International Web Access

[Taqyon]

We've moved our hosting solutions to the uk, so all our client's sites are now located there.[:0]

Telkom "hi-jacks" connections to international web sites over ADSL. You can see this by going to a site such as www.myip.com, you'll find that the ip displayed there is not your's (165.165.*.*), but telkom's gateway, 198.54.202.2.

Why do they do this? At least once a week that gateway dies, and all we get is "Bad Gateway" messages connecting to international sites. This leads to some of my customers losing clients if they are busy doing a presentation and the gateway dies.

I am now forced to pay for a local server just for those clients, and I'm losing R1500 per month because of it.

Is there any indication that Telkom will be fixing this? Is there any way around it? I've tried a proxy, but that generates a lot of excess traffic on the local server hosting the proxy.

Please help!
Thanks,
Taqyon

 

[podo]

These aren't "hijackings", they are transparent proxies, which are there to make Telkom's slow infrastructure look fast. There's nothing you can do about it except connecting through a proxy not running on port 80.

Willie Viljoen
Web Developer

Adaptive Web Development

 

[Karnaugh]

It's not to make anyones infrastructure look fast, it saves wasting bandwidth on comon sites and all ISP's do this.

There isnt much point in just connecting to another proxy instead, other than the fact that it might be better managed (or you might not want Telkom seeing what you browse)

- Colin Alston
colin at alston dot za dot org

"Getting traffic shaping right is easy and can be summed up in one word: Dont." -- George Barnett

 

[podo]

Karnaugh,

True, everyone uses this (even I use it, I used to install networks for small businesses), usually to save on bandwidth and time.

However, in Telkom's case, it appears to be a little bit of both. According to a contact who's employer was an ADSL test site during the development phase, each DSLAM only has about 2MBps of bandwidth connecting it to the SAIX network.

Meaning, they can only serve 4 customers per exchange at the full 512kbps. To lessen the effect, Telkom have a Netcache box at each individual DSLAM. Netcache proxies are a lot cheaper than faster lines.

Willie Viljoen
Web Developer

Adaptive Web Development

 

[Karnaugh]

I dont see how extra line capacity can cost Telkom anything, its the same physical hardware for them as a 2mb line.

Then again I can only speculate on Telkom's network, I've heard many different stories.

- Colin Alston
colin at alston dot za dot org

"Getting traffic shaping right is easy and can be summed up in one word: Dont." -- George Barnett

 

[Taqyon]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Karnaugh</i>
<br />There isnt much point in just connecting to another proxy<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Except for the small problem that their proxy goes down once every 72 hours!!

My client then sits with a room full of people and no web site. Guess who gets called and verbally abused? Not Telkom, nooooo.[xx(][xx(]

If they want to hijack my web connection (tranparent proxy or whatever you want to call it) they should make sure that it's at least working.

 

[Karnaugh]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Guess who gets called and verbally abused?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

They pay you though, dont they?

- Colin Alston
colin at alston dot za dot org

"Getting traffic shaping right is easy and can be summed up in one word: Dont." -- George Barnett

 

[kaspaas]

I know the feeling:

One recommended ADSL as "best available solution" etc etc.

But when things goes wrong, Telkom never takes the wrap for their problems. It is us poor consultants having to take all the abuse because "Telkom is never wrong"

I'm changed my consulting rules for new ADSL clients: If you want ADSL, you order it yourself. And if there is a problem, I will only assist if you have a fault reference number from Telkom.

The clients are no longer fuming at me, the spew flames worse than dragons to Telkom!

Nobody likes to listen for a single minute to music while holding, never mind more than a minute. And none of the companies I worked with, likes the telephone based ordering system where they don't have record of what has been ordered. And none likes the black hole where the order vanishes into and one can't find out what is happening in less than a few hours on the phone etc etc.

The "Telkom ADSL Experience" creates confidence in what I tell them.

They now ask me to rather handle Telkom interactions, and pay with a smile.[]


<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Karnaugh</i>
<br /><blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Guess who gets called and verbally abused?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

They pay you though, dont they?

- Colin Alston
colin at alston dot za dot org

"Getting traffic shaping right is easy and can be summed up in one word: Dont." -- George Barnett
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

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