Ferkin Xtra

[Hitcher]

School holidays and Telecom. A vision of service excellence! I keep getting chucked unceremoniously off Xtra at frequent intervals. My Dick Smith modem and my patience are sorely tried by this rejection...

[James Deuce]

School holidays and Telecom. A vision of service excellence! I keep getting chucked unceremoniously off Xtra at frequent intervals. My Dick Smith modem and my patience are sorely tried by this rejection...

I feel your pain, O disadvantaged one. (Go and get ADSL you cheap bugger).

[Antallica]

www.orcon.net.nz

'nuff said.

[Hitcher]

I feel your pain, O disadvantaged one. (Go and get ADSL you cheap bugger).
AND an STX1300??

[Hitcher]

www.orcon.net.nz

'nuff said.
Do they do domain hosting? Are they more reliable than the Evil Empire?

[James Deuce]

AND an STX1300??

You can use your current phone line, we'll chuck a filter on so you can still use the phone AND connect to the Internet, and you can get one of the cheaper plans, as I would imagine your total traffic volume isn't huge.

[Hitcher]

You can use your current phone line, we'll chuck a filter on so you can still use the phone AND connect to the Internet, and you can get one of the cheaper plans, as I would imagine your total traffic volume isn't huge.
Oh, OK then. I thought for a moment I may have to find a THIRD kidney...

[Paul in NZ]

Telstra's not much better mate...

What really gets me is they do it deliberately (and a whole bunch of other shit too) to 'encourage you' to got to broadband... Fair pisses me off!

Paul N

[Blakamin]

one five letter word... CABLE

[Antallica]

Telescum devil, Orcon good.

256k @ $50p/m, no cap net.

Good.

[Blakamin]

Telescum devil, Orcon good.

256k @ $50p/m, no cap net.

Good.
hmmm... symphony of destruction.... goood!!!!!


10mbit cable $134p/m 10gig cap...... pages load quick tho!!!!

[jrandom]

Ferkin Xtra, indeed.

:angry2:

:angry2:

Adjectives fail me, so I will state here a simple description of fact.

Halfway through last month I telephoned the Xtra Jetstream helpdesk and asked to be switched from a 256Kbps plan to a 2Mbps plan.

Three weeks after the start of the '2Mbps' billing cycle, and over a month since I originally spoke to them, several hours of me sitting on hold listening to homicidal-tendency-inducing Christmas music and three (THREE!) separate "yes, sir, we'll call you back at xx o'clock today to confirm the fix" conversations that never eventuated in a call-back later, my connection is still throttled to 256Kbps.

Naturally, I'm being *billed* at the higher rate.

[erik]

we changed over to orcon a couple of weeks ago on the account Antallica mentioned. The first week there was a lot of stuffing around an a few periods where we had no internet access (aparently telecom's fault), but now it seems to be going well :)

I'd hate to have to go back to a modem.

Crikey, blakamin, it must be hard staying below the 10GB cap if you do any filesharing...

[Blakamin]

Ferkin Xtra, indeed.

:angry2:

:angry2:

Adjectives fail me, so I will state here a simple description of fact.

Halfway through last month I telephoned the Xtra Jetstream helpdesk and asked to be switched from a 256Kbps plan to a 2Mbps plan.

Three weeks after the start of the '2Mbps' billing cycle, and over a month since I originally spoke to them, several hours of me sitting on hold listening to homicidal-tendency-inducing Christmas music and three (THREE!) separate "yes, sir, we'll call you back at xx o'clock today to confirm the fix" conversations that never eventuated in a call-back later, my connection is still throttled to 256Kbps.

Naturally, I'm being *billed* at the higher rate.

Had that when I went from 2mbit to 10mbit... took telstra/paradise 20 mins to fix over the phone and rebooting modem.... and I got a discount.... tell xtra to get F**KED

[merv]

Too many of us are relying on good old Telecom wires. I've been with Paradise since their beginning but they, nor their various incarnations since, ever laid a cable in our dear suburb.

