Network issues in Cape Town?

O

OsireS

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Pinelands, Cape Town
Hi all,

I just got into Cape Town on Saturday, picked up a MTN SIM and a 2 gigabyte data bundle as I'm here just for a month. Family has a 3g cellphone and contract (Samsung i560) which I tested with my laptop. Everything worked fine there but since Saturday I've maybe gotten 3-4 hours of actual internet time the rest of the time I've been able to connect fine but have gotten no data coming down. This in via my laptop and on the cellphone itself.

Seems data is sent but no data is returned, is anything going on or is this some setting I've gotten incorrect? The cellphone has locked MTN connections setup but even when I got new settings via *123# does exactly the same thing. I have gotten 3-4 hours of internet, since Saturday, where things just magically worked other than that I've had zero connectivity.

Been away two years so have no idea where to check if its the network or my config/setup (going contract -> prepaid on the cell) is the issue. Any help would be appreciated as I'm tearing my hair out here :(
 
OsireS said:
Hi all,

I just got into Cape Town on Saturday, picked up a MTN SIM and a 2 gigabyte data bundle as I'm here just for a month. Family has a 3g cellphone and contract (Samsung i560) which I tested with my laptop. Everything worked fine there but since Saturday I've maybe gotten 3-4 hours of actual internet time the rest of the time I've been able to connect fine but have gotten no data coming down. This in via my laptop and on the cellphone itself.

Seems data is sent but no data is returned, is anything going on or is this some setting I've gotten incorrect? The cellphone has locked MTN connections setup but even when I got new settings via *123# does exactly the same thing. I have gotten 3-4 hours of internet, since Saturday, where things just magically worked other than that I've had zero connectivity.

Been away two years so have no idea where to check if its the network or my config/setup (going contract -> prepaid on the cell) is the issue. Any help would be appreciated as I'm tearing my hair out here :(
Click to expand...


Hi
PM me all the details including the cell numbers being used and the exact physical location where the connections fails.
Regards
DD
 
Since yesterday Roeland Street Tower has not been working. Couldn't browse yesterday and for today - only could connect after midday. Hope they sorted it out / upgrade etc Seems to be sluggish though.
 
Contract vs. PAYG

In Pinelands myself, and the funny thing is if I connect using a contract SIM card with no bundle on exactly the same configuration it works first time always. When I use my pay-as-you-go sim with the data bundle nada ... no go. This is rather frustrating :mad:

The internet did work till about 6:00pm today and then died, I've tried it since 4 times switching the SIMs and the contract works everytime and the pay-as-you-go doesn't at all.

PAYG is a 32k SIM, while the contact one is a USIM (3G). I was told at the dealer that this would make no difference, just mentioning it just in case.

I've tried two APN:

1. Name: internet Username / Password: none
2. Name: myMTN Username / Password: mtnwap / mtnwap

Both work (or at least did for a bit today) on the PAYG SIM, and on the contract SIM.
 
Last edited:
Same problem in Bellville, Cape Town

I'm close to Tygervalley Centre in Bellville, Cape Town and have had the same problem as you guys since last night (24h now). I can connect, but no data is coming through

I phoned the Network coverage help desk at 0839001212 from my MTN contract cellphone and was disconnected. When I phoned from my friend's Vodacom cellphone, they answered! First I was told that there was no network problems and that it must be my data card. When I said that a Vodacom sim works fine in my datacard, the story changed and suddenly Cape Town had network issues. I'm connected to Vodacom now. Let's hope they sort this out quickly, I still have a couple of Gb of data to use before the end of Feb!!
 
been having the same problem since monday in the Lanseria area. Last night could connect but not download anything , call centre asked me to ping MTN.co.za with no luck. this evening can connect but very slow and 3g and hsdpa only have 1 bar but edge has full signal.
 
Sselmrah said:
Same problem in Durbanville. Can connect, but no data transfer. Strangely, I seem to be able to ping e.g. www.google.com.
Click to expand...

I was going to post the same thing this morning, yesterday the internet was largely up, although it was dead slow, but I noticed when it did die, which happened 3 or 4 times, I could still successfully ping just no other forms of traffic got back to me. If I the disconnected and reconnected sometimes it would come back to life. Other times I had to wait 5-10min.
 
Hi
The support guys are looking into the issue. Will give you all an update shortly.
Regards
DD
 
Dr_Data said:
Hi
The support guys are looking into the issue. Will give you all an update shortly.
Regards
DD
Click to expand...

