ADSL Setup for digs! Need Advice

[TheLaggingShaman]

Hey my brother is moving into digs soon with some friends on a student budget. Hes looking to hook up with an ADSL connection, preferably a 384/512kbps line, with prepaid shaped internet (buy gigs one at a time and let them roll over into the next month), and a wireless router as there will be multiple computers in the house. If anyone could help us with some advice for ISP's, internet packages, hardware etc. that would be really appreciated.

Would 384kbps be ok for 3-5 computers? The guys aren't planning to do much besides work/email and maybe a bit of downloading here and there. Basically they are looking for something cheap and reliable.

 

[Telkomisaloser]

/me ninjas TheLaggingShaman
/me greets the ninja'ed TheLaggingShaman

 

[Highflyer_GP]

Webafrica if you want data that rolls over, they sell prepaid data.

1GB lasts me about 2 months with mild browsing and downloading an occasional song or two.

 

[bwana]

Why dont they get the line, set the router to bridged mode, and each gets their own bandwidth.

 

[talon]

Agree with bwana there, run in bridge mode, use rasppoe & routesentry with prepaid account for each guy

 

[ADSL Newbie]

Go here...

Go to this link : http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=54472
Read up on which ISP's they could use (Also recommend a WebAfrica prepaid account for each one on the line)

And then follow the links mh348 gave me here :

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=54472&page=5

This is on how to install and use RouteSentry

 

[bwana]

RouteSentry will be up to the individual. I've got so many different machines running on my network with so many different ISPs that I dont need RouteSentry.

Also, not being a windows user I couldnt run it even if I wanted it.

 

[mikef]

My recommendation would be telkom's self-install with a free modem and each user using prepaid gigs from WA and connecting in bridge mode from their own computer using their own account.

 

[MFour]

I think a 384 line would probably be good enough, although should all 5 be on at the same time and 1 or 2 start downloading you might have a problem. For general surfing it should be fine. I've had 3 machines doing online gaming at the same time with no lag or problems on a 384 line. when a 4th machine started to do some small downloads we ran into some lag spikes.

 

[TheLaggingShaman]

Ok thanks for the advice thus far guys. Important point, two computers will be mac, while the others all pcs. will those prove a problem?

 

[bwana]

Ok thanks for the advice thus far guys. Important point, two computers will be mac, while the others all pcs. will those prove a problem?

It will if you want to use routesentry - otherwise nope, my network at home has a mixture of xp and osx - plus the xbox360 of course.