'node Rocks (again)

[m841]

Sadly my only choice is quite literally Telstra. I've been with node since 96, and when we moved I just requested a transfer of the service, and didn't think twice about it.
Turns out that Athelstone is a black hole as far as the internet is concerned. The only DSL service that we can get is with Telstra, as we are on a RIM, and also are about 6km line length from the exchange. Also applied for WiMax with Adam, and Nuskope, but no go there. 3G is only doable with Telstra, as the 3/Voda, and optus coverage is so poor here that we were getting speeds slower than dial up (3kps), and Telstra is considerably more expensive than any of the other three, so there goes that option, as at the time it was more expensive (and you got less for your money) than paying for line rental, and DSL, which is what we are having to do now.

I'd love to go back to node, but until something drastic changes here, I'm stuck! You don't have to search hard for people complaining about the coverage in Athelstone for many years now.

[agb]

I have been with tpg for about 5 years. Voip and internet. I seem to get along fine thanks.

[dieselpower]

I'm with Node. Have been for about 5 years. I have had to phone them 0 times in that 5 years. We also deal with them at work, and push all our clients to 'Node - I phone them regularly on behalf of clients and they're terrific to deal with. Also love the discount I now get through work .

[Michael]

Another for Internode, been with them for 6 years now. Fantastic service and never any issues with them. Changing to their "Naked" service tomorrow... finally get rid of this Telstra Bill every quarter.


Mick

[Bax]

I've been on a Naked plan for about 8 months now, and haven't once missed having a home phone. It was the only way I could get ADSL2+

I'm with Internode, apart from a few minor speed variations I'm extremely happy, the last time the speed dropped down to 15kb/s instead of 600 they rang me time after time to comfirm details, and had a contractor on site testing the following week. They did well.

[tcdev]

+1 for iinet here. Can't say it's been flawless, and have had line quality problems on ADSL2+ which means my modem still connects at ADSL1 speeds, but they did look at the issue until it was resolved (by the aforementioned lower connect speed). Dropouts these days are almost non-existent, and the price-per-GB is hard to beat (last time I bothered looking). They also carry usenet feeds, which I still rely on. Been with them for longer than I can remember, and would recommend to heavy users.

[redhead65]

+1 for Internode. We've been with them for ADSL and now ADSL2+ (rebadged Telstra ADSL/ADSL2+ as we're on a sub-exchange) for almost 7 years. I think during that time we've had about two service outages and I've had to contact their technical support once. m841 you should be able to get similarly rebadged Telstra ADSL2+ from Internode even though you're connected to a RIM (basically the same situation as being connected through a sub-exchange).

[ricktas]

+1 for Internode. We've been with them for ADSL and now ADSL2+ (rebadged Telstra ADSL/ADSL2+ as we're on a sub-exchange) for almost 7 years. I think during that time we've had about two service outages and I've had to contact their technical support once. m841 you should be able to get similarly rebadged Telstra ADSL2+ from Internode even though you're connected to a RIM (basically the same situation as being connected through a sub-exchange).

I am on a RIM also, and I have enquired with multiple ISP's and have not found one that will give me ADSL2, they all say the same thing, we cannot run ADSL2 off a RIM. So I am stuck with ADSL here. As an aside, Telstra refused to upgrade the RIM to even allow ADSL, iiNet paid a technician to install hardware to the RIM to give people in my area ADSL. So fairly much everyone in my area is using iiNet, but as soon as it was installed we got postage from Telstra telling us that they could now offer ADSL..not likely!

[Namus]

Gogo Node Been with them for 4-5 years now and got a free speed upgrade last month from 1.5mb/s to 4.5mb/s (max dl speed)....VERY happy

[13ulletz]

Im with Dodo on the $79 adsl2+ unlimited plan.

As mentioned already their first level customer service suck however if you are able to elevate the call request is amazingly good.
Made a call due to dropouts, once elevated problem was resolved within a couple days, they had to get telstra to attend and fix the line. after that they called me each day for 2 weeks to confirm if weren't still having problems.

Havn't had a problem since. The only thing i would dig is that their servers are located in Sydney (im in Perth) so when connecting to my mates vlan (also in Perth) i have the highest ping however thats my own problem

[Kym]

http://www.roymorgan.com/news/press-releases/2011/1371/

Node still top of the heap...

