Looking for a decent ISP when moving

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Francois Swart

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Hi,

This is my first post. Seeing as this seems to be the best place to ask almost anything, I figured I might get the best (most accurate and honest) advice here.

We will be moving soon. Currently at home we have MWEB as our ISP and Line provider, and my girlfriend has Telkom 20GB wireless. We are moving to our own place and plan to be streaming more. Especially as Multichoice robs us blind without shame.
Our MWEB is "uncapped" 4MB, but has a soft cap of about 110GB. The line is really slow as they claim distance from the nearest station or whatever excuse, so we are lucky to actually get a transfer rate of 200-300kb to keep steady...ergo, lots of buffering at the best of times. They also blame Telkom, who in turn blames them.

We will be moving to a house and want to get a hardwired internet for streaming and gaming. Mainly Netflix etc.
What would you all suggest as the current best value for money uncapped ISP in Cape Town, Bothasig area? 4MB is fine for the time being.
And, silly question, but how do I go about line rental? Through Telkom, or should I opt to keep them with the ISP (if they do offer it like that)?
 
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Well I paused my Afrihost account recently in the hope of moving to Vox or Crystalweb - but then as I paused this month end - the threads regarding them seemed to dive in terms of customer satisfaction if you know what I mean. Started looking a lot like the Afrihost threads.

So I thought about axxess, but then realised they're on the same network. So out of left field based on Mybbs recent survey I decided to give an ISP I never thought I'd use a shot - Cybersmart. 4mb capped 200GB - took the dsl account only for R189. So far, so good - live streaming is good, youtube doesn't buffer - gets 720p after a bit. Pages seem to be little nippier than AHs loading times.

Waiting to do some streaming over the weekend to see what it's like. Can't recommend it full on, need a month or two at least with them to see just what performance is like in peak times etc. But just throwing it out there as I am pleasantly surprised with them so far. Hardly seen them mentioned.
 
Francois Swart said:
Hi,

This is my first post. Seeing as this seems to be the best place to ask almost anything, I figured I might get the best (most accurate and honest) advice here.

We will be moving soon. Currently at home we have MWEB as our ISP and Line provider, and my girlfriend has Telkom 20GB wireless. We are moving to our own place and plan to be streaming more. Especially as Multichoice robs us blind without shame.
Our MWEB is "uncapped" 4MB, but has a soft cap of about 110GB. The line is really slow as they claim distance from the nearest station or whatever excuse, so we are lucky to actually get a transfer rate of 200-300kb to keep steady...ergo, lots of buffering at the best of times. They also blame Telkom, who in turn blames them.

We will be moving to a house and want to get a hardwired internet for streaming and gaming. Mainly Netflix etc.
What would you all suggest as the current best value for money uncapped ISP in Cape Town, Bothasig area? 4MB is fine for the time being.
And, silly question, but how do I go about line rental? Through Telkom, or should I opt to keep them with the ISP (if they do offer it like that)?
Click to expand...

What you have to do is find out what hard-wired options are available in the area of you new home. There are only two options.

(1) Copper based ADSL, ADSL2+, VDSL
(2) Fibre-to-the-home (FTTH).

Once this is established you can then listen to all the comments about which ISP is best to go for.

The ONLY organization that runs and operates the copper based ADSL services is OpenServe. You can get the line form them direct of via the ISP of your choice.

FTTH may be available from more than one in your area, of which OpenServe is one. Again you can get this direct or via the ISP of your choice.

Start by going to the Telkom site and checking out the coverage map for your area to see what OpenServe have available, or go direct to the OpenServe website and do the same.

https://secure.telkom.co.za/today/ucm/

A prelim search I did says that you are going to be in trouble looking for anything more than basic ADSL services in a large part of Bothasig. Enter the exact address of your new home to get what is available.

No OpenServe fibre and no obvious plans either for most of Bothasig
 
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Fishzn said:
Well I paused my Afrihost account recently in the hope of moving to Vox or Crystalweb - but then as I paused this month end - the threads regarding them seemed to dive in terms of customer satisfaction if you know what I mean. Started looking a lot like the Afrihost threads.

So I thought about axxess, but then realised they're on the same network. So out of left field based on Mybbs recent survey I decided to give an ISP I never thought I'd use a shot - Cybersmart. 4mb capped 200GB - took the dsl account only for R189. So far, so good - live streaming is good, youtube doesn't buffer - gets 720p after a bit. Pages seem to be little nippier than AHs loading times.

Waiting to do some streaming over the weekend to see what it's like. Can't recommend it full on, need a month or two at least with them to see just what performance is like in peak times etc. But just throwing it out there as I am pleasantly surprised with them so far. Hardly seen them mentioned.
Click to expand...

Never tried Cybersmart. But VOX currently gives me about 40ms better latency to Europe than Afrihost. Oh and I have 2.1 terabytes rollover data for R159 a month :p
 
Hi Geoff, looks like the VDSL goes up to 10mbps at the place there. No Fibre though. Seeing as this is the first time we will have our own wired internet, I just want to get a few things straight.

We open a line account only with Telkom, and then we have whichever ISP we want connect onto that line?

Vox does seem to have a great deal, would we be able to actually roll over every now and then.
What other ISPs have you all had good experiences with as well as value for money?
 
Crystal Web 250GB Extreme Capped FTW!

EDIT: Have to conur with Kalle, shaping on CW account and have cancelled. Rocking a WA 150GB Capped Pro account now!
 
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wingnut771 said:
Crystal Web 250GB Extreme Capped FTW!
Click to expand...

+1
the 250GB count only from 6pm till midnight. Its great and has fast downloads and stable streaming.

( Need to revoke the +1; lately only problems with speed and latency )
 
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Kalle said:
+1
the 250GB count only from 6pm till midnight. Its great and has fast downloads and stable streaming.

( Need to revoke the +1; lately only problems with speed and latency )
Click to expand...

No issues for me in Dbn I have to say, but I'm not a gamer.
 
Francois Swart said:
Hi Geoff, looks like the VDSL goes up to 10mbps at the place there. No Fibre though. Seeing as this is the first time we will have our own wired internet, I just want to get a few things straight.

We open a line account only with Telkom, and then we have whichever ISP we want connect onto that line?

Vox does seem to have a great deal, would we be able to actually roll over every now and then.
What other ISPs have you all had good experiences with as well as value for money?
Click to expand...

Since no one has answered yet... :p

You need a telephone line, R169/month, I think. Then they need to activate ADSL for you on that line. If you can get 10mbps, go for it. Take the self install option, if they still have that. Get a ADSL2+ router and your PPPoE/ADSL Data account somewhere else. +1 for VOX.
 
Out of all the ISPs I have been with and cancelled Vox has been the best. Neither will I cancel Vox their support is good. Sure they have their issue but atleast they consistent and I always get the lowest latency with them.
 
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