What you need to know about Prepaid, for the n00bs

[teraside]

Prepaid bandwidth or throughput is provided by a number of ISP's, but I will only mention the two most prominent ones:

Webafrica: www.webafrica.co.za
Axxess: www.axxess.co.za

Prepaid bandwidth come in 4 flavours, LOCAL, INTERNATIONAL, SEMI SHAPED and UNSHAPED.

Local bandwidth: You are only able to view South African websites, which are actually stored on Servers inside of South Africa, like Myadsl.
Local bandwidth has the added benefit of being more affordable and generally costs anything from about R12- R19 per Gigabyte. Axxess Local Prepaid is R12 per GB & WebAfrica Local Prepaid is R19 per GB. This is SAIX based.

International bandwidth: Just as the name says, International access, this is bandwidth that can be used to view and download from all sites on the internet, but the cost increases. International bandwidth costs about R70 per Gigabyte on average. This is SAIX based.

Axxess Semi - Shaped NEW! See our exciting new package that gives you the best of both worlds. Shaped and Unshaped. It's a fiber account that is a normal shaped bandwidth account on weekdays 7am to 5pm and an unshaped bandwidth account, ALL of the remaining time.

This gives you the opportunity to use unshaped bandwidth, in the evenings and weekends when you need it, for gaming, streaming, radio, IPTV, P2P and other specialised software, all with much reduced ping (delay) times, and you still have your normal shaped account during the day. This is priced at the time of typing this at R89 per Gigabyte. This is IS (Internet Solutions)based.

You pay once-off for the account (I.E. a 1GB Prepaid account is R69.00 for the whole GB. - Not monthly). You have 12 months to use up the 1GB of bandwidth. And you can top-up your account with more Prepaid bandwidth at any time, if your bandwidth is running out.

Unshaped bandwidth:With Unshaped bandwidth you are not "shaped" and you have International access, this means that all internet protocols carry the same level of prioritisation. Local and International Prepaid bandwidth are shaped services, this means that HTTP and Email ports are given priority and all other protocols receive less throughput. Most monthly ISP packages are shaped. Unshaped is mainly used when you need to use VOIP (Voice over IP) like Skype or if you want to play online games or download via P2P. Unshaped bandwidth costs about R120 and more.

ADSL Unshaped Multi-Realm Overview from WebAfrica
At no additional cost, the Multi-Realm service allows clients to switch between two different networks (SAIX and Verizon) on the unshaped network at any given time.

For accessing the Verizon network, append '.v' to the end of the ADSL Unshaped username.
For accessing the SAIX Network, append '.s' to the end of the ADSL Unshaped username.

For example, if the unshaped account's username is "sample@wadsl.unshaped":

* "sample@wadsl.unshaped.v" will use the Verizon network.
* "sample@wadsl.unshaped.s" will use the SAIX network.
* "sample@wadsl.unshaped" will use our preferred network at the given time.

Q: Can one connect to the SAIX and Verizon networks at the same time using concurrent connections on the same unshaped account?
A: Yes, concurrent connections are supported on both networks simultaneously

How do you get Prepaid Bandwidth?

Firstly, you do not need to be an existing customer of any ISP, this means if you choose to buy your prepaid from WebAfrica or Axxess, you can register on their site and just do the purchase. With Axxess, you do not need to purchase your Bandwidth online, you can do it at Pick n Pay and Selected Engen Filling Stations across the country (a bit of motivation to the staff that it is available on their systems might be a good thing)

The ordering process for Webafrica is something along the following:
Click on this link:
http://www.webafrica.co.za/adsl/prepaid/

Choose the type of bandwidth you are looking for, then click the Order Now button. On the next screens you have to select the correct options, make sure when choosing a password that you choose something which is easy to remember. Once you have registered and entered your personal details, within a few minutes (normally instantly) you will receive an email with your details.

Once you receive your Invoice for the purchase, you can transfer the money via EFT, I think the option to pay via credit card is earlier in the selection process, I am not completely sure, because I don't have a credit card.

Mostly, once you receive the details then your Prepaid is active and ready to use, even if you have not paid yet, this does not give you bright sparks out there the capacity to purchase randomly at will, since your IP and Port does get logged and I'm sure your mom and dad will have a few words to say if they receive the bill, lol.

I am not an Axxess customer, but I have been very happy with WebAfrica for the past year or more. I DO NOT pay WebAfrica a monthly amount, I purchase "top up" Gigabytes for my Prepaid accounts when I need to from my control panel.

A short webafrica tip, if you run out of Prepaid bandwidth, you do not need to do the whole process of ordering again. All you do is log on to webafrica.co.za at the right hand side of the site you will see a username and password box, you enter your Client Code and Password in that box, the same one you connect with and you will be taken to your client area, all you need is to topup, click on the "Services" button and then next to the bandwidth you want to topup. You click Manage Service, this screen allows you to check your usage, lock your account to your ADSL line only to prevent bandwidth theft, but also allows you to TopUp. All you do is look out for the Purchase Prepaid button, if you can read, you can find it, you choose the amount of Gigabytes you want to use and it gets automatically calculated, then you just click buy or purchase and you will be able to use the new bandwidth straight away, EFT the payment to them which you will receive via the email message you registered with at the beginning when you signed up.

