Comments on: The Next G Townsville train torture test: how it worked in practice

By: Arran

Arran — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 23:27:54 +0000

I just came returned from a drive to Quirindi in NSW from the Gold Coast and it was a hopeless affair on my optus connection. Both phone and connection would only work in the major regional centers and not at all in between. I’d like to know how your experience to Townsville would have compared if you were using Optus….poorly I expect. Optus’s 1GB for $20 is enough for most of my needs but it really let me down on the trip. Strangely, I can’t connect at home or at work either as the signal is too poor.

By: Angus Kidman

Angus Kidman — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:05:59 +0000

Yeah, tried a couple of https connections with no obvious problems.

By: jebz

jebz — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 09:16:59 +0000

Did you try any https connections. While using the Telstra nextG network when stationary and logged into webmail via https, the browser would report an IP change and drop the secure connection.

By: Bill

Bill — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 04:06:16 +0000

> It was also rather slow to recognise when a connection had
> disappeared due to lack of signal

You definitely DO NOT want a session connection to drop out if there is a briefish signal interruption (i.e going through an underpass, behind a hill with respect to the transmitter etc). etc etc. This is something which is *essentially different* to any sort of wired connection.

By: Mark E.

Mark E. — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 02:26:18 +0000

Now all you need is a higer gain antenna and your coverage for the train journey will be complete

By: Angus Kidman

Angus Kidman — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:45:25 +0000

I’ve had occasions when the store is speedy, and others where it has taken literally hours to download stuff, even on a wired connection – hence I was curious to see how it coped.

By: Joedy

Joedy — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:00:41 +0000

what are you on about not getting good speeds of the apple store. I get around 100KB’s off my 3 wireleess modem and around 600KB-1.2MB off my optus cable connection

By: Brad

Brad — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:18:06 +0000

Good article showing how technically capable the Next G network is. I swear by it and its the only wireless network I recommend to my friends and clients.

To bypass the buggy Bigpond software you might want to use a modem dialup connection, or better still if you're using a Sierra Wireless device (such as 880U I think I saw in one of your links) you can use their watcher software which is vastly superior. But yes the Bigpond connection client does tend to get confused and requires a reboot on occasions.

I make regular trips throughout various states averaging over 1000km each, and each time I have my laptop and 880U card sitting on the seat next to me. Whilst I certainly don't get full coverage the whole way, I'm surprised at times when I do get it.

Finally your 500MB costing $60 is only pay as you go, obviously with this usage pattern you would be on the 10GB for $129 plan, in this case the 500MB would have cost you around $7.

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 10:01:11 +0000

But was the speed 3G or did it drop to 2G or worse? I can’t believe the cost here in aus, in europe I could travel everywhere on the one account and it cost next to nothing. such is living with so few people in such a large place.