Its now 12 months since my last post and whats changed.Well basically nothing.The broadband in this country suxs.All the hot air about how services have improved amounts to a big fat zero.I for one am still having to download at what can only be described as pathetic speeds, below 50KB/sec

Just finished downloading a 4.73MB file at the supposedly unleashed speed of 17.3KB/s . Thank god for technology .

My speeds were 4500 in tests for download now on xtra go large about 1200. torrents are originally 450kBs-1mbs now im lucky to get 30kBs. My original plan was xtra with 1gb cap

Well, I finally upgraded to max down/max up with Xnet (Flood plan) and here are my results as at 6:40pm today:

Download Speed: 6837 kbps (854.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 717 kbps (89.6 KB/sec transfer rate)

Not too bad considering I did this during peak time. My modem/router tells me my line speed is 8128 Kbps down, 864 Kbps up.

Xtra's Go Large IMO is totaly internationaly shaped and or rate limited full time!.

To:

LA 89kbps
UK 121kbps
AUS 112kbps
NZ 5300kbps

You cant call that broadband.

is anyone else getting slow international speeds? I cant download anything over 15-30 kb/s

Because whats the point in testing for national speed? (other then verifying that Xtra is screwing you) Every time I call the ADSL helpdesk up to complain about my speed they ask me to run a speedtest on the jetstreamgames site, Not helping at all, I think their stalling, they know the international speed is slow.

They should have mentioned that the speeds will be damn slow in those advertisments.

Heya :)

I did some test's at speedtest.net and everything is total crap. One thing is, it thinks I'm in Europe - tinpot.co.nr/~michaelmu/Speed.jpg - now.. and for the tests...

Test Number 1:
London - 83kbps Down - 123kbps Up

Test Number 2:
San Josie (where the Southern Cross Link Hooks up to): 79kbps Down - 131kbps Up

Test Number 3:
Auckland - 4143kbps Down - 113kbps Up

To me it seems the Southern Cross Link is Overloaded... Or Telecom is capping EVERYONE on go large on the Link...

Heres the Speedtest Images (in order)

Test1: http://www.speedtest.net/result/64445522.png
Test2: http://www.speedtest.net/result/64445819.png
Test3: http://www.speedtest.net/result/64446008.png

Now lets all watch the movie at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0oy1eiyOZY (if we can even stream it) for inspiration of what we are going to do when the loop finally unbundles!

download = 2139 kbps
upload = 79 kbps

Before Unleashed with Ihug in Glenfield, would average 2,500 to 3,400Kbps down and 128kbps up. Now it goes up to 4,000kbps on Ihug's 7.6Mb plan, but this weekend has been steady at below 1,000. Unleashed in my opinion has ruined online gaming for me as I now suffer from lagg too often.

I have had to change to a so called business plan max/max to have at least some form of speed,
unfortunately it is still around a 400ms ping and 512/256 for international traffic which is not as fast my my connection can go, come on get more international bandwidth and fix the bad ping times

I've been having Earth Shattering speeds for the last 2 weeks.

On my old explorer plan of 5gb per month i had download speeds of 2600Kb/s. But now? on Go Large? 100kb/s and reducing.

Unleashed... ha... ha... I'm getting a download speed of just around 35 KB/s from a direct download site in the US... Don't even start me on bittorent, 6KB/s paradise on there. Can anyone recommend a good company for me to switch to?

I have been begging to be telecome to ununleash me - prior to unleashing speedtests - consistently 2800-3200 at peak times - upload 132 - since leashing - speedtest average over a few nights 300 - as low as 200k some nights. Worse than that .. i am less than 100m to an exchange and connect to exchange at 7616 - when i connect to the 125 xxx xxx range i get these speeds - for some reason after multiple disconnects last night it connected me to the 222 xxx xxx range - guess what peak times (8pm) download speed 3103k - how can they call this as fast as my line allows when its the plan im on not the line that is restricting me - i put it to telecom and the response was thats to bad you cant pick your ip range but the 125 is slow and thats where we put all the go large users. (BTW im not a heavy user not that its possible anyway averaging 8gb per month) What a load of shit - cant play battlefield as ping is terrible - skype is almost unsuable as well - i will someone could do something about this ..

