ORCON's Free Home Phone Line Offer

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1 post

Wannabe Geek

#82565 16-Aug-2007 00:58

duncanblair: Just a heads up, you can now upgrade the offer to a max/max line speed connection for another $10 per month.

Just signed up now! All thanks to the new upgrade of FS/FS!
Good stuff ORCON!
I've already signed up a few of my friends

nexttothemoon

35 posts

Geek

#84048 27-Aug-2007 23:24

My story...

After waiting 5 1/2 years since we moved to this location for broadband to finally reach us.... (Telecom certainly doesn't move fast when upgrading their infrastructure do they?)... I signed up for broadband the day after I found out it was available on our line. I looked at Slingshot, Ihug, Xnet and a bunch of others and ended up going with Orcon as the combo of Homeline+Calls+Broadband seemed like a decent deal for $79.95. I've switched every service we have AWAY from Telecom in one leap just to reward them for taking so long to supply broadband to our area.

Being only on dial up before I have no idea how much data I'll use on broadband so it's quite possible the 20 GB this plan allows may be on the light side and it may have made more sense going with Slingshot or Xnet for broadband as they allow you to buy additional blocks of data at full speed for roughly $1 per GB whereas the "Free Homeline Plan" with Orcon makes you pay $2 per additional GB... so if I use a LOT... say 40 GB+ per month then I may have been better off with an alternative... but still the combo of basically free landline national calls + broadband and the joy of ripping the Homeline money away from Telecom and giving that money to someone other than them was well worth $80 a month.

Now a proviso is that I'm still waiting for the official broadband hookup (3 business days so far) but they've sent me the modem in the post (took 2 business days) and it's all hooked up so when they throw the switch or crack the whip or slay the dragon guarding the castle or whatever else they have to do to turn my connection on... I'll report just how fast a new broadband connection is in a brand new area as I'm assuming I must be one of the first in this area to get broadband. Hopefully I can download faster than the usual 4 KB/sec by the end of the week. I've had only a dial up internet connection for over 11 years and never had broadband so I wonder what I should download first to celebrate. :)

Still in the back of my mind I have this recurring thought that they are going to call or email me and say that broadband isn't available here yet... it was all a mistake and your area is "due to get an upgrade sometime in the future". I've heard that so many times in the past I'll likely smash that cute little broadband modem into smithereens if that's STILL the case.

nexttothemoon

35 posts

Geek

#84173 28-Aug-2007 19:59

Just got connected with Orcon broadband this evening and its great so far. 373 KB/sec download speed versus my old dial up speed of about 4 KB/sec.... about 93 times faster. Hopefully it maintains that type of speed all the time.

Lipex666

444 posts

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#84197 28-Aug-2007 23:17

Im not that happy with the Orcon deal as broadband does not seem to be any faster for Max. Was on the 256 deal before

from www.nzdsl.co.nz getting 1992 kbps highest about 1985 kbps this is in Auckalnd

from www.speedtest.net getting 2069 kbps to Napier and to Wellington 2141 kbps

Does this sound like Max speed???

Posted a support call with Orcon

"The only way to learn some- thing is to do it"

willnz

573 posts

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#84206 29-Aug-2007 01:53

Yes, it does sound like max speed. You're probably a fair distance from the exchange, or the device you're connected to has limited backhaul. Unfortunately, it will probably be the "maximum speed your line is capable of".

Telecom seem to be provisioning quite a few 256k DSL lines as Max/128k for some reason. This will probably be why you can't notice a difference between the 256k and max speed plans.

Lipex666

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#84209 29-Aug-2007 06:19

Thanks that what I thought as the exchange is only 5 houses up the road and 5 houses round the corner. Router is new and xp SP2 this in East Auckland not Pakaranga

I have asked Orcon / Telecom to rest the port on my line as I believe something is being limited or not provisioned correctly as Orcon advise I have a fixed IP.

My WAG200G router under DSL status says Downstream Rate: 8128 kbps

"The only way to learn some- thing is to do it"

Zimsar10

210 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

#84231 29-Aug-2007 10:28

Lipex666: Thanks that what I thought as the exchange is only 5 houses up the road and 5 houses round the corner. Router is new and xp SP2 this in East Auckland not Pakaranga

I have asked Orcon / Telecom to rest the port on my line as I believe something is being limited or not provisioned correctly as Orcon advise I have a fixed IP.

