So after MWEB announced it’s uncapped ADSL solutions, it seems like most of the Internet Service Providers (ISP) are jumping onto the band wagon and competing.
Let’s have a look at what each ISP offers:
MWEB – http://www.mweb.co.za/adsl/
- 384k uncapped – R219
- 512k uncapped – R299
- 4096k uncapped – R539
MWEB is a big player in the Internet market; they have a good infrastructure and I’m pretty certain their services will be great. I will be receiving an uncapped test account during the course of next week and will keep you updated. What I do know is that they do control speeds during office hours to prioritize email and browsing, which I feel is fair.
Web Africa – http://www.webafrica.co.za
Web Africa have introduced a new uncapped Business package with hugely competitive prices. The company is well established and is the service provider I am currently using, so it’s worth having a look!
OpenWeb
- 384k uncapped – R219
- 512k uncapped – R299
- 4096k uncapped – R539
I have been a fan of OpenWeb since the moment they opened their doors to the ADSL world; I always found their support incredible and the owner is a really great guy. OpenWeb have partnered with MWEB to offer its clients uncapped ADSL, so the prices are exactly the same as MWEB. Once again, backboning off MWEB will need speed controls during office hours, sometimes.
@lantic (Vox)
- 384k uncapped – R339
- 512k uncapped – R589
- 4096k uncapped – R889
The important thing here is to note that @lantic/Vox include the line rental costs in their monthly uncapped accounts.
AfriHost
- 384k uncapped – R197
- 512k uncapped – R297
- 4096k uncapped – R497
AfriHost CEO, Gian Visser, announced that AfriHost would be introducing their uncapped accounts any day now. He told reporters that they had been planning this for quite some time, but MWEB beat them to it. AfriHost has been an incredibly competitive company in the ADSL market, often offering the cheapest data bundles. It’ll be interesting to see what they come up with for their uncapped accounts.
DigiChili
- 384k uncapped – R300
- 512k uncapped – R500
- 1024k uncapped – R1000
- 4096k uncapped – R3000
DigiChili burst onto the market a couple months back offering uncapped Internet. Unfortunately, every report I’ve heard since then has been negative and I think they will slowly slip out of the market based on their costs being more expensive and their offerings less attractive.
Gamco
- 384k uncapped – R1071
- 512k uncapped – R1470
- 1024k uncapped – R2815
I don’t know too much about Gamco, but based on their prices for uncapped accounts, it looks like they aren’t going to be much of a threat.
Screamer
- 384k uncapped – R399
- 512k uncapped – R799
- 1024k uncapped – R1499
- 4096k uncapped – R2499
Screamer is another ISP that came into the game with uncapped options; I’ve heard more negative comments than positive ones, besides, they’ve been priced out the market though. Their prices do not include adsl line rental, this is to be paid directly and seperately to Telkom.
Axxess
- 384k uncapped – R196
- 4096k uncapped – R496
Do you know of an ISP that’s jumping onto the band wagon and offering uncapped Internet? Please do leave a comment and let me know!
Web Africa – http://www.webafrica.co.za/
Web Africa doesn’t offer uncapped, but it’s Titan packages are brilliant, constant uptime and really high speeds.
I wonder what the chances are of this bring down the 3G data prices? They also need a real shake up!
I think we’ll start seeing a decline in 3G prices, as MTN comes more to the party; there’s been quite a lot of talk about Telkom and MTN lately, which I’m sure is going to rattle the market a bit. Cell C is also working on new infrastructure for 3G, which will also play a roll..
don’t forget, mweb also offer the adsl line rental and uncapped bundle.
384k – R349
512k – R599
4096k – R899
i can’t wait to see what afrihost will offer. i’ve been using them for a while now and their service and prices are awesome. i’m gonna stick with them because they are just awesome.
i have been offered a free uncapped at mweb for april so will see how that goes. i’m sure you have gotten that too?
Ye Geoff, I didn’t want to over complicate the post with home vs business solutions and bundled ones, we can use the comments for that; the article is aimed at home users really, that’s all.
Thanks though for putting the details in here though. Ye, I’m getting a solution from MWEB, but more on that later :)
For those of us that aren’t big geeks ;), what is the advantage of having 4096k versus 384k for example? I know the download speeds are obviously faster, but to what extent?
