Lightspeed by Cybersmart feedback

[Docksider]

Hi everyone,

I am a member of the body corporate of a building here on the Durban beachfront. Ideally we would like to get rid of Telkom for obvious reasons. So i did some research and found that DFA has fibre at the end of the street. I decided to contact a few ISP's for installation

Axxess: No fibre in the area and no support for DFA. As per axxess email "Good day, Unfortunately we are not yet affiliated with DFA as they currently run on a different network. We are currently putting the necessary changes is place to start working with DFA and the different networks but no eta on this has been passed on to us yet. Kind regards."

Afrihost: No fibre in the area and no support. Help desk said they cannot give and expected date when they will partner with DFA.

Vox Telecom: After multiple tries i finally got an answer. Starting from R739.00 for 75 GB @10mb speed to R1079.00 for 100 GB @ 100mb speed. Worst part is that they wanted 75% signup.

Lightspeed/Cybersmart: Offers 400mb unshaped speed with 200GB day cap and 1TB night cap for R599.00. Then they go on to say they only need 15 signups. They then go on to say that they can offer on a once off payment of R4000.00 10GB day and 50Gb night data for life. Further to this they also say that they do not require any exclusivity for the installation.

Ideally we would like to get Cybersmart for the building. Is there anyone in the MY BB world that uses lightspeed? If so please can you give your review of it. Also please add your comments if you know any hidden clauses or fine print.

Additional: Can we do the Fiber reticulation of the building at our own costs and get Cybersmart to be the ISP?

 

[PBCool]

Hi everyone,

I am a member of the body corporate of a building here on the Durban beachfront. Ideally we would like to get rid of Telkom for obvious reasons. So i did some research and found that DFA has fibre at the end of the street. I decided to contact a few ISP's for installation

Axxess: No fibre in the area and no support for DFA. As per axxess email "Good day, Unfortunately we are not yet affiliated with DFA as they currently run on a different network. We are currently putting the necessary changes is place to start working with DFA and the different networks but no eta on this has been passed on to us yet. Kind regards."

Afrihost: No fibre in the area and no support. Help desk said they cannot give and expected date when they will partner with DFA.

Vox Telecom: After multiple tries i finally got an answer. Starting from R739.00 for 75 GB @10mb speed to R1079.00 for 100 GB @ 100mb speed. Worst part is that they wanted 75% signup.

Lightspeed/Cybersmart: Offers 400mb unshaped speed with 200GB day cap and 1TB night cap for R599.00. Then they go on to say they only need 15 signups. They then go on to say that they can offer on a once off payment of R4000.00 10GB day and 50Gb night data for life. Further to this they also say that they do not require any exclusivity for the installation.

Ideally we would like to get Cybersmart for the building. Is there anyone in the MY BB world that uses lightspeed? If so please can you give your review of it. Also please add your comments if you know any hidden clauses or fine print.

Additional: Can we do the Fiber reticulation of the building at our own costs and get Cybersmart to be the ISP?

Have you spoken to Octotel?

Just be careful with Cybersmart as they are closed access as things stand so you will have no choice of changing ISPs.

Cybersmart use CWDM for their deployments so I doubt they would let you do the reticulation internally, also who would support the internal portion if you did it yourselves?

 

[saturnz]

Cybersmart does reticulation of your building at their cost, full fibre LAN network.

I've been using lightspeed or atleast some form of it for two years now, absolutely no complaints.

And no Cybersmart is not closed access and by the way we did our own reticulation and manage it ourselves.

Sent you a PM of a contact I have.

 

[Anthro]

My internet is currently provided on a cybersmart backbone in the building
0 issues sofar

 

[Docksider]

Have you spoken to Octotel?

Just be careful with Cybersmart as they are closed access as things stand so you will have no choice of changing ISPs.

Cybersmart use CWDM for their deployments so I doubt they would let you do the reticulation internally, also who would support the internal portion if you did it yourselves?

