Free iBurst bandwidth after midnight

[Next Thing]

LOL. Nice effort to try smooth the waters after the canceling of 64k pipe and making it a VAS service.

I for one am waiting with a good laugh for when they announce prices for this VAS.
Esp since you have the ability to download over 5 times more than the free 64kb pipe based on a 1mb download speed...
So depending on how their bean counters price it could mean a lot of you being very dissapointed.
This coupled with a very hacky bandwidth management system just means you are going to be phoning Iburst accounts more than ever.

Lets try some off the cuff pricing :

1GB offering : R248
128K Vas : R249 ( so you dont have to worry about having to keep some data leftover in your bundle )
Then Lets surmise

At a worst case the 8 hours would cost R199x5 (5 times the cost of the 64K VAS as that is the amount of data you can download)
At a best case the same price as the 64kb Vas

Makes a total of R696pm up to R1492pm for an uncapped 128KB line with the capability to do 8 hours of 1mb uncapped....
Then you need to factor in phone call charges for every time ibubbles goes on holiday. And if this is as often as the capping system goes bonkers it will be very often.

After other calculations based on a 128KB VAS and using 8 hours of uncapped at 1mb speed you should be able to do +- 131 GB in a month(30 days) which is the equivalent of a 426kb ADSL line. Compare this to the 1GB account with 64kb VAS where you could only do about 20 GB in a month.

Now what I would really love to see is someone setup a system to abuse the hell out of it 24*7. Oh sorry I never meant ABUSE, I meant doing what you have been given.
In theory you could get 131GB for about R5.32/GB(@R697 for the cheapest setup). If Iburst accepts this lol then we know how much we have allways been ripped off for.

Now lets get back to the origional setup of 1GB acct with 64kb after being capped.
At that time we were paying R200 per month and could download only 20GB (if the capping worked which frequently it never did)
This translates to a GB cost of R10/GB.

So go figure .... I wonder what the cost to consumers will be for this 8 hours of uncapped ???????????????????????

 

[Wolfy]

rooigevaar, whats happening that side about me getting capped 6 am in the morning???

 

[eltherza]

In reply to your statement I'm on 128 VAS now and...

That is correct (even 1Kb will do)

Now I'm just confused

So one side is "if you have vas 64 or 128, you can download at full speed from 12-8", other is that "you have to have some bandwidth left [which is obviously 0 when you hit vas 64/128 thus vas 128 will not go full speed]"

 

[Mental-Tree]

@Garry, if I'm not mistake, iburst don't pay for data only the speeds at which they can access SAT3 or seacom or w.e. With this reasoning in mind the extra bandwidth that is being used after midnight wont cost them anything. The problem is that with everybody downloading their network would become congested. This is why the service is only available after midnight till 8(except for me ) So taking all of that into account I think its safe to say that the pricing will be decided upon depending on how congested the network becomes and not really the amount of data that could be used.

The reason behind the high 64k/128k vas' I'm guessing is because it can be abused all day and congest the network during working hours. Hope this made sense, didn't get much sleep last night.

Ronald, Mental-Tree is using the 128kbps VAS, he doesn't need to have data in his bucket. See if you can help him out. It's not the first time he has issues with the "Midnight" service.

^That one And honestly all I wanted to download last night were update for my linux box. Will try again tonight though.

 

[Next Thing]

There is always a cost nothing is for free. Maybe yes during the day they dont want the network congested, but if it costs R5/GB during the night then what does it cost to provision during the day ?

 

[Mental-Tree]

^it would cost the same but iburst would charge more to prevent the dreaded congestion ?

 

[r00igev@@r]

Now I'm just confused

So one side is "if you have vas 64 or 128, you can download at full speed from 12-8", other is that "you have to have some bandwidth left [which is obviously 0 when you hit vas 64/128 thus vas 128 will not go full speed]"

No, not really confusing, The guys who have put money on the table for the VAS gain the benefit. It would be unfair for them if they didn't.

 

[r00igev@@r]

@Garry, if I'm not mistake, iburst don't pay for data only the speeds at which they can access SAT3 or seacom or w.e. With this reasoning in mind the extra bandwidth that is being used after midnight wont cost them anything. The problem is that with everybody downloading their network would become congested. This is why the service is only available after midnight till 8(except for me ) So taking all of that into account I think its safe to say that the pricing will be decided upon depending on how congested the network becomes and not really the amount of data that could be used.

The reason behind the high 64k/128k vas' I'm guessing is because it can be abused all day and congest the network during working hours. Hope this made sense, didn't get much sleep last night.



^That one And honestly all I wanted to download last night were update for my linux box. Will try again tonight though.

I'm out in the sticks on gprs. Eish! Please PM me your account details and I'll have someone check that the VAS is active on your account.

BTW: Your analysis is spot on.

 

[r00igev@@r]

rooigevaar, whats happening that side about me getting capped 6 am in the morning???

Waiting for the report and will provide feedback.

 

[r00igev@@r]

I went back to iburst until I have my adsl line sorted out thinking I can take advantage of this after hours service which hasn't been working for the past week. I see that Mental Tree has the same problem as me. I'm on the 128 VAS option.

Please PM me your details. I need to check that our hosting provider didn't mess our config files when they unexpectedly pulled the power on us last week.

 

[r00igev@@r]

... If Iburst accepts this lol then we know how much we have allways been ripped off for.
...

There are no rip offs. The network was built on blood, sweat and tears with no tax payer subsidies or voice cash cows. The upstream bandwidth is procured in Mb/s and not Mb. You could probably obtain a direct internet link in Mb/s at similar prices to what we are charged. In addition, the major ISPs close ranks against the smaller guys with gratuitous peering.

