Advice on Business DSL

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Kirst85

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I'm trying to set up business internet at my small shared office space in woodstock Cape Town.
Apparently according to Telkom ADSL checker site the max speed line available in our area is 20Mbps.
We are max 15 people in the office at any one time.

I'm looking for something fast & as reliable as possible to handle the load of 15 people. We are a web company so I we have high usage, probably between 120 and 200 gig per month of data needed for the whole office but uncapped would be great. (No torrent downloads allowed in office)

Budget +- R3500pm (we do not have a telkom line yet so must include line rental etc)

Does anyone have any advice on what the best kind of account would be for us? Capped vs uncapped, which ISPs are better etc? I have been researching but feeling a bit overwhelmed and would like some feedback from real people.
 
Kirst85 said:
I'm trying to set up business internet at my small shared office space in woodstock Cape Town.
Apparently according to Telkom ADSL checker site the max speed line available in our area is 20Mbps.
We are max 15 people in the office at any one time.

I'm looking for something fast & as reliable as possible to handle the load of 15 people. We are a web company so I we have high usage, probably between 120 and 200 gig per month of data needed for the whole office but uncapped would be great. (No torrent downloads allowed in office)

Budget +- R3500pm (we do not have a telkom line yet so must include line rental etc)

Does anyone have any advice on what the best kind of account would be for us? Capped vs uncapped, which ISPs are better etc? I have been researching but feeling a bit overwhelmed and would like some feedback from real people.
Click to expand...

With that usage I'd recommend this. You can even bundle your line.
http://www.webafrica.co.za/vdsl/business-uncapped/

But even capped would be a good option with such low usage.
 
10Meg Afrihost is R997,R400 for 10Meg line rental,puts you at ~1500 for uncapped unshaped ADSL

Since your line of business is online you may want to look at putting in something like a Neotel Wimax/LTE as a backup if adsl goes down,thats another 1k for 2-4Meg uncapped. Neotel will have to come do a signal assessment to check what wireless is available in your area

Still under your budget and pretty good options

If you do decide to go the afrihost route use a referral link for 50% off the first month. I think Axxess has a similar option running
 
PsyWulf said:
10Meg Afrihost is R997,R400 for 10Meg line rental,puts you at ~1500 for uncapped unshaped ADSL

Since your line of business is online you may want to look at putting in something like a Neotel Wimax/LTE as a backup if adsl goes down,thats another 1k for 2-4Meg uncapped. Neotel will have to come do a signal assessment to check what wireless is available in your area

Still under your budget and pretty good options

If you do decide to go the afrihost route use a referral link for 50% off the first month. I think Axxess has a similar option running
Click to expand...

Problem with your suggestion is that it's Afrihost. With all the authentication issues they've been having lately and persistent capacity problems even after upgrades I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole.
 
Throttling?

Chevron said:
With that usage I'd recommend this. You can even bundle your line.
http://www.webafrica.co.za/vdsl/business-uncapped/

But even capped would be a good option with such low usage.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice, do you know if webafrica throttle on business lines if you overdo it on your usage?
Our main concern is speed/performance consistency.

I'm trying to gauge if anyone knows if the capped accounts perform much better than the uncapped offerings.
I see Web Africa business capped only gos up to 10Mbps lines.
 
Kirst85 said:
Thanks for the advice, do you know if webafrica throttle on business lines if you overdo it on your usage?
Our main concern is speed/performance consistency.

I'm trying to gauge if anyone knows if the capped accounts perform much better than the uncapped offerings.
I see Web Africa business capped only gos up to 10Mbps lines.
Click to expand...

I'm on 10Meg business so I can say that you'll only feel a difference if your usage on 20Meg goes to around 800GBs or more.

So your 200GBs is far from that. And usage between 00:00 and 06:00 doesn't count so you can schedule all your backups then.
 
