Service Levels

Rath · May 1, 2004

I'm busy downloading that that NAD software now, thanks dbnnet.

Earlier on I said "this forum is a great place to evaluate feedback and customer experience."

Every now and then I do this. I keep falling into the trap of believing (without thinking) that an online demographic is a good one for general purposes, but it really isn't. It's fine as very specific demographic but by no means does it describe the general Sentech user base.

If I keep correcting myself maybe someday I'll stop doing it.

gripen · May 1, 2004

Rath, there are many but the best would have to be www.suprnova.org
www.filesoup.com
www.torrents.co.uk (for new TV releases)

My experience of BT is pretty good with mywi but IRC sucks.

About the comments, I meant to say that you must base your article on a number of people but dont assume if your experience is good and their's is bad (if theirs = a lot of people) means the service stinks - or vice versa.

Anyways an article would be promotion and thats a good thing !

nicroets · May 1, 2004

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Rath
 Are the expected/actual signal % values generally lower? Also, my 12% is without any extra antennae.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
I have already lowered the calculator expectations[

] (5pm), but it may need some further lowering. I don't have a high map, so I only use distance in the calculation.

You raize a good point. I'll add a listbox for cantenna / patch / grid / dish.

<hr noshade size="1">
<center>http://rational.co.za/MyWireless/calculate.html</center>

Rath · May 1, 2004

So, as fate would have it, the locals just polished off a pringles (with a little encouragement) and I have it attached to my antennae now (77mm from the base).

Signal has now gone to 17%, from 12% - that's the best I can get it without resorting to extreme sports.

I was using ProAsm's utility and it indicates a bit error rate of 57% now. That doesn't sound good. It goes up as my signal strength goes up - which makes no sense to me. Anyone know what that is?

gripen · May 2, 2004

Those BER readings worry me. 57% means nothing really. Bit Error Rate is #errors/#bits ie. 5 error bits (1->0 or 0->1) in 256Kb data = BER of about 2 exp -5 or 0.00002 or 1 error every 52000 odd bits. So 57% makes no sense??

BTW Rath, I too tried the pringles can BUT I *only* got about 5% gain. Get a small coffee tin with smooth sides (no ribbing) and try that. The hole should be about 3.5cm from the base. Theres a calculator for the hole. Its also OK to try point it away from the tower to try pick up some reflections or another tower. I get from 7-10% gain with the coffee tin. So you might just be able to get to 20% since I know without my can I get about 11-13% in one particular spot.

Rath · May 2, 2004

Yep, also got only a 5% increase here - pointing straight at a wall no less. Likely a reflecting wave coming down the passage.

My bandwidth has gone up a LOT since about 12pm or so. I'm averaging 22k+ per second now. Either they fixed the tower... or low bandwidth was due to subscriber use during busier public time?

I'm hoping it's not the latter. Will test further tomorrow, with a smooth can if I can get one.

gripen · May 2, 2004

To check, by 12PM do you mean midday?

I think they either fixed the tower or the actual connection between you and your remote host(s) become less congested. I dont think its due to someone going offline or something. 1 single person cannot and should not affect you that much.

22K/sec is still not much since you can get 28-30K/sec. Try something like mirc.co.za and download mirc with flashget. I get about 13-16K (128)

Rath · May 2, 2004

My hard disk crashed hard a few hours ago - possibly a head crash, currently connected through my second pc. This just hasn't been a good weekend.

Anyone know any amazing data recovery specialists? I'm going to try DM Solutions tomorrow. I can feel this is going to be expensive.

Perdition · May 2, 2004

Perhaps check out http://www.datarecovery.co.za as well and it will probably be very expensive as data recovery specialists usually charge per megabyte.

I hope this is a wakeup call as to the importance of backups. CD writers are dirt cheap these days so at the very least one can back up their important files. Personally I use True Image to back up my entire machine to another PC on the network and write my really important files to DVD.

gripen · May 2, 2004

Rath, there is software that can do it for you. Its called Emergency Recovery or something like that. It can get data of a physically damaged disk without detecting the disk in Windows or even BIOS. e-mail me and I can give you more details. I'm sure you should try this before paying any money to a company that will do the same thing. I have the program and have used it with decent results.