If there was large profits and income being derived then it would be easy to sponsor for example, an international sporting event?

 

[Mercury]

In addition, the major ISPs close ranks against the smaller guys with gratuitous peering.

Gratuitous?

 

[BacchusZA]

Is anyone else having an issue with the bandwidth monitoring being innaccurate? My usage according to the website is a not insignificant amount higher than my own records reflect (6.5GB), and I am still having downloads which start after 0100 come off my paid data allocation. In addition to that the connection frequently drops during the evening, which is a severe pain in the ass if you're trying to download something from Rapidshare, for example.

I'm loving this service, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't also find it extremely frustrating at times, and expensive too given I keep having to buy additional boosters becuase the monitoring is innaccurate. The dropped connections I can live with, that's merely annoying, but the monitoring innaccuracy? That is completely unnacceptable, has been the case since the start of the month, and requires URGENT attention.

 

[r00igev@@r]

Gratuitous?

Given or received without cost or obligation; free.

At JINX our only agreements are with Tenet, Neotel and a host of the smaller guys. The others show us the proverbial middle finger. My personal opinion is that peering at JINX should be with everyone or no-one.
As an example, because of the agreement with Tenet we are able to provide a student package where the bandwidth is 20% the cost of normal bandwidth.
Seacom/SAT3/etc is not the problem. Peering between ISPs in ZA is a problem. If you want to reduce the cost of bandwidth, then migrate away from ISPs with restrictive local peering policies at JINX. The result will be reduced costs to do internet banking, email, read news, gaming, etc.

 

[r00igev@@r]

Is anyone else having an issue with the bandwidth monitoring being innaccurate? My usage according to the website is a not insignificant amount higher than my own records reflect (6.5GB), and I am still having downloads which start after 0100 come off my paid data allocation. In addition to that the connection frequently drops during the evening, which is a severe pain in the ass if you're trying to download something from Rapidshare, for example.

I'm loving this service, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't also find it extremely frustrating at times, and expensive too given I keep having to buy additional boosters becuase the monitoring is innaccurate. The dropped connections I can live with, that's merely annoying, but the monitoring innaccuracy? That is completely unnacceptable, has been the case since the start of the month, and requires URGENT attention.

PM me your account details and 'll send a usage report. Only ever found one issue.

 

[kuberkoos]

There is definitely a problem with traffic accounting. On midday, 24 April, I was in cap to the tune if 1.6GB. I did a update of my iTunes podcasts _afterhours_ on the morning of the 25th.

I did an Ubuntu upgrade _afterhours_ this morning. These activities wiped out my cap for the month and I'm unable to do the leisurly Windows 7 install/upgrade that I had planned today.

The drone at the support desk was unable to help. It seems like he used my credentials to look at the same front end as I, the customer, use. That frontend report claim that I used my remaining cap in 11 hours on the 24th.

Please sort this out. Can't you _please_ build a tool enable you support desk jockeys to pull a detailed usage report and reinstate a user's remaining cap then & there.

I'm so fed up with this...

Please help.

I logged a ticket. I can't deal with the 2 day turnaround.

Chz,
Koos (via trusty old 3G)

 

[BacchusZA]

PM me your account details and 'll send a usage report. Only ever found one issue.

PM sent, along with my usage stats according to my bandwidth monitor in support.

Again, this is a great service, and I've really enjoyed it this last month - I've certainly derived good benefit from it, that's for sure - but the accuracy of the monitoring software certainly appears to be a bit iffy at times, and sometimes by more than "a bit". From what I can tell from my usage stats, this error doesn't even occur all that often, at least not to any significant degree. But when it does happen, it ends up costing your subscribers money that it shouldn't. Thanks for looking into this Ronald, especially on a public holiday, and I really hope you can track down where the problem is.

 

[RVQ]

If you want to reduce the cost of bandwidth, then migrate away from ISPs with restrictive local peering policies at JINX. The result will be reduced costs to do internet banking, email, read news, gaming, etc.

Not sure if this information is already available but it would be nice if we could get a list of the ISPs that refuse to play nice. Suppose convincing people to move away from these ISPs if in some way they benefiting from em (cheap costs..) is another story... easy to look the other way if you're the one cashing in...

 

[88RSI]

I also had to topup after 2 nights of downloading between 12-8 :-(

Wanted to check this morning what going on with my bandwidth - everything is 0, downloaded, what's left, carried over ect all 0.

Now Iburst still wonders why we have a little difficulty believing them when they tell us that their bandwidth monitoring is accurate lol

 

[r00igev@@r]

There is definitely a problem with traffic accounting. On midday, 24 April, I was in cap to the tune if 1.6GB. I did a update of my iTunes podcasts _afterhours_ on the morning of the 25th.

I did an Ubuntu upgrade _afterhours_ this morning. These activities wiped out my cap for the month and I'm unable to do the leisurly Windows 7 install/upgrade that I had planned today.

The drone at the support desk was unable to help. It seems like he used my credentials to look at the same front end as I, the customer, use. That frontend report claim that I used my remaining cap in 11 hours on the 24th.

Please sort this out. Can't you _please_ build a tool enable you support desk jockeys to pull a detailed usage report and reinstate a user's remaining cap then & there.

I'm so fed up with this...

Please help.

I logged a ticket. I can't deal with the 2 day turnaround.

Chz,
Koos (via trusty old 3G)

We will be providing the detailed usage report directly to subs via self service.