Aerosat vs Telkom Adsl ?

[ForSure]

hey Chaps

what you guys think of aerosat ? i hear its way cheaper than adsl
what would be better adsl or aerosat ? good for gaming etc?
main reason im asking is that i am looking on upgrading my line and i cant choose if i should take adsl or aerosat ?
im thinking that adsl will be more worth the money than aerosat for gaming and p2p stuff

what you guys think ? feedback from current aerosat subscribers ?

thanks

 

[Jo-Jo]

aerosat

have been using them for a lil while allthough not for gaming, what I do like is that they are a small company and I can put a face to the voice on the phone. They were very quick to install their bits and pieces . For some reason they dont like to install their cables into a hub, so it either goes into your NIC or a router.

get a signal test first. If it is good you will have a lot of fun if not you might end being frustrated. Overall...I am happy, if I have to find nitpick to find fault... they did not plug their powersupply in when they left. Now I am being pedantic

did I mention uncapped?

the support guys also know about Linux and was able to help me get the system running(5min max) as I dont use that other virus prone thing masquarding as an OS

 

[nGAGEd55]

anything over satalite is useless for gaming, pings are far too high

 

[bwana]

. . . They were very quick to install their bits and pieces . For some reason they dont like to install their cables into a hub, so it either goes into your NIC or a router.

get a signal test first. If it is good you will have a lot of fun if not you might end being frustrated. Overall...I am happy, if I have to find nitpick to find fault... they did not plug their powersupply in when they left. Now I am being pedantic . .

Tried to get them to do a signal test but no joy. Guess they were feeling lazy the day/week/month that I continuously tried to get some service from them.

Honestly had better service from telkom

 

[Jo-Jo]

get hold of Richard, very softspoken, he got me going less than 48 hours from the day I decided to get it going

 

[aerosat]

Tried to get them to do a signal test but no joy. Guess they were feeling lazy the day/week/month that I continuously tried to get some service from them.

Honestly had better service from telkom

Hi guys,

I'm sorry to hear about your lack of service from our sales department. If you would be so kind as to contact me directly ( noc at aerosat dot net ) I'd be glad to follow up for you personally and make sure that you get sorted out in an effective and efficient manner. Please would you send me the details of who you spoke to at Aerosat and the problems you faced. I'll make sure our Operations Manager is alerted to the issue and have it sorted out.

With regard to whether or not Aerosat is a "better" solution than the ADSL offerings from Telkom is up to debate - essentially it depends on what you're looking for in an Internet Connectivity solution. Aerosat offer uncapped (data cap) connections, wherein we shape various protocols. With the proper justification, we are willing to open ports and/or protocols for our customers as well (network wide). We offer static IP allocations to our customer base (we are able to route IP blocks to larger corporates as well - again with proper justification). Please bear in mind that we offer our standard wireless based packages as well as standard VISP based Telkom and IS DSL accounts, I'm hoping you'll view my opinion as unbiased!

Telkom ADSL provide shaped and unshaped connections, however their main downfall from the prospective clients would be their data caps (limitations on the amount of data which traverses their line during any given month). This can be a problem to customers who wish to engage in activities which involve a lot of downloading/uploading. Their IPs tend to cycle every 24 hours as well, sometimes you receive the same IP again, however your PPPoE connection is dropped every 24 hours irrespective.
The SAIX network hosts the bulk of the South African gaming servers and so Telkom's ADSL offerings are ideal for gamers. Internet Solutions' network (where Aerosat receive the bulk of our local access portion...) hosts the majority of the web content on the South African Internet infrastructure, therefore there are no peering links to contend with when accessing IS hosted data from the Aerosat network. Aerosat are in the process of acquiring direct SAIX access as well, after which time we'd be multi-homed on the South African Internet backbone, thereby offering the best possible connectivity services to our customers that we can. Currently, the peering link issues between IS and SAIX may cause intermittent problems with our customers who game on the SAIX servers - this is unfortunately currently out of our control, which is why we've entered into negotiations with Telkom SAIX to buy bandwidth directly from them...

