Whirlpool

This thread continues from /forum-replies.cfm?t=795495&p=56#r1113

I have a weird problem,
I am on adsl2+,
but one of my routers/modems will not sync unless
I tell it to try G.992.1 (G.DMT), it will sync and connect.

My other one, syncs on adsl2+ speeds,
but will not connect.

does anyone know what could be the problem.
Yes I have done an isolation test,
changed wall sockets,
different filter/spliter and different adsl2+ profiles

when I was with Telstra,
both would sync and conect at adsl2+ speed

thanks
Chris

JunglemanOz writes...

I have a weird problem,
I am on adsl2+,
but one of my routers/modems will not sync unless
I tell it to try G.992.1 (G.DMT), it will sync and connect.

What Brand and model of router are they?

JunglemanOz writes...

ut one of my routers/modems will not sync unless

ONE of your modems? How many do you have connected???

syborfical writes...

What Brand and model of router are they?

they are

2Wire · 2701HGV-W
Belkin · F1PI241ENau

MJT57 writes...

ONE of your modems? How many do you have connected???

Only one at a time

JunglemanOz writes...

I have a weird problem,
I am on adsl2+,
but one of my routers/modems will not sync unless
I tell it to try G.992.1 (G.DMT), it will sync and connect.

My other one, syncs on adsl2+ speeds,
but will not connect.

does anyone know what could be the problem.
Yes I have done an isolation test,
changed wall sockets,
different filter/spliter and different adsl2+ profiles

when I was with Telstra,
both would sync and conect at adsl2+ speed

thanks
Chris

Have you treid calling helpdesk. I think they might be able to help

syborfical writes...

Have you treid calling helpdesk. I think they might be able to help

Not as yet. Just thought i would try here first.

Hi Phil, is Morwell having a port shotage at the moment??
One of our customers had a line fault which dropped his adsl a week ago.

The telstra techie swapped the pair he was on and then in his wisdom unplugged him at the exchange and now your guys are telling him he might get put back on a telstra 1500k port by the end of the week....

Yes there is a port shortage in Morwell at the moment, they physically install more next Monday.

For faults we keep ports aside so he shouldn't end up on a 1500K one.

lol, after me spending months getting him changed to wideband from bigpuddle, he has so far only had net for 1 day this month.

Telstra fixed his phone line fault within 24 hours, do they go out of their way to make other companies look bad??

Fairly significant article in today's Herald-Sun about a fibre optic link that only TAFE and WB use. It was built primarily for comms purposes for the trains, signalling, etc. but they're allowing other mobs to latch onto it, WB being one of them

Hope they don't cancel this service due to it being under utilised. Where would that leave us?

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23991460-2862,00.html

Yeah l was interviewed for the article but l guess l didn't dish out any dirt so they didn't use me in their chop shop piece. Basically the state opposition is trying to win some points in the media.

My understanding is the fiber was primarily put in for the rail control system. The fiber does control all the railway signals along the lines in Gippsland and greater Victoria like Geelong, Ballarat & Bendigo.

The secondary use was for IP Services etc.

What l was surprised about is that Wideband and GippsTAFE are the only users of the fiber outside of Victrack. In all of Victoria! Wideband is the only commercial provider, l think GippsTAFE have a “deal”

We have a solid contract and there are now other options so we have no concerns about it being shut down. Basically if you shut the fiber down you shut down the entire train network in Victoria. You don't spend lots of Millions putting in a fiber for it to be turned off.

Phil Britt writes...

You don't spend lots of Millions putting in a fiber for it to be turned off.

After this government pissing over a billion dollars, once it's up and running, that is, on a Myki Mouse rail ticketing system, who knows what stupid decisions that they'll make.

They put in a fast rail service that gains about a minute or two, if that, between T'gon and Spencer Street. I wouldn't put it past them to decomission it and to use something else instead.

And who's that Paul Budde character? His name seems to pop up a fair bit in news items relating to telecomms issues.

MJT57 writes...

between T'gon and Spencer Street

Dear me MJT at huge expense to the taxpayer Spencer Street has been renamed Southern Cross. A Google on Paul Budde who is a communcications consultant brings up his website http://www.budde.com.au/

Hey Phil, time to rattle the cage again, any chance of some new plans, something like the iPrimus Big Kahuna would be nice, I'd even settle for what I'm on now data wise, 70gb, but for the Big Kahuna price.

znipa-x writes...

any chance of some new plans

Hey Znipa, we're lucky that we aren't seeing any price rises, let alone price cuts.

