ADSL vs Leased Line (Diginet)

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mavx

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Hi Guys,

We're currently using ADSL as our internet breakout, Telkom is trying to convince us that we would have a faster service using a 512kbs diginet line. So far as I can see the ADSL (4Mb) line is working fine and the speeds arent too bad at all (9.76mb in 1min39sec) during mid morning. If we change to diginet, do you think we'll see a drop in overall response times? Their argument is that the upload and download are both 512kbs, our mail is routed via a dedicated link so this would only be browsing and downloading, is it really worth it? Perhaps if it aint broke, dont fix it...?

Can anybody shed some light if they might have changed to / from ADSL / Diginet for internet usage?
 
I'd say wait for a bit and see what happens when the Seacom cable comes online. My guess is they're trying to trick you guys to enter into a long term Diginet contract.
 
Diginet is more expensive than adsl, but is not a shared service as adsl is.

You'll have more constant speeds and file transfers than adsl, but the sting is in the price.
 
So if price is not a problem, diginet?
 
I don't know anything about Diginet, but based on common sense and the fact that your ADSL line has the 'potential' for 4096Kbps (effectively about 3500Kbps) and a Diginet line has the 'potential' for 512Kbps (effectively 410Kbps, I presume), you are going to take a hit in terms of speed. Why pay more for a connection that, although may perform more "consistently", will never be capable of the same speeds? As you mention in your post, you got about about 100KB/sec on that download, which translates to 800Kbps, which is already faster than 512Kbps Diginet...

Why not put that extra money into investing in better/more bandwidth for your DSL connection? For example, unshaped bandwidth, which theoretically provides the best latency (response) - how this compares to Diginet, I'm not sure.

Also, if you are going to be sharing the connection amongst multiple users, it would be better to have a faster line/more capacity ("broader band" ;)) rather than a more consistent line, in my opinion. If you do lots of downloads, you should install a download manager which can thread your downloads - then, on a 4Mbps DSL connection, you will get speeds far exceeding 512Kbps (most of the time :D)
 
Diginet is a great service when you need dedicated bandwidth and a SLA.

Browsing will not be affected negatively, in fact, it should actually improve. Response times are better and the speed/latency does not fluctuate as much. It is only 512kbps (or whatever you choose), but you always get your 512kbps!

Diginet is a digital link between twee points. In this case, between your office and Telkom. As with ADSL, you pay line rental and ISP fee. AFAIK, Line rental is dependant on the length and speed of the line.

If I were in your shoes, I would get a quote from a few different ISP's (including Neotel) before getting the service from Telkom. If the link is only used for browsing and email, I would stick with ADSL.
 
Yup, you'll find the line exceedingly slow coming from ADSL. Rather invest in multiple ADSL lines or the like that go to Diginet (unless you're planning on hosting something).
 
mavx said:
Telkom is trying to convince us
Click to expand...
Run away...

mavx said:
So if price is not a problem, diginet?
Click to expand...
As I understand it the main advantages of a diginet line are:
-More uptime
-No shaping
-No caps

The price to pay is huge cost and not so hot speeds.

I'd say add as many ADSL lines as needed and maybe get a router which also support a 3G connection. Then use a prepaid SIM with a prepaid data bundle in there when the adsl lines go down.

That way you'd still have (slow) internetz when the adsl lines keel over (which seems to be happening more often nowadays).

Their argument is that the upload and download are both
512kbs,
Click to expand...
I think the 4mbps have been upgrade to 640kbps uplink. There was a thread here somewhere about that.
 
the big advantage of diginet is the response time on problems, you have direct contact with telkom and there is no bs with help lines etc. you phone telkom and the techie is there in like an hour.

so, unless you're hosting a transaction server or something similar requiring a dedicated connection which can not afford to be off-line then rather avoid diginet.
 
Thanks for all the comments guys. From the posts here so far I can gather that we should rather stick with what we have at the moment, a dedicated ADSL line for browsing, our mail is routed via a permanent diginet line anyways.

Perhaps in future when leased line costs come down then go for a higher speed leased line. We've been using ADSL merrily for the last year or so and to be honest if we've had a full days down time its been a lot - touch wood! The only change we're going make is to change ISP's, cheaper bandwidth :D
 
Nobody seems to have mentioned static IPs.

