alright all.
How did you all get on without the internet when you first arrived, looking for houses and info.
are there estate agents local or did you have to go in to the city.
whos the big names as for as ISP'S are concerned, what are the prices like, dial up and broard band.

vince

Hi Delboy

Immediately upon arrival, register at the local library and you will be able to use the computer/internet there for an hour at a time. Sometimes we were lucky and got longer. Some places you're more likely to have to book than others. You can print things off and pay per page.

We started out on Brighton Caravan Park and they had a coin-in-slot terminal which wasn't too expensive, 2 or 3 dollars an hour if I remember rightly, no printer there though.

We brought a laptop pc with us and were initially held up by having no phone line until we got into a house, then by the fact that our uk modem wouldn't work in Oz and we needed to buy a new one :angry: I was told that internal modems were more likely to be able to have software switch for other countries, but ours was external and without this.

Finally, we had to choose an Oz ISP and came up against a few differences. Phone calls here local via Telstra are flat rate any time of day any length of call 20cents. There are no free ISPs as in uk. ISPs will usually limit you to the amount of megs of download allowed in a month and want to charge more the minute you exceed - so try and quantify your usage so you've got some idea how much you use.


As far as house hunting is concerned....
Most recent house info is always on the websites (look in Links section here). The good ones (our experience is with rentals) go quickly. Several people may put in requests for a particular rental and the owner gets to decide so you may not get the first one you go for - we swallowed our pride and gave them a copy of our bank statement to show that we had funds even though we didn't have work yet!

Hope this helps!
Elaine

Thats great Elaine thank you very much, all i wanted to know.
not really clear on the internet charges though are you saying its more like pay as you go, or are there any deals like freeserve do here ie. penny a minute evenings and weekends.
great reply lots of info.
thanks

Vince :D

:sign13: you have explained it in well, just not so that this thicko can understand it. :doh:
the light at the end of the tunnel is a on coming train :loopy:

You're not alone here Delboy! I want to bring my Laptop over when we holiday in Oz later this year but don't understand how it works!?! :sign69:

I don't want to 'hog' my son and dil's PC and anyway I use Hotmail and Messenger and I wouldn't expect him to put this on his PC.

So I guess I sign up for an ISP in Oz and then just use his 'phone line.....although he may be Broadband by then. :huh:

And what's this about a modem that may not work........?? :( Oh dear - I really must get the 'support package' out and read it! Being a *STSS really has it's problems! At least you're young and understand the jargon!

(*Self Taught Silver Surfer)
:medium smiley:

Hi Ann
Don't worry too much about the modem - when we realised it wasn't working (despite having bought a phone extension lead that plugs into the inevitably different sockets here) I just went into a pc shop with the laptop and showed it to them and asked for something suitable. I paid around $100. A pain but there we are it solved the problem.

Re ISP's, we started out with Dodo as an ordinary dialup connection, their site is at http://home.dodo.com.au/members_home.asp

We are now finally on broadband with TPG, see http://www.tpg.com.au/

Both seem to provide an acceptable service.

We also looked into Australia Online though didn't use them in the end http://www.australiaonline.net.au

If you have a scout around you can see the kind of deals they are offering.

In general, on dialup you'll end up paying a monthly fee to the ISP, plus a per call cost to the phone co. (not dependant on length of call). If you exceed the download limit per month for the ISP plan you are on there will be further costs. We went with Dodo as there was an upper limit to what they would charge each month which made us feel more comfortable!

Elaine

Thanks for that Elaine - I'm sure this old gal will get it all 'sorted' now!!

:thumbs up:

yeah nice one thanks Elaine ;)

I use iprimus....unlimited 4 hour sessions...around 25 dollars a month, cheaper if you tie it in with phone lines.
Has been ok for me

get a yahoo or hotmail address before you go

Andy

:thumbs up: thats bl**dy cheap anit medium 137
thanks andy

Did I mention the iprimus price was for dial up, not broadband?

