WiMax Information Guide

Muffen Man

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WiMax Information Guide.

Telkom installed my WiMax a few days ago (after waiting over a year for ADSL).
Not many people know about the workings and procedures of WiMax, so I thought I’d right a guide on my experiences to help fellow people out when applying for WiMax.

Firstly, to order WiMax you’ll need to call the Telkom business call center on 10217. When you get through to an consultant, make sure to get the person’s name, so you can refer back to him/her.
Place you order with the consultant. They usually say someone will contact you within 48 hours to complete the order.

Telkom lost my WiMax application 4 times. I recommend you call 10217 to following day to make sure the order is on the system. The Telkom consultants also tend to shove you around different departments, as most of them have no idea what WiMax is or how it works. The 10217 department is correct, so if they say they going to transfer you to either 10219 or 0800 375 375 you going to end up at a dead end.

Someone will contact you, it’s not usually in 48 hours. Someone eventually got hold of me in 5 days.
They will give you your WiMax order number. Make sure to write the order number down.
The order number isn’t like the ADSL order numbers, an example is: 1043178A

Telkom will then give your order to an external company. The external company will contact you to arrange a date and a time to come and install the WiMax equipment. Expect an installation date within 1 to 2 weeks.

I recommend you be present when the company does the installation, as they install a small flat panel antenna on a pole, and run cable to where you want your WiMax modem to be located.

Picture of the WiMax antenna: http://www.ibit.co.za/wimax/wimax antenna.jpg

They run an Ethernet cable from the flat panel WiMax CPE to the WiMax IDU.
The WiMax CPE is the Flat panel thats installed on the pole. The WiMax IDU supplies the power to the WiMax CPE antenna.

The WiMax they supplied us with is a single port IDU:
http://www.ibit.co.za/wimax/wimax modem.jpg

I connected the WiMax IDU to a Linksys Broadband Router, and it works perfectly. Your PPPoE username and password is not installed on the WiMax IDU. The WiMax IDU functions as if it were a bridged ADSL modem. Therefore you’ll need to create a PPPoE broadband dial-up connect in Windows to access the internet.

The speed of the WiMax is 512 kbps and 256 kbps down. I’ve been getting around 60 kb/sec average on the IS news server.

If there’s anything else you want me to add to this help guide or have any questions about WiMax, post and I’ll try to answer them :)
 
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The modem functions as if it were a bridged ADSL modem. Therefore you’ll need to create a PPPoE broadband dial-up connect in Windows to access the internet.
Apart from the WiMax modem, you said you have a "Linksys broadband modem". Do you mean Linksys router...?
Surely you can enter the PPPoE username/pwd in your Linksys router. Because if you created a dialup connection in Windows, then that means your Linksys router is set to bridge mode too, which in effect means it has no routing ability anymore, which defeats the purpose of having a router in the first place.

Where in SA are you, that it was so hard to get ADSL? It's interesting that Telkom offers both ADSL and WiMax to you but deliver with one service and not the other.

What do you pay for WiMax?
 
Sorry, was a typo. I do have a Linksys Broadband Router :D

You can enter the PPPoE username and password on the router itself. I'm sharing the connection with someone else, that doesn't use the internet much. Therefore i'm using an IS account and he's using a WebAfrica prepaid account.

I stay in Durbanville. The fiber cables are at my local mini exchange (blue and green box), Telkom just needs to upgrade the DSLAM, as all the ports are full. Been waiting for over a year for a Telkom jockie to upgrade the DSLAM.

I'm paying R 240 per month for the WiMax and then the ISP chargers above that.
 
ok i called 10219 applied for normal adsl hoping to get WIMAX then called 10217 asked for Wimax as we have no telephone lines in our complex at all.
I checked with an insider and am in the footprint for Wimax but they still pushing for ADSL i dont want a Telkom line to avoid the line rental
 
What happened when you tried ordering WiMax via 10217?
Think you need a phone number to order WiMax...ironic since it doesnt need the phone line....
 
True, i spoke to Ashney(10217) who advised that the techies has to give the go ahead and they need to check the exchange to see if they can provide adsl before they give me WIMAX and i dont have landlines at all for bloody adsl.
 
Just pointing this out, incase people get the wrong Idea.
That little Box that you plug power into (Muffen_Man called it a modem), is called an IDU (It says so on the picture). All this does is supply power to the WiMax CPE.

The WiMax CPE is the Flat panel thats installed on the pole.
Its actually an integrated CPE and Antenna.
The entire setup acts like an ADSL modem in bridge mode, so the PPPoE dialing needs to be done by your PC, or a Broadband Router (such as the Linksys WRT54G).
 
