Screamer WiMax

Wug Kit

Will my 5.8GHz Pta-Wug kit with 27dbi antenna be compatible with the screamer service?
 
Are you guys shaping again, or is something down, my p2p is useless!? I'm in Vereeniging.
 
lionelpcn said:
Will my 5.8GHz Pta-Wug kit with 27dbi antenna be compatible with the screamer service?
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No, you need a WiMax or 2.5Mhz Wifi CPE to access our service.

MetalCut said:
Are you guys shaping again, or is something down, my p2p is useless!? I'm in Vereeniging.
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No we are not. PM me your account no and we will check your connection. One of the Seacom links has gone down upstream but our backup redundent bandwidth is handling the load.
 
lionelpcn said:
So what if I buy a wimax radio for my kit? And what about WiFi?
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You can rent a WiMAX or WiFi CPE from us. PM me your contact no and I will get a tech consultant to explain the options to you.

You can probably use your dish to connect to us via a "point to point" connection to one of our towers but that is a heavy business user solution (4 Mgb to 100Mgb speeds) where you pay a little more for a dedicated connection but I don't think that is what you are after as a residential user?
 
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I'm quite happy with my adsl as it is now. I was hoping to easily test the screamer service without bankrupting myself just thinking about it. I don't have the money now to rent a kit. I though since I have a wifi kit it could perhaps be an easy checkout. It seems i'd have to get a personal loan to test this out. Definitely not an option for me. Not at this moment anycase.
 
Dont bother getting screamer right now.
I have just got off the phone with technical support and was told I do not have international because Seacom is down and wont be up for the next 8 days........

So right now I have an uncapped 512 that is absolutely useless and that I am paying a small fortune for ......
Just had to give up on a wow raid because the connection just times out

So much for redundant networks .............
 
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I hope scremer seriously consider suing you for that statement. Even MWEB, Afrihost and OpenWeb is offline because of that. Screamer isn't the only company running on the Seacom network you moron.

Please take back your statement because you can seriously damage their name by making it sound like they are useless and check your facts next time before you just jot down some random rubbish.
 
lionelpcn said:
I hope scremer seriously consider suing you for that statement. Even MWEB, Afrihost and OpenWeb is offline because of that. Screamer isn't the only company running on the Seacom network you moron.

Please take back your statement because you can seriously damage their name by making it sound like they are useless and check your facts next time before you just jot down some random rubbish.
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Well if they only have Seacom bandwidth that is their problem ... Expect a lot of negative publicity when they have extended downtimes due to cable downtimes and they dont have enough alternative bandwidth. If that is how they structured their business model then they must expect the huge backlash when someting like this happens.

Why can other isp's still have redundant connections over multiple cable providers and in some cases at even cheaper rates ?

Lets see I just did check my facts , I phoned their technical support where I was gleefully told I am stuffed for 8 days and dont expect a refund as "best effort" is in their toc. Pity that their "best effort" is a local only connection......

Also Screamer only went down this morning while Seacom has been down for a while longer. So it looks like Screamer was actually bumped off for more "important" customers on whatever alternative bandwidth they had had lol.

So be carefull who you call Moron , Moron ..
 
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Because no-one foresaw Seacom's greatest flaws. Screamer built their business based on affordable internet for the home and small office user (home mostly) where other ISPs make use of upstream providers such as vodacom business and SAIX who all connect to proprietary and much more expensive networks. I am certain you wouldn't be able to afford a 512K business class uncapped ADSL connection not to mention the additional line rental cost. That would be just short of R2K pm.

It is not Screamer, Mweb, Openweb, Afrihost's fault that the seacom network have redundancy flaws and they certainly don't need any negativity. Just think about this for one second before your reply again with a snotty trying to be smart ass answer. What about MWEB who by the way is the largest ISP in SA. Is it now their fault that Seacom is offline? Could they have foresaw the outages?

Telkom fortunately still makes use of the SAT3 cable system but what if they also made use of Seacom?

Not all ISPs have the luxury of a backup connection because networks such as SAT3 were designed for low contention ratios like 4:1 whereas Seacom was designed for 50:1. That means that Seacom can potentially be more profiting while still being cheaper since more people can connect through it while SAT3 can handle far less than that thought your bandwidth is unshaped. It makes it so much more expensive. That's the beauty of the monetary system. If something's less readily available it becomes more expensive. That's why oil, gold, platinum, diamonds etc is so expensive. They are not abundantly available.

Now go ahead and apologise to Screamer and the people on this forum for not thinking about what you say. Next time you may land your ass in a courtroom
 
Now you know why people who specialise in Disaster recovery planning get paid so much.
It is bad business sense to only rely on one provider connection. Especially when your business revolves around that connection.

Yes, it should have been forseen and business plans should have been in place to counter it.

Yes I could afford a " 512K business class uncapped ADSL connection ". I just cant have it because of the rampant theft in our country of the last remaining last mile connectivity.