ProAsm · May 3, 2004

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Those BER readings worry me. 57% means nothing really. Bit Error Rate is #errors/#bits ie. 5 error bits (1->0 or 0->1) in 256Kb data = BER of about 2 exp -5 or 0.00002 or 1 error every 52000 odd bits. So 57% makes no sense??<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">The ber is normally given as 0 - 7, I just converted it to a % rate on request of several users.
At the time of release I did give several url's on where you could read up on how this is calculated, but at the end of the day, the better your ber (above 70% is good) the less chance of spiking etc.
Generally the better your signal strength the better your ber BUT not in every case as it also depends on your ISCP versus your RSCP.
For instance at home without my antenna I get 22% signal with 57% ber and my downloads are good. With the antenna, I get 51% signal and 72% ber and things rock.
At work I get 34% signal with a 42% ber and my downloads suck.
Local interference plays a big role in your connection.

<hr noshade size="1"><center>MyWireless Stuff
The opinions expressed here are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of my employer</center>

Josandre · May 3, 2004

Hi ProAsm.
I was wondering if the following will be possible:
On the Mywireless Testing windows can you enter for exsample:

Srg>50% - [What the reading should be]
Srg=27% - [What the client receive at the moment]
and so on for the "ber, etc.

At least then we can see what the ideal settings should be and what we receive at the moment.

Thanks.
<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by ProAsm
 <blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Those BER readings worry me. 57% means nothing really. Bit Error Rate is #errors/#bits ie. 5 error bits (1->0 or 0->1) in 256Kb data = BER of about 2 exp -5 or 0.00002 or 1 error every 52000 odd bits. So 57% makes no sense??<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">The ber is normally given as 0 - 7, I just converted it to a % rate on request of several users.
At the time of release I did give several url's on where you could read up on how this is calculated, but at the end of the day, the better your ber (above 70% is good) the less chance of spiking etc.
Generally the better your signal strength the better your ber BUT not in every case as it also depends on your ISCP versus your RSCP.
For instance at home without my antenna I get 22% signal with 57% ber and my downloads are good. With the antenna, I get 51% signal and 72% ber and things rock.
At work I get 34% signal with a 42% ber and my downloads suck.
Local interference plays a big role in your connection.

<hr noshade size="1"><center>MyWireless Stuff
The opinions expressed here are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of my employer</center>
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

ProAsm · May 4, 2004

It is very difficult to say what the client should or should not be getting and we are all learning as we go along.
For instance I have the 512k system, I get without antenna 22% ave with 57% ber, a guy down the road from me on the same sector of the same tower gets 17% signal with 72% ber and he's on a 256k system.
His download speeds are always better than mine, his pings to servers including game servers are normally better than mine.
When I plug in my antenna (19 dBi) I get 50% signal and 72% ber, and only now do I equal or better him.
He is currently in the process of installing a 22 dBi antenna, so these results are gonna be interesting, and his aim is a 100% ber with no real interest in what the signal strength is.
I have now got myself a 28 dBi grid antenna with a 30 dBi front to back ratio and hope to get that up soon to see what the difference is then.
I am like on top of the hill, open to all the interference and he is down at the bottom of the hill probably sheltered from interference.
As I say we are all experimenting still.

<hr noshade size="1"><center>MyWireless Stuff
The opinions expressed here are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of my employer</center>