I had a look at some of the competition, including iPrimus's "Big Kahuna" plan. They are prices that have bundled services. WB's are standalone and are still cheaper.

If you're gonna rattle any cages, do so with Telstra, to make its ULL services more affordable.

Oh, if this post classifies me as a "fanboi", then so be it.

yeah yeah I know, but I'm just sick of being left out, guess that's what I get for moving to a regional area :(

I'd just like to get an account under $100 with a decent data amount, hell I'd even settle for just an off-peak increase, something to stop me looking back at stock ADSL plans that have free pipe, the only thing stopping me going there is the downtime and transfer fees.

znipa-x writes...

yeah yeah I know, but I'm just sick of being left out, guess that's what I get for moving to a regional area :(

If you compare WB's DSL2 plans to say, Netspace you'll see that we do pretty well. Even iPrimus's "standard" DSL2 plans are dearer than WB's equivalent plans.

In fact I'd go as far to suggest that WB's DSL2 plans are probably the best value for money that's around at the moment.

If you think that you can do better back on DSL1 then go for it. But don't forget that ISPs' in general have more expensive DSL1 plans than they do DSL2.

You only have to click on that link to your left of this message and up a bit which says "Broadband Choice" to see what I'm saying is true.

One of WB's direct competitors, Netspace has 20/20 gig plans on DSL1 that are dearer than what I'm paying for on DSL2 (69 v 79 or more). Then look at its 8meg plans, dearer again. It's the same for most of them.

I haven't looked at WB's plans lately, mainly cos I haven't had a need to. But if it's a mega super duper giga tera byte plan that you want, then it's gonna be expensive. When they stop gouging us for international traffic, and perhaps less so for national data traffic that goes through Telstra then maybe we'll see unlimited data plans. There's a story on the front page of Wideband about it.

MJT57 writes...

You only have to click on that link to your left of this message and up a bit which says "Broadband Choice" to see what I'm saying is true.

that useless POS, doesn't search for the important variable, offpeak data, you need to go through each ISP to find that, but here's a few, if I was in a metro area I could use, they are all around my current data allowance, or the amount I would like to pay for the amount on offer,

Total Peak Off-Peak Price
60GB 20GB 40GB $59.95
120GB 40GB 80GB $69.95
150GB 50GB 100GB $79.95

ADSL2+ Big Kahuna 200GB
(40GB peak + 160GB off peak)
Peak: noon to midnight $79.95

ADSL2+ Speeds 150GB**
(40GB+110GB) $69.99

sure they may be bundled, but meh, whatever gets me the data at reasonable cost.

Look I'm not whinging at Wideband, and I'm well aware of the Telstra issues along with all the other stuff, I'm just saying they could probably do better, but why should they, they have a captured audience when it comes to ADSL2+, with only Telstra as the competition, and all they need to do is better the stock ADSL plans on offer from the telstra hardware resellers and it's a no brainer to stay with Wideband until/if another comes along.

I've been here nearly 12 months and I am stoked with the service, but it's getting stale, what happened to all the talk earlier in the year about new and inovative plans to utilise the offpeak better.

MJT57 is starting to sound like a wideband fanboi :) Phil, whats the latest with the Sale upgrade?

Morr1e writes...

Phil, whats the latest with the Sale upgrade?

Fiber is being pulled starting on Monday 21st July. We expect it will be finished on the Friday.

Morr1e writes...

MJT57 is starting to sound like a wideband fanboi :)

What do you mean starting?

Do I have to link you back to posts where I was trying to promote better shaping/usage limits and totally got shot down by the other whirlpoolians who are ment to be customers?

This topic was the first one where i met customers who didnt want value for money. Tell ya what it was funny as.

A-mak writes...

This topic was the first one where i met customers who didnt want value for money

Or that we may already think that we have value for money.

Hey, I've languished for years on dialup, then a year on Telstra ISDN which was as reliable as one of their Kombis that they currently use to promote Telstra "broadband".

I'm happy with WB's offerings at the moment. You can bet your balls that if Telstra sets up DSL2 in the Valley, if it already hasn't, that its deals won't be a patch on what WB has to offer. And when comparing to our city cousins, many of whom can't get DSL2 (and isn't there irony in that – we country bumpkins finally get something over our city bretheren?), and those that can, they aren't that much better off, particularly around to $60-70 price bracket.