Sure,
On a 4096k line (4 mega bit), you can download up to around 400k/sec (an mp3 is about 6000k, so that’s 15 seconds for an mp3). Now, you don’t always get maximum speeds, but in comparison to a 384k line, which downloads at a maximum of say around 40k/sec, it’s essentially 10x slower for downloads. When it comes to downloads, this doesn’t only refer to downloading of mp3s and things, it refers to the speed in which browsing happens as well as downloading your email. So, essentially, if you’re not completely worried about speed, then going for uncapped 384k isn’t going to be the end of the world and it’s going to cost a lot less.
For someone who just uses ADSL for emails and surfing the web now and then, 384k would probably be just fine, but if you surf a lot, like watching youtube videos and don’t like hanging around, then I’d say go for 4096k; The 8 and 12 mega bit lines are on their way too :)
I really hope that Cybersmart comes to the party with uncapped ADSL.
Howdy.
I’ve done quite a bit of testing:
MWEB, 4096 Account.
HTTP, lightning.
Private International Trackers, max speeds.
FTP, max speeds.
Gaming, smoooooth.
Speed test are all good so far.
I have heard quite a few comments on throttling during business hours, I have not experienced this, though I do expect it will come into play when their network fills up.
Digichilli and Screamer,
have tested both for a couple months,
Screamer is a nightmare, and not worth R15/m, let alone what they are asking for. Digichilli is alright if you can bare slow slow speeds, though there are numerous work arounds with ports for downloading etc, but again, not really worth the money.
I don’t see either of the two making it past the next few months.
My experience with Atlantic [not sure when they added the @] is close to awful as well, poor service and unreliable, the only way they could compete with MWEB would be to have drastically lower prices.
Afrihost on whole have been great, I jumped on their “per gb” special, and loved it, reliable with great service, so I expect their uncapped to be the same.
@Glen,
made a phonecall to them recently to inquire,
they won’t be coming to the table with any sort of offering. Time to change ships.
All I want to see is my love, Webafrica come to the table with something for me.
My sister switched to Afrihost and is loving the cheaper rates and excellent efficiency/support! You guys reckon they’d be the best for me to use when I come home to SA?
Also, does anyone know how much the line rental/month is from Teldoos, sorry — I meant ‘Telkom’?
afrihost is the cheapest per gig at the moment R29/GB and they have specials each month where you buy 1GB and get an extra GB for free or buy 5GB an get an extra 5GB for free. it is really sweet.
on the telkom line rental it would all depend on what line speed you need. currently the prices are (all including VAT):
telkom line rental – R131 (which you have to have)
384k adsl line rental – R152 or
512k adsl line rental – R326 or
4096k adsl line rental – R413
it all depends what you are going to do on the line. as discussed in a previous post, if you just going to browse and check email then 384k is enough for yourself.
@Geoffrey :) Thank you!! VERY helpful!
Um… dumb question probably, but one I have to ask anyway: as a writer, I need to email quite a lot of documents and high-res images regularly. Would the 384k still be enough?
:)
@lisa yeah that would be fine. my wife sends alot of quotes and images to people as well and it’s 100%.
but i’m sure in the next month or two we will see alot of competition regarding uncapped as well.
@Geoffrey – YIPEEEE!! Exciting times :) Thanks for the advice!
My problem with this, is that regardless of who you choose as your ISP you are still shackled to the likes of Telkom for your line rental.
I am a very happy Neotel customer, making use of their Neoflex Data 10gig package, and frankly, the service I’ve had from both Mweb and Telkom in the past means that regardless of them dropping their prices, I would never go back, because they will find *some* way to mess things up again.
I am glad however, that uncapped internet is finally a reality for most people, and I am really excited to see how Neotel adjusts their prices on their unlimited package (which includes a phone number and free minutes FYI), which they have had available since they started up. If Neotel introduce an uncapped data option to a market related price, then I will switch to that, and definitely not make use of anyone else.
They are fast, helpful, efficient and their bills are always accurate down to the last kilobyte.
Please note, I do not work for Neotel, nor do any of their marketing. This is an honest review of a genuinely happy client.
So excellent to see so many South Africans concerned about this, it’s time for us to all experience what true broadband is like! Interesting to hear about Neotel, I don’t know too many users, but those that I do know have been happy with the services in general. I’m getting an MWEB account this week to do some testing and will report back with my findings on a regular basis.
Thanks for all the comments peeps!
