Cape Town (Brackenfell) - Wireless Options

[SauRoNZA]

I think I've reached my limit with Telkom.

Not because of the service as such or connectivity, which at this point I now realise has always been lacking, but because I've now tried four different methods to change/cancel a debit order and today was the final straw when the retard on the other side (after needing to go on Twitter to finally get someone on the case again) argued with me about that option not being available on a Mobile product.

I don't have a Mobile product with them, I never have had...and now definitely never ever will.

So currently I have 4MB Uncapped ADSL which runs at 3.6-3.7 Mb every time there was load shedding. I'm now moving house and hoping it will improve somewhat, but already got told I can only get 4MB on the other side as well, so it will probably be just as shocking.

Then I quickly did a Google for some Wireless companies while enraged and initially thought the pricing was crazy, until I put two and two together and remembered Telkom are charging me R200 for a telephone line I never use and really shouldn't be paying for.

Total Cost of Telkom + ISP = R1175

Pretty ridiculous when you add it all together and then the service is **** and slow.

TLDR;

I'm looking for a WISP in Cape Town that will come in at the above cost or less and either offer the same or more in speed and/or bandwidth.

1. Latency - Is <10ms possible or is that all bull****?

2. I must have a Public IP with 1:1 NAT. None of this hiding 10 clients behind a Mikrotik and having to log calls for port forwarding nonsense.

So far I've found...

http://cape-connect.com/ - Too expensive.

http://www.sonicwireless.co.za/ - Seems they get a decent rep here.

https://www.snowball.co.za/ - Seems expensive and I've heard bad things.

http://www.wibre.co.za/ - Seems well priced but website seems like nothing more than a marketing page with little to no information. Can't even email them.

http://sprintnet.co.za/ - No comment really, just never heard of them.

www.nexus-net.co.z - Pricing depends on what you want really, but they are at least forthcoming about giving a Public IP etc, but installation is very pricey.

http://www.sawireless.co.za/ - Seems to have a lot of options but has a pretty crappy website and a bad rep here.

So any real world experience with any of them? Someone I missed?

 

[werny]

This is how SprintNet performs in Brackenfell - 20Mbps Uncapped:



Pings are excellent, they do have their issues from time to time but it's usually a very stable connection 98% of the time, note that you must have line of sight to the Tygerberg Hill.

 

[PCNetwork]

I think I've reached my limit with Telkom.

Not because of the service as such or connectivity, which at this point I now realise has always been lacking, but because I've now tried four different methods to change/cancel a debit order and today was the final straw when the retard on the other side (after needing to go on Twitter to finally get someone on the case again) argued with me about that option not being available on a Mobile product.

I don't have a Mobile product with them, I never have had...and now definitely never ever will.

So currently I have 4MB Uncapped ADSL which runs at 3.6-3.7 Mb every time there was load shedding. I'm now moving house and hoping it will improve somewhat, but already got told I can only get 4MB on the other side as well, so it will probably be just as shocking.

Then I quickly did a Google for some Wireless companies while enraged and initially thought the pricing was crazy, until I put two and two together and remembered Telkom are charging me R200 for a telephone line I never use and really shouldn't be paying for.

Total Cost of Telkom + ISP = R1175

Pretty ridiculous when you add it all together and then the service is **** and slow.

TLDR;

I'm looking for a WISP in Cape Town that will come in at the above cost or less and either offer the same or more in speed and/or bandwidth.

1. Latency - Is <10ms possible or is that all bull****?

2. I must have a Public IP with 1:1 NAT. None of this hiding 10 clients behind a Mikrotik and having to log calls for port forwarding nonsense.

So far I've found...

http://cape-connect.com/ - Too expensive.

http://www.sonicwireless.co.za/ - Seems they get a decent rep here.

https://www.snowball.co.za/ - Seems expensive and I've heard bad things.

http://www.wibre.co.za/ - Seems well priced but website seems like nothing more than a marketing page with little to no information. Can't even email them.

http://sprintnet.co.za/ - No comment really, just never heard of them.

www.nexus-net.co.z - Pricing depends on what you want really, but they are at least forthcoming about giving a Public IP etc, but installation is very pricey.

http://www.sawireless.co.za/ - Seems to have a lot of options but has a pretty crappy website and a bad rep here.

