vodacom4me.co.za stats

Zax said:
Now you can see why we can't get PPDBs - if this is how they are able to track usage, they dare not offer PPDBs - they will "lose" a fortune!:D
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The pre-paid and post-paid systems are completely different systems.

Post-paid, or contract, counts your usage and uploads the data for billing at some interval. You then get billed. Thus also the latency you see in the data being available.

Pre-paid works in reverse, you first need to have credit, this is then 'reserved' and is deducted in real-time as you use data, the system reserves credit ahead of your actual usage, thus you see you pre-paid usage to be higher than expected until you disconnect and your balance is restored.

There is no problem with the accuracy of the billing data you see on 4me. I've personally investigated a number of complaints around billing 'discrepancies' and every time the records turned out to be accurate.

My two current favourites:

1) Son who install Limewire at night, download like crazy and uninstalls before morning.
2) Guy who uses 3G router with open WiFi access and ends up with a very happy neighbour.

In any case, the problem with 4me is not accuracy but latency.
 
vodacom3g said:
There is no problem with the accuracy of the billing data you see on 4me.
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What a load of crap!

This is what my account info says:
Month Threshold Used Bundle Remaining Bundle
September 512000 KB 55879.68 KB 456120.32 KB

This is how much I have used according to the itemised billing (when you add it all up): 402MB

There is a 347MB discrepancy in your own billing!

(both theses were taken from vodacom4me.co.za and not from the dashboard software)
 
V3G

Vodacom4me shows my last usage on the 22nd September.
Yesterday I used +- 150MB of data.
Vodacom4me is not 3 hours old but over 1 day old.
I get the same info when I sms 31050.
:mad:
 
vodacom3g said:
The official answer is to use vodacom4me, but with the understanding it can be up to 3 hours old.

That's the party line. In reality, stats can be older than 3 hours and at HSDPA throughputs can be quite a lot of data.

So the best bet is to monitor directly on the PC, but again you're let down with the inconsistent VMC.

So the only answer is to do it yourself. I found the best bet is to install a monitor such as DUMeter or Netlimiter (there are others) and monitor your own usage.

Check vodacom4me periodically for the official view, as you'll be billed according to the data as seen on 4me.

Also consider putting a soft-lock on your account.

I need to check on how to monitor directly on the router.
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Thanks V3G. One must do what is required I guess. :)

A lot of people are complaining about the accuracy of V4Me though, even in this thread. Is it possible all of them can be wrong?

Would it not be better to educate users in the ways and workings of V4Me, especially surrounding the usage stats.

People are up in arms and understandably upset about it.

Maybe a sticky or something? unless there already is one :o
 
vodacom3g, thanks for the advice on DUMeter, will start monitoring my usage from next month onwards. Any indication when the vodacom4me usage stats will be back online again?
 
What's the free version of DUMeter? I know DUMeter has a 30-day trial period. I remember someone mentioning a similar program that looked EXACTLY like DUMeter but was completely free.

:L:
 
Tassidar said:
Thanks V3g,

Is there anyway to monitor data usage on the Router, other than V4me?
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On one of the pages on the router web interface you can see the current session usage. But I think that's it.

We need to figure out how to log this data and turn it onto a report. Maybe someone here can write a script of some sort?
 
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Suggestion

vodacom3g said:
On one of the pages on the router web interface you can see the current session usage. But I think that's it.

We need to figure out how to log this data and turn it onto a reports. Maybe someone here can write a script of some sort?
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Vodacom3G

It should be very easy for you guys to open a web service to the usage data, and then one of us can write a small program that can call the web service every when ever, to give the user an update on his usage.

A RSS feed could work too.

I will PM you with more detail.
 
We are missing the point. It's Vodacom that should fix this, not us.
 
Well, I agree.

But...


the government should also sort out crime and protect me, but since they don't, there's no point in leaving my doors open because it's their responsibility.

If we can suggest something from our perspective, maybe we will come up with better solutions than the company would?

Maybe I was just born with a helping personality.

:rolleyes:
 
3GisDaMan said:
Vodacom3G

It should be very easy for you guys to open a web service to the usage data, and then one of us can write a small program that can call the web service every when ever, to give the user an update on his usage.

A RSS feed could work too.

I will PM you with more detail.
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If you are talking about the data on 4me; 4me sees it the same time we would, so that won't help much. The latency is between the back-end systems and 4me, so at best you'll see what 4me sees.

If we're talking about the router, you can (should be able to) do a direct http GET from the relevant page and get the usage stats back.
 
3GisDaMan said:
.....Maybe I was just born with a helping personality.
:rolleyes:
Click to expand...
And the world is a better place for it, contrast with wallace who, last time we spoke, was going to sue me personally (as mc721221...something, at the time) for whatever problem he had at the time.

Actually I'm surprised to see wallace back on Vodacom 3G. After we cancelled his contract at his insistence, he went across to another 3G provider, telling us we will never see his business again with the other provider so much better at everything :confused:

Working together is what made this forum strong and we should carry on with this. Last thing anyone wants is a us-versus-them mentality and litigation is sure as hell not the way to get a constructive dialogue going.

I should be getting my router back in the next day or two and then we can see what we can do to get a usage logging capability going.
 
Data Application

vodacom3g said:
And the world is a better place for it, contrast with wallace who, last time we spoke, was going to sue me personally (as mc721221...something, at the time) for whatever problem he had at the time.
Click to expand...

And then you never heard from him again? He must have decided it’s Vodacom’s responsibility to sue you. :p

V3G, is see what you are saying. I am assuming the backend system possibly writes the data usage in the database when we disconnect or at intervals. So then there must be some kind of batch process running every few hours (3???) or so which updates the 4Me web databasis with the latest usage.

Mmm. If that's the case, give me a few days, let me open an account with Dell, then I will sell you a very nice new server to run the batches quicker. ;)

Another option is to say that if people use this data counter application on their PC, then they are possibly the type of people who are interested in getting the latest usage information. "Normal" people will not be that concerned about it, only us techie types. So, for pepole who run this little app on their PC, Vodacom can have a seperate job that runs more frequently? I can only guess out of the 1000's of users, only a small percentage will want to see their usage qiute often?
 
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