I have been using a 2gig 384km mweb account at home and a 10.5bgb 4096kb account at my office. On thursday I upgraded both accounts to the uncapped versions. Both sites performance boosted earlier this month when mweb informed me they are moving to their own network and off SAIX. And now to top it off I will never have to
snoop around to see if my employees are downloading movies or going on faceook. Unbelievable. My kids was happier than they where on xmas when I told them we have uncapped now. Thanks to Mweb’s support my company has been on the inernet for almost 9 years. I cant wait to see if the line rental prices will come down. and I am also hoping for cheaper 3G
Hi
Also a complete ADSL geek – just researching what to get for home use.
It seems that with all these options, I won’t get anywhere if Telkom doesn’t support an ADSL service. Telkom’s comment: ” your exchange supports ADSL but due to infrastructure problems cannot offer an ADSL service”.
Where to then? Neotel in my area will be the same as dial up, and iBurst in my area is on 60%!
What to do?
Not that I think this is to be taken too seriously, but since we’re talking service you might find this quite interesting: http://www.hellopeter.com/it-industry-league-comparison/11/
Dito @Glen
So does anyone know if Telkom is going to come to the party?
@TheJman – I’m pretty sure they will, but at this point I’ve heard nothing of it.
Everyone, I’ve got a 4MB uncapped account from MWEB and over the next 8 weeks I’ll be blogging about my experiences; I’ve finished the first of the posts, you can take a read here – http://imod.co.za/index.php/2010/03/25/week-1-my-8-week-journey-with-mweb-uncapped-internet/
I don’t know why But I find my self being a bit suspicious. Maybe because we’ve been given such raw and untruthful deals in the past.
My question, what about contention ratios. I believe that ISPs will just boost the contention ratios way way up, in order to stay within the same profit margins. Meaning eventually when all users have been migrated that your line speeds could drop drastically making it very frustrating to even take advantage of an uncapped line.
Hi Robert,
I think the general concern is that in the beginning the lines will be fantastic, but the minute hundreds of people sign up, the speeds will naturally drop, unless they limit the pipes, but I doubt that’s going to happen, but let’s remain optimistic.
I’ve been on an MWEB 4MB uncapped account since Thursday and have been enjoying it. My download speeds have peaked at various times and email/surfing has been very good. There have been 2 points where things pretty much died, but disconnecting from the LAN and reconnecting solved each time. I’ve also been enjoying constant streaming of radio stations, which is something I really enjoy and am now able to do it.
I’ve also spoken to people who are on AfriHost and they’re having very similiar experiences to me..
You signed up for one?
Silly question…but anyway…do you need to pay the R131 line rental to Telkom PLUS the R413 (eg. if you want the 4MB line). Also, if you already have one of the Closer calling plans, isn’t your line rental included in that?
@Ritz – Yes, you will need to pay the R131 line rental to Telkom regardless of package..
Chris, my kids play world of warcraft(international site) on our 384k telkom adsl. When they reach our 3 Gig limit halfway through the month they can’t connect anymore. My question, If I go over to the Mweb R219 uncapped, does this mean they can play the whole month without any problems with cap?
@Max – That’s correct, especially for a game like WoW, having an uncapped account would mean that they could play the whole month through and you’ll pay 1 bandwidth cost (R219) per month. Naturally you also need to pay for the line rental and the DSL line, but there’s are seperate entities.
You may find what with the throttling comes a certain amount of latency during business hours.
80% of the time [business hours] I can game perfectly, but sometimes it just isn’t smooth.
For gaming you really want clean unshaped bandwidth.
Rou Story Mills mentioned clean unshaped bandwidth for gaming.Do you think on WoW I will have a problem with latency on the Mweb uncapped bandwidth.
I think with kids, who should be at school during the day, will only really have a game in the evenings or on the weekend? Their will be throlling and such during office hours, but I presume your kids play for fun and not for full on clans? The level of gaming will determine the line requirements..
What’s your total cost per month for a 4MB line speed and uncapped data from eg MWEB? Is it :
Telkom-Line Rental R131
Telkom-Line Rental (4mb) R413
MWEB – ISP (uncapped data-4mbps) R899
—-
TOTAL 1443
Apologies-but I’m still not clear on the line rental costs….
@ritz, incorrect.
