Naked ADSL vs 4G mobile

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  l005e on 26/09/2018 - 18:11

  Im in the same boat

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  brokenglish on 26/09/2018 - 22:02

  +1

  Pros: faster speed
  Cons: limited data, may need to commit to a contract, need to purchase additional modem.

  I have 4 internet gateways at work: Optus 4G, Telstra 4G, Uniti Wireless, and Telstra ADSL2+.
  4G at full reception is definitely much faster than ADSL.
  Note that if you watch a lot of videos (Youtube/Netflix), having faster speed will make these websites serve you higher quality videos therefore using up more data.
  If you don't want to commit to 12 months contract, try 1 month with amaysim 100GB at $70 to see how much data you use with Optus 4G.

  Have you explored alternatives? Uniti Wireless, Vivid Wireless, Clear Wireless, Hyperwave, Lightning Broadband?

  • 

    carling on 27/09/2018 - 12:19

    Thanks for the advice. The optus plan above have free netflix streaming which would be a bonus. It's only myself and my girlfriend so i really don't think we will exceed 200gb a month. I've had a look at the alternative you provided too cheers.

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  [Deactivated] on 26/09/2018 - 22:27

  Are you getting nbn soon? MNF usually use shitty Optus wholesale connections which are oversubscribed (hence the speed variation). Go to the NBN website and punch in your details

  • 

    carling on 27/09/2018 - 12:20

    Broadband for my area is expected in 2020……..

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  GregMonarch on 27/09/2018 - 00:53

  +1

  I'm on Optus $70/m 100GB 4G for internet. I download torrents and watch a lot of youtube. At 240p usually to save on data which is fine for 98% of videos. For another 1% you don't go full screen (watching a smaller image appears better to the eye). And for the last 1% I increase resolution to 480p. (Despite the irrational craze for HD everything, no-one remembers a movie was VCR quality a week after watching it. They only remember the movie/plot.)

  Keep in mind Optus 4G counts data packets both down AND up. Whereas the ADSL probably only counts downloads. The Optus usage meter is also conveniently delayed - suspiciously so, close to the last day (or maybe I'm just imagining it like the people that imagine HD is necessary). ;-p Anyway, their usage meter has caught me out a few times, charging me another $10 for going a few MB over. So now if I think I'm getting near to going over, there's usually a cheap Kogan/Amaysim/Groupon/etc. 'new customers' SIM for a few $. (Better to pay Kogan $4.90 for 32GB, than pay Optus $10 for every 1GB.) If none of those cheap SIMs are available I just turn it off for a few days and do something else until my new month resets. (Only had to do that once in a year.)

  "Poor Optus network" will get mentioned. It is NOT a given and NOT everyone's blanket experience. What is bad for one person will be good for another, and vice versa. ALL networks have congestion problems in areas - and those may disappear or get worse due to network upgrades or a sporting event being held in the area. Who knows!

  My experience has been great. But I'm not joined at the hip to the Sydney or Melbourne CBD. So it depends on your location/tower, and as before, can change - good or bad - at any time. The only way to know for sure is to test at say 3:30 (school's out) and 7-8pm (when everyone's boob tube is on) by borrowing and testing an Optus SIM in your location.

  Btw… I haven't looked closely at that 200GB plan. But longer Optus contracts often come with lower-res Netflix, Optus sport, and a few other things I forget - none of which are counted towards the download quota (free data). You'll have to check their site if you get those or not. Obviously having data free sport is going to leave you with more data quota.

  Personally I don't understand paying for Netflix. They have a lot of brainwashing the last few years like that obese and unfunny horror Amy Schumer. And they have nothing not easily found elsewhere for free. Same with Amazon movies, youtube red, etc. Once you have internet, I don't get why people don't ditch it and use torrents - and you've just saved yourself another whatever $ per month. (If I'm going to be brainwashed, at least I pass the IQ test and don't pay them to do it, LOL.)