My only bitch at the moment is Telstra's service. The line that I'm on is as flaky as one of them chocolate bars. The connection can range between 10mbits and 15.5mbits.

MJT57 writes...

Or that we may already think that we have value for money.

So you're the voice for the crowd eh? I am a customer and I dont beleive I'm getting the best I can get.

Hence the shaped speeds thing.

Lets see, Wideband have their own dsl2+ dslam and have their own 'wireless backhaul' which no doubt turns out cheaper for them compaired to some competitors with their dsl2+ dslams in other locations using a fibre backhaul. Yet these 'larger' competiters offer better dsl2+ plans oh and shaping speeds.

The only reason why Wideband are not being more competitive or affordable is because what do they have to go against? Telstra which is even worse.

I guess when we get a big competitors dslam here (tpg,iprimus, node) wideband would be a bit ass up for value but ofcourse they'll change their plans when that happens.

You really must have ties in with them MJ. You dont speak like a customer. I'm guessing you have investments with them.

I can assure you MJ doesn't have ties with us other than l have known him for many years. He is not staff and there are only two owners of Wideband being myself and John Reisinger.

Whilst we own a lot of our network we still have to get the Data from Melbourne to Morwell which we do via an optic fiber on Victrack – that's public now seeing as the State Oposition did a freedom of information request for Victrack's customer list and published it in the Herald Sun!

That service costs a lot more than what the others are paying to get their data around Melbourne.

We have more plans on the way but there are other things which will be anounced shortly going on in the background that have my attention at the moment.

A-mak writes...

So you're the voice for the crowd eh?

No, I merely suggested that there are those that may think that WB offers them good deals. For my usage patterns it does. Maybe for you it doesn't. In which case, being a free market enterprise we have the choice to go with different providers.

My only issue with the internet industry is that most of them make you go onto a contract, so you won't know what their performance is like til you're locked in for a period of time.

Hence resources such as Whirlpool are great at getting an idea of how they perform.

You really must have ties in with them MJ. You dont speak like a customer. I'm guessing you have investments with them.

And as Phil said, you'd be guessing wrong. The closest that I came to having any sort of "investment" in the internet business was when a mate of ours set up the first one in the Valley, Gippsland Internet.

We were helping him out for a while.

Other than that, I've been very much a customer, first with APANA and then Netspace, then a casual account through the mate and Access One, then onto Bigpond briefly, then Austarnet Broadband (called "Chello" for a while), then Bigpond ISDN, then Netspace ADSL when we moved back into town and finally Wideband.

Phil Britt writes...

We have more plans on the way but there are other things which will be anounced shortly going on in the background that have my attention at the moment.

come on, spill it, what's in wings.....

I didn't get a "Your Wideband service has been shaped" notification yesterday. Is that system offline at the moment?

WallyRaffles writes...

I didn't get a "Your Wideband service has been shaped" notification yesterday. Is that system offline at the moment?

Funny that you should say that. Me neither. I just checked my usage. And I have 80 megs to go. I looked at it and thought, how the photon could we have downloaded so much crap.

Normally you'd get a message when you've reached around 80 percent of your usage. This occured last weekend, either Saturday night or Sunday morning.

Had I not seen your post I would've been unaware of it. Thing is it's extremely rare for us to use so much of our allowance. Normally we reached the 80 percent mark on the last couple of days. The last time we got a warning was on 31st May.

This is a sample of recent usage:

June 3955.03 MB 12767.00 MB
May 4739.36 MB 16069.87 MB
April 4120.75 MB 17097.20 MB

I'm gonna have to question the usage of the 'net and to make sure that we don't have an "intruder" using up stuff. In the meantime I need to purchase block hours.

Bugger.

I want to set up a webcam. Do we have fixed IP addresses and if so how do I go about configuring so that family members can log in to check it out?

Thanks

And what's the best way to do this, software, etc.?

MJ – Whim me and we can chat. :)

Have had something like this going before.

S

DrNick writes...

MJ – Whim me and we can chat. :)

Thanks Doc, but I figured it out. I downloaded a webcam called YAWCAM from http://www.yawcam.com/

Works well. Just needed to set up port forwarding (uPnP wouldn't work for some reason).

Anyway, I use what appears to be the static (hopefully) IP address of my modem and using the ports as specified in the setup.

I can't try it locally as if I enter the ip address it merely opens up the web browser interface for the modem. So I got my daughter to log in to check. Works a treat.