I think TPG are cheaper for dial up, but never had experience with them.
I use a lot of mb's a month downloading music etc

If you want to compare broadband.....have a look



here

Andy

The website i mentioned in the previous post does not seem to be up to date re pricing etc
visited a couple of sites re broadband and iinet seems to have a good deal, but you have to sign up for phone as well.
Check it Here

I don't know if they are any good, never used them, don't know anyone who does....but it's a big company and the price is good (plus no excess d/load charges)

So,

please do not consider this a recommendation, just me passing on info from my own research!

Andy :cool shake:

Oh boy that took some finding - only 16 pages down the line.

Here it is FredG - work your way down and there's quite a lot of info about Oz providers and websites to look up the finer detail.

Elaine

Elaine,

Thanks for bumping this up - it's useful for me too.

Another query I have, being a definite non-techie, is about how to keep my Internet service when I move out of my house and into my mum's in a couple of month's time.

I have a desktop at the moment which I'll give to my daughter when I move. I'm planning to buy a laptop so that I can keep in touch and make contact with recruitment agencies etc before I land in Aus. I'd be lost without the Net for two months so I need to do something.

I was thinking of getting a Dell Inspiron (5100?) which has WiFi. I don't understand how thjis works but got the impression from somewhere that you can connect to the Net without wires etc as long as there's a phone line in the vicinity.

What I can't work out though is whether I'll need to set up all the wiring etc at my mum's to enable the phone line (it's a BT line) or whether I just need to tell AOL (my broadband ISP) that I've moved to a new address and number.

Can anyone explain in very simple, non-techie language what I need to do?

Elaine M :what?:

Powerstate Credit Union are starting up as an ISP next month. $26.95 per month unlimited time, unlimited downloads.

I am using Optus net - 120 hours a month - unlimited downloads for $29.95 - 5 hour sessions, and carry over unused hours to the next month.

I used AOL for about 6 years but the quality of their service in Adelaide since they changed to a national dial up number has been so poor that I was forced to change.

I haven't come across WiFi but I wonder if this a wireless device that has something to plug into the phone socket instead.

As far as transfering broadband to a new address, AOL should be able to provide the service so long as your daughter is on a telephone exchange capable of handling broadband, but they will probably charge for the privalage. There's no harm giving them a ring and asking if they can do it and how much. :unsure:

You could always go back to a dial-up either with AOL or a different provider but you will need a modem rather than the broadband modem to do this. Again you could ask AOL or pop into Dixons or your local supermaket and they all have installation discs for their own brand of internet service and will install all the right software for it to work.

Hope this is clear enough. :bouncing smiles:

Thanks Howard,

I think I've got it straight now (think being the operative word!).

I must admit I'm a bit worried about buying a laptop in the UK before I emigrate in case I have any problems in Aus and then find the warranty's no good over there.

Dell don't seem to have a subsidiary in Aus so it looks like their international next business day service will be no use to me.

Anyone got any good/bad experiences with laptops and their warranties (or any other reasons for their brand preferences?)

Thanks,

Elaine M (still a bit :what?: )

Hello. I read your post about the Dell Inspiron.

Basically if you want to remain on ADSL you will need to have your mum's phone line enabled at the exchange. A migration fee is usually around £35 or so, a brand new setup is approx £55. If you're remaining with the same provider I suspect you'll be charged the migration fee.

Your laptop will be very unlikely to have ADSL ability built in so you would need an external ADSL modem.

Wi-Fi = Wireless Fidelity. In laymans terms this is the ability to connect wirelessly. If the Dell has built-in Wi-fi you could buy a wireless router and plug this into your phone socket instead, then you could site your PC anywhere within range of the router. You would still need the ADSL enabled at the exchange however, and the wireless router would cost at least double the cost of a ADSL USB modem.

Also you would have to ensure you bought a wireless router that is 802.11g compliant not 802.11b as 11b connects at 11Mbps whereas 11g connects at 54Mbps i.e approx 5 times faster.

Hope this helps.

Hi
Hope you don't mind a reply from someone not in Adelaide :D

But as i was looking I thought I would mention that DELL are in Australia aswell.

Have a look at www.dell.com.au

Hope it helps