Good Fibre ISP for a school?

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bees

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Hi guys,

I need to help a school choose an ISP for fibre through the Vumatel network. As Vumatel has one of their DC's on their premises, they as the school receive a free 1Gbps line through Vuma and the ISP of their choice. Here are the options:

Active Fibre
Comtel
Cool Ideas
Crystal Web
Cybersmart
Home-Connect
iConnect
Rocket Net
Telkom

Which of these can you vouch for? Unfortunately Cool Ideas aren't coming to the party at all (no communication / follow-up from their side) - we tried them first because of the seemingly good presence on here but have given up after a few weeks.

Any other comments?
 
Coolideas, should be your first choice. Just send PBCool a message on this forum directly if you want personal support or answers to questions you might have ahead of time. :)

You would only be able to get 200/200 package so that 1Gbit fiber would be wasted some what. Depending on the school budget you might want to dig deeper and look for a good 1Gbit Fiber provider from the vumatel portal expect to pay alot more than the 200/200 packages.

Btw, do the schools choose an ISP then Vumatel covers the cost or would the school have to pay the ISP fee ? I always wondered about this free 1Gbit for schools and if Vumatel only covers the fiber line installation the offer seems to be a huge marketing ploy since fiber installation is a once off cost for everyone in any case.
 
Last edited:
John Tempus said:
Coolideas, should be your first choice. Just send PBCool a message on this forum directly if you want personal support or answers to questions you might have ahead of time. :)

You would only be able to get 200/200 package so that 1Gbit fiber would be wasted some what. Depending on the school budget you might want to dig deeper and look for a good 1Gbit Fiber provider from the vumatel portal expect to pay alot more than the 200/200 packages.

Btw, do the schools choose an ISP then Vumatel covers the cost or would the school have to pay the ISP fee ? I always wondered about this free 1Gbit for schools and if Vumatel only covers the fiber line installation the offer seems to be a huge marketing ploy since fiber installation is a once off cost for everyone in any case.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the punt :), we do most of the school's on the Vumatel network. We are up to around 50 schools so happy to help!
 
Thanks PBCool, will message you shortly with the Ticket Nr and maybe you can follow up?
 
Just to wrap up this thread. PBCool got his guy to get in contact with me, and within a few days, this is the end result. Thanks CoolIdeas!

ad78d37c4118e33f726cdf8c0e6e1e25.jpg
 
John Tempus said:
Btw, do the schools choose an ISP then Vumatel covers the cost or would the school have to pay the ISP fee ? I always wondered about this free 1Gbit for schools and if Vumatel only covers the fiber line installation the offer seems to be a huge marketing ploy since fiber installation is a once off cost for everyone in any case.
Click to expand...

Not sure with other schools, but in this case Vuma paid the installation of the fiber to the server cabinet, I supplied the router, and CoolIdeas are supplying the bandwidth. To qualify you need a certain number of points. Points are allocated by answering some questions wrt schools status at the Education Department, willingness to provide advertising on various platforms, if the school has external IT support, etc.

It seems like the school is on a special 1Gbps ‘education’ link according to the CI consultant, maybe PBCool can elaborate?
 
bees said:
Not sure with other schools, but in this case Vuma paid the installation of the fiber to the server cabinet, I supplied the router, and CoolIdeas are supplying the bandwidth. To qualify you need a certain number of points. Points are allocated by answering some questions wrt schools status at the Education Department, willingness to provide advertising on various platforms, if the school has external IT support, etc.

It seems like the school is on a special 1Gbps ‘education’ link according to the CI consultant, maybe PBCool can elaborate?
Click to expand...

Yeap so Vumatel provide the line to us for free, we provide the bandwidth, we try to motivate the schools for some advertising in return and depending on the registration with SARS depends on what we can claim for a reduction.
 
bees said:
Just to wrap up this thread. PBCool got his guy to get in contact with me, and within a few days, this is the end result. Thanks CoolIdeas!

ad78d37c4118e33f726cdf8c0e6e1e25.jpg
Click to expand...

Good ping but I can't help but notice your download is only 40% of the 1Gbps ?
 
PBCool said:
This would be a bus limitation of the PC or the router limitation.
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its a probability but then i have to ask why is the upload not symmetrical ?
or is this not a symmetrical product
 
Nomadman said:
its a probability but then i have to ask why is the upload not symmetrical ?
or is this not a symmetrical product
Click to expand...
Correct the line offered from Vumatel for Schools is assymetric.
 
PBCool said:
This would be a bus limitation of the PC or the router limitation.
Click to expand...

I still wanted to test directly on a pc. Do you know if I need to match the MAC of the Pc’s network card to the MAC of the Wan port on the router? Iow do you also authenticate the client via MAC?

Router is a Mikrotik RB750Gr2, think it’s the limiting factor in this situation. What router do you think will maximise line speed?
 
bees said:
I still wanted to test directly on a pc. Do you know if I need to match the MAC of the Pc’s network card to the MAC of the Wan port on the router? Iow do you also authenticate the client via MAC?

Router is a Mikrotik RB750Gr2, think it’s the limiting factor in this situation. What router do you think will maximise line speed?
Click to expand...

This should be perfect for your needs https://scoop.co.za/mikrotik-rb2011ilrm-rack-mount-5xfe-5xge.html
 
bees said:
I still wanted to test directly on a pc. Do you know if I need to match the MAC of the Pc’s network card to the MAC of the Wan port on the router? Iow do you also authenticate the client via MAC?

Router is a Mikrotik RB750Gr2, think it’s the limiting factor in this situation. What router do you think will maximise line speed?
Click to expand...
Yes most definitely is your limiting factor, an RB3011 or a 952 should do it. It depends on multiple factors as to what else you are doing with the router. And yes you would need to spoof your Mac or have us release the lease.
 
PBCool said:
Yes most definitely is your limiting factor, an RB3011 or a 952 should do it. It depends on multiple factors as to what else you are doing with the router. And yes you would need to spoof your Mac or have us release the lease.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I saw when I Queue an IP address and limit it to something like 500Mbps, I only get about 250-300Mbps, but if I disable that Queue I get 400, so definitely some CPU/Ram issues.

Are you saying this will work? https://scoop.co.za/mikrotik-hap-ac-lite-dual-band-wi-fi-router.html

3011 is very nice, but school will have to budget for it for next year. If the Hap will work I’ll order it tomorrow!
 
bees said:
Thanks. I saw when I Queue an IP address and limit it to something like 500Mbps, I only get about 250-300Mbps, but if I disable that Queue I get 400, so definitely some CPU/Ram issues.

Are you saying this will work? https://scoop.co.za/mikrotik-hap-ac-lite-dual-band-wi-fi-router.html

3011 is very nice, but school will have to budget for it for next year. If the Hap will work I’ll order it tomorrow!
Click to expand...

Nah, Hap AC lite will only give you like 500mbps in my experience.
 
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