MegaLAN VPN Services

[savage]

Hi All,

Allot of people is starting to wonder where our VPN Services are... Well, rest assured, things are still coming and still happening. We do have a enormous amount of current pending issues and services (Including Wireless in the foreseeable future, and we are also currently testing Ethernet over Power with Eskom in two closed locations), all taking allot of time and allot of work.

Allot of our deals directly depend on services from Telkom and Sentech. Telkom however, seemed to have gotten confused. We have applied for and told them in August already that we wanted a line to be installed at the end of the month and all the relevant applications has been provided at the beginning of September. Unfortunately, Telkom seemed to have "lost" this completely and on approximately the 22nd of September, we where informed by our regional Telkom manager that there is no ways that they can provide the line by the end of the month. This is obviously a BIG problem. Not only to us, but to our users as well. We do understand that everyone is waiting for the service, and that every one is capped and desperately looking for alternatives. We WILL provide them, and rather soon.

Due to the current standing with Telkom on their "provisioning" of service, we have immediately opted to go with customized solutions provided by Sentech. Sentech will be installing a 1.5MBit Satellite link at our premises within the next 10 working days at which time we will launch the VPN Services. Unfortunately, this does impact slightly on our service offering and hence this message:

<ul>
<li>The service will not and can not be optimized to use with Gaming, due to the high latency involved with Satellite feeds.</li>
<li>The service will be extremely good for browsing, P2P Application, and high bandwidth applications.
<li>The service will be extremely good for businesses wanting to provide hosting facilities on their ADSL infrastructure - provided that they have the proper equipment at their side (MegaLAN does not and will not support CPEs - Customer Premises Equipment).</li>
<li>64k to 256k VPN Services will launch the moment Sentech finalized the Installations (+- 10 Working Days). We expect to receive a accurate installation date within the next 48 hours.</li>
<li>Unfortunately because it is a non-standard service we requested from Sentech, it may take a few days longer to receive customized solutions such as our IP ranges that we required. All users with 128k and up services will get Static IP addresses, but they may not be available immediately - please bear with us!</li>
<li>Because we are no longer using Telkom for services, we are unable at this stage to purchase and resell Telkom ADSL or Dialup Accounts. The provisioning of these accounts are on hold until further notice. Should you require a account, please proceed to the cheapest "ISP" (Telkom currently?) of your choice and get a ADSL Account.</li>
<li>Should only "local gaming" be used by the Customer, downloading 500GB of Data over a VPN and playing online with your ADSL account WILL NOT affect your speeds. Telkom enforces caps on International routers only and thus you will still receive your 50ms ping on local Counter Strike Servers.</li>
<li>For residential users, we will provide 20MB of web & mail space on a virtual host of their choice (i.e. www.acme.za.net) on <b>all</b> of our services. If there are costs involved for the registration and/or transfer of a domain, the user will be liable for them.</li>
Should you require "low latency" International paths, sorry.</li>
</ul>
Latency wise whilst VPN Services is enabled by customers, a latency in the region of 700ms to 900ms can be expected for both Local and International sites. However, when downloading or browsing latency plays a very insignificant role and thus it will not affect any users. For any users that requires CONSTANT low latency networks, sorry - our services is not for you. We may at a later date proceed to get infrastructure from Telkom again to over come this, but at this stage it is not viable to do so, due to costs and "attitude" from Telkom towards MegaLAN.

We ask that all users possibly wanting to make use of the service, please complete and send application forms as soon as possible (http://www.megalan.co.za/Application.doc). We will give all customers with completed applications prior to the launch, a 7-Day fee trial once the service is available, after which each and every customer will have the choice to proceed with or terminate the service, no questions asked. Should you thus possibly be interest in the service or not sure whether the service will be good enough for you, please complete a application in any case. You do still have time to cancel it should you not be satisfied.

Lastly, if you have completed and faxed an application form. We have received it, and we WILL notify you immediately once the service is available. Calling us asking "did you receive my application", or "is the service available yet" is not required. If we have not contacted you please presume that everything is in order with your application and that you will be notified when the service is ready and available. We have done extensive testing (more than 4 months) and are extremely happy with the service as we planned it. All we need now is to upgrade connectivity and add the users to the system. Please be patient!

Provided Sentech doesn't drop us like Telkom did, everyone <i>should</i> be online and seatled within the next 10 working days.

[musnit]

I was reading through the megalan site and it says that free of charge - if u use them as your isp that when u are capped u will go at 56k
Are u gauranteed 56k or can it sometimes be lower??

