Broadband questions.

For those of you fortunate and/or rich enough to have a broadband connection, please could you tell me what sort of data usage is normal for you and what kinds of internet activity (not details, just movies vs. static webpage browsing, for instance) you usually engage in?

A long time ago Grant wrote this:

GrantK;175012 wrote: - Feb 740MB
- March 370MB (we weren't there for some of the time)
- April 1GB
- May 900MB

We both use the internet fairly heavily and that amount of data is enough for us. If you go watching a lot of YouTube videos, even a 2GB data budget could quickly be exceeded however...

How does that compare with yours?

This feels like a really simple question, but ...if you have your phoneline over satelite, does your computer have to be running for that to work, or just the power on (and there's another potential problem!)?

We have a 10Gb allowance before paying overage. Usually we go nowhere near it but my stepson was home for his varsity holidays and managed to put us over by a Gig or two on the two full calender months he was here. Lots of YouTube surfing plus the odd video download did the trick I think. I'd sooner remain oblivious to the details :rolleyes:

Our phone line is split between wired broadband and telephone, so we can at least phone out in in when someone is on the computer. (unlike dial-up) they just had to put a splitter in the line due to our monitored burglar alarm. If I have one grizzle, moving away from telecom, it is that there seems to be a dead area on connection, which causes the first number in a sequence to vanish, so we get a lot of unobtainable like calls which means we have to dial out twice. It also has wrecked our perfectly good paging system, using the old 137 trick between phones, as now if we dial that, like house to shed for instance, there is a dial tone that crashes in over top of our connection. On the plus side, it's cheaper, and we have a free voice mail service which diverts callers to a mail box if someone is on the phone when a call comes in. (I just have to remember to check that box however, as we also have an answer phone on our homeline. We are on the cheapest rate and never seem to run out of credits. Mind you we are not into downloading movies and the like, and only watch the odd bit of you tube stuff.

A long time ago, as a salesman I lived in town and had BBand... before moving to the boonies...

2006 a 3Gb plan from Slingshot for $39.95 a month usually left me with a third to a quarter of a Gig buffer before running over. That was with Youtube, video downloads (Chinese movies have english subtitles, while english language movies don't I watched a lot of chinese stuff then) and suchlike.

We have a 30Gb allowance. Used to be 10GB but we were going over that about 50% of the time. Our work/business is internet based so we are online ALL THE TIME (I work from home). Our cell phones are also connected to the wireless network at home. Our work usage is mostly static pages - not much in the way of videos etc. Our wireless connection also serves my Mums house next door (in our paddock) but she uses a very minimal amount of data.

However.....9YO daughter uses a massive amount of data. Youtube and online gaming (Club Penguin etc) use huge amounts of bandwidth. She will watch music video after music video (how much do I hate Miley Cyrus/Justin Beiber etc).

We get a great deal through Farmside at around $115 per month including Broadband, home phone and some national toll calls. Because I work from home this is totally a tax deductible expense.

Stikkibeek;358207 wrote: Our phone line is split between wired broadband and telephone, so we can at least phone out in in when someone is on the computer. (unlike dial-up) they just had to put a splitter in the line due to our monitored burglar alarm.

Everyone has that splitter, it stops the BB from screaming in your ear when you're on the phone. Sometimes they are called Filters, and placed at every phone socket.

Stikkibeek;358207 wrote: If I have one grizzle, moving away from telecom, it is that there seems to be a dead area on connection, which causes the first number in a sequence to vanish, so we get a lot of unobtainable like calls which means we have to dial out twice. It also has wrecked our perfectly good paging system, using the old 137 trick between phones, as now if we dial that, like house to shed for instance, there is a dial tone that crashes in over top of our connection. On the plus side, it's cheaper, and we have a free voice mail service which diverts callers to a mail box if someone is on the phone when a call comes in. (I just have to remember to check that box however, as we also have an answer phone on our homeline.

You've just answered your own gripe. When you lift up the phone, your online message box sends you a tone to tell you there is a message waiting. Only after that can you hear the dialtone, waiting for your number. That 'dead area' is your online message box trying to get your attention.
If I remember correctly, if you clear the messages, then the tone goes away. (well, that's how it used to be when I had that feature). Now, we only have the answerphone, no online message service. If someone calls, the line is busy, they'll call back, or on a cellphone.
Try turning off that message service for a bit, see if it comes right

OOps, thread hijack.
I have a 30Gb plan, and sometimes go over, forcing me to buy another 30Gb for the month (or face dialup speeds). Teenage daughter, and the odd movie download.