I tried one from the UK which required me to register. It then went through a bullshit process of using "captcha" the system of graphically generated validation codes to ensure that i'm not a spammer. But I couldn't read them. The next option was to listen to a recording where 8 digits were generated and I entered them in. I took me 5 goes before I got it right. Then I discover that the video stream goes to the UK and then out to the web. And it was slow as treacle. More like an occasional photo update.

YAWCAM works heaps better.

Also got Skype going on the laptops too. Both have webcams.

First time I've played with this stuff in a long time. Last time was back in 1994 when me old mate Ron was experiementing with this new technology. He had a 64k ISDN setup at his end, mine was 26k dialup. Slow as and on cameras that had a 640x480 resolution. That's around 0.3mp, not 1.3mp. So yeah, a tad primitive back then.

Arrr, good stuff.

S

WallyRaffles writes...

I didn't get a "Your Wideband service has been shaped" notification yesterday. Is that system offline at the moment?

We made some major changes to the database on Thursday night (late). That could have effected it. I will let our programmer know.

Hey Phil,

Any chance that users on corporate accounts will be able to check usage on individual accounts using something like this – http://netusage.iau5.com/ soon?

Cheers

S

Phil Britt writes...

We made some major changes to the database on Thursday night

Phil, I hit the 80 percent mark last Sunday, four days prior to these changes being made. But I go no notification. Something appears to be amiss...

DrNick writes...

Any chance that users on corporate accounts will be able to check usage on individual accounts using something like this – http://netusage.iau5.com/ soon?

We have the ability now to assign a different usage username and password to a corporate connection which will allow it to apear in our usage pages like a normal home connection. This is so that you can allow corporate users to monitor their own usage without giving them access to what everyone else is doing on the group account.

If you would like me set it up, email me and l will do it. Send a username and password also.

Your connection will still apear in the main corporate usage also.

MJT57 writes...

Phil, I hit the 80 percent mark last Sunday, four days prior to these changes being made. But I go no notification. Something appears to be amiss...

There were a lot of pre changes made up to 2 weeks prior so it looks like it was broken from there.

I have been advised by our programmer that the issue is now resolved.

Cheers Phil, email coming soon.

Thanks

S

is the weather affecting speeds today, even general surfing is sluggish

The Directors of Wideband Networks are pleased to announce that Wideband Networks and Westvic Broadband will merge on the 1st August 2008. This merger will create the largest privately owned Wireless Broadband & ADSL 2+ network in Regional Victoria.

Our new business will be called Aussie Broadband Pty Ltd.

Both Wideband and Westvic specialise in providing Broadband Access for Regional Areas and we have both built extensive Wireless Networks in Eastern and Western Victoria. Both companies are also registered under the Australian Broadband Guarantee program and provide Satellite services to areas that cannot receive traditional fixed line or Wireless Broadband.

The companies will continue to operate their Morwell & Warrnambool Offices which employ the local staff that service your Internet needs. No changes are being made to this structure and there have been no changes to our staff.

Aussie Broadband will now be able to offer its customers a wider range of services and new products, plans and services will be released to the market shortly. You will also benefit from a larger staff base, with over 35 staff now employed.

The Management Team comprises the key staff from both Business, and Phillip Britt the current Managing Director of Wideband has accepted the role of Managing Director of Aussie Broadband Pty Ltd.

We assure our customers that there will be no changes to the high level of service we have built our business on, and there will be no changes to your services or e-mail addresses.

Yours Sincerely,
Phillip Britt
Managing Director
Wideband Networks Pty Ltd

Well done, Phil :)

Definitely looking forward to some new plans.

WallyRaffles writes...

Well done, Phil :)

Definitely looking forward to some new plans.

hell yeah, I'll have one of the Shaped^ 80 Gigabytes Plans listed on the Westvic website, unless you come up with something better :)

Yeah well we will have some new stuff out in August. As you can see l have been a bit busy lately!

Phil Britt writes...

Yeah well we will have some new stuff out in August.

cool can't wait, although I did just downgrade my plan, bloody cost of living encroaching on my fun :(

As you can see l have been a bit busy lately!

given the the news, I can fully appreciate what's been happening in the wings... just hope it's good for all concerned...

Congrats, Phil.

Just please, do us, or me, one favor: don't let Wideband turn into another Datafast. What was a great local company, Net-tech, turned into what I thought was an impersonal conglomerate.

Yeah, yeah, I know that I exaggerate, but to many of us who were with Net-tech, that's how it seemed to become.