Overall customer satisfaction with Internet service providers in the six months to April 2011 remained stable, with 73% of Australians aged 14+ being ”Very” or “Fairly” satisfied. Customer satisfaction with Internode (92%), iiNet (89%), TPG (80%) and OPTUSnet (79%) remained above the industry average of 73%, although both Internode and iiNet suffered slight declines. Telstra BigPond (70%) and AAPT (69%) were stable. Vodafone (61% - down from 62%) and 3 (61% - down from 63%) continued their declines.

[Duane Pipe]

Dodo Suck in my experience Nothing but problems... I am with AAPT and have been for several years, I am happy with their service and support, and best of all NO contract Personally I dont like being tied into contacts

[ving]

happy with my "other" service provider.
the problem with my area is that no one does faster than adsl (ie no 2 or 2+). sigh... one day

[Rattus79]

Ditto Ving, hence I'm with telstra too. Worst part is coming from cable getting a real world 13mbit line speed down to less then 3.

Even better then that, I move the sum total of 4 kilometers. Well done Telstra.

[Kym]

They have done it again... http://www.internode.on.net/news/2012/02/263.php
http://www.roymorgan.com/news/press-releases/2012/1562/

Since 2008, Internode has repeatedly topped independently-run customer satisfaction surveys conducted by organisations such as Roy Morgan Research, the Australian Broadband Survey, Australian PC & Tech Authority, Canstar Blue and Choice. Based on its survey of more than 6000 Australian Internet customers during the six months to November 2011, Roy Morgan Research reports that 94 per cent of Internode customers describe themselves as "Very Satisfied" or "Fairly Satisfied" with its service.
The Roy Morgan survey reported that the only other ISP with a customer satisfaction rating of more than 90 per cent was iiNet (91 per cent). The survey also noted that Optus and TPG each scored an 80 per cent rating, Telstra Bigpond was 72 per cent while the industry average was 75 per cent.

And no surprise, Telstra sux

[Blueywa]

When the internet first became available (a long time ago wasnt it?), we tried all the major players and in the end settled on 'The Node'.
Never had any problems and trust that will remain the story under the new arrangement with iiNet ... Telstra lost us a long, long time ago.

[Kym]

When the internet first became available (a long time ago wasnt it?), ...

The 'net has been around for a long time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet
I was using it in the mid 80's, mainly email and FTP.

In Australia AARNET were the real pioneers (1989),
and they eventually sold their commercial base to Telstra in 1995.

Before AARNET the 'net was mainly the Universities and a few IT houses that had links to the Universities.

NB: The WWWeb (as different from the Internet) was not there until April 1993, 'node started in 1991.

[Speedway]

I have just been forced to change ISP's for the third time in just over 10 years, +5 voluntary changes since 98. This time reluctantly back to Telstra as there is no other option other than satellite which with no government support is hugely expensive My satellite modem has crashed 3 times this year and this last time both Skymesh and ipstar were unable to recover it from the last one. Because bigpond wireless is available I am no longer eligible for government assistance. So after ordering the modem last Wednesday it arrived yesterday (Tuesday) I installed it, all went smoothly until it got to where it was supposed to set up my email address the program skipped this. Rang the support No. and after finally getting through their computer voice run-around a woman answered the phone, she had a very strong accent and I informed her that as I was fairly deaf I was having trouble understanding her, she hung up on me! Through the process again this time with a little more success, similar problem with the accent but not as bad, with her taking control of my computer we got to the stage where it wanted to select my email program, the only choices were Outlook, or windows live she told me Thunderbird was not compatible I told her I had friends using bigpond wireless with thunderbird with no problems. She proceeded to set it up, 40 min on the mobile later I was up and running. It is a lot faster than the satellite was but about 10 minutes later after sending a number of emails it refused to send any more giving a number of different error messages including one that said I had exceeded the 5 minute quota. So back through the rigmarole again and surprise an Aussie guy. He connected again and after the bit about Thunderbird not being compatible again he proceeded to blunder around with me leading him most of the way he changed a few settings and addresses and sending test emails we finally got it working. Another 35 minutes on the mobile so I hope what I was told that there is no charge for the calls as I have a Telstra mobile. (Again no choice) was true. All this at $5 a month more than my satellite connection was. Day two and everything seems fine, fingers crossed.
End of frustrated rant.
Keith.