As a few of you know, I'm moving to a flat shortly, which means no more home-discounted internet access. :( So what I need to find is an ISP offering low-cost yet reasonably fast (minimum 56k) internet for the new place.

Any tips? Where might I find cheap ADSL, and who has deals on free modems with connections or stuff like that?

Orcon seems cheap...

Orcon is about the cheapest.

I'm with ihug on bliink which is 256k both ways (connects at about 320) 20gb cap and costs $50 a month. Free connection and modem.

This is going to turn into another of those "my internet is this" threads.

Telecom and telstraclear are the same and both are shit. In my opinion look at orcon or ihug.

StudentCard do a deal with Quicksilver

Ah yes, but studentcard are corporate whores and I refuse to associate with them.

Actually they annoyed me with their hard-sell tactics so I have been avoiding them in protest since.

Fair call. I know it fucked off a lot of people. You can buy them online now tho

BUMP!

I talked to ihug. They are offering a broadband starter deal with a 2Mbit connection and 500mb of downloads per month. The next 500mb are 6 cents each, and after 1Gb they throttle you back down to 56k. Suits me since I hardly download any music, video or games.

Free ADSL modem and free connection if you stay with them for 18 months. Total cost? $29.95 a month (with tolls, which takes $10 a month off every plan).

Thoughts? Are they going to screw me over somehow if I join for a year and a half?

You could get the free ADSL modem by joining up with Xtra then immediately changing ISP, since the free modem from Xtra doesn't come with conditions... I'd confirm this with them over the phone though.

I strongly suggest getting an actual router though rather than an ADSL modem, if you can get one for a good price (try trademe). A router makes you practically immune to internet worms.

I wouldn't tie into an 18 month deal myself, as I wouldn't be surprised to see something a lot more decent than the current plans come out sometime between now and then... but do they mean '18 months with ihug' or '18 months with this particular plan'?

You might find you change your mind about this when you actually have a decent connection... at least I did.

Hmm... I'll call Xtra in the morning and ask about plans. If there are any strings attached to their juicy modems, I'll just call ihug straight away. And I'm too broke to even bother with a router, unless they go ridiculously cheap...

The man on the phone simply said "an 18-month plan", so this will have to be confirmed as well (I assume it was 18 months on this plan).

Nah, I'll discipline myself. Between fulltime work and piles of course and Craccum-related reading, I don't have much time for games, or space to download anything large - so a fast but lean plan works fine for me. There's always iPlay for the rest...

Try here. If you do go with an ADSL modem though, get a software firewall of some kind (like Zonealarm) and keep windows well patched.

Mine is 12 months min. Which I am about to break.

They charge you $100 which I assume is to offset the 'free' modem. Bastards.

Hmm. Not sounding too bad. I may just go with the ADSL modem, methinks, since I don't have a credit account for Trademe and would rather not get ripped off. :chiang:

To bump this, we need a 6 month contract in our flat. At the moment Quiksilver with their $40 a month 10GB downloads is looking promising.

Any other thoughts on this, or have I read all there is to know?

That sounds good, a 6 month contract is pretty reasonable. Does it come with free hardware and/or install?

We have to buy the modem and need a landline. I don't know if thats a 6 month contract or 12 month, I reckon we will be lucky to get a 6 month.

Its between 4, possibly 5 people, if that helps.