NBN Unlimited Plans Available Now

Despite what we’ve said before…

NBN Unlimited Plans Available Now On Fixed Line Services (Fibre to the Node/Premises/Basement/Curb and HFC)

“DCSI doesn’t offer NBN Unlimited plans because we don’t want to sign people on to restrictive speed tiers, add sneaky reasonable use policies, oversell to our low consuming customers, trap consumers on contracts, undersupply CVC, allow power users to degrade the service, or move to an off-shore support desk. We just want to offer a reasonably priced NBN service backed by a great support team.” DCSI – April, 2018

When we wrote this, we meant every word… but you have been speaking to us, and you’ve told us loudly and clearly “We just want Unlimited”.

Well… we’ve listened.

Our wholesale supplier has recently introduced CVC bundles, which reduces overall CVC costs allowing more allocation per service. This means many of our original objections to Unlimited plans have become redundant.

It also frees us up to offer Unlimited across the Standard, Standard Plus and Premium speed tiers. To ensure we’re not overselling to people who just don’t need unlimited data, we’ve also retained an NBN Basic plan with 100GB of data, allowing low-consuming users a very good option.

And NBN users, take note: we’re offering all this with no upfront installation* and no contracts.

“DCSI now offers NBN Unlimited plans because we don’t have to sign people on to restrictive speed tiers, add sneaky reasonable use policies, oversell to our low consuming customers, trap consumers on contracts, undersupply CVC, allow power users to degrade the service, or move to an off-shore support desk. We still offer a reasonably priced NBN service backed by a great support team, and now with Unlimited data too!” DCSI – November, 2019.

NBN Fixed Wireless

NBN Fixed Wireless services now have their own separate range of plans.

We will no longer offer NBN Fixed Wireless Standard Plus speed tier (50/20Mbps) as NBNco have advised this speed tier will be discontinued in December 2019. Existing customers have been contacted and assisted to select a new plan. If you subscribe to an NBN50 Fixed Wireless plan and need assistance choosing a new plan, please contact us.

The new range of plans reflects the increase support and delivery costs of NBN Fixed Wireless services, and the maximum data allowance is capped at 1TB per service as part of our efforts to ensure we are not contributing to the network congestion issues that have played such a big role in degrading the performance of NBN Fixed Wireless.

Acceler8ed Broadband is available as an alternative in many Gippsland-based NBN Fixed Wireless areas, offering a maximum speed of 60/20Mbps and Unlimited plans. If you are interested in finding out what it would take to switch, we’re only too happy to help. Email support@dcsi.net.au or phone 1300 66 55 75 to find out if Acceler8ed is available to you.

*NBN New Development Fee may apply to the first connection to a premises. We can advise if this fee applies at the time of sign-up.

Unlimited Acceler8ed and OptiComm – Now Available!

 

Acceler8ed Broadband

We’ve invested heavily into the Acceler8ed Broadband network to ensure it has the speed, stability and capacity to meet demand without compromising the quality of the service. We’re now certain that we’re ready to take that next step.

Yes, Unlimited plans are now available on our very own Acceler8ed Broadband!

To recap for those who aren’t familiar with Acceler8ed Broadband, it is the flagship in our broadband line-up. Acceler8ed Broadband is available exclusively in Gippsland and delivers unrivalled speeds on our own dedicated network – it’s the broadband alternative you’ve been looking for, and it’s locally owned, locally serviced and locally supported. Now that you can have UNLIMITED data with maximum speed of 60/20Mbps (Typical Evening Speed: 56Mbps), it’s better than ever before. We’ve also introduced a 12 month contract option exclusively for Acceler8ed Broadband to get you up and running without the upfront installation cost.

We’ve also retained some data capped plans for light and medium users, making sure that Acceler8ed still offers something for every household.

The Plans

100GB data – $50/month (total min. cost $350)
250GB data – $70/month (total min. cost $370)
Unlimited data – $90/month (total min. cost $390)
New development fee of $300 if a technician visit is required to install, repair, or upgrade the equipment on your rooftop, and optionally supply a WiFi router.
Or $0 for install on Unlimited $90 if you agree to an 11 month contract (total minimum cost $990).

OptiComm

Our OptiComm plans have also gone unlimited. We’ve always offered the best value OptiComm plans, and our new Unlimited range is no exception. The same great, reliable OptiComm service but without the data cap – sensational!

The Plans

OptiComm25 – Unlimited – $60/month – $76 activation for new customers (Total min. cost $136)
OptiComm50 – Unlimited – $70/month – $76 activation for new customers (Total min. cost $146)
OptiComm100 – Unlimited – $90/month – $76 activation for new customers (Total min. cost $166)

 

Existing Acceler8ed and OptiComm customers will continue on their current plans, or they can opt in to the new plans by logging into the customer portal at http://simple.dcsi.net.au and changing their plan, or by emailing support@dcsi.net.au, or by calling 1300 66 55 75.

