The NBN is supposed to be "fast"

and no, you don't have a choice about whether you connect to it or not. 
There is absolutely nothing wrong with what lovely B.... did either. External to the house there appears to be a serious problem. The system works at snail's pace - or perhaps even slower than that. It keeps "dropping out" and then coming up again. Pages take forever to load. 
The old system worked well. I didn't need or want anything which was "super fast". I don't watch movies on the 'net. I don't play games or do videos or any of those things. I download documents. I upload documents. I do the occasional photograph or diagram. The Blissymbol program works like a word document. 
I should not be having problems.
The Senior Cat is having similar problems with his i-pad. He does watch the occasional gardening or magic or carpentry video. He likes to know how things are done. He couldn't connect and then he could. He is frustrated. 
I am frustrated and furious. This should not be an issue, particularly for people who work from home. This was supposed to be the answer to the 21stC connection to the world. It clearly isn't. I couldn't risk being without a connection at all - and that could have happened if I had left it to the last minute. 
It will be interesting to see if the connection improves when, as I  suspect, less people are using it in the early morning. If that is the case then it is as well that this will be when I need to connect to people in other parts of the world. 
But, I am very frustrated Cat...and if you are waiting for a response and don't get one please understand it is probably the connection and not me!