Adsl

[bundy1964]

Hi

I would like to lose my satellite net conection with Ihug for my home/office.

I have found an unlimited ADSL package with TPG at

http://www.tpg.com.au/products_services/adsl.html

for $69.95 a month which does compare well with my current costs including calls.

Anyone got some feedback about them or know of a better deal?

I would like to use the Kodak online printing service for digital photos.......just not posiable with my Ihug conection. File size is up to 14mb

bundy

 

[Sim]

There are some interesting discussions on TPG over at the Whirlpool broadband forums:

http://www.whirlpool.net.au/

Look in the "Other Broadband ISPs" forum.

The general consensus on TPG seems to be "not good, but seem to be getting better".

YMMV.

By the way, 14mb files over a 256k connection is still going to be pretty slow - might want to consider 512k if you are doing a lot of large file transfers (if you can afford it).

One other thing to be careful of - some "all you can eat" plans are never that. There is always some catch - like bandwidth limiting and such. I can't find any details about TPGs plans though.

 

[tonyd]

Hi bundy,

If you are mainly interested in printing digital photos, why not splash out on a nice printer?

cheers, Tony

 

[Jude H]

Satellite only option

Can anyone please advise on bigpond satellite? I will get one way only. I don't have the option of cable or ADSL so for improved download time etc this is my only option. So I'm led to believe.

My son Andrew will read this and understands some computer speak if it makes it easier to explain.

Thanks in advance.

Jude

 

[Sim]

Satellite really depends on how desperate you are for higher speeds.

Don't forget that with one directional satellite, all upload traffic (requests for webpages, sending email, uploading files and such) goes via your analog dialup connection - so there is no speed advantage at all.

Indeed, because your webpage requests get sent by your dialup link, the actual time for starting to download the web page is quite slow - this is called latency.

Don't even think about trying to play online games via satellite - the latency is just too much for games to cope with.

Now, download speeds are faster - but not terribly much so it seems from what I've heard people say.

I wouldn't bother with 64K - it's just not worth it for the money in my opinion. The 400K option looks better (note that overall I think you would expect the speed to feel slower than a 256K ADSL connection because of the latency issues) - but it's pretty expensive, especially when you add in the dialup costs.

I've also heard that the service is a little unreliable (too many moving parts). But if all you want is a bit more speed and can wear the cost, then sure - give it a go.

There are a few comments about Telstra Satellite on the Whirlpool forums (see link above) - might be worth doing a search there.

As an alternative - have you made enquiries to see if you can get ISDN ? 128K ISDN is pretty decent speeds - and is very cheap these days, and is available in the wierdest of areas - you may be able to get it even if you can't get ADSL (the two are not related in any way).

 

[electra]

hey Bundy, that must be a verrrrry nice digital camera. A digital SLR - you're making me jealous.

 

[Mondie]

Another good site for info & discussion forums on all things broadband is www.broadbandchoice.com.au. Also has a summary of every provider and their costs, contact info etc. Very handy.

So Bundy, is it a Digital SLR you have? l have been looking at one myself, Canon D30 or maybe D60? Curious on what you think of it.

 

[bundy1964]

Re: Satellite only option

Originally posted by Jude H
Can anyone please advise on bigpond satellite? I will get one way only. I don't have the option of cable or ADSL so for improved download time etc this is my only option. So I'm led to believe.

My son Andrew will read this and understands some computer speak if it makes it easier to explain.

Thanks in advance.

Jude

Hi Jude

I have the Ihug one way satellite.

As sim says latency is a problem in the tech.

It works best with large files compared to small multiple files of the same size.

Cloudy days can be a pain in the assets to use it.

Uploading may in fact be slower than standard dial up due to the rerouting with replys coming back via satellite.

bundy

 

[bundy1964]

Originally posted by tonyd
Hi bundy,

If you are mainly interested in printing digital photos, why not splash out on a nice printer?

cheers, Tony

Hi Tony

I also have to email them to magazines and my last send of photos was 5 hours for 7 pics

At under $7 a print I can't yet justify spending 2k on a Kodak photo printer plus running costs. When you charge $100 a print they do like to see better than a photo inkjet print

bundy

 

[bundy1964]

Originally posted by Mondie
So Bundy, is it a Digital SLR you have? l have been looking at one myself, Canon D30 or maybe D60? Curious on what you think of it.

Hi Mondie

I have a Minolta Dimage 7 which is a 5.2 megapixel, fixed lens, digital SLR with 7 times optical zoom. I also got the remote release and 2 extra C/F cards.

It's break even point is 250 public sale photos with no allowance for labour or 500 magazine photos.

Print size is up to poster size.

The Canon and the like have interchangeable lenses, faster cycle times between shots and faster focusing.

Break even point is 1,000 photos for body costs only.

Poster prints can be made with a reasonable crop.

Is the Canon worth an extra 7.5k plus lenses.....if you want to do wedding photos or action sports you need the extra speed or if your going to do Playboy centrefolds you need the extra pixels. Other than that the Minolta is fine with me.

bundy ( has no interest in doing weddings lol )

 

[tonyd]

Originally posted by bundy1964
I also have to email them to magazines and my last send of photos was 5 hours for 7 pics

At under $7 a print I can't yet justify spending 2k on a Kodak photo printer plus running costs. When you charge $100 a print they do like to see better than a photo inkjet print

Ahhh, I see.
I had the same problem a few weeks back wanting to send a bunch of 20MB TIFFs to a mag overseas.
I just sent them a CD.

