3G IP addresses are listed at spamhaus AGAIN!

[mc721221]

Vodacom needs to get their act together!

vodacom3g - what happened to "We've put a monitoring process in place to ensure we catch these as soon as it happens."???

===================================
Show IP Address

Your IP address appears to be: 196.46.162.1

Your hostname seems to be: 196-46-162-1.gprs.vodacom.co.za

Your DNS seems to be configured correctly

196.46.162.1 seems to be listed in the spamhaus.org RBL

196.46.162.1 does not appear to be listed in the spamcop.net RBL

It appears that you are from: SOUTH AFRICA

===========================================

how do you justify your pricing for a service were we can't even send email reliably????

[mc721221]

From what heard - all 3G/GPRS clients share a small total of IP address. This is going to be a permanent problem useless vodacom pulls finger.

[vodacom3g]

Just checked, already removed.

[mc721221]

vodacom3g -

Why did I have to report it? What happened to "We've put a monitoring process in place to ensure we catch these as soon as it happens."?

What are you going to do to resolve the problem??

Are you going to change your adds to say "some emails you send may go missing or be retuned/blocked as our IP address are listed on DNS black lists on a regular basis?

You want to sell this services to business people on the move? Well luckily none of them need reliable connections and the ability to have email delived successfully. How do you justify your pricing for a service were we can't even send email reliably????

PS. DNS prorogation means that the IP address is still useless for hours. I still can't use a few SMTP servers (yes, I can bypass it, but it's pointless if the mail disappears on the recipients mail server.)

It's nice to know that I have at least 15 emails that remain unanswered by your support department over the last month??

[mc721221]

ic -

why? This is a serious problem that affects all current 3G users and all potential users. It should be made public. I would still be making public posts about the crappy 3G service even if vodacom3g what not "helping" (He seems to selectively answer questions and even entire posts anyway)

I don't agree with you. Why was MYADSL set-up in the first place? To "p.m. or email or something" Telkom??

Pity you don't use 3G, if you were, then I could be giving you the sh*t for making similar posts ;)

[Canon]

Some of the posts just do not warrant an answer....

mc721221, someone posted there are 3000 users on the service. That means you represent 0.03% of the user base yet you post 80% of all complaints. Strange, don't you think?

Even if your complaints are dealt with, you still bitch and moan and when someone points this out you start swearing at them.

I suspect you're just not a happy person.

You must have a terrible time with all the technology in your life that's not 100% such as your car, pool, pc,TV, etc. Must really freak you out. Good thing all those vendors don't have forums like this, you'd get no work done, posting complaints all the time.

I suspect you're not in a technology orientated position, otherwise you would have more tolerance for complex technical systems such as 3G.

For the rest of the 99.97% of us, we also have complaints but we try and resolve them as adults.

Before you start swearing again, go for a drive in your 250Km/h BMW. Hopefully it'll cool you down.

Actually, don't understand technology, swears at everyone, complains all the time, drives a BW (very fast). Must be in sales.

[mc721221]

Canon -

Well done! I am in sales ;)

a. You don't have all the facts.
b. You are basing your "stats" on an unverified post?
c. The product is currently flawed. Please, prove me wrong?
d. My complaints have not be dealt with as you claim.

I actually have well documented poof of all the problems, but hopefully you can convince me it's my imagination and make me a "happy person?"

Am I missing one of the points of this forum? I actually though that some people were interested in the problems? Don't the users (or potential users) want to know about the problems? Well - if thats the case, then tell me and I'll shut up. No skin of my nose. I'll then have more time for other things. :)

What do the other forum members with more than 3 posts think?

Have you not yet lost a very important email due to IP blacklisting?

PS. As some of the others, you are making *** assumptions. My BMW IS 100%!

[Canon]

mc - thanks for a civilised response.

Even if there's only a 1000 users, it still make you 0.1% of the user base.

Going back through all your 135 posts, you had a few problems with Vodacom: (obviously I can only read what's on the forum)

a. Could not get usage stats - Now you can.
b. Drop problem - Resolved or greatly improved according to this forum.
c. DNS could not resolve - Fixed
d. Blacklistings - Did a check on VC IP's. They are being monitored and resolved. Obviously VC slipped up today. Maybe the guy that monitors them had to go to the loo?
e. Compression - Vodacom stopped it and promised a system where you can choose. I, personally, want it.

Did I miss anything?

I notice you also complained about SAIX and in your conversations with Kalahari.net the language issue came up again.

