Getting Faster (est) Internet? Any comments Or Ideas?

[StoneChucker]

On the topic of broadband internet, again...

I'm not that clued-up when it comes to the options out there for getting the fastest internet available. I've heard of connections like T1, etc, but don't know exactly what that entails. I'm pretty sure it's a number of smaller connections bundled together, or a direct link to an ISP gateway type setup?

Anyway, what I'm after is info on the options the standard residential customer has when it comes to beefing up his/her broadband. I know that cable (namely TelstraClear's Lightspeed plans) is much faster than ADSL, and nearing the fastest possible connection I can get. If I lived in the Wellington CBD, I could (at great expense) get a fibre optic connection, which I know is faster still, but out in the Hutt that's not an option.

Satellite is not as fast as ADSL even, and the upload speeds are slower and lag a little as I understand it. With cable (plan mentioned above), am I out of options? Can you bundle a number of cable connections together?

What's important to me is maximum download speed (for d/l files, updates, etc) and maximum upload speed (for internet gaming, VoIP internet phones, etc), both with as little lag, hesitation as possible and with a reliable, stable connection. Price is not that important, but I'd be wasting money if I spent like $500 a month!

If I had to guess, I'd say cable is the best practical solution.

Cheers,
Dave.

[bungbung]

For best bang for buck, you'll want the Telstra 10mbit cable plan. It's 10mbit down/2mbit upload. It's the fastest money can buy without aggregating connections.

[Wasp]

you CAN get fibre out here in the hutt, sort of....

our work connection is a wireless hop to the council buildings then a fibre line connected to WIX/citylink into town.

highest speeds ive seen here at work at about 8mb/8mb (probably do 10mb easy though) and national traffic is free, ping is about 10 ms to other wix people compared to the 1ms in town though.

cable sounds like the better plan, im on the hills by melling - the cable goes past the top of my street but not down it!

im looking to replace the phone cables in my house after some experimenting of moving the adsl proved interesting

[Ghost Lemur]

Can't beat the cable. As you say if you live in Wellington CBD you can tap the CityLink fiber, but for the rest of us mere mortals the best we can hope for is provided by cable.

[MrMelon]

What do you use the internet for? A 10 megabit connection is pretty damn quick and you'd have trouble using it to its potential under normal use.

I've only got a 4 meg cable connection and I still download far more stuff than I have time to watch! You'd run out of disk space pretty quickly if you were downloading enough to warrant having anything larger than a 10 megabit connection.

To be honest you dont really ned to waste your money on a connection that's way in excess of your requirements.

I used to have a 100meg citylink connection when I was living in town, and sure it's fast and you can do hundreds of gig of traffic a day if you like (it's hard work though), but for anything but extreme use you wouldnt notice the difference between that and cable.

[pete376403]

Hutt Valley = Cable (where available) no contest.
BTW a T1 line is a nothing-startling 1.544 mbps which is hosed by Telstras 2 mbs up and down minimum offering.
Also those nice people at T/C upped my data cap from 1g to 5g at no charge.
And with cable you get a static address if you want to run a server (I've got a BfV server attached to my home area network (HAN)

T3 is a biggie but probably not want you'd want for home use (one US site I looked at charges between 3K - 15K per month for a T3 - you'd have to be keen)

[StoneChucker]

For best bang for buck, you'll want the Telstra 10mbit cable plan. It's 10mbit down/2mbit upload. It's the fastest money can buy without aggregating connections.

Thanks, that's already what I've got though (well from tomorrow anyway).
I'm sure it'll be more than fast enough

Melon, you're right too, I would be wasting money especially since I don't actually download all that much anyway.

As usual, thanks y'all

[Skunk]

I'm on Telstras 10mbit down/2mbit upload with a 10gig limit here at home.
At work it's Citylinks 100mbit connection.

Hardly notice the difference just surfing. Downloading is a different story...

[The_Dover]

move to a developed country, somewhere civilised

[Skunk]

move to a developed country, somewhere civilised

Like you did?

[MOTOXXX]

im on telstra 2mb up and down 5gb plan but only because im the only one that uses it at the flat.

ive hardly ever had problems with it. As Glen said you start running out of disk pretty quickly and you do start gathering shit that you never watch.

[sanchez]

Thanks, that's already what I've got though (well from tomorrow anyway).
I'm sure it'll be more than fast enough
:

I have that too, on a good site stuff does actually download at a megabyte a second. It is quite awesome (until you hit the cap)

[StoneChucker]

Ok, so I got the TelstraClear LightSpeed plan up and running (10Mbit d/l - 2Mbit u/l) and I'm pretty happy. I've never surfed the internet loading pages like they were cached on my hard drive, honestly. Just like all other internet plans/types however, it isn't all that near its full 10Mbit/2Mbit capability, but there are obviously many factors that influence that (partly that TelstraClear's cable network has temp issues in the Wgtn region at the moment, and then the usual time of day, location of site, mood of god type stuff..)

I'm also pretty pleased with my new router aswell. Everything is back to normal, with one exception. Other than that I'm really happy I upgraded. I mean look at the stats:

OLD:
.....ISP: ihug
.....Modem: ADSL
.....Plan - Broadband 4 (fastest net that ihug offers)
.....Plan Speed: 7.6Mbit d/l - 0.8Mbit u/l (same speed as their original "Broadband Power" plan, their fastest before adding the new 7.6Mbit plans - a tech rep. at ihug told me that there would be no speed change, even with the new 7.6Mbit speed, and he was right!)
.....Price: $90.00 / month

NEW:
.....ISP: TelstraClear
.....Modem: Cable
.....Plan: LightSpeed
.....Plan Speed: 10Mbit d/l - 2Mbit u/l
.....Price: $99.95

How can ihug expect to compete in areas where cable is available? What makes it worse is that for the last 10 days or so, ihug have refused to answer ANY of my e-mails, about 5 or so, all spaced a few days apart! I think there is something wrong there.

Don't read too much into the ihug thing though. Even thoug ihug's ADSL speed had become about 25% slower in the last 2 or 3 weeks, it was still blisteringly fast. I just got used to it after upgrading from dial-up. I'll be used to cable soon I reckon. Anyway, ihug is still my first choice of ISP when it comes down to being in an area where I can't get cable.

[Brian d marge]

Dont u need the bandwidth speed for when u start watching internet telly /video? I am on national ( japan of 33Mbitand an international of 2 ...the picture quality isnt so hot international though the natioal is quite good

on a lighter note ,,see screen shot of my speed test to NZ,,, looks like I can upload to you , but downloading is like pulling teeth ,,, thank "&'('(()) I am a slow reader !!!!!


Stephen

upload will have to wait ..apparently a jpeg is invalid???

[Gremlin]

upload will have to wait ..apparently a jpeg is invalid???

depends on size of jpeg, etc. When you upload, you will see the conditions for each type of extension (size, can't remember if there is dimension limitations)