Considering joining Voyager

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quickymart

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#296331 8-Jun-2022 21:53

Evening,

I'm toying with joining Voyager - I was with them previously and it worked well for the first couple of months but then things started going pear-shaped. Despite them being very good with their tech support and (I felt) going out of their way to try and resolve the issue we couldn't figure it out, so I returned to Spark where everything worked again (without me changing anything).

However this was all with my trusty Netcomm NF4V, which is no longer in use as it started to die.

If I was to join Voyager, I'd like to purchase and use their own modem as I know this reduces the "sorry we can't help you" scenarios as it's their own equipment, not third party stuff. My question is: What is the modem they supply like? Is it easy to setup? What is the wifi range like?

I would probably join on their 300/100 plan. My network is about 10 devices on wifi, and a wired desktop. Usage consists of working from home over a VPN and streaming Youtube as well as playing some online games.

Thanks in advance 🙂

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meow
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#2924123 8-Jun-2022 22:20

Voyager are great but these days also routers provided by companies are also very good. Voyager lease a router for a monthly fee.

Not to steer you away specifically but as your main reason for switching is due to your router why not go with a provider who offer a decent free router and save a little money at the same time? Your use-case for broadband is pretty standard and to be honest you won't even notice if you're even on CG-NAT. Take a look at Skinny (who provide a Spark Smart Modem) or 2degrees (Fritz!Box - which IMHO is potentially the best router of any provider and has a mesh repeater you can purchase too).

Other providers worth considering are Electric Kiwi if you're a customer of theirs (decent router and $100 mesh node) and Sky Broadband.

Really, we're very lucky in NZ with choice.

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nickb800

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#2924146 9-Jun-2022 06:20

Voyager are still very helpful when you have issues while using your own router. I had issues with a VDSL connection - their phone was answered by very experienced support agent/engineer who worked through the settings with me to ensure it was configured correctly, then went through chorus diagnostics while I was on the line. It was a chorus issue and a technician was booked to fix the fault. Seriously impressed by voyager.

nztim

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#2924147 9-Jun-2022 06:51

What router are you using right bow?

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jonathan18

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#2924156 9-Jun-2022 08:34

michaelmurfy:

Voyager are great but these days also routers provided by companies are also very good. Voyager lease a router for a monthly fee.

...

Other providers worth considering are Electric Kiwi if you're a customer of theirs (decent router and $100 mesh node) and Sky Broadband.

I've just finished my year of free static IP with 2D and my contract is up in early Sept, so have been thinking about next steps; Voyager with their one-off fee for a static IP, plus its good reputation, is on my shortlist, along with remaining with 2D.

At the risk of thread-cr@pping, I had also been wondering what the wider view of Electric Kiwi's internet offering was, having got the promo emails (as they're my power provider). I assume it's a fairly vanilla service, with no option of a static IP? (I only need this for Plex, so it's frustrating to pay $10 a month just for this purpose.) Which company manages the provision on behalf of EK? (I had searched for a thread on this on GZ but couldn't find one.)

michaelmurfy

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#2924193 9-Jun-2022 11:38

@jonathan18 They use Vocus (https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=49&topicid=290761) which is now 2degrees. You can get a static IP through them but IMHO you don't need this for just Plex as it'll work with a dynamic IP fine.

jonathan18

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#2924195 9-Jun-2022 11:47

michaelmurfy:

@jonathan18 They use Vocus (https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=49&topicid=290761) which is now 2degrees. You can get a static IP through them but IMHO you don't need this for just Plex as it'll work with a dynamic IP fine.

Thanks, @michaelmurfy- clearly my Googlefu is of such a base level that I didn't find that thread! Do they charge the same $10/month for the static IP that Vocus-owned ISPs charge?

(Off-topic, I'd be interested to know how content on my NAS can be reliably accessed on Plex from outside the home without a static IP? I've certainly not had any luck doing so; also, the alternative relay approach is a way-degraded and limited service. I'd love for there to be a way to enable such remote access with a dynamic IP (and I'm not sure whether CGNAT impacts on this?)

