First day in Pretoria

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dude, trust me, just because support desk is ****ed up gives you no reason to send the modem back

took me almost 2 weeks to get up and running and it's well worth it, so ignore the dumbasses and try try again

look around the forum for contacts @ head office etc

Like... talk to Basil or JP from support desk, or call Clinton Smith at head office in fourways

Trust me, if everyone had to send their modems back re: clueless support people, sentech would be out of business re: the broadband market [;)]

Why do you have to "put your two cents in"... but it's only a "penny for your thoughts"? Where's that extra penny going to?
 
This is very dissapointing and that's putting it quite mildly. My modem arrived early this morning (around 07:40 - they said before 11:00 so they're pretty much on the ball with that) and I had the thing setup and running minutes later. Connectivity to the base station is fine but still it didn't work.

A quick call in to tech support revealed that the link between Pretoria and Jo'burg is broken (apparently there was some maintenance done on the weekend and it was down then too). Okay, that's bad. I asked how long they expect it to be down. The reply... 2 hours... And here I'm thinkning... 2 hours!!! WTF? This is a backbone link and they don't have some kind of redundant failover that they can get going in minutes let alone an hour or two? They must have quite a few Pretoria customers and we're all affected by this. Surely they can rig something up somehow to get us up and running. Anyway, I kept trying for the next 3 hours before calling tech support again.

Turns out that Fastcom are doing the maintenance and Sentech have no idea when it will be working... I'm told it should be running by this afternoon - well - it's almost 14:30 now and it still isn't working...

This is really unacceptable... There must be something they can do to get us up and running quicker than this... I have a good mind to pack up the modem and send it back... Really, this is quite pathetic!

- Edwin
 
Hmm,

It doesn't make sense that a link between two cities, 60km apart, can affect your browsing quite so badly.. I'm in Joburg and can connect and chat to all my friends in pretoria no problem (even when using a direct link).

Sounds like a bogus story to me...
 
That's what the support guys had to say... If that's not the case then they are simply incompetent and should tell me what the problem really is instead of spinning me some story. :(
 
I'm also in Pretoria, and connectivity has been iffy since Saturday afternoon. It was down for most of Sunday, up for Sunday evening, down again since early this morning, and up and down all during the morning. All the time I had normal signal levels on my modem so my tower ([22] La Montagne, Pretoria) was still there, and sentech also told me it was a backlink problem, which makes sense. I've been back on line for more than four hours now, so hopefully they have solved the problems.

I've also been frustrated, but in fairness this is the first real outrage that I have experienced in the three weeks since I have had my modem. This MyWireless technology is still very new so these teathing troubles are to be expected. I'm actually very pleased they are working so hard on the system.

Hang in there, you won't be sorry! I'm very pleased with my MyWireless connection, and I expect things will only improve once the infrastructure is all in place and the growing pains have been sorted out. In a few more months time, we'll probably all have very stable connections.

So unless your tower is also experiencing problems, you should have had success since about midday. This forum is great for getting advice, so if you are still battling to get online, post details of exactly what is happening/not happening and you are sure to get help.

Cheers
John Smith
 
Dude, It's the firt time that Ive had a problem connecting.
And Ive been using it since end frebruary ?

Just hang on ;) You wont be sorry the moment it works.
Anyways, most companies are incompetent. Just those special moments,where they by accident gave you good service ;)

No really :)
 
They will *always* spin you a story to get you to say "ok thanks bye" and stop bothering them. I was down until 11:50 this morning. Honestly I think someone made a stuff up on the link to the main hub in Jhb (from Pretoria) and they are now also upgrading/tweaking the towers. If I were you I would hold on a bit. Im also a Pretoria subscriber and this is frustrating the hell out of me to tell you the truth but.. when it works it works great so give it some time. Hopefully after the adjustments it will work perfectly (ie. 15 days uptime etc). In theory it should..

Its annoying though that you still connect to the broken tower so you cant even try find another one. I know for a fact that I am within 5km of 3 towers but I always connect to the closest one even when its broken. So theres no kind of redundancy if the tower goes down (unless its a power failure of course)

Hopefully, the downtime means more stability and perhaps a higher capacity link to the main hub.
 
Well it's 19:30 and I'm still down. I just got off the phone with the tech guys and they tell me that they do have a couple of the Pretoria guys up and running again. They suspect that the problems have something to do with radio interference caused by this Presidential inauguration party happening tomorrow - not sure I believe that but I can't think they would still be battling with hardware/software issues now.

