My recent iBurst experience...

B

Bob24

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Hello all

After reading all the (mostly negative) comments on here, I felt compelled to register and post my view on my (recently acquired) iBurst.

Mine is pretty decent actually. Yes, conventional piped broadband is far superior, as is 3G/HSDPA, but if like me you can't actually get a pipe or afford mass usage on 3G, then iBurst does a decent enough job.

My torrents (after some tweaking of course) go 40-60 on an average day but for the most part goes 80+KB/s. My connection hasn't mysteriously dropped once and I don't even have the external antennae connected. I didn't have to move my modem around to get the best signal, I simply popped it in the tv cabinet next to the PS3.

My brother did that signal strength test with the software from here and our connection is great. Above -80 is good apparently and according to him we get somewhere in the -40s. I have to point out though that the tower is close enough shoot with an air rifle.

Look I know this post will not really help those that are experiencing genuine problems. I just wanted to add a positive voice amongst all the negative ones on this section of the forum.

I'll have a look at that hub scenario when my cap's gone.

Cheers.
 
3 Gigs. Been taking it slow-ish so far. So I have about half left after a week of downloading. If they drop their bandwidth prices a bit I won't mind as paying R300 is just a little bit steep for 3gb topup considering I'll ruin it all when downloading one DVD ISO...

Oh well.
 
Everyone is entitled to their views in this forum.

It is good to hear that you are happy with your purchase and I hope it continues to give you decent service.

I too am limited in my choices of connectivity and at the moment iBurst is our only option. We have however experienced many problems in the past and am willing to bet that we will experience more in the future.

At least you know where to go when things do go a little pear-shaped ;)
 
iBurst definitely has its place in the south african internet market, because:
1) Not everybody has coverage for Telkom related, or any other services in some cases
2) Latency is comparable to WiMAX, although not as stable
3) Bandwidth is far cheaper than any provider's 3G/HSDPA/etc, with the exception of Neotel's CDMA
4) Their soft-capping makes it even more attractive - even though it's shaped like hell, it still beats going pay-as-you-go at ridiculous prices once you reach your cap, for me at least...
Would really be awesome if they could make their capped system function as like a solid 64kbps or, if generous, 128k line rather than a bursting, shaped, errattic packet loss machine that can be at 256kbps at one moment and 14kbps the next : all that does is make my TCP connections time out and drop, so I have to re-establish them, which ultimately just wastes more bandwidth!
 
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Despite all the negative comments about iBurst, I've been pleasantly surprised by the service I've received. Their consultants have been friendly and accommodating, have not experienced any major connection problems as yet, was a bit patchy for a day, but now its working great again. And I think their pricing is quite reasonable when one takes into consideration the price of 3G and others. And since in africa you are not allowed to keep an ADSL line for more than 3 months at a time, iBurst has really helped allot.

Oh, and I ran out of bandwidth 3 days ago, but I'm still online, sure I'm working on dial-up speeds, but at least I'm still on, which deff suits me cuz I have a bandwidth-binge fetish :D
 
dgcarter said:
Despite all the negative comments about iBurst, I've been pleasantly surprised by the service I've received. Their consultants have been friendly and accommodating, have not experienced any major connection problems as yet, was a bit patchy for a day, but now its working great again. And I think their pricing is quite reasonable when one takes into consideration the price of 3G and others. And since in africa you are not allowed to keep an ADSL line for more than 3 months at a time, iBurst has really helped allot.

Oh, and I ran out of bandwidth 3 days ago, but I'm still online, sure I'm working on dial-up speeds, but at least I'm still on, which deff suits me cuz I have a bandwidth-binge fetish :D
Click to expand...
Sorry a bit off topic, but what does that mean?
 
DDV TECH said:
Sorry a bit off topic, but what does that mean?
Click to expand...

Maybe he's referring to the rampant theft of Telkom's copper? Your line gets fubar'ed every 3 months, they you have to wait for Telkom to fix it, then re-apply for ADSL?