 

New Windows Update

Is your data usage up a little this month?
Microsoft have released Windows 10, version 1903. This large release addresses many bugs and we encourage you to update if it is available to you. For households with low data allowances, or who have several devices that will all download this update, it may result in an unexpected spike in your data usage this month. Keep that in mind if you’re wondering what’s been pushing you towards your data limit.

DCSI does not charge for excessive use, so if you reach your limit, we’ll just slow you down until your data reset date. You can buy more data with full control over how much you spend, just by picking up a data pack through the customer portal.

Something’s Wrong – How To Get It Fixed

Something’s wrong with your service and you don’t know how to get it fixed? Check our handy guide on when to call support, how to call support and what you’ll need when you call support.

Ok, we’ve all been there. Something’s not right with your internet service, and you need to get it fixed. So how do you get started?

Step 1

Don’t assume we already know about it.

More often than not, we don’t.

Widespread, network-wide issues that affect dozens, hundreds or thousands of households are detected by our systems, but the vast majority of faults only affect single households. Residential services are able to be provided at a lower cost because the consumer acts as the reporting system – which means if you don’t tell us, we’re probably not going to know we need to fix it. Call us as soon as you are concerned there is potentially an issue with your service.

Step 2

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

We wouldn’t normally recommend taking tech support from a sitcom, but Roy is on the money with this: Have you tried turning it off and on again? You may very well save yourself a phone call by a simple reboot of your router. Turn it off, wait ten seconds, turn it back on. Connections such as Fixed Wireless, FTTP and FTTC may have a device that the router plugs into – reboot that too.

It’s ok if you need to reboot your device/s periodically to keep things ticking along. It’s not ok if you have to do it all the time to keep everything running. We definitely want to know if you’re rebooting your router as part of your morning wake-up routine because you have to do it Every. Single. Day.

Step 3

The information we’ll want you to provide.

Knowing what we’re may ask will help make your tech support call as short as possible, and we all value a quick support experience. Let’s try to bring this down to some basics.

  • Please be at the premises where you’ve been experiencing the issue, with a device (preferably a laptop, desktop PC or a tablet) powered on and ready to use. Calling from your car or your office to report a problem at your home is almost always going to lead to a second call, because we’re going to have to ask you questions about the service that you probably can’t answer remotely. Save yourself the hassle and call once, call from the premises, call with a device you can use to assist in troubleshooting.
  • Be the account holder, or a registered Authorised Contact on the account, or a registered Consumer Advocate with authorisation to access technical support on behalf of the account holder. You can check and update your Authorised Contacts via the customer portal, or call us if you need to nominate a Consumer Advocate to assist you.
  • Have a quick check to ensure everything is plugged in securely, and powered on. This comes up more frequently than you’d expect.
  • Speed issuesWe’re going to need you to perform some speed tests to help with this, so you might like to get started before you call us. Use the speed test on our website: http://speed.dcsi.net.au

    It’s best to get a spread of tests at different times of day to help identify if the speed issues are intermittent or constant, and if they correspond to events such as peak times.

    You’re going to get better, more accurate results if you perform the speed test over an ethernet cable rather than WiFi, so please use a cabled connection if possible.

    Also, please make sure no other devices are using the connection while you run the test – we want to measure the speeds that are being delivered to the premises, not the bandwidth that’s left over after all the other devices in the house choke up the connection.

  • No ConnectionThe lights on your router tell us a lot about your connection being offline, so we may ask you to check if lights are on, off, red, green, flashing or solid. Being close to the router when you call, or having noted the status of all the lights before calling if it’s not possible to be close to it will help this step in troubleshooting.

    If you have an NBN Fixed Wireless Connection, FTTP or FTTC, or an OptiComm connection, we may also ask about the status of the lights on the equipment installed in the premises for that connection.

  • VoIP Phone IssuesIf your VoIP phone is offline, or if you’re having trouble making or receiving calls, you should definitely reboot the router before contacting us. This will resolve most VoIP issues straight away.

    If you’re having trouble with calls dropping out or call quality, take note of the calls that this affects – time, date, phone number, and whether it was an inbound or outbound call. Providing us with these examples can assist us to assist you.

Step 4

The best way to contact us for technical support.

We recommend phoning us on 1300 66 55 75,
or emailing support@dcsi.net.au,
or logging into the customer portal at http://simple.dcsi.net.au and creating a support ticket.
We have technicians on all these channels who are trained to assist.

We do not recommend coming into the store as a first contact for technical support, and we request that you do not bring equipment in for testing unless a technician has instructed you to do so. This usually just ends up wasting your time, and we’d like to avoid that whenever possible.

