Newbie trials and tribulations.

Thanks to everyone who have posted their experiences here. It has been very helpful.

I was going to bite the bullet and opt for ADSL. However, the sales woman at Telkom found a 9 year old account from when I moved house, with an outstanding balance of a few hundred rand. So I can't apply for ADSL. So I said fax me the bill and I'll pay it. No way! You have to speak to accounts. Okay, I'll do that - Now when can you install ADSL. Can't until the account has been cleared.

So I eventually get accounts (after waiting in the queue for half an hour). I say I've been a Telkom client for over 20 years. You know me, you know where I live. You have my ID. Why didn't you send the bill 9 years ago. Why are you providing me with a landline and ISDN if I'm a credit risk? No response. I say fax me the bill and I'll pay it. We don't have a bill - it's on the computer. You'll have to come into our offices to sort it out. I say no way, it will cost me more than the outstanding amount to come into your offices. This is the 21st Century. The information age. I'll send you a payment right now on the internet. It can't be done, you have to come in. Can I speak to your Manager. That won't help you. Then I will speak to his manager. Put me through please. Please hold............ and hold.... and hold......

So I tried again, waited in the queue again, and again I was not allowed to pay the bill. I begged and pleaded, how can I get ADSL. I want it. But she had no answer. She said its a very long time ago, so I could declare a dispute on the amount. I might not have to pay it. And they'll get back to me soon..... They never got back to me.

So I signed up for I-Burst last week on the 30-day deal. So far, satisfied but not entirely so. The most satisfying thing: No Telkom.

I am in Hyde Park, and the support desk tells me I am using the Rosebank station.

Firstly, I had very poor speeds, with UTD connected to a USB port. Then trying a different computer, it improved dramatically. So there may have been a problem with that first USB port. Eventually, I opted to connect it to an Ethernet port, and there are now no speed issues... at least when I have good signal.

My modem signal seems to spend fairly equal amounts of time on 1,2,3,4, and 5 LEDs. I can only be a kilometer or two from the tower. Is that normal? Why is there such variation in the signal?

There is no terminal software for Ethernet, so I am using DU Meter, which I quite like.

I have also experienced the stuttering/unresponsiveness thingy. In particular, I was downoading a 27MB file from Tucows which kept stalling. Opening a browser tab and invoking Google would get it going again. Have since used ic's Burst-I ping solution to good effect.

There was a long period on Sunday when I was getting the Red LED of death. However, since then my connection has experienced its most stable and reliable period yet.

Tweaking: I have been very tempted to tweak, using DrTCP, but have not really found any definitive settings on this site: MTU, for example, what should it be, And do I enter it gross or net? And what should I have for the Tcp Receive Window. Would any of the other settings have any effect? Advise please.

Also confused as to what I do for email. Previously with MWEB. I have set my outgoing server to smtp.wbs.co.za so eveything works fine, but I want to cancel my MWEB subscription. It seems there is no pop3.wbs.co.za. Will that change soon? What are others doing about this?

Thanks for a great forum.

As far as I am aware:

Currently IBurst is still in its testing phase - email will be implemented before their full go live date of March... and at that stage they should've a pop3 server.

interesting that you should mention the stalling Gatecrasher - I had exactly the same thing last night.

I had a download running in Getright... and it kept on "stalling", as you put it.

I paused the download and immediately resumed it again, and it would go for a minute or so again, before stalling again.

Very odd, no?

Any of the WBS guys have any input on this?

Edit: Please forgive me if I missed something in my ignorance and this has allready been discussed. I haven't been on MyADSL for the last two days - too busy

Gatecrasher said:

...The most satisfying thing: No Telkom.

Click to expand...

Yes totally!

...Firstly, I had very poor speeds, with UTD connected to a USB port. Then trying a different computer, it improved dramatically. So there may have been a problem with that first USB port.

Click to expand...

It could equally have been TCP/IP settings on that PC, but you have it going on another PC so at least it wasn't your UTD.

...My modem signal seems to spend fairly equal amounts of time on 1,2,3,4, and 5 LEDs. I can only be a kilometer or two from the tower. Is that normal? Why is there such variation in the signal?

Click to expand...

IMO, not really normal, the one thing I don't seem to have is signal problems - that is excluding disco lights which I don't think is WBS' fault.

I have also experienced the stuttering/unresponsiveness thingy...Have since used ic's Burst-I ping solution to good effect.

Click to expand...

Just to clarify, I did not discover that workaround, it was LoneGunman!

Tweaking: I have been very tempted to tweak, using DrTCP, but have not really found any definitive settings on this site: MTU, for example, what should it be, And do I enter it gross or net?

