No, that’s with Telstra Bigpond Cable using the Foxtel cable.
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Hi George,
I have the speed boost and on my system at least, it is definitely worth the extra - but here’s the rub. Telstra will negotiate - a fact that’s not widely recognised. I arranged the boost absolutely free of charge. Amazing what you can achieve when you ask them to cancel your service.
Cable service speeds do fluctuate but then, so does everything else. At the best times I can get very close to 100Mbps and I defy anyone to get anywhere near that with the NBN.
Unfortunately the NBN concept has been destroyed - it was going to be the equal of anything in the world. Will it be fixed when the government is changed? I doubt it, but one can always hope.
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Thanks @kelstra2 - it just goes to show that, if we want to, anything can be negotiated. As I mentioned previously, I think I’ll test it for a month (may even ask that the test is free of charge!) and decide from there. If I can get 100Mbps, I’ll be pleased. GP
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Mine works at 100 up and 2 down speed all the time, and it used to run at 30 to 34 before I got the boost. But I think I may be on a branch with fewer users than most. I’m ecstatic as I’ve just switched to cloud-based CAD.
I am on Telstra cable which is shared with my Foxtel. I have a Telstra Max modem/router. When I am in the same room, I get 105 Mbs download and 2 Mbs upload. The upload is pretty pathetic because as other people have said, cloud computing and email is all about two way communication. It takes a very long time for my Onedrive to synchronize. The NBN 100 Mbs service is supposed to have 40 Mbs upload which is much more reasonable.
I find the Telstra Max router wifi is very poor compared to other wifi routers. The speed drops off quite quickly if you move to another room. I have added a third party router to get the range extended.
Hi all, thanks for all of the feedback. Just closing off the loop, I thought you may be interested that I ‘bit the bullet’ and went with the speedboost. I must confess, despite all the negativity around Telstra, my experience was very good. Better still, the speedboost works. I’ve now gone from 36Mbps to 114Mbps download which I’m pleased with. Sometimes drops to 70+Mbps so will monitor it and see if maintains the 114Mbps. Thanks again.
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We got speedboost for a month trial and according to speedtest.net we were achieving between 110 and 114 Mbps.
Then I took up the option to keep speedboost when the trial ended, they charged me for 3 days until the end of the billing cycle, and then stopped charging me and stopped the speedboost.
So in my experience, the speedboost did work, but Telstra admin didn’t.
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We connected Telstra cable broadband. Without Speedboost I was getting 26-29 Mbps. After Speedboost it is 115 Mbps ! Note this is connected by ethernet cable, my wifi devices don’t get much more than 40 Mbps.
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Congrats @GeorgePerry
Use https://fast.com and http://www.speedtest.net/?r=f to check your speeds if you are looking at your network icon on your PC and judging from the speed it indicates, it only reflects the speed between your pc/laptop and the router. 114 Mbps in this regard more likely reflects that you are on an N band Wifi network in your home. Or go to your router/modem settings and see what speeds it is showing for the WAN (Wide Area Network) as this will show you the speed the router is achieving to and from the internet.
Check your Wifi devices to see if they use or are using g band as this tops out at about 60 Mbps. Also check your router/modem to ensure, if your wifi devices are capable of N band, that it is using N band. Also use an app like Wifi Analyser to see if it is worth changing the channel/s your router broadcasts it’s signal/s over. Too many other wifi stations near you broadcasting over the same channel or nearby channels will impact the speeds you get. Have a read of this article about why channels matter:
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It depends on how many simultaneous users you expect to have in your household, and what they do with the internet. I live close to the local exchange, and consequently have a good ADSL service that operates at 18Mbps, which,. from experience, comfortably supports several simultaneous services. We were recently watching a HD movie from Netflix, while two grandchildren were watching YouTube and a couple of adults were browsing and emailing without experiencing glitches or video freezeups.
We are due to get NBN access in a few months, and I will probably opt for a 50Mbps service. 100Mbps is probably a bit over the top for my purposes, unless it comes with a significantly better upload speed, which is useful for people like architects who work from home and need to send large files to their clients or employer.
Compare the line into your house with a driveway. You can go as fast as you like between your garage and the road (especially if you live on a farm), but once you are on the road, you have to share it with other people, and congestion, intersections etc. will determine your speed.