[grubman]

actually the cheapest ISP is www.baspnet.net I'm not currently using them, but plan to move there next month. On their website ... ADSL R199.00. ( not sure if this is still current price tho ) Maybe all us telskum ISP users should move across. That's R20.00 less for telskum :) I'm sure every cent will hurt ... eventually.

[ASF]

ALL ISP's offering ADSL are doing so under what is called a VISP arrangement. This means that they supply their own authentication servers BUT once authenticated THEY USE THE TELKOM NETWORK. The ISP is effect acting as a reseller for Telkom - so switching to an ISP other then Telkom does not really have a financial impact on Telkom (sure they make a little less as the VISP ADSL service is priced below retail pricing but they still make money)...

[musnit]

2 bad...[V]

[grubman]

I am aware of the fact that all ISP's are just resellers for telskum. Here we all bitch about telskum, yet most of us prolly use the telskum ISP, simply because we all thought it the cheapest option. Well it's not, and yes baspnet are resellers ( thru no fault of their own ), but damn, if I can screw telskum of R20.00 and get others to do the same then why not? Every penny counts.

[Pumba]

Now can someone out there help this "beginner" out.

What is a VPN and how does it work. Do you still log in via your own ISP and then to Megalan? Type of a proxy server?

I'm completely clue-lees as far as VPN's go.

Any help out there?

[Peapod]

VPN = Virtual Private Network and all I am good for to help you with technically on this subject is deciphering the TLA (three letter acronym).
In a nutshell (laymans speak) as I understand it, a VPN is a web network that proprietry users authenticate into and can then access central servers & data over the WWW. There were some awesome dotcoms (made loads of dosh) that were 1st generation VPN's. I will drag up the URL's for you and post here but have to do that after 7pm as I STILL DONT F***ING HAVE ADSL and have to use callmore 7 to browse or do anything worth stuffing while with the web. I handled the authentication servers and PKI for some of them.
But then you know the old story, the programme manager just has to know how to herd farts into a packet, not actually know gas content of said fart or threshold capacity of said bag. So technically, can't help much.

[savage]

Just on a different note... We should be fully functional towards the end of this week, or very early next week (Thursday - Tuesday somewhere).

[cwayjone]

Phumba hope this helps...
Basically you would still log into your isp, but you would route all your internet traffic to megalan over the VPN. As megalan is local it won't be affected by the cap. Using a proxy would do much the same, but it would be limited to web and ftp sessions only. In theory as local traffic is unlimited you should be able to get upto 512kbs between your pc and megalan all month ...obviously your internet speed would depend on how much bandwidth you buy from megalan.

Vpn works by creating a tunnel between your pc (vpn client) and the megalan (vpn server) and allows you to route traffic through it. ...you would also get a ip address at megalan ...that can be fixed. Windows XP, 2000 comes with a vpn client.

[caroper]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Peapod</i>
<br />
But then you know the old story, the programme manager just has to know how to herd farts into a packet, not actually know gas content of said fart or threshold capacity of said bag.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Having been involved with the Internet prior to its début in South Africa (a CompuServe Subscriber, text only [B)] in those days), I have to admit that I have been feeling like an "old fart" lately.
Herd away Peapod, some of the farts on this list may just have enough "gas content" to blow the lid off Telkom if we exceed the capacity of that bag.

Cheers
Chris

[savage]

Just some good news... Everything is completed and installed. We are doing some final tests over night and moving some equipment around tomorrow. We should start activating the accounts of the new applications we received from tomorrow afternoon onwards.

No fixed IP addresses are currently available, we are working with Sentech to push this as quickly as possible (there are obviously costs involved to us, so it's not a matter of simply routing a ip block). All users will thus operate on internal IP addresses for the next couple of days, which means no incoming connections to any ADSL VPN users. This, is a TEMPORARY issue, and will be resolved with the utmost urgency. We have applied for an additional full Class C IP range to be allocated to MegaLAN from Sentech. No ETA as of yet when this is going to be available, but we will push it very hard from tomorrow onwards.

All applications received from Thursday onwards, will not be subject to the "one week trail", as this is only offered to users with completed applications at the time of launch (tomorrow). We will start to invoice users on the 17th, which will be pro-rata from the 17th to the end of the month, plus an additional month ahead subscription.

Thank you every one for the patience, we are sure it will be worth the wait and thank you for your support.

[Peapod]

Hey caroper - I was referring to my inability to grasp things technical being a dyed in the yarn programme manager, not the ability or knowledge of the people I am associated with - yeeps, no offense intended to anyone! [:I]

[caroper]

Hi Peapod,

No offence taken, nor assumed, I just liked you sense of humour and played on it.