TheRealKiller · Jun 13, 2004

I wrote this for a blog and no-one listened - just like Sentech. So maybe someone here might appreciate these scribblings. I missed out the bit about applying for the "service" and the ironic fun of sending the last three months' bank statements by fax - or was it ox wagon? - to our state-of-the-art comunications provider. (First you print 'em out, 'cos no civilised bank sends statements by snail mail anymore. Then you throw money at your local friendly fax shop.) What the blue blazes do Sentech want with all this paper?
Worse! They won't let us use my surname in our Sentech ISP e-mail address. (Yes: my surname is really "Killer". It's an old Scottish name, but let me not bore you.)
--
<QUOTE>
ISDN? The line's too expensive during prime time and the users are too lazy during Callmore time.
(MWeb's Accelerator is great for ISDN though!)
--
ADSL? Nice idea, but serious work and un-serious resident teenagers will chow through the 3gb limits.
--
Sentech MyWireless? BINGO!
--
But it was down in Pretoria, DC, during Thabo's coronation - for five-and-a-half days. And that without warning, without apology and without any possibility of a rebate! What's more, I wasn't too pleased with Sentech's changing story as to why the signal was down.
--
Okay. We don't have coronations every month. I - South Africa's only taxpayer, it seems - cannot afford it. We breathed a sigh of relief as the Captains and the Kings depart and the Sentech signal struggled back into life - for a while...
--
I do wish they'd told the Help Desk that they should NOT recommend me to re-install the Sentech modem.
Now BIG_PC's Windows 2003 Server refuses to talk to Sentech.
Sentech was off the air (in Pretoria) for a further three days.
But Sentech's 2-year contract's kleinlettertjies state that the service is constrained by "circumstances beyond [Sentech's] control." What's an SLA? What's a rebate? What's a client?
Oh dear... Sentech has boobed.
--
After a month of struggle, sending bank statements and copies of lights-and-water accounts and ID books - BY FAX, nogal, but that's another story - we managed to get THIS *** service:
April: 80 per cent up;
May (to date): 50 per cent up;
Rebate: not one per cent!
--
Sentech are very brave to move into the consumer market. Traditionally they've had a sheltered market of very large clients. I guess, these are the people who don't mind sending more and more data to get an account, and, what-the-heck, just take'em to lunch.
--
But, Mr Sentech, you can't take even your limited current 600 MyWireless users to lunch, let alone the ten-times-that that you soon will get.
One or two of them will get past The Voice, sneak through the Help Desk, talk to Herman the Argentinian and eventually wriggle past to Someone-Who-Matters.
YOUR HELP DESK ONLY HELPS THE MANAGERS WHO DON'T WANT TO LISTEN!
You do NOT make a success by coccooning yourself from your market: LISTEN TO IT!!
--
As a parastatal, Sentech won't go bust: it'll just put its prices up, muttering something about how far below the inflation rate they are (if you take the price of eggs in China into account and it's Wednesday and...)
--
But what about my wife's business? What about my errant teenagers' school projects? Come to that, what about my business? I can go bust!
--
And, hey! since I'm the only SA taxpayer, didn't you know?, you AIN'T gonna get my subsidies.
So there!!

serihaas · Jun 13, 2004

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">

I have now got myself a 28 dBi grid antenna with a 30 dBi front to back ratio and hope to get that up soon to see what the difference is then.

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

ProAsm,

Keep us updated on that Antenna, thinking of getting one myself, trying to save up for it (student and all [

])

Be interested to know what kind of pings u get and what difference it makes to the overall myWireless exp.

maybe start a new post with all the details in it, don't want to hijack raths post

Regards

hArTh · Jun 13, 2004

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Ditch
 To submit a review to a major computer magazine based on an evaluation performed over a short time span when there were *known* technical problems, I would be inclined to say that reeks of bias.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I'll tell you what reeks here:
-Sentech swearing high and low the problem would be over by Friday. It isn't.
-And lets not start on the deception, lies, BS and call centre orcs.

[}

] <- Google spamming it is then. Vat hom fluffie ...

Ditch · Jun 14, 2004

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by hArTh
 <blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Ditch
 To submit a review to a major computer magazine based on an evaluation performed over a short time span when there were *known* technical problems, I would be inclined to say that reeks of bias.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Hmm .. gosh, thought that sounded familiar, yes I wrote that, that was long ago though (about one or two weeks after the speed problems started), and I think it's safe to say that a "short time span" is over now - they've surely had enough time to find and fix the problems.

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Service Levels

Rath

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gripen

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nicroets

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Rath

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gripen

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Rath

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gripen

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Rath

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Perdition

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gripen

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ProAsm

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Josandre

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ProAsm

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TheRealKiller

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serihaas

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hArTh

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Ditch

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