and I thought I might seek other peoples opinions before I commit to anything, what is the service like etc we were with Xtra/Telecom beforehand and always got highly reliable speeds with them. Is there any contracts to agree to etc? any help in this would be greatly appreciated and I would head to the website myself except I'm on dial-up at this current point in time and these things are quite painful to load TIA
The service has been terrible since the start of 2008, there are countless threads here about the issues. They recently added a $99 disconnection fee to their plans and a churn fee when changing from another ISP.
The only remaining ISP without a 12 month contract with a disconnection fee is Orcon but they appear to be having very inconsistent reliablity and performance so far this year.
There is basically no compelling reason to xnet unless you really want to get naked dsl and use their voip phone service. Even then I wouldn't recommend them until they fix their network management issues.
Right now Telstra or Telecom are the most consistent and reliable ISP's imo.
The service is not terrible. If you are on a normal plan (i.e. not Torrent) then speed is fine. It is perhaps not the best for video at pek time (around 8pm), but it is still a good service if you are a normal user especially if upgrading from dial-up.
At the moment there are unhappy customers complaining because they can not download 30GB (or more) a month for free on the Torrent plan, but the whole torrent plan as a concept is flawed (although it did get torrents off peak time so things improved for everyone else).
Apparently they are (again) getting new equipment to deal with the problem they have of being a very popular ISP even thou they do not advertise at all. For me the best thing is still that you pay for only the data you use, you do not pay for e-mail data or for Windows Update data (and a few others), and the VFX phone service is great if you a slightly technically minded and can manage setting up routers and stuff. If you want to download full length movies (illegal or legal) or move lots of data for whatever reason and you want to do it for free on the Torrent plan, then think again.
Not sure about the last couple of weeks, but before I left XNet XNet I was limited to 5.8 - 7.9KB/s ftp to US servers during the evening when trying to patch games (PPM plan). AT 7:30AM I could get 200-300KB/s. If that's not terrible service on a "normal" plan, then I'd love to know what is.
Blygh: Not sure about the last couple of weeks, but before I left XNet XNet I was limited to 5.8 - 7.9KB/s ftp to US servers during the evening when trying to patch games (PPM plan). AT 7:30AM I could get 200-300KB/s. If that's not terrible service on a "normal" plan, then I'd love to know what is.
I'm not a torrent user, nor do I use more than 3-5 GB / month, but I've also found international speeds to be poor lately. Perhaps I'm a peek-time user.
I does seem to be worse the last couple of months.
Also concidering leaving, the only thing holding me back is that I like Fusion and the vfx service, and the support I've experianced from xnet has been excellent.
my porn is definately not as fast as it was on Xtra. their billing cycle is my main issue though. i pay every 30-60 days and they cut me off frequently.
Niel: At the moment there are unhappy customers complaining because they can not download 30GB (or more) a month for free on the Torrent plan, but the whole torrent plan as a concept is flawed (although it did get torrents off peak time so things improved for everyone else).
I would personally like to see xnet move the high usage users to a pool of their own so they don't affect everyone elses performance. i.e. no choice in the matter.
Their service has come into question by even those on plans other than the Torrent. I would stick with one of the bigger players, they have more bandwidth to share around. Vodafone's $90 deal is pretty good, though the customer service sucks.
holmesr: and I thought I might seek other peoples opinions before I commit to anything, what is the service like etc we were with Xtra/Telecom beforehand and always got highly reliable speeds with them. Is there any contracts to agree to etc? any help in this would be greatly appreciated and I would head to the website myself except I'm on dial-up at this current point in time and these things are quite painful to load TIA
Stay well clear of Xnet at the moment, Xtra will be a better option.Speeds are horribly slow during 5pm-11pm to the point where streaming video requires 5 minute waits for 1 minute videos.
Thanks for all the replies guys its appreciated, we decided to reconnect with telecom onto our old plan, seems they reduced the pricing since last time so thats always a good thing once again you guys have been extremly helpful =) thanks for everything
sultanoswing: Great stuff. With everyone bailing from, or no longer signing up to Xnet, perhaps the speed for we remaining users will improve to previous levels.
Ha! Don't count on it dude, with the types of people leaving (i.e. low usage users) it's only going to free up a small amount of bandwidth, plus there will be a steady increase in "leech" type users due to tightening of copyright laws.
Xnet will be seen as a haven for downloaders (like you) so the likely outcome is even less bandwidth to go around. Think about it...
Don't forget to take into account the fact the Xnet legally has to dob you in if it suspects you may be downloading copyright material ("no we would never snoop our users traffic, even if their usage was detrimental to the network"), ROFLMAO!!!!, dude if there was ever an easier way to get rid of "problem" customers.
Also take into consideration that the "financial crisis" is far from over - I suspect it's going to be a wild ride for the next 6 - 18 months and the end result won't be pretty...
Xnet (and every other ISP) will be looking for ways to cut costs (due to increased infrastructure costs), the only ISPs that are likely to be able to afford decent amounts of bandwidth (and also make a profit from it) are the companies that own international connections - i.e Telecom / Telstra. Unless the government steps in... good luck if National get in (which they will)...
Just a couple of thoughts, but hey wtf do I know. Go about your business.
lol kerrin i would prefeer if they put the price of broadband up but made it better to and removed broadband. And then i could come on here and not see incompetent low level users like you who reckon because i use bandwidth that i pay for, that i should be in a pool of other people who pay for your network. Dude if you want to go somewhere without high users go somewhere like vodafone with their 1gb homephone and dsl plans and fail there lol.
i suggest you try a different ISP at this stage. Xnet has a termination fee now. What I would suggest is for you to try Orcon first as if ur not happy u can leave after a month... then go for xtra or something..
pistolpower: lol kerrin i would prefeer if they put the price of broadband up but made it better to and removed broadband. And then i could come on here and not see incompetent low level users like you who reckon because i use bandwidth that i pay for, that i should be in a pool of other people who pay for your network. Dude if you want to go somewhere without high users go somewhere like vodafone with their 1gb homephone and dsl plans and fail there lol.
Prehaps you're right, charging high usage users more would be a fairer option. Same concept as trucks paying additional road user charges the heavier they are.
I've been in IS for 15 years, so I wouldn't say I'm an incompetent low level user, just because my usage is not 80 GB / month.
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#27651 3-Nov-2008 01:11
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