iBurst vs. HomeDSL 384?!

D

Dovi

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Okay now I dunno what to get. iBurst or HomeDSL 512?? The major benefit about iBurst, is that after cap I can still access international, but DSL at least I won't have so many probs, and wont get capped as fast :p So .. you guys recommend *drum roll*

PS: I'm only thinking about DSL because the price came down like R100 :rolleyes:
 
You have nothing to lose by getting iBurst for the trial week, and if you not happy return the product and you'll get your money back guarantee.

My first month of iBurst was horrible, now with the new base station I couldn't be happier :)
 
No, at this stage I'd not consider iburst if I were you. with HomeDSL512 price drop, I'd get the ADSL with an uncapped UUNET account.

iburst uses UUNET anyways, at least this way you'll get decent pings (more stable) and you're uncapped. UNCAPPED.

599 + 720 (about for the account) + 90 (for the phone line) = some odd number that is around what Sentech charges for their 512k offering, but again, is much better
 
My advice is that you initially try HomeDSL192 or 384 - yes I know what I said - there are several people that downgraded from 512Kbps ADSL to HomeDSL384 (after Telkomonopoly introduced 384) and the speed difference is reportedly not that much of an issue, what can you conclude:
  • There actually is hardly any difference, i.e. Telkomonopoly possibly don't differentiate between 384Kbps & 512Kbps at the exchange or wherever; OR
  • The contention on 512Kbps & 384Kbps effectively produces the same actual speed.
There are likely to be other possibilities, or perhaps this is all a myth, but why start with the most expensive option?

NOTE: Telkomonopoly charge you a speed downgrade fee, and they do NOT charge a speed upgrade fee, the obvious choice is to start with either 192Kbps or 384Kbps and when you need more speed then you upgrade to 512Kbps. Just make sure that you run speed tests for a few days before & after the speed "upgrade" - if there is no speed difference you will have some ammo to aim in Telkomonopoly's direction. Another thing to consider is that whilst 512Kbps is allegedly faster than 384Kbps which is allegedly faster than 192Kbps, consider that latency is not necessarily less on 512Kbps than it is on 384Kbps or 192Kbps.
 
Last edited:
Iburst

Hi,

I will really recommend i-burst. I had a demo done today and my receiption was only 1 bar and i got a download rate of 25Kbps. At a church down the road i got full receiption and a download rate of 200Kbps! Yes thats right 200Kbps!. Contact i-Burst and let them do a demo. It costs nothing!

Cheers
 
With the price reductions, and UUNet's uncapped offerings, ADSL512 is going to take best broadband solution next month.

Guaranteed.

Better than Sucktech's 512Kuk (effective 128K) offering, and without all the restrictions, caps, and instability of iBurst.

Really, we all hate Telkom etc, etc... But ADSL is simply the best, most stable 24/7 connectivity you can find in this country.
 
bismay said:
Hi,

I will really recommend i-burst. I had a demo done today and my receiption was only 1 bar and i got a download rate of 25Kbps. At a church down the road i got full receiption and a download rate of 200Kbps! Yes thats right 200Kbps!. Contact i-Burst and let them do a demo. It costs nothing!

Cheers
Click to expand...

I'm confused about bits and bytes: I know iBurst at full reception as u call it; it supposed to be 1024 kbps. So do u mean 200kbps or 200 kB/s? :confused:
 
It can take a while (for some people up to 5 months) to get ADSL, if available at all. You have nothing to lose by taking the 7 day Iburst trial. You can get it set up in less than 24 hours.

Iburst is: Location, location, location. So if you get anything less than 95% signal, fast browsing, and mind-blowing D/L speeds during your trial, take it back, and wait for your ADSL.
 
