Afrihost / Openserve DSL/Fibre confusion

[entropyagent]

Good Day Afrihost

I am trying to help a neighbour with apparently dead Afrihost DSL. It might actually be old DSL rather than Pure DSL. It seems that Openserver-affiliated technicians, in responding to the call, have installed fibre equipment, but it does not seem to be fully operational. Neighbour does not recall actually ordering fibre, so I am wondering if there has been some sort of confusion. Do you think you could let us know what is happening, and what we need to do to get them back on the Internet?

Hope you can help.

 

[Afrigirl]

Good Day Afrihost

I am trying to help a neighbour with apparently dead Afrihost DSL. It might actually be old DSL rather than Pure DSL. It seems that Openserver-affiliated technicians, in responding to the call, have installed fibre equipment, but it does not seem to be fully operational. Neighbour does not recall actually ordering fibre, so I am wondering if there has been some sort of confusion. Do you think you could let know what is happening, and what we need to do to get them back on the Internet?

Hope you can help.

Hi.

I have received your message and checking. It is possible that Openserve rolled out fibre in the area because DSL has been phased out

 

[entropyagent]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[entropyagent]

I'm guessing you also found it confusing. Fair enough. Please let us know what you need us to do. Mobile data costs are a bit of an issue for these pensioners.

 

[entropyagent]

I've often felt that the nice thing about working on weekends is that you get fewer calls from pathetic lusers demanding updates on their pathetic little problems. (Wait...did I type that out loud?)

 

[entropyagent]

Thanks @Afrigirl for the feedback and help so far. We do still have a way to go.

Am I imagining it, or is @Afrigirl the only active Afrihost id? I hope you are getting lots of overtime.

 

[entropyagent]

Perhaps other people will be doing internal root cause analyses of this problem? Herewith my impressions:


Afrihost supplied feedback which they report came from Openserve, after reporting the "No Modem Sync":


"Cust Feedback: CheckFibreCoverage performed, the fault will not be fixed, because your area has fibre"


"Cust Feedback: The fault has been parked due to migration from copper to fibre"


"Cancel Request: undefined - Line has been migrated to fibre on order no. xxx as copper cable will not be rep./replaced. Fault will be cancelled"


After much discussion (Special thanks to Afrigirl, for feedback and starting the dead-DSL cancellation) I helped my neighbours actually apply to Afrihost for an Openserve Web Connect package. Openserve came out again, and supplied and provisioned a suitable WiFi-enabled ONT to support that package. We were informed that the originally supplied equipment was for a faster, costlier Openserve option.

It seems to me that the train started to derail when Openserve installed (quickly, neatly, competently) fibre equipment without my neighbours actually applying for a package to supply data. If this is happening to dozens? hundreds? thousands? of people when their DSL stops in an area that has fibre, ISP helpdesks are going to be overwhelmed. It might also be useful to add to the Helpdesk checklist, an acknowledgement that not all ONTs have WiFi.

The clients were also sent an invoice for August's DSL dead line, but undertakings were made to reverse this. We will see how it pans out.

So, Internet happiness has been flowing (faster) for about a week now. Thanks, all

 

[IamNoone]

Perhaps other people will be doing internal root cause analyses of this problem? Herewith my impressions:


Afrihost supplied feedback which they report came from Openserve, after reporting the "No Modem Sync":


"Cust Feedback: CheckFibreCoverage performed, the fault will not be fixed, because your area has fibre"


"Cust Feedback: The fault has been parked due to migration from copper to fibre"


"Cancel Request: undefined - Line has been migrated to fibre on order no. xxx as copper cable will not be rep./replaced. Fault will be cancelled"


After much discussion (Special thanks to Afrigirl, for feedback and starting the dead-DSL cancellation) I helped my neighbours actually apply to Afrihost for an Openserve Web Connect package. Openserve came out again, and supplied and provisioned a suitable WiFi-enabled ONT to support that package. We were informed that the originally supplied equipment was for a faster, costlier Openserve option.

