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View Full Version : 1024 DSL, uncapped, unshaped a farce



TallShaw
20-07-2006, 10:21 AM
I posted sometime ago about our business 1024 ADSL MWEB account being incredibly slow. And what I could do about it. I blamed our employees but as it turns out, they are not to blame.

I did a test where after hours i shut everyone's pc here, off. And tried to download a single 150mb file. On a 1024 ADSL line I got an average of about 40-50k/sec. Which is close to what I get on my 384k/sec shaped homeDSL account. I contacted mweb's support line and guess what they told me. "I'm sorry, there is nothing we can do about it."

My immediate reaction is, I'm paying for a supposed premium uncapped, unshaped account but I'm getting bubkiss, a substandard service. And I said as much to the support technicians. After more chatting with technicians of more knowledge I found out why. Our premium unshaped, uncapped DSL account is being routed via sattelite. Which would explain the less than desirable service. The interesting thing here is; shaped and capped accounts are all routed via fibre lines. Those sneaky MWEB/IS businessman have given me a BMW M6 but neglected to include the engine. The real teabag is I've phoned around and MWEB/IS seem to be the only ISPs who sell this kind of service. Telkom Internet are quite happy to lease 1024 lines, but they don't even have ISP accounts. So, I'm in a bind.

As it turns out, I too can be routed through fibre lines at an extra cost of R2k. So I will more than likely just cancel our account with MWEB, go straight to IS and pay the extra 2k odd for a "proper" service. I suppose at the end of the day its cheaper than the 8k we were paying for our diginet 128k line. But still, the wool was pulled over my eyes. And I must admit, am terribly dissapointed by companies in SA once again taking their customers for a ride.

Inertia
20-07-2006, 12:10 PM
Don't be too surprised. This is standard Mweb practice, they are just as bad as Telkom i'm afraid.

DigitZA
20-07-2006, 12:27 PM
I would agree

techworker
24-07-2006, 12:24 PM
Not just Telscum, MWEB - it seems to be a South African national pastime - screw the ****cing customer - they really don't have anywhere else to go !!

pip
24-07-2006, 01:06 PM
While I have no doubt you are being screwed, the excuses sound strange to me. A link via satellite should be able to easily give you 1024 kbits on a file download - but would affect latency. I do not think you have gotten to the bottom of this. Either someone is limiting you, or there is serious contention being implemented ( or your remote server is slow or limited! ).

damian24
24-07-2006, 05:02 PM
If I recall MWEB uses SAIX for inet relay.

What I've noted, are that downloads seldom exceed 50kb/s even on 1024, using something like getright gives you over 100kb.

I somehow think Telkom caps downloads to 50kb/s when it's not already in the cache...

Thaughts?

D

Carlhead
24-07-2006, 08:10 PM
How far are you from your local exchange, remember the further you are the slower it is...

I have 1024k at one house and it runs at 120KBits (local and international) where as at another house also on 1024k I only get 70 - 80KBits.

Also remember that the satalite bandwidth is over subscribed, so you always get less speed. The MWeb / IS uncapped services are designed primarily for local access, if you want really fast international access, you need to get uncapped over fibre.

ghoti
24-07-2006, 08:12 PM
satellite should increase latency not negativly effect speed of the download. Im not getting their explanation

!!DV!!
25-07-2006, 09:54 PM
Mweb is in bed with IS.

If you look at the Mweb / IS deal Mweb is a IS VISP.

Carlhead
25-07-2006, 10:04 PM
IS AFAIK is the only ADSL uncapped internet provider in the country.