SAOL - Uncapped dilemma

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ThatOtherGuy

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Hi guys,

I currently have the SAOL uncapped/unshaped for R499 that they released long ago and have since discontinued. So I'm one of the lucky ones.

I was wondering if it's worthwhile upgrading to a 512Kb(shaped) for R100 more. I basically only browse, youtube and torrents. What I love about my current connection is that my torrents are consistently above 40KB/s, even during office hours. What I hate about it is that my youtube videos takes(what seems like) ages to load.

Will I lose the torrent speeds if I go for a shaped 512Kb package?

P.S After 20gigs I have noticable speed drops on P2P currently.

Thanks.
TOG
 
shaped like nothing in office hours, like 50kbs+ when its unshaped after hours.

youtube you can still only stream 240p, 360p just just need to buffer
 
ThatOtherGuy said:
Hi guys,

I currently have the SAOL uncapped/unshaped for R499 that they released long ago and have since discontinued. So I'm one of the lucky ones.

I was wondering if it's worthwhile upgrading to a 512Kb(shaped) for R100 more. I basically only browse, youtube and torrents. What I love about my current connection is that my torrents are consistently above 40KB/s, even during office hours. What I hate about it is that my youtube videos takes(what seems like) ages to load.

Will I lose the torrent speeds if I go for a shaped 512Kb package?

P.S After 20gigs I have noticable speed drops on P2P currently.

Thanks.
TOG
Click to expand...

I don't think a 512 rental is worth the price consider the minimal increase in speed you would achieve.

Youtube videos will still buffer on 512 and P2P will be throttled on SAOL during office hours.

I was also on that special SAOL uncapped deal like you, then they started throttling us after 30 gigs and i asked for a better deal.

I ended up paying an extra R100(R599) and got a fixed-cost ASDL account with SAOL with 10gigs unshaped browsing during offIce hours and 50GB's unshaped to use after 6PM.

So i use auto-shutdown to switch my machine off before 6AM.

Im very happy with this deal even if the the rules of the account are a little odd.

P2P on SAOL(fixed-cost ASDL) is heaven :).
 
demon angel said:
I don't think a 512 rental is worth the price consider the minimal increase in speed you would achieve.

Youtube videos will still buffer on 512 and P2P will be throttled on SAOL during office hours.

I was also on that special SAOL uncapped deal like you, then they started throttling us after 30 gigs and i asked for a better deal.

I ended up paying an extra R100(R599) and got a fixed-cost ASDL account with SAOL with 10gigs unshaped browsing during offIce hours and 50GB's unshaped to use after 6PM.

So i use auto-shutdown to switch my machine off before 6AM.

Im very happy with this deal even if the the rules of the account are a little odd.

P2P on SAOL(fixed-cost ASDL) is heaven :).
Click to expand...

mmm, you raise very good points. Most importantly, Youtube won't be that much faster. Also, the 30 gig thing does affect me now and then.

That deal you have, would I just be able to call and ask for it and must I speak to someone specific to organise it for me?
 
ThatOtherGuy said:
mmm, you raise very good points. Most importantly, Youtube won't be that much faster. Also, the 30 gig thing does affect me now and then.

That deal you have, would I just be able to call and ask for it and must I speak to someone specific to organise it for me?
Click to expand...

Leon Reddy from SAOL gave me this deal, so call and ask for him because he offered it to me only after i complained about the throttling after 20 or 30 gigs, and saw the updated terms and conditions.

I told him that P2P is the most important aspect of my internet usage and they invented this 'fixed-cost' package.

I was the first person to use this fixed-cost ASDL so make it known that you know somebody else has this package and they pay R599, just incase another employee doesn't know about it.(or denies it)

Otherwise Openweb is another option but you would have to pay SAOL for your line rental(because cancelling with them could result in your line being cancelled), on top of paying for an Openweb account which for me was a HUGE hassle.

Please let me know what happens if you decide to go for it.
 
demon angel said:
Leon Reddy from SAOL gave me this deal, so call and ask for him because he offered it to me only after i complained about the throttling after 20 or 30 gigs, and saw the updated terms and conditions.

I told him that P2P is the most important aspect of my internet usage and they invented this 'fixed-cost' package.

I was the first person to use this fixed-cost ASDL so make it known that you know somebody else has this package and they pay R599, just incase another employee doesn't know about it.(or denies it)

Otherwise Openweb is another option but you would have to pay SAOL for your line rental(because cancelling with them could result in your line being cancelled), on top of paying for an Openweb account which for me was a HUGE hassle.

Please let me know what happens if you decide to go for it.
Click to expand...

Hmm, I'm on the same package you were on (R499-00), recently (last 3 days) I've been throttled to nothing (nntp & p2p just keep on disconnecting all the time!). I phoned & they offered me the same deal you've now got ... but they just said "unshaped @ R599-00). So ... how's your experience? nntp speed (international) & p2p ??