Anyway, good luck with the venture, Phil. Hopefully you'll be able to get even more clout in the industry. So much so that maybe one day we'll get our own forum space on Whirlpool...

Well done Phil, good luck with the new joint venture. I have to say that is a shocking name though. And don't forget about poor old Sale :)

MJT57 writes...

Just please, do us, or me, one favor: don't let Wideband turn into another Datafast.

Don't worry, once bitten, twice shy. Both myself and the guys from Westvic were burnt in the Datafast deal so we are all on the same wave length.

It’s one of the main reasons we are still a private company, once you go public things tend spiral out of control.

Morr1e writes...

And don't forget about poor old Sale :)

Yeah Yeah, have you been outside the post office lately? There should be lots of holes, new pits and boring machines. The fibre is going in this week.

znipa-x writes...

I'll have one of the Shaped^ 80 Gigabytes Plans

Looking at those plans the info is sparse. For example, the closest plan to mine in terms of cost is a 20 gig plan or maybe the 45gig plan. But it doesn't say if it's split across the peak/non peak or whether that's the total available data across the billing period.

Echo what MJT57 said re Net-Tech > Datafast > Eftel > etc. :)

I remember coming down to the house next to Maryvale PH, or chatting to your mum/Matt R back when I was with VCS. Few years back now!

Good to see two business coming together that are in the same field, can only help us end users at the end of the day! :D

Cheers

S

MJT57 writes...

But it doesn't say if it's split across the peak/non peak or whether that's the total available data across the billing period.

It is split peak/off peak.

DrNick writes...

I remember coming down to the house next to Maryvale PH, or chatting to your mum/Matt R back when I was with VCS. Few years back now!

Yes they were the good old days, l think mum misses all the customer interaction. It’s been an interesting ride over the last 12 years, which is quite scary l have been doing this since 1996. I must admit though it never gets boring and the constant change in Technology keeps the mind active.

Congrats on the merger.

Does this mean the wideband website and customer section will change? Along with (more) unmetered content?

I sure hope you dont use the other company's dsl2+ plans that'd be a step backwards!

Our plans will be inline with the current Wideband plans. At the moment its very expensive to get bandwidth to Warrnambool which is why their plans are higher in some cases, but we are working on getting a more economical backhaul system at the moment for them.

Phil Britt writes...

It is split peak/off peak.

So the 59 dollar 20 gig plan is really 10/10? If so that isn't very good value at all. At least not compared to Wideband.

Hey, they need a Vline rail link out that way, huh??

:-)

congratulations phil.
so will we still be invoiced from wideband, or aussie?

MJT57 writes...

So the 59 dollar 20 gig plan is really 10/10? If so that isn't very good value at all. At least not compared to Wideband.

A-mak writes...

Congrats on the merger.

Does this mean the wideband website and customer section will change? Along with (more) unmetered content?

I sure hope you dont use the other company's dsl2+ plans that'd be a step backwards!

yeah, but go up to where I'm at, 70gb for $109.95 and the Shaped^ 80 Gigabytes $99.95 Plan is much better, 10gb more for $10 less.

^ Shaped Plans total usage is made up of partly 'peak data' and partly 'non peak data'. There are no excess data usage charges on this plan, when limit is reached connection speed is throttled to 64k/64k.

Peak data is calculated from 7am to Midnight. Off-Peak is Midnight to 7am

oh well, lets see what gets offer next month.

JA5ONS writes...

so will we still be invoiced from wideband, or aussie?

For the next couple of months Wideband but it will change to Aussie at some point. We are still getting everything sorted in the banking and finance side of things but we will notify everyone if we are going to make any changes.

Also l must stress we are not changing things like peoples e-mails, we have had quite a few calls on that one today.

Sorry to get a bit off-topic – I'm posting on behalf of my brother who just got hooked up to Wideband today. Interesting to read about the merger, will keep an eye on things!

Question – what's the best way for my brother to monitor his usage AND how well is data monitored from Widebands end? Oh, he's on satellite by the way. The installer guy seemed to think that WB didn't "do usage monitoring very well"... :\

Cheers!

We actually do usage monitoring really well, its updated every 15 minutes which is more than a lot of the others. If you goto https://my.wideband.net.au and enter your username and password which is typically the first part of your email address and password you will be able to see your usage.

If he was only connected today the usage may not have started as we wait for confirmation from the installation company which may or may not have happened, but log in and give it a try.

