This morning our Spark 4G Wireless Broadband speed dropped from 20 Mb/s download to varying from 300Kb to 3MBs.On checking the signal level lights on the modem I found it was toggling from 0-1 out of 3 bars, and on the modem web management page 0-1 bar out of 5. For the last 5 weeks it has been 2-3 bars out of 3 on the modem and 4 out 5 bars on the web page.I called Spark however after power cycling the modem no improvement was noticed. Apart from taking a record of possible 4G data issues in the area in case others started reporting similar issues the helpdesk person couldn't provide any other escalation path.I am in Mangawhai Heads (Quail Way) so I am not sure how prevalent Wireless broadband would be in the area, and if anyone else would notice a speed decrease and then bother to report it.I also noticed at the same location I am only getting H+ on my Spark phone instead of the 4G symbol I was getting previously, and similar speeds as the modem is running at now.Its blowing a gale up here at the moment so is there any likelyhood of an antenna on a tower being blown out of alignment?Any other possible ideas? Nothing has changed at the house I'm in.
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Sudden Decrease of 4G signal level on Wireless Broadband
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Spark no longer provides support for its email
Clients email just stopped working. An @spark email address.Spark has told me the following: 1 - They only provide support to A - Get you onto the internet and B connect to the web mail using a web browser. nothing more.2 - They will not provide the names of the mail server, or ports or other information3 - They "do not provide support for third party applications that are not affiliated with spark." ( e.g outlook, eudora, line mail, mac mail etc etc etc)4 - You need to phone microsoft to get them to remote into your pc and set up your email for you but you may be charged for it.5 - Spark will remote in and do the set up for you but if you are not able to follow the information provided ( see below) then you wil be charged for them to do it.6 - The information provided below tells you to "....Follow the Check Xtra POP SettingsPlease note there are no Xtra Pop Settings in the email, there are no links to them and they do not provide those Xtra Pop Settings (or iMap)What a joke - they are having hundreds of issues with hundreds of users but wont give you port, server or other information - as long as your web mail works you are done - their support ends there. I phoned Microsoft. They are swamped by calls. What Spark wont tell you is you need to:Change your mail server to be pop.mail.yahoo.com instead of pop3.xtra.co.nz - I assume the smtp and imap settings will be standard yahoo mail server settings.Use your full address e.g joe.bloggs@xtra.co.nz instead of just joe.bloggs as your log in name. I remember when the change from MSN to yahoo happened. The migration is not officially started and already its messing things up.
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Mobile Insurance I Never Asked For
To my suprise I received a letter in the mail today from AON advising me of an insurance policy I apparently took out.Just a few issues:1. I have never discussed mobile insurance with anyone at Spark, AON or anywhere. I already have contents insurance.2. The insurance policy is dated the 8th November and covers a Note 7, a phone that I returned to Spark over three weeks ago.Has anyone else had issues around this.All I can assume is that someone at the local Spark store or online has taken it upon themselves to sign me up to insurance I have never agreed to.
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Paid Spark for Less Speed and Now Have More
We've had a 200Mbps Fibre for some time now. I've never been happy with the speed achieved and despite a lot of time spent on the phone with spark, we rarely saw speeds over 60Mbps. So I had our plan downgraded to Naked 100Mbps. We are now getting >90Mbps consistently, and of course paying less each month .Go figure ...
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IPhone bought fr 2Degrees 23 mths ago lightning port misbehaving: expected proceed?
Hi could anyone from spark let me know what i should expect when i bring it in for warranty claim for misbehaving lightning port? Trying to sell on TM so would like to have some idea what is expectedSorry not even bought from Spark. Apple is now involved.
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Spark's broken sending server
I'm trying to get my mum's internet sorted out and I'm following the instructions on:https://www.spark.co.nz/help/internet-email/getstarted/imap-settings-for-yahoo-xtra-accounts/And the sending server keeps in timing out. Port 465 and 587 both fail either when using SSL or TLS but if I use the yahoo server domain setting then everything works. Anyone can give an insight on what is happening with send.xtra.co.nz being very broken.
