techies !!!!!!

[edz]

Good to see you got a bit of wet PD ..
In regards to the battery question All we got was an NBN modem and a couple of cords in the box, power off and all the pretty lights go out with  all connection.
 No back up batteries here, The little girlie at the NBN desk just told to use a mobile phone if the power goes out .

[Paddler Ed]

Good to see you got a bit of wet PD ..
In regards to the battery question All we got was an NBN modem and a couple of cords in the box, power off and all the pretty lights go out with  all connection.
 No back up batteries here, The little girlie at the NBN desk just told to use a mobile phone if the power goes out .

FTTP in the old place was one of the last ones to get the battery back up; I think if you need monitored alerts (old people) then you can still get a battery.

New place with the dainty box for fixed wireless is a bloody big capacitor (techs description) which takes about 5 mins to discharge for a turn off and back on reset.

[Cruiser 105Tvan]

Good to see you got a bit of wet PD ..
In regards to the battery question All we got was an NBN modem and a couple of cords in the box, power off and all the pretty lights go out with  all connection.
 No back up batteries here, The little girlie at the NBN desk just told to use a mobile phone if the power goes out .

All well and good if you have an automatic backup for your House 240v..  Like an un-interruptable power supply.
If you don't then you won't have anything working inside your house at all unless it has a battery backup as well.
Those little girlies have wonderful answers alright.
And the fibre to the node cabinets do have batteries to sustain them.
But you need power in your house system to be able to get your stuff to talk to their stuff etc.
And if the power goes out on the mains your solar panels get shut down as well, if they feed the mains.
It's a safety thing.  They don't want linies working on hot stuff, when it's supposed to be dead.

[bkim]

Been on FTTP since October 2015, had a speed issue (but still usable without any dropouts) about Jan 2016, reported to my RSP (TPG) complete with all the tests I knew they were going to ask for, issue was referred to NBN and fixed within 24 hours.

Since then no problems, speed even during peak times never drops below 93Mbps download (tops out around 95 -96 other times) and around 34 to 36 Mbps uploads. TPG still required mandatory battery backup (at least they did at the time) and use the UNI - v port on the NTD for a separate connection for the phone which has been excellent, crystal clear at all times, so far very satisfied.

 

[Paddler Ed]

So about 29hrs after install and the system has settled down:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/6134040244.png

We're on a 25/5 plan, so I'm pretty happy with that - no variation with ethernet cable into the router or via the wifi network in the house, but then the furthest we are is only about 9m from the router and all it's got is gyprock walls to go through.

I'll be interested to see performance in the evening, but within 20% is tolerable for what we're supposed to have - it may creep up again a bit more depending on conditions.

[Darcy7]

We have NBN through Optus, fibre/copper, and it is complete and utter ShitE...!!!!  My next door neighbor kept his ADSL and he gets faster speeds than I do...!!! 

The amount of trouble we had getting connected, incorrect billing and ongoing technical issues have caused us nothing but stress and many issues have still not been resolved.

After months of arguing with Optus, I FINALLY got onto an Australian technician who basically admitted to me that Optus had not purchased sufficient bandwidth in my area to support its customer base and that there was no solution, short, medium or long term...!  I could either put up with it or go to another carrier.  No offer of a discounted rate till its fixed, no compensation, no refunds for crappy service, nothing.  Basically take it or leave it.

I considered switching to telstra but heard of similar nightmares with their service.

We have been sold a complete crock of excrement with NBN.  Frankly 4G is faster....!!!!

[Paddler Ed]

We have NBN through Optus, fibre/copper, and it is complete and utter ShitE...!!!!  My next door neighbor kept his ADSL and he gets faster speeds than I do...!!! 

The amount of trouble we had getting connected, incorrect billing and ongoing technical issues have caused us nothing but stress and many issues have still not been resolved.

After months of arguing with Optus, I FINALLY got onto an Australian technician who basically admitted to me that Optus had not purchased sufficient bandwidth in my area to support its customer base and that there was no solution, short, medium or long term...!  I could either put up with it or go to another carrier.  No offer of a discounted rate till its fixed, no compensation, no refunds for crappy service, nothing.  Basically take it or leave it.

I considered switching to telstra but heard of similar nightmares with their service.

