With the rollout of the NBN progressing, there have been plenty of people complaining about poor performance after being switched. Given many people were previously connected to ADSL that's a surprise. My experience of ADSL is that performance is highly variable. But with the ACCC interested in speeds and how they are measured, NBNCo is taking a proactive step by looking at the quality of the copper in people's homes.

SHOTS FIRED? A cheeky advert for internet service provider TPG has been doing the rounds online. It certainly doesn’t paint the NBN in a positive light. In fact, it explicitly depicts the beleaguered network as a downgrade.

Remember NBN's address checker tool? Despite a series of upgrades, the site never did a great job of providing an accurate answer on when you were getting connected. Now, NBN has rolled out yet another tweak to the search engine that actually makes it useful.

We talk a lot about the NBN, but for millions of Australian homes ADSL2+ is still the technology that delivers us Netflix, porn and news about Donald Trump. Such is 2017.

For example, my house is still at least a year from an NBN connection, but I'm also out of contract on my home broadband, and I know that there are better deals available now to get on board with. So why wait?

Internet service providers are promising they will spend more money to ensure higher speeds for customers using the National Broadband Network, but it remains unclear how much difference that will actually make.

Users of the high-speed network have become increasingly vocal about congestion problems, especially during evening periods when thousands of people are watching streaming services like Netflix. That problem can occur even if customers are paying extra for one of the faster speed tiers the NBN provides.

I'm about three weeks away from moving house which means I need to start getting serious about choosing service providers for my core utilities: water, gas, electricity, internet access and telephony. I'm happy with my existing electricity retailer so I'll be taking them with me when I move and the phone is covered as I haven't had a landline for about five years. I'll shop around for a gas deal and I have no choice when it comes to water. But the one that has me most concerned is internet access.

Given the NBN isn't likely to hit my new address for about 18 months and it will most likely be over HFC what do I need to think about?

Are you ready for Australia's spring rain broadband blues? It's been a dry winter, but the spring downpours are set to trigger the seasonal ADSL slowdown as Telstra's pits flood – drowning the country's ageing copper network. Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot home users can do about it.

Dear Lifehacker, Optus says it will cut off my home phone and cable internet on September 9 2017. (I have to take the NBN.) I contacted NBN and they say I have until October 2018 to make a decision. Who is correct?

Two trains leave their stations and travel towards one another. Michelle is on Train A and is scrolling through her Instagram feed. Ben is on Train B and listens to Spotify while reading the news. Forty-five minutes later, the trains pass one another. Who has used the most data?

Brief news items of note for Lifehacker readers, including: Apple's "11 rules for success" revealed, pro-vegan docudrama What the Health, 55 NBN workers sacked.

By 2020, every household in Australia is expected to connect to the NBN - and those who don't will have a raft of telecommunications products and services switched off. The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) has put together an infographic explaining five things you need to know to ensure the big switch runs as smoothly as possible.

We thought we were going to enjoy 100Mbps of speedy internet access. Then the politicians got involved and we ended up with something of a dog's breakfast - or dog's vomit according to some. So, what are the connectivity options that the NBN will deliver and how do they differ? Let's take a look.

For the residents of one of Sydney's tallest buildings, the arrival of the national broadband network has spelt the end of fast and affordable high-speed internet. Six years ago, the residents of Elan tower in Kings Cross paid Telstra to weave "state of the art" hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) cables through the 40 floors, and since then have been enjoying download speeds of 100Mbps.

But last year, NBN ordered Telstra to scrap the HFC system and move customers onto its fibre-to-the-building (FTTB) technology, which it had installed using the building's 20-year-old copper phone lines.

Every man and his dog is launching NBN plans, but there's very little difference between one and the next. But the nation's existing telcos have a trick up their collective sleeves.

Residents of Elan Tower in Sydney's Kings Cross are used to 100Mbps download speeds, thanks to the hybrid fibre coaxial cable they paid Telstra to install six years ago.

Now the building is being forced onto NBN's copper-based fibre-to-the-building network. The copper telephone wire in the building, travelling up 40 floors, is 20 years old.

For as much as we all want a stable, blazing-fast internet connection at home, for a lot of people, fixed connections are just not working out. If this sounds painfully familiar, it might be time to consider mobile broadband.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has pledged to get tough on any Internet Service Providers that mislead consumers about National Broadband Network speeds. But how do you know if you’re getting a good deal when you connect to the NBN? How do you know if you’ll be getting the high-speed connection you were promised?

NBN needs to abandon copper-based Fibre to the Node (FTTN), says lobby group Internet Australia. In its latest attack, the organisation is claiming it's "essential for Australia's economic and social development" to abandon the technology in favour of Fibre to the distribution point. And no, it says, it's not too late.

Telecommunications companies are misleading customers over broadband internet speeds and the worst offenders will likely face prosecution over dodgy advertising by the end of the year, the consumer watchdog says.

Chairman Rod Sims said the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) would conduct "compliance sweeps" of broadband marketing and telco websites later this year in a bid to keep telcos honest about speeds available on the national broadband network.