High cap vs Uncapped

Nerfherder

Nerfherder

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I'm on high cap at the moment and I'm thinking of switching to uncapped.... just need to confirm something.

I prefer high cap because its supposedly never shaped or throttled. I only need about 100 gig a month and generally speaking the high cap should have a better contention ratio.
I'd rather have less data and have it exactly when I need it then have to worry about being throttled at peak times. For things like streaming 100 gig is fine (my needs) so I'd rather have a fast line with a cap.... and know I can use it when I need.
Also FUP is clearly defined.

So high cap should be perfect for me... however I have noticed something bad recently that has made me reconsider my account.
I have noticed some really bad speeds from time to time, with the blame being shifted to an overloaded exchange.

Fair enough... not much my ISP can do about that.

What I have noticed though is that the speeds are terrible at the end of the month but then a few days later is fine... great even.
So what I figure is that I'm sharing a pipe with all the other capped users and at the end of the month they are burning through the end of their caps before the end of the month.
The line is basically unusable, I connect at 7 meg and the last few days of the month it goes down to bellow 1 meg. the last speed test I did was 0.8 meg. It feels worse than 384k though and its happening every month.

This really ****s me off though. This is exactly the reason I avoid the uncapped, I want the constant and reliable speed. I work from home as well sometimes. I can't take the risk that I need to support something and my isp/exchange is being molested.

Business uncapped is basically the same price... so should I just move across ?
Is it any better on those accounts ? I know this is an ISP question but I want to know if anyone else is experiencing this same problem ?

How do I tell if its my ISP or the Telkom exchange that has the month end congestion ?
 
Nerfherder said:
I'm on high cap at the moment and I'm thinking of switching to uncapped.... just need to confirm something.

I prefer high cap because its supposedly never shaped or throttled. I only need about 100 gig a month and generally speaking the high cap should have a better contention ratio.
I'd rather have less data and have it exactly when I need it then have to worry about being throttled at peak times. For things like streaming 100 gig is fine (my needs) so I'd rather have a fast line with a cap.... and know I can use it when I need.
Also FUP is clearly defined.

So high cap should be perfect for me... however I have noticed something bad recently that has made me reconsider my account.
I have noticed some really bad speeds from time to time, with the blame being shifted to an overloaded exchange.

Fair enough... not much my ISP can do about that.

What I have noticed though is that the speeds are terrible at the end of the month but then a few days later is fine... great even.
So what I figure is that I'm sharing a pipe with all the other capped users and at the end of the month they are burning through the end of their caps before the end of the month.
The line is basically unusable, I connect at 7 meg and the last few days of the month it goes down to bellow 1 meg. the last speed test I did was 0.8 meg. It feels worse than 384k though and its happening every month.

This really ****s me off though. This is exactly the reason I avoid the uncapped, I want the constant and reliable speed. I work from home as well sometimes. I can't take the risk that I need to support something and my isp/exchange is being molested.

Business uncapped is basically the same price... so should I just move across ?
Is it any better on those accounts ? I know this is an ISP question but I want to know if anyone else is experiencing this same problem ?

How do I tell if its my ISP or the Telkom exchange that has the month end congestion ?
Click to expand...

If you're on such a low speed that business uncapped is the same price then yeah move.

Although next time you get slow speeds grab a free gig from Web Africa to test. If it's still slow then it's your exchange, if it's not, then it's your ISP.
 
Chevron said:
If you're on such a low speed that business uncapped is the same price then yeah move.

Although next time you get slow speeds grab a free gig from Web Africa to test. If it's still slow then it's your exchange, if it's not, then it's your ISP.
Click to expand...

Ha!

I actually do have some WA prepaid gigs that I got ages ago for testing.

I tried one the other day and the speed was even lower... but that might have been caused by something else. After that my ISP reset my port.

So, i'm thinking the the only way of improving anything is to just go on business uncapped. Even if it is my exchange... then I get the benefit of uncapped anyway
 
Web Africa capped are some of the best capped accounts around in my experience.
 
Afrihost free 1gb performs the same as the Business Uncapped package.
 
Streaming and connecting to my work VPN are critical.

If I can't do those things then I need to know before hand.
 
I never had an issue with streaming. Best you try before you buy :)
 
First work out whether the exchange congestion is true. I'd not make a move before doing that - since its the first hop after router you can usually work it out regardless of how bad the account is (hell you can use the Telkom Guest account).

Second...you're connecting at 7mb...seems like a thoroughly odd number. Presumably the line wasn't stable enough for 10mb and they pushed it down. How sure are you that 7mb is stable.

Third...something about you're (implied) numbers doesn't line up. There is no way that 7mb business uncapped is the same price as 100gig capped. Not even close.

Nerfherder said:
How do I tell if its my ISP or the Telkom exchange that has the month end congestion ?
Click to expand...
Just wrote an essay on it (mainly because this question keeps coming up):

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthr...gested-exchange-Guide?p=12775639#post12775639
 
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