Do it yourself
Many people think that to get ADSL installed, a technician must come out and install something. In actual fact, all you need is a telephone line, an ADSL modem and for your nearest telephone exchange to carry the necessary equipment. The modems and other Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) devices PCUG supplies come with fully detailed instructions for you to install the equipment yourself.
What to look for
There are many ADSL modem products on the market at the moment, however some are better than others.
All ADSL modems use roughly the same components when it comes to chip sets and basic circuitry. The main point of differentiation between products comes down to price and how easy they are to plug in and get running.
Your Internet service will be provided to you by PCUG, and we will provide you with the information you will need so that the CPE in your premises knows how to talk with the technology in the PCUG servers, using your existing telephone line.
The company which supplies CPE for PCUG is NetComm, the only company which designs its modem technology in Australia. NetComm's ADSL modem products feature an important tool to match this information as quickly as possible and ensure that you are able to connect to your ADSL service almost immediately.
Using "NetComm Easy-Config", you can be up and running on ADSL after just three steps.
General Information
Each ADSL service must have CPE devices approved for use with Australian ADSL services installed at the subscriber's premises. To check which CPE devices are approved by Telstra for use with ADSL services go to ADSL CPE Equipment .
PCUG is not the supplier of CPE itself, but offers CPE, including end user modems and splitters, as an optional extra to the Residential ADSL Service, through an online ordering system. To keep costs low the CPE must be ordered with the application for service. Upon confirmation of the service delivery date, CPE is despatched overnight to the nominated end user address Australia wide, and will be accompanied by fully detailed installation instructions for self-installation by the member.
The CPE devices used with the PCUG DSL service are the same as used on other ADSL services currently supplied in Australia, except that provided by TransACT in Canberra. We do not know if the CPE devises used with the TransACT service are compatible with other ADSL services in Australia. However the CPE devices used with the TransACT cable service are different and may not be interchangeable with the ADSL CPE.
In order that existing PSTN devices (such as telephones and fax machines) may continue to operate when the telephone line is used for ADSL, an in-line microfilter must be installed between existing PSTN devices and the telephone line. The EM1100R microfilter enables these devices to continue to function normally over a combined ADSL & telephone line. One microfilter comes with each NetComm ADSL modem. If more are needed they must be ordered with the application.
Alternatively an ADSL POTS Splitter may be mounted on the incoming line, and all other telephone devices connected after it. NetComm's EM1180 will allow the use of one telephone line for both Voice and ADSL services. The EM1180 minimises Voice Band Interference and eliminates the need for additional micro filters on each analog phone device such as phone extensions, fax machines and telephone answering machines.
If a security Alarm with telephone line monitoring uses the same telephone line as the ADSL service then a NetComm's EM1790 ADSL Alarm Panel Splitter must also be installed to allow the one telephone line to be used for both a security alarm and ADSL service.
Subscribers may, if they choose to do so, purchase their own CPE for the ADSL service from a supplier of their choice, and install their own CPE. However the modem used must be approved by Telstra for use with the ADSL service. The CPE which are approved by Telstra for use with ADSL services are set out at this site ADSL CPE Equipment .
At present the PCUG is able to supply the following CPE to members at the prices shown below -
For more information on any of the above items please click on the name of the item (bolded) to download a data sheet on that item. The data sheets are all in PDF format, so you will need to have Adobe Acrobat version 5 or later installed in your computer.
The price to members of the CPE supplied by PCUG should be confirmed from the Centre at the time of applying for the service. We can also supply any of the above items to members other than when they are applying for an ADSL service. However the prices may vary, so please check with the PCUG Centre if you wish to purchase any of these items separately. Alternatively the Software Shop in Phillip supplies PCUG members at discount prices.
PCUG strongly recommends that members who use any "always on" broadband service install an effective firewall. In considering which of the above CPE you will purchase, we ask you to take that advice into consideration.