It seems to me that the train started to derail when Openserve installed (quickly, neatly, competently) fibre equipment without my neighbours actually applying for a package to supply data. If this is happening to dozens? hundreds? thousands? of people when their DSL stops in an area that has fibre, ISP helpdesks are going to be overwhelmed. It might also be useful to add to the Helpdesk checklist, an acknowledgement that not all ONTs have WiFi.

The clients were also sent an invoice for August's DSL dead line, but undertakings were made to reverse this. We will see how it pans out.

So, Internet happiness has been flowing (faster) for about a week now. Thanks, all

Remember you get what you are willing to pay for. OS Webconnect is not the same as Openserve Connect.

Webconnect uses an all in one ONT/router. That router has not ability for personalized settings, port forward etc. The wi-fi signal is not the best either.

 

[entropyagent]

OS Webconnect is not the same as Openserve Connect.

Yes, I managed to work that out, eventually, thanks.

Webconnect uses an all in one ONT/router. That router has not ability for personalized settings, port forward etc.

This is an important point, and was disappointingly difficult to work out beforehand. I was able to glean the information from threads and comments like this on myBB, but it should really be explicated in the ad. As a general comment, it seems strangely rare to find info about "what the product cannot do" in promotional material. (remove rust from your car, improve sexual vigour, etc). It's probably less important to the target market, and might cause confusion, but this is perhaps why "fine print" and FAQs were invented.

Of interest to me is the fact that the supplied device has a working ethernet port, and the supplied (unchangeable) Wi-Fi has a hardware Off switch. This meant the older router could be reconfuggered (much trial, very error) to continue supplying WiFi without having to change passwords on a dozen devices.

This also does not seem to be mentioned in the fine print, and no doubt the supplier reserves the right to change specifications without notice. I have the idea that limiting the flexibility of a consumer device significantly lowers the maintenance burden. Thus, I can imagine these facilities could evaporate like morning mist, even via remote admin. That would make me sad.

I was also embarrassed that I gave my neighbours the assurance that the migration from one Afrihost package to another would be quick and painless, in light of the fact that Axxess and Telkom seem to offer the same package for slightly less. Was my face red, etc.

Anyway, my tardiness, and the weekend in between, made the downtime seem longer than it was, and it's working well at present, so I am hoping to move on.

 

[IamNoone]

Yes, I managed to work that out, eventually, thanks.



This is an important point, and was disappointingly difficult to work out beforehand. I was able to glean the information from threads and comments like this on myBB, but it should really be explicated in the ad. As a general comment, it seems strangely rare to find info about "what the product cannot do" in promotional material. (remove rust from your car, improve sexual vigour, etc). It's probably less important to the target market, and might cause confusion, but this is perhaps why "fine print" and FAQs were invented.

Of interest to me is the fact that the supplied device has a working ethernet port, and the supplied (unchangeable) Wi-Fi has a hardware Off switch. This meant the older router could be reconfuggered (much trial, very error) to continue supplying WiFi without having to change passwords on a dozen devices.

This also does not seem to be mentioned in the fine print, and no doubt the supplier reserves the right to change specifications without notice. I have the idea that limiting the flexibility of a consumer device significantly lowers the maintenance burden. Thus, I can imagine these facilities could evaporate like morning mist, even via remote admin. That would make me sad.

I was also embarrassed that I gave my neighbours the assurance that the migration from one Afrihost package to another would be quick and painless, in light of the fact that Axxess and Telkom seem to offer the same package for slightly less. Was my face red, etc.

Anyway, my tardiness, and the weekend in between, made the downtime seem longer than it was, and it's working well at present, so I am hoping to move on.

The Web Connect routers, like with Vuma Reach routers, are locked and can not be configured by the end user. More than once I have read about a customer that managed to log into the router and messed up the router settings and then proceeded to complain that it was not their fault (after admitting that they logged into the router).

You can connect your own router to the LAN 1 port and use that routers Wi-Fi for access. If you have a good Wi-Fi 6 or a mesh Wi-Fi system it will work well.