IS vs SAIX - Any real difference?

[elroc]

Ok, so I'm finally had enough of Telkom milking me dry and not giving me what I want, so I'm letting my money do the talking.

Currently have a 512k DSL line and a (now) 5 Gig TelkomInternet account, which all in all is costing R695. I wanted to switch to Do level 3, but my exchange does not support 4 mbps yet, even though all the surrounding suburbs in my area do, so Telkom won't let me, and they have no idea when 4mbps will be possible.

So I will be dropping my line back to 384 kbps, switching ISP, and going 'back' to a 3gig account, thereby reducing the money Telkom gets from me by R413pm

Axxess's semi-shaped option seems perfect for me, but I just have one concern regarding performance difference between IS and SAIX internet backbone (especially regarding latency, as I often game online).

Anybody have any experience with the difference between the two, and if there even is a noticable difference? (Also, seeing as IS is going to be using SEACOM, it will also mean even LESS of my money lands in the hands of Telkom at the end of the day)

 

[Gaz{M}]

My IS has been very poor lately. (past 3 weeks). SAIX seems more consistent.

 

[froot]

The difference between IS and SAIX often differs vastly depending on how far you are from the exchange and the closest IS/SAIX interchange- a friend of mine stays close to a Telkom tower and gets an 8ms ping to any website in SA.... I get 22 with both SAIX and IS.
Intl depends on whether you have a fibre or satellite connection (over intl waters) for IS- fibre is much faster than satellite. SAIX is fibre all the way so is the same speed as IS fibre.

 

[perelson]

In my experience - based in PE and on a 4meg line - IS has faster speeds and lower latency to international sites than SAIX.

That said, the last 3 weeks on IS have not been pleasant, with a lot of poor service. When it works, it works very well.

 

[Beetman]

In my experience - based in PE and on a 4meg line - IS has faster speeds and lower latency to international sites than SAIX.

That said, the last 3 weeks on IS have not been pleasant, with a lot of poor service. When it works, it works very well.

Also have been having problems with IS, changing my DNS server to OpenDNS seemed to have sorted out some of the problems.....

 

[wHiTe*LiGhTnInG]

My Ti account with telkom gives me a latency of around 60-70, and my IS account with webafrica give around 30 - 45, on a 384kb line playing battlefield 2.

Using news servers for now saix will be better than IS, but you can still use IS just a 4 gig file might take a couple of days.

Normal downloading from websites seems to be the exact same.

 

[ponder]

IS sux is all I can say. I switch all my axxess vouchers to saix.

 

[marine1]

I have both SAIX via Telkom and IS via Openweb.
IS is absolutely rubbish. The speeds on news servers are terrible and erratic.
You get bursts of speed then nothing then bursts of speed then nothing.
On SAIX, the speeds is fantastic and stable and never stops responding.
The general speed on IS is ok but on news servers it is shocking.

There is no comparison IMO and thats why it is more expensive. Talking about local only.

 

[elroc]

Thanks for all the feedback guys.

Marine1 - Is your only gripe the news servers on IS side? I never use news servers, so that wouldn't be an issue for me.

So i just got off the line with Telkom and dropped the DSL to 384 (slight bummer, but the difference between 384 and what I was actually getting is not that much anyway). As it doesn't make sense to cancel internet account mid month, I'll hold off till then before I switch. Will probably cancel my Ti account end of the month and then try IS for a month and see. If it doesn't work for me then I'll just switch over to a Do Level 2 package which works out even cheaper.

End of the day, Telkom is getting less money from me than it has in the past.

Though any further responses and experiences with IS/SAIX is still welcome.

 

[ponder]

As it doesn't make sense to cancel internet account mid month, I'll hold off till then before I switch. Will probably cancel my Ti account end of the month and then try IS for a month and see. If it doesn't work for me then I'll just switch over to a Do Level 2 package which works out even cheaper.

Go to a Engen garage today and buy a 1Gig Axxess voucher to try out IS. This is the easiest and simplest way to test IS for yourself without signing up on the net or for contracts etc and you would know before the month is out whether you like IS or not. The axxess vouchers are semi shaped, shaped during office hours and supposedly unshaped at night.

This way you can do comaparitive tests between IS & SAIX and come to your own conclusions.

 

[elroc]

Thats an awesome suggestion! Will definately go that route.

Thanks!

 

[marine1]

Yeah I really see the difference in News servers but in gaming locally and surfing locally, no real difference to be honest however with international its a different story altogether.

 

[ponder]

Yeah I really see the difference in News servers but in gaming locally and surfing locally, no real difference to be honest however with international its a different story altogether.

Gaming locally is the one that ticks me off the most. Latency with anyone else but saix is much higher

 

[Subversion]

u said u were a gamer, and for me i've had trouble in the past with IS, especially on war3 servers where games r hosted by SAIX players, when I had IS i couldn't play during day at all! SAIX is the safer option IMO.

 

[Nutty Grandad]

I have a 1 gig SAIX through Hellkom and a 5g with IS through Axxess.

I live 1 km from my exchange and have a 4 meg line but never get more than 45kb/s from either.

Being a pensioner, I game a lot and have remained playing L2 for years as with our speeds this seems to be one of the few games that you can play internationally from here without hassle.

 

[marine1]

Again, I do tno understand this:
1) Saix 30 gig local = R300
2) IS local 30 gig = R130

Why such a difference? Because IS sucks thats why

 

[Loopin]

SAIX unshaped on a 4mbps line gives me 200-250ms to Europe (France):

Reply from 91.121.59.5: bytes=32 time=225ms TTL=53
Reply from 91.121.59.5: bytes=32 time=208ms TTL=53
Reply from 91.121.59.5: bytes=32 time=205ms TTL=53
Reply from 91.121.59.5: bytes=32 time=223ms TTL=53

IS is a little worse:

Reply from 91.121.59.5: bytes=32 time=271ms TTL=53
Reply from 91.121.59.5: bytes=32 time=294ms TTL=53
Reply from 91.121.59.5: bytes=32 time=266ms TTL=53
Reply from 91.121.59.5: bytes=32 time=265ms TTL=53