Davidian writes...

how well is data monitored from Widebands end

ROFL.

I daresay that WB would say that it's "monitored extremely well".

I suggest that he download a program called DU Meter and install it on his PC. If he doesn't have a home network and that the computer is the only thing that's connected to the wireless setup then it will, or should give a fairly good picture of his usage.

If he has more than one PC on the network he can install DU Meter on all PCs then from time to time add up all the upload/download values and see if they correlate with WB's usage meter.

DU Meter can't analyse whole networks, only individual PC usage.

Davidian writes...

what's the best way for my brother to monitor his usage

if he's using firefox, use the "net usage item" add-on, it retrieves the usage direct from the ISP.

Here's a nifty website in Morwell.

http://skilled2.com/weather/default.htm

It's owned by another Phil, this one who sells PCs.

It's a great little site, lots of useful info, too. Thing is, I'd like to know how he does it.

The gear obviously is connected to a PC which has a net connection. But the website itself is hosted in the US according to Sam Spade's traceroute.

How does that work? Does the software that he's using send the data to a server in the US over a DSL connection?

I was wondering how I'd do that directly from here and hosted on my PC via Wideband? OR are we talking commercial services and rates here?

Hi MJT57,

It is normally an electronic weather station that is mounted on the roof etc. It has a connection to the control box which then is connected via a serial cable or whatever to a computer. This runs the weather analyzing software to produce the graphs.

From there, it can be ftp'd to a web server anywhere in the world (the beauty of the 'net)

So you could do a similar thing and upload the weather to your personal webpace at Wideband or wherever if you have space there.

We have one also in Warragul, but the graphs aren't as pretty :)

http://www.dcsi.net.au/weather.php

John

MJT57 writes...

It's owned by another Phil,

It looks like Phil from Protec actually.

I need to play with my software a little and reconnect my rain gauge. http://weather.drnick.com.au/

S

and this one is ran by the manager of Corporate Technology Consultants in Traralgon.
http://www.mcloughlins-beach.com.au/raw/mcloughlinsbeach.htm

Damn, those are good. Makes my cacti one look pretty sad.....
https://gippsweb.com/cacti/graph_view.php?action=tree&tree_id=7
user & pass = guest.

Excuse the self signed cert, it's only used by myself ....

What weather station you running there gippsweb?

S

It's parsing the weather from accuweather, as they don't have a L.V. one I think it's pulling the data from either Moorabbin or Essendon airports.
I'd like to put up my own, maybe sometime in the future if work slows down for a while....

MeTaLliC writes...

It looks like Phil from Protec actually.

Which is what I said, but not in as many words.

gippsweb writes...

It's parsing the weather from accuweather

I wrote to BoM asking about being able to extract or import live data so we could trend weather conditions. It'd be handy at work for example when watching for approaching cool changes that can drastically affect what we're doing. Or if we're suffering through a heatwave to know when relief is on its way.

Right now, Bom weather obs are 30 min. updates. if we could get 5min. resolution data that'd be fantastic.

It'd be nice if there was a network of these weather stations all feeding a single server where we could then trace the weather changes.

I will be able to use the BOM feed for it once they change it to xml.

I use the .txt feed from BOM on my asterisk box with TTS for a dialup weather report just for something to do.

Accuweather was the only cacti script I could get working with an Aus feed.

wow, the weather, really interesting, can we get back to speculating about Aussie broadband..... and the things that matter, like what the new plans should be etc.....

znipa-x writes...

wow, the weather, really interesting,

Well, it is insofar as to how we can deliver the technology and using our DSL resources.

like what the new plans should be etc.....

You make it sound like that we have a role to play in the decision making process. I wonder if Phil, John and other members of the management team feel this way.

I s'pose though, that there's no harm in expressing views as to what we would want. But what we want and what would fit into a proper business model may be two different things.

While most of the time we all stay on topic, there is time to time posts about local happenings and other events. Most of these weather stations use ADSL technology, and most with services provided by Wideband. So, yeah it is more on topic than what other things have been. :)

Re new plans, more data is always good. But only if a profit can still be made from these plans. Phil and co are not silly and know the score. I would not mind a little more data, but being on ADSL1 I don't like my chances.

S

you know, I'm not after more data, what I have now is fine, I've actually dropped my plan one level as of next month, but even so I'd just like it a bit cheaper, and if we could manage a free pipe allowance, or perhaps a binary news feed, well I'd be happy with the current pricing, I just reckon this is what we should be on about, rather than the weather.... I'm mean wideband does have adsl2+ in this area sewn up, it's not like telstra are any competition...

