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Question of the Day: How much are you willing to pay for a Springboks vs All Blacks ticket?
Please rate Web Africa
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gmza
Well-Known Member
performance (speed): 4
performance (latency): 3
support: 3
value for money: 3
overall satisfaction: 3
I used to rate them as a 5 on almost every aspect, but the one thing that has definitely degraded dramatically with WA in the past year is consistency. Where their network used to be rock solid, it seems to routinely suffer blips of short outages. Where bandwidth used to be rock solid, suddenly interesting shaping and prioritisation techniques are causing certain apps to break. (E.g. SSH connection drops; VoIP degradation.) This is notably bad on the new uncapped offerings. Billing and support isn't as hot as it was either.
How they can improve: Try restore that CONSISTENCY of service that they used to have 1 to 2 years ago. WA pricing is at a premium above many competitors. They need to decide whether they're going to continue charging premium pricing, in which case they have to deliver premium service (like they used to), or, if they're going to drop the ball on service and consistency, then they need to drop their pricing to match. Network stability needs attention because people do notice outages, even if they're only a few minutes in duration and oddball traffic management isn't compatible with premium pricing; keep it simple because you can never predict what applications clients are going to be running that break as a result of shaping. Finally, shaping local bandwidth is evil; don't do it! Even on uncapped services. Save the shaping for international. These are not cheap services.
In a nutshell: return to core values that got WA rated so highly in the past.
performance (latency): 3
support: 3
value for money: 3
overall satisfaction: 3
I used to rate them as a 5 on almost every aspect, but the one thing that has definitely degraded dramatically with WA in the past year is consistency. Where their network used to be rock solid, it seems to routinely suffer blips of short outages. Where bandwidth used to be rock solid, suddenly interesting shaping and prioritisation techniques are causing certain apps to break. (E.g. SSH connection drops; VoIP degradation.) This is notably bad on the new uncapped offerings. Billing and support isn't as hot as it was either.
How they can improve: Try restore that CONSISTENCY of service that they used to have 1 to 2 years ago. WA pricing is at a premium above many competitors. They need to decide whether they're going to continue charging premium pricing, in which case they have to deliver premium service (like they used to), or, if they're going to drop the ball on service and consistency, then they need to drop their pricing to match. Network stability needs attention because people do notice outages, even if they're only a few minutes in duration and oddball traffic management isn't compatible with premium pricing; keep it simple because you can never predict what applications clients are going to be running that break as a result of shaping. Finally, shaping local bandwidth is evil; don't do it! Even on uncapped services. Save the shaping for international. These are not cheap services.
In a nutshell: return to core values that got WA rated so highly in the past.
lws
Well-Known Member
Speed: 4
Latency: 5
Support: 4
Reliability/Uptime: 4
Value for money: 5
Overall: Happy. Loved that the account keeps getting better and better. Whenever Telkom drops the ball, I can expect WA to get on their case.
Account: R499 30+100GB MyBB Special
Latency: 5
Support: 4
Reliability/Uptime: 4
Value for money: 5
Overall: Happy. Loved that the account keeps getting better and better. Whenever Telkom drops the ball, I can expect WA to get on their case.
Account: R499 30+100GB MyBB Special
Lycanthrope
Honorary Master
Speed: Great. Not perfect, but better than any other uncapped product I've used.
Latency: Great. Best international latency I've ever had although, back when I was playing SWTOR, MineCraft, etc there were some painful spikes.
Support: Great. Fast, courteous and professional. Had one strange incident not so long ago but WAJeff and WARoop reassured me, so that was good enough for me.
Value for money: Average. Could be better.
Overall: Best ISP I've ever been with and I hope to be with them for a very long time still. Definitely recommended.
Latency: Great. Best international latency I've ever had although, back when I was playing SWTOR, MineCraft, etc there were some painful spikes.
Support: Great. Fast, courteous and professional. Had one strange incident not so long ago but WAJeff and WARoop reassured me, so that was good enough for me.
Value for money: Average. Could be better.
Overall: Best ISP I've ever been with and I hope to be with them for a very long time still. Definitely recommended.
