ISP recommendations please

Hoping to get something as good or better than we have at the moment. Having trouble with service dropping out, and people at the call centre being of no use, or suggesting the "turn it off" and un plug and replug, and replace cables and filters... all of which we have done and still have the exact same issues.

Our plan is 15gig a month for $49.95. Free use between 1am and 7am, which is great as my brother downloads heaps - when its working.

Speed is good download spead when its working...

Hubby is working at home and we have had to buy more, occationally, which can be rolled over to other months and works out about $1 a gig.

I think its the best value plan to be on, but thats no good if its not working.

Is there any others out there that can do the same or better, but will actually fix any issues if they arise?

Clods, from your description of your plan, it sounds like you are on Slingshot -- am I correct?

Because your brother downloads so much data, your options are very limited regarding ISPs. Pretty much all of them will be more expensive than Slingshot, who are unique in offering "data banking" i.e. the ability to roll over unused data to the next month.

I would not recommend Telecom "Big Time" at all, even though it offers theoretically unlimited data. Telecom throttle the hell out of it to stop people downloading excessive amounts using Bit Torrents, which in theory should not affect web browsing, but in practice it does. Telecom Big Time will give you lots of data for a cheap price, but the quality of service will suffer drastically, and your husband who is working at home will get very frustrated with it.

The best ISP I ever had with a wired (ADSL) connection such as you are using, was Snap:

http://www.snap.net.nz/

As you will see from their homepage, they offer 20GB of data for $49.95, which appears cheaper than what you are on now, but if you want to add extra data blocks, it will cost about $2 per GB, depending on how much extra you buy.

Therefore, if you go into excess usage, you will probably end up paying a little more than you are now, however, it will be worth it in terms of the much better quality service provided by Snap. Their helpdesk is excellent; is answered promptly and politely by NZers, not some place in Egypt or Manila, and is staffed by very helpful and competent people.

From my experience of Snap, you will also get better international bandwidth at nights (peak time) which is important if you want to watch YouTube video clips without buffering (pauses during replay).

If this sounds like what you are looking for, I would highly recommend Snap.

P.S. One thing worries me a little about your description of the problems you are currently having:

"Service Dropping Out": Could be caused by a fault with your line or router. So this may need to be fixed in order for you to get a reliable service.

However, I would still recommend switching to Snap and see if the problem persists. If it does, then you will have the assistance of one of the best ISP helpdesks in NZ to get it sorted.

Try inzonecorp.com, they do a satellite broadband service. Fantastic coverage and around the same rate as you currently pay. Their website is www.inzonecorp.com and if you click on the contact us part, you should get a list of monthly rates sent to you pretty much straight away.

I have to recommend ORCON...been with them since our first PC and never any problems [^][^][^]

Did I mention our daughter works for them[][:0][] but it does have excellent plans and service
Cheers

Clods;305858 wrote: Hoping to get something as good or better than we have at the moment. Having trouble with service dropping out, and people at the call centre being of no use, or suggesting the "turn it off" and un plug and replug, and replace cables and filters... all of which we have done and still have the exact same issues.

The reasons for DSL service drop outs are many and varied and changing ISP in the majority of cases will not resolve your issues.

The reasons can be

Faulty cable pair - ask your ISP to get Telecom to do a line check

Faulty DSLAM port at Exchange - ask ISP to get Telecom to do a port reset

Faulty DSL router - when service drops out check lights on router. Is ADSL light on? If you know how to access your router via the web gui check the status of the router (is ADSL and PPP up?) and the logs.
Some routers have more problems than others. I replace more DLink and Dynalink routers than any others. Check the router to see how hot it is.
In some cases the ADSL side of the router is fine while the local/ethernet side of the router fails intermittently.

Faulty filters - unless you have a central filter, usually installed because you have a monitored alarm, you need to have a filter for each phone/fax socket you have a device plugged into. These do go faulty but you can usually tell as the DSL service drops or degrades when a phone is in use.

kcousins;305896 wrote: Try inzonecorp.com, they do a satellite broadband service. Fantastic coverage and around the same rate as you currently pay. Their website is www.inzonecorp.com and if you click on the contact us part, you should get a list of monthly rates sent to you pretty much straight away.

I suggest you read the Original Post a bit more carefully:

Satellite Broadband would be a very bad idea for someone who downloads 15GB per month or sometimes more

A good way of going broke sooner rather than later!

For example, Farmside, a competing satellite broadband provider charge $100 for a plan with 1GB data cap. Then you would have to purchase another "10GB Data Boost" which last time I looked, cost more than $100. Total $200 per month or more for just 11GB instead of 15GB.

Don't get me wrong, Satellite Broadband is a great option where dial-up is the only other alternative. But it isn't viable for households which consume more than 2 or 3GB per month, unless they are prepared to pay through the nose for it.

Have a word around the local computer geeks about any independent wireless providors in your area :cool:

Thanks for your suggestions. I will look into them.

My brother has been known to use 40 plus in the "free" overnight period. But hopefully he will have his own place soon, and it won't be much of a problem.

Currently have Telecom looking at the problem, who say they don't have any record of an internet connection on that line. But as they used to say that when we had our broadband with them, everytime we had a problem, then its not such a big surprise.

Yes, with Slingshot at the moment. I think its a great plan, if we can get it working. Their contact people sound like they are NZers.

Did investigate Telstraclear, which would save us loads of money on our phonebill, even if the broadband plan isn't quite as good.

Oh, as for the ADSL light - it is usually solid, but when you go to open the browser if flickers like mad, when its not connecting properly.

Get prepaid t-sticks, one for your hubby & yourself and one for your brother - then he can download as much as HE can afford.

That sounds an expensive way to do it.

Clods;306015 wrote: That sounds an expensive way to do it.

Yep, definitely. You would be looking at around $60 to $70 just for 2GB, or $80 to $90 for 3 to 6GB.

Good for occasional use when away from home, but no good at all for everyday use unless you use very little data each month. If your usage is 500MB per month or less, it will only cost $30, but who really uses such a small amount of data these days :confused: