Afrihost Mobile Feedback Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
Volksieboi said:
Hi, I'm new here, bought a mifi device (huawei E5331) from a colleague at work and received my Afrihost sim on monday last week.

I live in Ottery, Cape Town and my data speeds have been extremely poor. I've checked the coverage map and i am covered for 3G.

But the best i get is 2G speeds :(

Yesterday morning for about 5 mins i was able to get 9MB download with a 59ms ping... but it lasted just 5 mins...

Please help me... or i'll have to cancel

Was so looking fwd to being connected but this coverage.... meh :(
Click to expand...

Sorry to say that you've wasted your money on the Mifi device. You need to get a proper 3G router like the Huawei B683 and a directional external antenna mounted on your roof. I can (almost) guarantee you that will sort out your problem. The Mifi device is crap and works terribly in poor signal areas. Spend some money on decent equipment and you won't be sorry.
 
Sorry about Saturday's authentication problems. We see this was a lot of downtime for a lot of mobile users. We're still investigating this with MTN to see what went wrong and how we can prevent this in the future.

Thanks to everyone for bearing with us through this :(
 
deweyzeph said:
Sorry to say that you've wasted your money on the Mifi device. You need to get a proper 3G router like the Huawei B683 and a directional external antenna mounted on your roof. I can (almost) guarantee you that will sort out your problem. The Mifi device is crap and works terribly in poor signal areas. Spend some money on decent equipment and you won't be sorry.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip. Had a look now and considering the price, I might as well get an LTE device instead.
I'm going to try a Telkom mobile sim before getting a new device. if speeds are better i'll stick with it for a while.

Ta
 
Volksieboi said:
Hi, I'm new here, bought a mifi device (huawei E5331) from a colleague at work and received my Afrihost sim on monday last week.

I live in Ottery, Cape Town and my data speeds have been extremely poor. I've checked the coverage map and i am covered for 3G.

But the best i get is 2G speeds :(

Yesterday morning for about 5 mins i was able to get 9MB download with a 59ms ping... but it lasted just 5 mins...

Please help me... or i'll have to cancel

Was so looking fwd to being connected but this coverage.... meh :(
Click to expand...

Sounds like you are getting 2G coverage, which is generally a strong signal and has a further coverage area than 3G. Try setting your device to 3G only, or looking for 3G hotspots in your location.
 
deweyzeph said:
Sorry to say that you've wasted your money on the Mifi device. You need to get a proper 3G router like the Huawei B683 and a directional external antenna mounted on your roof. I can (almost) guarantee you that will sort out your problem. The Mifi device is crap and works terribly in poor signal areas. Spend some money on decent equipment and you won't be sorry.
Click to expand...

The MiFi devices is great for it's price and intended purpose. Obviously implementing the gear you're talking about here is going to give you a much more boosted reception and signal, but for the majority, especially in better coverage areas, the MiFi is really great value.
 
AfriMan said:
The MiFi devices is great for it's price and intended purpose. Obviously implementing the gear you're talking about here is going to give you a much more boosted reception and signal, but for the majority, especially in better coverage areas, the MiFi is really great value.
Click to expand...

You're right that the MiFi device works fine in a strong 3G signal area, but it's absolutely useless in areas with marginal signal. I know this from personal experience. You can force the device to 3G but all that will happen is that you won't get any connection at all.

I was really disappointed that Afrihost hasn't marketed or promoted any 3G routers with external antenna connections. This is what is really needed in South Africa to get people onto mobile. There are a lot of people who live in marginal signal areas who are stuck on 2G but that could get excellent 3G reception if they only had the right equipment. These people end up being bitterly disappointed when all that is needed is the right equipment. The Huawei B683 is only about R600 more expensive than the Mifi device, but absolutely essential if you want to use mobile as your only internet connection at home. The MiFi device is great however if you're on the road and just want to setup a temporary hotspot (and you're in a good 3G signal area).
 
deweyzeph said:
You're right that the MiFi device works fine in a strong 3G signal area, but it's absolutely useless in areas with marginal signal. I know this from personal experience. You can force the device to 3G but all that will happen is that you won't get any connection at all.

I was really disappointed that Afrihost hasn't marketed or promoted any 3G routers with external antenna connections. This is what is really needed in South Africa to get people onto mobile. There are a lot of people who live in marginal signal areas who are stuck on 2G but that could get excellent 3G reception if they only had the right equipment. These people end up being bitterly disappointed when all that is needed is the right equipment. The Huawei B683 is only about R600 more expensive than the Mifi device, but absolutely essential if you want to use mobile as your only internet connection at home. The MiFi device is great however if you're on the road and just want to setup a temporary hotspot (and you're in a good 3G signal area).
Click to expand...

Yes, I guess no tool is good for every job. I think it's good to know about some alternatives - thanks for the heads up :)
 
deweyzeph said:
Sorry to say that you've wasted your money on the Mifi device. You need to get a proper 3G router like the Huawei B683 and a directional external antenna mounted on your roof. I can (almost) guarantee you that will sort out your problem. The Mifi device is crap and works terribly in poor signal areas. Spend some money on decent equipment and you won't be sorry.
Click to expand...

Where can I get the directional external antenna?
 
I have a problem. I want to upgrade to the 3 + 3 package as the 2 + 2 package which I am on (was 2 + 3 package) is no longer sufficient.. So I go onto ClientZone and it wants to charge me R52 (R197 (3+3) - R145 (2+2)) and give me pro rata data 363.35mb.... This does not make sense, surely the extra cost should also be pro rata for the rest of the month? Please advise Afrihost

Capture.JPG
 
Don't get me started on this!
I tried to upgrade on the last day of last month to the 10+10 but got error messages. Their advise was to try again the next day. With that being the 1st they would only offer 7+7 pro rata. I have been trying to resolve it since. Like banging my head on brick wall.
 
Last edited:
Morning all

As some of you are probably noticing, there seems to be a problem with Mobile Authentication. This seems to have started around 2am. We're still working on this with MTN, we hope to have services restored ASAP.
 
SAdata said:
I have a problem. I want to upgrade to the 3 + 3 package as the 2 + 2 package which I am on (was 2 + 3 package) is no longer sufficient.. So I go onto ClientZone and it wants to charge me R52 (R197 (3+3) - R145 (2+2)) and give me pro rata data 363.35mb.... This does not make sense, surely the extra cost should also be pro rata for the rest of the month? Please advise Afrihost

View attachment 134245
Click to expand...

I got your PM on this. Definitely seems like something is off here. Will look into this for you, as per my reply.
 
Chingha said:
Don't get me started on this!
I tried to upgrade on the last day of last month to the 10+10 but got error messages. Their advise was to try again the next day. With that being the 1st they would only offer 7+7 pro rata. I have been trying to resolve it since. Like banging my head on brick wall.
Click to expand...

That's pretty odd. If you upgrade on the first day of the month, you should get the full data package.

Did you PM me or AfriGuy about this?
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X