The FTTH petition for Fourways / Broadacres

D3athD00r said:
I spoke to guys digging trenches in Rosewood road. Metrofibre has started laying the fibre all the way along the road.
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Yes, we (Broadacres Country Estate) signed up with MFN and there will be now a lot of activity along Lombardy/Syringa. We also found that MFN provided the best offering as well as being network neutral. All the other providers (Vuma / Greencom etc) where just blowing hot air for years - their loss as this will result in a good 1000 households in the area signing up over the next 12 months.

We already have a DarkFibre point outside the estate and MFN is busy clearing out manholes/sleeves etc and we should be all lit up in the next 4-8 weeks (over 200 houses in the estate). I am unsure if the Rosewood MFN activity is related or a separate project.
 
MagicDude4Eva said:
Yes, we (Broadacres Country Estate) signed up with MFN and there will be now a lot of activity along Lombardy/Syringa. We also found that MFN provided the best offering as well as being network neutral. All the other providers (Vuma / Greencom etc) where just blowing hot air for years - their loss as this will result in a good 1000 households in the area signing up over the next 12 months.

We already have a DarkFibre point outside the estate and MFN is busy clearing out manholes/sleeves etc and we should be all lit up in the next 4-8 weeks (over 200 houses in the estate). I am unsure if the Rosewood MFN activity is related or a separate project.
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Good day.
Are you going directly through MFN?
We are now connected (The Homestead) and went through DNA Optic Fibre who are resellers for MFN.
Just a tip... The routers that MFN supplies are literally the same size as a PS4 and they even look like it. If you have a double story house, you will need to get a access point installed to the storey of the house that doesn't have the modem.
Speeds are good, uptime is good. But it has truly been a battle and a process to get things done. Whatever timelines they give you, add a month to it.

What offering was MFN giving you @magicdude4eva?
 
Mr_SA said:
Good day.
Are you going directly through MFN?
We are now connected (The Homestead) and went through DNA Optic Fibre who are resellers for MFN.
Just a tip... The routers that MFN supplies are literally the same size as a PS4 and they even look like it. If you have a double story house, you will need to get a access point installed to the storey of the house that doesn't have the modem.
Speeds are good, uptime is good. But it has truly been a battle and a process to get things done. Whatever timelines they give you, add a month to it.

What offering was MFN giving you @magicdude4eva?
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The majority of residents will go direct with MFN and some of the high-end users like myself will go with another operator. I can't disclose the specifics but all deals are cheaper than the likes of Greencom/Vumatel etc.

Could you perhaps share some pictures of the router? I was not aware that it would be that big. The one thing which was not quite clear about the router (at least the project manager could not answer) was if I can administer the router and set up my own rules (i.e. place my PS4 into a DMZ). I heard from other installations (not MFN) that those providers brought in a fibre CPE which connected to some other managed router and both devices were locked down (and by the looks of it the managed router provides the internal IP range and the remote support team seems to have full access to it).

I honestly don't expect fibre to reach my house in the estate before December - on the far end from the entrance so I am the last to get the install. Is all fine as by then hopefully all other issues will be sorted out. I just don't understand why every provider digs up the same trenching - surely they could have discussed this together - uh well..

BTW: If you happen to have some screenshots of the installation and screenshots of the router admin interface/ports, that would be super helpful. Either share here or email me - [email protected]
 
I am on MFN, they offer two ONTS. The standard one is the 813 with 4 GE, 2 POTS and 802.11n, the unit that looks like a PS4 is the 844 it is bigger than the 813, as it also supports 802.11ac Wifi with a 4X4 MU-MIMO antenna array. As Mr_SA said any large house especially ones in SA built of brick and concrete need multiple wireless AP's to get proper coverage.
With regards to access to the ONT, they lock down the WAN connection (for obvious reasons) but you get access to the standard user GUI like you would on a DSL modem and it allows DNS, DMZ set ups etc,
 
Kyoto said:
I am on MFN, they offer two ONTS. The standard one is the 813 with 4 GE, 2 POTS and 802.11n, the unit that looks like a PS4 is the 844 it is bigger than the 813, as it also supports 802.11ac Wifi with a 4X4 MU-MIMO antenna array. As Mr_SA said any large house especially ones in SA built of brick and concrete need multiple wireless AP's to get proper coverage.
With regards to access to the ONT, they lock down the WAN connection (for obvious reasons) but you get access to the standard user GUI like you would on a DSL modem and it allows DNS, DMZ set ups etc,
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Do you have the exact model / brand name or possibly some screen shots? I suppose I will still be able to use my own private network range, DHCP server etc?
 
