Finally bit the NBN bullet
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Location: Sydney, NSW
Member since 28 January 2011
Member #: 823
Postcount: 6756
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all fibre NBN connections have fixed IP addresses
I doubt it. ISPs generally have a rationed pool of IP addresses that they allocate dynamically as needed, which is fine for the average Internet user. Static IP addresses are generally hard to come by and usually attract a surcharge.
At my workshop location (FTTN) the CCTV system requires a static IP address and we had to arrange that by special request and we pay extra each period for it.
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Administrator
Location: Naremburn, NSW
Member since 15 November 2005
Member #: 1
Postcount: 7382
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Nope, they definitely don't.
Static IP addresses are doled out only by a few of the smaller providers. Even TPG has stopped issuing them for both NBN and TPG FTTB which is one of two reasons why I ditched my 10 year old arrangement with them and told them to stop spamming me in the process.
Most Telstra and Optus helldesk people don't even know what a static IP is so it'd be pointless asking them.
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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...
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Location: Sydney, NSW
Member since 16 January 2008
Member #: 219
Postcount: 66
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I live in North-West Sydney, which was one of the pilot roll-out areas for the NBN.
The first I knew about that was when I came home sometime in 2013 and found two guys with the Telstra street box opened up and a truck with a huge roll of green cable that was being pulled through the cable duct.
I didn't hear anything more until November 2013 when around dinnertime I received an out-of-the-blue phone from a man with a very strong Indian accent telling me I can get a free connection to their NBN fibre network, "saving me the $150 installation fee".
Now ever since the cable was installed in the street, my letter box has been fair crammed with junk mail from non-Telstra ISPs, offering me all sorts of special deals for signing up with them. As it happens I had no real need for high-speed broadband; I was doing perfectly fine with a Virgin USB broadband modem, which I could use on just about any PC, anywhere in Australia my Virgin phone will work! So there may well have been some similar offer from Telstra but I would have glanced at and ignored it like all the others.
When I started to say I wasn't really interested, the bright young man then informed me that, well actually, you don't have a choice, as they're disconnecting the copper cable network in my suburb! (Well, you do have a choice; you can just use your mobile and not have a home phone!)
Basically, they'd replace the PVC phone cable running to your house with Ju-liar's fibber-optic cable, and that would go to an optical modem that plugs into a power point, and then your existing copper household copper network would plug into the modem. Supposedly everything else then works the same, except there's no phone if your power goes off.
The same modem also contains network sockets and WiFi so if you ever do decide to go for Broadband, it's just a matter of telling them to switch it on.
The deal was they connect up the NBN the modem, connect it to your existing phone system and you go on getting exactly the same phone service and bill as before.
(Funny, the NBN story was all about making optical fibre available to every household; nobody ever mentioned that perfectly good copper systems were going to be ripped out. I had enough trouble understanding what he was babbling about with my technical background, imagine how an old pensioner would fare....)
I wanted to know exactly when the copper cables were actually going to be removed, and he couldn't tell me that. I also wanted to know, if I signed up with Telstra NBN, how long I would be committed to that. He couldn't tell me that either!
So while I was waiting on hold "for the PDF to download" (clearly he was on Indian Diallup!) I fired up my computer up and got onto TPG's website. That told me immediately that the copper cable was going to be around in my street for at least 18 months, and they offered a $79.95 a month (plus a one-off $99 charge for the modem) NBN deal for unlimited just about everything, which was only a few bucks more than our average Telstra monthly phone bill, where you only get the basic phone and no Internet. Lose the $18 I was paying for my wireless broadband and I was miles ahead.
TPG were quite confident that all the phone line connected devices I had would work once plugged into their modem box, and they were 100% right! They had an extensive section about this on their website, and they even adopted some suggestions of mine as to how some things could be worded better. ALSO, they informed me that the "saving me the $150 installation fee" thing was complete BS (No, not Bill Shorten; the other sort of BS). That is actually paid for by NBN Co, NOT Telstra or TPG.
Telstra on the other hand didn't seem to have a clue about anything!
AND they never came out to remove my street box connection after I terminated my service, which was stopping the NBN connection from working on my phones when I plugged the network into the TPG Modem. In the end I had to cut the wires myself!
Recently during the Covid lockdown when I was working from home, I upgraded my Internet speed to 50 Megabits/sec by deleting the unlimited overseas phone calls (which I don't think I've ever used), so it's still $79.95 a month, but video streaming is massively improved, just like watching broadcast TV now.
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Location: Sydney, NSW
Member since 28 January 2011
Member #: 823
Postcount: 6756
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Static IP addresses are doled out only by a few of the smaller providers
We got one through Harbour ISP. Very easy people to deal with.
