# Forum Home Renovation Television, Computers & Phones  Optus

## Marc

i have been with Optus for broadband and phone (voip) for over 10 years, may be 15. Broadband with fibre optic cable to the modem. 
When it was a fantastic deal originally combining internet and unlimited phone in one bill it has slowly deteriorated to the lousiest ever performer. I had month after month of 1.5 MBS and no amount of calls to the so called technical support helps. 
Switch off switch on, reset modem and all is good again only to go nosedive the next day. I had 3 modem replaced, connection in the street replaced, they say they replaced the computers in the exchange, that there is "congestion" to what I regularly reply it is your fault not mine, and on and on. 
Tuesday we went through the routine of rebooting the modem and resetting at their end or so they say to go from 1.5 to 30 mbs at peak time. Yesterday in the afternoon I was back to 1.3 mbs. 
Now the reason I post this, is not to bag Optus, they do that very well by themselves and I have lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman just for fun.   
What I would like if at all possible is a recommendation to switch to NBN. I have NBN cable on the wall of the house since January, and recieved a letter with an A4 page list of suppliers.
Now it is pointless to compare the plans offered since the little players will oversell their puny bandwidth in no time and I will be again calling for the modem to be reset ...  :Frown:  
Does anyone have experience with a reasonable supplier that is not telstra or optus that offers fast broadband and voip phone and can be expected to buy bandwidth as it is required?

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## OBBob

I'm with Optus but only for the past few years and it has been good ... I hope my area doesn't go the way of yours. I have used Engine VOIP for as long as you have used Optus ... I'm assuming you want to bundle but just as a side note, Engin have been good.  
Just Googled ... Engin do NBN plans but I don't have direct experience with that past of their business.

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## Bros

Had the same conjestion problem and still do to some degree. I am with Internode and as I live in a country area they use the Telstra DSLM and all they can do is complain to Telstra. I complained to the Ombusman and as the problem was with Telstra they couldn't help. Almost overnight it came good. Maybe you are on a Telstra DSLM as they share hardware and the Ombusman might not be able to help. Optus good job you don't travel a lot as it is found wanting in the country.

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## Uncle Bob

Usually I'd sing Internode's praises but since they were brought out by iiNet then TPG the service desk has long wait times and others complain about all matter of stuff.
That said, My Internode service still rocks out at max line sync. 
Skymesh get good reviews on Whirlpool.

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## Marc

Yes, I noticed the good reviews of Skymesh. I actually have Skymesh on a satellite service in the other house and it has been good.
I did send an email yet to get a reply. They probably think I am on the turps because I am a current customer...  :Smilie:

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## Marc

> Had the same conjestion problem and still do to some degree. I am with Internode and as I live in a country area they use the Telstra DSLM and all they can do is complain to Telstra. I complained to the Ombusman and as the problem was with Telstra they couldn't help. Almost overnight it came good. Maybe you are on a Telstra DSLM as they share hardware and the Ombusman might not be able to help. Optus good job you don't travel a lot as it is found wanting in the country.

   No, my Optus line has always been a fibre optic Optus cable, one of the early one they hang from the power line poles. I think that what has happened with all the internet providers is that no one has invested a cent in infrastructure hoping for daddy NBN to bail everyone out. 
It is a sad state of affairs when Vietnam has fast and free internet anywhere you turn.

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## Jon

Marc,  it more likely coax or HFC   (High Frequency CoAxial) if it is on poles.  That is what the original Foxtel and Optus were delivered on.
But that is just me being pedantic.

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## Marc

Fibre optic cable. 100%
The cable is underutilised by 99%. Their computers are obsolete now and have not been upgraded for a very long time. http://www.optus.com.au/shop/broadba...adband/network

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## r3nov8or

> Marc,  it more likely coax or HFC   (High Frequency CoAxial) if it is on poles.  That is what the original Foxtel and Optus were delivered on.
> But that is just me being pedantic.

  HFC https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_fibre-coaxial

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## r3nov8or

> Fibre optic cable. 100%
> The cable is underutilised by 99%. Their computers are obsolete now and have not been upgraded for a very long time. Broadband Network - Optus Network

  Marc, if you unplug the modem cable, look into it and light isn't coming out, it's not fibre. But it is probably fibre to the last node before your premises, then coax. I.e. Hybrid fibre coax

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## commodorenut

Have a read of this thread: http://www.renovateforum.com/f192/nb...minion-117907/ 
I'm happy with TPG NBN.  At worst it's been 20mb/s (but that's as fast as the older pre-gigabit wireless networks can carry anyway) and at best it's peaked just over 50 - and I'm paying for a 50Mb/s plan.

