OpenWeb: comments? Openbrowse?

192K openbrowse is a service wich u can Enable on a 30gig local only account or on a normal 2gig / 3gig international IS account wich has 30gig local cap afterwards. (basically using the local cap / data to surf international websites).

visit www.openweb.co.za for more details
 
How well does this actually work, and how fast is it, latency etc?

Personally I wouldn't trust my international connection being on OpenBrowse.
 
Ekhaatvensters said:
How well does this actually work, and how fast is it, latency etc?

Personally I wouldn't trust my international connection being on OpenBrowse.
Click to expand...

I would also like to know. If it is reliable enough, I'd be willing to change to Openweb. I'm paying R 290 for a 5gb Webafrica account. For the same price I could get Openweb 3gb + 27gb & Openbrowse 384. This way I could do my downloading at the beginning of the month and have generous browsing for the rest of the month.

How would webafrica (saix) and openbrowse compare in terms of speed and reliability?
 
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Well it will be worse for a start, Openweb will be over IS compared to SAIX for international, and obviously there will be some kind of overhead going though whatever system they use to turn your local into international.

I'd still like to know if it's reliable enough, you are paying less so I wouldn't mind a slightly worse service for so much cheaper. However I don't think you can even download, just surf. So updates and patches etc might be a problem, not too sure how it works.
 
My advice to you would be to move over to Openweb, but don't buy the package mentioned.

Instead go for one of the Special Adsl packsges either:
30GB-LOCAL + OpenBrowse 192k
or 384k
The first is now R190 and the second R220.
Prices seem to have increased this month, if I am not mistaken.

Then get yourself an Saix account for downloads, fast browsing and as backup when IS is down.
A telkom 2 gig (u get 4gig from it) or a webafrica "carry over" one gig etc. depending on ur usage.

Then set up "Route sentry" on your computer, as mentioned in this forum.

How it works:

You start the month with Openweb only. They sometimes gives you a few gigs full speed international. Download, browse, anything you like!!!
Once that is done (if they do give it to you) then use route sentry and the openbrowse proxy.

It is best if you use two browsers. Set one up to send all the traffic through Openbrowse. This will be your default browser.
You wil have 30gig to use here.
Also setup your email client to use Openbrowse.

Leave the other without a proxy enabled.
Use this for fast browsing, downloading, backup etc.
This will use your SAIX account.

Cost:
192k + Webafrica 1gb = R260 for 30 gigs IS and one SAIX
384k + Webafrica 1gb = R290 for 30 gigs IS and one SAIX

or if you prefer telkom:
192k + telkom 2gb = R339 for 30 gigs IS and 4 SAIX
384k + telkom 2gb = R369 for 30 gigs IS and 4 SAIX
 
ABU said:
My advice to you would be to move over to Openweb, but don't buy the package mentioned.

Instead go for one of the Special Adsl packsges either:
30GB-LOCAL + OpenBrowse 192k
or 384k
The first is now R190 and the second R220.
Prices seem to have increased this month, if I am not mistaken.

Then get yourself an Saix account for downloads, fast browsing and as backup when IS is down.
A telkom 2 gig (u get 4gig from it) or a webafrica "carry over" one gig etc. depending on ur usage.

Then set up "Route sentry" on your computer, as mentioned in this forum.

How it works:

You start the month with Openweb only. They sometimes gives you a few gigs full speed international. Download, browse, anything you like!!!
Once that is done (if they do give it to you) then use route sentry and the openbrowse proxy.

It is best if you use two browsers. Set one up to send all the traffic through Openbrowse. This will be your default browser.
You wil have 30gig to use here.
Also setup your email client to use Openbrowse.

Leave the other without a proxy enabled.
Use this for fast browsing, downloading, backup etc.
This will use your SAIX account.

Cost:
192k + Webafrica 1gb = R260 for 30 gigs IS and one SAIX
384k + Webafrica 1gb = R290 for 30 gigs IS and one SAIX

or if you prefer telkom:
192k + telkom 2gb = R339 for 30 gigs IS and 4 SAIX
384k + telkom 2gb = R369 for 30 gigs IS and 4 SAIX
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice, what you're suggesting sounds great.

I was about to sign up for an uncapped account with Openweb. I then saw the discussion in this forum and no one was happy with it... For the moment my 5gb Webafrica lasts me all month. (I also have a 500mb 3G on my laptop) But I'm curious about Openbrowse. No other ISP offers a similar service.

Is there anyone on this forum that uses it? And is it possible to download through openbrowse. (does anyone know?)
 
I use it.
You cannot download, unless the files you are downloading are small (less than a meg) and not in .zip or .rar format.
Browsing works well, but remember you are on IS, so it does give problems now and then.
 
I see that you can now buy only OpenBrowse (IE use your own bandwidth) so there is now an even wider selection of combinations EG get 10GB local only and openbrowse 192 or 384 etc.
 
Either solution is useless if you have more than 1 person using the account. You need the openrouter software (option1) or routesentry (option2) setup on all PC's right? it's a mission in my opinion.

I have found openbrowse to be flaky alot. Sometimes it works great and then sometimes not at all. The program that you use to run the openbrowse proxy hangs all the time on my PC. I have to constantly just use my WebAfrica prepaid account if I want to browse properly, but that's partly because of the IS network. Ultimately there is no one solution that is cheap and works well with minimal fuss. there is a drawback any which way you look.

Oh yes when using openbrowse, forget unlimited surfing, if you type svchost.exe (to say resolve an issue for CPU usage, track down a virus etc) into google, it will block it. If there's anything related to multimedia (audio, youtube, flash etc) it will be blocked or non responsive. Alot of the time, maintaining my facebook and blogger site is a nightmare. It loads 20% of the page and then says done. you need to refresh several times. So openbrowse certainly won't match the regular (uncapped IS or SAIX) surfing experience. There are drawbacks.
 
I have Openbrowse and it works okay (when I use it), but the necessity of installing it on all the network computers kills it for me as a solution. Routesenty or similar set-up is the way to go.
 
In that case, I think I'm just going to stick with Web Africa for the moment. Maybe upgrade my account from 5 to 10GB. I'm quite happy with their service and fees. When a decent uncapped comes out, Ill switch to that.

Openbrowse seems pretty useless if you can't download anything or watch any video's etc. That's the point of broadband.

I checked what I can get installed in my apartment in New York and what we're getting here for the price is laughable.

Pity.
 
Gatecrasher said:
I have Openbrowse and it works okay (when I use it), but the necessity of installing it on all the network computers kills it for me as a solution. Routesenty or similar set-up is the way to go.
Click to expand...


You dont have to install it on all your computers just one. it works as a proxy so on the other computer all you have to do is in IE or Firefox set it up to go through the ip of the computer that is running the program.

works well for me. sometimes you have to refresh the page a few time. but i think its a great thing.

Cheers
 
(Stupid question perhaps) Does this service run on the IS backbone or OpenWeb's own backbone ? The reason I ask is because on thier site they say "IS + OpenWeb" for backbone under the 30GB local + OpenBrowse account. I'm assuming they use IS for the local side and thier own for international ? Maybe thier own local backbone and IS for international ? They have thier own backbone :confused: Cool !
 
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