SAOL vs Screamer & Afrihost vs Gconnect

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Raedwulf

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Two options, cheap uncapped and the cheapest capped.

SAOL
R499 incl line rental
No setup cost
No Contract
No rolling threshhold
Shaped

Screamer
R399 excl line rental
No setup cost
No Contract
No rolling threshhold
Shaped (possibly unshaped)

Under uncapped the cheapest usable options appear to be SAOL and Screamer. On the face both offers are very similar. SAOL however requires your phone line to be transferred to them, and Screamer has had a lot of bad commentary following a very bumpy launch.

Afrihost
R29 per Gig
No setup cost
No Contract
Shaped

GConnect
R22 per Gig (until April)
No setup cost
No Contract
UnShaped

The next best alternative to the often unstable new uncapped services are the cheapest capped services. Afrihost is well loved by many, and few can argue with the price. Gconnect however comes in even cheaper with their current special, and very notably is also unshaped. Some negative feedback has come out over their connection management software, but overall it looks incredible.

What are the real facts however? What hidden pitfalls, or boons, do these four conceal? Only those that actually use these services can say.

Give me comments!
 
Last edited:
Screamer apparently removed their shaping a couple of weeks ago
 
Screamer is a waster of time has not worked either for more than a week or 2 and when it does "work" it dial up speeds....

Stay away at all cost !!!!

Check out Hellopeter on Screamer..... then decide :}}}
 
vernonh said:
Screamer is a waster of time has not worked either for more than a week or 2 and when it does "work" it dial up speeds....

Stay away at all cost !!!!

Check out Hellopeter on Screamer..... then decide :}}}
Click to expand...

Not a pretty sight.
 
vernonh said:
Screamer is a waster of time has not worked either for more than a week or 2 and when it does "work" it dial up speeds....

Stay away at all cost !!!!

Check out Hellopeter on Screamer..... then decide :}}}
Click to expand...

not my opinion.
I have been with Screamer since the start of Jan, and so far have had consistent speeds. My speed has been close (90 to 95%) to what I have gotten on Afrihost and GConnect.
Also managed to download close to 20gigs in the last 11 days.
 
Is it going to stay that way though? By all reports Dec with them was hell. Does it have enough stability to connect and stay connected to international gaming servers? And lastly can you confirm that it is now unshaped?
 
Well reports say that both Screamer and DC are hell. I had a DC test account and it was slow most of the time, but stable. I had to use multi threads or download multiple files to reach my line speed.

It did improve a lot at times though. I reckon they will both probably sort out the issues eventually. Untill then, if you want a stable connection, go with capped. Or one of the much more expensive uncapped options. (e.g. Axxess, Openweb)

When they do sort out the issues, I will go with DC because of Screamer's NATting, and DC's lower price at R300 for 256k, that's good for me. Not taking into account any better options that may come up.

Webafrica might launch uncapped, but I doubt it will be as cheap as DC or Screamer somehow, Afrihost is also rumoured to be launching uncapped. There's also this Cybersmart thing that's being talked about in dark corners. I don't like their T&C though. SAOL isn't getting my line any time soon.
 
Alright then, thanks for the comments all. I will go with GConnect, and if that fails, Afrihost, while waiting patiently for the affordable uncapped services to stabilize, and hoping wistfully for our Telkom grid upgrade.
 
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