ADSL ISP for UK Company Remote Worker (VOIP/RDP/Low Latency)

M

mercenary

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Hi,

I have been a member of the forum for ages and hardly ever post, now that I have moved back to Sunny South Africa I will try be active.

I am working for a UK hosting company from SA and need some advice on ADSL ISPs, ie: who uses which network provider and which cable that provider uses.

I need a ISP who can give me the lowest latency to the UK, as I have to VPN in for work and have a Avaya Phone, which also VPNs in and connect to a VOIP PABX.

I have som far found one ISP which I think can provide what I need but I may have overlooked alot.

http://vanilla.co.za/dsl.php

Unshaped (R87 per GB)
Our super duper triple redundant combo package will give you access to all 3 of the top performing networks in South Africa, namely SAIX (Telkom), Internet Solutions and MTN Business.
All accounts work at the highest speeds available on your line (see far right column).
If you are a trader on financial markets, or experienced gamer, or voice connoisseur looking for lower latency (where tens of milliseconds make a difference) then this is the package for you.

These are not the usual 'capped' accounts. You select the number of GB for prepaid billing (starting at half an unshaped GB for R54 per month) and the number of GB to provision (i.e. when you want to be cut off). Postpaid usage is charged at the beginning of the month following the actual usage at 12c per MB or R87 per GB (whichever is less for your benefit).
Click to expand...

Can anyone offer some advice?

Thanks
 
They are a unknown in my opinion, and going by some previous member posts about them they have some unfair business practice.
WebAfrica has THE best latencies that I have seen to the UK, also Axxess R19/gig (Lite) is pretty good as well.
What are your data usage requirements, now that I mention Cap ?
 
I don't really know about my data usuage, I am gonna check for the first few months and see.

Is the Web Africa and Axxess Traffic unshapped? Will my VPN connection suffer?

I will check about Vanilla, thanks for the heads up
 
I'm probably going to be flamed for this, but i'd propose a Saix Diginet line for the VoIP portion and ADSL with unshaped bandwidth for the VPN. You get fairly good latency / jitter with the Diginet line. It seems like the up-time on these lines are also better than most ADSL lines. a 128K Diginet with international connectivity will cost around R1200-00 per month excl vat.

You might also consider a local VoIP service provider with a bit of skill. A few of them will surely come up with solutions how to get your voice reliably from international to you.
 
I used to work from CPT on a VPN connection of a Telkom 4mbs line and MWeb. Because of the VPN I used about 500mb per day just doing normal work things, accessing files on the server and running some applications. I would highly suggest an uncapped option, probably go with the MWeb uncapped, not sure how their latency is nowadays though
 
if someone could post some ping tests to rackspace.co.uk maybe a traceroute and if uncapped may be an option
 
MWEB >>
C:\Users\*>tracert rackspace.co.uk

Tracing route to rackspace.co.uk [212.64.133.165]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms <1 ms NEXUS [192.168.0.1]
2 12 ms 22 ms 12 ms 41-133-124-1.dsl.mweb.co.za [41.133.124.1]
3 25 ms 24 ms 25 ms 197-80-4-94.jhb.mweb.co.za [197.80.4.94]
4 27 ms 27 ms 27 ms vl-92.vic-hscore-1.mweb.co.za [196.22.189.2]
5 27 ms 27 ms 27 ms TenGigE0-0-0-0.11.vic-up-1.mweb.co.za [196.22.16
9.225]
6 32 ms 28 ms 27 ms tengige0-3-1-0.mid-up-1.mweb.co.za [196.22.169.9
4]
7 249 ms 249 ms 248 ms pos0-0-2-1.lon-up-1.mweb.co.za [196.22.163.234]

8 250 ms 248 ms 254 ms linx.edge3.lon.rackspace.net [195.66.224.116]
9 252 ms 265 ms 250 ms vl911.core6a.lon3.rackspace.net [92.52.76.204]
10 252 ms 259 ms 252 ms aggr322a-2-core6a.lon3.rackspace.net [92.52.77.3
1]
11 292 ms 248 ms 252 ms 212.64.133.165

Trace complete.