Click to expand...

MTU must be set to 1392 decimal or 0x570 hexadecimal. No ifs &| buts about it. Don't know what you mean by gross / net.

And what should I have for the Tcp Receive Window.

Click to expand...

Adjusting RWIN will make a vast difference, it can be calculated using an MSS value of 1352 decimal, your download speed (theoretically 1024Kbps / 1Mbps), and then there is latency - that is a problem bcos latency jumps all over the place in my experience. Use this utility: RWIN Calculator

Would any of the other settings have any effect? Advise please.

Click to expand...

Yes, there are, but get your MTU set first (especially if your UTD is attached via ethernet, I think the same applies when using USB on XP), then calculate & set RWIN, then monitor for at least a week before attempting other tweaks.

so tell me grasshoppers... if I run my UTD via Ethernet through a Wireless access point - does any of this mumbo-jumbo make a difference?

"There was a long period on Sunday when I was getting the Red LED of death."

Don't worry. Had the same problem. From about 6pm Sunday to Monday morning no signal.
But I'm connected to the Roodepoort Tower.....

This has just occurred to me, looking at the amount of technical knowledge required just to get this stuff working correctly who do they think they're gonna sell it to?

TheYak said:

so tell me grasshoppers... if I run my UTD via Ethernet through a Wireless access point - does any of this mumbo-jumbo make a difference?

Click to expand...

IMO, yes, especially when PPPoE is used.

Crash said:

"There was a long period on Sunday when I was getting the Red LED of death."

Don't worry. Had the same problem. From about 6pm Sunday to Monday morning no signal.
But I'm connected to the Roodepoort Tower.....

Click to expand...

So it wasn't a problem on my side then? Check the post on the Roodepoort/Heldekruin. http://www.mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=16475
Did you experience this last night too Crash? Mine was out at least from 11 till about 5am this morning?

ic said:

IMO, yes, especially when PPPoE is used.

Click to expand...

IC, where would I set these options, on the PCs themselves?

[post=154713]How2-Set-iBurst-MTU-4-Windows2000Professional[/post], I think XP should be much the same, if not ask MSDN

Thanks for the replies:

twixt: I hope they get the mail server sooner.

TheYak: My guess is that the stalling has do with the latency issue. It's so variable that perhaps the download protocol falls over itself. Finding the right tweak might (only might) overcome it.

Ic: Kudos to LoneGunman then.

Gross/net: I was muddling MSS and MTU.

Okay, have set MTU to 1392. However, when I did the ping -f -l [packetsize] test on WBS I got the largest packet to be 1372. Wouldn't that suggest 1400 (1372+28) to be the correct MTU? Also when I use the TCP utility at Dslnuts it still comes back with 1400, regardless of what I set MTU to. Is that because I have MTUdiscovery set to On. Should I disable it? *scratches chin, frowns deeply*

I experimented with RWin. As you say, determining any kind of consistant latency is impossible. So basically, its just guess work. Here Dslnuts suggests something in the order of 200k+, but when I tried that, my downloads seemed to stall badly. I currently have the setting at 18*1352=24336, and downloads are much smoother. Or it might all be the result of a vivid imagination.

Spamtheman: Actually, if you plug the modem into your ethernet port, there is very little else you have to do. MTU's and RWin are more to do with optimising than actually getting the stuff working. I was expecting a much more complex installation.

And to WBS: It would be nice if you had an information page, reporting any unexpected outages or problems, and announcing any planned maintenance. Something like that would go a long way to building confidence in your service. As well as cutting down the number of calls to your support desk. A little bit of communication goes a long way.

Gatecrasher said:

...However, when I did the ping -f -l [packetsize] test on WBS I got the largest packet to be 1372...

Click to expand...

There is no point trying to calculate MTU, just use 1392, pondering & chin scratching (pun not intended) is futile.

I gave up trying to test for the correct MTU value using: with --10 until no fragmentation, ++1 until just before fragmentation.

I found that iBurst was giving me totally inconsistent results from one xxxx value to the next, I got a mixture of Request timed out and Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set happening at a lower xxxx than what had just worked before (i.e. not requiring fragmentation).

I suspect that a noxious mixture of high latency & possible different basestation-type route(r)s taken from one test to the next, were the cause of that particular phenomenon.

I have just re-run some of those tests, and I can say that xxxx == 1402 works without needing to be fragmented, 1403 & above needs fragmenting.

Also it seems the problem I had in November with inconsistent fragmentation results, seems to be resolved- i.e. all the iBurst routers (basestation side before UUNET) have probably been updated with similar TCP/IP settings.

That's my guess.