Best cheap 4Mbit uncapped service?

Bryn

Bryn

Doubleplusgood
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Need some advice on which account to recommend to someone. I've looked around and these seem like the best options:

- Web Africa 4Mbit home uncapped bundle: R549pm

- Axxess 4Mbit home uncapped bundle: R499pm

- Afrihost 4Mbit home uncapped bundle: R597pm

- Cybersmart 4Mbit home uncapped bundle: R579pm


There's also the 4Mbit home uncapped from Mweb (which includes a free router), but apparently they have a soft cap of 110GB which is totally unacceptable. Also, it just seems wrong to recommend a scumbag company. I've omitted Open Web because they don't offer bundles are will therefore be a waste of money to join.

Should I assume that Axxess shapes much harder than Afrihost considering they both get bandwidth from MTN yet Axxess charges R98 less? What's this star system I hear Web Africa uses? That sounds off-putting.

Feedback from people with any of the above mentioned accounts would be much appreciated. I'm currently leaning towards Web Africa and Axxess.
 
Bryn26 said:
How does it work though? What sort of data figures will land you in the naughty corner?
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Keep downloads for off-peak (23:00-6:00 *weekends included!*), this has no influence on the star rating.

Keep usage light between 8am-5pm, moderate usage 5-11pm.

A rating of 3 and above is good, 2 (alarm bells should be ringing and adjust usage (7-10 day rolling window) because you don't want to be on 1) is okay but you start to feel it.

Star rating only applies when the network is busy, so you don't "feel" it after 5pm, meaning, the experience is normally the same after 5pm whether you're on 1 star or 5.
 
wingnut771 said:
Keep downloads for off-peak (23:00-6:00 *weekends included!*), this has no influence on the star rating.

Keep usage light between 8am-5pm, moderate usage 5-11pm.

A rating of 3 and above is good, 2 (alarm bells should be ringing and adjust usage (7-10 day rolling window) because you don't want to be on 1) is okay but you start to feel it.

Star rating only applies when the network is busy, so you don't "feel" it after 5pm, meaning, the experience is normally the same after 5pm whether you're on 1 star or 5.
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Thanks for the info. Scheduling downloads for overnight won't be a problem. This account seems like the best option. I have heard many bad things on this forum about Afrihost's standard uncapped and Cybersmart as a company. The Axxess price is a bit suspicious to me.

Are you on Web Africa uncapped? If so, do you get good overnight download speeds?
 
Bryn26 said:
Need some advice on which account to recommend to someone. I've looked around and these seem like the best options:

- Web Africa 4Mbit home uncapped bundle: R549pm

- Axxess 4Mbit home uncapped bundle: R499pm

- Afrihost 4Mbit home uncapped bundle: R597pm

- Cybersmart 4Mbit home uncapped bundle: R579pm


There's also the 4Mbit home uncapped from Mweb (which includes a free router), but apparently they have a soft cap of 110GB which is totally unacceptable. Also, it just seems wrong to recommend a scumbag company. I've omitted Open Web because they don't offer bundles are will therefore be a waste of money to join.

Should I assume that Axxess shapes much harder than Afrihost considering they both get bandwidth from MTN yet Axxess charges R98 less? What's this star system I hear Web Africa uses? That sounds off-putting.

Feedback from people with any of the above mentioned accounts would be much appreciated. I'm currently leaning towards Web Africa and Axxess.
Click to expand...

MWEB Premium is 400gigs threshold.

But out of those I'd say Axxess or Web Africa.
 
Bryn26 said:
Thanks for the info. Scheduling downloads for overnight won't be a problem. This account seems like the best option. I have heard many bad things on this forum about Afrihost's standard uncapped and Cybersmart as a company. The Axxess price is a bit suspicious to me.

Are you on Web Africa uncapped? If so, do you get good overnight download speeds?
Click to expand...

No, I'm with another ISP at the moment, but when I was on IS (Plugg), it performed like it should, it's just that after a year and a bit, the "always worrying about your star rating" gets tiring, so I'm trying other options.

The Webafrica account will be the same, maybe slightly more aggressive scale on the star rating (Plugg is more expensive).

If that doesn't pan out I will be back, as I was happy, but will probably go back to Plugg as they don't have 30 day.
 
