Telstra BigPond Elite Wireless Network Gateway

We live in remote NT and are on our third elite replacement. This modem is a heap of rubbish and we are trying (hence the word trying) to get our money back.

i have been using the telstra elite gateway for a year now in victoria and think it is the best for where i am it is fast, never drops out and works better then any other option i have tried so i will be sticking with this one

When working well, it's awesome, but unfortunately it doesn't work well for long enough. Continually getting no reception even though it says we have 'medium' coverage. I also find that once you've used you quota for the month, it not only slows, but reception seems to be much worse also. I live in rural SA, but not 'the back of Burke',(5254), and am in an area where there is no broadband coverage. WiFi seemed like the only option at the time. Not a real good choice, but I guess, better than dial-up where it's using, and blocking the land-line.

I got one of these modems at the beginning of June and had up to 3 bars of signal without external antenna, however found out during instillation the new unit I had purchased was second hand and had to have it replace due to security requirements as it had already been registered to someone else’s computer.
With my first replacement unit I was unable to get a signal at all with the internal antenna, connected the external 6.8dBi gain antenna no better. Found out you need to upgrade the firmware software as the units have a faulty auto detect antenna switch in them. After upgrading the firmware software and installing the external antenna and manually selecting the external antenna I got 2 bars of signal which over the following 10 days dropped to none.
After a battle with BigPond call centre inefficiencies I finally got to a technical area who promised to have my instillation checked however they failed to keep the appointment. I rang back the same area to find out what was going on, got another techo who actually listened to me and he did some system checks and found the sector on the transmission tower pointing in our direction was faulty. Not happy that my equipment still had not been checked I pushed a bit harder as my replacement unit still was not as good as the first.
BigPond again replaced the unit and the signal was no better, I got referred to another techo and after some further testing over the phone I was informed there is a high percentage of these units with a 10dBi signal loss across the antenna selection switch, the techo has just sent me a fourth unit that has been tested for quality and I am now getting a consistent 3 bar signal with good data speed considering I am 30km away from the transmission tower.

I have just recieved a 3rd replacement gateway modem after 2 weeks plus of contacting techical support and the escalation team, again!!. To my total and utter amazment (sarci), I am still dealing with the same problems that began my contact with the tech team in the first place. Constant broken record tele support driving me mad, with no real solution to the problem.
With recieving down and upload speeds 10kb/s to 45kb/slower than the exeeded usage limits 64kb/s, telstra is not supplying what is stated in the contract. WHAT EVER YOU DO, DO NOT GO WITH TELSTRA FOR MOBLIE BROADBAND. HIGHLY OVER PRICED, SLOWEST AND LOWEST QUALITY FOR SERVICE.

An overpriced poor performing product in almost every respect. We do a lot of charity-based inter-networking installs for seniors and others in our area of the Hunter Valley NSW. We strongly recommend to people seeking advice not to go Telstra Wireless Broadband. If they can get Telstra ADSL to their premises then they should use that type of service. Broadband 3g wireless in general is an access option of last resort.

its the crappies mot junk of a modem/router they last 2 weeks and fuc up up like heaps of sheit they r crap do not buy

well when i first got it itcuts out all the time but then i figured out it was because it was over heated and gets too hot so i put a fan next to it and stuff and it works good!!! but im confused why doesnt my wifi light turn on how do i set that up???

This is a break through of remote access. We were on sateleite and this is more thatn twice as quick. It is a pain and takes time to set up the Yagi Arial which is essential, you can make your own, just search then net but I found this out too late.
Updating the firm ware is a must in my opinion if you are using the external antenna as the new firm ware has the option to use external always which means when you trun on the box that it receives reception (this took hours in the past). This is the link for the new firmware.
http://bigpond.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/19015

I have only had this for a couple of days and have had all the drop out problems and setup problems, but it is still over twice as fast, at times 3 times as fast as satelite and I hope that this new firmware above will make all the difference.
When you install the firm ware you have to log into the modem via the ethernet cable and you have to select external antenna from the next g settings under signal settings.

Good luck and I look forward to this big improvement on satelite broadband. Only 3.5 as just new to product as yet to trust it and has taken considerable effort to get to this stage.

Same problems, drops out when it gets hot.

Totally useless modem, Telstra should be ashamed to offer this up as a fast reliable modem. First one I had couldn't get a signal, took me 6 weeks to get Telstra to admit it couldn't. New one came and lasted a day before experiencing dropouts. Wi-FI hasn't worked on the new ones since I got it

I have an elite modem..it's performance is ok when it all works but it has a habit of losing signal when the 3g phone is on full strength and won't reconnect for 15 mins at a time.It's way less reliable than the 7.2HNG in fact.
You can mod them to separate the internal antanae which is supposed to improve signal strength however that voids your warranty.
Telstra continue to use the same manufacturer despite the fact that they run HOT due to inadequate cooling they commit suicide routinely etc...profit margin I assume..they get them cheap and sell them for a fortune.
It's a supposedly a 21mb modem but Telstra are flogging them off to everyone as the 7.2 has been phased out but in my area e.g there is no 21mb service and now that Telstra are begining trials of 4g I doubt there ever will be.
The service is slightly better than satellite but still unrelable,not as fast as they market it,oversubscribed,over rated and way to bloody expensive.
Bring on the NBN and optic fibre.

I'm glad to know it's not just myself who is having problems with this modem. My signal strength is fine, but the internet cuts out every couple of hours also. It's the most frustrating thing ever. What do you do when technical support say eveything is fine with your modem, or that it should be working better now?