Or am I missing something....



:)
 
nice one peterch, makes sense to me. i didnt get it either, but now that you mention it, that does work, whether its what he meant or not... lol.
 
Fragtion

Slightly off topic I know but... That wug link in your sig. Then out of the blue my bro comes home and says, "We're joining up."

Now I know you're not the designated spokesman, but like any clown I'm gonna ask anyway...

Very basically, is it worth it considering the +- R2000 HW investment required? How active is it really because I trawled the next looking for forums and discussions on this and apart from a bit on this site and board on the jawug site, there's not much? Your own observations on it would be nice as well.

Thanks in advance.

(If there's a designated area for this question then a mod can feel free to move the post.)
 
PeterCH said:
Maybe he's referring to the rampant theft of Telkom's copper? Your line gets fubar'ed every 3 months, they you have to wait for Telkom to fix it, then re-apply for ADSL?

Or am I missing something....



:)
Click to expand...

Aah, ok, thank you.
 
Bob24 said:
Mine is pretty decent actually. Yes, conventional piped broadband is far superior, as is 3G/HSDPA...
Click to expand...
I'm glad to hear you're happy, just one thing irks me, as I'd imagine it would with most people who have had iBurst since prelaunch.

When iBurst first launched they were always on about being an alternative to Telkom (price and speed), and not to mobile providers. My connection used to be far superior in comparisn my experiences with 3g and for international gaming (MMO type stuff) was surprisingly better than most other guild/clan members' ADSL connections. As time has gone on, they have changed their tune (and top up pricing) to be more in line with 3g/hsdpa which is moving backwards, IMO.

My once brilliant connection has gone south too, as their attitudes have changed. I'd be the one tearing my hair out over latency now if I hadn't given up on playing already.

I do appreciate that I did seem to be one of the lucky few with the quality of my connection but still... It's rather shocking how my experience has degraded.
 
Bob24 said:
Very basically, is it worth it considering the +- R2000 HW investment required? How active is it really because I trawled the next looking for forums and discussions on this and apart from a bit on this site and board on the jawug site, there's not much? Your own observations on it would be nice as well.
Click to expand...
Yep, assuming you can get a decent signal, it's a once-off fee that allows you to be part of the wug, which is pretty big already.
Come talk on irc: irc.jawug.za.net #wnet - all your questions should be answered way better there =)
 
fragtion_ said:
Yep, assuming you can get a decent signal, it's a once-off fee that allows you to be part of the wug, which is pretty big already.
Come talk on irc: irc.jawug.za.net #wnet - all your questions should be answered way better there =)
Click to expand...

Well I think we're getting it anyway. We had a look at the google earth plugin showing where ppl are and there's 2 ppl in complexes either side of us and we have line of sight with an AP on a hill towards Roodepoort. I just get the feeling that unless you're registered on a forum or chat site, you will get the impression that it's not nearly as big as it actually is.

I'll see if I can join the IRC thingy tonight (work prolly blocks it).

Thanks!
 
PeterCH said:
Maybe he's referring to the rampant theft of Telkom's copper? Your line gets fubar'ed every 3 months, they you have to wait for Telkom to fix it, then re-apply for ADSL?

Or am I missing something....



:)
Click to expand...


HEHE, that would be the one, lol! :D
But to be honest, I'm glad, the whole family has gone wireless, and we're actually saving money. Good riddance telskum.
 
Ive installed my Iburst moden yesterday and iam quite impressed with the service. The username and password for my account was not correct that the isp gave me and iburst sorted me out in no time. Speeds is faster than my 384 line i had from telkom and thats only on a 60-80% reception. Ill have to get my antenna abit higher as theres a roof in the way but so far no probs for me.

Was thinking when i read the about the telkom HSDPA prices on MBB, if iburst lower prices do the current subscribers get the same prices aswell?

I know i should have find out this stuff before signing but ya.
 
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