IS Uncapped>>
C:\Users\*>tracert rackspace.co.uk

Tracing route to rackspace.co.uk [212.64.133.165]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 2 ms 2 ms 2 ms 192.168.0.1
2 5 ms 5 ms 5 ms 196.211.68.241
3 26 ms 29 ms 29 ms 196.211.43.221
4 26 ms 31 ms 31 ms cdsl1-rba-vl144.isdsl.net [196.35.63.65]
5 31 ms 30 ms 28 ms core1b-rba-te2-0-1.ip.isnet.net [168.209.1.181]

6 257 ms 273 ms 253 ms mi-za-rba-p5-gi2-0-2.ip.isnet.net [168.209.164.9
7]
7 334 ms 257 ms 257 ms mi-uk-dock-p3-gi3-1-1.ip.isnet.net [168.209.161.
80]
8 258 ms 258 ms 257 ms core1a-dock-gi1-0-17.ip.isnet.net [168.209.164.2
04]
9 233 ms 231 ms 231 ms 168.209.246.66
10 228 ms 232 ms 227 ms linx.edge1.lon.rackspace.net [195.66.226.116]
11 228 ms 232 ms 232 ms vl912.core6a.lon3.rackspace.net [92.52.76.246]
12 229 ms 232 ms 232 ms aggr322a-2-core6a.lon3.rackspace.net [92.52.77.3
1]
13 230 ms 227 ms 227 ms 212.64.133.165

Trace complete.
 
Cape Town usually gets the best Latency to London, especially if you use an ISP who makes use of SAT3, like M-Web Cape Town does, Web Africa does, Cybersmart for some accounts.

Code: 
C:\Users\Tinuva>tracert rackspace.co.uk

Tracing route to rackspace.co.uk [212.64.133.165]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  router.heaven.za.net [10.0.0.1]
  2     7 ms     7 ms     7 ms  wblv-ip-esr-4.ipnet.wa.co.za [41.185.84.1]
  3     9 ms    31 ms     9 ms  wnls-ipc1-vl-105.wa.co.za [196.220.59.250]
  4    10 ms     9 ms     8 ms  wnls-cr1-vl-801.wa.co.za [41.185.0.67]
  5     9 ms     9 ms    43 ms  41-66-150-41-29.used.africainx.net [41.66.150.41]
  6   168 ms   164 ms   187 ms  ld-gs-msc-m-to-ct-ro-msc-m-sat3-core-p2p.africainx.net [41.66.132.49]
  7   184 ms   169 ms   164 ms  linx.edge3.lon.rackspace.net [195.66.224.116]
  8   175 ms   164 ms   164 ms  vl911.core6a.lon3.rackspace.net [92.52.76.204]
  9   199 ms   166 ms   164 ms  aggr322a-2-core6a.lon3.rackspace.net [92.52.77.31]
 10   165 ms   164 ms   165 ms  212.64.133.165

Trace complete.
 
Comparison: Cybersmart (Cape Town) R 9.50 / GB - Highest throughput of any local ISP and bandwidth is unshaped unlike all others

Code: 
Tracing route to rackspace.co.uk [212.64.133.165] over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2     7 ms     8 ms     6 ms  1.21.177.41-discover.co.za [41.177.21.1]
  3     7 ms     7 ms     7 ms  196.6.121.50-backbone.cybersmart.co.za [196.6.121.50]
  4     8 ms     8 ms     8 ms  196.6.121.114-backbone.cybersmart.co.za [196.6.121.114]
  5   204 ms   204 ms   203 ms  217.78.88.17
  6   207 ms   205 ms   207 ms  217.78.88.38
  7   202 ms   205 ms   205 ms  if-2-0-6.core4.LDN-London.as6453.net [195.219.195.225]
  8   220 ms   212 ms   218 ms  Vlan466.icore2.LDN-London.as6453.net [80.231.76.242]
  9   207 ms   206 ms   203 ms  xe-2-2-2.lon11.ip4.tinet.net [77.67.66.21]
 10   204 ms   204 ms   207 ms  xe-1-0-0.lon80.ip4.tinet.net [89.149.183.118]
 11   209 ms   207 ms   205 ms  rackspace-gw.ip4.tinet.net [77.67.75.182]
 12   209 ms   206 ms   207 ms  vl911.core6a.lon3.rackspace.net [92.52.76.204]
 13   214 ms   209 ms   209 ms aggr322a-2-core6a.lon3.rackspace.net [92.52.77.31]
 14   205 ms   207 ms   210 ms  212.64.133.165

Trace complete.