R131 – phoneline rental (telkom)
R413 – ADSL Line rental (telkom)
R539 – MWEB 4MB Uncapped
TOTAL: R1083
the R899 which you refer to would be the BUNDLE. (ADSL line rental and 4MB uncapped at mweb)
for that you need to move your ADSL line rental from telkom to mweb.
if you do that it would be:
R131 – phoneline rental (telkom)
R899 – ADSL line rental AND 4MB uncapped (mweb)
TOTAL= R1030
@Geoffrey – Thanks for coming in and correcting the costs breakdown!
Hey there,
Just thought I’d add that MyISP is now also offering uncapped ADSL for a pretty great price, it seems. I haven’t had any experience with them so don’t know how reliable the service is etc, however its nice to know of another alternative ;)
http://www.myisp.co.za/uncapped.htm
Amandla interwebs, haha!
yeah, here is a list of updated ones:
http://mybroadband.co.za/news/adsl/11935.html
plus a Q&A with Gian from Afrihost
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?223705-Official-Afrihost-Q-amp-A-Thread
What I REALLY want to know is who provides one that is not throttled based on your usage. Afrihost has come out and said that they will throttle the 4mb accounts, but they didn’t mention the other ones. Does MWEB throttle you based on usage or do any other companies? This will make the difference for me, as now you are essentially paying for a larger cap. Not what UNCAPPED is meant to be.
Hi there,
I joined Afrihost’s 10gb for R290pm about 2 months ago and recently switched to Mweb’s uncapped R219pm.
I started torrenting movies with the uncapped account, with low speeds (must be from file server side).
Mweb has disconnected once or twice but nothing a simple router reset wouldn’t fix.
I have found both services (mweb so far) to be quite good on 384kbps but Afrhost just seems to outperform mweb on overall speed. I get Dc’d from wow when I download a youtube movie as with afrihost this was not the case.
Regards
Amphi
I have been using Openweb now and I must say that I am extremely happy with them. I haven’t been discounted at all! Not even once! Not even a line drop in that time! I am really impressed. I was getting support from the CEO on a sunday in the middle of a long weekend! Now that is true customer support! Absolutely fantastic stuff from them. I wouldn’t go with Mweb even if I getting paid to use them!
BTW, Openweb are no longer using Mweb as a backbone. They are now using IS as their backbone :) OpenWeb FTW!
I would also like to know if Mweb throttle back if they detect a continuously downloading program like bittorrent.
Why is it so difficult for people to distinguish between Kb/s and KB/s? 8 bits to a Byte, people.
OCD Guy – Probably because half the people don’t spend 16 hours a day on a computer like us ;)
For those who are interested in all the options, I’ve just published my week 3 report of MWEB’s uncapped adsl accounts – http://imod.co.za/index.php/2010/04/08/week-3-my-8-week-journey-with-mweb-uncapped-internet/
Enjoy :)
Hi i recently cancelled with afrihost as i signed up before the mention of throttling. i download alot of updates as i have 4 pc’s at home which i update all my applications and operating system applications. i also download alot of my studying material. including tutorial videos etc. i was on a 384kb uncapped adsl deal with them and i got to just over 10gb and suddenly started getting heavily throttled and thus doiwnloading in bytes not even 1kb/s it was ridiculous. so i have cancelled and getting my refund as they only altered the terms and conditions after i signed up. they obviously were struggling to keep up with the demand and had to try cut their losses… pity they have lost so many subscribers due to this. it shud never have been called uncapped. on their site it says if u use over 7gb u shud go uncapped. the thing is i dont download 24/7 but i do download daily and i mean putting a threshold of 10gbs is just ridiculous. so im off to mweb as everyone seems pretty happy there.
@chris – Thanks for reporting back here, that’s what this place is all about, sharing is caring after all. Ye, give MWEB a try – I just signed into my account and checked the data usage: “You have used 33.26 GB so far this month. ” ~ that’s a lot of data and my net is still flying! Remember to use my links – click me – hehe, I would dig them to know that you came from here *smile*
Just thought I’d add my 5c.
Called afrihost, offically they will throttle you from 60GB. Seems like they need to get their story straight.
Thanks for the great work!