Chevron said:
Problem with your suggestion is that it's Afrihost. With all the authentication issues they've been having lately and persistent capacity problems even after upgrades I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole.
Click to expand...

IPC in the north was just upgraded again,south is likely to follow

Auth issues have been more recently but thats why you keep a backup line too,and how much downtime has the auth issues even been? ( most of it was out of business hours )

Webafrica is IS and star based throttling,so if one person at the office stuffs it everybody's speeds will be abysmal

Afrihost = mega value and performance,barring the technical issues which anybody gets from time to time
 
PsyWulf said:
IPC in the north was just upgraded again,south is likely to follow

Auth issues have been more recently but thats why you keep a backup line too,and how much downtime has the auth issues even been? ( most of it was out of business hours )

Webafrica is IS and star based throttling,so if one person at the office stuffs it everybody's speeds will be abysmal

Afrihost = mega value and performance,barring the technical issues which anybody gets from time to time
Click to expand...

Yet I've never had 1 issue ever while being on Web Africa. Stability and having things just work is way more important to me.

I know you want people to click your referral link, but try be less bias please.
 
PsyWulf said:
IPC in the north was just upgraded again,south is likely to follow

Auth issues have been more recently but thats why you keep a backup line too,and how much downtime has the auth issues even been? ( most of it was out of business hours )

Webafrica is IS and star based throttling,so if one person at the office stuffs it everybody's speeds will be abysmal

Afrihost = mega value and performance,barring the technical issues which anybody gets from time to time
Click to expand...

I have to agree with Chevron on this. If your business relies on a stable internet connection rather stay away from Afrihost for now. They have capacity issues in the South which they were supposed to address months ago.

They will have to prove that they can provide stable connectivity for a prolonged period before I would use them as my primary ISP.

My personal experience is that IS has the most stable network, I've been using IS connections for the past 5 years and have very little to complain about. I'm also using Vox now which are also excellent but only been using for a month so cannot comment on stability over a long period.
 
Chevron said:
With that usage I'd recommend this. You can even bundle your line.
http://www.webafrica.co.za/vdsl/business-uncapped/

But even capped would be a good option with such low usage.
Click to expand...

I'm with Chevron on this one since I've experienced both ISP's. I was with Afrihost and my speeds were slow and inconsistent. Changed to Web Africa and never looked back. Never had any downtime or inconsistencies once since moving to them. I'm in Woodstock as well so you'll probably be connected to the same exchange I am.
 
Kirst85 said:
I'm trying to set up business internet at my small shared office space in woodstock Cape Town.
Apparently according to Telkom ADSL checker site the max speed line available in our area is 20Mbps.
We are max 15 people in the office at any one time.

I'm looking for something fast & as reliable as possible to handle the load of 15 people. We are a web company so I we have high usage, probably between 120 and 200 gig per month of data needed for the whole office but uncapped would be great. (No torrent downloads allowed in office)

Budget +- R3500pm (we do not have a telkom line yet so must include line rental etc)

Does anyone have any advice on what the best kind of account would be for us? Capped vs uncapped, which ISPs are better etc? I have been researching but feeling a bit overwhelmed and would like some feedback from real people.
Click to expand...

We have some great products that can suit your needs and budget.

It sounds like an unshaped product is going to suit you best to allow for downloads during office hours without being shaped. I think Business is a great option because it's unshaped, unmetered and also has the Business Optimisation feature which will allow you to shape P2P at any time in order to secure your office network (you can also switch it off at any time).

A 20Mbps Business Bundle will set you back only R2297 (which includes your DSL line rental). The only further cost will be the telephone voice rental, which depends on the package you take with them.

If the line is already active, you can always sign up a Free GB account to test the performance of the network.

https://www.afrihost.com/microsites...r&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=FREEGB_1303
 
Chevron said:
Problem with your suggestion is that it's Afrihost. With all the authentication issues they've been having lately and persistent capacity problems even after upgrades I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole.
Click to expand...