ISP's describe the supply of broadband as a "best effort" service.
What say we pay half the bill and state "its our BEST EFFORT at paying"

Yup slowed down alright.

was 1640 down 180 up
now 1248 down 160 up

Linksys WAG-54G router status page.

Changed to Xtra Pro (max down, max up)
5937kbps down, 667kbps up, so a distinct improvement however
network latency still often poor though (yet another one of those stats missed as important by the providers and even soemtimes your mag as it affects many activities esp VOIP!)

Speeds have dropped by half.
Noticed after changing from the adventure to "Unleashed" plans, we are put into a pool of IP address's starting with 125.X.X.X.
Ping response times in the 500ms also.

Was happy on old Explorer 1700 kbps av. now on Go Large download 677kbps/up 128 kbps!

Have just done a check on my Telecom Explorer/Go Large??? plan speeds and have gone down from 2565/124 Kbps
to 2271/122 Kbps.
Can't say that I'm very impressed with their max speed upgrade.

Well here is part of an email i recieved today from xtra,

I apologise that the Go Large plan has not meet your expectations. We are aware some customers have been experiencing congestion and slow connections speeds on the Go Large plan. We apologise for this and we have made adjustments to our network to rectify the issue and continue to monitor the situation very closely.

ADJUSTMENTS! - here is my reply,

"We apologise for this and we have made adjustments to our network to rectify the issue" - have you like hell.

Monday Nov 6th 10.54am - Your line speed is approximately 238.8 Kbps or 29.3 K bytes/sec

If this is an adjustment (considering my router shows 4900kbps line speed) then you are sadly way out!

Its just a complete joke and think you now should be honest with your customers and confess to the problems you are having, what you are doing and when a permanent solution will be effective. And stop this self denial and show the real network status on your support page please - its slightly comforting to users when they see you know about a problem too.

I would appreciate it if you forward this on to your senior management team to show them that their service is not the glorified thing that their advertising suggests and that customers are not stupid.

Well hopefully I will be connected back to Orcon in the next couple of days so pray this level of service will be a thing of the past.

One soon to be ex-xtra customer

Download speed 2071kbps
Upload speed 96kbps

It is a total joke. I used to be on Xtra's Adventure plan and was happy with a download speed of 1915 Kbps, now that I am on "Go large' look at my latest speed test
Last Result:
Download Speed: 434 kbps (54.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 82 kbps (10.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
It is simply not good enough. I run a home computer business in New Plymouth and this week has been absolute hell with the slow broadband. All effected people should get a refunds of their broadband charges from Telecom. It must be time that the consumers watchdog stepped in and demand answers!

Line speed tests for the last few days in South Wairarapa, on Max/Max.

20/10/06 9:20pm
Download Speed: 1989 kbps (248.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 131 kbps (16.4 KB/sec transfer rate)

26/10/06 - 9:35pm
Download Speed: 409 kbps (51.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 95 kbps (11.9 KB/sec transfer rate)

Download Speed: 1788 kbps (223.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 132 kbps (16.5 KB/sec transfer rate)

Download Speed: 1405 kbps (175.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 132 kbps (16.5 KB/sec transfer rate)

28/10/06 01:01
Download Speed: 1956 kbps (244.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 131 kbps (16.4 KB/sec transfer rate)

2/11/06 8:37pm
Download Speed: 1569 kbps (196.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 122 kbps (15.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

Download Speed: 1467 kbps (183.4 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 126 kbps (15.8 KB/sec transfer rate)

3/11/06 8:57pm
Download Speed: 1973 kbps (246.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 692 kbps (86.5 KB/sec transfer rate)

4/11/06 11:19am
Download Speed: 994 kbps (124.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 686 kbps (85.8 KB/sec transfer rate)

After going on the Go Large plan I am NOW

THIS IS NOT MISPRINT!!!!!