My son because of his work has now signed up with Slingshot, but you guessed it, we have to get adsl service through Telecom and they were due to sort it by 24/12 and we are still waiting.

My 56k modem using Paradise by the way has been excellent - never any dumping off or anything like that.

[bungbung]

What Merv said.

If you're too tight to get ADSL or Cable, I have had a Paradise dial-up account for 6 years and have never been kicked off.

Or needed to call to complain about something either

[Yokai]

I must be on Xtra's "Be nice" list...

Right before Christmas - 56Kbps to 2Mbps on the day they promised with no hassles. Took 3 real days to get them to sort it (got it on 13th December - ordered on the 10th, just before the special ran out)

Phone call to change password? - done in 5 minutes

BUT... here's the big issue. Telecom sank 2 pipes about 12 years ago. 1 with the Japanese NTT thing, and the other with Australian Telecom or whoever they were at the time. They increased prices and ran to the NZ equivalent of the MMC to say "hey - don't introduce landline competition because we need to recoup our infrastructure upgrade"....

Apparently we are at 15% capacity at PEAK loads on those pipes. Telecom's official line outside of telecom are that people are not buying broadband enough to justify a price drop. Inside Telecom the line is that
1) businesses will pay the Xtra (sorry for the pun) premiums if they feel that they are getting deals,
and
2) that if broadband uptake can be slowed, Telecom can present decent anti-competition cases when threatened.

Unbundling the pipes was supposed to help change this, but it doesn't change the fact that the pipes are owned by Telecom. In fact, Telecom's tactics are to stay "alive" and profitable and are a direct result of 2 things:

1 - Vodafone's massive market takeover in the mobile arena
2 - Reliance on an old monopoly business model that generates income through the rental of services rather than bandwidth rental...

So - until Telecom is ousted as a monopoly, then we will be stuck with bad service and high prices.

[Posh Tourer :P]

What Merv said.

If you're too tight to get ADSL or Cable, I have had a Paradise dial-up account for 6 years and have never been kicked off.

Or needed to call to complain about something either

Been kicked off 2-3 times in 3 years, and none in the last 1.5 or so on the same type of plan.

Never had to complain either...

[merv]

Low and behold we've got our adsl going as of tonight. Telecom are only letting the other ISP's do it at 256k but that's better than 56k so we signed up for Slingshot unlimited for $49.95/mth and they are they only ISP that don't throttle you back when you reach a certain usage level if you choose their unlimited plan.

Now all we have got to do is get our network running properly so we can run all our PCs on it. Hey I'll be able to upload photos faster now - not at 2mbits but beggars can't be choosers.

[Wellyman]

We hope to get jestream soon but now i shall keep complaining about slow dialup

[laRIKin]

I have Paradise (dial-up) and I do get kicked off when it is at those busy times.
Like holidays and wet weekend days etc.
We put in a compliant, and was told that it may be our phone lines.
Like I believe that, because at ungodly hour it works just fine.
And at other times I can be kicked off more times than a ....
I'll keep in clean and shut up now.

[Cajun]

I have had dsl for about a 3 weeks now, with with orcon plan cause its an isp i like, most of them offer $49.95 for a 256k unlimitied plan

Telecom took the full 10 working days to get it connected, I have a wireless network so i can sit in the lounge on the laptop and surf with no wires.


In the past 3 weeks i havea d/l somewhere around 35gb worth of stuff.

The wife likes the wireless laptop means i can be in room on my computer burning dvds or something simlar and she can be sitting in the lounge surfing ebay.

[2_SL0]

If you are getting disconected, get the line checked. Slow down the modem speed till it is stable. :spudwave: (Im talking dial-up)

[erik]

... signed up for Slingshot unlimited for $49.95/mth and they are they only ISP that don't throttle you back when you reach a certain usage level if you choose their unlimited plan....

Not true, Orcon which has already been mentioned here, offers an identical plan.

[NordieBoy]

Telecom are only letting the other ISP's do it at 256k. Hey I'll be able to upload photos faster now - not at 2mbits but beggars can't be choosers.

