View Full Version : FNB Connect: What's your verdict
deweyzeph
11-05-2009, 03:19 PM
Well, I'm an FNB customer and I decided to try out FNB Connect's new data offering, R69 per gig for unshaped bandwidth seemed like too much of a good deal to pass up.
Anyway, it seems to work as advertised, expect for not being able to ping any remote addresses. Anyone else had this problem?
Cyberdude
11-05-2009, 03:38 PM
FNB disconnect??
my friend said the same thing, can't ping
That sucks, I'm addicted to ping :(
EchoZA
11-05-2009, 06:04 PM
and World of Warcraft does not work, I have logged a complaint as the latency was the only reason why I signed up! They say the "I.T. Techs" are attending to the issue :)
odd , my mate got wow to work for him after he complained
Hunted
12-05-2009, 01:16 PM
Not sure about others, but I can't connect to news servers with this account, when used as local account with route sentry. I also had very slow speeds to Nvidia when I tried to download the latest Nforce drivers. (Used as international account with route sentry)
I'm must try again to see it has improved tho.
Tinuva
12-05-2009, 01:51 PM
IS only allow IS subscribers on their usenet server
SAIX only allow SAIX subscribers on their usenet server
Whilst FNB-Connect makes use of both IS and SAIX for transit, the FNB-Connect is still a seperate network on its own, thus you wont have access to any of the well known usenet servers. Only if FNB-Connect host a usenet server for their clients, will you get access to one.
Much like you can use smtp.saix.net on IS or Verizon or FNB-Connnect, you cant use news.saix.net on them either.
Hunted
12-05-2009, 02:03 PM
IS only allow IS subscribers on their usenet server
SAIX only allow SAIX subscribers on their usenet server
Whilst FNB-Connect makes use of both IS and SAIX for transit, the FNB-Connect is still a seperate network on its own, thus you wont have access to any of the well known usenet servers. Only if FNB-Connect host a usenet server for their clients, will you get access to one.
Much like you can use smtp.saix.net on IS or Verizon or FNB-Connnect, you cant use news.saix.net on them either.
Thnx Tinuva
Aqua_lung
12-05-2009, 02:27 PM
yup no ping.
xrapidx
12-05-2009, 02:34 PM
Maybe its only unshaped WEB access :p
Tinuva
12-05-2009, 09:32 PM
Ive used other services on my FNB-Connect account from IRC and few other applications, though mostly of those were South African services. I am sure since they make use of their current FNB network, there is still a few things they need to open up for the ADSL network they just implemented.
Traceroute for the most part works, pings to US services not so much, but to SA servers it seemed to be fine.
Murmaider
13-05-2009, 10:23 AM
As I posted in another thread:
And just incase you thought that you weren't sitting behind a cache...
http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/8600/fnbcache.jpg
So i guess this means no porn browsing
I'm still not able to ping anything and wow works intermittently.
When wow does work, I am get around 320ms lag in naxx.
Tinuva
13-05-2009, 11:08 AM
I'm still not able to ping anything and wow works intermittently.
When wow does work, I am get around 320ms lag in naxx.
320ms is very good from what I remember when I used to play wow...
Murmaider
13-05-2009, 04:11 PM
its not bad when it does work... the problem is that it doesn't work 90% of the time...
deweyzeph
13-05-2009, 04:13 PM
My conclusion so far is that my Axxess Semi-shaped prepaid account works far better than this load of ****e.
Aqua_lung
13-05-2009, 04:22 PM
My conclusion so far is that my Axxess Semi-shaped prepaid account works far better than this load of ****e.
+1
Only benefit I've seen is how easy and instant it is to topup the account.
Aqua_lung
13-05-2009, 07:52 PM
Get an error when I try to visit http://www.apple.com/downloads/
Cache ERROR
The requested URL could not be retrieved
While trying to retrieve the URL: http://www.apple.com/downloads/
The following error was encountered:
* Connection to www.apple.com Failed
The system returned:
(111) Connection refused
The remote host or network may be down. Please try the request again.
useless! works fine on axxess!
Hunted
13-05-2009, 11:09 PM
Well, I hope you reported the problem so that they have the chance to fix it. Put the pressure on them to deliver. If they don't fix or come back with a negative comment then sure call them useless. Axxess had loads of time to sort their issues out.
george_vg
14-05-2009, 10:49 PM
Same as mentioned by most...
:( Negative
* No news server access
* Cache fails on certain sites
* Cannot send mail via telkom smtp, although router account is telkomsa and always connected
:) Positive
* Their support was on the ball and returned my call! They even said "I don't know", but got back to me with an answer shortly after, kudos!
* Very easy top-up
I'll give them a chance though, but either they fix it, or I'm back to Webafrica pre-paid - none of these issues
deweyzeph
15-05-2009, 08:49 AM
Same as mentioned by most...
:( Negative
* No news server access
* Cache fails on certain sites
* Cannot send mail via telkom smtp, although router account is telkomsa and always connected
:) Positive
* Their support was on the ball and returned my call! They even said "I don't know", but got back to me with an answer shortly after, kudos!