X
@ix – Thanks for sharing the information; seems that they might be throttling before the 60GB from what others have said, interesting..
i’m on the trial mweb account still and so far it’s awesome just sometimes there are niggles where you losing international traffic but still have local traffic (this has happened the last 2 sundays and mondays)
i was going to move back to afrihost end of this month but not sure if that will be the case with the throttleing when you reach 60GB.
i’m thinking of moving to 512k line instead of 384k and i will definitely be doing over 60G and don’t want to be throttled.
i am still in 2 minds right now. will see a week before the end of the month :)
Ye Geoffrey – I’m on 4mb uncapped MWEB and I’ve got almost no complaints :)
OK, so I want to get something straight, do uncapped work for a game like World of Warcraft, or do u need unshaped? As far as I know up and download speed needs to be fast do do “instances” in the game, else its a waste of time. And does that also mean u need the 4mb package?
@ Sunshine,
im getting 400-500msping in WOW on my 384k line with Mweb. works fine for me. obviously it would be ideal if i could get close to 0ms with a higher line speed.
Update – Tradepage
Same rates as Afrihost, but they are technically challenged, so avoid them if you can. If you’re an existing member you might bully them into giving you a better rate, I have 2 clients that managed to “persued” Tradepage to upgrade their accounts to 512&4mbs respectfully.
Oh yes and soft cap at 10GB.
X
Thanks for the further information @ix, really does help having one place with everything!
I have sent off some emails to friends who use other ISPs to get their opinions, because right now it sounds like MWEB is the only real option, although I’ve heard good things about AfriHost, I’m worried about their throttling. OpenWeb seems to be doing a good job too..
I am with OpenWeb and they are doing a great job! The sign up process took around a minute and I was off! No waiting, no hassles, and absolutely no problems to date! They have been simply fantastic. The CEO has answered my email during the weekend and overall they have been simply fantastic. The speeds I am getting are also lighting and I would highlly reccommend their uncapped packages!
I tried Mweb and they were HORRIBLE! Read here about my experience with Mweb:
http://www.cptawesome.co.za/2010/04/12/captain-awesomes-opinion-mweb-sucks/
I also looked at Afrihost but their thresholds persuaded me to stay away. Trust me I did A LOT of research before trying these guys.
Switched from Telkom to Mweb 4mb uncapped on the 26th march.Speed no problem up untill about the 30th March,then download speed dropped to less than 100KB regardless of the time of the day.I have been in constant contact with Mweb to try and resolve this matter and to date it is still(as they claim) with their technical department.Their first line of defence was that it was my Telkom line.I tested the line speed with both my additional Telkom and Afrihost accounts and recorded D/load speeds
of +400KB,even used one of their IT staff’s Mweb capped account and same story +400KB.
Not sure if they can resolve this issue and resorted to subscribe to a usenet account which gives me d/load speeds of not less than 350KB regardless of time of the day.
Nadeem T
Just so that you guys know Afrihost uncapped Throttles you to extremely low speeds at 30GB. I’ve been told by some users that they have been throttled at 15GB which is rediculous. I was getting speeds of 38KBS at the start but now i’m getting maximum 6KBS
my trial is up next week with mweb and with a holiday next week i signed up with uncapped adsl.
i went with mweb as from what people are saying about afrihost throttling you after 30G or whatever, mweb’s threshold seems MUCH higher and i did about 40G-50G on the trial so far this month and my speeds were still perfect.
10 minutes it took me to sign up and worked immediately (barring i have to fax through the papers on monday).
gonna do a report on my blog over the weekend of how i experienced mweb this month too.
I must admit, I’ve explored almost all (Will do OpenWeb next) the options and MWEB does come out on top for me. I’ve been blogging my journey each week, including one that will go up this evening! :)
Openweb 10/10
By far the best isp for me. I’ve finally settled down with them after isp jumping over the years.
Even if the prices are a few rands more with them, I still wudn’t mind considering that they have provided me with fast and efficient quality service.
@MCee – Are you on one of their uncapped accounts now?
@Scott – That’s exactly my opinion! How are your upload/download speeds?
Web Africa are fighting back, here’s the latest:
Data only packages come in three flavors: R199 for 15 GB of ADSL data, R299 for 25 GB of data and R499 for a 50 GB account. This equates to R13, R12 and R10 per GB respectively.
Web Africa’s bundled offerings are even more aggressively priced, with a DSL384 access and 15 GB data bundle priced at R299. A DSL 4 Mbps access and 25 GB data bundle costs R599 while a DSL 4 Mbps access service and 50 GB of data is priced at R799 per month.
That’s R499 for 50GB of data!
Is telkom the only place you can get an ADSL line and is ADSL the only uncapped internet?