Comparison: Telkom (Cape Town) R 69.00 / GB

Code: 
Tracing route to rackspace.co.uk [212.64.133.165] over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2     7 ms     7 ms     8 ms  dsl-241-24-01.telkomadsl.co.za [41.241.24.1]
  3     7 ms     7 ms     7 ms  196.43.35.62
  4     7 ms     7 ms     6 ms  196.43.35.57
  5     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  6    29 ms    28 ms    28 ms  196.43.10.130
  7    28 ms    27 ms    28 ms  196.43.33.5
  8   238 ms   237 ms   238 ms  lon-ip-dir-telecity-gig-1-0-2.telkom-ipnet.co.za  [196.43.9.217]
  9   228 ms   229 ms   231 ms  45-254-167-89.packetexchange.net [89.167.254.45]
 10   353 ms   353 ms   355 ms  linx.edge3.lon.rackspace.net [195.66.224.116]
 11   352 ms   352 ms   483 ms  vl911.core6a.lon3.rackspace.net [92.52.76.204]
 12   354 ms   354 ms   354 ms  aggr322a-2-core6a.lon3.rackspace.net [92.52.77.31]
 13   354 ms   353 ms   353 ms  212.64.133.165

Trace complete.

Comparison: Afrihost (Cape Town) R 9.50 / GB

Code: 
Tracing route to rackspace.co.uk [212.64.133.165] over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2     7 ms     7 ms    32 ms  196-210-148-129.dynamic.isadsl.co.za [196.210.148.129]
  3    33 ms    33 ms    33 ms  cdsl1-rba-vl2460.ip.isnet.net [196.38.72.217]
  4    30 ms    30 ms    30 ms  cdsl1-rba-vl150.ip.isnet.net [196.38.73.17]
  5    31 ms    31 ms    31 ms  core1b-rba-te2-0-1.ip.isnet.net [168.209.1.181]
  6   258 ms   259 ms   258 ms  mi-za-rba-p5-gi2-0-2.ip.isnet.net [168.209.164.97]
  7   258 ms   258 ms   262 ms  mi-uk-dock-p3-gi3-1-1.ip.isnet.net [168.209.161.80]
  8   268 ms   259 ms   260 ms  core1a-dock-gi1-0-17.ip.isnet.net [168.209.164.204]
  9   231 ms   233 ms   231 ms  168.209.246.65
 10   232 ms   232 ms   232 ms  linx.edge3.lon.rackspace.net [195.66.224.116]
 11   231 ms   231 ms   231 ms  vl912.core6a.lon3.rackspace.net [92.52.76.246]
 12   231 ms   231 ms   231 ms  aggr322a-2-core6a.lon3.rackspace.net [92.52.77.31]
 13   233 ms   233 ms   233 ms  212.64.133.165

Trace complete.

Comparison: BCS Net (Cape Town) R 1.72 / GB (Uncapped R 450.00 per month)

Code: 
Tracing route to rackspace.co.uk [212.64.133.165] over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2     7 ms     7 ms     9 ms  41-66-69-65.digichilli.co.za [41.66.69.65]
  3    30 ms    30 ms    30 ms  196.44.238.54
  4    33 ms    33 ms    33 ms  196.44.239.50
  5   259 ms   259 ms   260 ms  196.44.239.5
  6   262 ms   262 ms   262 ms  gi9-10.mpd01.lon02.atlas.cogentco.com [149.6.149.29]
  7   262 ms   263 ms   261 ms  te4-7.ccr01.lon02.atlas.cogentco.com [130.117.50.117]
  8   263 ms   261 ms   261 ms  te7-2.mpd02.lon01.atlas.cogentco.com [130.117.0.97]
  9   260 ms   259 ms   262 ms  te1-7.mpd01.lon01.atlas.cogentco.com [130.117.2.25]
 10   260 ms   259 ms   259 ms  ge-10-0-1.mpr1.lhr2.uk.above.net [64.125.12.145]
 11   260 ms   259 ms   260 ms  xe-1-0-0.mpr2.lhr3.uk.above.net [64.125.27.174]
 12   262 ms   262 ms   262 ms  213-152-254-148.available.above.net [213.152.254.148]
 13   261 ms   260 ms   260 ms  vl901.core1.lon.rackspace.net [83.138.138.35]
 14   267 ms   263 ms   264 ms  vl911.core6a.lon3.rackspace.net [92.52.76.204]
 15   265 ms   264 ms   264 ms  aggr322a-2-core6a.lon3.rackspace.net [92.52.77.31]
 16   264 ms   263 ms   273 ms  212.64.133.165

Trace complete.