Keep up the good work that you are doing.
I for one will give you all the help and info that I can.

Cheers
Chris

[Peapod]

Chris: - phew!
I tend to get lippy when on a roll and do end up opening my mouth to change feet every so often - its a hangover from being very restricted when writing dry and factually correct documentation - i need an outlet for my rather theatrical personality - this forum is SO IDEAL - I haven't had this much fun in years! (sad huh?) [:D]

[VQuest]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Peapod</i>
<br />Chris: - phew!
I tend to get lippy when on a roll and do end up opening my mouth to change feet every so often - its a hangover from being very restricted when writing dry and factually correct documentation - i need an outlet for my rather theatrical personality - this forum is SO IDEAL - I haven't had this much fun in years! (sad huh?) [:D]
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

LOL Keep it up, I'm certainly enjoying your posts [:)]


----------------
United we stand!
----------------

[desraid]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by grubman</i>
<br />I am aware of the fact that all ISP's are just resellers for telskum. Here we all bitch about telskum, yet most of us prolly use the telskum ISP, simply because we all thought it the cheapest option. Well it's not, and yes baspnet are resellers ( thru no fault of their own ), but damn, if I can screw telskum of R20.00 and get others to do the same then why not? Every penny counts.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

I BET telkom will give all the ISP the RETAILS PRICES!

[Pumba]

Well, I'm up and running on MegaLan (This post is done via my VPN connection).

So far so good. Kids are busy downloading via Kazaa, so will see what happens. But I guess the real effect will only be visible once I'm capped.

Congrats Savage.

[Peapod]

Savage save me!
About to get ADSL in Ballito and have 80+ users here that could use your help.
Which ISP, and what hardware should we get to maximise our ADSL experience?

[Pumba]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Peapod</i>
<br />Savage save me!
About to get ADSL in Ballito and have 80+ users here that could use your help.
Which ISP, and what hardware should we get to maximise our ADSL experience?

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

OK, I'm not Savage, but why don't you go for Baspnet? From what I know, the users are happy and get good service. I actually met the owner when I was down in CP earlier this year. (Remember, Savage indicated that MegaLan will not be selling ADSL anymore, hence my suggestion)

[savage]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">
(Remember, Savage indicated that MegaLan will not be selling ADSL anymore, hence my suggestion)
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Well, 9PM on a Thursday night and we just finalised a deal with a ISP to resell bulk to MegaLAN. We just need to finalise the paper work tomorrow and we will have ADSL accounts for our users. We will more than likely ammend the price *slightly* as well. You have to keep in mind, our ADSL accounts will come standard with a 56k VPN as well - hence, there is gr8 value added services tied to it.

As I did indicate to Pumba as well (and the rest of the subscribers) we are up and running yes, but we are FAR from having a completely optimised system in place. Whilst we are operating and running users, we are also still busy working on the systems (We'll be pulling 150m of Fiber Optics in on Saturday for example to reduce network congestion, and our main gateway router is going down tomorrow morning for upgrades as well). We will more than likely still be busy working on it for the next 5 or so days, which means that at times, the system may be VERY unstable.

We will try to keep this as little as possible however. From what I've seen through the log files so far, everything seems to be working perfectly well with the exception of a small problem with the uplink to Sentech. We have opened a SR and will track this tomorrow to try and finalise it as quickly as possible.

Glad to see you're happy Pumba :)

[Peapod]

savage, please could you email me on info@realmccoy.co.za so that i can get some info off you for my gang of users in Ballito?

[savage]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Peapod</i>
Which ISP, and what hardware should we get to maximise our ADSL experience?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Well, in all honesty which ISP should not really even be a issue (provided you are refering to ADSL). They all sell the same thing, so it does not make a difference really. The only thing that differs MegaLAN's ADSL accounts from everyone else is the fact that it comes standard with a 56k VPN service. Should you be refering to which ISP for VPN Services... Well, I'd love to know if I am wrong, but we are the only ones offering VPN solutions affordably really to be quite honest.

Hardware wise, it depends really on what you want to achieve with the service from your side. Should you want to do actual hosting (with the provided static IP), then you will most definately need a ADSL Router that supports PPTP and that is able to <b>ROUTE</b> the VPN Interface. I have seen allot of routers that supports PPTP, but very few that enables you to use the IP address assigned to / by the VPN (the few that does, are normally EXTREMELY difficult to configure properly). In all honesty, we'd actually recommend you use / terminate the VPN on a Windows or Linux based system where you have greater control over the connection and the IP address assigned to that connection.