We have been sold a complete crock of excrement with NBN.  Frankly 4G is faster....!!!!

It's interesting, most of the complaints I read are from people running:
Optus
Telstra
iiNet
and other big companies.

OK, my ISP doesn't get the best rating on Speedtest (2.5 stars by the looks of it) but they do have a lot of customers on Sky Muster which has been an even bigger disaster - I'll write a longer piece on that mess this afternoon - but they have been fantastically reliable and generally problem free (apart from me messing things up) in the 3.5 years I've been with them. Billing errors? None existant - they do send the invoice through a bit close to when they take the money though, and drop outs or speeds drastically outside of what is offered? Not very often.

[paceman]

It's interesting, most of the complaints I read are from people running:
Optus
Telstra
iiNet
and other big companies.

OK, my ISP doesn't get the best rating on Speedtest (2.5 stars by the looks of it) but they do have a lot of customers on Sky Muster which has been an even bigger disaster - I'll write a longer piece on that mess this afternoon - but they have been fantastically reliable and generally problem free (apart from me messing things up) in the 3.5 years I've been with them. Billing errors? None existant - they do send the invoice through a bit close to when they take the money though, and drop outs or speeds drastically outside of what is offered? Not very often.

i signed up with iinet for my NBN changeover and have had no issues so far....

performance has been great and changeover was trouble-free...

YMMV

[Paddler Ed]

Sky Muster which has been an even bigger disaster - I'll write a longer piece on that mess this afternoon

As promised, here's some of the problems with Sky Muster (for those that don't know what Sky Muster is, it's the NBN solution for remote and regional Australia where fixed wireless is not practical):
-Sky Muster is intended to remove the need for the Universal Service Obligation of a copper line to a property
-Sky Muster is dependent on electrickery (see other posts on NBN) to work
-Sky Muster is not very good in storms (the rain drops and atmospherics cause chaos with signals)
-The amount that is expected to be done online running an agricultural operation is ever increasing (NLIS etc, never mind all the standard business tasks through MYOB etc), but there is not enough affordable data for the above to be done, let alone the kids schooling via online correspondance, nor is there the bandwidth to do it.
-The Govt have sold some of the Sky Muster bandwidth to Qantas for inflight WiFi

Lastly, and this was the most interesting one, the ABC have turned off Shortwave radio transmissions... now, this sounds minor, but if you're located in an area that is prone to cyclones etc where power disappears, then you tend to like to know what's going on... and without radio you don't know what's going on. But, wait, you can still listen to the radio via the internet can't you? Nope... not if it's Sky Muster... OK, so you can call someone? Nope, not if you're dependent on a VOIP line via Skymuster...

Now this is first hand stories from someone who I met at a conference who ran a cattle property in the NT... they'd just finished work on the 90 page submission to the ACMA about the closing of the SW radio service and the removal of the USO for the copper line...  it was interesting out of a table of 8 who are all involved in agricultural and resource economics, that I was the only other one who could knew about the Sky Muster problems and the sell off of bandwidth to Qantas; the others were all based in GCCSA's and surrounds.

[edz]

After the alter everything and install Oh it looked like rain the technician went home, Put everything back the way it was of  last week , We are now connected to the NBN .. Funny thing is its been raining most of the day, Maybe its a different tech doing this time round ..
DSL speed was 14.1  and 1 
NBN speed is     20.8 and 4.7  so a little bit faster than ADSL .. Time will tell if theres future troubles with drop outs etc.

[gronk]

I went with TPG last week ( 25/5 ). Only because I had to, or get cut off in June. I'm getting 23/4, but I had 16 with the old ADSL ( Telstra ).

Notice no difference, but at least it's only costing me an extra $5/mth.

I thought it would let me download some movies, but a 900Mb movie still took over an hour to download, so much for faster speeds ?

[bkim]

Hi Gronk

You didn't mention what type your connection is FTTP, FTTN, HFC etc.

even if you have FTTN your speed being close to your advertised plan speed would indicate you must be close to a node, in which case you could always elect to lift your speeds up to 100/40 and you will certainly notice the difference.

Virtually no one can see the difference between 23 and 16 Mbps, but your upload is considerably better.

