175GB data this month

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sultanoswing

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#146976 4-Jun-2014 20:24

So May was our first full month with the Roku 3 and Netflix, Amazon Video (the kids love Dinosaur Train and Angry Birds Toons), TED talks etc. All up we're watching a few hours per day of streamed content (damn you House of Cards and Parks & Recreation!).

As a result, we chewed through 175GB of data this month. Suddenly the unlimited plans which almost every ISP *except* Xnet/WxC are offering start to look mightily attractive. Even though we've had good service with Xnet over several years, I don't really want to be forking out ~$200 per month in internet charges.

Any recommendations?

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#1059377 4-Jun-2014 20:27

Use less data next month?

sultanoswing

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#1059380 4-Jun-2014 20:30

muppet: Use less data next month?

Genius. There's no denying the mathematics of it. However, we've grown used to this newfangled streaming thing, so I suspect that's going to be about as viable as returning to dial-up.

Any recommendations for good unlimited plans, or are they all of a muchness?

l43a2

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#1059381 4-Jun-2014 20:33

most of the unlimited plans should do what you need perfectly fine.

PhantomNVD

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#1059385 4-Jun-2014 20:35

global zone (save on VPN/DNS for netflix et al) seems to be the only significant difference unless you want to read up on fineprint of bandwidth management of torrents and such?

as an aside, how come ALL the ISP's support the 'user licence avoidance' of netflix but stomp on torrents??

andrewNZ

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#1059386 4-Jun-2014 20:35

~$200 for that little data is criminal!

You can have a phone line and unlimited (ADSL) data on telecom for @ $120. I understand VDSL or fibre may cost a bit more.

scuwp

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#1059394 4-Jun-2014 20:45

Look around. Unlimited plans with phone-line are around $100 bucks at the moment. If VDSL is available in your area go for that, costs the same (VF) or very little more but for streaming the extra speed is worth it.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

driller2000

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#1059395 4-Jun-2014 20:45

i'm happy with unlimited vdsl + phone for $109 per month on slingshot

global mode works well for streaming netflix on all devices (so no dns service required) and hulu on pcs - however hulu dosent work on tv and xbox though....but i have pcs connected to all tvs so no worries for my set up

ymmv

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NonprayingMantis

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#1059399 4-Jun-2014 20:58

If all you want is broadband, and none of the other junk most ISPs include like a pointless landline, then you can't go wrong with Bigpipe IMO

Unlimited naked DSL - $79/month.

No shaping of any kind of traffic. I get full line rate 24/7, and never had any problems with Netflix the other week when Voda, Telecom and Slingshot all had major issues.

gehenna

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#1059414 4-Jun-2014 21:19

^I thought BigPipe had traffic management policies? Just because you haven't experienced them doesn't mean they're not there and won't be used at some stage...

NonprayingMantis

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#1059418 4-Jun-2014 21:31

gehenna: ^I thought BigPipe had traffic management policies? Just because you haven't experienced them doesn't mean they're not there and won't be used at some stage...

An ISP without any sort of traffic management capability, even if they choose not to use it, would be pretty naive in my opinion. How would they deal with things like DDoS?

Also, traffic management is different to torrent shaping.

gehenna

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#1059422 4-Jun-2014 21:41

I'm talking about shaping.

freitasm

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#1059448 4-Jun-2014 23:00

PhantomNVD: global zone (save on VPN/DNS for netflix et al) seems to be the only significant difference unless you want to read up on fineprint of bandwidth management of torrents and such?

as an aside, how come ALL the ISP's support the 'user licence avoidance' of netflix but stomp on torrents??

Create your own topic but a teaser: very different things. One is the illegal distribution of content the users don't own the rights to. The other is just bypassing geoblocks, which is not illegal.

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sultanoswing

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#1059484 4-Jun-2014 23:56

Righto. Email sent to WxC / Xnet asking if they've got any more competitive plans in the pipeline. Traditionally they haven't been too forthcoming about competing on price - preferring service (which has been pretty faultless over the years) - but looking around, the monthly $$$ gap seems to have become somewhat of a chasm since I last looked a couple of years ago.

JWR

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#1059496 5-Jun-2014 02:50

freitasm:
PhantomNVD: global zone (save on VPN/DNS for netflix et al) seems to be the only significant difference unless you want to read up on fineprint of bandwidth management of torrents and such?

as an aside, how come ALL the ISP's support the 'user licence avoidance' of netflix but stomp on torrents??

Create your own topic but a teaser: very different things. One is the illegal distribution of content the users don't own the rights to. The other is just bypassing geoblocks, which is not illegal.

Bittorrent isn't illegal!

bongojona

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#1059502 5-Jun-2014 06:57

You can also adjust your Netflix streaming quality down

It may be set on auto now, and will stream full 1080 HD if you have the bandwidth.

The next setting down (cannot remember name) is roughly DVD quality, looks very good (in my opinion) on my 40 inch LCD and uses much less data than full or auto setting will.

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