For a week now, my outgoing (SMTP) emails have either been delayed by exactly 2 hours or not delivered at all. I have been going around in circles with the clowns at iiNet support trying to get this fixed.

They want me to email samples of such messages, but I cannot do that because -- you guessed it -- my outgoing emails are going into iiNet's black hole. This ought to be self evident to anyone with a 7 year old's ability to think logically, but not at iiNet.

At the end of my rope dealing with script readers I requested a phone call direct from their system support. Comes the reply:

QUOTE: Thanks for your response,

I will continue to check for the email examples that you'll be sending through and then provide those to the team who will investigate and provide further information and answers so as to get this resolved.

Phone contact from the network staff who handle email platform infrastructure we refer this to will not be feasible as the department handling this query do not directly handle customer service queries.

If anyone ever needed evidence of the joke that iiNet has become since being taken over by Teoh's Pathetic Group (aka TPG) then there it is right there in that quote.

Come NBN connection, TPG/iiNet will be flushed down my toilet. Will probably result in a case of transferring from Hell to Hades but I cannot stand this mob any longer.

You are NOT alone with displeasure re iiNet's service or more correctly lack of it !!!

As I have previously indicated in the discussions re NBN on the forum the Community Radio Group I volunteer at (KCR FM in WA) has been going in circles TRYING to get an NBN connection at the studio to replace the crappy ADSL service we currently have with iiNet where the speeds have over the last 2 years gone from 1.4Mbps UP and 7Mbps Down to barely 0.8Mbps UP and 3.2Mbps Down.

It turns out that as NBN does NOT own the miserable 100M of 2 pair cable that feeds the studio from the street due to some oversight ages ago when they (NBN) negotiated the purchase from Telecom of the street cabling in our area we CANNOT have an NBN connection.
Would appear that the NBN boffins in their wisdom without checking things out wrongly assumed that the cable only fed a community hall so no revenue in it for them so did not purchase the cable.

No amount of badgering on our part to either iiNet OR NBN Co can change the situation and we are told it may well be 2-3 years before NBN and Telstra get into talks again to sort out anomalies such as we find ourselves faced with.

The ADSL is so crappy that the link fails almost daily for short periods of time and iiNet appear totally unable to find out why and its now NOT only the studio end but also at the TX end where we have got a NBN Co service which is WOW type fast and was rock steady for months after moving over but now it also fails for short periods every other day or so. Annoyingly NONE of the breaks that are logged at that end line up with breaks being seen at the studio so the station audio is on and off for short periods every day or so.

So we are about to give iiNet the flick at the studio by moving the Internet to the 4G network and currently Optus offer the BEST 4G data deals at $68 a month for 500Gb of data and NO Contract...Speeds are 7Mbps UP and 40Mbps Down. Moving there will reduce our bumps to the transmitted audio AND as the 4G Modem has 2 VOIP ports we will move our phones over to the 4G as well.

Sadly as we need a FIXED IP Address at the Transmitter end (so the audio Studio CODEC can FIND the TX Codec) we have to stay with iiNet there but we are told by the Codec supplier that DNS functions will soon be available with a firmware upgrade of the Tieline Codecs and when that happens we will tell iiNet to get nicked at the TX end as well.

I share your frustrations with iiNet as getting anything done through them at present is nothing short of a nightmare...we in WA have to deal with the South African based Call Centre and honestly I do not think that they have the foggiest what we are talking about whenever we have to contact them.

So for us its roll on DNS functionality and we are shod of iiNet forever.

No amount of badgering on our part to either iiNet OR NBN Co can change the situation

By now I would have been loudly into the ears of my local councilor, and state and federal MPs. State has no jurisdiction but he/she can wind up the federal member especially if they belong to the same party, and both local and state can be publicly embarrassed in the local media by not helping a worthwhile community group.

RE: Sadly as we need a FIXED IP Address at the Transmitter end (so the audio Studio CODEC can FIND the TX Codec) we have to stay with iiNet

When I had to get the factory complex's copper-based CCTV security system ported to NBN our existing ISP (the despised TPG) could not / would not provide a static IP address. Our strata management company, having a number of commercial properties under management with a similar conundrum, found Harbour ISP to be economical and easy to work with so, after the usual circular business of getting NBN to talk to the ISP, etc, it's been going fine (touch wood).

In fact, my dealings with Harbour ISP's help desk in the Philippines were surprisingly easy. Their tech support called me directly. At one point in the cutover period there appeared to be a configuration issue and they sent out a Sydney-based tech with a laptop at 7pm. The guy worked until 8pm and got the line working.

So, you might want to take a look at Harbour ISP. Based on my customer experience with them, they will be on my shortlist. (My concern with any 'good' IS is that it will end up being acquired by Teoh, or worse.)

As for iiNet, its founder Michael Malone was all hand-wringing and concerned when TPG made the succesful take over bid, however clearly the guy is two-faced: https://www.smh.com.au/technology/send-complainers-to-the-end-of-the-queue-says-nbn-director-20171029-gzam8w.html

GTC,

Thanks for the tip re Harbour ISP but unable to get a fixed IP via the 4G connection system so to make the Codecs communicate without a fixed IP then you have to use a DNS server setup. Plenty of them about but the Tieline Codecs at this point do not support working via DNS BUT I am told it is coming.

Another good ISP is Aussie Broadband which I moved to instead of iiNet as they refused to let me have 2 phone lines into the house even though their modems have 2 VOIP ports. The prats told me that NBN Co did NOT allow that so unless I was a small Business then stiff bickies.
Aussie BB said rubbish we can do that so I moved across real quickly and saved ourselves about $20 a month in fees and whenever a technical issue arises which is not often they are onto to it like a flash. Could not be happier with Aussie BB great ISP and just recently shifted my mobile to them from Telstra Prepaid saving another packet in the process and Aussie BB is a Telstra reseller...go figure that one out.

We have to sort out this lack of a fixed IP before the station resumes doing outside broadcasts as the OB Box is looking for the fixed IP Address normally at the studio but once on 4G that is no longer possible.

So have to shift the OB Codec to the transmitter site and do Port Forwarding on its NBN Modem to allow the OB Codec to login and then use the unused stereo feed downlink from the TX to Studio to get the the OB audio into the studio desks which then when it goes to air it goes back to the TX site on the uplink side of the Codec feed to get into the TX input.
Messy but it works.

TPG used to offer a static IP as a no cost standard part of the ADSL deal but when I enquired about a shift to the NBN or TPG FTTB, they said they don't offer them on the new networks - so I told them to stick it. I used TPG to uplink this website for about seven years. Over the time not too bad I must admit but in the last year or so the connection got progressively worse (as I am sure everyone here remembers very well) and they got a bit cocky with me - whilst refusing to offer static IPs on new connections they still seemed happy to try and cajol me to shift over despite me telling them that I NEEDED a static IP, no ifs, no buts.

TPG started out as a computer manufacturer and the letters stand for Total Peripherals Group, but they suffer from the same thing all companies that start small and get big by buying out the competition suffer from - starting out with good customer service and ultimately forgetting how they were able to go from small to big and ending up being a pack of cocky gits.

If you want a wider viewpoint on how various ISPs are going at the moment you could try looking at opinions on the Whirlpool forums at https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...