On a historical note, I was part of an Australian delegation to a meeting of the ITU (the UN agency that is responsible for telecommunication standards) in 1988, and the Australian position was that, to support HD video, future customer lines should operate at 155Mbps - a bit over the top in my opinion. Development of better video compression technology over the last twenty years has reduced the bit rates required for HD video, and households can now operate with lower speed lines than people previously envisaged.
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Yes none are using the G band. My desktop uses USB wifi so I can sort that out, with the laptop I guess I’m stuck.
You can use a Wifi dongle with your laptop, you just disable the built in Wifi adapter or you can run both at the same time but not much sense to do that.
Moving your modem’s orientation while checking signal strength at the locations you are using your desktop and laptop at may help boost speeds if the placement is currently not the best.
There are other things you can do to boost reception/speed if needed and this includes fitting wireless repeaters so that signal strength is better in areas where it may be currently weak.
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A simple thing to improve the network (esp wifi) performance of almost any portable device (phones are probably out, pads and notebooks usually in) is to plug it in. On battery the power profiles are usually set for operation in a low power mode to maximise battery life, yielding lower performance.
Using Windows as an example, if you set operation under battery power to maximum performance, battery life will be less than impressive. The usual default setting includes power vs battery modes that are usually when under power it runs at max performance; while running on battery it slows the electronics for better battery life, and most have a maximum battery life option that seriously slows things down as the battery charge is depleting, while adding minutes to hours of runtime.
When downloading a large file on my notebook I can watch it plod along, and if I plug it in mid-transfer it will obviously go faster. It is not just the wifi but also the response to network handshaking, but it all comes together as “network performance”.
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I need a wifi dongle for Mac laptop - I guess that means I have to return to being a Telstra customer, heaven help me.
Any recommendations?
I won’t be buying for 6 months yet, but want to look at the options. A new territory for me, so any advice would be good.
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With the possible/likely merger of TPG and Vodaphone that may change the mobile internet market and in 6 months the reach of that new/morphed entity might be a satisfactory alternative.
You could also look at the data packages of ALDI or similar businesses who use the Telstra network. The dongle itself may need to be purchased from Telstra or one of their resellers to get the correct bandwidths they use, however the SIM for the dongle could be purchased from the service you want to use.
If Telstra itself getting a dongle that supports their 4GX network speeds would be the best option but if a user of that network eg ALDI then simply 4G would do and there are non telstra devices that can do that.
The dongle itself would depend on your planned usage eg only for the laptop or more widely used for other connected items. If solely for the laptop a USB type dongle would probably suffice however if you like the ability to place the wifi device in a better position or to service more than the laptop (when it is turned off) the Telstra Pre-Paid 4GX Wi-Fi Pro is the Telstra provided option and will cost $99 currently (if going to change providers then use the included Telstra 10 GB of included data first before changing the SIM).
If wanting it solely for the laptop (though it will support an additional 4 devices at the same time when plugged in to your laptop when it is on) and want to attach it rather than using it as a non connected device then the Telstra Pre-Paid 4GX USB Wi-Fi Plus is perhaps the choice and costs $39 currently (again if changing providers use the 3 GB of included data first before changing the SIM)
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I currently use a Telstra 4GX stand alone wifi enabled device when traveling in the car and occasionally at home or on the train out of town.
The physical device with rechargable battery and the service coverage of Telstra has worked well and appears to perform to the limits of Telstra’s coverage maps. The device drops down to 3G at range so this may serve as a guide to what you might also get as service from other providers using Telstra’s network.
Although it has provision for external aerials (one or two) I have not needed one moving it around the house to a window that works on the day.
Previously I used a variety of Telstra 3G/4G USB devices. The more compact USB sticks seem to suffer from poor performance unless the signal is strong. With an external lead and aerial on one such device it continually overheated and slowed down despite having a Telstra matched external aerial.
There may be scope here for a Choice review and testing program, given many I know appear to be opting to drop the phone and NBN to rely on mobile only.
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The ACCC blocked the merger but this has now been overturned by the Federal Court. The Judge in their decision made note that this merger would not likely decrease competition but might enhance the survival of the merged company and offer an alternative to the current big players. As TPG are not a mobile service provider but the merger partner Vodaphone are this would be a win win for them, build strength into their offerings and pose a “stronger” alternative to the others eg Telstra than they currently do.
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