Comparison: Web Africa (Cape Town) R 6.67 / GB

Code: 
Tracing route to rackspace.co.uk [212.64.133.165] over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2     7 ms     7 ms     7 ms  wbs-ip-esr-2.ipnet.wa.co.za [41.185.85.1]
  3     9 ms    14 ms     9 ms  wnls-ipc1-vl-108.wa.co.za [196.220.59.238]
  4     8 ms     9 ms     9 ms  wnls-cr2-vl-801.wa.co.za [41.185.0.66]
  5    62 ms     9 ms     9 ms  41-66-150-177-b1.available.africainx.net [41.66.150.177]
  6   165 ms   164 ms   164 ms  LD-GS-MSC-M-to-CT-RO-MSC-M-SAT3-core-p2p.africainx.net [41.66.132.49]
  7   164 ms   164 ms   164 ms  linx.edge3.lon.rackspace.net [195.66.224.116]
  8   165 ms   217 ms   166 ms  vl911.core6a.lon3.rackspace.net [92.52.76.204]
  9   207 ms   166 ms   167 ms  aggr322a-2-core6a.lon3.rackspace.net [92.52.77.31]
 10   180 ms   165 ms   164 ms  212.64.133.165

Trace complete.

Currently downloading via Altech account and therefore it would not accurately reflect. Please note; although latency plays a large role, the consistency of the connection also has a big impact on VoIP.

Also, in Cybersmart's defence: (normally far better latency than Web Africa)


From: Cybersmart [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: 16 November 2011 03:29 PM
To: S4IT
Subject: Planned maintenance

Hi,

At Cybersmart we are always striving to give you, our client, a world-class experience. To ensure that we continue to do this, we have arranged for Telkom to perform some maintenance on our ADSL interconnecting circuits.
This will improve your overall connectivity experience, but some minimal downtime may be experienced on the 17th November.

We appreciate your support and apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Regards

Team Cybersmart


Comparison: Cybersmart Re-TEST (Cape Town) R 9.50 / GB

Code: 
Tracing route to rackspace.co.uk [212.64.133.165] over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2     7 ms     7 ms     7 ms  1.21.177.41-discover.co.za [41.177.21.1]
  3     8 ms     8 ms     7 ms  196.6.121.38-backbone.cybersmart.co.za [196.6.121.38]
  4     8 ms     8 ms     8 ms  196.41.96.235
  5   158 ms   158 ms   158 ms  217.78.90.21
  6   159 ms   158 ms   158 ms  ge-1-9.r01.londen03.uk.bb.gin.ntt.net [213.130.48.1]
  7   165 ms   161 ms   208 ms  xe-0.level3.londen03.uk.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.8.138]
  8   158 ms   168 ms   158 ms  ae-2-52.edge4.London1.Level3.net [4.69.139.106]
  9   158 ms   158 ms   158 ms  195.50.122.42
 10   160 ms   159 ms   159 ms  vl912.core6a.lon3.rackspace.net [92.52.76.246]
 11   160 ms   162 ms   159 ms  aggr322a-2-core6a.lon3.rackspace.net [92.52.77.31]
 12   166 ms   165 ms   160 ms  212.64.133.165

Trace complete.
 
Last edited:
Great thanks for your help.

Could you tell me which CyberSmart and OpenWeb account types you are on? Any special addon, ie. Gold upgrade?

CyberSmart looks like a good choice, I wonder if PE bandwidth will go straight to CPT or bounce via JHB
 
mercenary said:
Great thanks for your help.

Could you tell me which CyberSmart and OpenWeb account types you are on? Any special addon, ie. Gold upgrade?

CyberSmart looks like a good choice, I wonder if PE bandwidth will go straight to CPT or bounce via JHB
Click to expand...

Yes, it does. I purchase most of my bandwidth via a reseller in PE www.trltech.co.za; contact [email protected] and request a test account - use my user name as referance.

Most of the products Open Web offers you can obtain from the above reseller - I have found that the same ISP accouts purchased via Open Web delivers poorer throughput, apparently due to more users using the same pipe on the Open Web accounts.

However, please test for yourself to confirm the above, as both Open Web & TRL Tech provide test accounts before you are required to purchase.

