Cool Ideas Fibre ISP - Feedback

[adamr]

ROFL - so now the official response is less than entry level ADSL speeds are acceptable for international links?

can you do a trace route to any site ... another member and I we are are on the same cool ideas box (154.0.0.xx) and have the exact same issues ... alebit he is on tt connect and I'm metro fibre

 

[xrapidx]

Damn, seems like you really hated Telkom a lot if you even removed the cabling. It's a sad day when one realizes that the older technology performed much better than newer technology.

It was just to neaten it up - when we did the kitchen in 2017, the useless builder completely ****ed up the telkom cabling - I'd patched it with CAT5 cable that was hanging loose behind the fridge Even that performed better than this fibre "experience".

 

[Praeses]

Only issue I had for years was the upload speed - I have quite a few camera's around the property, and it's useful being able to view them all remotely at the same time.

Yeah, I especially like the upload speeds for cloud storage...and upload seems to perform better on fibre than downloads on fibre

 

[xrapidx]

can you do a trace route to any site ... another member and I we are are on the same cool ideas box (154.0.0.xx) and have the exact same issues ... alebit he is on tt connect and I'm metro fibre

Will try remember tonight, although I've cancelled with these guys - so not really bothered with tests anymore. I've seen how this goes with too many ISPs - its just a repetitive circle of blame.

 

[image132]

Congestion in the evenings in Southern Suburbs, Cape Town is getting really tiresome. I can keep my gaming latency down using a VPN which seems to have a stable ping, but Origin/B.net downloads, hell any downloads, and browsing in general is like being back on ADSL.

If it is Octotel, more pressure needs to be put on them, like the Blouberg issue. Really frustrating, especially when I log on in the morning and see how it's supposed to perform.

Also on Octotel in Southern Suburbs. The congestion is fun right?

Check out my speeds up above. Got no idea when this will get fixed

 

[xrapidx]

Also on Octotel in Southern Suburbs. The congestion is fun right?

Check out my speeds up above. Got no idea when this will get fixed

I've seen complaints on Vumatel, Octotel, Openserve, Metro Fibre - all in this thread - so it seems congestion or "something" affects quite a few on Cool Ideas.

 

[TheRoDent]

I would also like to know.

Thanks guys, I have enough info with what you have posted so far. It's really about getting an idea of where congested areas are on the network.

 

[stefan9]

Just do the same tests with your 3G modem for them.

Will be doing lte tests once home.

 

[adamr]

I am pleading for anyone on metro fibre with cool ideas who is getting full speeds to please do a trace route and provide this info

I was informed that all mf clients terminate on the same port on the same fibre ...

so far as I have mentioned a TT connect user and me being mf with issues terminate on the same box at cool ideas 154.0.0 where as an openserve client terminates on a different box alltogether 154.0.5 who is running full speed with no issues. I am of the opinion the termination box I'm on (and so to other customers) is saturated

can people please help me debunk or verify this hypothesis

 

[ryanrich]

No point in having anything faster than 10Mbps in South Africa then if you use single threaded...

I guess if your specific requirement is purely single threaded performance at as fast as possible.

The benefit of fibre to me is with multiple users / sessions. At any one time in my house there are like 3 1080p streams and multiple browsing / downloading going on, at night a 4K stream enters the mix and I also often have a VPN connection to the office. On copper that would all fall over at some point but it's rock solid on fibre.

 

[PBCool]

Will try remember tonight, although I've cancelled with these guys - so not really bothered with tests anymore. I've seen how this goes with too many ISPs - its just a repetitive circle of blame.

So just to add to this, if it was congestion on our side then every customer would be experiencing issues. But as you can see from the thread this isn't the case, so with all these new networks it takes time to resolve this kind of thing with the FNOs.

 

[PBCool]

I am pleading for anyone on metro fibre with cool ideas who is getting full speeds to please do a trace route and provide this info

I was informed that all mf clients terminate on the same port on the same fibre ...

so far as I have mentioned a TT connect user and me being mf with issues terminate on the same box at cool ideas 154.0.0 where as an openserve client terminates on a different box alltogether 154.0.5 who is running full speed with no issues. I am of the opinion the termination box I'm on (and so to other customers) is saturated

can people please help me debunk or verify this hypothesis

We have a series of access routers, TTConnect doesn't share in the pool of access routers with MFN because of the network issues experienced before with them. SADV and MFN for instance share the same pool of access routers.

 

[PBCool]

We have a series of access routers, TTConnect doesn't share in the pool of access routers with MFN because of the network issues experienced before with them. SADV and MFN for instance share the same pool of access routers.

And no they are not saturated.

 

[PBCool]

I've seen complaints on Vumatel, Octotel, Openserve, Metro Fibre - all in this thread - so it seems congestion or "something" affects quite a few on Cool Ideas.

Most complaints are related to GPON networks, Octotel being the largest affected at the moment. Vumatel are mostly aerial (PON), Openserve is a bit more complex with IPC, and Metrofibre it's limited to certain customers.

