UCT Students in digs - ADSL dilemma

[fantomcaption]

Please give some advice on best adsl options for given scenario. I am looking to the grandmasters and experienced forumheads to kindly give some pointers here.

We are 7 UCT students in my digs in upper rondebosch.
We are considering a 4megabit adsl line but are not sure about our data option.
We all connect wirelessly to our router.

What is certain is that we do not want a single data account. Why?

Because we all want control over our own usage which means we want a way to divide xGB by 7 equally and monitor usage with some sort of account service.

Thus far the best option to us seems to be WebAfrica prepaid vouchers, but at R70 per GB we are all looking at each paying R130 per month for one gig. More gigs for our buck would be great though.

note: Tyron at Webafrica advised against DSLGroups. I am not sure why?

(R59 p/month for the 4mbps line (R413/7) plus the R70 p/prepaid gig.)

We all use the web quite hecticly but don't need the service for gaming.

If someone has any suggestions on the best ISPs and solutions given our scenario please scribble a reply.

Jlmedia

 

[ColinR]

Your suggested solution sounds like the one with the least headache. Split the line costs by 7, and leave data up to each individual. Wether its prepaid, or monthly account is up to each of the 7.

 

[Kloon]

Yea keeping track of usage and capping users can be a process on its own, best bet would be let everybody split the line rental and get their own accounts.

 

[Pooky]

Then how do you use the different accounts simultaneously?

 

[fantomcaption]

It seems like the least effort I agree carudden...

 

[fantomcaption]

Thanks for your response Kloon. I think this is the way to go but I am also anxious to latch onto some good deals if there are any around.

 

[fantomcaption]

@Pooky: I hadn't thought about that. I am assuming that once everyone has their account details from WA they each create their own connections on their pcs but everyone's router settings are the same? i guess what I am asking is whether you can have 7 WA accounts using the same router in a residence? Carruden and Kloon - u have any thoughts on the questions?

Thanks

 

[Pooky]

@Pooky: I hadn't thought about that. I am assuming that once everyone has their account details from WA they each create their own connections on their pcs but everyone's router settings are the same? i guess what I am asking is whether you can have 7 WA accounts using the same router in a residence? Carruden and Kloon - u have any thoughts on the questions?

Thanks

Ya AFAIK the details have to be entered into the router.

 

[The_Unbeliever]

Problem with a shared account is that you get the sponge who'll download everything and anything - thereby capping the account just quicker.

Best is to use prepaid vouchers which everybody pays for. But then you'll need a sort of load-balancing router to ensure that the guy running P2P apps doesn't degrade the Internet experience for the other users.

 

[ColinR]

Windows can create the connection using the "An internet connection that required a username and password" option.

Then each PC creates the connection on its own. The router needs to be in Bridge mode. I'm not sure on the maximum number of PPPOE connections that can be connected at once, anyone?

 

[fantomcaption]

Problem with a shared account is that you get the sponge who'll download everything and anything - thereby capping the account just quicker.

Best is to use prepaid vouchers which everybody pays for. But then you'll need a sort of load-balancing router to ensure that the guy running P2P apps doesn't degrade the Internet experience for the other users.

@The_Librarian: thats exactly what WILL happen. We have 3 sponges! I am one of them lol.


Can you suggest some kind of port control on the P2P usage - this load balancing you mentioned. How would someone inexperienced with balancing a shared adsl line go about such things?

 

[iDenTiTy]

Only thing I can think of is getting a linksys wrt54g or something and a telkom router.

That way, you can run a script on the linksys that connects to whatever account from whatever IP..

The telkom router would act as a bridge.



Of course, I stand absolutely fully under correction.

 

[Ekhaatvensters]

If you're going to be using separate accounts then would each one even have to be from the same ISP?

The main problem here is getting a router than can support 7+ bridged connections. I have no idea how many separate logins a router can normally handle, but this would be the best option.

 

[fantomcaption]

Bridging

If you're going to be using separate accounts then would each one even have to be from the same ISP?

The main problem here is getting a router than can support 7+ bridged connections. I have no idea how many separate logins a router can normally handle, but this would be the best option.

Ekhaatvensters i have a Mega 105WR router and its firmware version is 99.70.4.

I am in 'Basic' on http://10.0.0.2/cgi-bin/webcm but not sure how to set my router to bridge mode for this proposed idea of 7+ connections? Do you know how i can do this?

 

[TheRoDent]

It's not the router that needs to support 7 bridged connections.

Telkom normally limits the number of PPPoE connections per modem to 4, on their side (ESR). I have however seen some ESR's that don't have that policy in place and allowed up to 1000 PPPoE's from a single modem.

Best would be to test.

 

[bboy]

u could always install a local radius server and then you could see who uses how much internet

 

[MagicDude4Eva]

simple linux-box with Squid-proxy and rules to govern bandwidth usage...

 

[The_Unbeliever]

u could always install a local radius server and then you could see who uses how much internet

Try pfSense if you want to go this route.

 

[Sackboy]

I would say get a Linksys that can use other firmware and create a wireless hotspot. The WRT54GL will do it. Then you just allocate the cap as and when.

 

[bwana]

If you're going to be using separate accounts then would each one even have to be from the same ISP?

The main problem here is getting a router than can support 7+ bridged connections. I have no idea how many separate logins a router can normally handle, but this would be the best option.

No - I've used WA, Openweb, Telkom, and Mweb simultaneously without a problem.