Help needed

P

Pdt

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Ok I would like some advice from you guys, since you all seem to know what your talking about here :)

Here is what I need:

Uncapped Internet
No 12 or 24 month contracts
Between R400 - R700 per month

ISDN is not a option, its just not good enough for serious downloading. What is the max u can get with it per month? 10 - 15 gigs?

What should I get. I live in PTA.
Thanks for any advice.
 
Pdt said:
Ok I would like some advice from you guys, since you all seem to know what your talking about here :)

Here is what I need:

Uncapped Internet
No 12 or 24 month contracts
Between R400 - R700 per month

ISDN is not a option, its just not good enough for serious downloading. What is the max u can get with it per month? 10 - 15 gigs?

What should I get. I live in PTA.
Thanks for any advice.
Click to expand...
Firstly, your best bet is to ask the people that are closest to you - what suburb/part of Pretoria are you in?

Next, how urgent is it? - when do you need this by? - how long are you prepared to wait in months? (there might well be some new services available in several months time)

The only service provider offering "uncapped" (<= R700/month) actually has what they call a soft-cap, and their name is mud, also known as Sentech, MyWireless128K which by most accounts is more like My56KModem is within your price range. Please note that I wouldn't wish Sentech or its MyWireless on my worst enemy - not at the price it is now & on par with 56K speed. The other thing (AFAIK) is that Sentech still requires a minimum 12 month contract, and that is something to avoid at all costs.

All other options are either way out of your price range (e.g. UUNET ADSL) or will be capped from 1GB or 3GB upwards, once capped you will have to pay arterial blood for more GBzzzzz.

Perhaps your starting point is to eliminate the options that your area precludes you from having:
  • Assuming you already have a Telkomonopoly landline, find the util on www.telkom.co.za/adsl & that lets you type in your tel# to see if you can get ADSL in your area, if it says no then chances are that it is telling the truth, if it says you can get ADSL it could be lying to you, but could also be telling the truth...:rolleyes:...well that's Telkomonopoly for you.
  • Find the ZoneLocator util at www.sentech.co.za, drill down to your area & find out if your area is covered - note that ZoneLocator is not 100% accurate, but it can give you an idea, it is also a clumsy util & has quircks.
  • Goto www.vodacom.co.za, look for 3G & look for coverage, find out if your area is covered.
  • Goto www.iburst.co.za, look for coverage & find out if your area is covered. Note that the maps are not going to be 100% accurate.
After all that, come back report your findings & we will advise you further ;).
 
arf9999 said:
a ticket to the UK.
Click to expand...
Yep, I didn't even think of that - I think it's the fact that Pdt mentioned Pretoria, otherwise I might've remembered that one :).
 
Ok between sentech and iburst which one would u guys chose?

Some questions about iburst:

how long is the contract?
what speeds do you download at?
How much per month?
No cap right?

Thanks!
 
-1 Month 'contracts' available
-Up to 124kb/s depending on your signal str and how sorted they are at WBS ;)
-R700 something (I think)
-There is a cap of 3G which will be introduced during official launch, afterwhich 64k local and international speeds are implemented. More bandwidth may be purchased thereafter (No price has been released AFAIK)

Seeing as you want to download the internet, why not just get telkom 384k?
 
pdt - you won't get uncapped or in fact any ADSL account for R400 to R700

You'll be paying R700 for ADSL line rental + DSL384 ISP account.
If you don't have a phone line your already using, slap another R80 onto that for standard phone line rental.

iBurst is going to be capped at 3gig

that leaves one quite horrifying option that fits your price, but that's about it - MyWireless.

On a 128 connection, your max speed after getting past a certain download size is around 5kbps - IOW, 56k modem speeds ! = 24hours to download 500mb = max 15gig a month if your lucky.

Port shaping is really bad on MyWireless - although I guess you could configure your p2p apps to run on port 80

I advise ADSL, but then, after your 3gig, you'll be stuck with virtually no international access, but unlimited local access.

Also, your setup costs if you buy a DSL modem yourself (which you can get for under R500) is R404 - so your total initial outlay is R904

With iBurst, it's R2800 (for the desktop modem), plus the setup fee - no idea what that is now, thier website still has it down as R450 odd.

To sum up :-

Sentech = no effective cap, really slow (network stabalised), probably your area will be covered, quick install - minimum 12 month contract !

iBurst = 3 gig cap, local capped after usage, probably your area will be covered, quick install, still having problems before launch (unproven tech, unstable)

ADSL = 3 gig cap, local not capped, proven tech, no idea if your area will be covered, slow install (up to 1 month)
 
How much is the cheapest ADSL avail for?

R80 for the line,
R300 for ISP
R400 for Telkom ADSL service

Am I right with this?

If I only download stuff from local stuff and surf international sites will I reach my cap? How much surfing is needed to hit a 3 gig cap?

Secondly is there any Local sites where I can download decent stuff? Maybe a tv episode I missed here and there ;) Some people tell me yes and some say no.

I heard that a local cap is soon going to be introduced, is that true?
 
Pdt said:
R80 for the line,
R300 for ISP
R400 for Telkom ADSL service
Click to expand...
Total = ~ R750 I'd say almost right
Pdt said:
If I only download stuff from local stuff and surf international sites will I reach my cap? How much surfing is needed to hit a 3 gig cap?
Click to expand...
Yes, strange is'nt it? Thats why we love Telkom :D ...
Pdt said:
Secondly is there any Local sites where I can download decent stuff? Maybe a tv episode I missed here and there ;) Some people tell me yes and some say no.
Click to expand...
I'm still loooking for them (sites) as welll , maybe someone will assist
Pdt said:
I heard that a local cap is soon going to be introduced, is that true?
Click to expand...
They dare not ... they may as well refrain from calling it Broadband, the 3 GB cap is aready suffocating us.


Does anyone know of a good ZA search engine? ananzi is crap ... I use aardvark at the moment it's Ok. And does anyone know of a good ZA site I can download utility software and Linux iso's? Tucows is a pain.
 
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Well, having both myWireloss (256k - relegated to work duties as it is lightweight - mail etc) and ISDN (128k), I would suggest you rethink your opposition against ISDN. If you desperately, truely, have to have 24/7 access, then obviously not, but you will get better constant performance out of an ISDN connection running in InfiniCall(?) time. I easily do 2 gigs on a weekend, and have done just short of 3 gigs at times. Weekdays, connect just after 7pm, run up to just before 7 am and you can do 1.2 - 1.5 gigs. Added up you will do 30gigs easily during a month, as long as you keep the connection going and the download manager humming. My total bill (phone + ISP) sits on between R650 - R700, including telephone calls.

Between MyWireloss port shaping, the 'soft cap' and their 40-second throttling period, you will not get the bandwidth you need and you WILL be unhappy.

As for search engines, Google has a SEffrican flavour, try it. (When you start Google it actually defaults to google.co.za these days, just select 'pages from South Africa').
 
passif said:
As for search engines, Google has a SEffrican flavour, try it. (When you start Google it actually defaults to google.co.za these days, just select 'pages from South Africa').
Click to expand...

Funny enough! ZA.google takes years to load? is it hosted here? the problem is that I am capped and I need a good SE ... Aardvark is fast and Ananzi just brings out the opposite of what you search for :( .... Eurika!!! Ive got an idea ... maybe I should type the opposite of what I want in the search bar ....and results will be what I want ... :D ..... huh ! so that's how it supposed to work !!!

PEACE!!!
 
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