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Texts from 156
Hi, I received a text last night and one today from the number 156, but it is blank. Does anyone know what this number is? I've tried replying with STOP but nothing came back, Cheers,GM.
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Spark Ultra VDSL unlimited pricing query/change – strange response from Spark agent
Hi AllThis is my first attempt at a topic on Geekzone - please forgive me if I've made any mistakes.I was looking at my Spark bill that arrived yesterday and it showed the following chargesUltra VDSL $9.99Home Broadband Unlimited Data Plan $104.98Note that we have unlimited VDSL with Landline (no special calling).I am aware that we received a letter from Spark in January raising the price to $114.99.We've had a lot of spam in the snail mail lately offering broadband at lower prices so I thought I'd check the spark site to make sure I was on the right plan and noticed that the unlimited VDSL with Landline was $104.99. I kicked off a chat session with a Spark agent who firstly told me that the $9.99 charge had been added back in August but he would remove it and credit me the last 3 months - I asked why it was added but he couldn't tell me. Anyway, I know it's been there for a lot longer than the last 3 months and mentioned that to him which seemed like news to him.I pushed him a little further as to why I was paying the $9.99 charge (and essentially why I was paying $9.99 more than the current price on the Spark page).The Spark agent advised that it was because when I had VDSL installed I have one of the following and had to have a splitter installed…A monitored / medical alarm systemA similar device that is hard wired into your phone line5 or more jackpoints in useand that Splitters filter the ADSL or VDSL signal at the point where the phone line enters the premises and sends it to a single phone jackpoint, meaning the modem will only work in that jackpoint. I advised that I didn't have any of those (we have 3 phone jacks and use 2 of them). I told him that I paid a $99 installation fee at the time and I understood that it included the cost of the Master filter and the VDSL jack they added to the wall outlet by the modem.He then proceeded to tell me that the monthly $9.99 charge was what Chorus charge Spark for the installation which they recoup from the customer - I pointed out that I paid $99 for installation (got it before it was a free install). He then told me that the $9.99 cost was (his words) 'for a Chorus technician to install a splitter on the line in your house to accelerate the speed of your broadband. The additional cost was built into the cost of the VDSL plan, which was $10 a month more than an ADSL plan.'So I explained to him that it sounds like I am paying for a Master filter that costs circa $20 at a cost of $9.99 a month (since approx. Dec 2013) and that seemed extreme. His response was 'The charge is to do with what Chorus charges us for that VDSL splitter install. Chorus charge us a lump sum fee. We make it back by spreading the payments out over the months of your plan. You are not only paying for the part. You are also paying for the rental of it that chorus also charge us.' So now he's saying that the $9.99 covers the parts (which I thought were covered in the $99 installation cost) and Chorus are charging Spark rental of that part which is also covered by that $9.99.He then tells me that he now can't credit me back the last three months as there were changes on 7 November 2016 where a splitter (at this point I don't know if a splitter and master filter are the same thing) is no longer required for VDSL installs so the $9.99 fee has been removed. Anyway - by this stage I was totally confused as to what the $9.99 was really for and why I was paying $9.99 more that the Spark site is advertising for the same plan - however the Spark agent has agreed to remove the $9.99 charge from my account which was great. I was wondering if anyone else has queried this with Spark or even noticed that they are paying more that the current Spark prices. Afterwards I looked at some cached Spark pages and it does look like there has been a change to the pricing for my plan in the last week or so. Was Spark going to offer to reduce the monthly cost or did I need to apply to change my plan (to the same plan at lower cost) to get the cheaper pricing?Apologies for the long diatribe but I thought someone might find it interesting as to the explanation(s) I received.
