Neotel charges for data delivery overhead

I've quit Neotel. I would have upgraded to unlimited if the connection was reliable, but having access to the internet in 3-minute snippets was just too painful. I got myself a 10GB iBurst account instead. I've had it for almost a month now and cannot be happier. My logs show 7.3 GB usage, but iBurst's website says I still have 3 gig left.
 
I'm monitoring mine through "vnstat" under Linux this month to double check my bill. This app pulls stats generated at kernel level and is 100% spot on. On my lappie's 3g it is spot on with Vodacoms online usuage.
 
Monad said:
I've quit Neotel. I would have upgraded to unlimited if the connection was reliable, but having access to the internet in 3-minute snippets was just too painful. I got myself a 10GB iBurst account instead. I've had it for almost a month now and cannot be happier. My logs show 7.3 GB usage, but iBurst's website says I still have 3 gig left.
Click to expand...

iBurst obviously doesn't measure their upload traffic as accurately as Neotel. I mean look at Neotel's response, they have graphs and everything! How can they possibly be wrong?
 
Monad said:
I've quit Neotel. I would have upgraded to unlimited if the connection was reliable, but having access to the internet in 3-minute snippets was just too painful. I got myself a 10GB iBurst account instead. I've had it for almost a month now and cannot be happier. My logs show 7.3 GB usage, but iBurst's website says I still have 3 gig left.
Click to expand...

You poor sucker. Just wait until they send you the first double bill, or disconnect you repeatedly despite your paying, or send you a letter of demand nine months after you've cancelled the service (all true, from personal experience, I'm afraid). All that, and a network that just gets worse and worse. You must be a lone user on a new site if you're so happy. Compared to iBurst, Neotel's been a real pleasure. Not sure what your problem was with Neotel, but it doesn't sound normal. I've seen drops and reconnections, but very rarely.
 
Hi Guys,

I was wondering reading this, how many of you that are experiencing this data overcharge problem have your ports opened. Maybe it could be something that is trying to connect from outside like search engines etc..

just a thought,

acdt
 
Has there been any news? Neotel gave a very long response, but it seems as if there are still problems and these problems (the way I understand it) are not as yet resolved. So now what?

Neotel, as a suggestion and as part of goodwill to your customers, provide users with a tool to monitor their usage and write off all overcharged data where the customers have evidence of a different usage. Surely the customers have attempted to monitor their usage and it was not their intention to deliberately use more bandwidth than was allocated?
 
mackape said:
Has there been any news? Neotel gave a very long response, but it seems as if there are still problems and these problems (the way I understand it) are not as yet resolved. So now what?

Neotel, as a suggestion and as part of goodwill to your customers, provide users with a tool to monitor their usage and write off all overcharged data where the customers have evidence of a different usage. Surely the customers have attempted to monitor their usage and it was not their intention to deliberately use more bandwidth than was allocated?
Click to expand...

No I would much prefer that they release the source code to the monitoring software they use. It the thing is accurate then they have nothing to fear.
 
I must say that the sudden absence of the Neotel rep is kinda disturbing. So many people complaining about the same issue and yet the silence is deafening, no solution seems to be in the works.

It boggles the mind that they didn't have some kind of facility to check your usage in the first place? Surely it can't be too difficult to create a page that only displays your usage. Later other things can be added, but obviously the most important is actually knowing what you use, even if it is just a total.

This is worrying to me, because I have been waiting for my Neoflex to arrive "today" from last week Monday. Eventually it will come and after reading the comments here I'm afraid of paying for 10GB but only getting 3 or 4, then being unpleasantly surprised by my first bill...
 
porchrat said:
No I would much prefer that they release the source code to the monitoring software they use. It the thing is accurate then they have nothing to fear.
Click to expand...

I speak from experience... This will never happen. Not because Neotel won't release their code, but because its not their code.
On the scale that Neotel is building things, they'll be using software provided by an outside Vendor.
 