You constantly claim MTN is better than VC (and can't wait for their 3G) and in September last year actually started a thread claiming 'Sentech is not that bad'. I can only assume you've had perfect service from Sentech?

So, with the information on hand, I'll maintain you go out of your way to nail Vodacom, while trying to defend MTN and Sentech. Yet Vodacom seem to be the one trying to resolve your problems.

Forums like this are there for open discussion (or even lurking such as us 4 posters) but still warrant a balanced participation.

BTW, in a recent survey by a leading motoring mag in Germany, BMW came off very bad in the reliability listings, with a host of Jap manufacturers ahead of them.

I believe you just prefer to overlook the BMW gremlins when they hit you. After all it's an electro-mechanical device and they do break down. It's not like you paid for it.

Vodacom, on the other hand, should be perfect.

[bb_matt]

I agree with mc on this issue - the fact that he's been vocal has resulted in his problems being fixed.

The fact that he's paying an absolute premium price for his 3G connection should mean he doesn't get problems like emails bouncing because the IP address is listed at Spamhaus !

Vodacom3g as a representative of Vodacom is going to get a lot more flak from people - that's the nature of support. He has been incredibly helpful compared to the lack of help from the other wireless ISP's, however, if a statement like :-

"We've put a monitoring process in place to ensure we catch these as soon as it happens."

Is not being met, then it's just so much lip-service.

If Vodacom3g gets "chased away" because people are getting annoyed, then that's a failing on Vodacoms part. Certainly if people get abusive, it's up to the admins to sort that out, but I don't see any abuse from mc, just sheer frustration.

It's all very well to act high and mighty because you never complain, but just "lurk" (as you admitted), but some people DO get upset when something they are paying good money for is not working as advertised.

Canon, it's my opinion that you are a calm consumer who never complains about anything. I can imagine you getting cold food in a restaurant and not doing anything about it because you feel you may upset the manager.

Yes, consumer anger can go too far the other way, but rather that than the consumer apathy you seem to advocate

[mc721221]

bb_matt - hell - thank very much. That was a nice post :)

[Canon]

I'm sure there's no need for anyone to volley this ball about any further.

ic - Just to put the record straight, I'm also an early adopter. I had to beg and plead to be the first in my area to get a 3G card. I've also had numerous problems and have been working with Vodacom to resolve them. Although some of these problems have not yet been fixed I can see they're trying.

bb_matt - You'll be surprised on how little I tolerate bad service, especially in restaurants. It's how you address and resolve the complaints where I differ from mc. If I get cold food, I'll point it out (immediately). If they fix it, fine. If they don't I get up and leave and will not pay. I've successfully invoiced doctors and lawyers for wasting my time, having to wait for them when I had a fixed appointment. I don't jump up and down and swear at them. I just take my business somewhere else. Going back to the same restaurant when you know you're going to get bad service is just silly.

mc - Of course you have the full right to complain and highlight problems. And you should. For me though, it's how one does this. You'll be amazed how much further you'll get with constructive criticism, (like your last few posts).

Also to put the record straight, I'm NOT vodacom3g. I'm not employed by Vodacom. As a matter of fact, I own a software company as well as a few AV retail shops. I therefore know about the pains of technology causing frustrations for end-users and get my fair share of abuse.

So I sit on both sides of the fence (consumer and supplier), it's quite eye-opening, trust me.

PS. mc - I'll gladly continue this in a PM. I stand by my points. :)

[bb_matt]

I don't jump up and down and swear at them. I just take my business somewhere else. Going back to the same restaurant when you know you're going to get bad service is just silly.

I haven't observed anyone going to such extremes - if any swearing is done it's out of frustration rather than malice, but something more important is a question of contract and consumer rights.

When you enter into an extended contract with a company based on what they are offering, you expect them to come to the party. It's all very well walking out on a meal, but if your contractually bound to eat in that same restaurant for the next 24 months, we have a different story !

The consumer has every right to persue whatever avenue available, within the limits of the law, to get the service they signed up for. Nothing more and nothing less.

On the flip side of the coin, the service provider has to be realistic with thier offerings and err on the side of caution with thier advertisting strategies and slogans.

As has been proven with Sentech, a contract with a service which is not working as advertised is not worth the paper it's written on - there is an out, but you have to be agressive about it.

In 99% of cases, all a consumer is fighting to get is what they were promised in the first place !

Is there anything wrong with that picture ?
... I didn't think so ...

[Canon]

bb_matt -

Agreed. You should get what you were promised. Let's put this to vodacom3g.

From our side, what were we promised? We'll have to check EXACTLY what was promised, not our perceptions or what we wanted or thought we were going to get.