  I watch new shows within a couple of hours of them airing in the US. e.g. I watched "The Last Ship S05E03" a couple of days ago… Typed the title into a torrent search engine, looked for a small '264' or '265' file smaller than the rest (it was about 210MB) to save on data quota (when there were others as large as 1.15GB), and downloaded it using qBitorrent (which has a 'download in order' and 'download first and last pieces first' feature - meaning it downloads in sequential order so you can start watching after only a couple of minutes have been downloaded).

  The best thing is having a pocket wifi or phone set as a hotspot. You're no longer tied to one address for internet. Sometimes I listen to USA radio online in the car… pair your phone to your bluetooth car stereo. A good way to use up the rest of that 32GB Kogan SIM.

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    [Deactivated] on 27/09/2018 - 06:43

    Saving money by using illegal practices is older than time, but not really bargain hunting.

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      GregMonarch on 29/09/2018 - 11:44

      Never said it was.

      As for 'illegal'… LOL. The same show will appear on FTA TV sometime and I refuse to watch ads. So I watch free and they get nothing. If I download it I watch free and they get nothing. If I don't download it they get nothing. All three have the same result. Yet they want to claim one is illegal. Meh - whatever.

      • 

        [Deactivated] on 30/09/2018 - 06:03

        Justification doesn't make it legal. I'm not judging, just pointing out that the willingness to bend the law does not wash as a bargain.

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    Quantumcat on 27/09/2018 - 10:10

    But longer Optus contracts often come with lower-res Netflix, Optus sport, and a few other things I forget - none of which are counted towards the download quota (free data).

    Usually this won't work if hotspotting.

    Once you have internet, I don't get why people don't ditch it and use torrents

    I'd rather spend $10/month and not have to spend a lot of time finding things to watch and waiting for them to download. I can turn on a show and let it run infinitely in the background while working. My time is worth something to me. This would be the case for most people. The proportion of technically illiterate people that don't know how to use torrents I am guessing is a small one (just thinking about my own friends and family for this).

    It also helps that a U.S. friend of mine gave me access to his cable account, so I can watch all NBC, ABC etc shows by streaming on my apple tv, so there's very little I need to torrent (plus American ads for medicines are almost as entertaining as the shows themselves). Even if I didn't have this though I wouldn't feel the need to watch new shows the millisecond they air and would just do without them.

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      GregMonarch on 29/09/2018 - 11:13

      I'd rather spend $10/month and not have to spend a lot of time finding things to watch and waiting for them to download.

      Well as I said, you don't have to wait if it's set up right and you can click and select three options. Well, two options actually if you skip the 'lower upload speed' option. Using the method I described I've begun watching in as little as 30 seconds. (A show might be 40 minutes long but downloads in 12 minutes. So when downloading in sequential order, you view while it's downloading - not wait until it's finished before viewing.)

      My time is worth something to me. This would be the case for most people.

      LOL. As it is for me. Which is why I shared it the way I do it. And with netflix, surely people must get on and look through menus for something to watch, find nothing new, and think, "May as well watch that" - whereas I only watch when there's something specific. The rest of the time I'm doing something more productive. ;-)

      The proportion of technically illiterate people that don't know how to use torrents I am guessing is a small one (just thinking about my own friends and family for this).

      It's gotten so easy - search for title, click the magnet symbol, torrent client opens, click yes to download, click the video file - that I don't understand why people pay. But particularly people on here, LOL.

      Even if I didn't have this though I wouldn't feel the need to watch new shows the millisecond they air and would just do without them.

      Yep, same here. I think with something like netflix, most people must turn it on to watch something specific, but when it ends, then drift from one show to the next. Whereas the only thing I'm currently watching is 'The Last Ship'. So I watch the new episode, then nothing else for a week.

      • 

        Quantumcat on 30/09/2018 - 07:46

        I don't like to binge one show at a time, so it is more bother for me to be spending ten minutes finding the new thing to download for only 25 minutes of television. If you binge one show at a time then I can see it isn't so bad to spend ten minutes for several hours of television.

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    carling on 27/09/2018 - 12:27

    Thanks for your detailed reply. You make a good point about the uploads i had not considered that.

