Technology & Social Media ArgghhH!!! NBN Woes....

@SatayKing - nbnco.com.au is a pita but is the definitive source.

Check your address and pray

 

Thank you. Appreciated.

Is it pray or prey? Seems very much the latter could apply.

 

After reading the information on the NBN site it is as clear as the light of night.

So must have an NBN ready modem. OK I've got one (I think) being a D-Link D2888A. So far so good although it states it isn't VoIP whatever that is.

Still to work out though what the hell I have to do when NBN is connected such as changing the details on modem from ADSL to NBN, passwords for email, etc. Don't wish to get a replacement modem as I have Sonos sound system and it's a pain, albeit a minor one, having to re-identify the system to a replacement modem.

Why is nothing simple in this supposedly plug and play world?

First World Problem? Probably not if you don't view the NBN as First World.

 

Yup, it's taken me a couple of years and I still know Jack (at least I have contacts higher up the foodchain at NBN).

VOIP - if you require voice/land line phone number

Have you had the NBN bod come out for an appointment to delivery your little black box (which then talks to your modem)

This is only relevant for HFC connection (so don't know what you've got at your place @SatayKing however there would still be some NBN installed & provisioned equipment required inside your mansion). Apologies for the basicness of the following - I write the odd manual for the gifted and talented in corporate occasionally, so they need to understand it too



Wallplug - NBN's equipment gets plugged into this.



NBN's equipment (for HFC) - even comes with flashing lights and plug-in power supply (that's as plug & play as I get).



Side view of NBN equipment & power supplies. I have put the NBN gear in a basket (to be fixed to the wall - this is provisioned for the property and remains with the house if you move out).

White cable goes to the NBN black box & the the wall outlet, power lead to NBN equipment, yellow cable (or blue or pink etc) goes to your modem.



Yellow cable from NBN to back of modem, black (power cord) to modem.



The NBN cable will go into the red socket (Number 4)
Cordless phone into the grey socket (Number 1)

 

Thanks @Scott No Mates. I haven't arranged a thing yet. I want to get to grips with what happens or should happen on my side of the fence before the cowboys come and increase my current stress level from zero but I'll make a note to organise a 24-hour blood pressure monitor just in case.

@wylie at one stage I was most unimpressed with one person at the ISP call centre who went by the name of Rick with a silent "P."

Internet went down. According to Rick it was because the modem wasn't configured to the network and I really should get one of theirs for it to work properly (utter crap.)

However, to "help" me configure the modem he informed me "I've just changed your password..." WTF!? I hadn't given any authorisation to take that action. Screwed up a few things for me.

Anyway, after pushing it upwards it was the line and not only me who was impacted. Also let loose about the "help" provided by one their members of the lower order.

Mind you it doesn't do one any good at all to get flustered since in my haste to reconfigure the stuff around here I inadvertently entered a slightly altered password for the 2.4G WiFi versus the one for the 5G band. Took sometime to work out what went wrong. The trials and tribulations of an idiot. Check, check again and a third time to make sure.

 

NBN up and running since earlier this morning. No issues fortunately.

 

Problem solved

I'm getting mum hooked up at present. They have been in the place for 15+ years, last tenant moved out 16+ years ago and the house had extensions/major works.

NBN tech rocked up, said that there had been Foxtel connected at some stage (not in the last 16 years at least) - now I have to get a cable guy out at our cost to find the existing cable which would be buried somewhere under the house.

 

I read so many horror stories about the NBN but for me it's been amazing.

I am on HFC (so it comes in on the old Foxtel lines) and I pay for the 100MBit line. I generally sit between 85 and 95Mbps and I am really happy with that (It really helps when most people around you are really old and don't have internet or just have very basic internet, it leaves a lot of bandwidth for me ).

Our old place was ADSL2+ but the lines were messed up and the best I ever pulled there was 3.82 but mostly sat around 1 - 1.5, Youtube used to cut in and out.

We stream Netflix @4K on multiple devices at the same time, I work from home, I push content up and down and I have never had any problems .

In fact the only issue I had was when my Tenant moved out they mistakenly took the NBN modem thingy with them which meant I couldn't have internet until NBN sent me a new one.

 

I am pretty ignorant about these technical matters. Sure I did the speed test and to the closest server it shows I'm getting what I've paid for. Still, I'm not sure it's all it's cracked up to be.

Previously with ADSL, while it was showing 5 Mps, if I was updating an anti-virus software the download was at say 180 Kps. I did the same yesterday afternoon and it was 4 Mps. Why not faster I do not know but my contorted mind thinks the stated speed could be a gimmick.

No matter. As long as it does the job I need it to do it's fine by me.

 

Well, on our crappy mobile modem (a little unfair, it's not the modems fault, we just can't get a decent signal), we're getting under 3 and can't get through a 25 minute comedy on SBS catch up without it quitting out.

