| Greg's thoughts on the NBN in Dereel |
|
||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||
On about 10 December 2013 the National Broadband Network finally came to Dereel. There's been lots of discussion on Facebook, and a certain amount of confusion. The NBN has sent out lots of documentation, and so have various ISPs, but they don't necessarily address all of the concerns people have. This page is a work in progress to try to address some of the issues people have raised.
This is a long document. If you don't read it all, here's what you need to take away:
I recommend Aussie Broadband.
I strongly advise against Telstra.
Installation is simple. You need Ethernet cable(s) and maybe a router.
VoIP is a separate issue, and you don't need to get it from your ISP. Shop around. For my purposes, MyNetFone is the best.
There's a division of responsibility in the net. From your house the connection goes by wireless to a so-called Point of Interconnect (POI), which for us is in Ballarat. That's NBN's responsibility. The ISPs connect at the POI, and they're responsible for the service from then on.
The NBN installers will install a little box, called an NTD, on an inside wall of your house. The NTD belongs to the NBN, and it doesn't cost anything. It has 4 connections, but only one (almost always port 1) will actually connect to your ISP.
My ISP at the time didn't help with the installation, but I understand that most do. If not, it's not difficult. You can connect this cable directly to your computer if you only have one computer, and you should be able to just boot the machine and be connected. All you need to supply is an Ethernet cable between the NTD and your computer.
If you have more than one computer, you'll need a router, which some ISPs incorrectly call a “modem”. There are no modems in the NBN. But if you have more than one computer, you probably already have a router. Typically it has five Ethernet ports, marked WAN (Wide area network) and LAN1 (Local area network) to LAN4. It probably also has WiFi antennas. You connect the WAN port to the NTD, and your computers to LAN1 to LAN4.
If you have to buy a router, check OfficeWorks, who offer routers starting round $35. Many ISPs charge far more. You'll also need an Analogue Telephone Adapter (ATA) for VoIP. Some routers have them included. When choosing an ATA, make sure it also had an input for a landline phone. Many don't, even expensive ones like the very expensive Linksys SPA112 offered by Aussie Broadband and many others, which means that you'll need more phones.
There are something like 100 different ISPs who can provide you the NBN service. NBN publishes the list here. There are some web sites out there that compare ISPs. I haven't found a good one, and some appear to be subscription services: they only compare those ISPs who support them. About the only one I know that is even worth looking at is Whirlpool, but that's not much fun either.
I got my NBN connection on 12 December 2013, initially with Exetel. The service was not as fast as advertised, and though they tried hard to fix it, it was clear that I was teaching them what to do. Eventually, after 2 months, I canceled the contract and they refunded a month's fees. No hard feelings.
I also tried a free 2 month connection with SkyMesh. I had been with them before, and I wasn't happy. I wasn't happy this time either, but at least it gave me a chance to compare.
Finally I landed with Aussie Broadband. I'm happy, and things seem to Just Work. In particular, their service people are friendly and know when they're out of their depth.
Apart from that, there are the old favourites like Telstra, whom I personally wouldn't touch with a bargepole. They're expensive and incompetent, and they have already caused significant grief in the rollout (see the issue below with phones being disconnected), and also my own experience.
Before signing up with the ISP for VoIP, check the prices of independent suppliers. You're not locked in to the ISP's service. I've been using MyNetFone for years, and I pay less per month than the monthly “rental” that many ISPs charge. See “Phones” below for more details.
NBN has published a coverage map that shows that most of Dereel has coverage. The truth is a little different. I've heard of at least 2 people who are supposed to have coverage, but they can't get it. I spoke to an NBN installer about this on 12 December 2013, and he told me that there were two main problems: too many trees (Golden Reef Road), and houses in a dip (Browns Road). Both of these could be solved by putting the antenna on a mast, but they don't seem to have thought of that.
One thing should be made very clear: the coverage doesn't depend on the ISP. ISPs have nothing to do with that. That's why the installers come from the NBN. The ISPs then connect to the so-called Point of Interconnect at the other end of the radio link, I think somewhere in Ballarat. So don't blame the ISP, and if you can't get connected, there's no point trying to get coverage from some other provider.
With the NBN we can finally use VoIP, Voice over Internet Protocol. This is not a replacement for your home phone (land line). Think of it as a second line. I don't recommend disconnecting your land line until we have mobile phone coverage in Dereel.