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Spark to waive moving and termination fees for earthquake affected residents
From Spark:Spark to waive moving and termination fees for earthquake affected residentsSpark has announced today the usual fees for moving or terminating a Spark broadband contract early will not apply to those forced to move as a result of this week's earthquakes.Spark Home, Mobile, and Business CEO, Jason Paris, said he hopes waiving the fees will mean there's one less thing for people to worry about.'For those people it must be a hugely stressful time, and the news they may need to move is always devastating. We think the most important thing we can do is help make this process as smooth as we can at our end, and waiving fees is the right thing to do,' said Paris.Normally, moving house incurs a standard connection fee, which reflects the cost to Spark of shifting the service, a cost that can be up to $190 depending on whether there is an existing line at the new address or not.There may also be a charge if a customer moves to a temporary address and then back and takes their service with them.Early Termination Fees are charged if a contract is cancelled before the term is up, and the amount depends on the connection type and how much time is left on the contract.While these standard fees will be waived any non-standard installation fees will still need to be charged.
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Converting from ADSL with firewall to UFB
HelloAt present I have an ADSL router connected to an IPCop firewall appliance. The ADSL router/firewall connection is PPPoE to avoid double NATing. From the firewall, I have a switch for wired network connections, and a wireless access point. The WAP is located in the centre of the house, well away from the cable entry point.For various reasons, I would much like to keep the firewall between the modem and the network, including wireless. So now Spark have made fibre available on my street. So all I should need is a fibre modem with PPPoE to replace the ADSL router. After not much research, it seems that all? fibre modems have built in wifi. Can someone point me to a a good quality but basic fiber modem with PPPoE?
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Spark DNS dropped this domain?
Hi All, I'm having trouble getting to hardocp.comThought they might be down, but "down for everyone or just me" shows the website is up...Google chrome gives me ERR_NAME_RESOLUTION_FAILEDPing give me "Ping request could not find host hardocp.com. Please check the name and try again." I'm with Spark, and its not working on my fixed line broadband (VDSL) or mobile (4g).It was working yesterday. Is this a spark issue?If so can someone there fix it? Thanks,Dairyx
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Google slow on Spark
Anyone noticing Google services, e.g. search and gmail a bit slow on Spark today? Usually google services are delivered out of Australia, or did, however today today seems to be coming from USA with a bit of packet lossUsing Spark DNS:--- www.google.co.nz ping statistics ---97 packets transmitted, 80 packets received, 17.5% packet lossround-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 199.227/221.543/926.836/96.553 ms--- googlemail.l.google.com ping statistics ---63 packets transmitted, 52 packets received, 17.5% packet lossround-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 168.468/169.886/199.307/4.154 msChanging to Google DNS and browsing speeds and pings are better:--- www.google.co.nz ping statistics ---48 packets transmitted, 48 packets received, 0.0% packet lossround-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 14.982/15.800/18.221/0.557 ms--- googlemail.l.google.com ping statistics ---39 packets transmitted, 39 packets received, 0.0% packet lossround-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 39.357/39.882/40.979/0.391 ms
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Spark Wireless Broadband for home speed issues.
Hi all, Recently sent an advertisement from spark for teh wireless broadband at home. Currently and adsl and getting upload speeds of < 1mbps and download of about 10 - 14 mbps on average.Today i have installed the new telecom wireless system.Very first speed test 44 mbps download, 10mpbs upload. so very happy. Since then however i see a peak speed at the start of the test which jumps from 20 - 40 mbps but part of the way thorugh the speed is consistantly dropping to less than 15mbps, sometimes as low as 6mbps. IM not sure whats going on, or why i can see some very fast initial times and then it just goes slow. Is this to be expected with 4g? Is it also weather dependent? lastly the ping times are very slow.. much quicker on the adsl? Just just wondering what peoples experience is with this new service thanksgreg
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Spark Fibre - regular disconnect / page not found
i have upgraded from ADSL to Fibre recently, & i have noticed a remarkable increase in DNs not found / page not found. I have changed to googles DNS service (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4). to make things faster, but even then, I get google DNS not found. The funny thing is - If i refresh my page, the page comes up just fine.. - & sometimes, if i get the page not found, if i wait 3-4 seconds (without touching the keyboard), the page refreshes & comes up fine as well (not sure if the refresh is part of the error page, but i guess it is). Has anyone encountered this & how did you solve it ? Ps im on WIN 8 Pc & also have a win10 pc too..
