Glad to hear some good news!
no P2P unless you are prepared to pay a grand a month
Hmmm... I'll look into that - PMB's network was bigger and running a little differently than our standard before they joined GWI. The wireless toweer hardware has been upgraded, but the back office operation is still running as they had it previously (AFAIK).
For the rest of our branches, P2P is heavily shaped, but it is available. I'll speak to the guys there and see what they're prepared to impliment.
Here goes on the other questions:
1)installation was ok - but not optimal (perfect=impossible) - the bracket is skew ....installation took 5 hours.
This sometimes happens during the 'learning curve' of new franchises... I'm assuming it was Bruce & co who did your install? The more experienced guys usually knock it off in 2 hours.
2)i am running multiple IP adresses on 1 NIC - no way i can get GWI to browse anything ....on ADSL pppoe i can have multiple IPs without a hitch.
have to revert 2 only 1 ip.
hmmm... can you explain this a little clearer? Maybe you need a router with NAT and PPPoE capabilities? There is absolutely no differenence between our authentication method and ADSL PPPoE. Internet connection sharing on Windows Broadband connection through a switch does not work very well.
3)so I.S / router are providing problems - takes ~ 2weeks and alot of phone calls to get the peeps to switch over to saix....and imho the service runs ALOT more stable!
Yup - we are aware of our problems with IS and are talking to other vendors right now. We are bargaining right now for direct supply to our JHB office & aiming to redistribute to franchises from here.
4)support - eeeew - telkoms ADSL support is better than this - email is a waste of time - no1 replies - phoning just as little help.
Support has been a problem in the last few weeks due to serious different problems in different areas (like the Rustenburg tower falling over & the Vaal Triangle supply problems). We now have an 086 number (see my signature). Also, the voicemail on the current 076 number has two further numbers you can dial for assistance. You should also have the number of your local agent handy. That's a total choice of 5 publicly available numbers you can call. Emails do get responded to on
[email protected] (not .com!). If you send an email, you will receive an automatically generated ticket number, and can track fault progress this way.
5) GWI here is blacklisted - i adjusted my outgoing email server - everything comes back - blacklisted..... if i send from an external source - i can receive 100% via GWI - but send - aaai konna.
Ooops!
Routing mail through SAIX has changed for some reason, and their open-relay for SMTP now has restrictions which we weren't aware of! The volume of mail coming from the Vaal Triangle network caused this to be flagged and blackisted. The SAIX account was intended to be temporary to prove a point to Telkom that the
lines were faulty and not our routers. In this case, blaming the problems on Telkom is genuine.
6) P2P via saix - obviously they don't provide huge caps for ADSL - so disabling p2p is 2 cover their 0wn six.....
As I said above, we don't normally disbale P2P, only when there are problems - p2p is always the first to be chucked off the ship before it sinks! We only (infrequently) use capped accounts where volumes are very low, or on startup franchises. These
always graduate to uncapped as soon as the volumes justify this. I don't think any ISP's guarantee P2P unless you pay a premium anyway.
7)I'd suggest building 2 types of accounts - 1 uncapped IS acc and 1 capped SAIX acc...
We select from a boquet of options...
8) the costs of 192/256 is horrible - how can someone justifiy 550 for 192 or even 850 for 256 , when this product is also symmetric - only 128/192/256 - not as with adsl where u have 512/384 (up and down)...
We're soon moving to an option of a capped solution, which will drop subscription prices even more. Our current pricing model is based on the fact that it is uncapped. Our benchmark tests showed 1GB upload/1GB download in 24 hours on a 128k/128k unshaped connection. So, 60GB per month (up/down) is
theoretically possible. Our heavy users on 128k use around 10-15GB per month, but light users average around 1GB. Users are subsidising each other, and we're moving to end this.
9)i know you guys have scored big time with telkom upping 1024 to 4096 - free upgrade - how about reflecting it back to the customers a bit.
This has been a reality in some areas, but not all. Also, we don't seem to be getting the full 4Mb - more like 2. Telkom has stated that this is a 'trial period', so we're not passing it on until it is a working reality.
10)this service really has ALOT of potential - since our little town we only have ISDN/ADSL/56K/GPRS - no iBurst no 3G no EDGE. ...
Our focus is in areas with limited service...
11)i've spoken 2 alot of people on iBurst and really GWI - you have to gear a level or two up - or you are gonna loose alot of potential customers.
And that we are doing - we're going flat out on all fronts, and believe me when I say that 'we live in interesting times'. We're not just hoping things will run as they are for as long as we can, but are actively pursuing better products, better services and licenced-band operation. As a relatively small company without the billions Telkom and the SNO have at their disposal, rollouts tend to be on a smaller scale, but that's where all our money goes...
8)