So any real world experience with any of them? Someone I missed?

Hi There!

We have pretty good coverage in your area, and would love to see if we could somehow help you out with things! Our product is just called Wibre (http://wibre.co.za) , and is a simple webpage for just our Wibre product However our main website is actually http://www.pcnetwork.co.za . We are in the process of renovating this though. Would you like me to perhaps schedule a line of sight test for you in your area? We generally do the line of site and install within 5 days of the query and sometimes even install on the day of the line of sight test, which can also be arranged pretty easily with us! If you would like more info, you can either PM me, send us a mail on [email protected] or even fill out the wibre.co.za signup form at the bottom of the page

 

[SauRoNZA]

Isn't PC Network the same backbone Sonic Wireless uses?

Why do they offer a 5mb option and you only a 4mb for the same price when it's the same network?

Also can you comment on the Public IP question? What equipment do you put down as part of the installation and how much of it do I have access to?

Or is it completely managed and I'll need to log calls the whole time?

Also how do you compare to DSL? Do you offer a demo as part of the site inspection?

Sorry a hundred questions. I have requested info through you website but have not yet moved to the new premises so somewhat hypothetical at this point.

 

[willsotaku]

Isn't PC Network the same backbone Sonic Wireless uses?

Why do they offer a 5mb option and you only a 4mb for the same price when it's the same network?

Also can you comment on the Public IP question? What equipment do you put down as part of the installation and how much of it do I have access to?

Or is it completely managed and I'll need to log calls the whole time?

Also how do you compare to DSL? Do you offer a demo as part of the site inspection?

Sorry a hundred questions. I have requested info through you website but have not yet moved to the new premises so somewhat hypothetical at this point.

Before you sign up with PC Network just know they are great for gaming but suck for downloads pretty hard, they monitor torrents pretty badly i have screenshots and proof of how they add trackers to your torrents to monitor what you download via a add rule on a Mikrotik router if you take the RB750. But latency was the lowest i ever had 148ms to UK with SonicWireless i get 153ms to the same UK site but no Torrent monitoring or issues with downloads have used 1tb+ last month and no issues, did 250GB with PCNetwork and major issues. also PCNetwork throttles line speeds to 50% of max if you use your line @ 100% for 2 minutes

 

[PCNetwork]

Isn't PC Network the same backbone Sonic Wireless uses?

Why do they offer a 5mb option and you only a 4mb for the same price when it's the same network?

Also can you comment on the Public IP question? What equipment do you put down as part of the installation and how much of it do I have access to?

Or is it completely managed and I'll need to log calls the whole time?

Also how do you compare to DSL? Do you offer a demo as part of the site inspection?

Sorry a hundred questions. I have requested info through you website but have not yet moved to the new premises so somewhat hypothetical at this point.

Not a problem It's not the same network at all. We run our own network, managed by us with our own Backhaul, local fibre as well as international link. Completely separate to Sonic Wireless

We do put down a Mikrotik, with has your Public IP on it. However it is your and yours only. It dials a PPPoE account, which gives you your connection. So It does have some natting. However if you have your own router, we could easily port forward all the ports, except for the one used by the Mikrotik router, to your router for you to manage your rules if you would like to go that way rather. We can also give you Read only access to your Mikrotik just in case you would like to run tests out to the internet, or just check how the network settings are setup on it, incase you need us to change anything.

We don't offer a demo, however unless our trained technicians are 100% sure you will get the link you are paying for, they will not install. In fact, you link HAS to handle 2 - 3 times your speed that you want before we will sign off on the link to ensure there are never issues.