Tx
 
pmbellis said:
Hmm, I'm on the same package you were on (R499-00), recently (last 3 days) I've been throttled to nothing (nntp & p2p just keep on disconnecting all the time!). I phoned & they offered me the same deal you've now got ... but they just said "unshaped @ R599-00). So ... how's your experience? nntp speed (international) & p2p ??

Tx
Click to expand...

Cruising at full line speed on P2P, NNTP and HTTP.
Its totally worth it if your still love your torrents and remember that SAOL do not SEND YOU A WARNING FROM MGM or Sony about copyright infringement so its bliss indeed.(Although i still user peerblock to be careful)
Just remember if you take the 'unshaped' deal there are secret rules that they do not tell you:

1:10gigs browsing during the day for the month (6am-6pm)
2:50 gigs after hours giving you a total of 60 gigs to use a month before they throttle you again.

I must admit though that i never need to use 60 and get by with 45gb but is nice to know your limits.

I have followed these rules and have downloaded a program called auto shutdown,which lets me download until i tell my pc to switch off at 5:59AM, and for the last 3 months i couldn't be happier.

It is ridiculous that they do not explain this to you unless you ask.

The unshaped deal you were offered.
Did you get a limit on how much you can download for the month?
And check if your username will change to @fixedcost.saol instead of @saol, because the quality of my bandwidth with regards to latency is also MUCH better now.

Cheers Pmbellis.:p
 
demon angel said:
Cruising at full line speed on P2P, NNTP and HTTP.
Its totally worth it if your still love your torrents and remember that SAOL do not SEND YOU A WARNING FROM MGM or Sony about copyright infringement so its bliss indeed.(Although i still user peerblock to be careful)
Just remember if you take the 'unshaped' deal there are secret rules that they do not tell you:

1:10gigs browsing during the day for the month (6am-6pm)
2:50 gigs after hours giving you a total of 60 gigs to use a month before they throttle you again.

I must admit though that i never need to use 60 and get by with 45gb but is nice to know your limits.

I have followed these rules and have downloaded a program called auto shutdown,which lets me download until i tell my pc to switch off at 5:59AM, and for the last 3 months i couldn't be happier.

It is ridiculous that they do not explain this to you unless you ask.

The unshaped deal you were offered.
Did you get a limit on how much you can download for the month?
And check if your username will change to @fixedcost.saol instead of @saol, because the quality of my bandwidth with regards to latency is also MUCH better now.

Cheers Pmbellis.:p
Click to expand...

I just got off the phone with SAOL support, told them I wanted the R599 deal, and on checking the conditions was told that I'd get throttled after 20Gb as using more was "abuse". Told the guy that was not acceptable & he just stuck to his guns.

I just checked my sessions on the SAOL site & see that from midnight 31st I've had 4.3 Mb of traffic ... my nightly e-mail shows .795 Gb for the month to date ... rather a huge discrepancy ... however even .795 Gb is totally unacceptable ( / 3 * 28 = 7.42 Gb for the month !)

So, I guess it's going to be goodbye SAOL ... checking my other options now ...
 
pmbellis said:
I just got off the phone with SAOL support, told them I wanted the R599 deal, and on checking the conditions was told that I'd get throttled after 20Gb as using more was "abuse". Told the guy that was not acceptable & he just stuck to his guns.

I just checked my sessions on the SAOL site & see that from midnight 31st I've had 4.3 Mb of traffic ... my nightly e-mail shows .795 Gb for the month to date ... rather a huge discrepancy ... however even .795 Gb is totally unacceptable ( / 3 * 28 = 7.42 Gb for the month !)

So, I guess it's going to be goodbye SAOL ... checking my other options now ...
Click to expand...

@pmbellis
Sent you a pm
 
pmbellis said:
I just got off the phone with SAOL support, told them I wanted the R599 deal, and on checking the conditions was told that I'd get throttled after 20Gb as using more was "abuse". Told the guy that was not acceptable & he just stuck to his guns.

I just checked my sessions on the SAOL site & see that from midnight 31st I've had 4.3 Mb of traffic ... my nightly e-mail shows .795 Gb for the month to date ... rather a huge discrepancy ... however even .795 Gb is totally unacceptable ( / 3 * 28 = 7.42 Gb for the month !)

So, I guess it's going to be goodbye SAOL ... checking my other options now ...
Click to expand...

Absolutely disgusting to hear Pmbellis.

That is not in im my terms and conditions with regard to fixedcost ASDL as *uncapped/unshaped* is another set of rules.

Seems like a case of double standards and changing rules whenever they feel like it.

I payed the extra R100 for a 60gb limit without throttling on the conditions that i described in an earlier post.

Im going to download the full 60 gigs this month and wait for them to try and throttle me because i just saw ORB ISP's unshaped/uncapped rates and its pretty impressive (Not to mention much cheaper then i am currently paying.), and it includes line rental!

Wonder what backbone Orb ISP uses?
 