Step 5

The best time to contact us for technical support.

The best time is as soon as you become aware of a problem. If you delay in reporting it to us, you may just add to the the time it takes to have it resolved.

We are open 8am-9pm Mon-Fri, 9am-6pm Sat, 12pm-6pm Sun, 12pm-6pm Public Holidays. You can phone at any time during these hours.
You can submit an email or support ticket 24 hours a day and it will be responded to within business hours.

Although we strive to keep call wait times low at all times, we find call volumes are typically lowest between 2pm and 4pm weekdays.

NBN Scams and Email Hacking

In an article dated June 17, 2019*, Emma Koehn writes in the Sydney Morning Herald about the increasing prevalence of scams that take advantage of community confusion regarding NBN.

The article says that losses so far this year have exceeded $500,000, averaging more than $110,000 a month in the first half of the year.

NBN Co Chief Security Officer Darren Kane said NBN Co is a wholesaler and will never call ordering a consumer to give access to their computers.

The article goes on to quote ACCC chair Delia Rickard advising consumers to “Do a Google search or check the phone book to get your service provider’s number, don’t use contact details provided by the sales person”.

Meanwhile, spammers are continuing to attempt to obtain email account details via “phishing” (scam) emails. This enables them to spread spam via legitimate, trusted email accounts. DCSI customers have been specifically targeted by some of these scammers, with emails being sent to @dcsi.net.au email addresses purporting to be from us and attempting to trick customers into following a link to a non-DCSI website where they are asked to enter their email login details.

The only link you should ever use to review or update your DCSI account details is the customer portal at simple.dcsi.net.au

If you ever receive an email telling you that DCSI will close down your email or service, or that you’re required to log in to make changes, please do not click the link. Please call us on 1300 66 55 75 to ask if it is genuine, or use the customer portal to check the validity of the claim.

It’s your responsibility to protect your account details and not disclose them to unauthorised third parties. We are here to assist if you need advice or assistance in determining the validity of an email.

You should also review your account password, and ensure it is strong and sufficiently complex that it can’t be easily guessed. If you update your password via our portal, you will be required to choose a password that is at least 8 characters long and contains a mixture of letters, numbers and symbols.

 

Unwanted Telemarketing Calls

The ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority) ensures that the Telecommunications (Telemarketing and Research Calls) Industry Standard provides safeguards to enable Australians to manage unwanted telemarketing. These include identification requirements, restrictions on permissible calling hours, and enforcement of compliance with the Do Not Call Register.

You can add your number to the Australian Do Not Call Register, or update your listing, at https://www.donotcall.gov.au/

The ACMA website provides more detailed information on protecting yourself from unwanted marketing calls, and your rights . Two articles that may be of use are linked below.

https://www.acma.gov.au/Citizen/Phones/Landlines/Spam-and-telemarketing/protect-yourself-from-unwanted-telemarketing

https://www.acma.gov.au/theACMA/hold-the-phone-put-an-end-to-unwanted-telemarketing-calls-1

In addition to listing yourself on the Do Not Call register, you should take advantage of any call blocking features that may be available on your handset to block persistent callers. The manufacturer’s guide will explain how you can activate this feature, or you can use Google to find instructions online for many common handsets. If your handset does not include this feature, consider replacing it with one that does.

Acceler8ed Has Been Accelerated

With the successful launch of our Acceler8ed Broadband service in 2017, DCSI gave Gippslanders an alternative option for 50/20 broadband that delivered the benefits of an locally owned and serviced network with a focus on quality and reliability. The popularity of our Acceler8ed Broadband boomed as we expanded our service area and opened up terabyte-plus plans, and through it all we kept the cost of the service competitive with the national option.

Now we’ve gone a step further. Acceler8ed Broadband customers have received a free over-the-air upgrade that unlocks the potential of 60/20 speeds on their services. This has already been activated on all Acceler8ed Broadband services, and requires only that customers reboot their routers to be able to access the increased speed potential.

With this upgrade Acceler8ed Broadband is the fastest Fixed Wireless broadband service available in Gippsland, exceeding the national option.

When considering your broadband options, you may like to ask yourself:
* Is my broadband service capable of download speeds exceeding 50Mbps?
* Is my broadband service reliable?
* When there is a problem, does my provider have direct access to the network and technicians for faster resolution?
* Can I call a local support desk staffed by local people when I need assistance?
* Is my broadband service free of artificial speed caps that force me to pay more to go faster?

DCSI’s Acceler8ed Broadband is the only service that checks all the boxes. Call us now on 1300 66 55 75 to find out how to make the switch to Gippsland’s premium broadband option, exclusive to DCSI, or view our plan range and submit your application online.

