Im now a ADSL'er! wOOt

HAHA, hey guys!

Well, I signed up for ADSL 2 days ago, and now I'm on it! On Internodes 1500/256 Home Pro Plan!

I love it, Fast, and if the server can dish it, my download can take it! the fastest DSL I`ve ever had, and the speed, for the first time I get an ISP that delivers what you pay for!

 

Congrats Luthius.

My kids got me hooked into a couple of online MMORPG games they play. Highspeed is the only way to fly.

 

Thanks GT

Yeah I know what you mean about the games, I have a very nice game friendly connection, now I just got to buy a game that I can play online.

Have you ever heard of getting connected to ADSL within 48HR's of signup for the ADSL!?

Cheers,

DAG

 

Well, yes and no. When I first moved in here, DSL was not available in my neighborhood. Was a new housing development (brand new house) and the local telco hadn't gotten DSL connections in here yet. Had to wait a year (!) with dial-up that maxed out at around 28.8k; local area wiring was lousy. Lousy PHONE connections intermittently.
Once they got the neighborhood DSL capable, I ordered it, they gave me a connection date 2 days later and shipped me the modem for do-it-yourself hookup. (DSL modem free after mail-back rebate.) I think it took 3 days for the package to arrive, but as soon as I got it I was up & running. That was a LONG year.

 

Wohoo! Congrats on the adsl!

I've been on cable now for many years, but I still remember the days on my old modem. Things just took so much time these days! Worst of all was the occasional reinstall, windowsupdate was a nightmare...

About the games, I have friends on dialup, and it is a pain every time there is a new update. Out of curiosity, which games are you playing? I'm addicted to Guildwars, great fun!

 

Heya,

Well at the moment I`m playing Prey, Call Of Duty 2 (Completed, re-doing on next difficulty), FEAR (Getting patches to play and see if good diffrence)...

And a few others, the problem is though, I am using a friends copy, he owns the originals and the cd-keys, so I dare not use them to play online as he would get very upset with me, so I have to try and find a game that I want and purchase it myself..

I have Battlefield 2 installed, I am not too keen on it myself, but thats becuase I am not very good at it

 

I hate all you broadband users.

There will never be broadband in the area I live in.

 

Excellent, so what sort of speeds are you getting?

I believe we're hitting up to 16mb next month

 

Hey Macadam,

Im on the Internode Home Pro 1500/256.. and my speeds sometimes are a little bit higher than that

No complaints my end, also I just realised that Internode supports MajorGeeks.com and is a mirror for them, so all my downloads, no matter what, do now count towards my 40GB download, it's unmetered content, WOOHOOO!

I am having a bit of difficulty though, since I haven't had a PC or the net for so long, I`ve lost touch of the popular internet sites, for downloads, of Game Demo's, etc

Anyone got some recommendations?

Cheers

 

Look into satellite internet!! It's a little costly upfront but after the fact, it is only a couple bucks more a month than a good cable connection and has outstanding speed...atleast in my neighborhood.

Roger

 

It is no good for games. Packet loss and latency make it worthless for stuff like BF2 and Quake4.

 

B-Monkey,

Why won't your place ever get ADSL? Are you living in a remove area? or something else is the cause?

Cheers,

DAG

 

Yeah, remote enough. And very old phone lines that no one wants to replace. Some times being a farmer/computer programmer really sucks.

 

Congrats, Luthius.

Memo to self. Do, it. Bazza

===

 

Hi Bazza,

I 'Highly' recommend Internode, I did some serious searching around for the right ISP, and trust me when I say I looked at ALL the Pro's & Con's, I think I nearly had an information overload, but in the end the choice was made easy becuase Internode was the only ISP I could find where complaints were at the upmost min.

All other ISP's had plenty of un-happy clients/ex-clients running them down on message boards throughout the Internet, via Message Boards, IRC, etc.. But I could hardly find anyone willing to complain even about the smallest thing when it came to internode!

I am very happy indeed! also I found out just a few hours ago that they are a majorgeeks.com mirror. Plus their is a huge amount of downloads to be had by virtually all node customers that are unmetered, I have downloaded over 3 Gig tonight alone from Internodes file site, including Hidden & Dangerous Full game thats free, but I downloaded it without even 1MB going towards my 40GB Download quota! Internode also have their own software to monitor incoming & outgoing traffic, how much used, whats left, etc I downloaded it and it's sitting in my taskbar, saying I have 97% quota left.

Check out the whirlpool forums, and go over all the ISP forums, you`ll see complaints for 99% of the other ISP's, and I am not just talking about a few, theirs heaps for each ISP.

My connection took a mere 48 hours to connect, well actually it was less than that, it was 33 hours in total, from the moment I applied online for my ADSL, to the provisioning that has to be done via Telstram I was gob smacked!

I cannot praise node enough, I am on the 1500/256 connection, yet my downloads actually go a little bit faster than what I am meant to actually meant to have, I tried Battlefield 2 and Call Of Duty 2 online, and the speed was spectacular, even when I joined games that were half way around the globe!

You might be able to go one up over me however, and get ADSL2+, I will upgrade to that when my local exchange decides to get off their bums (Telstra) and support the fastest growing suburb in the NT for over 8 years straight now! Only Darwin & Stuart Park support ADSL2+ at the moment, but where you are, this shouldn't be a problem, and it is only $9.95 more than my plan for the much faster connection!

