Is Slingshot as good as it advertises?

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › Is Slingshot as good as it advertises?

GhoXen

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#91052 5-Oct-2011 22:12

I have stuck with the same ISP for several years, and recently I noticed that Slingshot has been offering some extremely competitive figures. For a 250GB broadband plan they are charging only $80 per month, or $111 with homeline etc.

The price looks too good, but aside from the obvious early termination fee not a lot of details are being provided. "As fast as it goes" or "strongly recommending" some wiring and maintenance monthly fee simply aren't convincing enough. Can anyone tell me if there is anything hidden, or any fine print I've missed? It seems to be too good a deal.

Further can anyone who is currently using Slingshot tell me how reliable the internet connection is? This includes consistency of speed, frequency of disconnections and, if possible, package loss rate/latency. Also, will Slingshot turn off interleaving upon request?

Of course, if Slingshot is apparently not the best choice, feel free to recommend me similar ISPs that can reasonably compete with Slingshot. I'm currently using Xnet, and aside from the significantly higher price (relative to Slingshot), my experience with the quality of the service has been exceptional.

Thanks in advance!

lokhor

2858 posts

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#529828 5-Oct-2011 22:30

I'm on their 150GB plan and so far have found it to be very fast. My line syncs at 20Mbps and I regularly get download speed of 1-2MB/S

All comments are my own opinion, and not that of my employer unless explicitly stated.

Ragnor

8218 posts

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#529848 5-Oct-2011 23:27

They have extensive web and media cache servers, anything coming from the caches is fast and anything national is fast.

However they are able to offer cheaper prices is by highly oversubscribing their international transit/bandwidth.

International in peak time that isn't cacheable is fairly below par.

Whether you notice will depends on how you use the internet.

GhoXen

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#529852 5-Oct-2011 23:36

I will primarily be using the internet for gaming, particularly on US/AU servers. Throttling international traffic definitely doesn't sound too great. o.O

sbiddle

30853 posts

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Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#529876 6-Oct-2011 06:07

Your best bet is to read the many threads on here about Slingshot over the last few months and form your own opinion.

Hiamie

354 posts

Ultimate Geek

#529879 6-Oct-2011 07:15

I am with Slingshot - and for the most part I don't notice any issues that affect my normal internet usage. I don't game or anything like that, but I used to torrent a bit.

I will comment however, that at nights I get free data, BUT, at about the same time, torrents slow down to just 3 or 4 times dial up speed, and speed up again in the mornings, after the free data ends! This pattern repeats every night. There is no doubt in my mind that torrents are throttled back between about 1AM and 6AM - coinciding roughly with the free un-metered data period.

My only other comment is with the help line - where I very rarely have a need to call, but if I do, they take an age to answer.

My download connect speed, for what it's worth, is about 12Mbit/Sec (was 2Mbit/Sec until a recent Telecom street cabinet upgrade gained me the extra speed). Upload is about 800Kbit/Sec. I am in Parnell, Auckland.

scuwp

3885 posts

Uber Geek

#529892 6-Oct-2011 07:57

sbiddle: Your best bet is to read the many threads on here about Slingshot over the last few months and form your own opinion.

This is very good advice. GZ is riddled with comments about Slingshot. Quite often it seems it is not "a better place" after all. My high-level impression is that its all good as long as it is going well, lord help you if something goes wrong.

Happy decision making.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

merve0o0

492 posts

Ultimate Geek

#529903 6-Oct-2011 08:28

I have been with slingshot for over a year and it has been ok. I went with them because it's cheap and it's good enough. About the only thing that doesn't work is I can't play xboxlive as it lags to much.

Equinox IT

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tigercorp

668 posts

Ultimate Geek

#529948 6-Oct-2011 10:44

I've been on Slingshot's naked adsl for over a year now and its been great. I work mostly from home and for general browsing the only slow down I experience is in the 6-9pm range.
I haven't done any gaming several months but used to get good pings to Aussie servers.