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## OBBob



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## Jon

> Marc, if you unplug the modem cable, look into it and light isn't coming out, it's not fibre. But it is probably fibre to the last node before your premises, then coax. I.e. Hybrid fibre coax

  No, do not ever look into the of an optic fibre cable.  Serious eye damage can occur.

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## Jon

> HFC https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_fibre-coaxial

  Whoops.  Sorry about that.  I knew what it was and the acronym but guessed the name.

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## r3nov8or

> No, do not ever look into the of an optic fibre cable.  Serious eye damage can occur.

  Yeah, right, OK, anyone who has Optical audio on their AV receiver or TV knows that a quick glance to check that's it's working won't do any damage. Human nature will mean you don't just leave it there, looking into it "forever". Relax a little....

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## D2R

Given that the average home user probably won't be at risk or come across it but there are a lot of wavelengths used these days that are in fact invisible to the naked eye and will do damage very quickly. Use a piece of white paper or the camera on your phone but it's not worth the risk.

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## FrodoOne

> Yeah, right, OK, anyone who has Optical audio on their AV receiver or TV knows that a quick glance to check that's it's working won't do any damage. Human nature will mean you don't just leave it there, looking into it "forever". Relax a little....

  There is a very big difference between "looking at the light from an optical fiber" and "shining the light from an optical fiber into your eye."
It is (virtually) the same difference as "looking at the light from the sun shining onto you hand" and "looking directly into the sun." 
(i.e. The light from an optical fiber can safely be checked by allowing it to illuminate something - and viewing the resultant illumination.)

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## r3nov8or

Very true FrodoOne, and the sensible choice.  :Smilie:

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## Marc

OK ... after some research and soul searching I decided to have a chat with the "retention" Optus manager and tell him what I _really think of them._
He took it on the chin not surprisingly, and made me an offer that seems reasonable.  
Unlimited data and phone calls to landlines and mobiles (except for 13 numbers), fast speed package for free up to 100 MBS (yea right) $70 a month and 3 month for free. 
Considering I have NBN fibre optic to the house, and considering I don't need anything more than 50MBS, let's hope they deliver. 
I wonder if they will get rid of their cable that comes from the pole across the street? I suppose I can always cut it and wrap it around the pole ...  :Smilie:

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## OBBob

I once survived putting a 9v battery on my tongue ...

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## Marc

Mm ... yes ... tastes funny ...  :Whatonearth:

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## Bloss

> I once survived putting a 9v battery on my tongue ...

  mmm - survived yes, but are we all seeing the long term effects?   :Biggrin:  :Wink:

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## OBBob

Hmm ... good point. Perhaps if I do it again things will jolt back to normal??

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## r3nov8or

> I once survived putting a 9v battery on my tongue ...

  Something like 9 people a year die doing that (so I heard a long time ago...)

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## OBBob

> Something like 9 people a year die doing that (so I heard a long time ago...)

  That was sort of my point ... everyone did this once upon a time, then it seems to have become a major issue and started killing everyone. The similarity (I thought) was to looking at a FO cable.

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## Marc

OK ... a bit of an update.
I had two appointment Monday and Tuesday one for the NBN the other for Optus.
The NBN appointment sent me 4 reminders via SMS  every second day or so. Then a phone call that went to message from some dude that wanted to come on Saturday instead which I ignored. 
I also requested 1/2 hour notice since they were unable to give me a time for an appointment ( I thought that is the definition of APPOINTMENT) and said they will show up "between 12 and 5PM" ... Seinfeld anyone?)
On monday at 1pm I get a phone call saying ... we are at your door ... 
Well they had to wait. The installation went uneventfully if you don't count that instead of feeding the cable from the box to under the house through the back of the box they drilled a foot under the box and fed an ugly white flexible conduit through. 
Then Optus calls and postpones for Wednesday again "between 12 and 5" 
At 12 the consuetudinary "we are at your door", no previous notice at all, because no one really works around here.
Modem connected, speed is 50 MBS, but there is no phone yet. "It's OK, it will come in a few hours. 
24 hours later and I am still without phone and my internet speed is down to 3 MBS. I call optus and after 20 minutes wait, the guy tells me I am on the wrong number, I should have called NBN optus team. No amount of protest that their phone system does not have a choice for NBN team counts. Further 30 minutes wait and someone else now fixes the internet by resetting who knows what, yet tells me that by now (7:30) the "new connections phone team" is out the office so I have to call tomorrow. 
I told him I don't work for Optus, that this is their problem and they have to fix it, and they don't need me for that. Send them an email with a few words of what I think of them I said. he tells me they don't have email and that he will ring me tomorrow for an update.  
I spend about 1.5 hours on my mobile to a 1300 number. When I get the bill from Telstra I will send it to them to refund me the money for this call. 
Friday and I still don't have a landline. "It is still with Optus cable to be ported to Optus NBN" 
My wife says, ... I admire your determination, if it was for me I would have no phone nor internet, couldn't be bothered calling them up.