180 kbs DOWN**************
128 UP

was 2.2 mbs

Xtra say thats just the way it is now and I can't change back

am F*&ded off!!!!!!!!!

Orcon ADSL Max (kbps)

Before (average of 5):
down 3500, up 515

After (average of 5):
down 5500, up 610

Latency also improved when interlacing turned off by request, but offline for 18 hours.

i'm with xtra and was on explorer 3.5Mps/128kbps plan.

go large is max/128k
go express is max/max
speeds are average

before oct 26
3.3Mbps / 120kbps

on oct 27 when i changed to go large
1.9Mbps / 80kbps

on oct 28 when i changed to go express
4.7Mbps / 490kbps

on oct 30 when i changed back to go large
1.9Mbps / 80kbps

on Nov 1 when i changed back to go express again
4.7Mbps / 490kbps

are you noticing a pattern?

Before the Unleashing Download was
3370 .Up unknown
Today at 8pm- according to xtra site test
1st test D/l 4172 U/L 511
2nd test D/L 4139 U/L 507
3rd test D/L 17248 U/L 2113

Do these numbers have any meaning? I think they are like statistics.

Well after a day from hell on this "Go (Large) and get lost" plan I am calling it a day and returning to Orcon. Its gonna cost more money but what the heck, Orcon at least deliver the goods reliably.

So after being told all my initial broadband problems were caused by a phone extension cable in my room - when it wasn't, then losing my connection totally on Tuesday and now today (Thursday) I'm getting no more than 500Kbps (max for me is approx 4000kbps) plus I've tried to download a Ubuntu Linux DVD iso image and all three times it has had a bad md5 checksum - oh, and not forgetting my streaming media is a total joke, I have requested a move back to Orcon and have to xtra to "Go Whistle" for the disconnection fee and months broadband fee.

If you are feeling like you have been had with this plan I suggest you do the same.

What a week!

To be fair I thought I had better post an update. For the last 3 days I have been (mostly) back up to my "pre-unleashed" download speed of a whisker over 2000Kbps. Still no better than what I had before the so-called unleashing, but at least it's no longer way down like it was for the first few days after the change.

I would like to suggest that a more accurate test of your true speed is to download a large test file from your ISP's server. Most of the ISP's have these files available from ftp or sometimes http. Slingshot, for instance, provide a 700mb file and larger. Start the download and after a few minutes your download manager will show an average speed that in my opinion is more accurate than doing speed tests via a third party provider (for numerous reasons).

Actrix Blistering (Max/Max)

Last Result (5.30pm):
Download Speed: 6319 kbps (789.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 578 kbps (72.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

before the change -
2006-10-14 21:02:15 download :3482 upload: 479

I'm on the Cloverlea exchange in Palmy North.

Xtra (Max down/128k up)

2/11/06 @1240hr

Download: 1548kbps
Upload: 122kbps

It's no wonder Xtra changed their 3.5Mbps/192kbps to MAX download because they know it'll never ever achieve 3.5M. So by using the work "maximum", they've covered their ass for not promising a number!

Dear Xtra

Please change me back to the old restricted speed plan. I no longer wish to have max speed. I preferred my old (consistent) speed of 3.3Mbps and find the new (variable) super fast speed of 1.1Mbps a little on the slow side of life.

no regards

Just tested the speeds
1876 down and 78 up
XTRA and in Wilton Wgtn

No speed difference for me:

Download Speed: 1440 kbs

Upload Speed: 126 kbs

Telecom advised me that it hasn't been implemented throughout Tauranga yet!!

The City Of Snails? I'm in a bloody great tower bolck in Manukau City (see previous post) Just now I got these lightning-fast results, Download Speed: 131 kbps (16.4 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 58 kbps (7.3 KB/sec transfer rate)What the f*** is going on???