    $10 a gb could quickly add up so i would have to keep a close eye on my usage. I've never had any issues with optus coverage on my mobile around my area which is lucky.

    I get netflix for free through my dad so i cannot complain! I used to torrent pretty hard but it has declined since accessing foxtel go and netflix. I was put off by the fact the pirate bay was very hit and miss and littered with click ons and ads. I have a VPN which i use seldomly these days. WHich website do you use to access torrents? I still use bit torrent, not sure if that is for noobs or not….

    Rookie question here but would i get free netflix usage from hotspotting? I would any hot spot or tethering contribute to my downloads. I have a fetch box too (for free since optus's world cup coverage debacle.

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      GregMonarch on 29/09/2018 - 10:55

      Uploads do count but it doesn't seem to be much. When I had 20GB/m it was difficult to get through the month. But not now I have 100GB. In fact I used to turn off my pocket wifi when I wasn't using it, worried it would 'poll' all night and use up my quota. But then I left it on by mistake and noticed no data was used. So I can't be bothered now and leave it turned on 24/7. (I'm not sure you can check this now, since Optus changed what the 'dashboard' displays.) Obviously you have to remember to turn torrents off as soon as they're downloaded though.

      Yeah, most pirate bay proxy sites have popups. I did have one bookmarked months ago that didn't. But it went offline and never came back. :-( But even when they do have popups my antivirus (ESET) catches and closes most or all of them. (For last couple of months I only get one popup it doesn't close.) There's also some tricks like opening thepiratebay and type without clicking the mouse - because the cursor is already in the box. Then hit enter. ESET then closes all but that one popup. Also, if you left-click and type without releasing the mouse button and THEN hit enter - you often don't get that next 'fake' page as you do if you release the mouse button.

      I also use idope because sometimes you get very different search results. Which is weird, because thepiratebay has obviously been around a lot longer - yet idope turns up torrents years old when thepiratebay shows nothing.

      Pirate bay proxy sites go offline every month or so. So I just type: "thepiratebay proxy sites" into a search engine, start clicking different ones, and when I find one that works - I drag that to the 'home' window of Firefox and delete the one that's gone offline. Also as above - idope. Though they went offline too a couple of months ago and I haven't needed them again yet, to check if they're back up or not. If I can't find something on either, then I just type the show name with 'torrent' added into a search engine - and start clicking sites. Sometimes that's all clickbait though, and nowhere has it.

      Optus says unmetered data for netflix won't work through a modem. But the truth is they only say this because they can't guarantee it will work, or help people fix it with so many different types of hardware out there. i.e. They say you have to watch netflix on the same device that has the SIM inserted. But the reality is it works (shows as unmetered data) for most people anyway. Particularly those using an Optus modem. Looking at the Whirlpool thread, no one seems to know why it works for most people but not others.

      The way I tested it was I turned my modem off overnight, then went online and into "My Dashboard" and noted my data usage etc. Then I watched something (in your case through netflix) for several minutes, turn it all off again, and come back several hours later and check the dashboard again. (A few months ago Optus changed the info the dashboard displays. So I'm not sure now what it says, but there will be a way to tell if that streamed data was metered or unmetered.) I think someone on Whirlpool mentioned there's another method of checking. Or it might have been something about don't override the lower resolution netflix defaults to - something like that.

      Do a 'CTRL F' for netflix: https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2637819

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  [Deactivated] on 27/09/2018 - 06:40

  Bandwith is like a pipe everyone is using. Yopu get a percentage of that pipe to use, the more people online the smaller a percentage you get to use, so your speeds will fluctuate on every network due to other peoples usage. I know at 3pm on a weekday, my speeds are going to nosedive until around 9pm. Schoolkids.

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    carling on 27/09/2018 - 12:21

    Yeh fair point. I've done a few speed tests throughout the day from my optus mobile. Seems to vary from 14mbs at peak times to 50+mbs at other times of the day. It seems there a quite a few mobile towers near me which is handy.