You must understand that we pickup all these network at common locations like IS Parklands or a respective Teraco, again if we had congestion it would be affecting all networks that terminate at these locations, which is then every customer.

 

[adamr]

So just to add to this, if it was congestion on our side then every customer would be experiencing issues. But as you can see from the thread this isn't the case, so with all these new networks it takes time to resolve this kind of thing with the FNOs.

so what is 154.0.0 and 154.0.5 ?

I saw this as the cool ideas termination boxes for the PPPOE connections?

 

[image132]

I've seen complaints on Vumatel, Octotel, Openserve, Metro Fibre - all in this thread - so it seems congestion or "something" affects quite a few on Cool Ideas.

I'm personally sticking with cool ideas. In the past when I had telkom copper it was doing the exact same thing as fiber is now doing. Back then I played the hot potato ISP game and none ever fixed it for me. So aside from the honey moon period with Octotel I've not been able to stream twitch for 4+ years during peak time.

Back when I was with a red ISP on copper for a year I decided to keep track of how often the CPT IPC broke vs the JHB IPC. CPT's IPC broke 14 times in that year where as JHB's only broke 3 times. I have a tinfoil hat theory that internet infrastructure down here is either not maintained properly or is built in an inferior/more complicated way to JHB. The fact that Octotel uses City of Cape Town's network was...enlightening.

My friend in JHB who's with TTconnect (supposedly the worst FNO that exists in SA) has a significantly better experience and I'd outright say better internet than I do. He's able to do whatever he wants whenever he wants without issue. In fact he's more or less had superior internet all through the 6+ years I've know him, through adsl vdsl and now fiber.

I've done my time playing ISP bingo, I'm not doing it again. I don't believe CISP is the issue, the spaghetti network Cape Town has is.

 

[stefan9]

@PBCool :Will you have a look at my post on the previous post with Divian claming I can't get close to linespeed for international because of geographics. Have seen plenty of test in this thread getting close to linespeed so surely this isn't the case?

 

[xrapidx]

I'm personally sticking with cool ideas. In the past when I had telkom copper it was doing the exact same thing as fiber is now doing. Back then I played the hot potato ISP game and none ever fixed it for me. So aside from the honey moon period with Octotel I've not been able to stream twitch for 4+ years during peak time.

Back when I was with a red ISP on copper for a year I decided to keep track of how often the CPT IPC broke vs the JHB IPC. CPT's IPC broke 14 times in that year where as JHB's only broke 3 times. I have a tinfoil hat theory that internet infrastructure down here is either not maintained properly or is built in an inferior/more complicated way to JHB. The fact that Octotel uses City of Cape Town's network was...enlightening.

My friend in JHB who's with TTconnect (supposedly the worst FNO that exists in SA) has a significantly better experience and I'd outright say better internet than I do. He's able to do whatever he wants whenever he wants without issue. In fact he's more or less had superior internet all through the 6+ years I've know him, through adsl vdsl and now fiber.

I've done my time playing ISP bingo, I'm not doing it again. I don't believe CISP is the issue, the spaghetti network Cape Town has is.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again - yes - the FNOs might be the issue - and yes - I might have similiar performance issues with another ISP - but, I find Cool Ideas service to be incredibly poor - they don't respond to tickets, they're not transparent, even on this forum they disappeared for over a week with no update to the apparent issue with Octotel, while happily collecting payment for a service they cannot provide, it took them over a week before even requesting the communities help in collecting stats to send to Octotel, by that time I was already with another ISP collecting stats.

There have also been two posts in this thread recently saying that the currently experienced performance is what users can expect from the service, and is normal.

Again - they still haven't so much as acknowledged my cancellation ticket since 2019-01-28 (08:05).

If you're happy with dealing with a company like this, by all means - go for it.

 

[ArtyLoop]

So just to add to this, if it was congestion on our side then every customer would be experiencing issues. But as you can see from the thread this isn't the case, so with all these new networks it takes time to resolve this kind of thing with the FNOs.

And yes, if it was congestion on your side, the tests you did for me would have revealed it. Hence why I am not giving up just yet but you must understand, I need connectivity and that's why the ADSL line goes in. I trust you, but I don't trust Octotel with anything... its just another bunch of cowboys that saw a gap to make money and screw the rest. I am willing to contribute to litigation to force them to stop their nonsense.

 

[TranQ]

Most complaints are related to GPON networks, Octotel being the largest affected at the moment. Vumatel are mostly aerial (PON), Openserve is a bit more complex with IPC, and Metrofibre it's limited to certain customers.

You must understand that we pickup all these network at common locations like IS Parklands or a respective Teraco, again if we had congestion it would be affecting all networks that terminate at these locations, which is then every customer.

Has there been any progress made with Netstream and the issues I have been experiencing with packet loss and very slow speeds during peak time? Most people here complain about Octotel so I'm a lone voice on Netstream (even though the crowdsource data shows that other people are also experiencing issues on Netstream). So I would also like to know what progress is being made with your engagements with Netstream.