As for account types; Cybersmart bandwidth can be directly purchased from: https://www.trltech.co.za/whmcs/cart.php?gid=15 and I strongly suggest Gold and higher account types.
 
Last edited:
mercenery i would like to warn from TRL Technologies. these guys are thiefs, i left them a couple of months ago and they still debiting money from my account. please be warned.
 
I have been purchasing hosting, uncapped and capped products from them for more than a year without issue.

Should you be concerned by the PP's comments, select payment via EFT, which is always a wise option.
 
mercenary said:
Great thanks for your help.

Could you tell me which CyberSmart and OpenWeb account types you are on? Any special addon, ie. Gold upgrade?

CyberSmart looks like a good choice, I wonder if PE bandwidth will go straight to CPT or bounce via JHB
Click to expand...
Cybersmart 'customer interaction' / service quality might put you off. Their unshaped does look shaped, but it's liveable.

I'm thinking perhaps Telkom uncapped might be suitable. It costs a little more, but would be more reliable.
 
mercenary,

I'm in a similar situation. Also working remotely for a UK company (for a couple of years now). I'm based in Cape Town and been using these ISPs over this time (in no particular order)

Mweb
Webafrica
Afrihost
Cybersmart
Telkom

I'm currently with Webafrica on a business account (business lite) as I recently finally decided to bite the bullet after struggling with regular home/consumer accounts too long as they just seem to fluctuate too much for my liking. Mweb uncapped (shaped) was performing very well for a while with ~180ms pings to the UK (as they route via SAT3 if you're coming from Cape Town) but lately throughput started to suffer massively in the afternoons. They're also constantly tweaking their shaping policies so you're never quite sure how your VPN traffic will be impacted the next day (even though I believe they dont shape VPN traffic but more go on your usage/behaviour but I could never find any documentation to officially state this). With these (uncapped) type of accounts you're also always contending with the huge downloaders trying to download the whole of the interwebz, all day & every day so the ISPs have to put their foot down somehow as they all just have a finite amount of bandwidth to share...

Afrihost (capped / unshaped) was 'ok' but again some days are better than others with latency ranging between 210ms (if you're lucky) to ~300ms to the UK with fluctuations in-between during the day. Overall their speed was fairly consistent during the day. They also rely on seacom for their bandwidth and historically its not one of the most reliable of connections. I use Afrihost as a backup account which works great.

Cybersmart seems to have improved of late but I haven't used them for more than a year+ now so I cannot really comment. Some of the latest latencies posted seems good however. They also seem to cater more for the 'entry level' user (eg as you cannot buy more than 10GB on their website and you have to contact them if you want more...). There were some rumors a while back that they may be going bust; not really sure what to make of them at the moment.

Telkom - again haven't really used their uncapped accounts, however they all seem to be shaped so your VPN traffic may suffer.

Overall I'm massively happy with Webafrica as I've been with them on and-off for a few years now (this is the 1st time I'm using thier Business ADSL however) The business lite account I have with them has been performing really really well and I can be sure of their shaping policy - something they're very upfront with (other than other ISPs). My latency barely goes above 175ms to the UK througout the day (especially during peak times which matters to me most) with good throughput too. They also manage my ADSL line and whenever I have an issue I can be sure I can talk to someone within a few rings versus having to wait on the phone for hours for with Telkom. I'm on the internet all day every day using VPN/VOIP/Video Conferencing/RDP/SSH etc (no massive downloads or torrentz however) and I'm averaging 1GB per day. At the end of the day you get what you pay for I guess.
 
Last edited:
" Cybersmart seems to have improved of late but I haven't used them for more than a year+ now so I cannot really comment. Some of the latest latencies posted seems good however."



R 9.50 / GB = > 50 GB - https://www.trltech.co.za/whmcs/cart.php?gid=15 better throughput and latencies than WA, however the PP is correct when saying WA offers "support"; i.e. you can converse with a human that can speak English (unlike Cybersmart), as for having any form of technical abilities and the access to affect the changes that are required is highly debatable.

Search previous post, where it took me over 400 emails to WA (multiple "skilled" staff) to have a simple issue resolved and they never could - Telkom was made out to be the scapegoat. (Was forced to cancel the account in question)

In conclusion, I would advise an account with both ISP`s - as this will offer you a real level of redundancy that is required for critical internet access.
 
Last edited:
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