Kyoto said:
its the Calix 813G or Calix 844G, go to www.calix.com for the specs,
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On the standard ONT do you have access to setup guest SSID or multiple SSID?

Need to know if this can be done or not on that device else will have to buy my own Router that supports multiple SSID
 
the 813 and 812 are basically the same so you could just switch the wifi off and use your own AP, but for 11.n I get very good throughput on a 100meg service http://netgauge.ookla.com/share/532502415.png. with regards to the 844, my understanding is that it was developed to solve many of the problems associated with 11.n wifi networks in that with only 11ch, (in reality 3) interference is a major factor, which limits throughput significantly, 11.ac on 5G has 108 ch's so at the moment its far less crowded and even when there it becomes more popular with the ch spread, it will be easier to space the channels. It also supports home DVR systems easily as it has a dedicated SSID for linear Video services (not Netflix) that allows QOS to be applied to different SSID's guaranteeing the required bandwidth on that SSID.
 
Kyoto said:
the 813 and 812 are basically the same so you could just switch the wifi off and use your own AP, but for 11.n I get very good throughput on a 100meg service http://netgauge.ookla.com/share/532502415.png. with regards to the 844, my understanding is that it was developed to solve many of the problems associated with 11.n wifi networks in that with only 11ch, (in reality 3) interference is a major factor, which limits throughput significantly, 11.ac on 5G has 108 ch's so at the moment its far less crowded and even when there it becomes more popular with the ch spread, it will be easier to space the channels. It also supports home DVR systems easily as it has a dedicated SSID for linear Video services (not Netflix) that allows QOS to be applied to different SSID's guaranteeing the required bandwidth on that SSID.
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what is the reason for you not reaching the advertised speed 100mbps?
As far they advertise FTTH you should get promised speed not best effort or up to speed like adsl
 
Kido said:
what is the reason for you not reaching the advertised speed 100mbps?
As far they advertise FTTH you should get promised speed not best effort or up to speed like adsl
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I was also surprised by this - on my VDSL line I almost max out the line-speed. On his fibre-line a 8% drop-off is actually quite big. Would be interesting to see what Speedtests to Cape Town or EU/US pops look like.
 
MagicDude4Eva said:
I was also surprised by this - on my VDSL line I almost max out the line-speed. On his fibre-line a 8% drop-off is actually quite big. Would be interesting to see what Speedtests to Cape Town or EU/US pops look like.
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If there is no SLA it's kinda "best effort". So be wary of the OW type pricing operators :whistle:
 
I do get advertised speed, or as near as damn it when connected via a cat 5 cable, but Wifi is a best effort service and is affected by receive signal strength (both on the device and the ONT) on top of that any interference from other wifi networks will decrease to S/N ratio so again reducing throughput. Other stuff like Bluetooth, microwaves and baby monitors all work in similar bands to 802.11n so also increase interference and reduce through put. This link is one of many that talks about these issues http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-reasons-wi-fi-slow-fix/.
 
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Kyoto said:
I do get advertised speed, or as near as damn it when connected via a cat 5 cable, but Wifi is a best effort service and is affected by receive signal strength (both on the device and the ONT) on top of that any interference from other wifi networks will decrease to S/N ratio so again reducing throughput. Other stuff like Bluetooth, microwaves and baby monitors all work in similar bands to 802.11n so also increase interference and reduce through put. This link is one of many that talks about these issues http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-reasons-wi-fi-slow-fix/.
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OK so your test result posted was WIFI and not cable ?
 
Kido said:
On the standard ONT do you have access to setup guest SSID or multiple SSID?

Need to know if this can be done or not on that device else will have to buy my own Router that supports multiple SSID
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Yes the 813 has 8 SSID, and you can use any name, password and security, the 844 has 16 SSID 8 per radio, with the same feature set. You can also do MAC authentication if required,
 
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Kyoto said:
Yes the 813 has 8 SSID, and you can use any name, password and security, the 844 has 16 SSID 8 per radio, with the same feature set. You can also do MAC authentication if required,
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Perfect that is good news for me
 
Kyoto said:
Yes the 813 has 8 SSID, and you can use any name, password and security, the 844 has 16 SSID 8 per radio, with the same feature set. You can also do MAC authentication if required,
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I would hate to lose my "(.)(.) Boobies" and "Hogwarts Great Hall Wifi" SSIDs - those cause great headaches for my neighbors and their children :twisted:
 
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