[gronk]

Hi Gronk

You didn't mention what type your connection is FTTP, FTTN, HFC etc.

even if you have FTTN your speed being close to your advertised plan speed would indicate you must be close to a node, in which case you could always elect to lift your speeds up to 100/40 and you will certainly notice the difference.

Virtually no one can see the difference between 23 and 16 Mbps, but your upload is considerably better.

Yeh, FTTN ..the node is 2 streets away.  Going by the NBN speed map of my area, I can only expect a high of 38Mbps, so 25 is it. IF I could get 38, I would've thought I'd get the full 25, but 23 is OK I suppose.

For arguments sake, even if I was on a 100Mbps plan and I could actually get it, how can you download at that speed if the other end is only uploading at a lot slower speed ??

[paceman]

For arguments sake, even if I was on a 100Mbps plan and I could actually get it, how can you download at that speed if the other end is only uploading at a lot slower speed ??

you most likely can't, because it's a theoretical speed...

your point about the upload is right to a degree, depending on what you are downloading and where it is coming from...

streaming services (netflix, stan, foxtel play, etc) are designed for this (their upload speeds are enhanced by content delivery network setups all over the world) in mind, so you should only be limited by connection speed and real world download speed (doesn't always work out that way because of different factors, congestion for one)

[Craig Tomkinson]

Hi All, At Cooroy, NBN wireless network was hooked up to our house when we bought the house 5 months ago, We went with Optus $80 unlimited data and free local phone calls, and no line rental, Its a bit faster the the old telstra pre paid stick, but we are saving $120 a month because there was 4 laptops and house computer all on prepaid sticks, and the land was $85 a month and $50 was line rental, Craig

[bkim]

Gronk replied
"Yeh, FTTN ..the node is 2 streets away.  Going by the NBN speed map of my area, I can only expect a high of 38Mbps, so 25 is it. IF I could get 38, I would've thought I'd get the full 25, but 23 is OK I suppose."

If your node is 2 streets away, I would almost say you had won "node lotto" as from what I've seen of FTTN the speeds start to degrade noticeably for most people when the node distance exceeds 400m, as paceman said, speeds are theoretical, you can virtually never achieve the so called maximum plan speed.

Luckily all the people I've assisted with their NBN connection are on FTTP in Townsville, so all achieve very close to their advertised speeds

[gronk]

Gronk replied
"Yeh, FTTN ..the node is 2 streets away.  Going by the NBN speed map of my area, I can only expect a high of 38Mbps, so 25 is it. IF I could get 38, I would've thought I'd get the full 25, but 23 is OK I suppose."

If your node is 2 streets away, I would almost say you had won "node lotto" as from what I've seen of FTTN the speeds start to degrade noticeably for most people when the node distance exceeds 400m, as paceman said, speeds are theoretical, you can virtually never achieve the so called maximum plan speed.

Luckily all the people I've assisted with their NBN connection are on FTTP in Townsville, so all achieve very close to their advertised speeds

Even though the node is 2 streets away, the shortest walking route would be approx 600m ? So 23 from a 25 plan is good then ?

[bkim]

There are probably a few (the lucky few!) that may get 24 or slightly better from a 25Mbps plan, but the majority I've heard off are around 21- 23 at best, it's consistency that counts, if you can achieve 23 in peak times you are doing OK. 

Congestion seems to be a bit more of a problem on FTTN than FTTP and it also is determined by the quality of your RSP and how much CVC comes into play, if you were interested in comments on the NBN (of all types) coming from round Australia you can always log in and view the forums at Whirlpool http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum/142

Quite often you may see a post from your area which will give you a bit of a comparison on the local networks performance.

something to note with FTTN, unless you actually know where the lines run from the node, don't assume it is the shortest distance.  I've heard of someone in Brisbane with the nearest node on his neighbours footpath, but his connection comes from a node over 1 km away, with corresponding poor speeds

[stabicraft]

Im on the Central Coast of NSW
My No Bloody Network has been playing up all day.
Is this just the norm or is there something unusual happening up here?

[gronk]

Im on the Central Coast of NSW
My No Bloody Network has been playing up all day.
Is this just the norm or is there something unusual happening up here?

Kanwal for me.......only been on it for a week.....no probs......YET ?

Was happy to stay on adsl, but had to change.....had no drop outs or slow going for 6 + yrs....!!