Email Scams and Extortion

Emails that threaten disclosure of personal or embarrassing information or illicit footage have been turning up in inboxes again recently. These emails are often known as “sextortion” scams.

The good news is that they are empty threats. There has been no evidence that any devices have been hacked by the perpetrators, or that they have obtained the footage they claim to have.

The Office of the eSafety Commissioner issued a statement in August 2018 that reads in part:

“Recently, we’ve also been sent a number reports about an email scam where the sender claims they’ve hacked into an individual’s device and recorded intimate footage of them visiting a porn site. In an endeavour to add legitimacy, the sender often includes a password which the person recognises as a current or former password.

It’s important to know, this is simply a scam and there is no intimate footage.”

The eSafety Commissioner advises that anyone receiving this email or a variation should consider the following actions:

  • Don’t give them any money or give in to any other demands—this is very important as paying any sum of money will only result in more demands.
  • Don’t reply to the scammer and block the email address that’s contacted you.
  • Delete the scam email from your inbox.
  • Secure any online accounts associated with the password included in the email, and remember to update these regularly.
  • Make sure anti-virus software is installed on your device and is up to date.
  • If the scam email is from an Outlook email address (in our experience many are) – report the email address to Microsoft. You’ll find instructions on how to report Outlook accounts as phishing scams and abuse here. If the email address is from a different provider, the major email platforms generally have clear advice online about how to report a user.

You might also consider reporting the email to Scamwatch and taking a look at the advice on the Stay Smart Online website where you can sign up to their alert service to be kept up to date about online threats and how to manage them.

Some versions of the email include a password that the recipient may recognise as one they currently use or have used in the past. This does not confirm the legitimacy of the email – many large, reputable services and sites have experienced data breaches over the last decade, and passwords from these breaches have been leaked online. Defend yourself from this by using different passwords for every site and service you subscribe to.

Additional resources: 

Simple Internet Security Measures
Virus and Malware Guide
You Need A Passphrase, Not A Password

IOS Certificate Error (SSL)

DCSI wish to advise that some hosted domains have recently been affected by an incompatibility on IOS devices.

We appreciate your patience as we continue working on this to ensure the incompatibility of Apple/IOS devices is resolved.

For those who would like to continue using their email without SSL while this issue is in effect, you will need to disable SSL.

Disable SSL for incoming

  1. In Settings, go to Passwords and Accounts
  2. Click on the affected email address
  3. On the next screen you will need to click the affected email address again
  4. Go to Advanced
  5. Turn off SSL for incoming
  6. Use the arrow to go back to the previous screen
  7. Click done.

Disable SSL for outgoing

  1. In Settings, go to Passwords and Accounts
  2. Click on the affected email address
  3. On the next screen, you will need to click the affected email address again
  4. Click on SMTP server
  5. Click on the Primary server
  6. Turn off SSL
  7. Change port to 25
  8. Some devices may fail to verify after this change is made. If this happens, you will need to remove the outgoing username and password.

Email Settings

Email settings

These are the general settings you’ll need to set up your DCSI email address in your email program. For specific guides for popular programs, see below.

 

DCSI Email settings

Email address

username@dcsi.net.au

Email login name

Your full email address
(username@dcsi.net.au)

Incoming mail server (IMAP or POP3)

incoming.dcsi.net.au

Outgoing mail server (SMTP)

outgoing.dcsi.net.au

Webmail

webmail.dcsi.net.au

Roaming email

If you configure your email client to login with your username and roaming password, you’ll be able to send email using our mail server whether you’re at home on your own WiFi, or on the go.

First, contact DCSI on 1300 66 55 75 and request a roaming email password.

Then, use the following settings to configure your email client

Outgoing mail server (SMTP)

outgoing.dcsi.net.au

Outgoing server port

587

Outgoing server requires authentication

On

SMTP username

Your full email address
(username@dcsi.net.au)

Authentication type

Password

 

Hosted domain email

Incoming mail server (IMAP or POP3)

mail.yourdomain.com

Incoming server port

110 for POP, 143 for IMAP

Outgoing mail server (SMTP)

mail.yourdomain.com

Outgoing server port

587 with TLS encryption

Outgoing server requires authentication

On

Username

Your full email address
(username@yourdomain.com)

Authentication type

Password

Webmail

Webmail.yourdomain.com

 

If you don’t have a TLS option for your outgoing server, please try port 465 with SSL. Most modern mail programs will have this available so it may be worthwhile updating if yours does not have it.

TLS is the preferred method for your email client to connect to our mail server. It will not be possible to choose no encryption for outgoing as our mail server requires it.

If you get a certificate warning, allow your email program to continue. This is just a conflict as your domain is not the same as the shared security certificate for *.dcsi.net.au. If this security warning keeps displaying every time your email program is opened, please let us know and we’ll assist you further.