Okey, I must apologise for babbling, I am just excited and very happy, aswell as very impressed! I have had the same speed connection twice before with Telstra & Another, but I never managed to get what I was paying for with speed, online gaming wasn't as smooth to play with as it is with the node, and how quick they connected me, the quickest was with Telstra, which took 8 days, Internode was a mere Day and half! Unbelievable in the best way possible!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

 

Consider yourself lucky Luthius...
Knowing a couple people in Oz
DSL internet there... especially in the burbs...
Is often charged by bandwith.

 

Huh? I don't get what you mean?

I am paying for speed, for the same download limit, but on the 512/128 Plan, it's 69.95 AUD Month...

I pay an Extra $20 per month for the faster speed 1500/256, if that is what you mean, if so then that is the norm here in aus, nationwide.

I can also upgrade to ADSL2+ speed if my exchange supported it, for an extra $10 month, or add an extra 40GB Download quota, making it 80GB Total, for an extra $40 Month......

 

Aaaa... ok.
That sounds more like what I have heard.

What I mean is here in the states you basicly get DSL... Cable... or Other.
The only thing you have to pay extra for is upload speed.
At least with my ISP.
I have DSL 1500/512 for $19.99 w/no download quota.
Some people in the states get cable internet with even higher upload and download speeds.
Again with no download quota.
Internet here is basicly unlimited.

 

Like mine which is Comcast cable internet with an 8meg down speed and about 3meg up, and there is no limit on downloads or uploads!!

Roger

 

Most american isps, do have a download quota, but rarily enforce thtem. I know cox cable has a download limit, though i can't find any proof on the web right now, they do, but don't hardly enforce it. Unless it gets real bad.

 

I have heard some do have a quota.
I suppose it depends on the service.
I don't know about most having it though.
Maybe it's Cable that has a quota.
But being that my "big DSL" company is epix in PA... "Stick's net"
I wouldn't be the authority on Cox policy.

 

As far as game sites, here are a couple of my favorites.

http://www.gamespot.com/

http://pc.gamespy.com/

 

Yep, information overload, too many plans to choose from (particularly $$$ for installation, hardware, and 12/24 month's plans are really overwhelming) which is probably why I am having so much difficulty in making a choice.

I'm going to have to give the whirlpool forums another whirl.
I've been putting the move off for too long.
Also will check on Internode. I haven't heard of them.
Hope they are National (or at least NT and Qld ). Bazza

===

 

Hi Bazz,

When your whirling around at the whirl pool forums, check out the node forum, they have just announced upgrades they have done thru QLD, for DSL2+, etc

DAG

 

My 3Meg DSL account is supposedly unlimited, although I've never really tried to FIND a limit. Even 40 gigs is a lot to download in a month.

But it can add up. When I installed City Of Heroes, one of the games my kids play, I connected and had to do a 2 GIG update before I could connect and play. 2 year old game, which has both patches and a LOT of updated content and maps. I have no idea how much data transfer occurs while gaming, but maps are huge and detailed, currently include DX9 complex shaders, and DSL modem activity light spends a lot of time flashing while playing.

Anybody know how much bandwidth typically gets used per hour playing one of the massive multiplayer games?

 

Will most of it is installed on you computer, so Online gaming isnt particularly much, as for DX9 shaders and all that, well that doesnt even come into it as far as I am aware, basically its just to and from data for actions, and if you want to play on a custom map then you`d have to leech that! which is usually just a mapfilename.extension, online gaming hasn't been a downloading hog, maybe a bandwidth hog on 'some' games, but thats about it, someone correct me if I am wrong?

Oh, I just completed Prey, bit short, but a buity to play!

 

I think you are right, Luthius. You download the maps once, and when the files have been stored on your computer, the actual dl isn't that bad. I have several friends on dialup, and for them, it is the updates that is a pain, when the updates have been installed, they run the game as smooth as I do.

 

Yeah, broadband prices and limitations in most of Australia do truly suck, due in no small fact, that Aust. Telstra has a virtual monopoly on the data backbones. So even if an I.S.P. wants to do the right thing, and give out cheap DSL/cable connections, they have to pay Telstra their extortionist charges first, which, of course, flows through to the customer.

@G.T.:- Most of that modem activity you mentioned is indeed the computer communicating with other computers, via the on-line game play, rather than actual downloading files as such. But yeah, I have a 30gig peak 30gig off-peak limit, and I can't say I’ve ever gone near using it.

 

Well I don't know if you are aware or not, but Telstra 'Opted out' of upgrading their broadband networks which would have cost $4 Billion dollars, the reason for not going ahead with it?

"If we did the upgrade then we would have to allow our competitors access to the upgraded service"....

What a copout, now 7 Individual australian ISP's are trying to work out if they can fit the bill to do the upgrade for the australian consumer market

Telstra makes nearly all that in each fisical year after tax!

MORE INFO HERE

 

Yeah, I figured that most of the traffic is just sending commands as to movement, damage stats, telling what effects to use, etc., not large downloads. But most ISPs count any traffic as part of your bandwidth limit, and I was wondering just how much traffic games generate. Curiosity more than anything; I'm not worried about it. City of Heroes (and it's twin, City of Villians) has some large highly populated areas. One battle with 8 good guys, about 30 bad guys, all flailing away at once in a confined area got things bogged down a bit. LOL.