I'm a relatively newcomer to Broadband-less than a year. I had Mobile broadband for a couple of years but was told it would cease in November and I could have a T stick with XT- but no coverage here so I put the pressure on that I really wanted proper broadband!
They did it-after saying there wasn't room at the exchange too!

I'm on a plan that includes 10Gb of BB, all tolls and line rental for @$114-which was a lot cheaper than before. Mobile calls 38c/min and a set overseas rate which is pretty low for 2 hrs. I think I could manage with under 3Gb, but have the luxury of 10-and no teenagers to overstep the mark!

I just leave the computer on all day and yes we have a splitter thing too because of the alarm. The spiders web under my desk is an electricians nightmare!

We are on a vodafone fixed line plan and paying about $100 per month for 30gig and the home phone. Seems to be a fairly reasonable price compared to telecom but I haven't researched many others. 30 gig is more than we need but we were going over the 10 gig on a regular basis - quite a lot of surfing the net, FBk and genealogy research runs through it pretty quick.

We have a tiny 3Gb plan for $41.00. We never even use 80% of it. That is two of us mostly viewing webpages, a bit of gaming via facebook, emails, a couple of utube videos a week, the occasional TV on demand. Have never watched a movie. If we were to go over we would go back to dial up speed for the rest of the billing period.

The main benefit of broadband for me is that you dont have to worry about tying up the phone line and its easier to keep up with emails as they pop through all by themselves and you dont have to log on to keep checking them.

We are on Orcon Wireless (our only choice apart from satellite) with a 2GB per month limit and costs $100 a month! However, I work on the server at head office connected via a VPN, so they pay (well, I claim it back), but that connection (40 hours per week, mind you) takes up the entire 2GB.

We pay $5 per GB overuse and we usually use about an extra 2GB for personal use per month. Don't watch movies or YouTube, but my husband has several computers (IT guy) and downloads updates regularly for his various programmes, plus we Skype with family overseas probably once every couple of months. Other than that, it's mostly static websites, and also maintaining my websites which does involve uploading photos quite often (I make them small first mind you).

Easiest way is to copy and paste my usage.

23 Dec 2010 - 22 Jan 2011 2075.16
23 Nov 2010 - 22 Dec 2010 2663.61
23 Oct 2010 - 22 Nov 2010 2057.04
23 Sep 2010 - 22 Oct 2010 2567.97
23 Aug 2010 - 22 Sep 2010 1995.29
23 Jul 2010 - 22 Aug 2010 3001.77
23 Jun 2010 - 22 Jul 2010 1463.25
23 May 2010 - 22 Jun 2010 1539.18
23 Apr 2010 - 22 May 2010 1666.54
23 Mar 2010 - 22 Apr 2010 2926.11
23 Feb 2010 - 22 Mar 2010 2303.85
23 Jan 2010 - 22 Feb 2010 2533.36

The internet is on all day here, don't do toooooo much You tube.

That is all very helpful. Pricing is not an issue which I can even consider, because I only have one option: satellite. The only thing I have a directly line of sight to from home is the sky and we're surrounded by large hills, even in the distance, which block any line of sight to any sort of repeater for any other option.

But it would appear that my sort of usage would be similar to those of you who survive on 3Gb plans - and there are data booster options I could opt for which would give me far more for part of each day, during which I could do any photographic work.

Excellent and thank you all.

I use between 3GB-5GB a month and I'm online a most of the day and run a website [] Watch youtube occasionally and download software etc.

I was recently looking at how cheap it is to download movies and might up our limit to cover that.

Cheers
Kate

Here in South Korea we pay about $30/month for unlimited 100Mbps broadband with fibre. We are in a small rural town one hour away from the nearest city.

A

ame;358282 wrote: Here in South Korea we pay about $30/month for unlimited 100Mbps broadband with fibre. We are in a small rural town one hour away from the nearest city.

A

Showoff :rolleyes: