Considering iBurst, Questions.

D

doc_msk

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 1, 2005
Messages
217
Reaction score
4
Location
Sandton
Hello,

I am currently a TelCon ADSL user. I am considering looking at iBurst again (looked at it when it first came out, but signal strength was not very good).

Some general questions about the service (I am not a techie so apologies in advance if the questions seem silly):

1) What is their customer service like in general (all orgs can have good/bad days) when it comes to fault reporting/repairs etc?

2) I use Skype a lot for corp comms to USA and UK. With my shaped MWEB adsl account calling was far from satisfactory. Is the iBurst internet access shaped? What is it like to use Skype to make calls?

3) I use MS Exchange, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Gmail, Gtalk. Are all the required ports on the netwrok open to allow me to use all the features of these services?

4) Any other comments?

5) I sometimes have the odd QuakeIII deathmatch with my bro in the UK. Only works well for me if I change to an unshaped account? What is gaming like on iBurst?

6) My TelCon ADSL rarely has problems, what is iBurst like in general, is up 99% of the time?

Many thanks for your time.

Doc
 
Ok, I should have read the iBurst FAQ first, my bad.

But any comments appreciated!
Regards
Doc
 
signal quality and strength depends on the area you are in.
PM me with your area & i could inform you of the covered areas.
 
doc_msk said:
1) What is their customer service like in general (all orgs can have good/bad days) when it comes to fault reporting/repairs etc?
Click to expand...

Generally it's okay for simple stuff, but if you're experiencing weird problems it can suck.

2) I use Skype a lot for corp comms to USA and UK. With my shaped MWEB adsl account calling was far from satisfactory. Is the iBurst internet access shaped? What is it like to use Skype to make calls?
Click to expand...
according to peeps here it seems to work well.

5) I sometimes have the odd QuakeIII deathmatch with my bro in the UK. Only works well for me if I change to an unshaped account? What is gaming like on iBurst?
Click to expand...

lag is crap... you cant play fps, but things like age of empires and others work well.
 
Skypw, MSN products and Gmail will all work fine.

The gaming will be a problem to the UK, but for local it should be okay. If youve got a really good signal, it could work out, but it doesnt sound like internasional gaming is that importanat to you.

The Helpcentre/callcentre has been upgraded and is now 24/7 and has alot more employees I'm geussing because there response time is alot better.

Iburst is shaped, but all the needs you have will work fine. The service is also generally up about 98% of the time. It can be up for very long without any problems and issues are rarely over a few hours when connectivity does cut out. Smaller problems are more regular with Iburst, but this seems to vary from tower to tower. You will probably not have a problme with downtime.
 
halicon said:
lag is crap... you cant play fps, but things like age of empires and others work well.
Click to expand...

Does games like Generals also work nice on iburst? what about Dling Data etc and open web pages nice speeds?
 
Aspersie said:
Does games like Generals also work nice on iburst? what about Dling Data etc and open web pages nice speeds?
Click to expand...

i have never played generals so dont know...

as for dling data... it depends on signal strength, the tower you use. Ussually it's okay. I think the iburst are over subscribing cuz speeds are definetly not as cool as they used to be.

surfing is usually good.
 
Dont know mych about HSDPA, you could just run over to the HSDPA section of the forum and ask them..

Downloading is usually Ibursts strong point, as long as you use an accelerator so that it is multithreaded.

Speeds to websites are a bit slower than ADSL because of ping times, but not by much if you have a good conneciton. By speeds i mean the initial connection time btw, not downloading the data from the pages, (images etc.) that speed is fine.

But everything wil depend on your signal, shouldnt be a problem in JHB these days, if your clost to a tower then all should be good, close being about 3-5km. With an antenna that can be about 6-10km. The speeds in Pretoria seem to be good, from what I could see in a thread about PTA speeds etc a few days ago.
 
Update: Had an iBurst reseller test the signal strength in my office by using just the laptop PCMCIA card (no external aerial), and it wasn't too bad about 400kb/s downloads. Better than two years ago when the signal in my office was zero. Going to sign up and give it a go...

Next I will test at home, and if that works, then bye bye TelCon ADSL....
 
helo doc where are you from? if it works just aswell in your office and your home will you let me know by pmessage thanks

I also wan't to subscribe but not to sure yet...

Does anyone know how good the CRS' on iburst?
 
Aspersie, from your location I see you are based in Tswane. I am in Joburg. May I suggest that you contact a local reseller and have them do a signal test specifically in the locations you want to use the service. The signal, hence speeds achievable, can vary from neighbour to neighbour based on so many factors like line of sight to base station.

Regards
Doc
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X