Thanks very much Dr_Data :) If it helps I can cause this to happen almost everytime by starting the connection and when its up and running starting about 5-10 firefox tabs. These try to load and eventually stop loading altogether and just sit there. If I close down the web-browser and open a fresh one and try to load a site / connect via IM / FTP I experience the same "dead" connection with no traffic coming in, traffic going out but pings making it through fine for the full roundtrip. That said it seems only ICMP traffic gets out as everything else gets out and gets lost in the ether ;)
 
still having this problem in the Lanseria area. reported this to the call centre but still waiting for someone to contact me re this?????:mad::mad::mad:
 
I've been experiencing this problem on and off the whole week (in PE). :( :mad:

Connects with no problems but I get no data throughput, except strangely enough I can ping websites, but anything else is just dead.

Oh and it also only seems to be affecting prepaid - my brother was having the same probs on his prepaid sim but his contract sim worked fine..
 
I've noticed the connection goes into "death-mode" ;) if I transfer data too quickly or if I transfer a lot continuously (for instance during any download, limit seems to be about 1.5 megabytes at full speed). Dr_Data could this be a case of an over-zealous network management policy where it limits the bandwidth allocated to certain ports to the extent it shuts them down (bandwidth shaping)?

Its the only thing that seems to make sense as if I disconnect and reconnect straight away everything works fine again even if the connection has been "dead" for 5-10 minutes .. so is definitely session based and pings always go through (up to 20 kilobyte pings) without an issue. Also noticed its hoping between 3g and 3g+ (which I'm assuming HSDPA or something along those lines) every 3-5 seconds when I'm downloading ... could it kill the connection if you rapidly switch between the two too often?

Once again none of this occurs if I connect via a contract SIM.
 
OsireS said:
I've noticed the connection goes into "death-mode" ;) if I transfer data too quickly or if I transfer a lot continuously (for instance during any download, limit seems to be about 1.5 megabytes at full speed). Dr_Data could this be a case of an over-zealous network management policy where it limits the bandwidth allocated to certain ports to the extent it shuts them down (bandwidth shaping)?

Its the only thing that seems to make sense as if I disconnect and reconnect straight away everything works fine again even if the connection has been "dead" for 5-10 minutes .. so is definitely session based and pings always go through (up to 20 kilobyte pings) without an issue. Also noticed its hoping between 3g and 3g+ (which I'm assuming HSDPA or something along those lines) every 3-5 seconds when I'm downloading ... could it kill the connection if you rapidly switch between the two too often?

Once again none of this occurs if I connect via a contract SIM.
Click to expand...

I notice the EXACT same thing occurring! I am assuming they still haven't sorted out the Cape Town issue as the Roeland Street Tower seems to be acting up in the way you describe. Last night I downloaded driver updates 60meg file and it seems to become throttled after 20megs. If I disconnect and reconnect it's fine for 20megs then the same thing. It downloads until the connection comes to a halt and dies.

I'm wondering whether it is increased bandwidth shaping (throttling).. or whatever network issue that came up in the last few days hasn't been sorted out.

I have noticed the signal has become slightly poorer too.
 
gpe said:
I notice the EXACT same thing occurring! I am assuming they still haven't sorted out the Cape Town issue as the Roeland Street Tower seems to be acting up in the way you describe. Last night I downloaded driver updates 60meg file and it seems to become throttled after 20megs. If I disconnect and reconnect it's fine for 20megs then the same thing. It downloads until the connection comes to a halt and dies.

I'm wondering whether it is increased bandwidth shaping (throttling).. or whatever network issue that came up in the last few days hasn't been sorted out.

I have noticed the signal has become slightly poorer too.
Click to expand...

With regard to the signal I have the same issue, 1-2 bars lost on average. Regrettably I don't have a 3g modem but simply a Samsung SGH-i560 so I can't give exact figures. To be honest I'd be happy if I could d/l 20 megabytes at a time given my connection dies after 2 ;) Also I've been following it and no matter what happens it always seems to die when I've downloaded/uploaded a total of 10 megabytes. Now it doesn't matter if it takes 50 of 5 minutes the second I hit 10 megabytes total transfer, bam .. game over till I reset the connection ;)

If its network issues they have been present the entire week with no resolution. Although I doubt it given that on a contract SIM everything works 100% .. for all the cases I've reported here that break with my PAYG SIM and my data bundle a contract with no data-bundle runs like a dream.
 
Is no-one else having this problem outside of gpe, Sselmrah, cmt and myself? If that's the case then this must be a very localised problem or we're the only ones using data-bundles on PAYG sims in these area .. which I doubt ;)

Is anyone else using a Samsung SGH-i560 as a modem and if so is there anything I can do do stabilise the connection other than bitch till it magically gets fixed? Yesterday I had to reconnect every 10min or so, surfing is difficult at best I won't mention anything simple like downloading a 2 megabyte :(
 
its a week now since i first reported this to mtn. i have got 2 reference numbers for this fault from them and on friday they told me the problem has been assigned to someone who will contact me shorlty , still waiting. i also contacted dr data via pm who followed up for me and advised that someone will contact me but sofar , no joy from anyone!
 
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