I'm on 2 mbit through Orcon :2thumbsup

The 256K limit is only on UBS and should be lifted in March or so...

[laRIKin]

If you are getting disconected, get the line checked. Slow down the modem speed till it is stable. :spudwave: (Im talking dial-up)

Thanks for that. I will try that.

I going to Mac as from tomorrow, we have had enough of PC's. :mad:
But that may not help the connection problem.
But the computer is running like ABOA and is so slow after a compete rebuild
it still doesn't run right.
So some of the problem could be our computer.

[laRIKin]

Well I'm a Mac man now.
It's interesting to find where they hide stuff and they are given
some strange names as well.
But it's all good and I will not be going back to a PC now.
It's very clean system to use, but as I was warned.
Stop thinking that you are using a P.C (Micro Soft type computer).

All the problems that we had have now gone. :Punk:

So for those of you that are sick of P.C's, the water is fine.
Jump in when you are ready.

Yes their are some draw backs, like soft wear.
So as long as you can get the stuff that you need you will be all
right, I think.

It was so easy to set up.
Mouse to key board, key board to monitor. Plug in printer and phone line.
Plug in the power, turn on, and you are away.
Answer some set up question and then play away to find stuff.
A bit of reading to help you, it's all down hill.

I wish that we were not talked out of getting a Mac, 3 years ago.
I have seen the light and it's in the shape of an Apple.

Now I can't wait to hear what my sister going to say, as she does IT work
on PC's and doesn't understand Mac's and keeps talking us out of them.
I'm going to find it hard to keep a straight face when she notices.
I can only guess what she will say. :whocares: we are happy we changed.

[John]

well, I back antallicas orcon plan so good.

but if you decide to keep 56k dump that modem, is it one with the phone in/out, becuase if it is it has a faulty capacitor which causes random D/c's which only get worse with time until the point I pulled it out of my computer while connected and throughing it at the wall then taking it out side to be delt with with the sawn off, true story.

anyway. I'd go with adsl re: antallicas post.

goodluck.

[James Deuce]

Well I'm a Mac man now.
It's interesting to find where they hide stuff and they are given
some strange names as well.
But it's all good and I will not be going back to a PC now.
It's very clean system to use, but as I was warned.
Stop thinking that you are using a P.C (Micro Soft type computer).

All the problems that we had have now gone. :Punk:

So for those of you that are sick of P.C's, the water is fine.
Jump in when you are ready.

Yes their are some draw backs, like soft wear.
So as long as you can get the stuff that you need you will be all
right, I think.

It was so easy to set up.
Mouse to key board, key board to monitor. Plug in printer and phone line.
Plug in the power, turn on, and you are away.
Answer some set up question and then play away to find stuff.
A bit of reading to help you, it's all down hill.

I wish that we were not talked out of getting a Mac, 3 years ago.
I have seen the light and it's in the shape of an Apple.

Now I can't wait to hear what my sister going to say, as she does IT work
on PC's and doesn't understand Mac's and keeps talking us out of them.
I'm going to find it hard to keep a straight face when she notices.
I can only guess what she will say. :whocares: we are happy we changed.

Mac's are not a digital Nirvana and you will find that out. If you are doing desktop publishing, digital pre-press, or graphic design a Mac is massively superior to a PC, purely because of an extended history of software support. On the other hand, standard desktop apps are massively more expensive for a Mac because of the cost of producing that software for a low volume market. That low volume will also make it difficult and expensive to get support when you need it.

Before you scoff I've had 23 years of experience with Apple products, and 15 years of integrating Macs into predominantly PC environments. I agree that they are easier to learn to use initially, especially since OS10 came out. OS 10 Server is a superior small business server operating system, much easier to configure for someone who probably has a full time job on top of IT support. Heaven help you if you use it in an Enterprise environment.

Macs are not PCs and vice versa. They have some functionality that makes them appear similar, but it is a coincidence sponsored by having to coexist in a corporate market with the PC world. Be ready to learn things you didn't want to know. You'll have to at some point, because you need to stay away from whoever your local Mac support agency is. I haven't come across one that isn't both a support price gouger and massively incompetent in some areas.