I gather the base stations communicate with each other via terrestrial microwave links. Which means any interference causing problems for them would have to be pretty much in the line of sight of two towers that can't communicate, right? Unless these clowns have some Tessla coils/spark gap type things and are deliberately trying to disrupt any *unauthorised* communications during the celebrations. How hard could it be to track down this kind of interference? Assuming that they are using microwave - which is inherently susceptible to adverse weather and the like - don't they usually have redundant paths of communication between any two points anyway?

And then there's the fact that they're Sentech - don't they have uber infrastruture all over the place... They're telling me that in almost 12 hours they haven't found some way to make things work. Sheez, reallocate some satellite time and set up portable downlinks at a base stations that have comms with a bunch of other base stations or use some fiber that they must have access to somewhere and route around the problem.

Please guys (Sentech)... Show a little creativity and get this problem solved.
 
quick question...

How many of you would have been content with the situation had they informed you via mail or something about this downtime beforehand?..

...or even afterward if it was unforseen?

<font color="green">Video didn't kill the radio star...</font id="green"> <font color="red">Telkom did</font id="red">
 
I'm connected to tower [22] La Montagne and have been up for over 8 hours now. greedyflyza says he has been up since 11:50 on tower [36], so Pretoria has been buzzing again since about midday.

Thus I think your problem is due to some other cause, and not the sentech infrastructure. Which tower does your modem say it is connected to?

I presume you have done the obvious, uninstall the software (remember to get it to delete the user information as well), shut down, switch off the modem, reboot, install and switch-on/plug-in the modem when instructed. Does windows detect and install the modem? Give Windows a chance to fully install all the drivers BEFORE pressing next (wait at least 30 seconds after all installation type activity has stopped).

Best to keep using the same USB port, otherwise Windows will redetect the modem on another virtual COM port. If this has happend, go "Start|Control Panel|Modems" and remove the redundant modem.

Do you get as far as the sentech registration screen? Once you have then restarted, manually fill in your username and password in the "Wireless Broadband Modem Dialer". The installation process is supposed to fill this in automatically, but in my case this didn't seem to work properly.
 
Yeah but he/she's only trying to help

I have been connected since 11:50 without a problem and I am fairly close to the union buildings etc but not quite right there. I honestly do not accept that as an excuse. Perhaps they are buying more time or dont actually know what the problem is.

I dont know about reinstalling your modem. If it works one day (and you dont move it) then disconnects and doesnt work the next, all you do is reboot the PC,unplug USB cable of modem,reboot modem(hard reboot-remove DC power cord)then reboot modem,wait for lights to stop flashing,plug in cable. If it doesnt work then, then its not your fault.

You may have suffered from the tweaking? Better check which tower you are connecting to and how far away etc
 
Hmm ... I'm in Pta (on La Montagne tower), and I've been online continually since 13:20 p.m. yesterday afternoon, and have been downloading all that time without a hitch. So the problem isn't with the 'Pta-Jhb link'.
 
I TOTALLY agree with greedyflyza, that if your setup has been working properly and suddenly stops working then reinstalling the modem software is definitely NOT appropriate.

However, if you read espeer’s original message properly, you will see that he only got his modem yesterday morning, and has NEVER been connected properly. This is understandable during the morning because of the problems many of us in Pretoria were experiencing, but he was still unable to get connected even the service returned to normal after midday yesterday. Thus it is very possible that something went wrong during the installation process, and thus trying to re-install the modem software IS appropriate under these circumstances.

BTW; I’ve been in the electronics industry for nearly 30 years and in the computer industry for more than 15 years, so I’m hardly a “newbie” in the bigger picture. If my advice is not appreciated on this forum, then I won’t bother anymore.
 
28 hours later and still no luck :(

Here's what I've tried from my side along with all the information I can think of. Maybe someone on this forum can provide some insight? I'm afraid to call the Sentech support guys again because each time they tell me a different story and frankly they're starting to make less and less sense...

Clearly the link between PTA/JHB has been fine since yesterday around lunch
time because there are guys in Pretoria up and running (towers 22 and 36 at
least) so that excuse of theirs flys right out the window. I am connecting to
tower 50 (Kilner park). Yesterday afternoon (Between 13:00 and 16:00) I took
the modem with me into the University of Pretoria campus and I still had no
luck getting the registration process to succeed. I'm not 100% sure but I
think I was connected to tower 36 from campus which according to reports
would suggest my software setup is faulty. I don't buy their inaugural
party excuse either because Kilner park sits between the univesity campus
and La Montange and according to reports those two areas are up.