I was in the same boat as the SAOL users here in this thread and I left them at the end of Dec 2010 where I maxed out at they're acceptable 60GB level. However for someone like me who (a) works from home for UK company + (b) likes to download constantly I just didn't find it acceptable to be throttled like that. I cancelled my broadband package with them but kept my line rental with SAOL for R139 (and you get a nice emergency gig) and I shifted to OpenWeb Gold Uncapped Unshaped for R599. Couldn't be happier - Jan: 126GB and so far this month am at 27GB (upload + download)
 
ramjet said:
I was in the same boat as the SAOL users here in this thread and I left them at the end of Dec 2010 where I maxed out at they're acceptable 60GB level. However for someone like me who (a) works from home for UK company + (b) likes to download constantly I just didn't find it acceptable to be throttled like that. I cancelled my broadband package with them but kept my line rental with SAOL for R139 (and you get a nice emergency gig) and I shifted to OpenWeb Gold Uncapped Unshaped for R599. Couldn't be happier - Jan: 126GB and so far this month am at 27GB (upload + download)
Click to expand...

How do you find P2P on Openweb Ramjet?

You wont believe this!

Since Sunday, my P2P downloads are being throttled and its after hours, DESPITE having a limit of 60gigs unshaped on my contract.

Now im wondering if they took the unshaped portion away and just gave me a total of 60gb shaped before i get capped.

R599 is alot of money to spend on poo......

Looks like when Pmbellis asked about this deal and they responded that 20gigs is considered abuse, they are taking out on everybody regardless of their contracts on SAOL.

I would have jumped at ORB ISP,only SAOL wont hand over line rental to ORB and i will also have to leave my rental to SAOL.
Looks like im stuck for another month and 20 days at SAOL until i can give my 30 days notice and not pay them for R599 for my 10 days at SAOL after my notice period ends.

I reckon Openweb is a better bet now....
 
demon angel said:
How do you find P2P on Openweb Ramjet?
Click to expand...

P2P is excellent on the Gold uncapped + unshaped package for R599. I believe you will get throttle on the shaped package though for R318.

Keeping your line rental with SAOL for R139 (plus an emergency gig) isn't so bad.
 
*Rejuvenating potion revives thread*

Since around the 6th of this month my torrents have crashed to a pathetic 3-10k.
I called SAOL three different times for different opinions and they told me they were experiencing problems with the Seacom cable.

They then advised me to go to Seacoms website and check about the progress of the cable.

Before i even hung up the phone i remembered that February's scheduled repairs were postponed to April.

My latency is still excellent, and my HTTP downloads are at FULL line speed.

Do you reckon they are lying to me and are just shaping my P2P activity?

Anybody else on the Seacom experiencing a lull in P2P activity?

My logic suggests that R599 for a 60gig unshaped account is not worth the cash even if its a Seacom fault that will only be repaired in April.

I was already going to join Openweb but i would really like a little insight into this problem.

I didn't want to negatively impact the environment so i simply wanted to bolt this onto this thread.....
 
Why do you all download direct P2P? From what I gather (the low prices), you are all on 384kbps. Why don't you get a torrent download service and download http.
Combine a lower cost account with a download service = cheaper.
 
Last edited:
cpu. said:
Why do you all download direct P2P? From what I gather (the low prices), you are all on 384kbps. Why don't you get a torrent download service and download http.
Combine a lower cost account with a download service = cheaper.
Click to expand...

Its not about about cost cpu.

Its about quality and the fact that you don't receive warning letters from MGM or Sony on this ISP since they are utilizing the Seacom backbone.

Im not interested in paying for 3 different services(line rental,internet service provider and seedbox service + bank charges on 3 transactions) every month for something that can and should be all inclusive.

It is a more cost effective solution but it takes more time and is quite frankly a hassle.

I am spending alot of dough for an 'unshaped service' at 60GB's and that entitles me to the full spectrum of protocols on my 384 connection.

All i want to know is if other Seacom users have full P2P line speed at the moment, then i will know that they are talking $h** because i have a hunch they are.
 
@ demon angel
Fair enough. I feel the same way when people suggest news servers.
My change to a torrent download service was to avoid letters too. I didn't know about Seacom ISP's not bothering us - good to hear.
 
i doubt very much seacom ISPs have a policy of not forwarding piracy letters. Or rather it is not because they use Seacom that you have not received any letters.

that being said, news servers are a highly more efficient way of downloading. and well worth the money.
 
cpu. said:
Why do you all download direct P2P? From what I gather (the low prices), you are all on 384kbps. Why don't you get a torrent download service and download http.
Combine a lower cost account with a download service = cheaper.
Click to expand...

Can you make any recommendations or tell us how you would do it cpu? I've never really been tempted to try and thwart the system by using a download service and http as I thought that even if you were using doing that and maxing out your http the ISP's for 384kbps packages would still be aware of you maxing out your line and start shaping your http downloads.
 
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