You know I will always bite when involved. LOL ;)

I noticed a number of ISP's dropped free PIPE (ones I have been with in the last couple of years). Some more free/non metered content would not be too bad. The only free traffic I use is VPN back into work and the odd game patch from WB's FTP.

Any news Phil with expanding the amount of ADSL2 exchanges in the area? Or has this now been put on the back burner with the merger?

S

znipa-x writes...

or perhaps a binary news feed

Hey, I'd be happy with a basic text newsfeed, let alone a binary one. Phil had a connection to Pipe's news servers but they were about as reliable as that kombi van that Telstra uses to push its bored band services. But that disappeared.

Unfortunately basic internet services such as nntp feeds seem to be low priority for ISPs these days. Maybe it's a sign that they're fast approaching their use-by date. Dunno. It's my prefered method of chatting. I don't like web based forums simply because they're slow to load, often full of advertising and are run by nazi autocratic power tripping moderators.

Whirlpool excepted, of course. This is a brilliant resource. I'm talking about the less professionally run services.

DrNick writes...

The only free traffic I use is VPN back into work

Dr Nick does that mean wideband to wideband traffic is free?

It depends on where you are in the network. If it passes a metering point then its charged, if it doesn't then it’s not.

It’s a bit like taking the back roads to get around Citylink.

We don't advertise it as being free because it will depend on the routing on that day if it is or it isn't. We have decided not to make it free because backhaul is a finite resource. It’s not like we have dark fibre running everywhere like the guys use in the Metro 2+ deployments.

In terms of things like Free PIPE you will most likely not see this happen because it’s not free. We spend $11,000 per month to connect to PIPE in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

Whilst PIPE Bandwidth is cheaper than normal transit, it’s only about 30% cheaper at our current buy rates. Its more about being good internet citizens. We then also pay more to get it down to Morwell and into the 2+ network so our costs are higher than those running 2+ in Metro areas because we have limited backhaul options and higher backhaul costs.

We are working on 2+ for Moe/Newborough but l am not giving out any dates because it’s a complex build requiring asbestos removal in the exchange for a new cable tray run to support the optic fibre we are putting in.

Thanks again Phil pretty comprehensive answer.

Cheers for the update Phil.

mahootna – I am on the same exchange as where I VPN into. Maybe my traffic is not enough to show up on my usage. From the WB FTP server does not count for me, I know that as I am running close to my DL limit this month and got a few large patches that have not counted.

Cheers

S

The Wideband Mirror / FTP is a free site for Wireless & ADSL users so even if it does go through a metering gateway (which it would for DrNick) it doesn't get counted.

what's the address to the mirror site, if it's what I'm looking at there's not much useful on it.

http://mrwl.mirror.wide.net.au

besides the mirror is there anything else that is unmetered, ABC maybe??

At this stage only the mirror is unmetered.

I want to say something about value adding etc, after being with wideband for 12mths (well nearly, but the longest I've been with any ISP), but I just keep coming back this..

znipa-x writes...

I'm mean wideband does have adsl2+ in this area sewn up, it's not like telstra are any competition...

suffice to say I've dropped my account from the most expensive to the next one down, it's gonna hurt, but I just have to, due to cost of living increases.

I'd love to see something done to encourage use of the thing like the ABC initiative of Iview (*cough* unmetered *cough*), and even TVU (that has gotten so much publicity of late), but I understand profits dictate.

Let's hope something good comes out of the new Aussie venture...

I love the Iview service also, but rather than writing why we can't un-meter it, read this: /forum-replies.cfm?t=1019702#r14

Our reason is the same technical one Internode has.

Phil Britt writes...

I love the Iview service also, but rather than writing why we can't un-meter it, read this: /forum-replies.cfm?t=1019702#r14

Our reason is the same technical one Internode has.

fair enough, but is it even being thought about, I mean, are wideband even considering some type of value add, we've had the same service (yes stable and reliable, and I'm very happy about that) for the last 12mth, but it seems wideband is resting on its....... you know what I'm going to say, I'm not trying to stir or anything, but if someone doesn't keep poking and prodding, nothing new happens, or at least, nothing appears to happen, and nothing has at the consumer end, the biggest thing to happen since I got here is a merger with another company, and, well, I left Koala just before that happened, thank god....