* Very easy top-up
I'll give them a chance though, but either they fix it, or I'm back to Webafrica pre-paid - none of these issues
To be fair though why would you want to use the telkom smtp server? Just get yourself a gmail account and use their smtp server.
WiT8litZ
15-05-2009, 09:16 AM
Just signed up to use it for WoW. Will test over the weekend.
Aqua_lung
15-05-2009, 10:19 AM
Well, I hope you reported the problem so that they have the chance to fix it. Put the pressure on them to deliver. If they don't fix or come back with a negative comment then sure call them useless. Axxess had loads of time to sort their issues out.
Yeah I emailed them and got a reply the next day informing me they fixed it and it works now.
So their support seems good.
bokka1
15-05-2009, 11:41 AM
I used it last night to host a 10 player lobby over Xbox Live and had no problems.
I can ping through speedtest.net but have not tried via command.
Pings are in the 300 to 400 range to international servers.
I logged a question on their site and they phoned me back on my cell within an hour.
So far I am happy.
BTW Why do you want to use an international account on a local news server?
BrokenLink
15-05-2009, 10:40 PM
any1 else not able to do anything with their fnb account? as far as i can see the DNS might be screwed, any1 have the actuall dns addys for me plz? Want to see if i enter them manualy if anything works then...
bokka1
16-05-2009, 10:35 AM
any1 else not able to do anything with their fnb account? as far as i can see the DNS might be screwed, any1 have the actuall dns addys for me plz? Want to see if i enter them manualy if anything works then...
41.183.0.18
41.183.0.22
Mine is working perfectly.
cavedog
17-05-2009, 05:11 PM
Look at my ip! 41.183.6.2 what backbone they using? It seems like they use their own cache proxy.
McGuywer
18-05-2009, 09:07 AM
Just signed up to use it for WoW. Will test over the weekend.
How did it work out?
Max001
20-05-2009, 02:09 PM
Just signed up...speed great!!, support dept FANTASTIC..they responded immediately.
What a pleasure having unshaped at that price.
milomak
16-06-2009, 12:26 PM
is this product speed limited to 384kpbs during the day?
Tinuva
16-06-2009, 12:48 PM
is this product speed limited to 384kpbs during the day?
Dont think so, I used to get full speed on it. Though I only use it when I need it, since it rolls over for like 12 months.
Max001
16-06-2009, 01:03 PM
I get full speed 4mb all day long.
TheRidDlerX
17-06-2009, 03:50 PM
I can just about do everything gaming wise with this account, play WoW, W3, without problems (not the fastest connection ive had but not unplayable), altho trying to open a webpage i get the unavailable error each time! 4-5 refreshes later and it eventually decides to try its best and load the site.... any suggestions?
Aqua_lung
17-06-2009, 04:06 PM
I can just about do everything gaming wise with this account, play WoW, W3, without problems (not the fastest connection ive had but not unplayable), altho trying to open a webpage i get the unavailable error each time! 4-5 refreshes later and it eventually decides to try its best and load the site.... any suggestions?
You should report sites that don't load, I emailed them about the apple.com site and they fixed it.
WiT8litZ
17-06-2009, 04:12 PM
FNBConnect has been my most trustworthy WoW connection for the last month and really affordable
TheRidDlerX
24-06-2009, 12:53 PM
You should report sites that don't load, I emailed them about the apple.com site and they fixed it.
This happens for EVERY single site i try to visit... sure i have some frequents, but but surely i cant realistically mail all the sites where they are supposed to work from the start? Even something as common as Google only pops up after the 3rd/4th refresh.
milomak
24-06-2009, 01:16 PM
I am not totally sold on this. It is definitely not as zippy as my IS semi prepaid.
Hunted
26-06-2009, 12:02 PM
I must say that I'm also not 100% sure what to think of this FNB Connect account. Speed is good and bad at times. Sometimes I can't get 4KB/s (from Nvidia.com) on the account and sometimes it's full speed.
Price is good tho, so I will stick with it for now.
buyeye
23-01-2011, 03:10 PM
http://www.pingtest.net/result/32886076.png (http://www.pingtest.net)
EchoZA
23-01-2011, 03:20 PM
Stopped useing them a while back, service started out good then got shocking!
who.is.michael
23-01-2011, 06:59 PM
As far as I am aware they are utilising MTN's backbobe and not using IS any longer...
Bandwidth might be crappy and overpriced, however their SIP offering @ 0.25 cent per minute to cellphones (https://www.fnbconnect.co.za/products.shtml?#Talk), works like a charm - using it via Linksys SPA2102 (http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10026/index.html) + Rynga for international calls (http://www.rynga.com/en/calling-rates.html#lets) @ R25.00 per month + free Telkom calls.
mercenary
05-12-2011, 10:33 AM
Could people using FNBConnect do a few tracerts to UK IP addresses for me. I would like to see what their international routing and latency looks like.
Thanks
who.is.michael
05-12-2011, 10:52 AM
Could people using FNBConnect do a few tracerts to UK IP addresses for me. I would like to see what their international routing and latency looks like.
Thanks
Same as WebAfrica Uncapped...