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steve98

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#7480 18-Apr-2006 14:50
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OK this is weird. Yesterday I got tired of waiting for my new Broadband plan to kick in so I went to the Telecom website and manually requested a plan change to the new Aventure plan (3.5mbps down / 128kbps up). My old plan was Broadband Plus (2mbps down / 128 kbps up.)

At about 3pm, my Broadband connection dropped so I reconnected and then went to Xtra's usage meter and as suspected my new plan had been activated. This is where is gets weird.

I have an Alcatel Speedtouch 330 USB modem, and in the past upon connection it has always reported a speed of 7.8mbps. I have always understood that this is not my actual speed but the speed at which the modem talks to my PC (i.e. the USB bus speed). However, eversince the change this figure is now 4.2mbps. In the three years I have had Broadband this is the first time the figure has ever been different. I have tried rebooting several times and it is now always 4.2mbps.

But even stranger yet - the speed of my connection has reduced dramatically. In the past I have been enjoying speeds of around 250kB/s when downloading torrents etc., now the highest speed I have experienced is 101kB/s. And when it was at this speed my web browsing slowed to a crawl, so this appears to it maxing out. When I run the speed test at the Jetstream Games website (on Xtra's own servers), it reports a speed of around 1.6mbps.

Before I phone Xtra and ask them wtf is going on, does anyone have any comments or advice for me?

Thank you!

Steve

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sbiddle
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  #33304 18-Apr-2006 15:52
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Welcome to Telecom's faster, cheaper broadband service.

This topic has been discussed at length in several other posts over the last few days.




steve98

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  #33308 18-Apr-2006 16:23
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you mean including the part about the 4.2Mbs speed reported by the modem? That's the part that's confusing me the most. Can you link me to a thread where this is covered?

Thanks

Steve

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johnr
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#33313 18-Apr-2006 17:31
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good luck to ya

JAMMAN2110
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#33315 18-Apr-2006 18:04
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Any chance you can record / give us a transcript of that phone call?

steve98

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  #33627 22-Apr-2006 08:28
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OK - I take it all back!!

This morning I tried connecting using a friends D-link DSL302G via ethernet instead of my old Speedtouch 330 USB model. It has solved the problem completely. My speed is blazing now - here are my line speed test results:

Download: 3279 kbps
Upload: 130 kbps

I live in Christchurch, probably just under 2K from the exchange. I'm over the moon but I can't help wondering how many others out there are suffering pathetic speeds as a result of their equipment. I'm off to the shops to buy myself an ethernet router this morning. So yes, faster and cheaper Broadband actually is real! :-)

Steve

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  #33638 22-Apr-2006 10:11
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So yes, faster and cheaper Broadband actually is real! :-)



Still undecided about the faster, but my Xtra Adventure plan didnt get any cheaper.

Maybe they should advertise "same cost, unreliable speed broadband has arrived!"

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