You may want to extend these speeds tests to international traffic - if so try,

http://www.speedtest.net/

you can then test your connection speeds to the various parts of the world. I am pretty unhappy with what I see in general.

I'm on the downward slide too. Last test was 489Kpbs (131 upload). In the weekend I started at about 1500Kbps, and since then it has got slower each time I've checked. I'm 2km from the Harewood exchange in Christchurh, on an Orcon 3.5M up/128K down plan. And to think I had complained to Orcon about getting "only" 2 Mbps when I first switched to the 3.5Mbps plan!

Unleashed!!??

Now on Xtra Go Large calling which was not changed automatically I had to do it manually on my rollover date of 27 October.

Test on 28 October 2006 at 09:20pm.

Download 1744

Upload 129

Is this a joke!

What's happened? Before the change I was

Download: 2100 kbps
Upload: 130 kbps

Now:

Download: 380 kbps
Upload: 128 kbps

On the 'old' Explorer plan.

Spoke to Telecom and they reset the DSLAM port yesterday. For an hour after this I was at 1248 kbps down, but then it returned to slower than slow.

I have not been upgrade to the new plan yet, hopefully we will be upgrade on the 15th of Nov (The end of our billing month)

I just did a speed test (on NZDSL) (12:25 pm (midday on a Saturday & this is what I got:

Download Speed: 1385 kbps (173.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 127 kbps (15.9 KB/sec transfer rate)

so at the moment it looks like our download speed is getting worse :-( then before.

On Xtra Go Express plan (max-max),
There is a distinct improvement, typically getting 4.5 to 5.5 Mbps down and 420-440kbps up. Best so far (Saturday morning) has been 7.25Mbps down and 662kbps up when net traffic was low.

Mine hasnt changed:

2560kbps/128kbps.

But when i talked to the helpdesk at xtra the guy told me to wait a couple of weeks first as not everyone will be unleashed in one go.

Apologies for the size of the post, but these guys really do need shaking.

After is worse for me.

Prior: Down/990 & Up/180
After: Down/712 & Up/132

I am worried that it seems to be dropping even further every time I check it as I got 880-odd the first test and it has dropped every time over the past several attempts.

The saga of the change itself... On Saturday (28 Oct) we discovered ours was down when we arrived home. Four hours later, waiting and hoping it would magically come right and using my mobile phone with laptop to connect and check for any outages on Xtra’s home site (”No known problems„) I finally realised I would have to call their helpline. Called and waited, and waited, and waited, etc. After what seemed an eternity, listening to Dave Dobbin singing ”We are loyal„ and several other songs specifically chosen because I don’t like them, I got a human! She was delightfully pleasant and covered off the usual, ”can you see your modem?„, ”how many lights are showing?„, etc. I patiently answered the questions through to a point where she realised I did know what I was talking about and passed me on to a technician.

He started down a similar track so I pleasantly pulled him up with, ”I have been in IT for 150 years and my house is wired and wireless for d_mned near everything. I know there are no problems at this end.„ Finally, he admitted he could see my port at the exchange thought it was communicating with me at 992 (which agreed with my DSE router S/W) so the problem was at their end. Only then did he admit that they were migrating everyone’s plans to the new structures and some had not transferred correctly so were not recognising the new accounts. I said, ”I don’t suppose anyone had enough nous to put that in your help page„, and he said that very few people were affected. What I refrained from saying was, ”Good luck buddy… You probably have several thousand calls on the way as people finally give in and decide they have to waste over an hour of their time calling your helpline„. Anyway, he thought that was the problem and tried to recreate my account unsuccessfully a couple of times. Finally he sought someone else’s help and suddenly it was working.

I did suggest that whilst he was in there he could at least double my speed and gave him the sob story that I have given Telecom many times. I accepted it at 1600 in the days when you were able to reject it if it was under 3000 and since then it has dropped to the point where I can’t get more than 992 on a good day. I said my drop was directly down to Telecom continuing to add more and more customers to their already overloaded lines. To his credit, he agreed it was, which is directly in conflict with all the previous technician’s claims that it is simply because I am so far from the exchange and I am lucky to be getting what I am. There is a junction box about a block and a half from my house that is served by fibre-optic but they say they can’t (er, won’t…?) connect me to that one.

