Diginet line - latency, ping times and speed on line

[kim_bcs]

Hi all,

The company I work for is thinking about getting a diginet line. The reason for that is that we have offices in Australia and Zambia and will soon have offices in Russia and South America as well. We are needing a connection which is more reliable than adsl. Is there anyone who can tell me what sort of ping times and latency we might expect to get on a diginet line to Australia and Zambia? Also, what kind of speeds can we expect to see on the 1mbit line?

[Gnome]

1mbit. Diginet is a dedicated line with 1:1 ratio (pretty much the reason you pay so much for Diginet). Latency I can't comment however because I haven't ever gotten round to testing that sort of thing (hardly a priority in most business applications), but should be as good as it gets as it runs over fiber (eg. SAT-3/SEACOM/etc.) IIRC.

[ponder]

You would see full line speed minus protocol overheads on diginet. Latency is dependent on distance & if there is congestion (you maxing out the bandwidth) but it's pretty low.

A better/cheaper option would be to sign up for VPN solution from Telkom http://www.telkom.co.za/products_ser...vpn/index.html and you'll score points for saving the company a bundle of money.

First get a quotation for the diginet circuits you require, installation cost + monthly rental.
Next get a quote for the VPN service and compare the two.

[sox63]

You would see full line speed minus protocol overheads on diginet. Latency is dependent on distance & if there is congestion (you maxing out the bandwidth) but it's pretty low.

A better/cheaper option would be to sign up for VPN solution from Telkom http://www.telkom.co.za/products_ser...vpn/index.html and you'll score points for saving the company a bundle of money.

First get a quotation for the diginet circuits you require, installation cost + monthly rental.
Next get a quote for the VPN service and compare the two.

+1

But rather get it from MTN Business. Great team there and not as much of a hassle to deal with compared to Telkom Business...

[Rocket-Boy]

A friend of mine has a diginet line that gets full speeds and great latency in SA but its terrible as soon as it leaves the country. It goes down from 10mb to the same speeds and latencies as a 4mb adsl line. It also seems to be more a-sync than 1:1 when it leaves the country.

[daffy]

A Diginet line is just a connection from one point to another.
Line distance will dictate your latency.

[ponder]

A friend of mine has a diginet line that gets full speeds and great latency in SA but its terrible as soon as it leaves the country. It goes down from 10mb to the same speeds and latencies as a 4mb adsl line. It also seems to be more a-sync than 1:1 when it leaves the country.

I think you might be confused or his application is to use diginet for internet access. I suspect both the end points are in SA to an isp with a package that has different contention ratios for local & international traffic. Not really the same as using diginet between a local office and a international office.

[ponder]

But rather get it from MTN Business. Great team there and not as much of a hassle to deal with compared to Telkom Business...

My recommendation is based purely on the network infrastructure size & route diversification/backup with Telkom.

[h0ll0w]

A Diginet line is just a connection from one point to another.
Line distance will dictate your latency.

QFT.

Your ISP is a factor too, your contention ratio isn't necesarily 1:1, on the cheaper packages it goes up.

MTN's call centre is shockingly horribly bad at times, you often need to jump down their throat to get results. Just yesterday I had to tell the support technician what he should do based on what I thought was going on. It turned out that their upstream provider had latency/packet loss issues, and he just couldn't connect the dots. Other times they just can't be bothered with your issue, despite the fact that you pay a little over R90K p/m, and all you hear is loud laughter in the background.

Also, go for a fibre connection if you have the option/finances for installation, its worth it in the end.

[Rocket-Boy]

I think you might be confused or his application is to use diginet for internet access. I suspect both the end points are in SA to an isp with a package that has different contention ratios for local & international traffic. Not really the same as using diginet between a local office and a international office.

Well it was based on a speedtest so it would be internet based.
I have 4 point to point diginet links in SA which work just fine. As soon as you leave the country you have to go through a service provider so unless you get a very expensive package with them its likely to be contented.

[ponder]

As soon as you leave the country you have to go through a service provider so unless you get a very expensive package with them its likely to be contented.

http://www.telkom.co.za/attheoffice/...net/index.html

International Diginet & Diginet Plus: Diginet also offers you international dedicated data connections at rates of between 2400 bit/s and 34 Mbps. These services are available via satellite and the SAT-2 submarine cable system which links South Africa with Europe, the USA, Canada and some African countries.

You can also get ATM & SDH circuits to international destinations if you want but you are going to pay $$$ for this.

[Rocket-Boy]

http://www.telkom.co.za/attheoffice/...net/index.html


You can also get ATM & SDH circuits to international destinations if you want but you are going to pay $$$ for this.

Im confused about what you are trying to say. Telkom(SAIX) own SAT-2 which we all know. So if you are going overseas then you need a service provider in between those points. If they were offering satellite communication between two points you still need the service provider in between. There is no getting away from the fact that an ISP is involved between two points and they set the speed and contention on that.

[ponder]

Im confused about what you are trying to say.

Maybe confused and or misinformed to some degree. I'm saying you can lease a end to end circuit (IPLC) (diginet, E1, E3, atm, sdh etc) between a city in South Africa and a city in Australia for example without an ISP being involved but it is very expensive. The circuit would be provided by Telkom & and their Australian equivalent like Telstra without using a ISP or other service provider. It does not go via the internet and it's a dedicated circuit with you as the only customer on it, thus a 1:1 contention ratio.
You don't have to go via a ISP but it would be cheaper to go with a VPN solution from a ISP/Service provider.

http://www.telkom.co.za/common/price...rinecable.html
http://www.telkom.co.za/common/price...litecable.html

[bubbatentoe]

Telkom Service = useless.
Support staff = as above.
Pricing = high.
Time frames = looong.
Call Center system = outdated and unresponsive/non user friendly.


Go MTN wireless.
The link (JHB office to MTN) operates in the licensed frequency range (no conflicts)
Downed/stolen Telkom cable problems = no brainer.

Office in Zambia can also be linked to the MTN Africa IP network = telephone calls to your Zambia office over your link.


Plus it's cheaper than Telkom.


nuff said.

[Gnome]

Telkom Service = useless.
Support staff = as above.
Pricing = high.
Time frames = looong.
Call Center system = outdated and unresponsive/non user friendly.


Go MTN wireless.
The link (JHB office to MTN) operates in the licensed frequency range (no conflicts)
Downed/stolen Telkom cable problems = no brainer.

Office in Zambia can also be linked to the MTN Africa IP network = telephone calls to your Zambia office over your link.


Plus it's cheaper than Telkom.


nuff said.

I disagree. Company I work for used that for a while at an off-site call center and there was down time. As soon as a traffic jam happened the tower would become overloaded (everyone's on their phone).

After that we went Diginet and thereafter metro-Ethernet. Never had down time or those kinds of congestion problems on either Diginet or Metro Ethernet unlike the wireless link.