Friedpet
Senior Member
Speed: good
Latency: okay
Support: prompt
Value for money: okay
Overall: quite happy.
Account: 1mbps home uncapped
Latency: okay
Support: prompt
Value for money: okay
Overall: quite happy.
Account: 1mbps home uncapped
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cavaliersa
Well-Known Member
Speed: Good
Latency: Good
Support: Prompt but...an automated response, issues do not seem to get escalated where you are speaking to someone that is not reading off a script. Often because (seemingly) a flow chart is being used proposed fixes are on the whole not related to the issue in any direct way or form.
Reliability/Uptime: Used to be something with an automatic answer of "is WA ever down" or "think it's my line because I never have problems with WA"...due to the last year or so you you now have to make sure even if the network status is "online and functioning".
Value for money: Very good
Overall: Happy. I would and do recommend but it is becoming a more difficult recommendation in recent times.
Account: 4mbps uncapped + RedAfrica (30GB + 100GB download plus)
I agree with what gmza has wholly except for the premium pricing...I feel their pricing is in line or competitive with what is out there. This however does mean they need to seperate themselves by not having the issues that have plagued their network for the last few months. At the moment it's as if as one hole is plugged another pops open.
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TofuMofu
Honorary Master
Speed: 4096kbps, but I get the full speed of my line, which is perfect.
Latency: Best I've ever had from any ISP I've used so far (and I play World of Warcraft, so it's important)
Support: Super, even late at night they will get back to you via their ticketiing system.
Value for money: Really can't complain there
Overall: I'm extremely happy with my Web Africa account and wouldn't recommend anyone else.
Account: MyBroadband: 30GB (up to 10mbit)
Latency: Best I've ever had from any ISP I've used so far (and I play World of Warcraft, so it's important)
Support: Super, even late at night they will get back to you via their ticketiing system.
Value for money: Really can't complain there
Overall: I'm extremely happy with my Web Africa account and wouldn't recommend anyone else.
Account: MyBroadband: 30GB (up to 10mbit)
boswald
Senior Member
Speed: erratic - at times I get my full 4mb. and at times I am luck if I can browse gmail.
Latency: erratic
Support: okay - always wait for ages for support
Value for money: excellent
Overall: so so. with out the special I would be somewhere else
Latency: erratic
Support: okay - always wait for ages for support
Value for money: excellent
Overall: so so. with out the special I would be somewhere else
Uncapped 4mbps option.
Very happy with overall performance.
Would be happier if Gaming was given the highest priority on the network (A/h) from say 5pm to 8am.... How they can classify gaming high on business accounts, i cannot understand. People at work shouldnt be gaming!! People who have home accounts should have HTTP, VIOP and Gaming on highest prioritisation! IMO
Very happy with overall performance.
Would be happier if Gaming was given the highest priority on the network (A/h) from say 5pm to 8am.... How they can classify gaming high on business accounts, i cannot understand. People at work shouldnt be gaming!! People who have home accounts should have HTTP, VIOP and Gaming on highest prioritisation! IMO
Speed: Full line speed most of the time, so Good
Latency: For my use it is good.
Support: Have not needed much in the way of support. So can't really comment.
Value for money: With the RedAfrica special at R199.00 it is brilliant value for money given the current options out there.
Overall: No complaints at all.
Suggestions: Keep up your attitude towards service delivery. In my view you are on the right track.
Latency: For my use it is good.
Support: Have not needed much in the way of support. So can't really comment.
Value for money: With the RedAfrica special at R199.00 it is brilliant value for money given the current options out there.
Overall: No complaints at all.
Suggestions: Keep up your attitude towards service delivery. In my view you are on the right track.
Before I give my ratings I would just like to state that my Home Uncapped 1Mbps account is almost unusable most evenings between 5pm and 10pm. This has been blamed, by WA, on a busy exchange. Telkom however have not confirmed this. Everytime I log a ticket with Telkom they test on Saturday mornings, phone me to say the line is fine and close the ticket. FFS. This has been going on for at least 3 months and WA has stopped responding to my mails and complaints.
