Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jan Courtney on August 1, 2012 at 8:11pm

Caroline,  it never was looking good for the taxpayer.

 

No wonder the states are reluctant to allow gillard and her crew to run the NDIS.  They'll stuff that up too -you can bet your socks on it.

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Permalink Reply by Dr Caroline Wright on August 1, 2012 at 11:42pm

Our little town of St Helens is currently getting attached to the NBN. It probably goes without saying that it is part of Labor territory and always has been since we have lived here.

What is good though, Telstra has sent out information booklets to all households about the process of becoming connected and the deals available for fixed line, mobiles, and NBN services. A Telstra Van is parked down the town and all residents are invited to visit and discuss their needs. They are not offering any deductions for fixed line rentals for pensioners or seniors like the Government said that they would be doing.

Some of their available packages are quite reasonable and perhaps that is why their shares are increasing in value.

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Permalink Reply by Dr Caroline Wright on August 3, 2012 at 8:28pm

But will he make a difference to timelines and costs. I do not believe that the failure to adhere to the timeline was all to do with the negotation time taken to reach a deal with Telstra.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/nbn-co-board-adds-...

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Permalink Reply by Dr Caroline Wright on August 7, 2012 at 8:30am

It seems that Stephen Conroy is reluctant to publish NBN Report as it may not reflect well on its current progress to date.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/nbn-co-fai...

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Permalink Reply by Dr Caroline Wright on August 7, 2012 at 3:24pm

Perhaps the reason why Stephen Conroy is reluctant to publish the Report is contained in the following:

http://www.cando.org.au/updates/113-the-nbn-scam-already-an-abject-...

Just look at the possible real cost which will not show up in Labor Budget estimates!!

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Permalink Reply by Dr Caroline Wright on August 8, 2012 at 9:00am

Failure to meet NBN targets are still in news headlines of The Australian newspaper.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/nbn-co-fai...

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Permalink Reply by Dr Caroline Wright on August 8, 2012 at 7:53pm

On the 7.30 Report on ABC1 tonight we were told that the NBN is currently 6 months behind schedule and will cost an extra $1.4 billion than the original costing.

Turnbull opined that the problem is that there is too much Government control over the implementation and no room for the corporate sector, that is, it is a monopoly and thus not good for the country.

It is currently estimated that it will be completed in June 2021.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/national-broadba...

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Permalink Reply by Bob Stewart on August 9, 2012 at 6:57am

Deloitte Access Economics business outlook finds the state's "resource-related pick-up" is under threat, and South Australia remains "on the wrong side" of the nation's two-speed economy” (AN July 23) Just another unbelievable throw away comment. It was Access Economics who made the grand prophecy to justify their fat NBN fee that,"One of the implications of the NBN is that it will enable a more competitive economy,a more dynamic economy, throughout the whole economy." Another throw away comment.

Put me in charge. Hell,I would want more than "implications" to spend $36 billion and then another $5b of other people's money
Bob Stewart

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Permalink Reply by Dr Caroline Wright on August 9, 2012 at 9:42am

You want to be in charge of a lot Bob and you still have not mastered the scone recipe yet?

But knowing you you would give it a really good go.

Fond regards

Caroline

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Permalink Reply by Dr Caroline Wright on August 9, 2012 at 10:24am

Now this is an interesting development regarding the NBN roll-out.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/in-depth/revised-nbn-to-re...

Home owners will now have to opt out of connection rather than choose to opt in to be connected to NBN. This is a very telling development as it means that the government is not happy with the number of households and businesses taking up the option of connecting to NBN. 

At the same time the present Labor Government is attempting to make it more difficult for changes to the NBN roll-out after the next election when the Liberal National Party is in power.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/in-depth/deals-sown-up-bef...

But Telstra will be paid the agreed amount as soon as possible. I am wondering if this have any effect on the bottom line budget estimates for the NBN roll-out.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/nbn-to-pay-telst...

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Permalink Reply by Phillip Watson on August 9, 2012 at 2:45pm

Yes Alan, that's pretty much it.

They have changed from opt-in to opt-out, which makes far more sense. There is no charge for your house to be physically connected (there never has been a charge for this). You only pay if you take up an active service, in which case you'll pay a monthly fee in the same way as you do now for your phone/ADSL service. There's no line rental though, so instead of paying say $30/month for a phone line, plus $30/month for ADSL, there will just be the single monthly charge for the NBN. The cost varies based on the retailer (ISP) and the broadband speed you choose. Currently prices range from about $35 to $100 per month.

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Permalink Reply by Phillip Watson on August 9, 2012 at 5:35pm

alan mikkelsen said:

Thanks, Phillip. Couple of dumb questions:

1) Presumably the existing phone wiring within the house will still be used? We have separate phone and business lines, plus a business fax line. (Which I know is crazy, but .....)

2) As small-time users with our own tiny 'home network' running N3660 v 6.0 for security protection, I get terribly confused by references to 'proxy servers'. I understand 'secure' (encrypted) sites such as provided by the banks, ISPs, CCard companies, many businesses on their payment / transaction pages and so on, and feel comfortable operating on any https /'padlocked' link. Am I right, feeling that way?

3) Without setting anything special up, does N360 effectively work as a 'proxy server' for me? I expect not, but for small (home, small office) users, is that an issue at all?

Cheers

alan 

How they do the wiring in your house is essentially up to you. Obviously your situation is not the 'norm', so it's a bit more complicated than most would be, and you will have to make some decisions when the time comes.

The NBN box includes 4 data ports (one of which would normally be active) and two analog phone ports (which is up to you whether they are active or not.) They can, for example, connect the two analogue phone ports into your in-house copper wiring, and you can then use them as two separate lines as you do now. You could also set up an unlimited number of VOIP lines by using appropriate hardware such as a VOIP router, in which case you could attach your existing lines to the ports on that router. Note that some ISPs on the NBN include unlimited free VOIP "phone lines", each with a different number of course.

You would normally connect your router to the data port, and it would operate in essentially the same way as it does now, just using the NBN for internet connection instead of ADSL. The N360 software will work no differently to the way it works now.

(BTW, the other three data ports are so you can have multiple accounts, should you so desire. eg, say a house is being shared by four people and they each want their own internet account rather than fighting over the bill. With the NBN they can each get a separate account, but still only need the one set of NBN "wires" running into the house.)

An https connection such as the examples you gave is perfectly secure. It means that no-one can read the information travelling between your computer and the server you're connected to (eg the bank). 

Don't worry too much about secure proxy servers. You don't need to use one, and probably never will. I just used them as an example of a method to bypass prying eyes to an even greater degree, as they could also hide the address of the server you're looking at (eg instead of a 'spy' seeing a stream of unreadable data coming from "westpac.com", they'd see a stream of unreadable data coming from "hidemyass.com").

Currently most people use a proxy server to hide their own IP address, rather than the server address they are visiting. For example, if you send an email via a web client such as Hotmail, your home IP address will be attached to the message, so the receiver would know you are with (eg) Telstra, and authorities could (with Telstra's help), find out exactly who you are. However, if you sent that email by going to hotmail via a proxy server, then the receiver would see the sending IP address as belonging to (eg) hidemyass.com. Therefore, for the receiver and authorities to track you down, they'd need help from both your ISP and the proxy operator, which would probably prove difficult since they tend to be located overseas.

Hope that explanation didn't leave your head spinning!

 

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