Pay news server, wouldnt it be great

[Highflyer_GP]

KinsZa yes that's true but bear in mind that quality of service in terms of speed and uptime from IS is poor to say the least. The news server is the only good thing they have going for them at this time. Therefore if people wanted to use other protocols then they would get a SAIX account.

It's not about us, it's about IS retaining customers. If they want to lose customers then they are going about it the right way. The international bandwidth is there but what's the point when international is down for most of the month, and when it's up then speeds are terrible.

 

[KinsZA]

I doubt IS are going to go under if they discontinue a news service.

And bwana said it that $10 for news server, why not let IS have a service like that, a news server that works.

I wonder how much load is being put on the IS network because of the news server.

 

[bwana]

And bwana said it that $10 for news server, why not let IS have a service like that, a news server that works.

That would be great but if you look at the standard mark up wrt bandwidth charges I'd guesstimate you'd be looking at prices between 5x and 10x that. Then again a lot would depend on where the bottle neck is. If its local then perhaps the markup wouldnt be as high.

 

[Highflyer_GP]

bwana the point is that IS is not a news account its a adsl account.

You cant be expected to demand huge performance for something thats not the primary service, if the account was primary news then IS would have to keep a standard up.

So moaning about pings/speed of internet is justified since thats their primary focus, I doubt people's downloading is high on their priority list.

There's no disclaimer indicating what their primary service is when you sign up for an account, hence each service is treated as equal, therefore as a business they should try and maintain a certain quality of service in order to retain customers.

Again people have the right to moan about whatever they feel is relevant to the service as long as they are paying subscribers. Whether or not they use the account primarily for the news server is irrelevant, since there's no disclaimer stating what their primary focus is on. With SAIX you purchase an account knowing that some protocols are shaped and some are unshaped. IS knows that the news server is one of their strengths, hence they should do their best to maintain it properly in order to keep customers. Whether it's high on their priority list or not isn't important, what is important is what's high on the customers priority list.

 

[KinsZA]

People are fighting as if we saying do away with the free news service, heck the people in favor of it just want a news service that works, let the people who dont wanna subscribe have it how it is.

What do you think would get sorted out quicker, a news server that you pay for or something like we have now ? The current speeds are pathetic and I bet IS doesnt think that the news is equally important as everything else.

 

[Highflyer_GP]

People are fighting as if we saying do away with the free news service, heck the people in favor of it just want a news service that works, let the people who dont wanna subscribe have it how it is.

What do you think would get sorted out quicker, a news server that you pay for or something like we have now ? The current speeds are pathetic and I bet IS doesnt think that the news is equally important as everything else.

And that's where the problem lies, when an SA business knows that people are willing to pay extra for a service that should already work properly. There's no need to have a typical SA mentality of being willing to take it up the ass, fight for it people. I don't know about you, but we've had enough of this from Telkom, we don't need it from IS as well.

We shouldn't have to give a crap what IS thinks, they are a business and we are customers. Plain and simple.

 

[KinsZA]

And that's where the problem lies, when an SA business knows that people are willing to pay extra for a service that should already work properly. There's no need to have a typical SA mentality of being willing to take it up the ass, fight for it people. I don't know about you, but we've had enough of this from Telkom, we don't need it from IS as well.

I fully agree with you, unfortunately the situation doesnt seem to be in much favor when it comes to news speeds, where do you even begin to fight.

IS is beginning to remind me more and more like telkom as time goes on.

 

[Brenden_E]

Exactly - I for one will be jumping ship if the news server aren't cured of it's wails by the end of the month.
Will be going for a telkom internet account most probably. Hehe

*Edit* Talking about news servers 1 o'clock at night. I think it's safe to say everyone here can be gladly incorporated into the trusted circle of geekhood D:

 

[KinsZA]

Exactly - I for one will be jumping ship if the news server aren't cured of it's wails by the end of the month.

Will be going for a telkom internet account most probably. Hehe

I currently have two IS accounts, if the news situation doesnt change one of those is going to be cancled and telkomsa account will replace it.

There has to be SOMETHING that can be done.

 

[Byrd]

Already not renewed my account. Attempting to download from the news server last month yielded a little under 20GB & I think that I was just lucky because in the first few days I used the service I got most of that down. The rest of the month saw speeds of +- 5/6k & often times down.

Boohoo sucks to you IS. You have lost AT LEAST one client for lack of service.

 

[Vrotappel]

bwana the point is that IS is not a news account its a adsl account.

You cant be expected to demand huge performance for something thats not the primary service, if the account was primary news then IS would have to keep a standard up.

So moaning about pings/speed of internet is justified since thats their primary focus, I doubt people's downloading is high on their priority list.

Some of the IS resellers use the News Server as the main selling point of obtaining accounts through them. I don't see any need for an IS account if it does not contain proper news group access.

A paid news server from IS for people with SAIX accounts might be an idea.

 

[ziglet]

if saix became locally uncapped and some company brought out a pay news server, IS will loose pretty much every ADSL client i think... I know i for one would drop them in a second as the only reason i use my account is for the news server.

 

[spiderz]

Why must we pay for crappy service? a News server is a free service the ISP is supposed to offer.

 

[bullfrog]

The point is, if you offer a service, make sure it works properly or don't offer it at all. Now I think that it would be a really stupid idea for IS to drop the service. So there is only one real solution, make sure it works properly!

 

[spiderz]

If IS drop the news server they can just aswell close their doors !

 

[daveza]

I haven't used a news server for about 5 years - got put off by all the flames , spam etc etc

Seems News is important to you guys so I'm curious - what do you use the groups for ?

 

[Wynsam]

Its working right now. Not the best speed but better than it was yesterday!! 65kbs

 

[ziglet]

daveza

lol, not to be rude but, think u have been missing out on an untapped resource

 

[bwana]

I haven't used a news server for about 5 years - got put off by all the flames , spam etc etc

Seems News is important to you guys so I'm curious - what do you use the groups for ?

These days does anyone interested in downloading ever read the postings? NZB's to the rescue.

Hate to mention it but you cant beat easynews. Just pulled a 350mb down in under 15 minutes.

 

[.geek]

Let have a look at prices, will use gamco as a example since they sell both saix and IS accounts.

SAIX 3 gig: R234
IS 3 gig: R209

SAIX gives you lets see, 3 gigs and well thats it (unless u with telkomsa and dont know when you will cap)
IS gives you 30 gigs local aswell and a news service.

Best latency, speed, reliabilty. That's what you get with SAIX.

If you want 30GB to download "warez" from a News Server, then by all means. But if you actually have work to do, then IS is most definately not the way to go.

FTP speeds suck, HTTP browsing is poor and so unreliable.