Fixing my terrible internet was a lot easier than I thought

I don’t know why or when it happened but, at some point over the last decade, I started to think about my internet the same way I thought about my electricity. As a service I was connected to. No more, no less. Consistent and boring. An unchangeable constant.

I wasn’t always like this. Decades ago, when the NBN was a political football and folks got intense about the difference between fibre to the node (FTTN) vs fibre to the premises (FTTP) –  I used to go really in-depth about my internet .

What was the best modem? Where should I place it in my house? What provider should I go with? How will this affect my latency, goddammit? How will this impact my ping?

(No idea what I’m talking about? Check out our guide to everything you need to know about the NBN before you read on.)

I’m not sure why this changed. Most likely it was a combination of factors. First, thanks to my decaying reaction times, I don’t play as many online video games as I used to, so my need for cutting-edge speeds has declined.

But secondly – I had the NBN! My speeds were good enough, right? What was the point of stressing? So I moved on with my life. Problem solved.

Only my problems weren’t solved at all. 

Back in 2019, when I first moved to my current house, my only NBN option was fibre to the curb (FTTC), a service which, by most accounts, was a fairly stable, albeit slightly inferior alternative to the holy grail of FTTP. I got your bog-standard NBN download speed of 50Mbps, and felt like I’d done my job.

Years later, when I was offered an upgrade to FTTP (at a cost) I thought, “I’ll get round to it”.

But I didn’t. 

Connecting the dots

And then the cracks started to show. My FTTC connection device was installed in an obscure corner of my house, which affected the range and quality of my online connection. In certain spots in my home, I frequently had to tether to my phone just to get online. 

Then came the complaints from my kids. As they got older, the quality of our connection affected their ability to play Fortnite and Minecraft sans lag. And if more than three people were actively using the connection on different devices? Forget about it. We were in Buffer City, population: me.  

But for some reason my brain didn’t connect the dots. Despite the fact an upgraded connection was just a handful of mouse clicks away, I had a mental block.

I didn’t think my internet issues were a problem I could solve. I thought of my online issues as a constant, like low water pressure in the bathroom. I simply accepted it, shook my head like, “damn… shame we have terrible internet in our house”.

And I moved on with my life. Because I am a moron.

I can’t remember the exact moment it clicked that I had agency over this issue, but I suspect the NBN’s high speed upgrades had something to do with it.

Long story short, in September last year the NBN got itself a massive upgrade, automatically upgrading wholesale speeds for millions of FTTP users at no extra cost to wholesalers. I watched as people jumped from 100Mbps speeds to 500Mbps speeds overnight and thought, “how do I get a piece of this?”

Turns out I couldn’t, because of my sub-standard FTTC connection.

Time to upgrade

When I actually investigated upgrading to the far superior FTTP, it was way easier than I expected. In seconds I had booked a free appointment for an upgrade and exactly one week later my new connection was installed in a few short hours (and, thankfully, slap bang in the middle of the house). A task that I’d dithered on for years was accomplished with little to no effort or cost and the benefits were huge.

Before my fancy new internet was installed, I downloaded a new video game I was excited to try (Cairn, on the PS5 in case you’re wondering – it’s great!) It took around 20 to 25 minutes to download on my old connection. As a little test, I deleted the game and redownloaded it after I’d upgraded. It rattled down in around 100 seconds. An insane leap.

No more tethering to my phone for the internet. No more juddering if my youngest jumped on Minecraft. No more complaining about lag when my oldest didn’t get a Victory Royale on Fortnite. Smooth as butter. 

Is this heaven?

I think I’ve learned a lesson here, but I’m not sure what. Don’t procrastinate? Don’t think of bad internet as some permanent, insurmountable issue? Every time my connection dropped out, or I had issues with my FTTC connection box I would simply shrug my shoulders and accept my fate.

The reality: if I’d taken ownership over the issues sooner, I could have been enjoying the fruits of a solid FTTP connection with 700Mbps downloads months ago. 

Don’t be like me. Act now! Over the next few months CHOICE is going to be publishing a series of articles to help you optimise your internet connection. When it comes to getting the most out of your internet, the details matter. Stay tuned for more.

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Mark Serrels

Mark Serrels is the Editorial director at CHOICE. Mark oversees content on a wide variety of topics and enjoys making complex subjects easy to understand.  Prior to CHOICE, Mark worked in technology and games journalism. He edited magazines and worked on sites such as Kotaku, Gizmodo and CNET. Mark enjoys communicating the CHOICE mission to the broadest audience possible. He wants all Australians to be informed, entertained and above all, empowered as consumers. Mark has a Master of Arts from the University of Stirling, Scotland.  Find Mark on Twitter or LinkedIn. 

Mark Serrels is the Editorial director at CHOICE. Mark oversees content on a wide variety of topics and enjoys making complex subjects easy to understand.  Prior to CHOICE, Mark worked in technology and games journalism. He edited magazines and worked on sites such as Kotaku, Gizmodo and CNET. Mark enjoys communicating the CHOICE mission to the broadest audience possible. He wants all Australians to be informed, entertained and above all, empowered as consumers. Mark has a Master of Arts from the University of Stirling, Scotland.  Find Mark on Twitter or LinkedIn.