If you need to send physical prints, you could burn a CD with your images and take it directly to your local photo lab.

But then you wouldn't have ADSL

cheers, Tony

 

[Kevmeister]

http://www.broadbandchoice.com.au identifies most of the major ADSL vendors in Australia and their current plans.

Sim has already mentioned Whirlpool which contains the forums for discussing the ISPs. Keep in mind that users of each ISP tend to stick with their own forum, so the advice is not necessarily unbiased. But Whirlpool can give a good indication of crap happening with each ISP.

Last time I checked, TPG was not considered particularly good. I use Internode, personally. You need to know your needs before looking at what each plan offers. For example, several ISPs offer seemingly large download allowances but the caveat is that much of this is off-peak allowance from midnight to 7 am, for example.

Beware of ISPs that charge for Upstream data. Most ISPs charge for downstream data on (ie. from the internet to your computer). Anything you send is "free". But some ISPs also charge for upstream data meaning you are paying for data in both directions.

If you are *sending* photos, stay away from anyone who charges for upstream data (sorry, I think this includes BigPond).

Next thing to consider is that ADSL is Asymetric (that's the A in ADSL). It means sending speed is a lot slower than receiving speed.

The best you'll get on ADSL is 1500/384 or possibly 1500/256. It means your connection can receive about 6 times faster than it sends.

This is still a lot quicker than a modem, but beware of this so you're not disappointed.

So, receiving a 14Mb file might take around 95 seconds on a 1500/256 link, but it will take 546 seconds to send. This asymetry is largely predicated on the fact most internet users download more than they upload (it's also a reason why commercial web servers probably wouldn't use ADSL because the traffic shape is "back to front" - they receive little and send a lot).

BTW, 56K modems are also assymetric. The 56K is maximum downstream only, and maximum upstream is 33.6K. Sending the same 14Mb file over modem would take 4166 seconds.

 

[Sim]

I concur with Kev.

If work was not paying for my connection with BigPond, then I would most likely sign up with Internode (I know some of the techo guys there - they know what they are doing !).

If you need higher upload speeds, Internode also have some SDSL plans (Symmetric DSL) which give 512k uploads.

SDSL - 512k Bronze - 512k up/512k down

$165pm for 2000 MB download limit, or
$275pm for 6000 MB

Netspace have even more options (but I think they're a bit more expensive) - they do corporate plans of 2000k/640k, 4000k/640k, 6000k/640k, and even 512k/512k, 1000k/1000k, 1500k/1500k, 2000k/2000k.

That last one 2000k up, 2000k down, with a 45GB per month download limit only costs $2034 per month ! Bargain !

 

[Mondie]

Thanks Bundy,

You are fortunate to make a living from photography

We have a Canon SLR with a few lenses at present so l guess thats why l was asking what camera you had, in the hope you had experience with the D30 or 60. Seems l can buy a S/H D30 for around $2100 which would be a fairly cheap way to get into a decent digital setup using all our existing accesories/lenses. l am still trying to decide whether its worth going the D60 at 6MP res, or whether the 3MP of the D30 would be OK.

Whats the Res of your camera? Would you be satisfied with 3MP in the work you do?

Cheers Simon

 

[bundy1964]

"You are fortunate to make a living from photography "

I would say taking photos is a sideline that started from my hobby of breeding birds.

"We have a Canon SLR with a few lenses at present so l guess thats why l was asking what camera you had, in the hope you had experience with the D30 or 60. Seems l can buy a S/H D30 for around $2100 which would be a fairly cheap way to get into a decent digital setup using all our existing accesories/lenses. l am still trying to decide whether its worth going the D60 at 6MP res, or whether the 3MP of the D30 would be OK."

3MP will be ok for an 8 X 10 print, not a lot of room for cropping.

"Whats the Res of your camera? Would you be satisfied with 3MP in the work you do?"

Mine is a 5MP, I could get away with 3MP but the extra pixels never hurt and I like the 7X optical zoom.

bundy

 

[Mondie]

Thanks Bundy,

You sort of confirmed what l was thinking. l'll wait until a D60 is a bit more affordable and then make the jump to digital.

Cheers Simon

 

[bundy1964]

Originally posted by Mondie
Thanks Bundy,

You sort of confirmed what l was thinking. l'll wait until a D60 is a bit more affordable and then make the jump to digital.

Cheers Simon

Hi Simon

I did get some feedback on the D60 from a photo editing group I belong to. Seems there may be a problem getting a good focus.

*This may be a user problem not a camera one! but 2 other people agreed*

bundy

 

[D.T.]

Im still on a 56k modem connection myself, but am looking at getting ADSL shortly.

Those of you who have it, how much difference do you notice between the 256k and the 512k options?

Also, what transfer rate do you normally get on downloads?

 

[Sim]

Funnily enough, the 512k ADSL is around twice as fast as the 256k ADSL.

On 512k, I am regularly able to sustain a 56kByte per second download (maximum theoretical transfer rate without compression is 64kByte/s).

When I was on 56k dialup, the fastest I usually got was about 5.5kBps sustained download.

 

[bundy1964]

Hi Sim

I was just sending an ICQ file and I was getting 204B/sec is that good bad or indifferant?

bundy