Broadband FAQ

Understanding Amnet's Shaping

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• What happens if I reach my plan’s monthly allowance?

  If you reach your monthly plan allowance for either of our plans download allowances, the speed of your broadband will be shaped (slowed down) to 128kbps (download and upload speed) during that period. For example if you exceed your Peak Allowance your speed will be slowed to 128kbps between 7:00am and 12:00am, however it will return to full speed during Off-Peak time.
  

  Please note:
  

  • The monthly usage on your account is calculated based on your billing anniversary. Your billing anniversary refers to when your service is connected, for instance if your billing anniversary is the 15 of each month your account usage will be reset on the 15 of each month. 
    
  • On your next billing date, shaping will be automatically lifted and your monthly usage reset.
  • Alternatively if you are shaped you can purchase an Additional Allowance Pack from Amnet. This service gives you more download allowance for the billing cycle, removing shaping from your broadband service.

• How will I know if I'm nearing my monthly limit?

  Amnet will automatically send you a courtesy email when usage of your account reaches 75% of your monthly download allowance.

• How will I know if my connection is being shaped?

  When you exceed your download limit, we will automatically send you a courtesy email when shaping is applied to your account.

• How does Amnet's shaping work?

  At Amnet we provide customers flexi-shaping. That means we only shape customers on the allowance quota they have exceeded. For example if you have exceeded your Peak Allowance (but not your Off-Peak Allowance), your broadband service will be shaped between 7:00am and 12:00am, however shaping will be removed during the Off-Peak period and your service will be returned to normal speed. 

  If however you are on one of Amnet legacy plans (Basic / Peering Allowance) your account will be shaped if you exceed either allowance.
  

• What speed is my connection 'shaped' to?

  128kbps upload and 128kbps download speed.

• How will I know if shaping has been removed/reset?

  We will automatically send you a courtesy email when your broadband service speed has been restored to normal. 

• What is the account "billing date"?

  The billing date is the date on which your billing period commences (this is shown on your invoice and is usually the monthly anniversary of the date on which your Amnet service was ordered). Both usage and shaping control systems will be aligned with your account billing date.

• How can I get unshaped or how do I upgrade if I am reaching my monthly limit?

  You can return your service to full speed with Amnet's Additional Allowance Pack service. This service allows you to purchase an additional download allowance for your current billing cycle, thus restoring your service to full speed. To purchase an Additional Allowance Pack log into My Account member tools.
  

   

  Alternatively, shaping will automatically be removed on your billing anniversary. If you believe you will continue to exceed your plan allowance, please log into My Account member tools, enter your username and password when prompted, to change your plan online.

  
  

• If I have exceeded my download allowance significantly will an Additional Allowance Pack still help me get unshaped?

  Yes, in the event you have exceeded your download allowance significantly our Additional Allowance Packs service will still help you get unshaped. The purchase of an Additional Allowance Pack will be applied above what you have download and restore you service to full speed.

   

  For example if your allowance is 10GB and you download 13GB, the additional allowance will be applied on top of the 13GB. At the same time, your service will be unshaped allowing you to use the new Additional Allowance Pack.  

• How does Amnet monitor & assess my usage?

  Usage is accurately measured on the traffic downloaded or uploaded, by you, from outside of Amnet’s network (for example international or interstate websites). Traffic on Amnet’s network, such as traffic from Amnet’s Gaming Network, is not counted by Amnet. Plus, Amnet does not count uploads towards your download allowance, unlike some of the bigger providers.

   

  Please note: While Amnet displays upload information in our Traffic Usage tool, this is for display purpose only.

  
  

• What download allowance options are available?

  We offer various plans with monthly download limits from 1.5GB through to 300GB per month. Please check the download allowances available to you online by logging in to My Account and enter your username and password when prompted, to view available plans.

• Is my unused download allowances carried over to the next month?

  No, your download allowances are forfeited and reset at the commencement of your next billing period.

• Do you block any ports?

  Amnet does not block any ports.

Understanding Amnet's Download Allowances

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• What does 'Peak+Off-Peak' mean?

  At Amnet we divide our plans allowances into two separate quotas - Peak & Off-Peak. 
  

  This separation gives you the opportunity to benefit from what are known as Peak usage times and Off-Peak usage times. Peak times are from 7:00am to 11:59:59pm and Off-Peak from 12:00am Midnight to 6:59:59 am. Except on weekends, at Amnet all weekend is Off-Peak, meaning you have a whole 48 hours to use your Off-Peak Allowance.

  Peak and Off-Peak downloads typically include visits to and downloads from International websites such as Google or CNN.

• What's the difference between 'Peak + Off-Peak Allowance' and 'Peering Allowance'?

  When you browse the internet or download music, software and videos, they usually come from overseas, like iTunes, Microsoft or YouTube and this is counted towards your Peak + Off-Peak Allowance.

  If however you download content from a local source, like RTRFM.com, you can get even more value by using your Peering Allowance. For more on utilizing peering see our Plan Allowances Explained section. 

  Amnet's Peering Allowance offers benefits including:

  • Improved speed and performance to content from other peered Australian ISP’s
  • Fast, direct access to local content
  • Enables you to effectively ‘double’ their plan allowance when fully utilised together with the standard download allowance

• What are the Peak and Off-Peak times?

  Peak times are from 7:00am to 11:59:59pm and Off-Peak from 12:00am Midnight to 6:59:59 am. Please note that this does not apply to weekends, as all Saturday and Sunday is Off-Peak.

Understanding ADSL Broadband Speeds

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• What does kbps and mbps mean?

