Web sQuad ISP - Feedback Thread #2

I have to rant, why the price increase.
My pension money does not go up, all these CPI etc. Mombo jumbo talk.

How I see a business needs to be run by getting more people on board.

What will ever happen if CPI is 0%. Then prices will still go up.
Sorry for the rant.
 
FNOs all increasing their circuit costs to ISP and due to small margins ISPs have no choice but to pass the increase onto customers.
 
FNOs all increasing their circuit costs to ISP and due to small margins ISPs have no choice but to pass the increase onto customers.
Ag shame.
Because my underpants have break marks, I need consumers to pay.
With out us they are screwed.
 
I have to rant, why the price increase.
My pension money does not go up, all these CPI etc. Mombo jumbo talk.

How I see a business needs to be run by getting more people on board.

What will ever happen if CPI is 0%. Then prices will still go up.
Sorry for the rant.
FNOs all increasing their circuit costs to ISP and due to small margins ISPs have no choice but to pass the increase onto customers.

We completely understand your frustration with these price increases, especially since they seem to be coming from all directions.

As an ISP, any increase passed on to consumers is directly tied to rising input costs, with FNO line rental being the largest. We’ve consistently absorbed as much of these costs as possible, only adjusting service pricing in line with FNO increases—sometimes even less—while not fully accounting for other rising expenses.

That said, it’s worth noting that internet costs, relative to inflation, have actually decreased over the years. A 50 Mbps fibre service today is significantly more affordable than a 4 Mbps ADSL connection in 2010, which cost around R700-R800 per month (roughly R1,500 today when adjusted for inflation). Meanwhile, essentials like petrol, DSTV, and food have more than doubled in price.

Key factors driving these FNO increases include:

  1. Debt Costs: Rising interest rates have made fibre rollouts more expensive. And the FNOs have borrowed heavily to fund their growth these past few years. Unfortunately, even if rates drop, it’s unlikely FNOs will reduce pricing, as they're facing billions in debt payments annually.
  2. Energy Costs: The cost of electricity has outpaced inflation 2X the past few years, and Eskom’s instability forces ISPs and FNOs to invest heavily in backup power solutions, increasing operational expenses. Power is a big factor in operating any network.
  3. Market Maturity: The fibre “gold rush” has slowed, meaning FNOs can no longer offset costs and losses through rapid expansion.
  4. Labour & Inflation: Rising living costs drive up salaries, impacting all sectors, including network operations and customer support.
  5. Maintenance & Infrastructure Costs: Fibre networks require ongoing maintenance, replacement of aging equipment, and additional security measures due to theft and vandalism.
We remain committed to providing the best possible service at the most competitive rates while navigating these challenges. Your understanding and continued support are truly appreciated.
 
Hey @websquadza

I've been playing a lot of PUBG these days, and a friend and I have noticed a marked increase in the ping to Singapore, it's gone from 130ms to around 190ms?

I've noticed the Linode/Akamai speed test to Singapore now shows ~ 370ms vs the previous 180ms I used to get, even ExitLag can't save me from this issue?

Just curious to know what the cause is?

3. between countries: eg. CPT-LON is +- 150ms, JHB - SINGAPORE is +- 130ms and so on. As you can see, it goes up the further your connection goes.
 
Hey @websquadza

I've been playing a lot of PUBG these days, and a friend and I have noticed a marked increase in the ping to Singapore, it's gone from 130ms to around 190ms?

I've noticed the Linode/Akamai speed test to Singapore now shows ~ 370ms vs the previous 180ms I used to get, even ExitLag can't save me from this issue?

Just curious to know what the cause is?
Morning, apologies for only picking this up now. If you can share one of those Akamai/linode endpoints I can check. I suspect it’s probably an issue on their own global routing. Pubg is aws based as far as I remember, but will check on this our side too.
 
Morning, apologies for only picking this up now. If you can share one of those Akamai/linode endpoints I can check. I suspect it’s probably an issue on their own global routing. Pubg is aws based as far as I remember, but will check on this our side too.
At the office, will share endpoint & some findings later :thumbsup:
 
Evening @websquadza , want to quickly find out , seems our vodacom business contract for our office is done, we on month to month, the FNO is link africa, how much drama ( downtime) would it take to move off vodacom and onto websquad? Its almost 11pm, and im still sitting with them dicking around with their hawuwuwuweiii, router which is giving the same issue ours is, , ( ours isnt connecting either, so i plug theirs in for their "testing) . Would we need to change routers? or can we use our existing one with all our config stuff ( its not much, but it is what it is) or can we get away with just changing the PPPOE details? Ready to drop vodacom like a hot potato
 
We are now 14 hours into a FTTB outage, and Vodacom is still ducking around with the router

Confirmed we are month to month with them, websquad, I’m ready when you are
 
Evening @websquadza , want to quickly find out , seems our vodacom business contract for our office is done, we on month to month, the FNO is link africa, how much drama ( downtime) would it take to move off vodacom and onto websquad? Its almost 11pm, and im still sitting with them dicking around with their hawuwuwuweiii, router which is giving the same issue ours is, , ( ours isnt connecting either, so i plug theirs in for their "testing) . Would we need to change routers? or can we use our existing one with all our config stuff ( its not much, but it is what it is) or can we get away with just changing the PPPOE details? Ready to drop vodacom like a hot potato
We are now 14 hours into a FTTB outage, and Vodacom is still ducking around with the router

Confirmed we are month to month with them, websquad, I’m ready when you are
I'll drop you a PM. Let's get you moved over. unfortunately LA is VLAN per service, and quite a process for a FTTB migration. but our team will look after you.
 
