SillyDog701

[richard mitnick]

Still not sure of what he has. As I said, on our coax from Cable vision we get 15 mips. I get 7.5 mips on wireless across the house and down the stairs. Not too shabby, I run a Rolu box for Netflix with it.

But, is what Mandrake has coax, FIOS, or just what?

>>RSM

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[Antony]

But, is what Mandrake has coax, FIOS, or just what?

>>RSM

I have no idea what FIOS is.
Mandrake has cable (coax) internet connection from Telstra.

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[richard mitnick]

FIOS = Fiber Optic cable.

>>RSM

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[Antony]

FIOS = Fiber Optic cable.

>>RSM

Okay, thanks.

To best of my knowledge, fibre optic internet connection not available to general public in Australia, only available for organisations such as universities.

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[Mandrake]

I looked at Telstra, they seem to be a telecom. Is it cable. or FIOS, or what?

On cable here, coax, we get 15mips download for US$45.00/month. Taht is Cablevision. A Cablevision employee, living where Comcast has the monopoly tells me he gets at most 5mips.

>>RSM

It's Telstra's HFC Cable network that we're mainly taking about here. Telstra owns the largest HFC network in Australia, the only other HFC network worth noting is that owned by Optus. (though there are a few others with small networks).

To best of my knowledge, fibre optic internet connection not available to general public in Australia, only available for organisations such as universities.

The general public can use fibre internet connections, it just so happens that the networks are very small. Telstra owns the largest FTTH network in the country (fibre to the home) and sells that service under the Velocity brand name. This is generally in newer housing development where it makes no sense to lay down copper cabling. There are a few other smaller FTTH networks, and there is of course the government's plan to build a massive nation-wide FTTH network covering 93% of homes.

So, does the distance from my place to the whatever exchange affect the speed?

Nope. My top download speed went from 700KB/s to 4.1MB/s. My upload went from 80 -> 90KB/s to ~150KB/s.

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[Antony]

Well you're in Sydney, so both Telstra and Optus have HFC networks you could potentially have hooked up. Telstra has a utility on their website to see if you can get Cable.

Bugger!
Telstra's cable is not available in my place (only ADSL).

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[Mandrake]

Well you're in Sydney, so both Telstra and Optus have HFC networks you could potentially have hooked up. Telstra has a utility on their website to see if you can get Cable.

Bugger!
Telstra's cable is not available in my place (only ADSL).

Optus perhaps?

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[Antony]

Optus cable isn't as fast as Telstra's, if I am correct on this.

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[Mandrake]

Optus cable isn't as fast as Telstra's, if I am correct on this.

Optus has rolled out 100mbit across their entire cable network, though it costs more to get that extra speed. I've heard talk of the network being far more congested than the BP Cable network though. You might be able to find the information your after at Whirlpool.

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[Antony]

I've been to a friend's place and playing his Optus cable often, somehow, I don't think the Optus cable he has is faster than my slow ADSL.

From BigPond's availability checking page,

Unfortunately, we're unable to provide BigPond Broadband Cable at this address.

BigPond Broadband Cable is only available using the same cable that carries Foxtel Pay-TV. This cable has only been laid along streets in certain areas of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Adelaide and Perth. If you don't have access to the Foxtel Pay-TV cable, you won't be able to access BigPond Broadband Cable. Try our other Broadband options - BigPond Broadband ADSL, Mobile Broadband or Satellite which also provide fast internet access.

Does it mean that if I get the Foxtel installed, I can then get the BigPond Cable?

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[Mandrake]

Does it mean that if I get the Foxtel installed, I can then get the BigPond Cable?

Foxtel uses the same HFC cable network as the BP Cable service. If the HFC cable is running in your street (be it overhead or underground) then they hook that up to your house. If the cable is absent you can still get Foxtel via satellite, but you obviously can't get cable internet over a satellite.

If you want to confirm (for sure) whether or not the cable is present you can just call Telstra. The online availability tool didn't work for me as my street has two words in its name, and that confused the matter.

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[Antony]

Exciting news. I just rechecked the Telstra BigPond availability, and Cable is available in my place.



I'd better call them up to make sure Cable is actually available.

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[Mandrake]

I

Exciting news. I just rechecked the Telstra BigPond availability, and Cable is available in my place.



I'd better call them up to make sure Cable is actually available.

That is pretty cool. Once you go cable you'll never want to go back to ADSL.

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[Antony]

I just finished 100 minutes and 26 seconds phone call with Telstra. They will come to install cable next week.
(100 minutes and 26 seconds was measured by my Uniden telephone.)

Okay, here's the tricky part, the house I live have two different addresses. One (with "Unit 1") shows that I can't have cable, the other one (without "Unit 1") shows that I can. Same results as checked by Telstra over the phone. But the guy says that I can definitely get the Cable. (There's still chance that I won't be able to get the cable.)

Let's hope that I can have the cable installed.

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[Mandrake]

I just finished 100 minutes and 26 seconds phone call with Telstra. They will come to install cable next week.
(100 minutes and 26 seconds was measured by my Uniden telephone.)

Okay, here's the tricky part, the house I live have two different addresses. One (with "Unit 1") shows that I can't have cable, the other one (without "Unit 1") shows that I can. Same results as checked by Telstra over the phone. But the guy says that I can definitely get the Cable. (There's still chance that I won't be able to get the cable.)

Let's hope that I can have the cable installed.

That sounds great. One word of warning though, Telstra likes to try and fob off a crappy Netgear modem/router combo unit off on customers, either the CG814WG or the CGD24N (though with recent firmware upgrades the CGD24N has become better). You're much better off with the standalone cable modem that Telstra offers, the Motorola SB5101e along with your choice of router. The choice of modem also impacts on the installation fees.

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