How long before you hit the cap ?

What's done is done but why didn't WBS trial the frikin cap system in the last week prior to official launch!

WBS, if you decide to implement the system with pay-back-your-deficit-first you had better inform your customers about it AND give them a once-off "get-out-of-gaol-free-card" for this month. Otherwise you are going to be HAMMERED in the press ...
 
1) WBS need to distinguish between:

a) Monthly Bandwidth determined by the package.
b) Extra Bandwidth purchased by the user.

2) When bandwidth is used, it is first taken from (a) and when depleted it is taken from (b). If both (a) and (b) become zero, your account is throttled to 64Kbps.

3) While throttled your bandwidth meter should stop dead. You continue to surf at 64kbps, but for bandwidth purposes it does not count. (a) and (b) remain at zero and cannot go lower.

4) Any amounts of bandwidth purchased increases (b). The account is unthrottled, and the metering continues.

5) At the end of the month any amount in (b) remains fully intact.

6) At the end of the month (a) is either topped up by the monthly bandwidth allowance (please!), or it resets to the monthly bandwidth allowance.

No more than 10 lines of code should do it. :D
 
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OK I have another problem again with this flipping bandwith meter, OK so back to the story we've discussed before, if I have a 3GB limit, use 5GB and want to buy 3GB later I will only have 1GB since I went over by 2GB on my original limit. Now not only is it bad enough they won't mention any of this when you purchase extra GBs, but they also don't cap us when we hit 3GB and let us go over (and you could go over by as much as 8 or more GB before you get capped) even though we could not realise at all we have even gone over our cap.

Ok so we knew all that but with thier bandwith meter it updates so infrequently that I can download 8GB and it says I've only used 1.38GB (thats exactly my situation now), so the non technical power-user who they keep telling us the product was designed for can decide they want to burn thier original 3GB and they'll buy another 3GB later to last them the rest of the month, then go download a bit, then go to check the bandwith meter to see how much more they can download and the bandwith meter could tell them they've used 500MB when really they have used 3.5GB, then they go on the next morning to check thier usage and choke on thier coffee when they see they used 7GB and will be charged for it even though the system seems to be designed to get people to go over the limit and later charge them for it. This is not acceptable
 
and I think gatecrasher summed it up perfectly, and once WBS change this cap business I want a way to get uncapped again, either uncapped local or international too, whatever they can do and then i'll be happy
 
You cannot throttle yourself (you would pass out :D ) It's up to WBS to do it. If you overshoot your allowance and continue at full speed, WBS can only complain at their own (lack of) control system.

That's why starting with your allowance and metering down to zero solves the problem.
 
and metering accuratly and frequently, its no use having my stats update once a day when the cap is 3Gb because in one day I can do 9GB.
 
slimothy said:
and metering accuratly and frequently, its no use having my stats update once a day when the cap is 3Gb because in one day I can do 9GB.
Click to expand...

As long as we get the benefit, they can update as infrequenty as they like!
 
yeah if they dont charge me for every bit I go over the 3GB, then please WBS by all means, update it once a month.
 
slimothy said:
and metering accuratly and frequently, its no use having my stats update once a day when the cap is 3Gb because in one day I can do 9GB.
Click to expand...

This is so true. They are giving people 1Mb access and your CAP can go very QUICKLY so they should ensure a stable and perfect system...

One wanders why this wasnt tested before the launch. Did Telkom ever have issues with their cap? Besides people stealing accounts?
 
iBurst, take note...

slimothy said:
and metering accuratly and frequently, its no use having my stats update once a day when the cap is 3Gb because in one day I can do 9GB.
Click to expand...
... which is a good argument for a minimum 9GB cap...
 
and if he dosent respond...I really thought that they would get back to us ASAP. If i was a potential customer and read this thread, do you think i would want to pay for a service like this?
 
Gatecrasher said:
You cannot throttle yourself (you would pass out :D ) It's up to WBS to do it. If you overshoot your allowance and continue at full speed, WBS can only complain at their own (lack of) control system.

That's why starting with your allowance and metering down to zero solves the problem.
Click to expand...
GC, actually I might want to have an option (another checkbox) to throttle my bandwidth (not myself), I wanted to post that later when I had thought the whole bandwidth management thing through, but you've already written a comprehensive but simple & robust summary of how WBS need to do it ;) - I hope they take note.
Gatecrasher said:
1) WBS need to distinguish between:

a) Monthly Bandwidth determined by the package.
b) Extra Bandwidth purchased by the user.

2) When bandwidth is used, it is first taken from (a) and when depleted it is taken from (b). If both (a) and (b) become zero, your account is throttled to 64Kbps.

3) While throttled your bandwidth meter should stop dead. You continue to surf at 64kbps, but for bandwidth purposes it does not count. (a) and (b) remain at zero and cannot go lower.

4) Any amounts of bandwidth purchased increases (b). The account is unthrottled, and the metering continues.

5) At the end of the month any amount in (b) remains fully intact.

6) At the end of the month (a) is either topped up by the monthly bandwidth allowance (please!), or it resets to the monthly bandwidth allowance.

No more than 10 lines of code should do it. :D
Click to expand...
If it means that I get forceably disconnected to shuttle me onto the throttled pipe [on reconnect] then so be it. If WBS can in the future throttle without a disconnect then that's great, but I don't expect it straight away - rather get other more urgent problems ironed out first.

Somewhere in there, probably 2.1 or something, I would like the option to be able to enable & disable the throttle when I still have bandwidth available in [a] or or both.

Why? - well for the person that does not download everything all at once, and finds that 64Kbits/s is adequate for browsing & email & the daily drudgework, and wants to conserve their bandwidth for occasional downloading & hasn't got a clue about NetLimiter or similar s/w, they could just use a simple checkbox to conserve their full speed bandwidth for times when they need to download stuff quickly.

Speeking of NetLimiter1.3, does anyone have advice on a Linux alternative that will run on my SmoothWallExpress2 box & allow per connection throttling...? If you're not sure about the SW factor then any alternative throttler for Linux.
vowthorn said:
...
One wanders why this wasnt tested before the launch. Did Telkom ever have issues with their cap? Besides people stealing accounts?
Click to expand...
Yes, there were a bunch of problems when ADSL started, how do I know? - 1. MyADSL.co.za would not exist if Telkomonopoly's ADSL was perfect; 2. I have since read threads on MyADSL that detail the problems, AFAIK some of those were also detailed in the MyADSL complaint about Telkomonopoly's ADSL that was created & submitted to ICASA in 2003/4 by forumites & RPM.
 
ic said:
Somewhere in there, probably 2.1 or something, I would like the option to be able to enable & disable the throttle when I still have bandwidth available in [a] or or both.
Click to expand...


Agreed on choice of being throttled when it suits me.
 
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Now then, for the benefit of the people @ WBS that should be keeping a very beedy eye on this thread as well as engaging us in discussion, please click here to add an email subscription to this thread, then select Instant Notification by email.

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