With regard to the comment about Satellite gaming, we do have an International breakout port via IS, therefore our gaming can be rerouted via those circuits instead of our direct satellite circuits. The bulk of our connectivity is concentrated around satellite services for the International portion, however we are able to reroute certain customers and/or specific ports or protocols via IS for International access. On our satellite circuits, we receive between 450ms - 650ms to International sites, obviously affected by many variables.

I'm hoping I've answered a couple of questions, for those of you who are curious, the other day I posted a link with a couple of random client graphs to "demonstrate" our services that have been received by some of our customers. You can find these graphs at http://spiderman.aerosat.co.za/graphs/. Please note that these graphs are static and sampled on the respective date.

Should you require more information, please feel free to contact either myself or one of the other staff members at Aerosat.

Ryan Goss
Technical Director
Aerosat
086 111 2871
ryan at aerosat dot co dot za

 

[SteveV]

Ryan -- thanks for such an honest and comprehensive answer.

I've just had a look at your site, and couldn't see anything about which areas you cover... or am I just being a nana?

 

[aerosat]

Ryan -- thanks for such an honest and comprehensive answer.

I've just had a look at your site, and couldn't see anything about which areas you cover... or am I just being a nana?

Hi,

Currently, we do not list the coverage locations on our website, however this will probably change on the next version (our site is in the process of yet another revamp).

We cover various areas in the Eastern Cape, if you'd be so kind as to tell me what location you're situated in, I'd be glad to confirm possible connectivity for you. You're welcome to contact me with the information directly, please send me your contact details and I'll forward them through to our sales department for you and have them deal with it.

You're welcome to contact them yourself at : sales at aerosat dot co dot za, however I'd be glad to follow through on the procedures for you. There are a lot of areas that we cover, so it'd be quite difficult for me to list them here!

Kind Regards

Ryan Goss
Technical Director
Aerosat
086 111 2871
ryan at aerosat dot co dot za

 

[killadoob]

if this is such a good product and workx well why is it not in the most populated and busy place in SA (JHB)

and can you game on it if it ever did make its way to jhb
i get around 18-35 pings from my adsl what would i get with aerosat

 

[bwana]

if this is such a good product and workx well why is it not in the most populated and busy place in SA (JHB)

and can you game on it if it ever did make its way to jhb
i get around 18-35 pings from my adsl what would i get with aerosat

Its a PE company.

JNB, CTP and Dbn also already have iBurst and Sentech and various other options for wireless access so I guess the market is pretty much saturated.

 

[killadoob]

let me change your statement

its saturated with rubbish expensive kuk

although since i upgraded the firmware on my clients iburst its pretty damn fast

 

[aerosat]

Hi again,

With regard to why we're not in JHB, its honestly not in our scope at the moment. There are a few companies who offer wifi type services who are in those areas, so we feel that the market there is quite saturated!

Our latency to JHB is +- 35-45ms on the IS backbone. This is an IS limitation, those on ADSL may receive better pings, especially if you're in JHB to begin with. We have higher latency due to the long haul link IS have from PE to JHB/CT.

Regards

Ryan Goss
Technical Director
Aerosat
086 111 2871
ryan at aerosat dot co dot za

 

[MrG]

I would probably give Aerosat a try if they were in Cape Town. I am still considering my options.

 

[Sezuael]

I have recently (+- 3months) become a client of aerosat. So far i have been happy with the speeds. Ok so P2P can be lacking at times, but majority of the time i get my full 20 k on torrents. That and the Uncapped Factor... Brilliant! Oh and on service, I'm quite pleased with the support. Seems smaller companies tend to care a lot more about clients than the others...

 

[Telkom sux]

Aerosat wireless internet :
---------------------------



pro's :
-------
Uncapped, you can download as much as you want, provided you can find working links.