My understanding is that you can't get true static IPs unless you go diginet.
 
Your understanding sucks :p

Anyways, instead of forking out another few k's for diginet, get 2 more 4mbit adsl lines :D ever heard of load balancing? 12mbps ftw

Rinkhals said:
Nobody seems to have mentioned static IPs.

My understanding is that you can't get true static IPs unless you go diginet.
Click to expand...
 
mavx said:
Hi Guys,

We're currently using ADSL as our internet breakout, Telkom is trying to convince us that we would have a faster service using a 512kbs diginet line. So far as I can see the ADSL (4Mb) line is working fine and the speeds arent too bad at all (9.76mb in 1min39sec) during mid morning. If we change to diginet, do you think we'll see a drop in overall response times? Their argument is that the upload and download are both 512kbs, our mail is routed via a dedicated link so this would only be browsing and downloading, is it really worth it? Perhaps if it aint broke, dont fix it...?

Can anybody shed some light if they might have changed to / from ADSL / Diginet for internet usage?
Click to expand...

can u buy me a uncapped account mr business man??? :D
 
512kbps Diginet may be more consistent than ADSL, but it's still a hell of a lot slower than 4mbps when there are lots of users using the line simultaneously.

Telkom are lying so that you'll pay the fortune for diginet. Don't listen to their lies.
 
I agree, I heard someone say once who had a diginet line in their office, that if one workstation is checking email or browsing a site, the other workstations basically stand still.

?
 
First let me say I was a Diginet long term contract victim. From 2002-2006.
It was the only viable solution for a company which conducted 99% of business internationally online and ADSL wasn't available.
Telkom basically killed us as a start up by eating any profits we generated with horrendous contract fees. One year they didn't bill the contractual R10,000 per month for 4 months then unexpectedly helped themselves to R40,000 in one fell swoop on our debit order. Those were shaky times for our little start up. Each year the contract price decreased from the initial unmentionable horrific figure in 2002 to a more managable price by 2006 but the catch was they choked our bandwidth and speed as they lowered the price each year "downgraded" us. Once we were behind payment by a month and someone in Billing gave the tech order to dismantle our server completely on their side without informing us. First thing we knew about this was when the tech support couldn't find out why we were down-. It took a week for them to reinstall our servers or whatever it is they do or build. We required a fixed IP address and dedicated mailservers. Once fast, reliable ADSL became available our diginet was only used for mail and as backup to ADSL which incidently gradually slowed as the local subscriber base exploded. Finally we let diginet go and relied upon ADSL with prepaid sim and wireless modems as backup. The costs were just too high for our returns.

Contrary to belief, Diginet does not give instant support. Yes you will get an instant live human body to talk to on the phone, but unless things have changed, if you are down (and you will be down at times- not common though) they do tests on their side then we had to do tests on our side to pinpoint the problem. It could be a morning or a day or two days before the problem was solved.

Signing Diginet contracts were the single most horrible things I had to do in my life. It was like making a pact with the devil and in the end Telkom stole our corporate soul.

I'm sure they're trying to keep this old dinosaur of a product going to squeeze every last cent out of somebody else before they park it out front on the Telkom museum apron and be done with it.

Telkom diginet was a very expensive and immeasurably painful experience.
But that was our largest cost and only option we had at the time.

Their policy seemed to be to screw the small Start ups before they even left the ground. Yes, we weathered the storm but had those early years been cheaper and had Telkom been more supportive towards start ups we could have invested our profits into growing our business.- But we couldn't and we paid for that dearly 3 years later.- And no, while it wan't Telkoms fault they were accomplices, all said and done, to our eventual demise.
 
My current company also used a diginet line (64k).

It was horribly slow, so they had an adsl line installed for web browsing.

When uncapped adsl was available, we took a contract out, and moved the mail servers over to the adsl line - and terminated the diginet line.

Funny thing is - we moved offices, and a year later the telkom techie showed us at the new offices to terminate the supposed diginet line :rolleyes:

If you search the forum for Diginet, you'll find quite a few threads regarding Diginet. :)
 
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