In linux you can use just about anything to "tailor" your VPN connection exactly as you require it. Windows has a couple of things you can use - Winroute for example.

[armitage]

sorry for being and sounding like a baka but how does the whole megalan vpn story work?
and whats the costs involved?

New service by Telkom broadband speeds up to 5kbps for only R1k a month. heheh

[Pumba]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by armitage</i>
<br />sorry for being and sounding like a baka but how does the whole megalan vpn story work?
and whats the costs involved?

New service by Telkom broadband speeds up to 5kbps for only R1k a month. heheh
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Have a look earlier in thread. I had same question and the guys did supply answers.

[armitage]

What are the costs involved? if anyone would be so englightened to reply?
do u still have to have a isp or is megalan ure isp then?


New service by Telkom broadband speeds up to 5kbps for only R1k a month. heheh

[Chubs]

armitage: Follow the link below. All the info you want should be there.

http://www.megalan.co.za/adsl.php

[doekvoet]

Just a question - hope someone can provide the answer - can he megalan VPN PPTP account be set up in windows ME or or windows 2000?

[jgoosen]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by doekvoet</i>
<br />Just a question - hope someone can provide the answer - can he megalan VPN PPTP account be set up in windows ME or or windows 2000?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Yes it can!!!Thought why using me??? any why me and windows 2000 support PPTP

[doekvoet]

I have tried setting up the VPN PPTP account in windows ME without success. I downloaded the VPN upgrade from microsoft and still it does not work.

The options of setting the type of VPN to VPN PPTP, no ncryptions allowed and PAP authentiction protocol are not available.

Having read the microsoft site (I am no expert in this) it certainly appears to me as if Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) is only available in Windows XP. My deduction therefore is that a VPN PPTP service provided by Megalan can only be set up by users using Windows XP.

If there is any user out there who has been able to set up the PPTP account using windows 98, Me or 2000, please let me know how one goes about in doing it. (doekvoet@intekom.co.za)

[chopsky]

First off, do the 64K and 128K MegaLan VPN Options support concurrent sessions like the Telkom packages do? So I can run the service on both my systems.

Secondly, is there a way of using the VPN Connection for browsing the web ONLY and use my existing Telkom connection for everything else?

Thanks
chop

[Pumba]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by chopsky</i>
<br />First off, do the 64K and 128K MegaLan VPN Options support concurrent sessions like the Telkom packages do? So I can run the service on both my systems.

Secondly, is there a way of using the VPN Connection for browsing the web ONLY and use my existing Telkom connection for everything else?

Thanks
chop
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
First Q: Nope. One concurrent login only. I overcome by making the VPN sharing. Works fine for me.

Second Q : Not that I'm aware of.

[Xyber]

First off, what is going on with megalan's website, is it still www.megalan.co.za, cause I only get "Page cannot be displayed" messages. [edit] seems like they have been working on the website, I can access it again.

k, I have two PCs
PC1 has the modem connected to it and the ionternet connections setup.
PC2 access the internet via the shared VPN connection on PC1
I subscribe to the 128k VPN connection from MegaLAN and my ISP is Telkom

When I start my internet connection, with VPN on, I can't access any website from PC1 but PC2 can. Is there some kind of setting I must look out for on PC1?

So, if I connect only to Telkom ISP , I can access websites on PC1, but as soon as I click to connect to the VPN connection I can't open any websites on PC1 any longer.

PC2's access obviously only works when I have the VPN connected as it is the shared connection.

What might I be doing wrong?

[StephanB]

set pc1's gateway to pc2. maybe

[Xyber]

nope, dont think that will work, (well i tried anycase, hehe), cause Internet Options-&gt;Connections will try the dialup and vpn. What is strange is that it works on PC2 that have to make use of the shared internet connection on PC1, and it's the VPN that is shared not the ADSL Dialup, so I can't understand why it wont work on PC1, same as if I wouldnt have a second PC and then try connecting through the VPN, would get no access to websites... maybe some1 else is also having the same problems, then it could prolly just be megalan trying to sort some stuff out on their site, cause i'm still waiting for my static ip anycase.

[edit] k, I disabled my network and now only have PC1 trying to access the inet. With ADSL on, fine, when I turn on VPN I get this after I left it for a while to ty open the page and pressed stop, this is when I type www.myadsl.co.za
[ http://apps.webservicehost.com/apps/epa/epa?cid=nave9882&s=http://www.myadsl.co.za ] &lt;-- what is this, seems like NavExcel, some kinda link search page, argh...

