Helderkruin + Wilropark + Roodekrans FTTH via Vumatel

[Gallderhen]

So,

My experience thus far:

I applied a good 2-3 weeks ago for fibre, but I've been unable to follow up on it till yesterday. Phoned Vumatel (because my status was on Site survey pending for 2 weeks), and they forwarded my call to Bright-Link. Bright-Link confirmed that my details were not on their system so Vumatel never let them know to do the survey and schedule and installation.

I confirmed this morning that my details were now loaded on Bright-Links' systems and they said to expect a call for the schedule installation date/time today.

In conclusion, in my opinion, if you are on Site survey pending, don't wait more than 2 days to follow up with Vumatel / Bright-Link, as your application might have fallen through the cracks.

-G-

 

[BadBoyGP]

Hi.

Bright link came to me now...
Installation done.. not even 2 hours..

I need to wait for an object number or something.

Constantia kloof area

 

[Azimuth]

Yesterday I was supposed to have my fibre installed but it simply wasn’t meant to be...

An install team, consisting of two people, arrived at 07:30am (half an hour early). As I walked out, it started to rain (of course, I was about to get fibre after all).

Apparently the dome joints cannot be opened while it’s raining and jobs are generally cancelled. That was just the beginning.

As it turns out, a site survey was never done and several issues popped up - the first of which was that an aerial drop would not be possible for my install (this was always abundantly clear to me so ya...).

Next the tech informed me that the dome joint meant for my properly was on the other side of my neighbour’s driveway. There was no way in hell he was going to allow a spiderweb to be strung across his front garden, nor would he allow his driveway paving to be lifted (for trenching).

It was at this point that I questioned the number of connections possible from each dome joint because there was another pole much closer to my place. I understood it was a 2-in and 5-out config. The tech told me that this wasn’t the case and each dome joint could only do 2-out.

My street is almost done now. There's a crew finishing up the splicing.

They've switched to using Dome Joints now which are a 2-in and 5-out configuration. There's no place to hold any slack.

Each Dome Joint can potentially supply 5 houses even though there's only 2 houses that need supplying - as in a gum pole is installed at the boundary between two homes.

This in essence means that each pole is reserved for specific houses and you cannot willy-nilly choose a pole. Luckily for me, after the tech climbed the closer pole to double-check, he found that the site planning app was incorrect and the closer pole was indeed for my property. Hallelujah!

It still wasn’t that simple...

Pole closest to me

No line of sight to my house!

My house on the other side of my neighbour’s garage

At this point it became clear that an installation wasn’t going to happen. While the rain had let up, these guys just weren’t prepared for trenching nor did they have sufficient conduit.

We then spent the next hour discussing and planning a route. At the last minute I had a brain wave and chose a far better route which we agreed on.

I need to trench from the far side to my postbox

From the postbox into the spare conduit under my driveway

Driveway run

From here it will hop into an existing electrical conduit that goes into my garage roof. From there, there’s existing conduit to hop over to the main house and into my study.

Existing conduit to join the main house and garage

Drop cables come in lengths of 20m, 50m and 100m. Since my route is 60m, they have to use a 100m cable which will result in 40m slack inside my roof.

Continued in the next post...

 

[Azimuth]

Unlike some Vuma users who get the Raycore ONT, our area is getting the Huawei EchoLife HG8040H ONT.

Only LAN1 will be available for use.

To add insult to injury, RocketNet delivered my free router.

Now just to wait for a new installation date.

 

[PearlJam]

So, I finally went live today. Does anyone know how to set up a TP Link Archer D7 to work? Currently I am direct between the ONT and the PC

 

[mugikhan]

So, I finally went live today. Does anyone know how to set up a TP Link Archer D7 to work? Currently I am direct between the ONT and the PC

Setup as PPPoE with details from cool ideas. I left everything else as default on my TP Link Touch P5

 

[PearlJam]

Setup as PPPoE with details from cool ideas. I left everything else as default on my TP Link Touch P5

Thanks, for some reason it doesn't work...

 

[Azimuth]

Congrats @PearlJam. Someone is going to have a lekker weekend...

 

[PearlJam]

Congrats @PearlJam. Someone is going to have a lekker weekend...

Thanks!

Yes, it is amazing when clicking a youtube video that it starts immediately and in HD! Same with Netflix. Just did my ipad update 2.44GB @ 18 minutes (would've been over 3 hours)

 

[dee1712]

So, I finally went live today. Does anyone know how to set up a TP Link Archer D7 to work? Currently I am direct between the ONT and the PC

Congrats Pearl jam!

 

[PearlJam]

Congrats Pearl jam!

Thanks!

 

[bHOLDher]

Azimuth, it sounds like you got the slow painful install process.

With my install, my drop cable also would have spanned my neighbors' garden, so the installers installed a sky hook on the main fibre line, then my drop cable runs from the lamp post to the sky hook, and from the sky hook to my roof. I guess it is not the prettiest install, but the sky hook is actually hidden in a tree. It sounds like your install will be very neat after the effort!

 

[bHOLDher]

I had a weird issue yesterday, I was doing a 200 gig data sync, and after 150 GB, my line slowed down to 15mbps with a 6% packet loss. Uploads were still running full speed. This morning it is perfect again. I will keep an eye on it.

 

[Joka69]

So, I finally went live today. Does anyone know how to set up a TP Link Archer D7 to work? Currently I am direct between the ONT and the PC

That ping seems a bit high?

 

[bHOLDher]

So, I finally went live today.

Congrats, shyoh that took forever to get from installed to online!

 

[bHOLDher]

That ping seems a bit high?

I also had a high ping around 14ms yesterday during my problems, it is back to 3ms today.

 

[Raslinza]

Hi All, choosing an ISP is doing my head in. My ADSL is with Afrihost, for fibre I am thinking of changing but can't decide between Cool Ideas, Vodacom or Rocketnet. Looking at a 50/50 uncapped.

Any advice is appreciated.

 

[dee1712]

Hi All, choosing an ISP is doing my head in. My ADSL is with Afrihost, for fibre I am thinking of changing but can't decide between Cool Ideas, Vodacom or Rocketnet. Looking at a 50/50 uncapped.

Any advice is appreciated.

I'm on 50/50 with Cool Ideas but I'm very New there. All I can say for now is that service within Cool Ideas is excellent. So far I'm impressed.

 

[Azimuth]

At a glance, Vodacom’s pricing is not on par with either Cool Ideas or RocketNet.

At R1148pm, that’s the price of 100/100 with the other two ISPs.

I’ve had some bad run-ins with Vodacom so they’d never be a consideration for me personally.

 

[Raslinza]

Agreed, but how established are Cool Ideas and Rocketnet? I had never heard of them until now. Can their infrastructure handle all the new sign-ups?