[Snap] Thinking of joining SNAP

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › [Snap] Thinking of joining SNAP

lancedefrance

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#28757 10-Dec-2008 16:11

Hi

I am thinking of joining Snap, however I just want to know if they are a good provider with reasonable speeds. I mostly use my net for p2p and general web surfing.

I also do a bit of online gaming, so an indication of performance on aussie servers would be great.

Thanks :)

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#183434 11-Dec-2008 00:36

If you'd spoken to me a couple months back I was very pro-Snap. Now I know YouTube isn't the best gauge for international speed, but now videos take ages to buffer, plus one day last week it was so bad they would've even pre-load 1%.

I'm not anti-Snap now, just moved them from the Yay pile to the Meh pile. If this continues, I'll swap ISPs. Lets see if Snap improve.

kobiak

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#183454 11-Dec-2008 08:57

bad things about snap:

- excellent tech and customer support;

- reasonable price for excellent service;

- rare have international bw issues; youtube goes fine even at 9pm :)

good things:

- none;

:)))))))))))))))))))))) it's your choice :)

helping others at evgenyk.nz

jmosen

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#183497 11-Dec-2008 13:05

Having had excellent initial results with Snap, I recently switched after quite regular buffering with Youtube and other streaming media, as well as slow performance in general during afternoon hours.

I was advised that this was caused by a lot of student demand on the bandwidth (they supply services to the University of Canterbury). Things may have picked up again now that the holidays have started, but I was disappointed they didn't scale their bandwidth to meet this demand.

I never thought I would say this, but after reading comments on Geekzone, I'm with Xtra and am really pleased with the performance I'm getting.

That said, I don't think I've ever experienced such consistently knowledgable support staff, and the price is right.

Jonathan

mindtpi

21 posts

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#183574 11-Dec-2008 16:58

I also have found the performance quite poor as of late - I don't find the tech support terribly good either. They seem to me to have bandwidth capacity issues.If I was joining up somewhere again I would go with one of the bigger providers and pay a bit extra but get better performance

lancedefrance

24 posts

Geek

#183627 11-Dec-2008 21:09

Thanks for the replies guys, they are reasonably priced and I am sick of Xtra and their rip off plans :(

They were recommended to me by one of my colleagues thats why I asked however he is happy with the performance most of the time.

I will see how I go, I might give them a try, if not I can always go back to Xtra I guess.

mindtpi

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#183629 11-Dec-2008 21:14

check the latest consumer magazine - they did a survey on all the main ISPs (can't remember who came out top). Snap rated much higher than I would have rated them though

dauckland

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#185197 19-Dec-2008 19:14

OK.

I finnaly have my SNAP connection.
Was rather painful, but only because guys from Telecom/Chorus don't exactly know what they are doing.

But the connection is on and WOW!!
I just downloaded stuff from LA at 9897kbps
It was the same download that would max out at 400kbps with Orcon (and they are supposedly the best).

So I think I'm happy.

D

Quic Broadband

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FredDag

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#185208 19-Dec-2008 19:44

>Was rather painful, but only because guys from Telecom/Chorus don't exactly know what they are doing.

Um... Telecom/Chorus know exactly what they are doing... either by Telecom not spending enough resources to provide quality or Chorus being in some way mandated that cuases poor service. In chess terms the telecoms industry, Telecom, is in the end game.

As for snap.. I too am with snap and they have been o.k. for the past few weeks. I would hazard a guess and say that they have bought more international bandwidth.. thus things will go fine until either that bandwidth is slowly used up with a slow migration of users to snap or, more likely, you will see a snap promotion or two being advertised which will then take us all back to the situation of under resourced international broadband. i.e. enjoy while you can.

Fred

jmosen

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#185236 20-Dec-2008 03:15

The improved performance may simply be because the students at Canterbury are on holiday.

Jonathan

FredDag

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#185257 20-Dec-2008 08:36

jmosen

Could you.. give a context to that theory.. I take it UoC is with SNAP?

Fred

jmosen

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#185258 20-Dec-2008 08:45

FredDag: jmosen

Could you.. give a context to that theory.. I take it UoC is with SNAP?

Fred

Correct. And when I phoned to express concern that I couldn't stream media reliably, I was told that lots of students were eating up the bandwidth, and that if I waited until they all went away, things would improve.

This wasn't a satisfactory answer particularly since I work from home, so I had to say bye bye.b

Jonathan

kingjj

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#185265 20-Dec-2008 09:42

jmosen:
FredDag: jmosen

Could you.. give a context to that theory.. I take it UoC is with SNAP?

Fred

Correct. And when I phoned to express concern that I couldn't stream media reliably, I was told that lots of students were eating up the bandwidth, and that if I waited until they all went away, things would improve.

This wasn't a satisfactory answer particularly since I work from home, so I had to say bye bye.b

When in doubt, pick on the students. At UoC we pay per Meg of data, it's a hell of a lot more expensive to browse the web there then through a home connection so I'd expect a certain level of speed and reliability. When the decision was made several years ago to switch from the Uni's own connection to SNAP there were guarantees put in place that the University would get a certain level of service as they should expect. What about the CCC, how about we pick on them as they use SNAP as well?

http://www.icts.canterbury.ac.nz/services/charges/index.shtml

FredDag

206 posts

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#185267 20-Dec-2008 09:53

How are we picking on snap?

When March comes around and I find that the service I expect is impacted then I might move to another ISP *BUT* I expect there is going to be some real interesting shakeups before now and then in the ISP arena.

As for uni stundents, they need to be picked on as much and as often as possible. Lazy scum.

Fred, B.Sc (soon B.Bs)

mindtpi

21 posts

Geek

#185271 20-Dec-2008 10:14

at the end of the day, Snap doesn't make much (or anything) out of the broadband or residential users, there is virtually no profit in it anyway and it's expensive to support - the vast bulk of their profit comes from the commercial and business clients. Personally, I think they will eventually sell off this part of the business/pass over to another ISP sooner or later and concentrate purely on the voice and business connections which is where they are doing quit well (although I'd never use them for voice). It's the basic Pareto rule - 80% of their revenue comes from 20% of their clients.

kingjj

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#185276 20-Dec-2008 10:31

FredDag:

As for uni stundents, they need to be picked on as much and as often as possible. Lazy scum.

Fred, B.Sc (soon B.Bs)

Well I can't argue with that logic, just remember we Uni students (or ex in my case now) are the ones that keep your Maccas warm and your car full of petrol! We are the life blood of this fair nation.........

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