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## commodorenut

Mine was the total opposite - couldn't have been easier. 
The install team who did the box on the outside were great - put it exactly where I wanted.  I jackhammered up a bit of pathway where the 35 year old phone conduit popped up beside the garage, so they could do a neat join (I intend to extend the driveway around there & over that join in the near future) and they even re-concreted the dug out section - despite me telling them not to bother. 
That was the team that ran the fibre from the street to each house - they were good, telling us we didn't need to be home, but worked in with those who wanted the outside box mounted somewhere else for whatever reason (next-doors even got theirs fitted part-way around the back of the house, as they didn't want it seen from the street). 
The reason I wanted the outside connection box in a certain place, was so I could have an easy run into the garage (under the house) where I pre-mounted an approved cabinet to keep all the crap in. 
Guy who turned up to do the house install part was impressed, and asked if I was an electrical engineer.... my wife had to explain engineer yes, but electrical was the domain of my mate who ran the new powerpoint for the install, and also did the data & phone cabling & patch points with me (from the box in the garage, to the router in the house upstairs). 
They gave me the "between 12 & 4" window, and he turned up at 1pm - sending me an SMS about 15 minutes prior to that to confirm someone was home.
The installer spent maybe 15 minutes at the most mounting everything on the box's pre-marked chassis (although I went back later with better fixings than diagonally located tek screws....).
He then spent another 15 minutes drilling through the wall to run the fibre from outside, into the NBN gear. 
I got home an hour later, to the wife saying "he thinks the phone will be on by tomorrow."  
The lights on the NBN modem were blinking, so that was a good sign. 
I went upstairs, and my old ADSL connection was still live, and so was the copper land line.
Plugged the NBN's ethernet lead into the wireless router, and it was already live as well (at 50Mb) - so I had coverage from one until the other took over.
Phone wasn't yet live, but the old land line was still working.   
Just before dinner the cordless phone beeped to say "check line" I simply swapped it's plug into the patch panel, and it came alive.  
Did a test call from the mobile, and it rang. 
2 days later I got an email to say I should now try connecting my phone & internet into the connections on the NBN modem, and confirm if they were working, before they cancelled my old copper services.   
Surely Optus could have done the same changeover method for you?

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## Marc

Monday 21. The guy that told me on Friday he would call me on monday with an update did not call.
I called this time using a different number, the one for new connections and not the technical support. Got through straight away. An apologetic person listen to my litany of complaints only to say that she had to put me on the activation team ... where did i hear that before? ... but this time, she said there is an extensive delay I will call you back ... and she did. The activation tem dude, told me they did not connect the phone because they couldn't find the recording were they tell you all the terrible things that will happen if you swap to another provider. After two failed attempts at running the rcording that would drop off half way, I finally could record that I agreed to all of that ... just like I did on Wednesday last week. 
The phone will be connected in a few hours ... it is Tuesday the 22 at 7:40 and the phone is still not working. 
Oh but they did send me a survey email in relation to the person that I spoke to on friday and "How did we do?"
I answered the survey .... :Annoyed:

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## Marc

Wednesday 23/3 8am ... no phone.
The fibre optic NBN super dooper is down to 20Mbps. Yesterday night in peak time was down to ... 0.9 Mbps yes, even slower than the old Optus cable internet.
I don't know what's going on, sick of it really.

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## woodbe

Doesn't sound good Marc. How are you testing the speed? 
Any good wifi operators in your area? Maybe ditch the cable altogether.

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## FrodoOne

> Wednesday 23/3 8am ... no phone.
> The fibre optic NBN super dooper is down to 20Mbps. Yesterday night in peak time was down to ... 0.9 Mbps yes, even slower than the old Optus cable internet.
> I don't know what's going on, sick of it really.

  Do you actually have "Fiber to the Home" or only "Fiber to the Node" - with the "last leg" to your premises via "copper".

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## phild01

> Doesn't sound good Marc. How are you testing the speed? 
> Any good wifi operators in your area? Maybe ditch the cable altogether.

  Cludos to Telstra - sent me a new 4GAdvanced II modem and now nudging 15Mbs (or 34Mbs using the optus (ookla) speed test)!

