Advice needed from the computer experts

[macca2]

My ISP has decided that because of increased cost from Telstra they need to to decrease my down load speed from 1500kbps to 512kbps and increase my download limit from 1GB to 2GB. (thats a big help):mad:
My question is, given that I am still running my old clunker which has a Celeron 340 CPU and 128MB ram,on windows 98se. Will I notice much difference in down load speed.:confused:

Thanks
Macca

[martrix]

That's a a pretty poor performance from your ISP! Which one?

You will notice a big difference in page file load.
Are they gonna compensate you for this abomination? Ie; reduction in cost of plan?

[Gumby]

I doubt that you'll notice anything. I have uncapped cable and only get download speeds up to around 200-300 kb/sec max. Quite often a lot less.

So even if they used to allow up to 1500, you'd never have had speeds that high anyway.

[doug the slug]

stop bragging you lot, all ive got is a crappy old 28.8kb/sec connection

[Daddles]

stop bragging you lot, all ive got is a crappy old 28.8kb/sec connection

Until earlier this year, that's all I had, only it never got anywhere near it:mad:

ISP shopping might be a good move, but wait until you see how much the new 'service' annoys you

Richard

[javali]

because of increased cost from Telstra

That sounds like pure BS. Last I heard Telstra was reducing their bandwidth costs. My bet is that your ISP was a bit too competitive in the past, and is looking for a way to reduce losses.

[macca2]

Matrix, it is iinet.. here is email we received

16 December, 2005
This email contains important information about changes to your "Starter" plan.

What are the changes?
As a result of new arrangements passed onto us from our wholesale provider, Telstra, we have had to change some of our broadband plans. Unfortunately we must advise you that your current plan will be affected by these changes. But we have done our best to include some improvements for you.

Your Starter plan will have a speed change from 1500kbps to 512kbps. But the monthly fee will remain the same at $49.95 and we've increased your monthly download quota from 1GB to 2GB.

Even with these changes, we are confident that your plan is one of the best value plans at $49.95.

But there's also good news
Did you know that we have deployed our own broadband network (a DSLAM) in your exchange? This technology enables speeds as fast as your line can handle, up to 24,000kbps, depending on a few things like your hardware and distance from the exchange.

This means that if you bundle with our phone service, your connection speed won't be slowed down. You will automatically get the fastest speed available.

With our bundled phone and broadband plans you also get:

$10 monthly discount off your Internet service
Double the download quota
Free permanent second phone number with our iiNetphone service (Voice over Internet "VoIP")
Cheap local, national, international calls and calls to mobiles on your iiNetphone (how does 10 cent local calls sound?)
Great savings on your phone bill as you can call anyone with your iiNetpone service - even if they're not on the Internet
You can easily bundle your broadband with our phone service by using our on-line account management tool or by calling our friendly sales team on 13 19 17 anytime.

When will these changes come into effect?
The changes to your broadband plan will be effective 21 days from the date of this email (unless you bundle with phone before then). Therefore on 6th January 2006, your Internet speed will change to 512kbps and your download quota will be increased.

What if I want a higher speed and/or more downloads?
You will automatically get the fastest speeds available if you bundle with our phone service. But if you don't want to bundle, you can upgrade to our most popular plan - the 'Light' plan - which provides speeds of 1500kbps with quotas of 5GB on-peak/ 5GB off-peak. You can find more information on our plans on our website.

Upgrading is easy through your on-line account management tools. There is no administration fee to upgrade plans.

[Auld Bassoon]

My ISP has decided that because of increased cost from Telstra they need to to decrease my down load speed from 1500kbps to 512kbps and increase my download limit from 1GB to 2GB. (thats a big help):mad:
My question is, given that I am still running my old clunker which has a Celeron 340 CPU and 128MB ram,on windows 98se. Will I notice much difference in down load speed.:confused:

Thanks
Macca

Hi Macca,

Before ADSL/2 hits the wire, so to speak, 1.5Mbps is the max possible - and a maximum that very few will see in practice. 512kbps is often a typical max throughput anyway because of line/distance from exchange, signal/noise ratios, impedance, etc issues, so you may see some degredation, but it will be really much smaller than the numbers suggest; and for most browsing purposes 512kbps is adequate - where you'll benefit is the doubled download limit (does your ISP measure and charge for your upload usage as well?)

As to your PCs specs, they have very little to do with 'browsing speed' - so long as your processor/video card can handle the incoming data stream it'll be fine, and though pretty low-end by todays standard, your PC should be fine. It's only for local processing work that this spec. would be a limitation.

Cheers!

[RETIRED]

Matrix, it is iinet.. here is email we received

16 December, 2005
This email contains important information about changes to your "Starter" plan.

What are the changes?
As a result of new arrangements passed onto us from our wholesale provider, Telstra, we have had to change some of our broadband plans. Unfortunately we must advise you that your current plan will be affected by these changes. But we have done our best to include some improvements for you.

Your Starter plan will have a speed change from 1500kbps to 512kbps. But the monthly fee will remain the same at $49.95 and we've increased your monthly download quota from 1GB to 2GB.

Even with these changes, we are confident that your plan is one of the best value plans at $49.95.

