My Experience so far with Slingshot

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › My Experience so far with Slingshot

NZJ

12 posts

Geek

#30707 18-Feb-2009 15:12

I switched to Slingshot from Telstra Cable just over three weeks ago. While Telstra is clearly the best ISP, I could no longer afford to pay those high prices no matter how fast the Internet was.

The first week or so with Slingshot was excellent. The off-peak free data was a great value. Most of my work involves FTP so if there are big files, I'd setup Filezilla to download or upload before I go to bed, and the job is complete when I get up, for free! Recently, however, speeds after 10pm started to get annoyingly slow. After several hours of troubleshooting, I had the pleasure of chatting with a customer service rep. who really wanted to help.

He started by redoing those routine tests of making sure the router is not the problem, pinging my own FTP server, etc... when nothing was achieved he put me on hold to speak to someone higher up. When he came back the explination was shocking. I can quote him word for word but what he basically said that after Five (5) p.m. and until Seven (7) a.m. all downloads/uploads are throttled. The priority is given to browsing HTTP. Any HTTP or FTP downloads or uploads are considered secondary and therefore suffer from slower speeds.

While Slingshot has the right to do whatever the hell they like with their services, all I need to do is why am I paying for FS (Fullspeed) / FS (Fullspeed) when there is clearly no committment to offer those services. There are a few points to consider and concede to the DSL ISP's, one being the high price of peak International data that they have to pay, therefore, with no regulations, some users might suffer. But anyway you look at it, you'll see that surely there must be a better way to deal with such pressures. Slingshot is not new to the scene! If it's expensive, charge more. Offer different plans, DO NOT advertise something you can't offer. I haven't seen any half-decent performance during off-peak since I joined. Windows 7 BETA took me 8 days to download during off-peak time!

I don't expect answers, or solutions. I'm stuck with DSL, because I cannot afford Cable anymore, so this is more of a rant than a complaint. People who are looking to switch from Telstra to DSL due to anything other than financial reasons, do not. You'll never get the same performance or reliability of cable... oh how I miss it.

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#196572 18-Feb-2009 17:43

This moth is halfway through and I have so far managed 21.78GB of free data, you didn't say what speeds you where getting.

How much data are you expecting to get down a night? Today I got 1.53GB yesterday it was 2.8GB

Windows 7 Beta came down in a night. If you want to stop and start your downloads then you might get them faster as there seems to be a 10mB limit, so your dl will start fast and go slow. I think autokey is the program your looking for.

cokeman2

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#196615 18-Feb-2009 22:38

yeah speeds have gone slower pass few months this what i ve done Free off-peak data used this month 75.8GB i have used the free 15gb up too lol. dont want it to go any slower than this thou ....

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NZJ

12 posts

Geek

#196628 19-Feb-2009 01:27

Thanks for the advice on Autokey (or Autohotkey?). The speeds I'm getting in the evenings are between 128Kbps to 1Mbps when tests are done, but when downloading it always starts fast and within 20 seconds it goes down to a maximum of 40KBps

nzschooltech

14 posts

Geek
Inactive user

#202481 21-Mar-2009 11:14

Huh? Cable is expensive? What plan were you on?

All the new Telstra plans are really competitive and cheap.

NZJ

12 posts

Geek

#202490 21-Mar-2009 12:53

What new plans? Telstra hasn't changed its cable plans since they introduced them back in 2003 I think. I had the 80GB plan for $149. Any extra bandwidth used to cost me $2.95 for a 2GB block. Now I pay $60 for a 15GB plan, and $1 per 1GB extra, plus I go through roughly 40GB per month during the free off-peak period.

nzschooltech

14 posts

Geek
Inactive user

#202493 21-Mar-2009 13:26

Sure. That's it, it's a good deal (we used to have a Telstra business plan that cost us, I think, $150 a month for 10 Gigs. Now it is $80 for the first 20 gigs and $35 for extra 20G packs)

There is a Telstra 256kbps flat rate plan for $90.

The only Slingshot plan I can see is a piffling 15 GB at $59.95 with "free offpeak traffic" with of course the usual stuff about "fair use".

The equivalent Telecom Go Large plan I used to have, they just said you could download I think 600 MB free offpeak per day, that is about 20 GB a month.

Why is it people always complain that "free" doesn't mean what it says, well there is always "fair use" restrictions because people abuse the free stuff.

hellonearthisman

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#202504 21-Mar-2009 14:49

I don't think slingshot have described what they do as a 'fair use policy at all, the term in prioritisation, to make the best use of their network and they don't do what telecom did.

15 GB at $49.95 (That FS/128KBps) with "free traffic 1am - 7am" and data banking, so I can buy a 50GB block for $50 and I get a year to use it.

I can DL around 2.5GB a night and sometimes I can get 7GB+ depending if I'm getting NZ content or International.
But 2.5GB a night is enough for my demands, with out getting information overload.

And Slingshot don't judge their users and terminate accounts upon allegations.

At one time I imagined that, because Slingshot had cut the speed to mass downloading sites, like rapaidshare, by 75%. That it could say that it had reduce the illeagl downloading by 75%. I got no comment when I put this to Slingshot.