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## Marc

Another update.  
I took to the "chat" line instead of going on the mobile again and found someone willing to do some calls for me. 
The outcome was that they are now treating this as a new "order" placed by the dude I spoke to on Monday, ignoring it was actually placed by Optus a month ago. 
And they also told me I have to wait in line another 5 business days so with the long weekend we are talking another week.   
As far as the internet speed, it seems the horrendous fluctuations are with the wifi and not the line itself since my desktop that I hardly ever use, is up in the 50 something Mbps. So I got a lousy modem it seems. I have a booster though, it's plugged in eth1 and takes the power to the computer through it. The 240 cables are supposed to act as an antenna throughout the house. Is this true or a gimmick like the ultrasound cockroach repellent?  
Yes I do have fiber optic cable to the house. Don't ask me how, but one day they showed up and pushed the fiber optic cable with great difficulty through the 20 mm telstra plastic conduit that still has the copper cables in it. At some point they couldn't push it further and cut the conduit across, pull the cable out and pushed it in further. Then patched the conduit with a piece of conduit cut long wise and taped it up. The conduit is barley 100mm in the dirt at a point that I drive the car over all the time. 
Lovely hey! Yes, reported it with pictures to NBN, got a reply saying they will act on it. 
Speed test with Ookla, just got 65 Mbps with the desktop, 20 with the laptop one room away

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## phild01

> Speed test with Ookla, just got 65 Mbps with the desktop, 20 with the laptop one room away

  I would expect a faster laptop speed.  With that ookla test I did (34Mbs), that was wifi.

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## woodbe

Doesn't sound like a NBN problem...

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## Jon

> Speed test with Ookla, just got 65 Mbps with the desktop, 20 with the laptop one room away

  Does your router have wireless built in?  If yes
Disconnect your booster and do a speed test on your laptop right next to the router and note the result.
Then repeat the test at other places in the house.
Then reconnect your extender and repeat the tests to see what improvements you get.
Also, you can download an app to your smartphone called Wifi Analyzer that will show you available signals and strengths.  Use this to check your strength in the various places through the house. 
If you seem to get good coverage through the house using the extender try disabling the Wifi in the router and see if this improves things.
Edit.  Make sure the router and the extender are using different names for the wifi signal too

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## commodorenut

If you're using an older WiFi router, or a device (laptop, phone etc) that's not a Gigabit rated device, you'll max out around 20mb/s as that's the physical limitation of the unit. 
I can get 50mb/s all day long on the desktop (directly cabled) with the occasional night getting down to mid 20s every now & then, but mostly it's up around 48-50. 
Iphones (except for the newest ones) & other laptops max out a 20, even when the desktop is doing 50.

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## Marc

Good news, The phone is connected, and the desktop speed is a whopping 94.4
Laptop still slower at 15 a few rooms away and 25.7 next to the modem and unfortunately nothing on the veranda.
The booster does not seem to do much at all. 
I disconnected the booster and got 30.24 next to the modem (download) on the laptop and surprisingly 36.8 on upload speed ?
25 and 26 in the other rooms but still nothing on the veranda
Connected again and got similar values. The speed goes up and down on the wifi and the booster seems to make no difference at all.  
The laptop is a mac air 4.1 (mid 2011)

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## r3nov8or

> Doesn't sound like a NBN problem...

  Sounds like a macbook problem  :Biggrin:

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## Jon

Assuming that the wireless signal from the router has a different name to the signal from the booster,  which it should. 
Is the macbook switching between the two devices as you move away from the router?  
Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

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## Marc

There is only one signal, that from the router.
As far as I know the booster amplifies the same signal and sends it through the 240V cabling. Or so I was told

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## woodbe

> As far as I know the booster amplifies the same signal and sends it through the 240V cabling. Or so I was told

  Run. Away.

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## Marc

Run ... away ... ?   :Frown:  
Ok, I remember now ... I bought this Netgear contraption to watch youtube on the tv but it never worked. It has a receiver next to the computer that has an ethernet connection to the modem  and the power extension goes through the box into the wall power plug.
Then next to the TV there is another box plugged in the wall and with an ethernet cable plugged in the tv. 
So that thing will clearly not help the laptop. 
Bummer. Why doesn't it work for the TV?
I wonder if I can plug another modem in that second box?
PS, I know the answer to that. I have 3phase and the tv is on another phase ... ha ha no wonder. 
How can I make use of this thing, short of putting it on ebay?

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## Jon

You can buy WiFi extenders.  Two types that I know of.
One has an Ethernet connection back to your router or switch and you place it where your black spot is , as long as there is power and cabling long back to your router or switch, and it broadcasts its own signal and you register your wireless device to both wireless broadcasts.
The other type is does not need a hard wired connection, just power.  You place it in a location that is getting a reasonable quality signal and it then rebroadcasts this using a different SSID and channel and once again you register your wireless device on both. 
You could use your Ethernet over power wiring dodads to extend your Ethernet into your black spot and then put a wireless extender on the end.  Use them as a wired connection to your MacBook first to ensure your power points are on the same phase before you shell out for the extender.

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## woodbe

The reason I say Run. Away. is because like you, anyone I know who has tried these things has given themselves headaches. It's not because they won't ever work. 
Just run an ethernet cable or install a proper wireless system and be done with it.

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