But there's also good news
Did you know that we have deployed our own broadband network (a DSLAM) in your exchange? This technology enables speeds as fast as your line can handle, up to 24,000kbps, depending on a few things like your hardware and distance from the exchange.

This means that if you bundle with our phone service, your connection speed won't be slowed down. You will automatically get the fastest speed available.

With our bundled phone and broadband plans you also get:

$10 monthly discount off your Internet service
Double the download quota
Free permanent second phone number with our iiNetphone service (Voice over Internet "VoIP")
Cheap local, national, international calls and calls to mobiles on your iiNetphone (how does 10 cent local calls sound?)
Great savings on your phone bill as you can call anyone with your iiNetpone service - even if they're not on the Internet
You can easily bundle your broadband with our phone service by using our on-line account management tool or by calling our friendly sales team on 13 19 17 anytime.

When will these changes come into effect?
The changes to your broadband plan will be effective 21 days from the date of this email (unless you bundle with phone before then). Therefore on 6th January 2006, your Internet speed will change to 512kbps and your download quota will be increased.

What if I want a higher speed and/or more downloads?
You will automatically get the fastest speeds available if you bundle with our phone service. But if you don't want to bundle, you can upgrade to our most popular plan - the 'Light' plan - which provides speeds of 1500kbps with quotas of 5GB on-peak/ 5GB off-peak. You can find more information on our plans on our website.

Upgrading is easy through your on-line account management tools. There is no administration fee to upgrade plans.

Bit suss methinks?

[Auld Bassoon]

This technology enables speeds as fast as your line can handle, up to 24,000kbps, depending on a few things like your hardware and distance from the exchange.

Macca,

This is very doubtful indeed. Until ADSL/2 becomes an accepted standard (not yet, is my understanding), anything beyond a theoretical 1.5Mbps is just wishful thinking.

Certainly many independent ISP are deploying their own DSLAMs in Telstra exchanges, but that doesn't mean that a) they are ADSL/2 capable, and b) even if the DSLAMs are ADSL/s compliant, the underlying protocol hasn't yet been established.

Notice the enticements to bundle? This is the real issue here. Your ISP is in need of maximal revenue (ARPU) from each customer, so wants to get as many as possible to take their more revenue positive plans.

WRT VoIP, anyone with an internet connection can make use of this technology - so long as they make use of an appropriate service provider (SP). Skype, for example, offer free Skype-Skype calls, but make a charge for off-net (e.g. to conventional wired or mobile numbers). This is a technology that will be taking off in a big way over the next several years, but isn't really mainstream yet.

Cheers!

[javali]

This is very doubtful indeed. Until ADSL/2 becomes an accepted standard (not yet, is my understanding), anything beyond a theoretical 1.5Mbps is just wishful thinking.

Auld,

I have ADSL2 from internode. When downloading from their servers I get about 1/2 megabyte/second. With protocol overhead this should be a raw speed of about 5 megabit/second.

Macca,

$50 for 512Kbps 2GB is a very high price. Internode offers 512Kbps with 8GB for $40. Others may have better offers. I guess it is time to shop around.

[kiwigeo]

WRT VoIP, anyone with an internet connection can make use of this technology - so long as they make use of an appropriate service provider (SP). Skype, for example, offer free Skype-Skype calls, but make a charge for off-net (e.g. to conventional wired or mobile numbers). This is a technology that will be taking off in a big way over the next several years, but isn't really mainstream yet.

Cheers!

Bassoon, VOIP is already taking off in a big way and is hitting Tesltra's fixed line revenue big time.

Skype is one of the more well known VOIP services available but Im running Internode's Nodephone service....not as cheap as Skype but with Skype you dont get the unbeatable Internode back up service.

Cheers Martin

[kiwigeo]

My ISP has decided that because of increased cost from Telstra they need to to decrease my down load speed from 1500kbps to 512kbps and increase my download limit from 1GB to 2GB. (thats a big help):mad:
My question is, given that I am still running my old clunker which has a Celeron 340 CPU and 128MB ram,on windows 98se. Will I notice much difference in down load speed.:confused:

Thanks
Macca

Macca,

In short youre getting scr**ed. Check out other ISP's for a better deal. Go to whirlpool.net.au for info on what's on offer. Check out their forums also for feedback from customers of various ISP's.

Ive been using Internode for 5 years now and cant fault them...

Cheers Martin

[Wood Butcher]

Macca2,
I too have a DSL connection with iiNet and if you read some of the posts at the Broadband Choice Forums you will realise that it is not suss or BS. There is justifiable reasons behind the decision! A good mate of mine is a tech for Telstra and he says that there is a lot of stuff going on with the wholesale side of their business that is almost immoral, but the public will never find out about. As kiwigeo said, alot of other services, mainly VOIP is hurting telstra big time and they are trying to make up for the losses.

On that sort of system you will not notice any difference in speed and the only time that you would notice is if you are downloading a lot of material off the internet.

[Wood Butcher]

Check out other ISP's for a better deal

If you do want to get away from iiNet they have said that they will waive contract break fees since they are the ones changing the deal. Internode does look really good