Well in the last 12 months we have...

- Rolled out ADSL2+ to Sale & Bairnsdale
- Upgraded our backbone to a much higher level
- Introduced Satellite Broadband
- Upgraded Morwell & Traralgon twice
- Setup the Aussie Broadband merger
- Built a Sydney POP
- Connected to PIPE Peering in Sydney & Brisbane
- Connected to Equinix Peering in Sydney
- Redesigned our backend mail infrastructure
- Installed new mail server hardware
- Installed new customer management hardware

I understand what you are saying but we are not sitting here twiddling our thumbs. Wideband is a staff of 16 and we provide good service for a reason – we are small and personalised. Our R&D Department consists of Me and My business partner so time to market with new stuff is limited to our availability which has been very limited over the last 6 months which is how long it’s taken to put the merger together. Once that is bedded down we will have more time to innovate!

We provide a stable and reliable service as you acknowledge and we can't do that by being the cheapest in the market. Plus lets be blunt, we are in business to make money and there should be nothing wrong with that. In the past 12 months we have spent over $2.5 Million in Capital expansion, all to keep the service you have become accustomed to fast and reliable.

Would you rather have a reliable and stable service or one that's a few bucks cheaper and causes you heaps of problems?

All good things come to those who wait... If Wideband wasn't here you would be stuck with Telstra 2+

Phil Britt writes...

All good things come to those who wait... If Wideband wasn't here you would be stuck with Telstra 2+

actually, I'd probably be whinging with the blitz/supernerd crowd, and looking for another dsl1 provider with free pipe to jump to, as I will never go to telstra for broadband....... just give me something to spruke about next month and I'll stay quiet for a while...

When I first signed up to ADSL it was with with iiNet, and I was with them for ~3.5 years. During that time they started to give me more downloads, make it cheaper, add some free content. Then that all stopped and the price started to go back up, data dropped and I had to have their home phone. These changes made me a little bitter as it was as if they did not really see what these changes were going to cost them.

Wideband are not a budget service, they offer a good well price service tho. I see all these people on here that always try and go for the cheapest option that offers the most. Have a look at the number of *cheap* providers that have gone under and caused the users issues with dodgy charges and alike.

Because of the gov changing their minds re OPEL and alike it makes it hard for smaller ISP's to invest a heap of money not knowing what is going to happen tomorrow. Looking at most providers I have not seen massive changes in most offerings (services) of late.

I was with Netspace before Wideband and when I changed over my performance jumped by 10% on the same service. As long as that continues I will be happy. :)

S

DrNick = fanboi ;P TIC

Hahahahahaha.

S

Sale Update:

Sale will be running on the new optic fiber by around 10pm on Wednesday evening. There will be a very short break to service between 8pm and 10pm for about 5 minutes to allow us to plug it in.

We have decided not to do this outage after midnight as it will be so short and by doing this we are able to do it on Wednesday and not next week.

what can we expect to see from this upgrade..

About 8ms lower latency and faster download / upload speeds. This will bring Sale's backhaul in line with all other sites and it will have the same capacity as other sites.

All customers that were moved onto Telstra ports as a temporary solution will be moved back onto our DSLAM.

Phil, have you moved me to the wideband dslam yet?

I can't remember who you are so whim me, but we havn't moved any Sale users yet. We have just finished cutting over to the fiber, in fact l am still sitting in the exchange.

haha I should come for a walk and see you. stuff that too cold. When are you planning on moving us over?

In the next few days the orders will go in and then it takes 4 working days after that.

Phil Britt writes...

Yeah well we will have some new stuff out in August. As you can see l have been a bit busy lately!

hey Phil, it's August tommorrow, can we have a sneak peak at some of this new stuff.

http://www.wideband.net.au/adsl2_plans.html

Basically we have introduced a new plan at the $89.95 price point and increased the data on the $109.95 plan.

Just checked out the new plan(s). Also noted that the VOIP plans seem to have changed too. Not too shabby, them, either.

Pity though that you don't sell the Billion range. This one is supposed to be the beez kneez...

http://au.billion.com/product/voip/bipac7404vgp.php

How do you charge for VOIP?

Not sure what you mean, it basically apears as a charge on your normal internet bill and is debited to your credit card or bank account at the same time your intenret account is debited.

MJT57 writes...

Pity though that you don't sell the Billion range

The Open Networks 824RLW ADSL2+ Router Wideband sell are practically identical inside to the Billion 7404vgp.