Thanks for the info. Will try to dig up more information.

 

[Docksider]

Cybersmart does reticulation of your building at their cost, full fibre LAN network.

I've been using lightspeed or atleast some form of it for two years now, absolutely no complaints.

And no Cybersmart is not closed access and by the way we did our own reticulation and manage it ourselves.

Sent you a PM of a contact I have.

How much did reticulation cost you? and what sort of management are you using?

Thanks for the PM. Appreciate the help as im new to all of this.

 

[saturnz]

How much did reticulation cost you? and what sort of management are you using?

Thanks for the PM. Appreciate the help as im new to all of this.

The model in my building is slightly unique since none of the units in my building above the 3rd floor have any telkom lines installed and Telkom simply unwilling to install any telkom lines.

As such before we had Lightspeed, there was 1 (yes ONE) telkom ADSL line coming into the building, fed into a server in the basement and this one connection was shared amongst 30 or so people, a reseller would sell us vouchers and thats how I accessed the internet.

Basically the LAN was alread here when I moved here 6 years ago, but it was littered with problems (not mapped and no labeled cables) and was not suitable for the fibre rollout I had planned.

The upgrade of the LAN (basically switches) together with troubleshooting (effectively mapping existing cables) set us back around R120 000.

 

[PBCool]

Cybersmart does reticulation of your building at their cost, full fibre LAN network.

I've been using lightspeed or atleast some form of it for two years now, absolutely no complaints.

And no Cybersmart is not closed access and by the way we did our own reticulation and manage it ourselves.

Sent you a PM of a contact I have.

Which other ISP's offer services on their network?

Who supports the internal reticulation and why would you if Cybersmart does it at their cost?

 

[saturnz]

Which other ISP's offer services on their network?

Who supports the internal reticulation and why would you if Cybersmart does it at their cost?

is there anything that you disagree with factually?

as I said in my previous post, my building and its situation is slightly unique- I doubt I would have this model if Telkom originally were willing to install lines.

We currently buy bulk from Cybersmart so we can sell the internet for cheap back to ourselves as individuals, everything is managed internally.

 

[PBCool]

is there anything that you disagree with factually?

as I said in my previous post, my building and its situation is slightly unique- I doubt I would have this model if Telkom originally were willing to install lines.

We currently buy bulk from Cybersmart so we can sell the internet for cheap back to ourselves as individuals, everything is managed internally.

I don't have an issue with it, that's great if you have a customised solution, just most complexes don't want to manage this kind of thing themselves.

You mentioned they aren't closed access so just curious who else is running services on their network.

 

[saturnz]

I don't have an issue with it, that's great if you have a customised solution, just most complexes don't want to manage this kind of thing themselves.

You mentioned they aren't closed access so just curious who else is running services on their network.

The solution I have was out of necessitity more than anything else- but in saying that I would like to see complexes turn down a surplus of R15k pm that our BC is getting for basically no effort.

In my building it is possible for people to use other ISPs, but none have done so because its so dirt cheap and reliable.

As for cybersmart, the brochure I have from them refers to their network as open access, I do not know of empirical examples of where this is the case- its best to ask them for clarity.

 

[PBCool]

The solution I have was out of necessitity more than anything else- but in saying that I would like to see complexes turn down a surplus of R15k pm that our BC is getting for basically no effort.

In my building it is possible for people to use other ISPs, but none have done so because its so dirt cheap and reliable.

As for cybersmart, the brochure I have from them refers to their network as open access, I do not know of empirical examples of where this is the case- its best to ask them for clarity.

That would be ideal but it's generally not practical for complexes to take things into their own hands and have the resources to do so, but well done anyway.

They state they are open access so BC's will sign off on it, the only other ISP's available on their network are Cybersmart resellers. So not quite open access.

 

[saturnz]

That would be ideal but it's generally not practical for complexes to take things into their own hands and have the resources to do so, but well done anyway.