Anyway, I've tried the uninstall everything and re-install thing twice on my
notebook (A Vaio PCG-GRV7P running WinXP) without any luck (with reboots
inbetween for good measure). I've also
tried an older Win98 machine as well as coupling the modem to an
external antenna (all four signal strength lights on the modem come on). It
appears to have comms with the base station (2 lights without the antenna) and
the dialer switches to the second (ISP) tab. At which point, after a while I
get an error "The remote computer did not respond. Reason: Network not
available". The Win98 error was slightly different saying "No answer." and then
giving up.

I've also tried the ipw linux usb driver and followed the instructions on
R0dent's page - but I'm not sure that my account (details arranged
telephonically with Sentech before delivery) will work until the registration
process has been performed.

So in summary, I've tried:

Two different towers: 36 (I think it was 36 and then only yesterday
afternoon) and 50. Anyone up and running on tower 50? I also read
somewhere on these forums that tower numbers are not
necessarily unique - so maybe this is all meaningless.

3 different antenna/signal configurations: 2 lights at the varsity, 2 lights
at home, 4 lights with the external antenna on the roof.

3 different operating systems: WinXP, Win98 and Gentoo Linux using the ipw
kernel model by R0dent (as I said, I don't know if this will work until after
registration anyway) - it talks to the modem fine but I just don't get a
successful connection.

Any ideas? My hunch is that there is something wrong with the Kilner park
tower but that doesn't explain why I could not connect at the University. But
I've definitely tried everything I can think of on my end to get the software
working. Is it possible that I have a faulty ipw modem?
 
You should connect just fine at UP. I'm further than UP from the Sunnyside tower(36) and I'm connecting with 20% signal.

There are two possibilities, firstly your account may not be activated. This could be due to a stupid error on the part of Sentech. Check this with them since you have never logged in successfully.

Secondly, every time you install the software on a "new" pc you need to run first time user registration. Otherwise it just doesnt work. Make sure you do this again. Shout if you need help with this but basically you never type your user name and password into the software. If you can log into the registration site then it works. Since you seem to be getting modem errors though you may not get this far.

There are other possibilities, it could be your USB drivers. Try it on someone elses PC (remember new_user registration). Lastly, your modem may be fried. Get it swapped out.

Hope that helps. Apologies if I stated things you have done or know about! Only trying to help you get something for your R20 odd a day.
 
Turns out there was nothing wrong with my setup afterall. I drove out to Menlo Park this afternoon and tried my notebook at modem out at nicroets' place and it worked first time.

I've managed to connect from home this evening (finally) but it is up and down like a yo-yo. I manage to stay connected for around 10-12 minutes and then the connection get's dropped and it won't connect again for a few minutes. Rince and repeat for the last hour and a half.

So there still seem to be some problems with the Kilner Park tower :(
 
Update: My link has been stable now for the last hour. Looks like they've finally got this problem licked :)

I still think 36+ hours was far too long downtime - let's hope it doesn't happen again any time soon.

Thanks guys for all the help and recommendations here on the forum :)
 
Looks like a sickness... these support guys from sentech told me one to! I was told that the kilner park tower (50) is down due to the celebrations in pretoria because of the planes and s#$t! What? and for this we pay our hard earned money? A notification email would have been nice...

No disrespect to sentech, their the best thing that happened to sa (connectivity wise!) but damn! Just my 5 cents worth!

"i may just be the dumbest guy on the forum"
 
ROFL, that has to be the worst BOFH excuse of the year.

Some more winners, that we can suggest to them for the next outtage:

Your computer's union contract is set to expire at midnight.

Traffic jam on the Information Superhighway.

The data on your hard drive is out of balance.

The rolling stones concert down the road caused a brown out.

Change in Earth's rotational speed.

Perhaps someone should send http://cgi.cs.wisc.edu/scripts/ballard/bofhserver.pl to the Sentech support desk so we can get some proper excuses.

<center><h5><font color="red">Oo. MyWireless <s>Hacks</s> Tweaks & Tech Info.oO </font id="red"></h5><h6>Have you checked the fawking FAQ?</h6></center>
 
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