All that this type of problem brings out is those companies with working disaster recovery plans and those that dont.
You point to Telkom, but they actually maintain a number of connections across a selection of cables and satellites. Even on cables belonging to their competitors.


“SEACOM has successfully sourced and activated restoration capacity on other cable networks servicing eastern and southern Africa and will continue to work closely with all parties to ensure that restoration capacity is made available to additional clients requiring it,” SEACOM concluded.
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Is Screamer not going to be included in this ? Didnt sound like it from the way the tech desk was telling me I was poked.

I will apologise when I get international connectivity back and I can actually enjoy some gaming in the little relaxation time that I do have. Not before.
 
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You know... I can handle an ISP going through their "growing pains" in terms of their network stability, their support department being useless and their accounts department being overwhelmed, BUT... I would never expect them to grown and stabilize during this period. Their userbase would take on a yoyo affect. It's necessary.

I have cancelled my Screamer because I require something that only a physical line can provide.

Not because their network is ***... BECAUSE IT SIMPLY ISN'T!
This time that Seacom went down, I was surprised to arrive at home and still have completely unaffected internet access. They are growing, they are becoming better. !!!Although I've never had a problem with their network!!!
It's been solid, solid, solid.

Not because their support department is ***... BECAUSE THEY HONESTLY AND SERIOUSLY ARE QUITE ***!
I can understand the need for users and clients to vent their anger when something isnt working for them. In the same breath, I can understand a noob or a -10919191 Level Layman needing somebody to talk him through how to make a cup of coffee. I can also understand the need for a "support" department, because if you dont have one, then blasters on the MyBB forum would rip you to pieces, because even though they dont need a support department personally... "imagine an ISP without a support department" - haha...
Taking all of this into account, I can understand why any ISP would simply employ monkeys, rats and pigeons to work their first level support centre. The people who actually use the service would probably think that it works quite well.

Not because their VoIP service is crappy... BECAUSE IT SIMPLY ISNT!
It works!
It's Cheapish!
It's better than paying Telkom directly (even if Screamer is paying them indirectly)
It WORKS!

Not because their notifications system sucks... BECAUSE IT DOES!!!
Even though I have been informed of a few minor issues and have received a few apologies for services being down via SMS lately... their notifications suck!
Don't get me started on their "Your Bandwidth has been used up" "AUTOMATED" email response. I actually think that John sits there all day and simply watches user's usage per their account spec and then sends out a templated email to them. Once he even sent our a group/mass email and decided to put everybody's email addresses into the TO field. So we could all start chatting back and forth on how *** that was.
Also... let's face it... if a service is down, as a human being who is able to use a computer/the internet... I can tell that something is down, and I also have enough faith in nerdtania and nerdtanian kind that their "guru's" will also know that something is down. Thus, it will get fixed... so plug in your mother flapping 3G modem and wait for Screamer to sort it out (which normally takes 10 minutes)

Not because they implement the worst transparent caching system I've ever seen... Most ISPs do!

Not because their overall service is unstable... BECAUSE IT'S NOT!

Not because their invoices are ugly... BECAUSE THEY SURE AS HELL ARE

Not because they got rid of the "here, please feel free to rent the CPE from us rather than paying us 500% of the recommended retail price of it outright... at which point we still own it" offer...

"bare with me... i'm getting to my point"

But I left them because I was sick and tired of their accounts department taking thousands out of my account every month without even invoicing me. Every cent that they took from me was easily justifyable. I had spent every sent of it. But for the love of all things plentiful, invoice me first. Something that they refused to do month after month after month. Until I called my relationship manager at FNB along with NetCash (who we use too) and instructed them to disallow any further debit orders from Screamer from my Account. Now, I get invoices AS they become available... because they want to get paid :)

And furthermore, to prove that Screamer is a solid service... I have a 4GB service with a Voice Line via WiMax... My average bill is around R1500.00 to R2000.00. Only an ISP that has their act together, a stable network and a great service can have users spending this much on overusage. If their network was down as much as most people on this forum report... it wouldnt be remotely possible to overuse their service and run up a bill. I can do it, why can't you.

Screamer... you guys rock! But I shouted at you because your accounts department were up to ****. I shouted, I cancelled and unfortunately I need to stick by my decision. No hard feelings Michelle and Maureen! All the best to you guys. If my balls were non-existent, I would stay with you... but I need to stick by my decision and have made justification in requiring a Physical Line rather than wireless. haha

Thanks for allowing me the time to rant. PLEASE excuse any and all spelling and/or grammatical errors. I don't proof read.
 
Oh, you probably didn't hear. under normal circumstances there would be enough bandwidth to go around even from SAT3 since the soccer needs guaranteed bandwidth. Here's a newsletter from Cozahost.

Millions of ADSL users in South Africa are still suffering from broken or slow internet access after the SEACOM undersea cable failed on Monday.

