conb wrote:What do I need to do to get on the Telstra ADSL1 plan?
You will get the best speed that your line supports on ANY DSL2 plan. If your speeds are low, that is your sync speeds, then that is likely to be the result of your physical phone line from the exchange to the premise, at which point there is very little you can do to improve anything; that is, the line is only as good as the line is and unless Telstra can be convinced to "repair" your line if it is out of spec, you are pretty much out of luck.
Alternatively, if you are syncing higher and only attaining low data speeds, then you could look at your modem/filter situation and maybe a product change, but a product change is probably going to make zero difference anyway as James said (but in fewer words). There may be local congestion issues at your exchange, your state, Exetel or one of their links to the Internet. Working out where the /speed/ problem is may take some detective work.
So, what should you do:
1. Check your
*sync speeds*, see if restarting your modem gives varying sync speeds ... keep an eye on your speeds and restart your modem if you think the sync speed is much lower than you know you can get at your location -- I often have to restart a modem that drops out and reconnects at around 4000/32 speed, when that happens, the 32 up speed seriously impacts browsing. On this connection, I am lucky to get up to 6mbps (very lucky then) with up being around 500 - 600 [normally].
2. Get a line check done through Exetel (an Optus service is better for this), but if the line reports out of spec, then Exetel might be able to escalate the problem to AAPT whom in turn might escalate to Telstra.
Other than the two above things, there isn't much else you can do without getting a completely new line to work with.
Edit: Oh and another option /might/ be to have a profile assigned to your line -- IT WOULD BE GREAT IF any customer could do adjustments like this within their user facilities as they can with iiNet and perhaps other providers. That is, try a "stable" profile, or regular, thrill seeker or whatever other options might be suitable and be able to change them at will, on the fly, quickly and easily by the end user, without having to talk with Exetel support (but we don't have that option unfortunately).