WiFi mesh?

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mrnaz

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Hi guys,
I am new here. As in new to the country. I am visiting from Australia and am trying to get into the local IT geek scene.

For years in Australia I've been taunted by Koreans, Americans and Canadians about our slow and high latency access and I promised myself that I'd never do the same to those less fortunate than I, so I won't talk about how this 512k Telkom line doesn't compare to my 24mbit line back home or how much higher the general latency is here. Oh, oops :P

Anyway I have a few questions and this seems to be the most clued up forum I've come across so far in .za so it seems like a good place to start.

1. Is setting up a WiFi mesh between you and your neighbours legal? I've been told that you need a carrier licence to do this. Is that really true?
2. Is it true that VOIP is illegal?
3. Where is the best place to get computer hardware cheap? In Aus there are sunday markets for cheap gear you can buy to avoid the retail markups, if you're not concerned with needing lots of service or anything like that. Just a standard 12 month warranty which applies only if its broken out of the box and a blank stare if you have any technical questions.
4. Who provides the best broadband access here? This 512k Telkom line just isn't cutting the mustard, surely there's better? I'm willing to pay anything, but I need proper net access. For the love of God someone help me!!

Any other advice for coping here would be great, I'm staying with relatives who are about as clued up technically as Kalahari tribesmen.
 
Hi mrnaz,

Welcome to South Africa!

Regarding your questions:

1. Yes it is legal. It was a grey area question in the past, but not since new ECA. There is still _some_ confusion, but it's more to do with what you share with your neighbour, whether you charge him or not etc. None of these regulations have been tried in court though so nothing is technically 'illegal'.
2. No, it's not true.
3. Don't know about markets such as these. In Cape Town VEFA computers in Wynberg comes pretty close to what you describe.
4. 1024 kbps Telkom ADSL, but with an account from RSAWeb, Imaginet, WebAfrica etc... (The 1024 kbps service is currently running at 4096 kbps max)

Other advice:

-Do NOT sign any long-term contracts for internet, no matter what.
-Buy an ADSL modem/router from a 3rd party, not Telkom. (You'll pay about 50-70% less)
-Keep your doors locked at all times.
 
henkk78 said:
1. Yes it is legal. It was a grey area question in the past, but not since new ECA. There is still _some_ confusion, but it's more to do with what you share with your neighbour, whether you charge him or not etc. None of these regulations have been tried in court though so nothing is technically 'illegal'.
Click to expand...

henk we have been through this before. The key insight that you failed to mention is that since there are no precedents only Vuski Pikoli from the National Prosecuting Authority can prosecute anybody in terms of our constitution. In other words it won't be tried in court no matter how much they bribe Icasa and how much charges are pressed with the police. The Fire-arms relicensing fiasco was a clearcut example of this. Nqaqula wanted John Welch to prosecute himself, so Welch patiently explained to Nqaqula that he won't prosecute himself .... sigh ..... is it really difficult.....

The only confusion is that the public don't understand that the ANC, SAPS and Thabo himself can't prosecute anybody: Vusi Pikoli does this at his sole discretion where there are no precedents. If there are precedents like with common theft then in contrast the NPA has no choice they must prosecute if the
evidence is good much to the consternation of Pikoli won't doesn't view stealing out of hunger a crime......
 
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And probably the best piece of advice I can give you.

Ignore everything captainwifi says.
 
henkk78 said:
Other advice:

-Do NOT sign any long-term contracts for internet, no matter what.
Click to expand...

I took a 2yr contract to purchase a 5102G Telkom router for R245pm (at 384kbps).. Is this what you referring to?:rolleyes:
 
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