@cleaven
you need a phoneline (telkom)
then you also need an ADSL line which you can get from not only telkom, but mweb and cybersmart. i’m not sure if there are any other ISPs out there that can do that.
ADSL comes in uncapped or capped….meaning uncapped you get unlimted bandwidth (as much GB as you want). capped is where you pay say R29 for 1GB. when you reach your 1GB cap you won’t have internet, you will have to buy more cap.
Ye,
The phone line comes from Telkom, but you can get your ADSL line from MWEB, CyberSmart, Axxess and a bunch of other places. The beauty with getting your ADSL from another service provider is that they often have nice bundled specials..
Does openweb offer bundles? Can i have this uncapped internet on two pc’s in my house with this one cable? thanx for the help guys
unfortunately openweb does not offer bundles.
yes, you can have the 2 pcs use the ADSL at the same time as long as they are both connected to your ADSL router with network cables.
Ye, I got 4 computers here, eached plugged into the router and they’re all online via the MWEB uncapped solution :)
Has anyone looked at latencies between different ISPs? Which one rates best in terms of latency for uncapped packages? big pings means many deaths in games such as MW2 etc
Any thoughts?
Am I the only one who is happy with Telkom? (apart from the ridiculous charge per extra gig ).My total 4096 5g account including line,ISP,DSL and calls comes to around R920 pm. The line only drops occasionally and their support has been good when I needed it, even phoning me back when the queue was too long to wait.
I will rather wait to see what they offer later, than switch to another ISP and perhaps suffer like I did when ABSA sold out to @lantic.
@ Ian
I was upgraded to a 4 Meg line and never got the download speeds I was suppose to get,and the ADSL kept kicking me out every hour or so.Telkom techie then downgraded me to a 1Meg line and all is stable. BUT I’m fighting with them to tell me why I can’t run 4 Meg.They just keep telling me that 1 Meg 2Meg and 4 Meg are in the same category. But they don’t seem to grasp that there is a difference in the speed of these so called same category lines. And you must still pay the same price.
Hi, we are AfriHost uncapped 4096kb customers with one account at the office and one at home. We have lately experienced extremely soggy traffic, has anyone else a good reference test for the different providers?
Consumers need to know what they are buying. If you purchase an adsl line and bandwidth from anywhere e.g. Mweb on a 384kbps line and 384kbps bandwidth capped, uncapped, shaped or unshaped which unshaped is a few kbps slower the consumers think that the speed is at 384kbps. I have been one of those consumers as explained by Mweb that the upload rate is at 192kbps and that when I download any data I will receive it as 385kbps. I have called many Mweb agents explain the same lies and from what I know now they do not know what they sell. Explained 8 bits make 1kb which means if you take a 385kbps line and data bandwidth of your choice your download is 8 times slower than the 384kbps advertised. if you download 100mb on line speed and bandwidth 384kbps you have to divide 384kbps by 8 which you will get the actual download speed (transfer rate). You will have to divide the 100mb by the transfer rate to get the time it will take you to download it. 1024kbps = 1 mb 100mb = 102400 385kbps / 8 = 48.125 your transfer rate. If you divide 102400 by 48.125 you will get the download time which will take you 21 – 25 minutes that’s if your transfer rate is stable and we know that is not the case. Now I downloaded 166mb with my 385kbps uncapped shaped account with Mweb and it took me 57 minutes. The man in the street thinks that if he is downloading 166mb = 1669984kb he will receive it at 385kbps and if that were true he would receive it within 5 minutes. Don’t be fooled by high numbers in speeds. When the prices come down and it will as we have been ripped off on prices over the years in this country for far too long. Take a 4096 4mb or 8192 8mb line and bandwidth capped, uncapped, shaped or unshaped as 4096 4mb will download at 512kbps and the 8192 will download at 1mbps. If not then we still being ripped off. Whichever speed you choose divide the kbps e.g 385kbps divided by 8 = 48.125 that is the actual download speed which takes forever. Now imagine downloading a movie as Mweb advertises. Lol if the movie is 800mb by the time that downloads you can go to the movie store hire it go to the shop for goodies and groceries come home watch it take it back come home and your download might just be complete.
damn, and here i was wondering why the 48.125K speeds I’m getting are less than 56k modems! :|
@Nazeen – That’s a really great breakdown and incredibly valuable to those who don’t really understand the whole behind all of this. Thank you so much for taking the time to share this information, I appreciate it and hope that you stick around on iMod :)
@ Nazeen
[q]
I have called many Mweb agents explain the same lies and from what I know now they do not know what they sell. Explained 8 bits make 1kb which means if you take a 385kbps line and data bandwidth of your choice your download is 8 times slower than the 384kbps advertised.