Torrents are managed (Generally to 512K during the day), however, as this service is designed for video stream and latency sensitive applications in mind. We can possibly unlimit your torrents after hours however should you need

 

[PCNetwork]

Before you sign up with PC Network just know they are great for gaming but suck for downloads pretty hard, they monitor torrents pretty badly i have screenshots and proof of how they add trackers to your torrents to monitor what you download via a add rule on a Mikrotik router if you take the RB750. But latency was the lowest i ever had 148ms to UK with SonicWireless i get 153ms to the same UK site but no Torrent monitoring or issues with downloads have used 1tb+ last month and no issues, did 250GB with PCNetwork and major issues. also PCNetwork throttles line speeds to 50% of max if you use your line @ 100% for 2 minutes

We don't add any trackers to torrents The Mikrotik that we put in has a custom rule on it that detects a p2p packet, and starts to throttle accordingly. This is the only rule we have on it to detect torrents, and should not modify a torrent packet in anyway. If it ever did modify a packet, it should have only marked it, not changed. If however, you do have proof that a packet was changed, we would love to see it as it would be something we would need to change, and soon! If you could perhaps PM me with the screenshot so that I can have a look at it, we would be really grateful. We are also still busy building our network, and are looking for ways to change the throttle rule that we have in place.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Not a problem It's not the same network at all. We run our own network, managed by us with our own Backhaul, local fibre as well as international link. Completely separate to Sonic Wireless

We do put down a Mikrotik, with has your Public IP on it. However it is your and yours only. It dials a PPPoE account, which gives you your connection. So It does have some natting. However if you have your own router, we could easily port forward all the ports, except for the one used by the Mikrotik router, to your router for you to manage your rules if you would like to go that way rather. We can also give you Read only access to your Mikrotik just in case you would like to run tests out to the internet, or just check how the network settings are setup on it, incase you need us to change anything.

We don't offer a demo, however unless our trained technicians are 100% sure you will get the link you are paying for, they will not install. In fact, you link HAS to handle 2 - 3 times your speed that you want before we will sign off on the link to ensure there are never issues.

Torrents are managed (Generally to 512K during the day), however, as this service is designed for video stream and latency sensitive applications in mind. We can possibly unlimit your torrents after hours however should you need

Thanks for that.

Sorry I actually confused your own two Websites with the Wibre link speed test showing PC network, that's why I thought it was Sonic.

I'll definitely get in touch once I get to the other side.

 

[portcullis]

http://cape-connect.com/ - Too expensive.

Speed, quality, price. Pick two.

We aren't cheap. Good quality wireless internet with low latency and 99.9%+ uptime costs money.

Our one tower covering part of brackenfell is connected via fibre to Teraco. The second is connected to the first via a licenced 28GHz link. Just that link cost more than what most of the companies listed in your original post (with the exception of Sonic Wireless) spend on their entire sites.

I just ran this trace from a home user's router in Brackenfell.

[tech@rbilson] > tool trace www.mweb.co.za
# ADDRESS LOSS SENT LAST AVG BEST WORST
1 154.66.95.110 0% 3 1.3ms 2.3 1.3 4
2 154.66.88.237 0% 3 2.7ms 2.7 2.4 2.9
3 154.66.88.94 0% 3 2.5ms 2.6 2.1 3.1
4 154.66.88.101 0% 3 4.2ms 4.2 3.5 4.8
5 154.66.88.190 0% 3 4.7ms 4.1 3.6 4.7
6 196.10.140.15 0% 3 4.1ms 4.2 4.1 4.4
7 197.84.7.33 0% 3 7ms 8.1 7 9.6
8 197.84.5.238 0% 3 5.6ms 5 4.6 5.6
9 196.28.178.66 0% 3 5.6ms 15.5 5.6 25.3
10 196.41.144.35 0% 2 5ms 8.1 5 11.1
11 196.2.63.110 0% 2 5.1ms 5.4 5.1 5.6

 

[SauRoNZA]

Speed, quality, price. Pick two.

We aren't cheap. Good quality wireless internet with low latency and 99.9%+ uptime costs money.

Our one tower covering part of brackenfell is connected via fibre to Teraco. The second is connected to the first via a licenced 28GHz link. Just that link cost more than what most of the companies listed in your original post (with the exception of Sonic Wireless) spend on their entire sites.

I just ran this trace from a home user's router in Brackenfell.