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Spark Wireless Broadband Experience
Hi All,Has anyone had much experience with Spark Wireless Broadband? I recently ditched the highly over subscribed and underperforming (10Mbps) DSL service to go with Sparks Wireless Broadband offering (Skinny have something similar...). It has over trippled my download speed with upload speeds to match.However I was expecting even greater speeds being that I have line-of-sight to the Spark tower and can see it from my house at a distance of approximately 600 meters. Not only that I have mounted an external 900Mhz LTE broadband directional antena on the roof pointing in the direction of the tower. This is fully cabled on a 20m run back to the Huawei B315 LTE modem. I live in Auckland by the way so plenty of towers but because DSL is so poo in some of the suburbs here I've gone for a RBI setup in the city - go figure, also not waiting around until 2018 for fibre. The LTE modem is on 4G only - full bars for signal strength.What I get when running speedtest.net (via ethernet to the LTE modem) initially is that the dial maxes out between 80-100Mbps (cool!). However subsequent tests drop back to 30-40Mbps which makes me think that after my initial *suprise here i am* test things get throttled back by something in the Telco infrastructure. I guessing to prevent bandwidth hogs like myself. I run the same speed test from a data enabled mobile phone on Spark at get 90Mbps+ every time so it seems it knows the difference between a mobile device and the LTE modem.So my questions are: 1. Does Spark throttle LTE traffic for Wireless Broadband 2. Are the LTE modems bound to any one particular tower 3. Anyone else made the move to Wireless Broadband? If so what has your experience been like?
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The future of fixed wireless broadband
Does anyone have any idea or information about the future of Spark fixed wireless broadband? Will it likely to go to 4.5G or even 5G at some stage? Would such a change mean replacing the Huawei 325 modem? I've got another 11 mo to go on contract with this, but fibre is being laid outside now, and I wanted to consider what to do in the future.
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Spark Throttling Unlimited Users?
Hey guys, brand new to this forum but I can't seem to find anywhere else to talk about this. Whenever I download a file I always see the download speeds plummet.This is usually about 5-10 minutes into any download and I can't seem to find a fix for it.I have tried contacting spark but they gave me the same dull questions that everyone has already done: "Turn off the router for 30s etc."I can't find any reason as to why it starts of good then hits rock bottom. Current plan is unlimited fiber 100/20 and i am currently getting 3mbp/s and 20upload.Anyone know why this may be happening? Cheers, emjaay.
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Alternatives to Paging
With the pending (no official announcement yet) termination of the Spark paging network likely sometime in the next 2 years what are the alternatives options?Paging is good as it is reliable & cheap but as a platform the underpinning technology is no longer favoured and apparently expensive to maintain/replace.I currently use paging to send account information to customers. I will now need to start thinking of alternatives solutions to do this. A webapp, push notification seems like the best alternative but I can't guarantee my customers have internet / smart device access. Does that leave me with SMS as the only option?Thanks
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Christchurch intermittent dropping.
Just wondering if anybody else is getting this in Christchurch , Intermittent connection dropping in and out. On Fiber.
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Problem receiving MMS after porting from VF to Spark
Hello - I have recently ported Vodafone number to Spark due to work reasons; the number is the same. I am not receiving any MMS and causing problems. iMessage works perfectly fine / multiple text messages work okay. However - realised that MMS is not being received on my end. How can I get this rectified? I already lost valuable time around this... as the sender thought I received but I didn't and I have been waiting and waiting... Help would be very much appreciated.Thanks.
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