The net result of their change is that my line speed is exactly the same (as bad) as it was prior). Sorry Telecom, in your defence you do a lot of things well, but your broadband service sucks.

Well as far as our little town is concerned they gave us a hotrod but forgot to change the original engine, just whacked on some mags and painted the bodywork.
Its all rather depressing remaining at less than 1Mb.

Ihug Max/128 - 2150/132. Not any better than my previous 2Mb/128 plan. And Ihug's new plans are much worse than their competitors...

Just an update to my previous post, TelstraClear upgraded my connection to Max within hours, and it's now testing at 6171/442. I'm the same Chris mentioned on the table above (3400/130), and I'm in Whakatane.

Add my last comment, please

Ihug - Starter (3.5Mbps/128Kbps) at East Tamaki Area
Download Speed: 3033 kbps (379.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 127 kbps (15.9 KB/sec transfer rate)

I quite fear judge that upload speed. I compared the XTRA and iHug price. XTRA "GO EXPRESS" has maximum speed both Download 7.5Mbps and Upload 0.8Mbps and 2Gb Limit per month $49.95. But iHug don't have one product. I see other Slingshot and Orcon have available under $49.95 for maximum upload. It's not 128Kbps is boo boo !

Download:6270 kbps Upload: 656kbps

Note: *I changed the plan from Xtra Explorer to Xtra Pro on 26th of Oct*

Router shows:
Downstream Rate:8000 Kbps Upstream Rate:800 Kbps

Have been getting 1896-1950 kbps regulaly on the GO plan.Changed plan to GO LARGE on 26th, today 27th the speed has changed as follows: 9.30am 2083 kbps,12pm 1269 kbps,4.59pm 255kbps. What a joke, it has been a one way slide for me... and it costs 10 bucks extra for the priviledge.

Speedtest Result:
2638kbps / 538kbps
Router Connection Status Shows:
3136kbps / 704kbps

Not a lot of change, too far from the exchange. This is Max/Max for me.

Man no change what so ever ..... we were on around 3.5 before, and now that its changed over we only on 2464 kbps. I was talking to a guy from xtra and he did some tests on our line etc and said we were gonna get 5.3MB/s ? whats with that

Well, hate to break a pattern but...

Download 6276kbps
Upload 503kbps

Made a difference for me...
(Xtra Pro - Max/Max)

Unleashed ... BullS??T
Its got slower ...
I'm putting it down to completely inadeqate backhaul from the DSLAMS.

990kbps down and 483kbps up. Orcon fullspeed up and full speed down Auckland CBD.

Ihug

Downstream 1784 kbps
Upload Speed 89Kbps

On a 2Mbps/128K plan

No way am i changing my ihug plan.Im on a 40GB peak + 40Gb off peak plan for $80.Now its like.. 20GB for $80!!

With the new speeds:
4212kbps / 132kbps

Have I got NZ's slowest broadband?

Last Result:
Download Speed: 255 kbps (31.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 121 kbps (15.1 KB/sec transfer rate)

Just tried a second test today - now the download is about half the speed it was before removal of limiting.
960kbps / 410kbps
From this I would suggest perhaps he exchange I'm on is over subscribed. I'm in suburban Napier.

Download Speed: 2133 kbps (266.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 129 kbps (16.1 KB/sec transfer rate)

Now getting 3809/135 on a Max/128 connection. I'm going to ring TelstraClear tomorrow and request a change to Max/Max, but that might not happen until next month.

Telstraclear PDQ Max
Mine's actually got slower downstream.....
1487kbps / 417kbps

Same ole same ole here:

Download Speed: 2147 kbps (268.4 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 128 kbps (16 KB/sec transfer rate)