Gettin Internet at home - the basics?

[thomascmyk]

Hi there.

I have a few questions for you.

I would like to have Internet installed at my apartment (I live in Cape Town city centre) and I see that there is a phone line here, I'm not sure what kind of line as I am renting but I would like to get a 10 mg line and use Afrihost as my ISP. (They have a bundle for a 10 mg uncapped account where I pay them for my dsl line rental and service and just telkom for my phone line)

Now on to the questions.

Must I go to a telkom store and then have someone come out to "install" a line when there is already a line in my apartment?

If not then how would I go about getting it activated? (The phoneline)

Then is the dsl line an actual physical extra/different line? Or would it run over the phoneline that is already in my apartment once that gets activated and as such is basically just a service that needs to be activated?

Also, I see on afrihosts website that they mention a copper line is needed to apply for the dsl service. Is this copper line the phoneline that I need to get activated? Or like I asked previously a different line altogether.

If it is the phoneline, and I get it activated by telkom, do I then just get the bundle with Afrihost with the speed I want and they will sort out the dsl line rental, etc?

I am new to all of this and would like this all to get going as soon as possible.

I am sorry if I am totally stupid.

 

[upup]

Yes the adsl comes over the normal telephone line.
Somewhere on a telkom site you can check what speeds the telkom exchange in your area are capable of.

Problems;
Is it your telephone number. Is it register in your name.
Then apply for it at telkom or via that 10219.
Are you going to stay there long. {2 year contract] or try to do month by month.

A little transformer thing needs to be added to you telephone. You normally get it with the modem.

You can phone and www all at the same time.

enjoy.

 

[upup]

Yes the adsl comes over the normal telephone line.
Somewhere on a telkom site you can check what speeds the telkom exchange in your area are capable of.

Problems;
Is it your telephone number. Is it register in your name.
Then apply for it at telkom or via that 10219.
Are you going to stay there long. {2 year contract] or try to do month by month.

A little transformer thing needs to be added to you telephone. You normally get it with the modem.

You can phone and www all at the same time.

enjoy.

 

[Hamish McPanji]

A little transformer thing needs to be added to you telephone. You normally get it with the modem.

Eh?

Try this : https://secureapp.telkom.co.za/camp...content=home_promotions&utm_campaign=simple_3

Its free installation, router , 3g modem, etc
And I don't think it is a contract, so you can use it for a few months then hop to another ISP. I may be wrong though

 

[HavocXphere]

Firstly...don't listen to Telkom...they are generally full of ka.k. Rather ask on this forum.

You need:
1) A physical phone line attached to the phone network
2) Phone line rental - that R152 or whatever you need to pay to get basic voice
3) ADSL rental - depends on speed
4) Data package
5) An ADSL router

You can get each separately, or in various types of bundles.

Rule number one is you don't sign any 24 month contract. Ever. Month-to-Month only. This usually means you need to pay for your router in cash. Think 700 bucks. You need one that supports wifi b/g/n and has >1 LAN ports. If you are in the highveld expect to replace it every 1-3 years...lightning screws them over. You can walk into a Telkom store and buy one for 700 I think. It'll be either a Netgear DGN2200 or DLink 2750. Either is fine. If its the DLink then just fix the retarded security setup (there is a thread here somewhere - PM me if you can't find it). You can get cheaper modems online but I think I'll skip that for now.

Regarding 2) above. Only Telkom supplies these. You can get it from an ISP like Afrihost, but effectively they just go to Telkom on your behalf. Opinions on this vary. I like buying directly from Telkom, but if you can get a bargain elsewhere then it might be worthwhile.

3) and 4) need to line up. i.e. be the same speed. As to what data package exactly - I'd have to know what exactly you'll use it for etc. You seem to have settled on some Afrihost thing already which is fine.

If by some chance you end up buying a service from Telkom, emphasize that you want "self-install". They have this fun thing where they get a techie to set it up for you and charge you a billion bucks for it. The advice on this forum will suffice.

You can check if you've got working internet by using:
username: guest@telkomadsl
password: guest

This does not require a data account. i.e. You've got 1-3 & 5 as per listing above. Using this guess login you can verify that everything is working. This login will allow you to browse to telkom.co.za...and nothing else. If the telkom page loads then 1-3 & 5 are working...well on a basic level anyway.

Random info that you might need in setting up the router:

VPI/VCI = 8/35
Protocol = PPPoE
Encapsulation = LLC
Service type = UBR without PCR

And finally, as long as you don't sign a 24 month contract you'll be fine. Any fck-ups short of that the combined knowledge of this forum can definitely fix.

I'll address your specific question in a separate post.

 

[HavocXphere]

>>Must I go to a telkom store and then have someone come out to "install" a line when there is already a line in my apartment?

If you don't know the number of the line & can't dial out (voice) with it then yes you'll need a Telkom techie.

>>Then is the dsl line an actual physical extra/different line?

Nope same thing. Its just Telkom being retarded. They charge twice for what is essentially the same. See #2 & #3 in my post above

>>Also, I see on afrihosts website that they mention a copper line is needed to apply for the dsl service.

See listing of whats needed in my previous post

>> do I then just get the bundle with Afrihost with the speed I want and they will sort out the dsl line rental, etc?

If the bundle specifically includes ADSL rental then yes - you can pile that on top of any working voice line. Post link to the Axxess thing you want for better response.

You should also have a look at the Telkom Simple plans. They include 1,2,3,4 (and if fortune favours you 5 too). Skip 24 month contract. Generally its not a super competitive package, but if your stuck in a position where you need to get "up and running" then its nice because Telkom will sort out everything from 1-4 for you no questions asked. In my case it only came with 10 gigs though so I piled an Openweb uncapped package on top of it (which are nice btw).

 

[thomascmyk]

Awesome, thank you for all the info! It really has helped a lot!

I have decided on a 10mg line and uncapped from Afrihost as I game online a lot, would like to do quite a fare bit of downloading (hate waiting long for downloads) and lastly the bundle is not that much more expensive than the 2 mg bundle I initially thought of getting, only R400 more for 5 times the line speed