[jrandom]

... especially since OS10 came out.

I haven't used Macs, and I haven't used OS X.

Does BSD shine through? Is it as configurable as a standard BSD installation? Does it feel like a Unix box that just happens to have a very nice GUI shell, or is there a lot of cotton wool around the 'actual' operating system?

I still think it was an excellent commercial call for Apple to not even *try* to develop their own proper OS kernel from scratch after MS got a decade's head start on them with NT.

Ah, well, it probably doesn't matter much to me, since I'll never shell out for a Mac at home, and I'm very unlikely to end up using them in a corporate environment.

[Groins_NZ]

Just to add... thumbs up for Paradise from me too - dialup anyway.

Why?
Haven't been dropped since... I can't remember when.
Pricing plans when they first came online were competitive and haven't changed too much over the years... no surcharge surprises.
Good enough Help Desk.

Nevertheless, I do lust for high speed Internet access having lived with my father for a period of time while studying who graciously shared his satellite and ADSL connections.... mmmmmmmmmmm. Quite cool downloading a file that comes off the satellite at 3.5Mbps and listening to your hard drive 'tick tick ticking' away, speedily writing the data to disk.... mmmmmmmm [more lustful thoughts]

:cry:

[Zapf]

me being sort of being around the IT / ISP sector in NZ. I can tell you this much, Telecom is out to cripple the other ISP's business as much as possible so that if unbundling was ever put in place they won't be much of a threat.

They are just paying lip service to most of the demands made earlier this year to have a regulated / whole sale model. I for one has been steaming trying to work with them.

FYI in Hong Kong. for $50 NZD a month you can get a 8Mbps connection with basiclly unlimited traffic. And what do you get thru crappy Telecom? :angry2:

[moko]

What really gets me is they do it deliberately (and a whole bunch of other shit too) to 'encourage you' to got to broadband... Fair pisses me off!

Paul N

I`ve heard that so many times Paul............what does help though is to keep your p.c. clean,lean and mean,regularly delete your temp e-mail cache,keep it de-fragged and use free software like Easycleaner and Ad-aware to clean the crap off.Use Google to find these,first time I ran Ad-aware I found 600 (yes SIX HUNDRED) bits of spyware on my system,all using up space,resources and whatever.Your p.c. is like your bike,ignore regular maintenance and it wont work as well as it should.I know what you`re saying,and agree, about the bastards giving a shit service while offering you broadband but keep your system clear and it`ll certainly run better.

[moko]

me being sort of being around the IT / ISP sector in NZ. I can tell you this much, Telecom is out to cripple the other ISP's business as much as possible so that if unbundling was ever put in place they won't be much of a threat.

They are just paying lip service to most of the demands made earlier this year to have a regulated / whole sale model. I for one has been steaming trying to work with them.

FYI in Hong Kong. for $50 NZD a month you can get a 8Mbps connection with basiclly unlimited traffic. And what do you get thru crappy Telecom? :angry2:

Same problem in the U.k. Zapf,loads of companies now really stuffing British Telecom on call prices and internet provision but they still own all the lines so hardly a level playing field,if it were phone bills and internet access charges would nose-dive.As in many other cases we`re told that Telecoms is a free market and free of government interference,total bullshit,they talk about competition while still protecting BT`s monopoly of the phone-lines.

[Blakamin]

Mac's are not a digital Nirvana and you will find that out. If you are doing desktop publishing, digital pre-press, or graphic design a Mac is massively superior to a PC, purely because of an extended history of software support.
And audio software (pro-tools, logic etc..)
that would be the only reason I'd ever buy a system with a 1 button mouse!
now Adobe have got their shit sorted......
a mate of mine is a graphic designer/pre-press/typesetter etc, and now he has got illustrator, photoshop, indesign and all that high-end graphics shit on his PC, he loves it... cheaper for parts and shit!!!