I've been trying to get wimax for some time now. been waiting for adsl since september and everytime there is a different excuse. I've had "no ports available in the exchange" to "no leads" to "no infrastructure". They then told me they need a card for the exchange but they have reched their budget and can only assist in their new financial year (march).

they then arranged a card from kzn and installed it. Now the new excuse is that they have to install a mini-dslam on my street. i mean, this is gonna take forever. the way i understand it is that they have to lay the fibre to the mini-dslam and that means digging, etc.

*sigh*

So i tried the wimax thing last year and tried again last week. they keep telling me that there is no coverage in my area yet on the website it states that honeydew does have coverage.

how do i get someone out to my house to test for signal? is this at all possible?

im so f-ing fed-up!!!!!
 
Can you maybe see the base station from your house?

I would recommend you goto a TelkomDirect shop sometime in the week and make a scene there. Then you can have a one on one with a Telkom jockie instead of dealing with those clueless n00bs at the call center.

But i know the feel of being told a new excuse every few weeks. I also had the excuse "no budget". Seems hard to believe, comming from a company thats made a 6 billion rand proft...

Let us know if you got any help at the Telkom shop?
 
Can you maybe see the base station from your house?

I would recommend you goto a TelkomDirect shop sometime in the week and make a scene there. Then you can have a one on one with a <b>Telkom jockie instead of dealing with those clueless n00bs at the call center.</b>

But i know the feel of being told a new excuse every few weeks. I also had the excuse "no budget". Seems hard to believe, comming from a company thats made a 6 billion rand proft...

Let us know if you got any help at the Telkom shop?


Lol, hows going into a Telkom Shop gonna do anything?

Yeah you may be there physically so you can rant and rave... but everything is processed the same way, where it be on the phone or not.

There are a lot of discreprencies involved unfortunately :-(
 
I think they can order WiMax? I ordered mine there initially... They can also verify the footprint in the area.

When it comes to local knowledge of what *** telkom is doing, the TelkomDirect shop is the place to rant and rave to...
 
So i tried the wimax thing last year and tried again last week. they keep telling me that there is no coverage in my area yet on the website it states that honeydew does have coverage.

how do i get someone out to my house to test for signal? is this at all possible?

WiMax isn't like a TV signal, it doesn't go everywhere in an area.
They have very specific maps, of who is in coverage and who isn't.
They know exactely where the antennas on the towers are pointing, and they know how far you can be away from the antenna before it will start causing problems with other peoples connections.
 
WiMax isn't like a TV signal, it doesn't go everywhere in an area.
They have very specific maps, of who is in coverage and who isn't.
They know exactely where the antennas on the towers are pointing, and they know how far you can be away from the antenna before it will start causing problems with other peoples connections.

no for sure, i know all of that. the thing is the part of honeydew i stay in is fairly new and street names arent listed (not even on garmaps). when i applied for my land line they didnt know exactly where it was.

when they check the maps my street doesnt exist. they told me that that doesnt mean that there isnt reception but because its not on the system they just dont bother.

i do have los to 3x exchange towers (doubt these towers have wimax) and 2x newish red/white steel towers. im almost 100% sure that those towers are wimax towers.
 
Can you maybe see the base station from your house?

I would recommend you goto a TelkomDirect shop sometime in the week and make a scene there. Then you can have a one on one with a Telkom jockie instead of dealing with those clueless n00bs at the call center.

But i know the feel of being told a new excuse every few weeks. I also had the excuse "no budget". Seems hard to believe, comming from a company thats made a 6 billion rand proft...

Let us know if you got any help at the Telkom shop?

Will do/try.

If the service is up my side, I could possibly verify it as well, crap's always down this side.

service? do you perhaps work for telkom?
 
I'm currently waiting for my Wimax to be installed.

I took the morning off work to wait at home today and I got told "sorry we can't install because it's raining"
Apparently the reasoning behind this is that rain and wet trees (yes you heard me correctly) messes with the signal so much that they can't install.
WTF!
From the research I've done this technology can't be such a piece of **** that it will be effected by rain when even my 3G isn't.

Is there someone in the know who can tell me if I'm being messed around or if i'm just being a retard?
 
I'm currently waiting for my Wimax to be installed.

I took the morning off work to wait at home today and I got told "sorry we can't install because it's raining"
Apparently the reasoning behind this is that rain and wet trees (yes you heard me correctly) messes with the signal so much that they can't install.
WTF!
From the research I've done this technology can't be such a piece of **** that it will be effected by rain when even my 3G isn't.

Is there someone in the know who can tell me if I'm being messed around or if i'm just being a retard?

I'd blame safety concerns.
I've done numerous Wireless installations in wet weather, and its far from fun.
Its dangerous. Things get slippery, there's always a chance of lightening. And the last place you want to be is standing on a roof, waving a pole around.
 
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