I haven't had any need to talk to customer service so can't directly comment about it, but you'll see plenty of unhappy campers in these forums. Although to be fair I think the same can be said about nearly all the ISPs.

bener

272 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#530010 6-Oct-2011 12:05

Check the Telecom Wholesale Broadband Map and see if your area is covered by an ADSL2+/VDSL2+ cabinet. Also check how far you are from the exchange. By default Slingshot will have you on an LLU connection, meaning you are running back to their gear at the exchange.

This means that if your area has a nice new cabinet (esp. an ADSL2+/VDSL2+ cabinet) your connection will have speed issues - basically caused by interference from the cabinet.

If you have been 'cabinetised' and you want Slingshot, you would be better off ensuring you are immediately on a plan supplied by Telecom Wholesale (about $5 extra a month).

If you do not check this you will probably end up back on the forums asking why your connection is so slow, and waiting quite some time for the Slingshot provisioning team to get a 'man in a van' to change your connection over.

webwat

2036 posts

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#530382 6-Oct-2011 21:56

GhoXen: I will primarily be using the internet for gaming, particularly on US/AU servers. Throttling international traffic definitely doesn't sound too great. o.O

Gaming would be virtually impossible in the evenings if theres any international players or servers. Reliability in terms of disconnecting etc is mostly related to the line you are on, not the ISP, but slingshot doesn't have very good consistency of international traffic flows, especially 5pm until late. The main reason I have stayed with them for a few years is the free overnight usage and that its easier to manage flatmates when the connection slows down to dialup speed after they use it too much — although I'm rethinking that too.

Time to find a new industry!

Slingshot

1004 posts

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Slingshot

#532501 12-Oct-2011 20:00

GhoXen: I have stuck with the same ISP for several years, and recently I noticed that Slingshot has been offering some extremely competitive figures. For a 250GB broadband plan they are charging only $80 per month, or $111 with homeline etc.

The price looks too good, but aside from the obvious early termination fee not a lot of details are being provided. "As fast as it goes" or "strongly recommending" some wiring and maintenance monthly fee simply aren't convincing enough. Can anyone tell me if there is anything hidden, or any fine print I've missed? It seems to be too good a deal.

Further can anyone who is currently using Slingshot tell me how reliable the internet connection is? This includes consistency of speed, frequency of disconnections and, if possible, package loss rate/latency. Also, will Slingshot turn off interleaving upon request?

Of course, if Slingshot is apparently not the best choice, feel free to recommend me similar ISPs that can reasonably compete with Slingshot. I'm currently using Xnet, and aside from the significantly higher price (relative to Slingshot), my experience with the quality of the service has been exceptional.

Thanks in advance!

Hi GhoXen,

Obviously candid responses from the community may be more valuable to you than a response by me, however if you have specific concerns or questions about random tidbits and thoughts you want clarified or confirmed officially I am happy to post the answers here as transparently as I can.

www.slingshot.co.nz

www.twitter.com/SlingshotNZ

https://www.facebook.com/SlingshotNZ

Regs

4066 posts

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Snowflake

#532539 12-Oct-2011 21:27

Hiamie: I will comment however, that at nights I get free data, BUT, at about the same time, torrents slow down to just 3 or 4 times dial up speed, and speed up again in the mornings, after the free data ends! This pattern repeats every night. There is no doubt in my mind that torrents are throttled back between about 1AM and 6AM - coinciding roughly with the free un-metered data period.

doesnt mean they're throttled.... if everyone on a free data plan does what you do - starts and stops torrents during the period, then that 100mbps(*) of international bandwidth available is suddenly being overutilized and everyones share of the pipe will shrink (**)

(*) made up figure

(**) just a guess, not a fact

Sales Engineer
Snowflake
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Twitter: @nzregs

raytaylor

4014 posts

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#532583 12-Oct-2011 23:06

Im not a gamer - I believe the internet was designed for p2p - not these pesky games.

But slingshot have just made some inprovments over the last week and i am seeing huge speed increases internationally.
I suspect some international bandwidth price has come down.

Yes they do cache as much as they can, and they have a top-notch caching system that even caches torrents and alot of youtube - so if you hit the cache, you will get the content at almost line speed.

Up until now, anything else uncached internationally would run around 256kbit but as i said that has just changed. Of course even 256k is enough for games if the ping is good.

Ray Taylor

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