Dear Lifehacker, Is there a way to use my phone to provide wifi to my laptop and smart tv so we can say goodbye to our home broadband? I'm flabbergasted at the cost of internet!

Over the past six months, internet service providers have made a raft of changes to their National Broadband Network (NBN) products in a bid to improve transparency with customers. Based on recommendations provided by the ACCC, the changes are supposed to make it easier to compare NBN products between different telcos. Here's what you need to know.

Telstra cops a lot of (hard-earned) crap for its antics, but in the last two years, the company has picked up its Netflix game compared to its competitors. Back in July 2016, Telstra was dead-last in the performance race. Now, it's topping the list, neck-and-neck with the likes of Exetel and Optus.

More Australians are being connected to the NBN than ever before and with this new service comes... a few bumps in the road. Or, a lot of bumps. Okay, a really large bump. For the period between July and December, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) saw NBN complaints rise 203.9 percent compared to the same period last year.

Internet performance firm Ookla has released its broadband speed statistics for Australia, revealing which retailers provide the fastest internet in each city.

Thanks to the metadata retention law, nothing is private anymore. The Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Act 2015 has not just put our privacy at risk, but also the privacy and security of friends, colleagues and loved ones we communicate with. Fortunately, there are steps you can take keep yourself protected.

Dear Lifehacker, I work for myself but the landlord of my building provides my internet. Previously I have been able to download using torrents, but they have recently started blocking me. Is there a work around?

Last week, the US Senate and Congress voted to repeal privacy laws enacted by the Obama administration. Now, ISPs in the United States will be able to sell customer browsing data. Is this something to get up in arms about? If our browsing history is now up for sale, what can we do about it?

People we speak with tend to think about NBN plans in one of two ways. Either they’d like to know about the fastest plans, and focus on 100Mbps, or they want to know the cheapest. Sometimes it’s a combination of both.

Like it or loathe it, the NBN rollout is going full-steam-ahead. The government has reportedly connected over 3 million premises meaning that more and more people each month are asking the same question: which NBN plan should I get?

Many Australians risk losing their phone and internet access in 2017, with their home services cut off if they fail to switch to the National Broadband Network service available in their area. The shutdown date is looming for almost 350,000 Australian homes and businesses. Here's what you need to know.

How does your ISP stack up against the rest in the Netflix stakes? Well, we could descend into fact-absent bickering or, you know, just check out Netflix's own stats for Australia's top service providers. It even has recent data and if you're a Telstra customer, don't expect to win any of these debates in the near future.

It was meant to be the fix for Aussies fed up with getting a raw deal on online content — an internet service provider that let mums and dads sneak into the US Netflix library without needing to know a thing about virtual private networks or Smart DNS. But Yournet never launched — thanks to a letter from Foxtel's lawyers.

In December last year, Internode switched from a tiered plan structure to a single option for its naked broadband offering -- 1000GB for $69.99. While a massive shift from Internode's modus operandi, it syncs with quasi-owner iiNet's plans, so no real surprises there. However, current Internode users looking to change their plans, it does come with a caveat -- all content is metered.

Consumer advocacy group Choice has released results from its Internet Service Provider (ISP) Satisfaction Survey which shows the best - and worst - ISPs when it comes to keeping their customers happy. Here's the verdict.

Dear Lifehacker, I'm currently having internet problems with Optus and the technician is only able to come later next week. As such, I'll be out of service for around nine days, if not more. (Yeah, yeah: first world problems.) So my question is: am I entitled to get some kind of credit for the time I have "lost" on my contract? Also, if I'm on Optus for my mobile and use it for tethering, should I be able to credit the data usage over this time?

Hey Lifehacker, I usually pay my internet account online via my ISP's website using a credit card, and get charged a small amount for a card payment. This is detailed on the web payment page just before I commit to pay so I am aware of the charge. Today the online payment gateway was down so I paid it by phone.

One of the big question marks over the controversial "metadata retention" legislation requiring ISPs to keep detailed records of what Australians do online was how much money the government would cough up to help deal with the increased costs the plan would create. Now we have an official figure: $131 million.

Netflix has been very popular amongst Australians since its launch in March -- so much so that Netflix itself says the speeds we have on offer from Internet service providers aren't fast enough.