They state they are open access so BC's will sign off on it, the only other ISP's available on their network are Cybersmart resellers. So not quite open access.

I do not wish to make representations on behalf of Cybersmart but since you seem to be doing so I will state some things without confirmation from Cybersmart.

Everything comes at a cost, I don't think Cybersmart locks you in forever, the period is maybe 2 years after which you can use any ISP you wish. I don't think that is unreasonable for the opportunity to have a LAN installed at no expense to the BC. If we had gone with their standard BC product for example, we would now be at that point to choose any ISP, however I don't see us doing that anytime soon.

The LAN can also be made available for other protocols, you can run your access control, CCTV, and DSTV services all on that LAN if you choose.

Also Cybersmart from my experience will match or beat most offers, infact I've yet to see them fail in beating other offers. I doubt an end user will choose an ISP which costs more if faced with a cheaper offering for the same product.

 

[PBCool]

I do not wish to make representations on behalf of Cybersmart but since you seem to be doing so I will state some things without confirmation from Cybersmart.

Everything comes at a cost, I don't think Cybersmart locks you in forever, the period is maybe 2 years after which you can use any ISP you wish. I don't think that is unreasonable for the opportunity to have a LAN installed at no expense to the BC. If we had gone with their standard BC product for example, we would now be at that point to choose any ISP, however I don't see us doing that anytime soon.

The LAN can also be made available for other protocols, you can run your access control, CCTV, and DSTV services all on that LAN if you choose.

Also Cybersmart from my experience will match or beat most offers, infact I've yet to see them fail in beating other offers. I doubt an end user will choose an ISP which costs more if faced with a cheaper offering for the same product.

Not so much the point but more so advertising open access means you need to have other ISPs using your infrastructure and offering services to compete and keep each other on their toes hence competition is a good thing, I have nothing against Cybersmart and their offerings it's just a principle of offering open.

They currently don't have any other ISP on their network is what I am saying that is independent. Not a case of it may be an option.

 

[saturnz]

its a non issue really if other ISPs can't offer better services, as is the case in my building, we have an open access LAN, but its rather academic since everyone chooses the same service provider anyway.

 

[Mal1ce]

@saturnz - how many units in your building? Any pictures of your install?

Would be interested to know how your setup works, is each unit on it's own VLAN? Does each unit have it's own public IP address, etc?

 

[saturnz]

@saturnz - how many units in your building? Any pictures of your install?

Would be interested to know how your setup works, is each unit on it's own VLAN? Does each unit have it's own public IP address, etc?

Not sure of the number of units in the building, but potential maximum of around 75 users at this point, we have just over 60 users on the current solution.

I don't have any pictures of the install, I was the trustee who basically was the project manager in rolling out the solution- so I was liasing between confused trustees, difficult owners, a profit driven ISP and our eccentric IT guy (who I have huge amounts of respect for).

So basically I can't answer your technical questions, however, in setting up my own gaming server a few months ago I drew this quick pic for reference, perhaps this may answer a few of your questions.

 

[PBCool]

its a non issue really if other ISPs can't offer better services, as is the case in my building, we have an open access LAN, but its rather academic since everyone chooses the same service provider anyway.

I understand that I am just mentioning as being relative to the query of the post

 

[PBCool]

Not sure of the number of units in the building, but potential maximum of around 75 users at this point, we have just over 60 users on the current solution.

I don't have any pictures of the install, I was the trustee who basically was the project manager in rolling out the solution- so I was liasing between confused trustees, difficult owners, a profit driven ISP and our eccentric IT guy (who I have huge amounts of respect for).

So basically I can't answer your technical questions, however, in setting up my own gaming server a few months ago I drew this quick pic for reference, perhaps this may answer a few of your questions.


View attachment 409930

Looks like a flat network being natted, so does each user get a 192.168.10.x as their "public" IP?

 

[saturnz]

Looks like a flat network being netted, so does each user get a 192.168.10.x as their "public" IP?

the question has been asked and I already responded