Cons :
------
Limitations get put onto the lines without any prior notice to the user. you come home from work and find half your games not working. this happens 2 or 3 times a year


Blocked ports, only a handful of online games work, the rest you have to forward the info to aerosat to get the ports opened to play those games, and trust me, you will also wait 3 or 4 months before it is done.

P2P is limited, daytime it is totaly blocked, after 7PM speed is reduced to around 10-20 kbp/s, takes like 2 hours for it to start tho, so you only get to use it for 10 out of the 12 hours.

Certain Websites cannot be accessed due to aerosat using transparent proxies, websites like rapidshare.com/.de simply don't work, others give cache or proxy errors.

Latency for gaming is pathetic, expect to get around 1100ms+ with wow on avarege.

Service is not that good, but then again we live in S.A, it is bad no matter where you go.

Video over internet is really bad, if i just use voice over skype it works pretty descent, but once i connect the webcam voice starts breaking up and i am forced to disconnect the webcam.

Connection has many so called "dips" where you lose connection with server for just a few seconds, therefore it is advised to use a download manager when downloading or you will end up downloading the same file 20 times in IE.

Weather : with slightest bit of rain and the towers go down, or you get heavy lag spikes and latency in games jump to 10 000ms+

There is no after hours technical support, they advertise it, but all you get is a noob technician that logs a ticket and your problem gets solved the next day. if you log a ticket on friday after 5PM, it only gets fixed on monday morning.



Conclusion :
------------

All in all, if you are going to be using the line for bussiness where you will use the following features : reading emails and browsing websites i would recommend aerosat.

If you are going to be gaming or downloading alot i would not recommend them at all,most files you download are on rapidshare , megaupload etc ... rapidshare does not work, so 80% of the files you find you cannot download. i really hate telkom, i think they are a virus that plagues this planet, but i recommend them any day over aerosat, then again with telkom you get a 3gb cap, kinda puts your nuts into a vice grip either way you go .... but i have heard rumours that the 3gb cap will be changed soon, so maybe going the telkom route is not a bad idea. i mean it is all glamourous that aerosat advertises "uncapped" connection, but what use is it when they limit the crap out of it ?



All of the above is based on my experience as a 3 year aerosat user.I know the above sounds as if i am totaly against aerosat, this is not the case, i am simply telling things the way they are. When i first signed up the line was great, no limitations, not much downtime, latency was way lower, but now it seems they are obsessed with forcing the clients to use less bandwitdh and saving themselves a few bucks. why not advertise it as a 20GB or 30GB cap and have no limitations, i would much rather have prefered that to being blocked wherever i go.

I play online games, i download alot, i live on the net so to say, the only reason i am still with them is because of the deposit, but i won't be for much longer, i am already shopping for a new isp.

 

[DragonLogos]

I think Aerostat need to sharpen the pencils a bit, Maybe put the monthly up a bit and cut the installation / deposit thing down, 1 500,00 is a bit heavy - They could be doing a lot more business, esp with Tel-Con's delays in supplying ADSL - They also need to advertise more, which brings me to:

What are the legals on the service, I heard there were moans and screams from Tel-Con... and requests for ICASA to sort things out... etc

 

[Apoc]

Aerosat wireless internet :
pro's :
-------
Uncapped, you can download as much as you want, provided you can find working links.


Cons :
------
Certain Websites cannot be accessed due to aerosat using transparent proxies, websites like rapidshare.com/.de simply don't work, others give cache or proxy errors.

Service is not that good, but then again we live in S.A, it is bad no matter where you go.

Connection has many so called "dips" where you lose connection with server for just a few seconds, therefore it is advised to use a download manager when downloading or you will end up downloading the same file 20 times in IE.


There is no after hours technical support, they advertise it, but all you get is a noob technician that logs a ticket and your problem gets solved the next day. if you log a ticket on friday after 5PM, it only gets fixed on monday morning.

