Confirming info for ADSL

[zll]

Hey guys,

I recently moved from Martizburg to Cape Town, where my parents used to pay for me to have ISDN on weekends. Now I am in Cape Town, I am basically completely unplugged except for really crappy access here at Cape Town AFDA.

So I did some investigating about wireless, thinking it would be the cheaper option and discovered this info:

1) - Wireless is slow
2) + Wirless is uncapped
3) - Wireless is shaped even more than DSL
4) + Month to month is cheaper than DSL
5) - Hardware setup is bloody expensive (R2500 or so)
6) + It's not Telkom
7) - Unstable pings

Now I have investigated getting dsl and this is what I have discovered but I also have some questions I need confirmed:

1) + I could get 1 gig account and 384k, allowing me to play games and surf for roughly R300 pm (R245 rental + R60 per gig from Imaginet). Awesome!
2) + I could go Telkom self install and save myself installation fee (assuming they support claremont in cpt)...
3) + ... and on top of that they will give me a free wireless router (until the end of march)!
4) - It's still not as cheap as it should be, and it is Telkom

Anything wrong? I want to make sure this is right before I decide, coz R300 pm will be 1/2 my "spending" money every month.

 

[mikef]

Now I have investigated getting dsl and this is what I have discovered but I also have some questions I need confirmed:

1) + I could get 1 gig account and 384k, allowing me to play games and surf for roughly R300 pm (R245 rental + R60 per gig from Imaginet). Awesome!
2) + I could go Telkom self install and save myself installation fee (assuming they support claremont in cpt)...
3) + ... and on top of that they will give me a free wireless router (until the end of march)!
4) - It's still not as cheap as it should be, and it is Telkom

Anything wrong? I want to make sure this is right before I decide, coz R300 pm will be 1/2 my "spending" money every month.

Sounds about right - just remember that the R245 rental is additional to the telephone rental of R100 per month which you need to get adsl

 

[ZA_medic]

The installation time from Telkom varies alot. Some very lucky people got same day service, but most have reported turn around times starting at about 6 weeks. For me it was closer to 11 weeks from applying to getting ADSL.

Iburst and the like say you get 24 hours turn around time, which makes sense. All you realy need is the hardware and someone to activate your account.

 

[krycor]

Point 4 in top list is not always correct.

1. Yes you could, but using only 1 GB will be hard if you play games, if you want to play international games and not locally hosted ones then u need an unshaped account which is more costly 1GB per month amounts to about 33.3MB per day which is not much

2. + 3. Yup

4. Always

 

[zll]

Sounds about right - just remember that the R245 rental is additional to the telephone rental of R100 per month which you need to get adsl

My brother is already paying the R100 pm for line rental so I'm ignoring that fact.

The installation time from Telkom varies alot. Some very lucky people got same day service, but most have reported turn around times starting at about 6 weeks. For me it was closer to 11 weeks from applying to getting ADSL.

Surely if I go self install this should drastically decrease the installation time?

1. Yes you could, but using only 1 GB will be hard if you play games, if you want to play international games and not locally hosted ones then u need an unshaped account which is more costly 1GB per month amounts to about 33.3MB per day which is not much

My gaming will be local only, and probably limited to weekends, and won't include the new FPS bandwith hogs. I am basically getting ADSL so I can play dota on the weekends (so thats roughly 5 megs per game), and some DoD, and TFC2 (when it comes out). If it turns out I need more local bandwith for my gaming I would see what options OpenWeb has to offer, since I here nothing but good things from them, but right now, I am investigating the CHEAPEST options.

 

[mikef]

Another plus for adsl are that the pressure is on telkom to reduce prices further and/or improve speed and datacaps. Possibly i am over optimistic but i expect good news on adsl costs in this year still. As in overseas countries wireless will struggle to compete with adsl.

 

[ZA_medic]

Surely if I go self install this should drastically decrease the installation time?

Maybe - Each exchange has a certain number of ports, if those ports are all used then you go into a holding pattern and have to wait for them to allocate new ports. If you get into a situation like this (like I did) then you will wait.

If there are ports available then you have to wait for someone to assign you a port and plug in the line.

I beleive that cape town has good response times when it comes to ADSL, but please dont take my work for it.

 

[krycor]

cape town installations are fast but depend on demands in area + port allocation.

 

[WilD_CaT]

Zolly? R u Zolmaster from old TFC days?

 

[zll]

lol, yes, its zolmaster, but i forgot my old password for my old account that was tied to an old email address...so yeah, now on this board im zolly

I'm desperate for internets at home, but I need a job to help supplement what little my parents can afford to send me. Sigh, such is life! At least AFDA CPT keeps me busy!