Just received this update the other day from iNET:-

"This is just a quick update to let you know that NBN Co is still investigating the issue preventing your NBN™ installation. The estimated time of resolution is 04/06/19."

Sure, it's only 5-6 weeks away but bear in mind we signed up last November! Plus, this is the date just to get the NBN civil crew out to take a look, we then need trenching, new pit & DPU spice in to the street then cut the new pit across to pick up the original Telstra line to the house THEN connect the house to it. I'm not putting money on a working internet within 12 months of sign up.

 

Do you have a decent modem / router? When I was in the previous place I usually didn't get 1MBit, I reached out to the whirlpool forums and they helped me work out what the issue was and advised me to buy a TPLink Archer D9 modem, my speeds went up by about 50% (Still crappy but less crappy), some modems deal with signal degradation better than others.

Moot point for me now because on HFC I have a modem supplied by NBNCo which I can't change out and to be honest it's been brilliant but at the time that extra 50% for just a few hundred bucks on a decent router made all the difference. Probably useless to you also being you are about to get NBN but hopefully it helps someone else out .

 

You can't change the little black box (which is labelled NBN and takes the signal from the HFC cable to the modem), the modem comes from your internet provider or you bring your own.

 

It's a Huwaie 4G thing that came with the Sprintel mobile account. Part of the problem is I can't get a 4G lock from the local towers, even on my mobile which I can get 40+ mbt on 4G 500 meters down he street I have to switch down to 3G at home and get about 5-6 at best, 4G on the phone just can't get anything. When I tried to bump the Huwaie modem down to 3G though it didn't like it and can't get a signal lock at all.

I could probably add an antenna up on the roof (there's ports on the modem for 2x external antenna's) but to be honest I don't want to throw a heap of cash at it as once NBN sort their **** out we'll be right plus the cheap mobile wi-fi plans are throttled at 12 mbts anyway.

Cheers.

 

I have an appointment with a tech to come out and change over one of our holiday accommodation properties - wish me luck.

For the life of me, I cannot understand why this exorbitant amount of money was spent on something that is really no better than what was already in place - and will be defunct by the time it's complete.

Surely they would've been better using the funds to install 102,000 wireless towers

**$51,000,000,000/$500,000 per tower = 102,000 towers ... although not sure why it costs half a mil for Telstra to build a tower when private people have been building for around $150,000/tower

1 tower covers 10sq/km on average - 102,000 towers covers 1/7th of the entire land mass of Australia - piggy back on mobile towers and include already existing towers and reduce cost for satellite and cheap mobile data - and surely it's better coverage value than plugging into the copper

 

Towers have their limitations - fine out in the bush but NIMBYs don't want towers in populated areas (but they still want coverage - go figure).

Because it's Telstra.

Each solution is suited to a different problem - Satellite covers a wider area but with limited/more expensive service, wireless has capacity issues & radio planning issues, FTTN (using copper for the last bit) - cheap and nasty but can deliver a lot of services cheaply, HFC - some limitations using existing cable which was not designed for this purpose, FTTC/FTTB - great in residential areas where there is density but expensive to deliver in sparsely populated areas, FTTP - an expensive way to hook every body up. My preference is FTTC in densly populated areas, if you want the extra fibre then you pay for it (or go to one of the business grade carriers who will run a whiz bang service to your property).

(Rant off - I'm no techie ).

 

That's the thing I am talking about, the Modem. My NBN supplied modem goes into my own router (Which then goes into another router via an RJ45 as a repeater in the home office).

TPG supplied a TPLink router (which I was impressed with as they are my brand of choice) which is the one plugged into the Modem then my old Archer D9 is the one out in the home office.

 

They could have just invested the money in the CSIRO to invent a world leading cutting edge wireless solution........ you know being that CSIRO invented Wifi.

I guess they just preferred the option of investing in a dead and overpriced technology that was only 10% the speed of what Japan already enjoyed .

 

Knew it was to good to be true ... appt last Friday with NBN tech at an accommodation property 10 mins away. Tech rang. Told him I'd be there in 10 and all good - he'd head down to the junction to do some work while I drove over. Everyone happy

Arrived - txt's tech to let him know I was there. No show. Tried to phone but no answer. 90 mins and several txt's and unanswered calls later (I had to leave for school run - had guest arriving etc) he rang back and asked where I was.

He was outside # Street St - I was outside # Street St - but we couldn't see each other ... turned out the work docket had been issued with the same # Street St BUT in an entirely different suburb an hours drive away.

****! Well - that was half an afternoon I won't get back. Next available appointment is another week away

 

Oh dear. I apoligise in advance @Lizzie but I did have a laugh when I read that. I wouldn't be laughing if it happened to me however.

Hope it gets sorted out properly next time.