SAINET any good?

[Isengard]

So I'm still waiting on Telkom to activate the ADSL line so in the mean time I'm looking for a decent ISP.

So far my two choices are Afrihost and SAINET of which I want to get a 5GB account. What I like about SAINET is the local bandwidth only uses 50% of your cap which will be useful for online gaming.

My question is if SAINET has a good track record with stable connections, or is it safer to just get an Afrihost account?

 

[Pada]

With SAINET local bandwidth uses 33% of your cap, if I'm not mistaken. I'm still in bit of an ugly situation with SAINET since I bought an 384kbps uncapped data account from them and used it on a 4Mbps ADSL line. They disabled my account due to abuse, which I was unaware of since I took it that the ISP would limit my account to 384kbps! (like Axxess does with their uncapped express accounts).

I reckon if you're not going to be using excessive bandwidth like I did, then you would remain in the fast/unshaped pools where your latency would be pretty good. If you're seriously into gaming or playing WoW then I'd recommend that you get an unshaped Internet account dedicated for gaming.

 

[ForSure]

take some time and browse the adsl sections and check them out
afrihost has some decent prices and some other too

 

[flarkit]

Been with Sainet for almsot 3 years and no serious complaints so far.

 

[Adrenalin]

Well,

I had quite a good experience, the same issue as pada described happened to me, except i have a 512k line and applied for the 384k option.

They consequently gave me 50GB for March which to me is very fair because they do have something on their website stating that you have to apply for the 4mb uncapped option if you have a 4mb line.

Latency and Skype i have heard are an issue but i also streamed a video for quite some time with the connection.

their uncapped options wil be fully available in April.

So service = Good
Speed = Good
Support = Good

Not much more you can ask for in an ISP in SA really.

 

[Isengard]

Thanks guys. I'm planning to use the line mostly for gaming, i.e. BC2, TF2, UT3 etc, so I need an ISP that will offer decent local pings. I'll only be doing the odd download or youtube so I'm not as concerned about international latency and I don't use Skype.

So for me SAINET would be the better deal seeing as how it only uses one third of your cap when on local.

I just need to know if local gaming is any good on SAINET, considering it's shaped or if Afrihost would be better.

 

[cavedog]

With SAINET local bandwidth uses 33% of your cap, if I'm not mistaken. I'm still in bit of an ugly situation with SAINET since I bought an 384kbps uncapped data account from them and used it on a 4Mbps ADSL line. They disabled my account due to abuse, which I was unaware of since I took it that the ISP would limit my account to 384kbps! (like Axxess does with their uncapped express accounts).

I reckon if you're not going to be using excessive bandwidth like I did, then you would remain in the fast/unshaped pools where your latency would be pretty good. If you're seriously into gaming or playing WoW then I'd recommend that you get an unshaped Internet account dedicated for gaming.

lol

 

[TheRoDent]

I just need to know if local gaming is any good on SAINET, considering it's shaped or if Afrihost would be better.

C:\>ping games.saix.net

Pinging games.saix.net [196.43.22.222] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=243
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=243
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=243
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=243

Ping statistics for 196.43.22.222:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 16ms, Maximum = 17ms, Average = 16ms

C:\>ping igame.iburst.co.za

Pinging igame.iburst.co.za [196.2.97.210] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 196.2.97.210: bytes=32 time=20ms TTL=50
Reply from 196.2.97.210: bytes=32 time=23ms TTL=50
Reply from 196.2.97.210: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=50
Reply from 196.2.97.210: bytes=32 time=23ms TTL=50

Ping statistics for 196.2.97.210:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 20ms, Maximum = 24ms, Average = 22ms

4Mbps standard shaped account.

 

[Isengard]

C:\>ping games.saix.net

Pinging games.saix.net [196.43.22.222] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=243
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=243
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=243
Reply from 196.43.22.222: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=243

Ping statistics for 196.43.22.222:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 16ms, Maximum = 17ms, Average = 16ms

C:\>ping igame.iburst.co.za

Pinging igame.iburst.co.za [196.2.97.210] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 196.2.97.210: bytes=32 time=20ms TTL=50
Reply from 196.2.97.210: bytes=32 time=23ms TTL=50
Reply from 196.2.97.210: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=50
Reply from 196.2.97.210: bytes=32 time=23ms TTL=50

Ping statistics for 196.2.97.210:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 20ms, Maximum = 24ms, Average = 22ms

4Mbps standard shaped account.

Thanks for that TheRoDent, the latency seems quite good so it looks like it might be SAINET after all.