We definitely have had more authentication issues of late then we'd like, but we've got some serious resources being brought to bear to get this resolved. In general we're seeing excellent performance though.

In terms of capacity we've been upgrading consistently, as you well know from being active on our regular threads. We'll continue to plan and upgrade as we grow and our client's needs change.
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
I have to agree with Chevron on this. If your business relies on a stable internet connection rather stay away from Afrihost for now. They have capacity issues in the South which they were supposed to address months ago.

They will have to prove that they can provide stable connectivity for a prolonged period before I would use them as my primary ISP.

My personal experience is that IS has the most stable network, I've been using IS connections for the past 5 years and have very little to complain about. I'm also using Vox now which are also excellent but only been using for a month so cannot comment on stability over a long period.
Click to expand...

The South did receive an upgrade, so we're generally seeing good performance in terms of throughput and latency. We're also implemented some provisional changes to how we manage the network to give the best overall experience and to safeguard Business and Capped performance - which applies to North, South and East.
 
Thanks Everyone for your input. It's been really helpful.
I have one last question, I got a quote for a 20 Meg fiber line to the office. What are your thoughts on going Fiber rather than a business ADSL line?

The Fiber line is R2899 for 100Gig Cap. The 100Gig is perfect for the main business in the shared office space. Then other people (mostly freelancers) in the office use it like a hotspot and top up themselves per gig. Out of bundle rate is R20 per gig.
The attractive part of this is that its a fiber line is more stable/consistent than having a telkom ADSL line. The other thing is not worrying about some idiot in the office sneakily downloading excessively and slowing down everyones speed.

Cons are that its quite expensive for 100Gig (but should suit our needs for now) and that it will be more expensive overall for freelancers working in the office having to pay per gig. Also as our business grows 100Gig may become too little.

Any thoughts/opinions would be appreciated.
 
Kirst85 said:
Thanks Everyone for your input. It's been really helpful.
I have one last question, I got a quote for a 20 Meg fiber line to the office. What are your thoughts on going Fiber rather than a business ADSL line?

The Fiber line is R2899 for 100Gig Cap. The 100Gig is perfect for the main business in the shared office space. Then other people (mostly freelancers) in the office use it like a hotspot and top up themselves per gig. Out of bundle rate is R20 per gig.
The attractive part of this is that its a fiber line is more stable/consistent than having a telkom ADSL line. The other thing is not worrying about some idiot in the office sneakily downloading excessively and slowing down everyones speed.

Cons are that its quite expensive for 100Gig (but should suit our needs for now) and that it will be more expensive overall for freelancers working in the office having to pay per gig. Also as our business grows 100Gig may become too little.

Any thoughts/opinions would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Good if you can afford it, bad if you happen to have a high usage month and can't afford it. The nice thing with fiber would be the high upload speeds compared to ADSL/VDSL.

With regards to ADSL/VDSL, go the VDSL route if you can as you will get higher upload speeds compared to ADSL. You may also find that a large capped account will work out cheaper for you than a business uncapped account. Just depends on your usage patterns as a business.

I have a Web Africa home capped account and it performs very well (Same as Web Africa business uncapped on 5 stars). I have also swapped it with a friend for a month (On Afrihost capped) and that has performed equally well in my browsing, downloading and streaming tests. - This is Durban though, and you may find it to be slightly different where you are in SA.
 
AfriMan said:
We definitely have had more authentication issues of late then we'd like, but we've got some serious resources being brought to bear to get this resolved. In general we're seeing excellent performance though.

In terms of capacity we've been upgrading consistently, as you well know from being active on our regular threads. We'll continue to plan and upgrade as we grow and our client's needs change.
Click to expand...

Our office has had 0 impact from those auth issues, they arise when trying to start a session using your account but if your account is always pinned up you should not have had any issues (well I did not at work nor office, both using pinned business dsl connections)
 
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