I have been a sad poppet, or should I say, vegemite. My Internet went out Thursday last week at 2pm precisely. It came back, after umpteen phone calls - they told me yesterday that I had called twelve times.

Anyway, long story short - I would now like to change ISPs. Gee, wonder why?

So here I am with my early morning cup of tea, trying to type quietly, with a boy's cat on my lap, as it's HER computer chair. I am in one of the boy's rooms on the newest desktop. I still cannot get the Internet up on my beloved laptop.

I have broadband with Optus at the moment. I'm wondering what others are using and what they can recommend? At the moment I'm on 7GB and 14Gb offpeak (downloads), speed 512.

I am with Exetel
1.5Mb/256Kb and 12Gb Peak time + 36Gb off peak time (after midday).

$50/month

On-line creation of email addresses and account/download status. Email notification of problems/service interruptions.

I won't use the big suppliers as their help lines treat their customers like idiots.

I'm paying the same with the one I'm on and I'm not at all happy with them. I feel for the people who are fairly new to using or setting up the Internet. Their main response to anything I say is to tell me that I need to take either one or all three of the computers to a technician.

I know it's a setting I have wrong that now won't allow the laptop to connect. It's extremely frustrating.

I am now sitting on the edge of the computer chair as the cat reclaimed it while I made a cappuccino and refuses to move over.

I have PMed if you would like to check anything with me.

Hi Leslie

Sorry to hear about your internet problems. We have Internode, and I am extremely happy with them. A basic plan would be 1.5mb/256k, 20Gb for 59.95 a month. I did a lot of research before signing up with them. There are no peak/off peak limitations, and upload traffic is free (which makes your quota go a lot farther). I've been pleased with their customer support, too.

Hope this helps!

We have been with Internode for years, too. First on dialup, now on broadband. No problems or complaints either.

When we changed to broadband we signed up with Bigpond. As we have home & mobile phones with Telstra/Mobilenet we got a good deal with unlimited downloads. We've also found their service to be excellent. Adam is another popular ISP used by a lot of my friends in Adelaide.

another vote for Internode, consistently australias best ISP, wins all the surveys by miles, has the best network in and out of australia (including their own servers in the US)

We're with Pacific for our home system & for work I'm with Netspace. Both I find terrific if there's a problem - but Pacific are easier to get onto. My work's with Netspace because we all use Macs and we have staff (some of who are not very computer savvy) in all states. Netspace offer good national access and very good Mac help desk support.

Leslie, like Chris B I use bigpond broadband on a 12Gb package which started when I had a university student at home who consumed heaps of Mb. We also benefit from the phone, mobile package.

Perhaps if we were starting again I would go wireless only to avoid the problems of damage to cables caused by storm and accidents.

Apart from cable damage the only real problems I have had are partly caused by my antivirus etc package which is quite powerfull and occassionally stops the email program. However, I have never had a problem with the Telstra phone service in helping to fix the problem.

The bigpond plan does not have peak and offpeak, and also does not cut you off if you exceed your allowance but does reduce the download speed. If you are mainly text then 12Gb is probably too big but if you use graphics like my daughter when she visits it consumes a lot.

When I got our laptop, I had our local computer technician come and connect it to the internet. My desktop is connected via a broadband modem and he placed a router inbetween which he programmed to send the signal via wireless to the laptop which has a wireless card. The cost was about $60.00 plus the router.

My wife also uses the laptop at work where she connects via the office network.

I really do not know if one single supplier is good enough that we should all immediately transfer to them.

I have clients with Bigpond and they always seem to be having problems. Another one with problems is Dodo.

I use Westnet and am completely satisfied with them and have recommended them to my dissatisfied clients.

My main client base is rural Western Australia.

Elly