We've gotten spoiled living in Seattle. There's free wifi at coffee shops, whole neighbourhoods (like the U District) that have free wifi, and failing that you can always piggy back off people's unsecured wireless networks.
The biggest shock coming to New Zealand is that you not only have to worry about bandwidth, but you have to think about how much data you are consuming each month. With data caps and overage fees, noone is offering free wifi.
Meanwhile we are staying in a temporary apartment on the edge of the CBD. You can pay for wired internet: $70 NZD per month for 10Gb cap, 1Mb speed. The actual performance is terrible. Their IT guy tells me they are not throttling people and are experiencing severe congestion. Plus their ISP blocks VPNs (or else I am timing out on password validation). I need to connect to two VPNs on a daily basis if I am going to get any work done so let's talk about the Vodem.
This is a cute gizmo from Vodafone that offers 3G broadband. Plug it into a USB port and wait a minute or so while it installs. It contains a flash storage device with the installation software. Pop in a SIM card and away you go.
To its credit, it does work, most of the time. Signal strength is good from everywhere that I have tried in Auckland. VPN connections work just fine.
The downside? Terrible latency, buggy driver software that can't cope with standby or hibernation modes on my laptop, a tendency to go dead after a few hours (name resolution failures), a UI that doesn't actually tell you that you are near your 2Gb cap (for accurate measurements, poke around in the dump of registry keys under File/Save System Information, then click "Extended Information" and scroll to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER], then divide the numbers by 100... you get the picture), and a EULA that doesn't even remotely pertain to the actual product.
Sigh. Soon we will be in a house and we'll be able to sign up for a proper broadband plan. Meantime I am limping along.
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1 comment:
Hi Simon,
I have also recently arrived in NZ, living in temporary apartment and wanting broadband. So, your comments are of interest in my own decision on broadband.
Signing up to Vodafone is looking attractive, and I am wondering if you have any further advice on the practicality and value of Vodafone versus DSL? I have a company paid mobile phone, so can live without a landline, but also have a good WiFi router if DSL does end up being attractive.
cheers.
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