Neotel said:
Finally, note that this is not some sort of public announcement intended to close the discussion. It is part of this interactive discussion thread, so feel free to respond.
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This interactive discussion has been awfully one sided for the last week or so.
 
...borders on unethical business practice...

is neotel's voice service VoIP? that would count as data.

anyways, after the long wait for any form of broadband in my area, this thread has made me decide to skip neotel and wait for telkom to finish 'maybe in october' (said the telkom shop). its just too dodgy for an ISP to offer capped accounts and not have a means for users to monitor usage. i'd go as far as to say that at the least this behaviour borders on unethical business practice. :confused::sick::eek:

oh how i miss my trusty 384kbps adsl. :(
webafrica is the best service i ever experienced in south africa. :)
 
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PeteGT said:
Finally did my comparison.
Neotel's calculated usage vs NetLimiters Calculated usage.
Please note that I did remember to add Upload usage.

NeotelvsNetLimiter.jpg


Neotel: 17gig
NetLimiter: 11gig
Click to expand...


6gig's? thats a big difference. Maybe its because you made Neotel blue on the graph? when they are suppose to be "IBurst" Orange? ... :D ... :D

I would query the integrity of Neotel. The 09/09/08 reading seems a lot unrealistic. :eek: .. strange though, that not one day, they are the same?

Have you sent the reading to NetLimiter? They should have the means to explain? Send them the link to this post as well, it would be quite interesting to hear what they have to say. :D
 
One thing that I've noticed is that if I don't turn off the modem it continues sending small amounts of data, even if the computer is switched off. I reckon it could add up to quite a lot during a month if you leave it on.

Also, after downloading I closed my torrent client, but DUMeter continued to pick up around 20kbps of activity after I had ceased all internet activity. I restarted the router to stop this.

So now I just switch off my router when I shut down or restart the computer.
 
Overcharging

Hi Guys,

The chances of this being a real issue is very slim, I have implemented a few of these architectures. And the only reason why this could happen is as follow.

1. The platform that is allocating the usage is incorreclty measuring the amount of data used by a specific user. These are typically hardware devices that sit within the IP network and are usually provided by vendors such as CISCO etc.. This type of functionality would come right out of the box so unless they have done something really funny it should allocate correctly.

2. What I think is more of an issue is the fact that neotel has no way of telling us what the current usage is for the month. I have neoflex and because you connect through a router now you cant even use dumeter

So neotel how is that webpage coming?????

acdt
 
the lines in my area arent connected yet, but a few hours ago telkom let me order the line bcos my complex is on their system so the lines shoud be there but maybe just not connected yet. going back to adsl and webafrica unless neotel can show they're dedicated to providing fair readings for data usage and a means to prove it. shame on you neotel!
 
acdt said:
Hi Guys,

I was wondering reading this, how many of you that are experiencing this data overcharge problem have your ports opened. Maybe it could be something that is trying to connect from outside like search engines etc..

just a thought,

acdt
Click to expand...

My ports were closed (as they are when anyone gets the service) but then asked them to open them. This had no affect on my usage as I still received bills from Neotel for data I didn't use. My ports were closed just before December last year due to an issue I though might be related to the ports being opened and I'm still having the same overcharge issue.
 
HellTel said:
6gig's? thats a big difference. Maybe its because you made Neotel blue on the graph? when they are suppose to be "IBurst" Orange? ... :D ... :D

I would query the integrity of Neotel. The 09/09/08 reading seems a lot unrealistic. :eek: .. strange though, that not one day, they are the same?

Have you sent the reading to NetLimiter? They should have the means to explain? Send them the link to this post as well, it would be quite interesting to hear what they have to say. :D
Click to expand...

I only started recording usage with Netlimiter halfway through the day on the 9th.

I've given up on this issue as Neotel refunded me and I'm on Uncapped now.
 
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daffy said:
I speak from experience... This will never happen. Not because Neotel won't release their code, but because its not their code.
On the scale that Neotel is building things, they'll be using software provided by an outside Vendor.
Click to expand...

I agree, but it is nice to dream of a perfect world in which things like that can happen.
 
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