Confused New Member

Who knows...

I made my own map... only iBurst know what's cutting in their map and I can tell you now the maps for Honeydew, Roodekrans, and Brixton are wrong.... especially the map for Little Falls!
 
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ppsking said:
I will probably get death threats for starting this forum again, but I am so confused right now. :confused:

A Telkom ADSL connection (3Gb cap @ 384kbps, plus ISP) will cost me almost the same as an Iburst connection (also 3Gb). I need some pro's and con's of both. Yes-yes, I know Telkom and all their problems and excuses, but my question is that "is it not better the devil you know"? ;)

I am your average internet surfer for information, newsgroups, etc, and then a maniac when it comes to downloading funny movie clips. Are there any limitations or problems (except for the cap) on Iburst? And what about sending emails with 4-6Mb attachments (I'm sending stats weekly, and can't afford to be slowed down or disconnected).

Fire away on the critics and positives. And remember, I'n new to this, so let's keep the technical names at a minimum....:D
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for what you want sound like you will enjoy an iburst connection for the lower cost then a 1mbit ADSL line

that is if you in a good area.
solution: call out an iburst reseller and get them to do a signal test. and do a download from a few sites and decide for yourself. They should not charge for the signal test. if they do phone a different one.

I believe the USB/UTP routers are better then the pcmcia cards
 
skydog said:
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I believe the USB/UTP routers are better then the pcmcia cards
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dont use any other unit ... the Desktop unit is the best for singal !!! pcmcia is *** !!!!!!

and tell the guy to bring a Desktop Unit to test ... if he rocks up with PCMCIA give him a ear full of five fingers :eek: :cool:
 
ppsking said:
So if I understand you all correct now, I don't necessarily need to be in a dark green area to be able to get great signals? If I'm about 5km away from this zone I can get great coverage without an antenna?

And can somebody tell me why the colours on the Iburst map is scattered? You will have a 1km square covered at 0.525mbps right in the middle of a 0.226mbps covering an area of 5km square! Should the area around the tower not be equily covered?
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Wel I am about 4-5 km from a dark green area. I use an antenna and it isnt even set up very well. Never used UTTracestar and it sits quite low on my wall. Yet my connection is pretty good, I think you should just splash out the whole R350 and get a antenna, if you live 5km away it will definatley make a difference. IMO it can only be worth the R350.

And the map is like that because of interferances like someone said and also if a piece of land is on a little hill or just higher up it will recive much better signal. Some place also just have great LOS (line of sight) from the tower, i.e. you can actually see the tower from a certain place and that should get great signal.
I cant even see the suburb that my tower is in, actually I cant even see the house two houses away from me because of trees and a double storey next to me.

My current area isactualyl the lightest shade you get i think, but its just on the edge of a slightly darker area.
 
Good point

Gatecrasher said:
Given how much reliance there is on having a good signal, I'm not sure that Iburst is an effective mobile solution. For mobility I would rather use a cellular provider than Iburst. But, if properly installed, it's a very viable alternative to a fixed line. And I am far happier dealing with Iburst than I would have been dealing with Telkom.
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If you can get a good signal with Iburst, I would recommend it...its faster,not telkom & you can browse after you're capped which if you're downloader is much better than getting hard capped
 
i used to have great speeds with Iburst but now I average out at 40KB/s, and on the weekends this does go up to about 50-60KB/s.

Iburst have confirmed that my tower is oversaturated and they are making plans - so it is a waiting game.

other then terrible first line customer support they are not too bad. Mind you i have not had to call customer support in a while so this may have changed.
 
Can the "experienced" broadband users explain what they classify as a "pretty good" connection? I know my brother, who has a 512kbps ADSL (Telkom) connection, is downloading at about 40-50kbps which is quite good for me. If I can get these speeds then you can put one Iburst modem on my account!! Faster will be a bonus.

Anybody knows a reseller in Pretoria area that will do the test free of charge?
 
Actually, now that I think about it, I did a test for a friend. He was in a "white" region on the iBurst map. Because of his location he had LOS to a tower some 11kms away. We had great speeds, and +/-400ms pings - not bad for an area "not covered"...

Moral: test, test, test.
 
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On my way home now for a free test. I am in a "light green" area. Will let you guys know the outcome of it!
 
ppsking said:
I will probably get death threats for starting this forum again, but I am so confused right now.

A Telkom ADSL connection (3Gb cap @ 384kbps, plus ISP) will cost me almost the same as an Iburst connection (also 3Gb). I need some pro's and con's of both. Yes-yes, I know Telkom and all their problems and excuses, but my question is that "is it not better the devil you know"? ;)

I am your average internet surfer for information, newsgroups, etc, and then a maniac when it comes to downloading funny movie clips. Are there any limitations or problems (except for the cap) on Iburst? And what about sending emails with 4-6Mb attachments (I'm sending stats weekly, and can't afford to be slowed down or disconnected).

Fire away on the critics and positives. And remember, I'n new to this, so let's keep the technical names at a minimum....:D
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You're confusing me now...:confused:

AFAIK the price for adsl is much higher...can you really get a connection for the same price? Surely the installation and just the phone line rental makes it much higher than an Iburst contract? Isn't that bandwidth then much lower?

I also don't understand your "(except for the cap)"...isn't telkom hardcapped? Iburst has a very good speed after being capped. I always thought the speed after being capped was relatively good. Then if you buy an unshaped isp line or a higher cap it will surely then cost much more?

Personally I've been happy with Iburst (ignoring my disconnections i get, but that seems to be specific to me :mad: )
 
I know this was wrong, but I was "comparing" the price of what I wanted from Telkom (3Gb and 384kbps) with what I can get from Iburst. Both 3Gb (don't know everything about hard and soft cap), but then again Iburst is faster (if you are in the right spot). My worry was to choose Iburst, and sit with a connection of 178kbps.

That said, I had the test done this afternoon. Speed was tested at 178kbps with the modem next to my pc, we moved the modem on top of the pc and the speed increased to 300kbps on an Iburst speedtest (Gampro rated it 350kbps). I will go for the antenna which will probably give me faster speed. So as I am typing here, I am the newest member of the Iburst family.

Thanks for all the help and assistance.......and looking forward to a tower closer to my house to have even greater connection speed.
 
Welcome man... stcik around on the forums if you want help and to know whats going on at Iburst.

its the best place for info by far.

And a antenna should get you easily over 512 kb.
 
ppsking said:
So as I am typing here, I am the newest member of the Iburst family.
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Welcome to the i-burst family. hope your experiance has been as good as mine over the last 3 months
 
Have you installed utTraceStar yet? It helps immeasurably to get the so-called "sweet spot"; the position where your modem has the best reception.
 
To be honest, only heard about it. I will install my modem at home tonight (antenna will come later in the week). Where can I download utTraceStar so that I do not struggle tonight? And I hope it's easy to use.........for a guy like me with not a lot of technical knowledge.
 
ppsking said:
To be honest, only heard about it. I will install my modem at home tonight (antenna will come later in the week). Where can I download utTraceStar so that I do not struggle tonight? And I hope it's easy to use.........for a guy like me with not a lot of technical knowledge.
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uTraceStar is pinned in the iBurst forum. link is there. just also install the .net framework if you don't have it already
 
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