Chevron said:
MWEB Premium is 400gigs threshold.

But out of those I'd say Axxess or Web Africa.
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400GB isn't very impressive for the Premium account either. I surpassed 400GB a number of times when I was on that account.

wingnut771 said:
No, I'm with another ISP at the moment, but when I was on IS (Plugg), it performed like it should, it's just that after a year and a bit, the "always worrying about your star rating" gets tiring, so I'm trying other options.

The Webafrica account will be the same, maybe slightly more aggressive scale on the star rating (Plugg is more expensive).

If that doesn't pan out I will be back, as I was happy, but will probably go back to Plugg as they don't have 30 day.
Click to expand...

I'll probably recommend Web Africa then. The star system shouldn't be too much to deal with. I'll contact Axxess just to be sure though.
 
How things changed! Not to long ago Mweb would have been the unanimous recommendation. Such a pity!
 
Bryn26 said:
400GB isn't very impressive for the Premium account either. I surpassed 400GB a number of times when I was on that account.
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Everyone is different. Even when I was on a 6Meg line my usage never went over 250gigs a month.
 
Chevron said:
Everyone is different. Even when I was on a 6Meg line my usage never went over 250gigs a month.
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In this case it's not about one person though, it's about having a connection suitable for a family.
 
Bryn26 said:
In this case it's not about one person though, it's about having a connection suitable for a family.
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I forgot you were the OP. In that case just grab an Axxess Business account.
 
Chevron said:
I forgot you were the OP. In that case just grab an Axxess Business account.
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I don't think I can convince the person in question to spend R800pm on internet though. All the options mentioned in the OP cost much less.
 
Bryn26 said:
I don't think I can convince the person in question to spend R800pm on internet though. All the options mentioned in the OP cost much less.
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I understand, but then you're gonna have to sacrifice something. Drop usage so you don't throttled, or live with throttling.
 
Chevron said:
I understand, but then you're gonna have to sacrifice something. Drop usage so you don't throttled, or live with throttling.
Click to expand...

Well I'm hoping that the Web Africa account doesn't shape or throttle too badly if you just restrict the downloading to commence late at night. If it turns out to be crap another option will have to be explored.
 
Sevearly restricted

Bryn26 said:
Well I'm hoping that the Web Africa account doesn't shape or throttle too badly if you just restrict the downloading to commence late at night. If it turns out to be crap another option will have to be explored.
Click to expand...

Hi Bryn

I am in the process of shopping around for a new ISP and wont recommend Web Africa I have a 4 meg line and cannot even stream you tube on 360p without serious buffering any time of the day or night, All torrents are also severely restricted during the week from 7 in the morning to at least 7 at night, there ping is great for gaming in south africa, but marginal overseas.
 
thunderpants said:
Hi Bryn

I am in the process of shopping around for a new ISP and wont recommend Web Africa I have a 4 meg line and cannot even stream you tube on 360p without serious buffering any time of the day or night, All torrents are also severely restricted during the week from 7 in the morning to at least 7 at night, there ping is great for gaming in south africa, but marginal overseas.
Click to expand...

Are you sure that the problem is Web Africa? Do free capped accounts work perfectly for you?
 
Get a 4Meg line via Afrihost for R249.
Connection 4Mb Uncapped for R260. Schedule your P2P/NNTP downloads between 00:00 and 06:00 and it does not affect your star rating whatsoever. The Openweb Titan 4Meg account for R250 is also nice but I am rather annoyed with the throttling - I got 3Meg max though that link at 23:00 last night and at 19:00 it barely broke 1Meg. With Connection I find that after 17:30 and over weekends the account runs 99% full speed.

R498 for a 4Meg Afrihost line and Openweb 4Meg Titan Bundle. Best deal IMO is R509 for a a 4Meg Afrihost line and Connection 4meg Home Bundle
 
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thunderpants said:
Hi Bryn

I am in the process of shopping around for a new ISP and wont recommend Web Africa I have a 4 meg line and cannot even stream you tube on 360p without serious buffering any time of the day or night, All torrents are also severely restricted during the week from 7 in the morning to at least 7 at night, there ping is great for gaming in south africa, but marginal overseas.
Click to expand...

You took the time to register on the forum just to say that?

Which ISP do you work for?
 
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