YABP: Switch or stay, technical questions

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ToucanSam

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#259810 23-Oct-2019 10:38

(Yet Another Broadband Post)

TLDR: Best consistent speed (900/400 minimum, higher preferred) for less than $150/month?

Hey guys,

Currently I'm with 2degrees and been reasonably happy. No major outages, decent service, etc. I'm on the 900/400 plan.

I'm now moving house and 2degrees is offering me "50% off your next bill to resign for 12 months!", which is meh considering new customers get $200 and BigPipe is offering 3 months free ($300! ooooooh).

However, I'm more interested in some technical stuff. The ever knowledgeable Mr Murfy was a great resource when I was looking at broadband 18 months ago, but some things have changed since that post. Spark/BigPipe are peering a bit differently with folks like REANNZ so in theory performance may have changed.

Currently with 2degrees I'm getting (give or take) 300Mb upload at any given time. Sometimes a bit less during peak hours. In a perfect world I'd get 1000/1000 and while I'm not afraid of business plans, I am a little bit afraid of cost (of said business plans). At the moment I'm paying $120/month (with static IP).

I run my own rolled pfsense box and happy to continue doing so if that opens more doors (eg business). Thoughtput from my end shouldn't be a problem.

Any thoughts/comments/suggestions?

michaelmurfy

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#2342371 23-Oct-2019 10:56

Phone up 2degrees and ask them if they'll give you the new customer offer - they normally do for resigns.

Personally, I would stay with 2degrees as they do offer excellent peering etc (Spark, for example don't openly peer which is really felt on anything using Cloudflare). It does also sound like your PFSense box is limiting things as you should be getting a little more than 300Mbit upload :)

Consistent speeds - if you stick with a major provider you won't have any issues. I get a consistent 930/520Mbit with 2degrees and I know their network is more than compatible hence why I would actually take a second look at your PFSense box.

PPPoE on PFSense is single-threaded and for that reason I've stuck with the Edgerouter 4 instead of rolling out my own router. You need a rather grunty computer with PFSense for Gigabit due to this limitation.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
Referral Links: Quic Broadband (use R122101E7CV7Q for free setup)

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gcorgnet

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#2342379 23-Oct-2019 11:02

I was an existing 2D customer and my 12 month commitment ran out. I rang them and got them to apply $200 credit to my account.

On the technical side, I am on Gigabit as well and am getting the full on 940/450 rates, usually... Maybe look at your setup?

ToucanSam

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#2342404 23-Oct-2019 12:05

Appreciate the comments! Will definitely give 2degrees a ring. No ill-will towards them. Otherwise happy customer. Just reassessing options.

RE: pfsense, sorry. Was a bit unclear. I CAN hit +400Mb, I just don't very often so assuming it was congestion in a Wellington suburb.
As for the box itself, it's a Core i5, 8GB RAM, with an Intel quad port NIC. It's an i350 variant but can't remember specifically which one. AESNI support and CPU/RAM usage is always >20%.
All in all, should be more than competent at handling the maximum throughput of the connection I'd think.

I was considering switching to the Ubiquiti hardware. I need new access points and a 24 port switch for the new house. I appreciate things like DNSBL on pfsense though. No reason I couldn't run pihole via docker or something though. Not deal breaker.

Will reinvestigate the pfsense config though. Either way the answer to the initial question is the same. Will stick with 2degrees.

Thanks gents.

ToucanSam

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#2346410 30-Oct-2019 19:00

Quick update: Called 2degrees, they wouldn't offer the additional credit, but offered to reduce my bill from $110/mo to $85/mo for 6 months. $150 vs $300 from BigPipe.

No particular decision at this stage. Just updating to make others aware that they may not be able to get the best deal without switching providers.