This Forum Must Be Shutdown

J

jamieb

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IBurst is a company not even worth mentioning or discussing.

Why?

- Their service is NOT BROAD BAND
- Their service is non-functional, experimental at best!
- They have NO customer support
- They do not deliver on their promises
 
Well, some of us, like me are stuck with iBurst and don't have other options. I think this forum is valuable in terms of a place to discuss iBurst and to make contact with other iburst users and find out when the problems come up and how to solve them.

What problems are you experiencing? Maybe I can help. Sure the helpdesk is useless but there are other avenues.
 
Kei

I won't even go down that route. My connection is setup correctly... i've been through all the avenues.

Worked around the world in IT for 12 years... never in my life have I ever come across such a horrid service.

This company amounts to scam; the service they offer is so broken.
 
While I have no doubt that you know what you are doing, what I'd like to know is,

* how far are you from the tower
* What is your MTU setting and how is it set (on the router, or in Windoze registry)
* UTC or UTD?

The reason I ask is because, I've seen people here go from crap service to good service by:

* Finding the sweet-spot
* Purchasing an antenna and taking the time to point it correctly
* Use DrTCP and other apps to resolve MTU issues

Remember, this is radio, not a direct connection to the 'net! Radio communication is subject to atmospheric and other effects
 
- They do not deliver on their promises
Click to expand...

You know what jamieb, ure actually right. however, like the others here, im flucked for choice
 
Ok, here goes...

iBurst UTD
Netgear 814 wireless router
MTU set at 1492
iBurst modem connects to Rosebank tower (all modem lights are green)
we are located about 500m from Rosebank
3 PC connect through to the wireless router (via ethernet cabling)
wireless router connects out to iBurst modem

All PC run ZoneAlarm firewalls that block non HTTP, FTP, telnet traffic
We regularly run Adaware, Norton Antivirus, etc.

Symptoms

- sometimes it works perfectly, most times it does not
- regular disconnects
- severe throttling when downloading files (starts at 50k, then moves to 4k)
- frequently cannot ping sites
- web pages sometimes half load

All local network settings are correct, can ping every machine and get decent response times.
 
Have you tried connecting iBurst to a single machine without a router and the ZoneAlarm stuff to check if the problem disappears? I have picked up funnys with software firewalls on Iburst and for this reason purchased a hardware firewall router combo
 
atmospheric conditions...

Remember, this is radio, not a direct connection to the 'net! Radio communication is subject to atmospheric and other effects
Click to expand...

iBurst are running around town, claiming that their service is BROAD BAND and is RELIABLE. This is bullsh*it and everyone in the SA IT world knows it.

As a customer, I do not care about the limitations of their technology. I want an Internet service that works 100% of the time, as advertised.

If they have implemented this technology correctly. then it should never had made it out of the research labs.
 
couldnt agree with you more Jamie but we got to try and resolve the issues we have as best we can
 
If they have implemented this technology correctly. then it should never had made it out of the research labs.
Click to expand...

Most of this equipment was designed for overseas telecoms networks. In SA Telkom uses variations of the standards so compatibility problems arise. This is because of the past and how telecoms technologies emerged here.

As craigsa said- we got to help each other try and resolve the issues as best we can, while knowing the service provider can only do so much. I know it's wrong but this is Africa, not some 1st world company.
 
Kei

Kei,

WBS should have ironed out the kinks BEFORE it launched the service. Why must we waste our precious time, doing their job for them. I don't know about you, but I don't get a kick out of diagnosing iBurst issues, especially since, I am paying them R600 per month to do it.

When is enough?
 
jamieb said:
All PC run ZoneAlarm firewalls
Click to expand...

*giggle*

Zonealarm isnt a firewall

Compare firewalls to dogs.

A rottweiler that doesnt sleep is a good firewall, like an openbsd machine with a properely configured ipchains config

or a decent hardware cisco machine


but zonealarm is more of a Jack Russel that wakes you up every opnce in a while to warn you that someone is outside the gate. Sometimes no one is there yet it yaps, sometimes it yaps because its hungry, other times it yaps because its doing it job and other times it just yaps because someone was just walking past your house.


Sorry

I just had to throw that in.
 
ok

Hey, friends of mine work for Zone Alarm, and believe me, they are very knowledgeable. Don't be fooled into thinking that Zonealarm is not a firewall because (a) it is user friendly (b) it is consumer product.

Zonealarm is a perfectly good firewall for home use.
 
WBS should have ironed out the kinks BEFORE it launched the service
Click to expand...
Unfortunately in SA it don't work that way. I was involved in rolling out a new technology while I was still employed by hellkom. I had endless drama getting it to work over existing G.703 links. Eventually the manufacturer modified the cards and it worked.

As for doing their job for them, while I agree this is bullsh1t, WBS is lacking in the skills department. Telecommunications knowledge, is still very much a guarded secret in SA and unless u have been lucky enough to work for Telkom or MTN/Vodacom, the necessary understanding and skills of modern telecommunications equipment is not something you can learn out of a book or at college/varsity locally.
 
I'm with jamieb, I've experienced this with Sentech and with iBurst, wireless companies generally don't give a flying fluck about your problems. "You're the only one with the problem" jumps to mind, heck, TheRodent even went as far as to :

a) Write Linux drivers for Sentech's MySuck modem
b) Determine that their proxy servers are wide open for (ab)use from ADSL users and in turn we get blamed.

So the same thing goes for iBurst, we had to find out ourselves that they change the MTU settings whenever they feel horny but couldn't get laid, they switch from using their stupid proxy without notifying customers, WE had to determine their capping was flawed (and might I say, suffer the consequences)

With all this effort a service is still shyte and customer service even crappier, so why in the world would I want to stay with iBurst?

jamieb, cancel now, it won't get any better, there is no light at the end of the tunnel (it's probably an oncoming train)

Rather waste your money on ADSL (which should be going 1mb soon anyway)
 
arrrgh!

We do have the skills here...take a look at the Myadsl forum. Its just that, our economy is based more on smoke and mirrors, than pure merit. South Africa's problem has always been its politicians. I for one, wish they, could all dissapear into smoke.
 
jamieb said:
...
MTU set at 1492
...
Click to expand...
:eek:

jamieb, set your MTU lower, 1492 is the maximum for PPPoE, it is not a value that will work with iBurst, amongst any other problems you are no doubt experiencing, you will definitely be experiencing loads of packet fragmentation at 1492. I suggest trying 1432, and if that doesn't work then go with 1352. Everyone is welcome to argue with me on this, but I am telling you that a value of 1492 is only going to increase the unusability factor with iBurst, set it lower first, then tell me the lower value doesn't work...:)

Now, about shutting down this forum, this forum and MyADSL are not run by WBS, and even if there was no iBurst in South Africa, it should not preclude having a discussion forum about iBurst. This forum is for discussing, which allows the very same issues about WBS to be highlighted [BTW I don't disagree on those points, just about shutting down this forum]...
 
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