Speed: 5 (when it works)
Latency: 5 (also, when it works)
Support: 3 (when it's easy to fix they get a 5, but as soon as its something that doesn't require a tracert to identify, they fail.)
Value for money: 3 (5, were it not for the regular downtime)
Overall: 4 (have and would still recommend them, for how long though... that is the question)
As a final note, I only see people that signed up with the MyBB WA specials post positive replies here. Here is a link to the WA Home Uncapped Feedback forum, it tells a VERY different story there: Web Africa Home Uncapped Feedback.
Also they dropped Steam as something that didn't count against your rolling window, de-prioritization scheme. This is one of the main reasons I signed up for the package. The reason stated was that they couldn't sort out the technical difficulties. Well, hire better technical personnel?
Speed: 5 (when it works)
Latency: 5 (also, when it works)
Support: 3 (when it's easy to fix they get a 5, but as soon as its something that doesn't require a tracert to identify, they fail.)
Value for money: 3 (5, were it not for the regular downtime)
Overall: 4 (have and would still recommend them, for how long though... that is the question)
As a final note, I only see people that signed up with the MyBB WA specials post positive replies here. Here is a link to the WA Home Uncapped Feedback forum, it tells a VERY different story there: Web Africa Home Uncapped Feedback.
Also they dropped Steam as something that didn't count against your rolling window, de-prioritization scheme. This is one of the main reasons I signed up for the package. The reason stated was that they couldn't sort out the technical difficulties. Well, hire better technical personnel?
nelwa
Expert Member
Speed: 3
Latency: 3
Support: 5
Value for money: 5
Overall: 4
Some speed and latency issues on my RedAfrica account these days, but at R 199 for a total of 130GB, who can complain...it doesn't go down, it's just a little slow from time to time...
Latency: 3
Support: 5
Value for money: 5
Overall: 4
Some speed and latency issues on my RedAfrica account these days, but at R 199 for a total of 130GB, who can complain...it doesn't go down, it's just a little slow from time to time...
Gemaskerde Tuinvurk
Active Member
Speed: 5
Latency: 4
Support: 5 - have only had to use 3-4 times in 4 years with WA, but each time has been great
Value for money: 4 - only cause I'm on Titan - the other packages are less so.
Overall: 5 -very happy. Would recommend.
Account: 4mbps Titan (25gb) for R599
Great service and support vs many of the other ADSL ISPs I used 4 years ago (and I used almost all of them). We use about an average of 15-20Gb of the titan package a month, but its been up 99% over the last 4 years - was only down when there was an issue at my exchange. After telkom sorted it, everything was back to 100%. Had 1 or 2 periods where it was slow for a day or so, but these were rectified quickly by WA.
Latency: 4
Support: 5 - have only had to use 3-4 times in 4 years with WA, but each time has been great
Value for money: 4 - only cause I'm on Titan - the other packages are less so.
Overall: 5 -very happy. Would recommend.
Account: 4mbps Titan (25gb) for R599
Great service and support vs many of the other ADSL ISPs I used 4 years ago (and I used almost all of them). We use about an average of 15-20Gb of the titan package a month, but its been up 99% over the last 4 years - was only down when there was an issue at my exchange. After telkom sorted it, everything was back to 100%. Had 1 or 2 periods where it was slow for a day or so, but these were rectified quickly by WA.
niftyshorts
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2008
- Messages
- 173
- Reaction score
- 3
Speed: 4
Latency: 4
Support: 5
Value for money: 3 (I'm not on the legendary RA package or anything
Paying R299 for 25G package with only 5G on peak)
Overall: 4
I'm a brand new Web Africa client. So far, things have gone quickly & support has been responsive & interested in what I have to say. I just wish i could get a better package
Latency: 4
Support: 5
Value for money: 3 (I'm not on the legendary RA package or anything
Paying R299 for 25G package with only 5G on peak)Overall: 4
I'm a brand new Web Africa client. So far, things have gone quickly & support has been responsive & interested in what I have to say. I just wish i could get a better package
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