[savage]

We will be implementing a temporary fix to more than half the latency on our VPN services, this Saturday the 18th of October 2003. Unfortunately during this change, our systems will be completely offline and unavailable for approximately 2 to 3 hours on Saturday afternoon as we need to move our PPTP Services to a alternative router. We apologise for the problems caused, but this is unfortunately a required upgrade as the latency on our services are reaching unacceptable levels.

[jgoosen]

Let us know when your system is running Smooth;) so that i can subscribe again

[savage]

Well after some rather big issues this morning, I have now been testing the "new" VPN implementation. I've set myself up a 128k account and have been running flat line at maximum throughput for the last 3 hours. We have already approached two of our current users to immediately switch over to the new system for testing as well - I'll hopefully receive some good feedback tonight when they are all done working...

When I am downloading at peak capacity (currently, 134kbit/s on a 128k account) I get ping times just above 1000ms, whilst the pings are now mostly below 700ms should the line be semi idle.

The other EXTREMELY high latency (that I'd rather not mention) that we had on the sat feeds the last week or so, SHOULD be reduced to max 2000ms now as well. We had problems with our address translation, and the systems doing the actual translation worked over time. [:I]

I just tested the 256k vpns as well, and they run at peak throughput without any problems.... I think most of the "issues" have been sorted out now. Maybe now may be a good time to get to bed.. [|)]

[Xyber]

Does MegaLan still exist?

I can't get a hold of anyone as numbers for phone and fax given in letters don't work.

Is there a website or email address I could try for information?

[Pumba]

OK, I know it is a long time since I posted.

I tried the VPN thingy and initially it looked good. But shortly gave it up as it prooved not to be for me.

My last 3 mails to Megalan for support went un-answered till this day.

In my last mail I then tell Megalan to rather dicontinue my service. Allthough I felt that the service was never really in production, and that the 7 days "bail out option " should apply, I offered Megalan to pay for the time (+- 2 weeks) I used their services.

I never heard a word from them. Not by e-Mail, neither by land post.

Until today. Received a letter where they indicate that if if outstanding amount of R269 is not paid by 2004-04-30, they intend to sue me.

Non of their numbers seems to be in use. So I have send them a mail. Waiting in anticipation. (And annoyed)

[TheRoDent]

Another <b>MegaScam</b> then, I guess?

I'd be really very carefull of any of these fly-by-night small companies offering VPN, and/or proxy services.

I've not heard anything good from nocap.co.za and MegaScam seem to be outta business too. Anyone still feel like going for ods.co.za?



<center><h5><font color="red">Oo. MyWireless <s>Hacks</s> Tweaks & Tech Info (http://rodent.za.net/MyWireless).oO </font id="red"></h5><h6>Have you checked the fawking FAQ? (http://rodent.za.net/MyWireless)</h6></center>

[Karnaugh]

MegaScam indeed, a friend recommended I take a look at some of the images on that site and sure enough, all the images of their supposed datacenters and installations which were just taken from here http://www.dslreports.com/forum/bbphotos/

- Colin Alston
colin at alston dot za dot org

"Warning: Use with extreme caution."

[TheRoDent]

LMAO. I'd have loved to confirm this but megalan.co.za is down, as is the people who put their money in it, I guess.

<center><h5><font color="red">Oo. MyWireless <s>Hacks</s> Tweaks & Tech Info (http://rodent.za.net/MyWireless).oO </font id="red"></h5><h6>Have you checked the fawking FAQ? (http://rodent.za.net/MyWireless)</h6></center>

[Pumba]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by TheRoDent</i>
<br />LMAO. I'd have loved to confirm this but megalan.co.za is down, as is the people who put their money in it, I guess.

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

http://co.za/cgi-bin/whois.sh?Domain=megalan&Enter=Enter

[TheRoDent]

Rofl'ing even more....

<center><h5><font color="red">Oo. MyWireless <s>Hacks</s> Tweaks & Tech Info (http://rodent.za.net/MyWireless).oO </font id="red"></h5><h6>Have you checked the fawking FAQ? (http://rodent.za.net/MyWireless)</h6></center>

[mithrandi]

I suspect that Chris and "friends" (if indeed there was anyone besides him) didn't quite know what he/they were getting into, landed up in deep water, and had to bail out fast...

<hr noshade size="1">mithrandi, i Ainil en-Balandor, a faer Ambar

[Clipse]

rofl only found this thread now, by searching for something completely different. Now I see why savage initially called me copycat.

Its so funny, he never even had a service running according to these posts, what a good laugh, altho a bit late.

[Karnaugh]

Anyone visited http://www.megalan.co.za ? wtf is going on there...

[Clipse]

Its the Internet tuckshop? ;p