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michaelmurfy

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#2924196 9-Jun-2022 11:52

Dynamic IP = still publicly routeable (this is what they'll provide to you by default).

The only reason why you have a Static IP now is because 2degrees stopped doing dynamic IP addresses and instead opted for CG-NAT. As the Electric Kiwi service runs off Vocus's network you get a Dynamic IP address so Plex will still work 100% fine.

hsvhel

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#2924200 9-Jun-2022 12:20

have been with Voyager for many years now, only recently moved from their supplied unit owing to other reasons. They were very helpful even with a 3rd party unit

Price wise, they have moved their 300/100 service to $89 which i note is up there with other offers currently

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mdf

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#2924205 9-Jun-2022 12:39

Voyager supplied router is Huawei DG8245V - see this thread.

I changed to this pretty much exclusively for the WAF if/when things get wrong and I'm not around to solve. From that perspective it is good. Routing performance is excellent. I don't use it for wifi so unable to advise on that. I'm really not a fan of the UI - seems to make some relatively simply things unnecessarily difficult and flakey.

mdf

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#2924208 9-Jun-2022 12:44

I should also say the Voyager-supplied router works very well with Voyager IPv6. I was struggling to get that set up properly on my own.

OldGeek

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#2924339 9-Jun-2022 15:21

Voyager are good. I never had problems with the Huawei router they supplied. if I recall correctly there is an option to purchase outright.

I moved to Sky Broadband from Voyager because I am a long-time Sky TV subscriber and rain fade is an issue at my new address. One of the advertised features of their new decoder is interchangeable sat/internet feed options and I would be very happy to decommission my sat dish. Having an integrated broadband service that is $20 per month cheaper than Voyager got me to move.

For the last 18 months I have had a family member at home that works fulltime for an Australian company and spends about 80% of her time 'on the phone'. Voice communications do not tolerate disconnects well. Voyager and Sky services are both excellent in this respect - dropped calls have been exceedingly rare and those that did happen may well have been caused by issues in Oz.

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quickymart

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#2924349 9-Jun-2022 15:38

I'm on Spark using their Smart router, but I think if I changed to Voyager I'd get theirs in case things go south like they did last time; at least they would be able to provide me better support with their router as opposed to a third-party one.

I'm not looking at moving purely for the router (I'd need to purchase it myself) but because I like to think I'd be supporting the underdog/little guy 🙂

hio77

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#2924430 9-Jun-2022 18:29

quickymart:

I'm on Spark using their Smart router, but I think if I changed to Voyager I'd get theirs in case things go south like they did last time; at least they would be able to provide me better support with their router as opposed to a third-party one.

I'm not looking at moving purely for the router (I'd need to purchase it myself) but because I like to think I'd be supporting the underdog/little guy 🙂

You can also go for a managed router, where we offer Fortigates instead, Does have a slight price bump though as you will see in the online ordering process.

These are managed by a portion of my team which is kinda an added bonus :)

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nztim

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#2924432 9-Jun-2022 18:36

I am with Sky for the same reason as @OldGeek their service is fabulous backed by a Vocus Network

Be interesting to see how the 2degrees/Vocus network
merge will go.

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nztim

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#2924442 9-Jun-2022 19:42

hio77:
quickymart:

I'm on Spark using their Smart router, but I think if I changed to Voyager I'd get theirs in case things go south like they did last time; at least they would be able to provide me better support with their router as opposed to a third-party one.

I'm not looking at moving purely for the router (I'd need to purchase it myself) but because I like to think I'd be supporting the underdog/little guy 🙂

You can also go for a managed router, where we offer Fortigates instead, Does have a slight price bump though as you will see in the online ordering process.

These are managed by a portion of my team which is kinda an added bonus :)

Full UTM managed connection, Nice

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

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