I have been with Netcontacts for 3 months and it has been absolute frustration from day 1. I have been trying to leave them for the past 1&1/2 months.
The guy who does the intallation and support is fine, but the administration side of the company is in shambles. Most of the times no-one knows what is going on.
About the connection, another joke. No P2P programs, only http/ftp. All other ports are blocked. Actually if you use P2p programs they put you in a P2P pool and then you can't even browse HTTP. So they block the ports but if you try to use it, then your speed goes down. All your packets goes through some sort of proxy/NAT system. So that means that you can't play certain games like CS. Skype even says that all your data has to be routed through its's server in UK or US to connect to a guy in South Africa. How nice is that?! And also you are still busy surfing when POW!, it just stops working. Sometimes for the whole day/night.
I feel all the wireless guys in SA is a joke. In my struggle with this ISP I learned quite a few things about our current internet infrastructure. The bottom line is that there are only a few international connections and SAIX(telkom) and IS are the biggest ones that I know of. And therefore all of these so called wireless guys are just downgraded Telkom ADSL links with lots of overhead and routing in between.
I suggest not to go for netcontacts. They absolutely suck in all ways. The equipment is expensive to if you get it from them. I paid R2400 for something I can get from overseas for less than 1/2 (single port device - R700, antenna - ??). They use PowerDSine, which is great tech, but they fail to supply the backbone for it.
I live in Milnerton area and a good connection to their router(actually megaserve) on top of the tygerberg mountain, but from their all just sux.
STAY AWAY FROM THESE PATHETIC WIRELESS COMPANIES. They sell down graded Telkom connections. Wait for the big guns to come in. They are coming...