I was using https://speedtest.singapore.linode.com

For ExitLag I noticed the ping is now 30ms higher, I didn't take a screenshot prior to noticing the change as luck would have it.

View attachment 1803869
Thanks for your patience here

It doesn't look like SAFE is down, however traffic is taking a weird return path from a few networks, so we suspect other factors are at play with what is likely a common upstream re-routing via alternative paths. We are digging a little further.

Linode as a side note is part of Akamai now, so I suspect we're relying on Akamai's global routing paths and transit (we peer with Akamai locally), which don't include more expensive routes like SAFE.
 
We completely understand your frustration with these price increases, especially since they seem to be coming from all directions.

As an ISP, any increase passed on to consumers is directly tied to rising input costs, with FNO line rental being the largest. We’ve consistently absorbed as much of these costs as possible, only adjusting service pricing in line with FNO increases—sometimes even less—while not fully accounting for other rising expenses.

That said, it’s worth noting that internet costs, relative to inflation, have actually decreased over the years. A 50 Mbps fibre service today is significantly more affordable than a 4 Mbps ADSL connection in 2010, which cost around R700-R800 per month (roughly R1,500 today when adjusted for inflation). Meanwhile, essentials like petrol, DSTV, and food have more than doubled in price.

Key factors driving these FNO increases include:

  1. Debt Costs: Rising interest rates have made fibre rollouts more expensive. And the FNOs have borrowed heavily to fund their growth these past few years. Unfortunately, even if rates drop, it’s unlikely FNOs will reduce pricing, as they're facing billions in debt payments annually.
  2. Energy Costs: The cost of electricity has outpaced inflation 2X the past few years, and Eskom’s instability forces ISPs and FNOs to invest heavily in backup power solutions, increasing operational expenses. Power is a big factor in operating any network.
  3. Market Maturity: The fibre “gold rush” has slowed, meaning FNOs can no longer offset costs and losses through rapid expansion.
  4. Labour & Inflation: Rising living costs drive up salaries, impacting all sectors, including network operations and customer support.
  5. Maintenance & Infrastructure Costs: Fibre networks require ongoing maintenance, replacement of aging equipment, and additional security measures due to theft and vandalism.
We remain committed to providing the best possible service at the most competitive rates while navigating these challenges. Your understanding and continued support are truly appreciated.
This is a seriously bad hit... I can't imagine any ISP wishes to raise service costs.

Bg ups for the lay out on this!
 
Good day pals and websquad


every time I connect via PPPoE and get an IPv6 address, about 10 minutes later, the IPv6 traffic just stops dead. Anyone else running into the same thing?

1742219458192.png


1742219658862.png


pinging the ipv6.google.com
and it stopped

1742219726180.png


see the attachment, please

*****************************************

and the speed’s kinda off too
The internet data plan i use is100/100 upload and download speed

1742221141425.png
 
Last edited:
Good day pals and websquad


every time I connect via PPPoE and get an IPv6 address, about 10 minutes later, the IPv6 traffic just stops dead. Anyone else running into the same thing?

View attachment 1804754


View attachment 1804756


pinging the ipv6.google.com
and it stopped

View attachment 1804758


see the attachment, please

*****************************************

and the speed’s kinda off too
The internet data plan i use is100/100 upload and download speed

View attachment 1804763
Evening, please can you PM me your account details so I can take a look here?
 
Evening, please can you PM me your account details so I can take a look here?
Good day pals and websquad


every time I connect via PPPoE and get an IPv6 address, about 10 minutes later, the IPv6 traffic just stops dead. Anyone else running into the same thing?

View attachment 1804754


View attachment 1804756


pinging the ipv6.google.com
and it stopped

View attachment 1804758


see the attachment, please

*****************************************

and the speed’s kinda off too
The internet data plan i use is100/100 upload and download speed

View attachment 1804763
Morning, following up on your account details so we can assist?

Thanks
 
Any known issues with Vumatel in Jhb?
Speed Tests around a fifth what it is usually.
Been getting weird drops throughout the day (In Teams & Slack), a bunch of buffering on twitch.

Seems to be very erratic.

1743424105847.png
 
Any known issues with Vumatel in Jhb?
Speed Tests around a fifth what it is usually.
Been getting weird drops throughout the day (In Teams & Slack), a bunch of buffering on twitch.

Seems to be very erratic.

View attachment 1808425
Sounds like some sort of packet loss or line issue. No known general issues, can you log a ticket with the support team so they can check on your line?
 
Sounds like some sort of packet loss or line issue. No known general issues, can you log a ticket with the support team so they can check on your line?
Will do. We had some hardcore lightning last week, so might also be my router. I'm going to try a backup and see if it changes anything. If not I'll log a call thank you!
 
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