Once we've got this, let's see if we're getting this. If not, what is Vodacom prepared to do about this?

I did not really follow the add campaigns, so I can't comment on those. Anyone?

Looking at the 3G package, my card came in: on the front cover it states NOTHING about speed, availability, coverage, etc. Only that you get 1Gb worth of data.

What other potential contract breaking information do we have? Does anyone have anything from Vodacom we can use?

[Canon]

I'm reading it the same way. You'll have to prove that you tried 31x24 and could not get your 1G.

Do we have anything promising throughput?

[mc721221]

canon - You say "Even if there's only a 1000 users, it still make you 0.1% of the user base." Ok - so what is your point? The problems I am bringing to everybody's attention affect ALL of the 3G users and are not unique to me or another 0.1%. I do not understand your point - Do problems not exist unless X% of the subscribers complain? Should Vodacom not attend to the network problems until X% complain? Are you claiming that I am the problem? Am I mad and imagining these problems? Please elaborate.

[Canon]

mc - all I said is that you have the highest 'complaint ratio' (80/.1) of all 3G Forum members. No one said your complaints are invalid or do not affect other subscribers.

Let's take this off-line as ic requested.

[DFantom]

"We've put a monitoring process in place to ensure we catch these as soon as it happens."???


Actually SpamHaus normally emails the tech contact for the IP range. So active monitoring is not normally required. Why the tech contact for the IP range is not informing the relevant people though is beyond my grasp.


how do you justify your pricing for a service were we can't even send email reliably????

My post may be a bit off here since I don't use Vodacom3G but this is how I understand it. Blocking lists (like SpamHaus) try to block all user IP ranges. There is no reason for a user to send mail directly from there machine. Users should go through the SMTP server/relay provide by the ISP (which should remain unblocked). Any mail from a user is normally either Spam and hacked box or a virus.

mc - your posts sound like flame bait and honestly make you sound like a child. I agree you are angry and rightly so and that you should voice your problems here in public. But foul language is not called for, especially to the people who are trying to help. If you need to swear get hold of the idiot in Vodacom who is not informing people when the IP range is blocked.

[rabbiddog]

Vodacom tech staff wer at my place on friday to sort out problems. I was told they run 2 IP ranges.

[DFantom]

vodacom tech are such noobs :P vodacom has these ranges ( a few more than 2 ):
196.46.160.0 - 196.46.175.255
196.15.151.0 - 196.15.152.255
196.15.177.0 - 196.15.177.255
196.25.101.0 - 196.25.101.255
196.15.198.128 - 196.15.198.191
196.15.227.0 - 196.15.227.255
196.41.128.0 - 196.41.159.255
196.6.123.0 - 196.6.130.255
196.41.138.0 - 196.41.142.255
168.210.128.16 - 168.210.128.31
168.210.128.48 - 168.210.129.191

all in all a nice 16096 ip address available to them

[vodacom3g]

Unfortunately only two of these ranges belong to Vodacom.

The other belong to Tiscali and were registered by them in the days when they were known as the Vodacom Internet company.

For this reason the 3G network is NATed, thus the small number of IP's visible on the Internet.

[vodacom3g]

Vodacom3g, just wondering if a larger IP pool will solve the problem as recommended by MC, and if that is the best solution when could it be implemented by?

Thanks in advance :)

ic, Just realised, I never answered you on this one.

While it won't solve the problem per se. it will help in certain areas, so this is one option we're looking into. It does open up other issues though.

[trout6]

The problem raised by MC is a serious one, but let's get to the bottom line...

As a non-techie,could anyone tell me if this may have been happening to me (i.e. emails not delivered to recipients) without my knowledge.

Is there no notification from recipient to the sender (seems unlikley as that would just increase email volumes?)

[DFantom]

trout, certain groups round the world keep lists of places and companies that have spam come from them. Spamhaus is such a place, and Vodacom's 3G got listed on it.
Many,but not all, mail servers can reference these lists and should a match occur it blocks the email. Since this is optional to do not all servers do it and notification is also optional.

Since the mail admins using this put there trust into this why send back a notification to a spammer?

There is nothing you as a user can do but hope that Vodacom does not get listed again.

[vodacom3g]

It's nice to know that I have at least 15 emails that remain unanswered by your support department over the last month??

mc - I apologise for taking a while responding to this point. I've been going through the 99 (I counted them!) e-mail exchanges between yourself and the call desk as well as listening to your calls to the call center to make sure I've got the background.

I'll contact you directly on your mail to discuss further, if you don't mind?