[tech@rbilson] > tool trace www.mweb.co.za
# ADDRESS LOSS SENT LAST AVG BEST WORST
1 154.66.95.110 0% 3 1.3ms 2.3 1.3 4
2 154.66.88.237 0% 3 2.7ms 2.7 2.4 2.9
3 154.66.88.94 0% 3 2.5ms 2.6 2.1 3.1
4 154.66.88.101 0% 3 4.2ms 4.2 3.5 4.8
5 154.66.88.190 0% 3 4.7ms 4.1 3.6 4.7
6 196.10.140.15 0% 3 4.1ms 4.2 4.1 4.4
7 197.84.7.33 0% 3 7ms 8.1 7 9.6
8 197.84.5.238 0% 3 5.6ms 5 4.6 5.6
9 196.28.178.66 0% 3 5.6ms 15.5 5.6 25.3
10 196.41.144.35 0% 2 5ms 8.1 5 11.1
11 196.2.63.110 0% 2 5.1ms 5.4 5.1 5.6

Thanks for your input.

I'm always impressed by companies that are willing to open themselves up to scrutiny on forums and the like and have a real conversation, and simply because of that I will now re-visit your website and double check the offers.

Is that uptime SLA bound even for residential?

 

[portcullis]

Thanks for your input.

Is that uptime SLA bound even for residential?

Little known fact. The reason why so many WISPs used to use the Neobroadband service was because it was built on the same network as the NeoInternet service. Where Neotel offered SLAs to clients with NeoInternet, they didn't offer SLAs to the NBB clients. Thing is, that NBB and NeoInternet use / used the same routers in Neotel's POPs. The NBB client gets the same service as the NeoInternet client for a fraction of the cost.

We have separate sectors for home users and business users, but they all go into the same routers and share the same back haul. The only difference is the last mile where one sector could go down in the middle of the night in a storm while another one stays up. Then, if there are clients with SLAs connected to the sector, we will go out. But, if there are no SLA clients, we will wait until the morning before going out.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Great, thanks for being honest.

 

[portcullis]

Great, thanks for being honest.

Sometimes you have to make choices.

For example, 10 home users on a sector not having internet from 1:30am to 8:30am, or a dangerous climb / 4x4 session in the middle of the night, followed by an even more dangerous climb up a tower to replace a blown radio.

Please have a look at this. Now imagine climbing that, at night, in a snowstorm...

The two towers facing Brackenfell aren't as extreme as this. We can drive to the one in a "platkar". The other one needs a serious 4x4. At least we're only dealing with rocks to get to that site, and not mud.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Hardcore. One never thinks about that side of the story.

Love the music. Lol.

 

[TheMightyQuin]

Sometimes you have to make choices.

For example, 10 home users on a sector not having internet from 1:30am to 8:30am, or a dangerous climb / 4x4 session in the middle of the night, followed by an even more dangerous climb up a tower to replace a blown radio.

Please have a look at this. Now imagine climbing that, at night, in a snowstorm...

The two towers facing Brackenfell aren't as extreme as this. We can drive to the one in a "platkar". The other one needs a serious 4x4. At least we're only dealing with rocks to get to that site, and not mud.

Are your towers up during loadshedding? We have a client in Eersterivier and Brackenfell using a WISP with a tower in SSet West that is ALWAYS down during loadshedding.

Looking to change....

 

[portcullis]

Are your towers up during loadshedding? We have a client in Eersterivier and Brackenfell using a WISP with a tower in SSet West that is ALWAYS down during loadshedding.

Looking to change....

All our sites have battery backup.

Helderberg 1 and 2 also have a generator.

Helderberg 3 (the new one that we're in the process of developing) has 500Ah of battery backup. That's more than enough for 9 hours on two routers and a couple of point to point links.

Bottelary 1 has one battery, but gets clean power from a farmer with a 500KVA (really) generator. In the years we've been there, we've only ever had one ocassion when power was down for more than 10 minutes and the battery had to do a little work while the generator was being attended to.

Bottelary 2 has a bank of batteries.

 

[TheMightyQuin]

All our sites have battery backup.

Helderberg 1 and 2 also have a generator.

Helderberg 3 (the new one that we're in the process of developing) has 500Ah of battery backup. That's more than enough for 9 hours on two routers and a couple of point to point links.

Bottelary 1 has one battery, but gets clean power from a farmer with a 500KVA (really) generator. In the years we've been there, we've only ever had one ocassion when power was down for more than 10 minutes and the battery had to do a little work while the generator was being attended to.

Bottelary 2 has a bank of batteries.

Sounds good. Will revert soonest.