Telkom mobile vs. Afrihost

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Jeffrsnapln

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I have two mobile broadband contracts:
1. Telkom Mobile Internet 5 (10Gb + 10Gb)
2. Afrihost 2Gb + 1Gb. (MTN)

The 10Gb from Telkom Mobile lasts between a week and two weeks. Then I switch over to Afrihost, and their 3Gb usually sees me through the rest of the month.

Can anyone offer a suggestion as to why one goes so much quicker than the other?

This is in spite of Telkom Mobile being almost impossible to use - constantly disconnecting, or showing full 3G, but no connectivity at all.

I very seldom have a problem with Afrihost, and if I do, they fix it within minutes. I really can't fault them. If I could afford it I would get a big fat mobile data contract with them and use it all the time!

It won't get me away from Telkom, but I'm seriously considering going back to ADSL just to get an internet connection that I can actually use for the whole month... :(
 
User experience. It's like comparing Axxess and Afrihost together..

Noticed on Afrihost 1 GB data gets depleted in three days and axxess data 3gb last me for the month.

Depends on your usage pattern & what applications you running. Example: Watching YouTube videos is bandwidth hungry..
Facebook - also chows a lot of bandwidth.
 
Could just be psychological. You know you have the extra bandwidth available when you use the Telkom account so you use more.

Or maybe Windows updates fall in the beginning of the month.
 
Rather go Telkom Mobile.

I've heard of phones changing APNs without notice before.
 
RichardG said:
User experience. It's like comparing Axxess and Afrihost together..

Noticed on Afrihost 1 GB data gets depleted in three days and axxess data 3gb last me for the month.

Depends on your usage pattern & what applications you running. Example: Watching YouTube videos is bandwidth hungry..
Facebook - also chows a lot of bandwidth.
Click to expand...

I've had this account probably for about 4 years. the first 2 years I had no trouble at all. In the third year things started going south, and the 4th year has been a nightmare. The strange thing is that my conscious usage (downloads, youtube etc) is much less now than it used to be. I only really use it for email and browsing now. I've had the problem quite consistently for the past 6 months or more now.

I know that software updates and other background things are all bigger nowadays. If the data is actually being *used*, then it must be on these things.

Anyone know of a way to accurately monitor where the data is going? I have the 3G dongle plugged into a wifi router to give access throughout the office, which makes it quite hard to track.
 
Jeffrsnapln said:
I've had this account probably for about 4 years. the first 2 years I had no trouble at all. In the third year things started going south, and the 4th year has been a nightmare. The strange thing is that my conscious usage (downloads, youtube etc) is much less now than it used to be. I only really use it for email and browsing now. I've had the problem quite consistently for the past 6 months or more now.

I know that software updates and other background things are all bigger nowadays. If the data is actually being *used*, then it must be on these things.

Anyone know of a way to accurately monitor where the data is going? I have the 3G dongle plugged into a wifi router to give access throughout the office, which makes it quite hard to track.
Click to expand...

Are you using the same 3g dongle/router for both? If not, it could be your 3g dongle/router. Try putting your MTN sim card into your router and see if it does the same thing.
 
fingerprintz.mgr said:
Are you using the same 3g dongle/router for both? If not, it could be your 3g dongle/router. Try putting your MTN sim card into your router and see if it does the same thing.
Click to expand...

No, I'm using the 8ta Hauwei E173 dongle for Telkom. That lives plugged into my wireless router.
I'm using the Afrihost "MiFi" Hauwei E5331 modem for Afrihost.
 
Try using your MTN sim in your wireless router. Otherwise use your Telkom sim in your MiFi modem. You will probably find that your problem lies with your modem and not the network.
 
fingerprintz.mgr said:
Try using your MTN sim in your wireless router. Otherwise use your Telkom sim in your MiFi modem. You will probably find that your problem lies with your modem and not the network.
Click to expand...
^This, but it could be other problem too.

Telkom apn is unrestricted, therefore you are billed for any incoming traffic (even it is blocked at the home router).

On the other side, connectionless protocols like these generated by streaming WEB sites can trigger lot of unwanted traffic. By example your browser will generate request, you stop reading it, but packets are still keep arriving generating bill. On the restricted apn very soon after TCP connection is closed by Web browser, gateway router at your ISP premises will block any incoming traffic before entering metering zone, so you will be not billed for the traffic you didn't request.
Similiar his thread, se my post, the guy is using streaming services: http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/706738-Telkom-FLLA-Issue
 
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sajunky said:
^This, but it could be other problem too.

Telkom apn is unrestricted, therefore you are billed for any incoming traffic (even it is blocked at the home router).

On the other side, connectionless protocols like these generated by streaming WEB sites can trigger lot of unwanted traffic. By example your browser will generate request, you stop reading it, but packets are still keep arriving generating bill. On the restricted apn very soon after TCP connection is closed by Web browser, gateway router at your ISP premises will block any incoming traffic before entering metering zone, so you will be not billed for the traffic you didn't request.
Similiar his thread, se my post, the guy is using streaming services: http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/706738-Telkom-FLLA-Issue
Click to expand...

Im afraid I'm not tech savvy enough to understand this properly.
Do you mean that if I leave my browser open it can be eating data even if I'm not using it?
This could account for it because I have Chrome open permanently. I use google drive a lot and almost always have a google sheet or something open even when I'm not there.
 
fingerprintz.mgr said:
Try using your MTN sim in your wireless router. Otherwise use your Telkom sim in your MiFi modem. You will probably find that your problem lies with your modem and not the network.
Click to expand...

I have tried my mtn sim in my 8ta dongle before and it just wouldn't connect. Would I need to change any settings on the router?

I will try this again though and see what happens
 
Jeffrsnapln said:
Do you mean that if I leave my browser open it can be eating data even if I'm not using it?
This could account for it because I have Chrome open permanently. I use google drive a lot and almost always have a google sheet or something open even when I'm not there.
Click to expand...
If you leave browser open on the streaming Web site like News24, definitely - yes, no question about. It can happen also when you close this page, but data stream is not stopped properly on the other side. I can't tell you how frequent, as I don't use Web streaming, but it can happen definitely.

Regarding non-streaming Web sites, there is also some traffic required to maintain TCP connection state, but not a volume you have to worry about. If you are using Google Doc, It shouldn't be any difference on unrestricted apn, but online services use lot of traffic, you must be aware.

If you want investigate further, there is a Windows utility called netstat, run it from the command line and focus on UDP protocol traffic. Use telkom SIM and standard dial up modem, as WiFi routers will block all incoming traffic.
 
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OK, Now I know something is badly wrong...
The month is one day old, and Telkom mobile reckons I have 5919Mb remaining.

Its just impossible.
 
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