Gatecrasher said:
...
So if you get anything less than 95% signal, fast browsing, and mind-blowing D/L speeds during your trial, take it back, and wait for your ADSL.
Click to expand...
Let me just say that b4 WBS royally messed everything up in January on Bryanston-bs, I had 4..5 signal strength leds on my UTD (and when I was on USB back in November2004 it was often a steady 90%..100%, although sometimes a steady 80%..100% - that being via the systray app). Now, even when my UTD shows 4..5 leds (steady) I still have problems, so signal strength leds (download) mean very little - it is more on the upload signal strength that there's a problem (and my UTD hasn't changed, the base-station has been fiddled with more than a prostitute has).

Now, about that 7 day trial, it should be clear to anyone that 7 days is simply not enough time to determine whether you will have a stable & reliable iBurst expereince in the next 7 days or 7 weeks or 7 years...
 
I Agree... for at least 7 days I receive 20Kbs per second,,, shocking yes... now around 10Kbs if lucky.... what did WBS say ????
 
My first 7 days were pretty horrible. But coming from ISDN 64k, anything above 8kB/s was an improvement. I spent the first two weeks longing for the antennas. It was only reading Fawize's post, trying the reflector, and eventually moving my modem to hellandgone that sorted things out. By rights, I should have taken the thing back.
 
Well I also did my due dilligence & tried the WET11 jobby, also bothered to get out my crimping tool & make a 20m long cable so I could move the UTD & reflector to a window sill that pointed East (direction of Bryanston-bs), sadly it hasn't made an iota of a difference bcos WBS have fundamentally messed up Bryanston-bs & they still haven't reversed the problem.
 
TheRoDent said:
With the price reductions, and UUNet's uncapped offerings, ADSL512 is going to take best broadband solution next month.

Guaranteed.

Better than Sucktech's 512Kuk (effective 128K) offering, and without all the restrictions, caps, and instability of iBurst.

Really, we all hate Telkom etc, etc... But ADSL is simply the best, most stable 24/7 connectivity you can find in this country.
Click to expand...

Yep, thats why, by launch date, if iburst has not done right, I'm dumping it and getting ADSL, even though I'm on a laptop 100% of the time now, having something to go home to that works when you want it to work is much better that the world wide wait for something that promises to work but doesn't.

I sure as hell aint going to give Vodacom or MTN or CellC (or even Wimax from Telkom) a try next time. Wireless is for people who like it up the ass... and I'm all out of lube...
 
:D noone !

maybe one day it'll be reliable ... until then, we'll have to take it up the ass from telkom, at least it's always properly lubricated ...
 
Dovi, this is my 2c

The iBurst opinions you are hearing is classic "early adopter" syndrome. iBurst is a new product, and as such will continue to have teething problems as WBS learns what it takes to be a broadband ISP as well as the backbone and access medium.

Because of this you should expect to hear conflicting reports - some iBurst peeps are getting great service, some aren't getting any.

So, if you are not looking to rely heavily on the connection - ie. you are willing to put up with down time and patches of poor service - then get an iBurst tester over and check it out.
Just don't listen to the tester/salesman, since they are only looking to sign you up.
This forum will probably answer any iBurst questions you have.

If you are not willing to ride out iBurst's, teething phase then start with DSL192 with NO CONTRACT!!. ADSL is fast, reliable and pretty much the best access medium around. Its heavily overpriced, but in the context of the other broadband offerings, its the most affordable.
It is free to upgrade your DSL line speed, so rather start at the cheapest option and upgrade if you need more speed.
 
really it all depends on where you lplan to run the connection from. If you are in a good iburst area then go for it, however if you are going to connect to northcliff or one of those towers go for adsl. I gotta say though 384 is practically dial up from where i'm sitting.
 
HomeDSL384 has been the best broadband service I've ever experienced in this country. Fast ( *cough*), reliable and all round acceptable.
 
That's what I'm going for as well... I'm sick of this ****... 1MBps my ASS!!! :mad:

And their "call centre" is too pathetic to even pick up the fcking phone, so I have to listen to k@k music the whole time!!!

Another one bites the dust... this one didn't even get off the ground! meh!
 
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