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Forums › Spark New Zealand › Anybody on an XTRA plan with ADSL2?


113 posts

Master Geek


Topic # 32854 25-Apr-2009 11:51
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Xtra seems to be the only ISP in my area that allows me to do ADSL2, which kinda sux, but I'm surpirsed how reasonable their prices are in comparison to other ISP's.


 


Has anyone else got ADSL2 with xtra? and if so how would you rate their service?  Im currently with slingshot and sometimes things are a bit sluggish, but I've stuck with them for the cheap data blocks.


 


Any input would be greatly valued.  Hadley

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Baby Get Shaky!
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  Reply # 209216 25-Apr-2009 12:59
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I'm on the Explorer Plan on Fendalton Exchange in CHCH. I switched over from Xnet last year and have been very happy with the speeds so far. Line syncs at 11/1, but my speedtests usually max out at around 3.5/0.2. However performance is excellent during peak times, youtube plays straight away, iTunes music downloads in seconds. No shaping on torrents, I managed to max one out at 1100k down a while ago (Steal This Movie). All in all the performance in comparsion to my previous ADSL providers has been excellent and consistent (still no match for TelstraClear Cable though).

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  Reply # 209219 25-Apr-2009 13:19
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Other than Xnet I dont believe (happy to be shown otherwise) any other ISPs actually throttle certain plans back to 8Mb/s max DL. The Xtra plans are stated as ADSL2+ simply because any plan that has a 160kb/s (or 128kb/s) UL will never achieve much more than 4-5Mb/s DL, so to advertise them otherwise could cause eybrows to raise. As such if you are on any Fs/Fs plan and have a ADLS2+ connection that is connecting north of 8Mb/s then you should be able to achieve trhoughputs within 80% of sync rate assuming your ISP and the site you are loading from can support it.

Cyril

 
 
 
 




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Master Geek


  Reply # 209221 25-Apr-2009 13:24
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Thnks for the responses, Im looking at the pro plan which has no artificial caps on up/download speeds, so you reckon it might be worthwhile?


 


Im currently paying $49.95 a month for a 25gb plan at slingshot, the xtra pro plan is $79.95 a month for $40gb then 2c for every extra mb.

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Master Geek
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  Reply # 209312 25-Apr-2009 20:29
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pwaddles:Has anyone else got ADSL2 with xtra? and if so how would you rate their service?  Im currently with slingshot and sometimes things are a bit sluggish, but I've stuck with them for the cheap data blocks.


I'm using ADSL/2 with Telecom Xtra and my speed is fairly consistently around 6Mb/s download,  and 0.7 Mb/s upload.




Over the last six months I've had one overnight outage and several brief outages lasting a matter of a few minutes.

I have been shocked with their high level of efficient customer service and uptime,  having lived in Oz for many years I had got accustomed to lousy or no service with frequent downtime from the major Australian telcos & ISPs.

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  Reply # 209359 25-Apr-2009 23:39
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Telecom has really picked up it's game since Paul Reynold took over as CEO imo.

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Geek


  Reply # 209385 26-Apr-2009 07:37
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One great thing about the PRO plan is you can choose to have interleaving turned on or off.. Just let them know and they can make the switch at midnight that night..I myself am on pro, I choose to have interleaving turned off which I can say dropped 30-40ms of my ping... which is great for my gamming addiction!! PRO is a little bit on the dare side but well worth it imo!!

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  Reply # 209420 26-Apr-2009 10:19
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I get average of 11Mbs D/l peaking at 14Mbs, modem reports that it is connected to the exchange at 17.4 I have seen a connection in the next block from me getting 19.0, overall I dont think xtra is that bad, I have never had a drop off and  overall I am happy with them

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  Reply # 209505 26-Apr-2009 17:25
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Speedtest

Seems pretty good so far.

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Master Geek


  Reply # 209517 26-Apr-2009 18:15
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pwaddles:


Thnks for the responses, Im looking at the pro plan which has no artificial caps on up/download speeds, so you reckon it might be worthwhile?





Im currently paying $49.95 a month for a 25gb plan at slingshot, the xtra pro plan is $79.95 a month for $40gb then 2c for every extra mb.









If you dont mind paying a little bit extra then you could consider the business broadband intermediate plan, which is 89.95 incuding GST, also for 40GB but really for the fact that you get much cheaper ($4/GB as opposed to $20/GB on Pro) overusage. You also get a pretty sweet wireless router as well, you can still have interleaving on/off and a few other bonuses as well e.g free static ip etc. Just another option!

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  Reply # 209977 27-Apr-2009 21:40
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I can turn interleaving on/off on my setup here - what does either option actually achieve? I can't see that it makes any difference speed-wise.

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  Reply # 209993 27-Apr-2009 22:09
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I had not taken the speed test , untill now seeing responses here like 11Mbps n so forth, to my shock my speedtest result gave me 14mbps and even 16-20 on other ocassion. Is this for real ? seriously if you go by the actual data you shud b able to download a 1gb movie in some 10minutes, but i am cent% sure that it easily takes 25-30minutes if its from a relaible decent speed server or even 40 if its coming from a crowded one.


i think these numbers showing up in recent days are not true. r these by any chance fixed by the telco's, - i doubt that wen i say but who knows - u nvr knw wat companies can do to keep customers happy. 


any of u really think u r LITERALLY downloading in those speeds ?? 




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  Reply # 210108 28-Apr-2009 10:45
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Yes its for real, however I presume you are doing a test to a national server in Auckland or Napier rather than an overseas server.

If you want to know what your DSL connection is capable of then first start by looking at your modem sync rate, this will give you an idea of what is possible between you and your ISP, then check that with speedtest.net to confirm real throughput.

Based on your above comments I guess you modem is syncing at 18Mb/s or more.

Cyril

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  Reply # 210123 28-Apr-2009 11:27
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Also if you can get Telecom ADSL, you can most likely get ADSL with any ISP that is provisioned over Telecom wholesale (eg: every ISP apart from Orcon or Vodafone in Auckland or Wellington LLU areas).

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Geek


  Reply # 210238 28-Apr-2009 15:48
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"I can turn interleaving on/off on my setup here - what does either option actually achieve? I can't see that it makes any difference speed-wise."



Interleaving helps protect data, against burst errors (i.e. a spike of noise on the line) on an ADSL line. Individual words are interleaved with each other before being transmitted and reassembled on the receivers end. This helps prevent an entire word from being lost due to a burst error, however a side effect is an increase in latency. Speed wise interleaving has no real impact in regards to increasing your line speed. Interleaving turned off is really only beneficial for on line gamers as it dramaticaly reduces ping times (latency). In the gaming world every ms counts!!. One of the risks of interleaving being disabled is the likely-hood of corrupt packets of data. Id say google interleaving if you want more info.

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  Reply # 211157 1-May-2009 10:16
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Ragnor: Telecom has really picked up it's game since Paul Reynold took over as CEO imo. I completely agree, good ridance Gattung and Dean.

I get consistent sync speeds of 23 down/1 up. But I am about 500m line length from the Auckland Central exchange. My throughput is about 12-15 on the Pro Plan, it fluctuates quite a bit, but then this is the biggest exchange in the contry.

Have only had 1 outage in the last 5 years. I thoughly recommend Telecom Broadband.

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