UPDATE: Apple trains Telstra staff in OS X etiquette

-Telstra is working towards supporting the new operating system by early April," a Telstra spokesperson told ZDNet Australia.

According to Telstra, the first stage of -comprehensive testing" was carried out last year to ensure Apple's next-generation operating system was compatible with the BigPond broadband network, and is soon to be followed by the training of support staff, which will be handled by Apple.

ZDNet reader and Apple user Tim Dowling, who upgraded to OS X before realising BigPond staff didn't support it, said he was disappointed Telstra hadn't been able to support OS X by Quarter 3, 2001, which he claims is the timeframe the telco slated in the fine print of company literature.

-I couldn't see why they were taking so long," Dowling said. -It'll be almost a year [since OS X was launched] before they get the network up and running."

Dowling says things currently work okay but is looking to optimise his iMac OS X broadband experience. -I always get the feeling that my system could be doing more...I am sure there must be others like me and a growing number when the new iMac is available. In the US there appears to be so much more Apple users can do."

Telstra would not confirm that bringing its high-speed network staff in sync with the Mac OS X had been delayed, saying that it had been going through an -evolutionary" process and that the April date would be -good news" for Mac enthusiasts.

Apple confirmed that it's in collaboration with Telstra to ensure staff are more -au fait" with the Mac operating system.

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Uh, what are you talking about ...Anonymous -- 06/02/02

Uh, what are you talking about? I've been running OS X on Telstra's DSL network since the operating system's launch mid-last year. OS X supports DSL natively, and there are third-party applications for connecting to Telstra's cable service that run just fine in OS X. This is not news.

Try this url for more information:

http://whirlpool.net.au/faq-mac.cfm

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To characterise this situation ...Anonymous -- 06/02/02

To characterise this situation as a lack of compatibility, is grossly inaccurate, especially any suggestion that OS X users are unable to use the service.

From both public statements, and internal Telstra personnel:

This issue is related to Telstra officially offering technical support, and has nothing what-so-ever to do with actual compatibility.

As has already been noted, Mac OS X fully supports xDSL, much better in fact than OS 9 as OS X includes integrated PPPoE support, meaning users do not need third-party software to make the connection.

Without wanting to inflame argument, OS X also offers better native support for xDSL than does Win XP, which requires a rather novice-hostile procedure to initially connect (see BigPond.com for a several page description of the steps required, including resorting to the command line.)

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What? Telstra have never care ...Anonymous -- 06/02/02

What? Telstra have never cared about Mac users before. They actually sent out a PC guy to install my cable modem, and he said he had no idea about Macs as he hadn't used one before. Now that's service.

As mentioned, there are a number of clients available to connect via cable, and they've been around a long time. Telstra wouldn't even acknowledge these in the past, leaving their customers without any solution, not even an unsupported one.

Teltra have been testing OSX over the last year? I doubt there is anyone in Telstra who even uses a Mac. Support is hopeless.

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Greetings All! I've been using ...David Herne -- 07/02/02

Greetings All!

I've been using OS X since 10.1. I have had my Quicksilver Mac on the net via cable the whole time. While Telstra staff have not been too familiar with OS X, I have found them very helpful, always working to find a solution. Thanks for that Support. I connected to the net over cable first in August of last year under OS 8.6. I was surprised that Telstra supported the Mac at all, previous visits to the broadband site had been fruitless in respect of Apple computers. Now, under OS X, I have found that I experience less problems and haven't contacted support for some time. Some may be interested to know that a colleague and I watched Job's keynote from San Fransisco last month, live on full-screen (17" LCD, 1280*1024) without dropping a frame. After the talk, when Apple switched on their new web page featuring the new iMac and iPhoto, we downloaded iPhoto, played with it for a while and called it a night at 5am. OS X is going to become better supported in all areas because it and the new Macs are simply going to be noticed where they were previously ignored, the new combinations rock .

All the best!

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I too have been happily runnin ...Anonymous -- 07/02/02

I too have been happily running Big Pond Cable with the BPA Login app called LAUNCH, it works no problems. So I don't see what the big deal is. Set DHCP server, run LAUNCH! (put in username and PSSWRD), boof, bob's your Uncle.
Support, Mac! Who needs it

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Simon, the big deal is that so ...Anonymous -- 07/02/02

Simon, the big deal is that someone else had to write Launch!, and has to answers questions the users ask, and has to write the instructions, etc etc. They aren't paid by Telstra in any way.

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Hi there people, So you have a ...Rossco Mckinney -- 07/02/02

Hi there people,

So you have all basically been using broadband services from Telstra without a problem on macs. Thats great.

I live just outside of metro Sydney and do not have cable or dsl options for broadband use (and never will have due to low population). Anyway, TELSTRA JUST RELEASED "2-way " satellite which would suit me fine. However, they will not install it on macs. No problem really, I just want the guy to come out, and I will use a wintel box for the installation.

My question to you is this:

The wintel installation is "usb" based connecting both the "transmitter" and "receiver" devices. I expect there will be some drivers to make windoze recognise those devices right? Well would the mac "need" drivers too? If not, then I am sure I can get the ip address etc setup on the mac no worries.

Alternatively, I am using Virtual PC 5 on the mac as well. Its great for being connected to the net and viewing websites simultaneously on both platforms with the one keyboard. The perfect designers test bed in fact. Anyway, I hope this might be the last resort, by using Virtual PC to steal the macs USB ports (it can and does) and hence enable driver support for the devices via windoze.

Any ideas??? I want broadband so badly and just know Telstra are a bunch of pelicans when it comes to macs.

Hope you can help. Rossco

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We are running OSX10.2.2 and h ...Anonymous -- 24/09/03

We are running OSX10.2.2 and have signed up for Telstra's broadband ADSL. It is now over a week and we are still not connected to the web. We're connected butnow MSE 5.2 doesn't work and we cannot laod any web pages. Numerous phone calls to Telstra's technical support have proved fruitless. No-one really knows whether OSX10.2.2 is supported. The documentation on the self installation CD is next to useless. That documentation says to connect the modem to the USB port, however the technical help wizards said to connect the modem to the Ethernet. One Telstra technical support person suggested we contact apple. This was done but we didn't really see why we should pay $49 to solve Telstra's problems. Twice we have been rung up by Telstra to say that they've fixed the problem but when we try the same problem is still there.

We are not impressed with Telstra's support of OSX!!

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