Slingshot is having a few issues, some of the things that were planed are taking longer to get working than orgionally thought. TNBT, Slingshot reselling Vodafones red network (world 1st for a NZ company + vodafone reselling deal) has had problem with people jumping between, vodafone and Slingshot and Telecom with there delays. Plus Vodafone doesn't want to play Telecom's game of 'build in our old exchange and will by pass it with cabernets and call it comptitiveness' So they have stopped the network developmental roll out. /rant

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browned

636 posts

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#202797 23-Mar-2009 14:28

hellonearthisman: I can DL around 2.5GB a night and sometimes I can get 7GB+ depending if I'm getting NZ content or International.
But 2.5GB a night is enough for my demands, with out getting information overload.

Slingshot is having a few issues, some of the things that were planed are taking longer to get working than orgionally thought. TNBT, Slingshot reselling Vodafones red network (world 1st for a NZ company + vodafone reselling deal) has had problem with people jumping between, vodafone and Slingshot and Telecom with there delays. Plus Vodafone doesn't want to play Telecom's game of 'build in our old exchange and will by pass it with cabernets and call it comptitiveness' So they have stopped the network developmental roll out. /rant

Well you are doing alot better than I am, I have only gotten 500mb-800mb for the last 3 nights. Things are queuing up. I only realy require about 2GB but am not getting anything nead that. Rebuilding a laptop the other week took all night as I had to wait for HP driver downloads to finish. 80mb took 4 hours to complete and it wasn't HP's fault.

So TNBT is delayed/cancelled? In Hamilton so was waiting for it to arrive. This is just adding to my move plans and making justification to the wife all the easier as she can't do what she needs to do after 5pm either.

Why bother with this when I can go wireless for $60 a month and get unlimited data, ok it is 4mb but no shaping, limiting and caps. Just need to get the initial outlay covered and we can do it. Only taken 3 months of research to get this far :-(

cheers
db

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hellonearthisman

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#202968 24-Mar-2009 09:03

browned: So TNBT is delayed/cancelled? In Hamilton so was waiting for it to arrive. This is just adding to my move plans and making justification to the wife all the easier as she can't do what she needs to do after 5pm either.

Why bother with this when I can go wireless for $60 a month and get unlimited data, ok it is 4mb but no shaping, limiting and caps. Just need to get the initial outlay covered and we can do it. Only taken 3 months of research to get this far :-(

cheers
db

No TNBT is still going ahead, it's just taking longer than thought. TNBT is Vodafone Red Network sold by Slingshot at a wholesale level. If Vodafone don't roll out the red network then Slingshot can't sell it wholesale.
Telecom limits 1 change per month to an account. So if you have NakedDSL and change to TNBT, you have to change to telecom from Slingshot and then change from telecom to vodafone. Two changes so that two months and that's if it goes smoothly. Industreal strength delaying skills from Telecom.

I have a wireless provider here too, but would need to build a 15 meter tower to pick it up (im +20Km from transmitter), + the $600 setup.

NZJ

12 posts

Geek

#202970 24-Mar-2009 09:06

I don't think TNBT will fix anything. There will still be prioritizing from 5pm to 7am, which translated to incredibly slow speeds downloading through HTTP or FTP. I reinstalled windows a couple of days ago, and went through the same agony as the fella above. Downloading updates around midnight didn't finish until 5 am!

hellonearthisman

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#202971 24-Mar-2009 09:14

I hear Slingshot is getting more bandwidth in April, so I hope that will imporve things.

NZJ

12 posts

Geek

#202986 24-Mar-2009 10:19

hellonearthisman: I hear Slingshot is getting more bandwidth in April, so I hope that will imporve things.

That's precicely the problem here. They don't have enough money to buy bandwidth. Specifically, peak-time bandwidth. We need to start a fund for slingshot.

qtra004

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#203269 25-Mar-2009 15:21

I got TNBT activated on 09/03 but never see things are improved or faster with downloading issue. And right now, the internet at home is completely down, Slingshot will send someone to inspect the line but i have no idea when i can get Internet back on at home.

I switched to Slingshot because of TNBT advertising but i didn't check carefully about their TOS ( Prioritisation). Limit the speed from major file hosting server like rapidshare and megaupload because they beleive most of traffic from those sites is for illegal materials is a joke. It's purely the issue of not having enough bandwidth to cater the whole network.

I never recommend anyone who like downloading things to switch to Slingshot unless they change their PRIORITISATION policy.

pogostickconz

47 posts

Geek

#204344 31-Mar-2009 01:54

im currently on the slingshot extreme 6gb plan, FS/128kpb for $39.95 a month but they dont let you have the free off-peak data unless you upgrade to one of their newer more expensive plans, or i could go back to 256/128 but that would just make me cry.

ive tried to find a good comparison site but the top ranked internetchoice.co.nz looks way outta date!

hellonearthisman

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#204361 31-Mar-2009 09:47

pogostickconz: im currently on the slingshot extreme 6gb plan, FS/128kpb for $39.95 a month but they dont let you have the free off-peak data unless you upgrade to one of their newer more expensive plans, or i could go back to 256/128 but that would just make me cry.

ive tried to find a good comparison site but the top ranked internetchoice.co.nz looks way outta date!

There was(is?) an upgrade available for old users to get the databanking and free data preiod and keep the old datablock prices. Not sure if it's still available, you could phone the helpdesk or ask about it in the forum.slingshot.co.nz , this has not been done to the Naked DSL *grrr @ telecom*

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