  The acronyms kbps and mbps refer to kilo-bits-per-second and mega-bits-per-second respectively. They describe the data transfer speeds over a network, such as the Internet, calculated by the amount of bits (Binary Digits - the smallest unit of computerized data). In this situation kilo (roughly) refers to a 1,000 and mega refers to 1,000,000; we use the lower case form of the acronym to signify that it is bits-per-second rather than bytes (see What is the difference between bits-per-second and Bytes-per-second? for explanation of the difference).

  Therefore the more bits-per-second the faster the speed. 

• What is the difference between bits-per-second and Bytes-per-second?

  As explained in What does kbps and mbps mean? an ADSL Broadband connection's speed is displayed in bits-per-second, however a file such as a word document is displayed in Bytes. Bytes are different to bits because they are used to measure space where as bits measure speed. This is why Bits are signified by a small "b" and Bytes displayed as a capital "B".

   

  This leads to some confusion about ADSL Broadband speeds; as often people do not understand why for example a 1.5mbps ADSL Broadband service cannot download a 1.5MB file in a second. In order to help you understand the real speed of your connection try using this simple formula.
  
  

      8 mega-bits =  1 Mega-Byte

  To be more exact try this formula:

     (A x 0.1220703125)/1,000,000 = Real Download Speed in KBps or MBps

      A = Download speed in bits-per-second (roughly speaking 1mbps =
     1,000,000 bits-per-second)

     For example:

     (12mbps x 0.1220703125)/1,000,000 = 1.46 MBps

                                               or

     (12,000,000 x 0.1220703125)/1,000,000 = 1.46484375 MBps

  Therefore if you have a 12mbps ADSL Broadband connection you could download at 1.46MBps or a 1.46MB file in one second.

• Examples of how fast commonly downloaded files can download

  To help illustrate how fast files, like an Mp3, will download over a typical ADSL Broadband connection we have provided some examples below.
  
  

  File Type	ADSL Speed	File Size	Download Time
  Mp3	12mbps	5MB	3.5 seconds
  Movie	12mbps	1.2GB	13 minutes
  Mp3	1.5mbps	5MB	27 seconds
  Movie	1.5mbps	1.2GB	1.85 hours

  
  NB: Please be aware that these estimates are based on the assumption that no other files are being downloaded at the same time. File downloads times can also be influenced by packet loss, latency and drop outs which we have not factored into these estimates. 

  
  

Other Service Related Information

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• How can I cancel my Amnet service?

  Please contact 13 37 30 for more information on cancelling your Amnet service.  Under our standard terms & conditions of service, we do require 30 days advance notice from your next billing date to be provided in order to effect cancellation of your service.  Any amounts owing for this period must be paid prior to the cancellation date.

• What are the cancellation fees?

  We do not penalise customers wishing to cancel their Amnet service.  All cancellation fees are are a result of costs imposed on Amnet by our upstream providers. For more information please contact Sales on 13 37 30.

   

  Cancellation Fees

  • On a No Contract Connection - No disconnection fees apply.
  • On a 12 Month Contract Connection - A $99 disconnection fee applies.
  • On a 24 Month Contract Connection - A $199 disconnection fee applies.

   

• What happens if I move house and wish to relocate my service?

  Whilst we do not penalise customers for relocating their service we do however have to pass on a cost imposed by our upstream providers. Service relocation forms are available online by logging in to My Account and following the link to "Relocate Service".  Connection fees will apply and are outlined below.

  Relocation Fees 
  

   

  • 25+ Months Since Last Installation - No relocation fees apply. 
  • 7 - 24 Months Since Last Installation  - A $99 disconnection fee applies 
  • 0 - 6 Months Since Last Installation - A $149 disconnection fee applies

• What happens if I move house to a non-Amnet enabled area?

  We can offer you a range of 'Non-Enabled' plans ranging from 256Kb/64Kb up to ADSL 2+ speeds.  Please note that conditions do apply for ADSL 'Non-Enabled' 2+ plans, see the Broadband page for further details. 
  

   

• What does “Pair gains”, “Transmission Loss Too High” and “RIMS” mean?

  Occasionally when people try to connect to ADSL they are unable to do so. Even though there are a number of different internet providers, they all have to base their service at the local telephone exchange. The common reasons why you cannot connect to ADSL are the following: 

   

  • Transmission Loss Too High – you may be too far from the telephone exchange. ADSL is distance dependant so if you’re more than 4km from the exchange you can’t get it.  

  • RIM – a RIM, which stands for “Remote Integrated Multiplexer” is a devices used as a temporary measure when suburbs telephone exchanges were setup back in the ‘90s. They were essentially used to boost signals to customers outside of the 4km cut-off, as discussed above.  

  • Pair Gains System – this is where there is actually not enough cable in the ground in your street or at the exchange to connect your phone line. So you end up sharing a cable with someone else, this unfortunately means that you cannot get an ADSL service, unless a transposition is completed.  

  If you have any questions related to these common issues please contact our Sales team on 13 37 30.

• Is there downtime when changing plans?

  Typically if you are changing plans and not changing speeds there is no downtime and changes will happen almost automatically.

   

  However if you are upgrading the speed of your ADSL Broadband you might experience some downtime. Especially if you are upgrading from Amnet's 'Non-Enabled' ADSL 1 to our 'Non-Enabled' ADSL 2+ plans, customers can experience as much as four hours downtime as some hardware configuration changes at the exchange may be required. Unfortunately, we are not able to request a specific time of the day the change will occur.