If you (like most people) are affected by this outage, here follows a quick explanation of what is happening. (If you are not affected because you are using Telkom and the SAT3 cable, this may be your last chance to make fun of the SEACOM users...after all: they`ve been paying up to half less than you are for the same thing. :-) The bastids.)

SEACOM is a 17 000 Km long undersea cable that lies on the sea bed on the eastern coast of Africa. It connects to several African countries, (including South Africa) to Europe and India.

On Monday morning (04-Jun-2010) a repeater on the cable (a boxy thingy responsible for amplifying signals) died suddenly and permanently.

No repeater means that the signal cannot travel beyond the repeater, so the cable is effectively dead beyond that point.

There is a split in the cable: one end goes off along the African coast, the other off to India. As Mr Murphy predicted, the repeater is on our side of the split. This makes it impossible to re-route traffic via India to the rest of the word: a fix that would have been slow, but workable.

The second item of bad news is that the repeater is several days away per ship. A special cable repair ship was dispatched (Vernon Koekemoer in a canoe won`t do), and, once the ship arrives at the approximate location, it must locate the cable where it is in 4.7Km deep water, then locate the repeater, then send a robot down to cut and bring the cable to the surface and then repair the black-box, test it and send the robot back down to mend the cable.

And good the good news?

Erm.

We`re out of stock on that.

Due to World Cup commitments everybody cannot just hop unto the (Telkom) SAT3 cable because of bandwidth guarantees made to Fifa. Maybe, after the final on Sunday, SAT3 bandwidth will become available.

At this point one has to ask: how is it possible for a single black box to disrupt much of South Africa`s internet connectivity?

The answer is depressingly simple: Lack of redundant capacity. The choice is: pay through your nose or try your luck. Equally unpalatable.

Let me explain: At the moment there are 2 submarine cables system servicing South Africa: SAT3/SAFE and SEACOM.

SAT3/SAFE are run by Telkom and you PAY for bandwidth. That`s right "Pay" with a capital "P". The good thing about the SAT3/SAFE system is that it consists of two cables: if one fails, traffic is switched over to the other plus, if required, to satellite.

SEACOM is much more affordable but it does not have this fail-over capability.

Under normal circumstances that would not be a train-smash because, if SEACOM failed, traffic can be re-routed via the SAT3/SAFE system....except during the soccer world cup where bandwidth and stability of the SAT3 system must be guaranteed above all else.

How`s that for an own goal?

That`s the jist of it. At this time the saga is still unfolding - see Google news for updates and you may find this interview with SEACOM interesting...in a depressing way.

Later this month (or early next) a new submarine cable lands in South Africa - EASSAY which will make a BIG contribution to faster, cheaper and more reliable bandwidth.

At least we won`t all be hanging by our nails hovering over an endless abyss of pitch black disconnection for too much longer.

I hope that clears things up a little. :-)

So you see, that's why screamer got bumped off. In fact, even openweb is bumped off and Afrihost was never on.

Besides, you agreed to a best effort contract so shutup and wait. You probably should've considered the possibilities before you signed up seeing that this isn't the first time Seacom has failed in the past 3 months.

Also don't forget that the Screamer overhead is somewhat higher since they actually need to pay airial licenses for their antennae.

You know, it certainly don't make any good business sense to have more expenses than income so maybe that's why they don't have the alternative bandwidth. In overall, all cutovers have been limited or just done away with. In-fact, even as read above TENET had to jump in to help carry the extra burden though they had some failures too.

Seems like your homework was only half done.
 
Wow, maybe you all should start writing some novels:D

My connection was down Wednesday for about an hour only. The rest of the time my connection was fine, while most of my friends with ADSL could not even connect.

Bash them, don't bash them, just so that everyone knows it is not nearly as bad as some say
 
Erm.. My Screamer connection has been fine all before and during this SEACOM outage btw. Speed and latency wise.
 
cyPHunk said:
Screamer... you guys rock! But I shouted at you because your accounts department were up to ****. I shouted, I cancelled and unfortunately I need to stick by my decision. No hard feelings Michelle and Maureen!
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Got to be honest, I had to email their CEO and give him a massive earful before Michelle would obay the law, much less treat me like a customer, or treat me like a human being.

Their accounts department need a serious smack.

I understand that when it comes to paying, 80% of customers are up to no good. I've run a business, and do not intend to do so ever again simply because it's so hard to get people to pay. And when they don't, it's next to impossible in SA to do anything about it.

BUT I'm someone who pays, religiously, on time, every time. So when I get overbilled, I get angry. When I pay via EFT, send a proof of payment, and then get debited anyway, I get angry. When some snotty cow acts like it's my fault, I get extremely angry. When people advertise new rates, and then screw me for 2 months claiming it was my responsibility to request those new rates (and give 1 months notice to obtain them??) then I get extremely extremely angry.

I agree, I could put up with everything else. It was only that I had zero other connectivity options that I put up with the accounting and insisted on resolving it.
 
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