My WAG200G router under DSL status says Downstream Rate: 8128 kbps

Do you have a 128kb/s upload speed? If so, upgrade it to MAX & this should improve your download speed.

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willnz

573 posts

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#84257 29-Aug-2007 13:09

What do you mean in regards to the fixed IP address? Are you getting a dynamic address? If so, are they in the range 60.234.80.x - 60.234.90.x ?

This generally means your username isn't entered properly, or the person that setup your account spelt it wrong :P Check your username in your router if this is the case, and if it looks right give them a call to verify.

Orcon's "wrong username" pool sometimes allows you to browse - but at a very limited speed. Usually it doesn't let you, but for some reason it doesn't alyways stop you from browsing.

geekgirl

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#84263 29-Aug-2007 13:27

Well, here's a good one. Our line & broadband transferred over to Orcon, all working really well, and getting great speeds. We upgraded to the max/max speed too, and very happy with it.

Unfortunately, something seems to have gone awry with our 2nd phoneline!

We have another phoneline on our Telecom account, which is located at a separate address, and uses World Exchange for broadband. We did not wish to transfer this one at all, and Orcon weren't given the number for that line.

It would appear that Telecom have transferred both lines to Orcon, as the broadband disconnected a couple of nights ago, and when it came back up, it came up with an Orcon IP address. We received a Telecom bill with a credit for the 2nd line which had been moved away.

What a mess!

I have logged a fault with the Orcon helpdesk, and am eagerly awaiting their reply as to what has happened. A friend of mine who works for an ISP says this is a reasonably common occurence when only 1 of multiple lines on a Telecom account is to be transferred.

I am looking forward to the explanation from Orcon!

ictgeeknz

255 posts

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#84314 29-Aug-2007 18:12

We have been trying to activate Orcon Tolls on your account but it seems that your exchange (the box that your broadband and phone gets connected to) is not able to handle it.

I was like... "Are you kidding?!? I live in freakin' Napier!"

The job request has been resubmitted. Here's hoping for a favourable outcome.

Lipex666

444 posts

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#84357 29-Aug-2007 21:50

Got a support call back - great service.

However was advised as good as it gets. No fault as the limitations are all on Telecoms Network. Suggestion was wait for ADSL 2

"The only way to learn some- thing is to do it"

ictgeeknz

255 posts

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#84594 31-Aug-2007 06:29

centaurianz:

We have been trying to activate Orcon Tolls on your account but it seems that your exchange (the box that your broadband and phone gets connected to) is not able to handle it.

I was like... "Are you kidding?!? I live in freakin' Napier!"

The job request has been resubmitted. Here's hoping for a favourable outcome.

Update: the second job order to have my Phoneline and Tolls moved has failed again.
the Orcon Provisioning Team are investigating the matter.

ICT is never simple... *sigh*

ictgeeknz

255 posts

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#84678 31-Aug-2007 15:48

centaurianz:

Update: the second job order to have my Phoneline and Tolls moved has failed again.
the Orcon Provisioning Team are investigating the matter.

Can't be done. No explaination from Telecom (yet).
It's 2007, I can change ISP but not phone provider?!? That sucks!

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
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Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#84852 2-Sep-2007 07:51

ictgeeknz:
centaurianz:

Update: the second job order to have my Phoneline and Tolls moved has failed again.
the Orcon Provisioning Team are investigating the matter.

Can't be done. No explaination from Telecom (yet).
It's 2007, I can change ISP but not phone provider?!? That sucks!

That sounds like an excuse from Orcon. It would surprise me you can have the DSL with Orcon, but not the phone line - it's not like a problem changing cables on DSLAM at this point. Ao I very much doubt it's a Telecom problem.

LennonNZ

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#84853 2-Sep-2007 08:22

freitasm:

That sounds like an excuse from Orcon. It would surprise me you can have the DSL with Orcon, but not the phone line - it's not like a problem changing cables on DSLAM at this point. Ao I very much doubt it's a Telecom problem.

Telecom does have problems at time moving lines over to NCA (non-coded access) to other providers for various reasons. Sometimes the exchanges don't support the options needed to move the line over to NCA or other features such as callminder etc to another provider or it just doesn't work for some reason at Telecom's end.

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