I have been using Aerosat for the last 2 months and I totally agree with every point listed above. I was an ADSL user with Cybersmart as my ISP.

I don't game, I download and browse intensively. I also chat via IRC and MSN Messenger.

My major gripes are:

1) Dips - There are certain times when the connection just freezes and renders the internet useless. IRC and MSN disconnect and web pages time out. This is by far the most frustrating problem. ADSL never had this problem, except every 24 hours when the IP's where refreshed.

2) Chat - Some days I constantly get disconnected from my IRC server every 10 mins or so, some days I can stay connected for over 10 hours. Some days MSN just refuses to work, other days it is fine. A regular problem is MSN 'losing' its key ports. I have to then troubleshoot MSN and then repair it.


3) Web browsing - I'm an intensive website browser and I find web browsing on Aerosat very flaky. Once again its not all the time, just sometimes that I struggle. At times loading more than 2 pages is impossible and time outs occur. Also, some websites don't work properly if at all.

Two nights ago I tried to download drivers for my girlfriends laptop from za.lge.com - and I have still not succeeded at downloading even one driver. I have tried at work and downloading works fine, its only problematic over Aerosat.

I don't hate Aerosat, I love the freedom of not having a cap. I cannot go without the internet and I have experienced little if any downtime with Aerosat. I just get frustrated when I experience the above issues. I believe these issues are teething issues and that they will not be a permanent problem.

Ryan I am more than willing to cooperate with you and give you feedback on a regular basis. I am situated in Newton Park and I overlook William Moffet Shopping centre.

 

[Kloon]

Al you need to do is change a setting in your router. Cant remember what setting will check 2night on my router and post it here.

 

[aerosat]

Hey Apoc,

The problem you are describing is definately not normal and isnt occuring on the backbone itself; it would appear to occur between the tower and your premises.

Do me a favour and send me an email ( noc at aerosat dot net ) and I'll get you sorted out asap. There are a few sites up around the area you described, so realigning shouldnt be a problem...

While I'm on the topic, I'll address some of the issues brought up as well:

1) Service dips experienced

Sounds related to last mile distribution if you ask me. From the backbone side of things, none of these "dips" have been recorded, other than physical link outages at times We run node reports and monitor all traffic and latency on our backbone 24/7... it is by this that we proactively work to keep latency on our backbone to a minimum. Obviously at distribution level, every client is different and we do what we can to mitigate interferance and provide a decent service to our customers. If anyone is experiencing these "dips", please contact me so that we can resolve the issue...

2) Certain Websites Cannot Be Accessed due to Proxies

Yup, that is a problem admittedly.
I have had a lot of queries about Rapidshare and have looked into it extensively; the fact is that rapid share (unless you are on a payed account) will not allow more than 1 concurrent connection from the same IP address per server. This problem is also experienced by a few other ISPs over the world as I have discovered during my research into the matter... So to solve the problem, go premium!

3) 24/7 Call Centre
For our home user base, a 24/7 call centre is somewhat available, in terms of an after hours cell phone. This isnt obviously the best method of "after hours support" admittedly yet does give the client someone to talk to. Our operations guys are in the process of employing a few more level 1 support engineers, after which time shifts will be implemented with at least 1 level 2 technician on at all times, day and night. This should come into effect shortly, however not being my department, I unfortunately cannot give you an exact time... Any severe problems will be escalated by these after hours people to the rest of the standby engineers...

Regarding our Pencil sharpening and advertising strategies - to tell the truth, we're extremely busy every day with new customers. Simply put, we have managed to sustain quite a substancial growth based on word of mouth and client reviews of our service. That having been said, look forward this year to far more exciting Aerosat products and services as well as a few advertising campaigns. I know we own a few large advertising boards which have yet to be put up, but yea... all in good time

Ryan

 

[Apoc]

Thanks Ryan, thats the kind of service that is needed in SA. I will drop you a mail as soon as I have posted this.