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Location: Wangaratta, VIC
Member since 21 February 2009
Member #: 438
Postcount: 5364
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I see the never ending story continues: Tonight I get an "update your flea bay account". Err! Never bought anything on Flea Bay. There's probably a couple of others corralled in the Junk, or AV system.
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Location: Werribee South, VIC
Member since 30 September 2016
Member #: 1981
Postcount: 485
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On our landline we keep getting a recorded message allegedly from Amazon Prime stating some barely understandable rubbish about our Amazon Prime account.
The thing is we don't have an Amazon Prime account but we get at least three calls a day from whomever.
When we get them I simply leave the phone off the hook to maximise the call time and hopefully the cost to the ratbags.
As far as NBN we were one of the last places to be connected and it is FTTC which I don't mind as it doesn't require any monkeys drilling holes or mounting ugly boxes on our house.
Telstra simply supplied the Network Connection Device and the modem which amazingly all worked first time.
We reliably get 47 meg download speeds as against 3 meg with ADSL 2 previously.
So far so good.
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Location: Silver City WI, US
Member since 10 May 2013
Member #: 1340
Postcount: 977
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It pays to supervise installers: I encouraged mine to run the fibre (from pole) right through the basement and up to to computer desk area (not sure if it wrought any performance improvement?)
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Location: Belrose, NSW
Member since 31 December 2015
Member #: 1844
Postcount: 2449
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Ever tried to teach them how to do a cavity drop?
Few installers these days seem to know what you are talking about.
SO much neater than running conduit up the wall and usually quicker too.
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Location: Sydney, NSW
Member since 28 January 2011
Member #: 823
Postcount: 6756
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Ever tried to teach them how to do a cavity drop?
That's exactly how I would have done it but the clueless NBN 457 visa bozos wouldn't recognise that method if it smacked them in the face, so I told them to take the shortest route outside, which is when he blew out the brick face.
As I mentioned, I should have done it all myself. All I needed was the right screwdriver bit to open the NBN box, but they cost $14 each and I don't have an ongoing need for one.
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Location: Belrose, NSW
Member since 31 December 2015
Member #: 1844
Postcount: 2449
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When our business ran a cabling installation division we had a couple of large Hilti hammer drills that would bore 25mm holes through 500mm reinforced concrete beams like they were butter. Only problem was, when the drill got near the end, it would blast a 300mm dia exit wound in the beam, spraying chunks of concrete everywhere.
Fortunately these scars were normally hidden by suspended ceilings.
So I can understand the installer doing that if he had a similar hammer drill.
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Administrator
Location: Naremburn, NSW
Member since 15 November 2005
Member #: 1
Postcount: 7382
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Sounds like a TE-92. We had a good selection of bits for those at Gladesville Hospital because there were odd occasions where we had to drill a three inch hole in three foot of sandstone to run pipes and wires. To solve the blowouts, it's a matter of drilling from both ends of the hole but that isn't always easy to get accurate. Even less fun is going deaf because of the noise and I know it only too well.
These days, one would use a water-cooled bore to do a job like that but things were a bit harder back then. A TE-92 beat using a star drill and sledge hammer though.
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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...
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Location: Sydney, NSW
Member since 28 January 2011
Member #: 823
Postcount: 6756
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To solve the blowouts, it's a matter of drilling from both ends of the hole but that isn't always easy to get accurate
That was the problem here. If I were doing it myself, I'd have a mate pressing the butt end of a large piece of lumber against the outside face in the vicinity of the exit hole, and I would not be using hammer action going through house brick -- just a good sharp long series masonry bit.
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Location: Wangaratta, VIC
Member since 21 February 2009
Member #: 438
Postcount: 5364
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Those one has to marvel at are the monolith builders pre-ice age, who could drill precision holes through granite blocks & machine cut other seriously hard rock. Leaves some of the twits I have seen wallowing.
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Location: Sydney, NSW
Member since 28 January 2011
Member #: 823
Postcount: 6756
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The key problem with these NBN installs is that they are carried out by unqualified blow-ins, recruited to do stuff as quickly and cheaply as possible and then board the next boat home. Why they heck would they care about quality of workmanship?
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Location: Hill Top, NSW
Member since 18 September 2015
Member #: 1801
Postcount: 2068
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QUOTE: All I needed was the right screwdriver bit to open the NBN box, but they cost $14 each....
If you're talking about the white NBN box mounted outside, I used a small flat-bladed screwdriver to open mine, no difficulties encountered, and it didn't damage the screw-head. In my case I just wanted to know what was in there, not to touch anything.
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