VoIP is a service that comes on top of the normal ISP service, though I think all ISPs offer it. But you don't have to stick with the ISP. I personally use MyNetFone because it's cheap and reliable. Prices change all the time. Check what your chosen ISP offers, and compare. If you go with MyNetFone and later change ISP, you don't need to do anything. Otherwise you may be in for a change of phone number.
I've heard of one case where somebody had their phone disconnected, by Telstra. I don't understand: the NBN connection has no more to do with a phone connection than an electricity connection does. There's no relationship. This seems to be yet another manifestation of Telstra's unbelievable incompetence.
Many ISPs don't have specific offerings for our kind of connection, which is officially called fixed wireless. Instead you have to look at their fibre offerings. The prices are invariably the same (NBN insists on this), but you can't officially get higher speeds than 25/5 Mb/s.
How many GB do you need a month? There are a number of different ways of measuring it:
All traffic. That's easy to understand.
Only downlink (download) traffic. Depending on your usage, this can be 75% of the total. But that means that 40 GB downlink only is more than 50 GB in both directions.
Unmetered traffic at certain times of the day. This is usually in the small hours of the morning, so if you want to take advantage of it, you need to ensure that you have some way of starting transfers during the unmetered time.
As an example of the tariff I chose with Exetel: it offers 50 GB per month downlink only between 9 am and 1 am, and free the rest of the time. This is one of the reasons I chose it: you can download TV programmes for free (maybe; I'm still checking the details). Before you run off and sign up with Exetel, read on.
The nominal speeds of the links are 12 Mb/s down and 1 Mb/s up, and 25 down and 5 up for typically $5 a month more. What can you reasonably expect? It's not just the link: you need to consider the whole Internet behind it. It can also depend a lot on the ISP. I'd guess that you won't get more than 90% of any of those speeds. You can check your speeds with speedtest.net. If you do, please let me know the downlink speed, the uplink speed and the ping time, and also let me know the time when you did it and what ISP you're with.
I tried my 25/5 link with Exetel, and I only got about 9 Mb/s down and 4 up. 4 Mb/s up is OK, but 9 Mb/s down isn't, and I wasn't happy. That's one of the reasons it's good to do a comparison: that way people with underperforming links can point their ISP at the comparison. This is also the reason why I won't categorically recommend Exetel.
One of the nice things about the NBN is that you can transfer data so quickly. You need to be careful, though: you can also use much more data than before. If you're on a 20 GB plan and have a 25 Mb/s connection, you can get through the entire month's traffic in a little over 2 hours. A feature film uses about 2 GB. Read the ISP's pages about how much data various activities use.
There's another possibility, though: I've discovered that my router (an el cheapo “Goldweb” GW-WR401N) has a “back door” through which unknown people in the Internet send data in and out. I'm not sure what good that does them, except possibly to hide the origin of the data, but it was running to round about 1 GB daily before I stopped it. If you think you have a problem like this, please contact me (see “Questions?” below).
You may need support from your ISP. From my experience, Internode has the best (but not perfect) support, Telstra has by far the worst—see the disconnection above—and SkyMesh has also given me grief.
My experience with Exetel was varied. They tried hard, but failed to fix the performance problems, and ultimately I cancelled the contract.
As mentioned, I'm currently with Aussie Broadband. Service is good.
I've now heard of at least two people who have had organizational trouble with the install, both with Telstra. That's not uncommon. I've had my own run-ins with them—see this horror story. So: if you have trouble with Telstra, and you think the “support” person is giving you the run-around, ask to lodge a formal complaint. Make sure you get a complaint number. It won't help much in solving the problem—in my experience, nothing will—so keep trying with the “support” person too. You'll get a call back in a couple of days from the soothing voice of somebody who knows nothing about the issue, but who will give you some way out, including cancelling the “service” if you so desire. If you still think they're not doing enough, threaten to call the Telecom Industry Ombudsman (TIO). You can do that, too, but I haven't found it much help.
In the case of the loss of phone number: I'm not sure, but I think Telstra have a legal obligation to reinstate it. That may require the help of the TIO, though.
I've tried to answer most questions here. If I haven't answered yours, please let me know. You might find me on Facebook, but I'm in the phone book, and that's probably a faster way to contact me.
| Greg's home page | Greg's diary | Greg's photos | Copyright |