WebAfrica Prepaid Bandwidth DOES NOT expire, you don't need to use prepaid bandwidth from WebAfrica or Axxess before the end of the month, because it transfers over to a new month. So if you used it last in March and haven't used it until August, you will still be able to use it.

Here is a guide on the Axxess site to set up your router(You can read this guide to get a general feel of how to do it and use it for setting up any ISP details):
http://www.axxess.co.za/routersetup.php

Here is the WebAfrica KnowledgeBase:
http://www.webafrica.co.za/kb/

Update from WebAfrica: If a client has a DSL Complete package and needs extra bandwidth, they can top up on the same account with pre-paid bandwidth. This will remain on the account until they finish the bandwidth that has been purchased. Same process as mentioned above, log into the client service area and go to the account, click manage and top up.

WebAfrica Prepaid Never expires. You have 3 years to use Axxess Prepaid Vouchers

What is an Axxess PREPAID Voucher?
The Axxess PREPAID voucher works the same way as a normal cell phone airtime voucher. There is a 3 year time limit to any bandwidth purchased on PREPAID vouchers. If you use part of your bandwidth this month, then the balance is carried over to the following months until the full bandwidth has been used up or 3 years has elapsed

http://www.axxess.co.za/vouchers.php

My main reason for posting this guide is to let the n00bs know how it works and what to use it for, if you can add or comment to this thread I would appreciate it, a reply to it would suffice. I would appreciate it if the long time, experienced members would reply to questions or comments in this thread, even if it means to exercise a bit more patience than usual (yeah tera, preach, daarrrrnnn n00bs )

Ciao
tera

[tooone7]

thank you this thread is good and helped me alot

[teraside]

thank you this thread is good and helped me alot

It's a pleasure, hope you can find some use in it

[MADMIKE D]

Thanx, this really helped! Now I don't have to loose myself in the forum to try to find the info which I need.

[teraside]

Thanx, this really helped! Now I don't have to loose myself in the forum to try to find the info which I need.

It's a pleasure, I'm glad it helped someone at least.

Updated to reflect that WebAfrica have a "multi realm" service on Unshaped accounts, which was available at the time I posted this, but I haven't used it, therefore I didn't think about it.

[teraside]

Updated to reflect the new Axxess Semi-Shaped product offering.

[JohanG]

Thx for the info tera

I have some questions though.

I presume that when you purchase pre-paid bandwidth from WA that you don't have to change your router settings (login details) to use it, but lets say that I've run out of bandwidth and purchased some pre-paid to see the month out. The next month I have 500Mb pre-paid left over and I get another 1Gb from my package (I have 1Gb DSL Complete). Which bandwidth is used first and how do I control this?

Do you get seperate login details for local pre-paid bandwidth?

TIA

[teraside]

Hi Johan

Unfortunately Prepaid packages are "accounts", therefore you have to change the settings in your router or Windows Dial Up connection if you want to use the Prepaid account.

So for instance, you are on 1GB DSL Complete. If it runs out you have to change your username and password to reflect the prepaid account in your router. If the new month arrives and your DSL Complete gets reset, then you have to switch back to it again.

I see however the DSL Complete packages feature an "auto topup" service. I think the best would be if you compare the price per Gigabyte from a topup on that package in comparison with Prepaid Gigabytes. You should choose the cheaper option then If you can auto topup, you get an extra Gigabyte on your Complete package and therefore don't have to change your router settings.

Hope it helped some.

[JohanG]

Hmmm, I was thinking of going completely pre-paid, but unless I purchase bulk bandwidth, I'm gonna have to change router settings quite often (or at least everytime I finish each Gb ).

It would be nice if WA offers a pre-paid/topup solution for non-DSL Complete customers

[.geek]

They do. Why would you have change your router settings each time?

Like teraside said, you buy an account e.g. username@wadsl and you simply purchase or use the auto top up feature whenever you require more bandwidth.

[teraside]

I think I misunderstood you.

Remember, if you have a Prepaid account with Webafrica, you can top up as you please, you don't have to have 10 accounts for 10GB prepaid, you can use 1 account and topup as required.


Sorry about that

Edit: thanks .geek, yep, that's what I said in the original post too

[.geek]

I have a few WA accounts that are all prepaid: Local, Shaped & Unshaped. My account for DSL bronze is prepaid too. So after the 1GB is used up, it just gets topped up.

The only time I change accounts is when my use for the internet changes. e.g. unshaped account required for lower latency international bandwidth.

[JohanG]

Ok, let me get this right.

I should get a pre-paid Shaped account from WA which I can topup as I require.
If I want local only as well, I need another pre-paid account (Local Only with different login details) which I can also topup as required, but I'll need to change my router settings (or use RouteSentry) to use this.

/edit: ...and downgrade my DSL Complete to DSL Bronze
/edit2: sorry, meant DSL Line only

Making a lot more sense now, thx guys

[teraside]

Yep, that's it

[.geek]