[/q]
Nothing is slower than advertised.
Imagine someone is selling rope at R10 for 1000mm.
You spend R10 and get 1m of rope, but are terribly dissatisfied as it is 1000 times less than was offered.
But in fact 1m = 1000mm
Just so 384 kbps = 48 kBps
Notice the b vs B
One is bits the other is bytes.
You do have the correct factor though. Divide by 8 to get your speed in bytes and multiply by 8 to get it in bits.
@LivaN
What you are saying is true – but wouldn’t you agree that the ISP’s are taking advantage of the naivety of the general public by advertising the speed in kilobits instead of kiloBytes?
@Ritz
Yes, I agree. They are definitely taking advantage.
I can still remember, as a child, the dissapointmet when I go my first adsl line and the speeds were no where near as fast as was expected.
@Ritz – I have to agree with you that the information being put out by a lot of the ISPs is sneaky and that people aren’t entirely sure what they’re getting. I get emails every single day from readers asking why things are slow when they’d been promised must faster. It’s unfortunate and the main problem is that a trial and error approach is actually required to get the best solution..
@LivaN don’t forget the 13% overhead on data transmission!
if all ISPs advertise, instead of 384kb, 512kb or 4096kb, to advertise it as 48kB, 64kB or 512kB for example you will still get the same speeds, it’s the same thing! the issues comes in where people moan about line speeds. it all depends on your location, the telkom exchange, network data transmissions and network congestion and also the shaping that the ISP can inforce. there are alot of aspects to take into account.
then one can say that all ISPS around the world are not informing their clients correctly. it is not just in South Africa. in America, the UK you get 10mbps at your house, it is not a true 10mbps but it is in fact, 1250kBps
Same can be said for your computer network cards, your switches, routers, etc.
It is not false advertising. because in fact 384kbps does actually equal 48kBps.
it is just that the terminology and conversion between bits and bytes is a bit confusing for the average joe who does not know these things.
i just hate it when people accuse ISPS everywhere that they say they are not getting 4MB when they download things.
besides 8bits in 1Byte I can assure you that the download speeds have deteriorated on most of the ISP’s, MWEB included.
In my opinion since “uncapped” started selling all sorts of problems have cropped up with regards to internet speed.
Then also the Seacom problems, forcing traffic to be rerouted via SAT3, too much congestion, heightened latency up too 800ms to UK.. and not to mention local TelkomSA line problems in and around Cape Town CBD, which is still continuing.
It has been a bad past 4 weeks in any case… let’s hope next month works better.
[q]
It has been a bad past 4 weeks in any case… let’s hope next month works better.
[/q]
Bad for who? Currently my ISP is “reconfiguring” their packages, and as a side effect my 384kbps line is getting an average speed of 350kBps – 400kBps.
Does that mean I have a 4 mpbs uncapped line? ;)
I am not an IT pro, but I’m convinced that my internet speed is slowed down over weekends. I live in Cape Town. The speedtest show considerable slower speed, between .9 to 1.5 whereas during the week it tests 1.5 to 3.2. The pingtest varies between A-B.
Question: Can it be possible that the service provider is slowing the speed down over weekends?
@Roy – That’s odd though because you’d expect it to be slower during the week and not during the weekend. On the flipside, the weekend is when everyone has time to muck around online, downloading and so forth, which would then result in the ISP getting slightly bogged down..
Chris – where did you get these from? Not currently on their website?
“Web Africa are fighting back, here’s the latest:
Data only packages come in three flavors: R199 for 15 GB of ADSL data, R299 for 25 GB of data and R499 for a 50 GB account. This equates to R13, R12 and R10 per GB respectively.
Web Africa’s bundled offerings are even more aggressively priced, with a DSL384 access and 15 GB data bundle priced at R299. A DSL 4 Mbps access and 25 GB data bundle costs R599 while a DSL 4 Mbps access service and 50 GB of data is priced at R799 per month.
That’s R499 for 50GB of data!”
I would stay well away from Cybersmart. They have been changing their products willy nilly without notifying their customers.
Also not much uncapped usage for their 4096 customers – 2am to 5am uncapped??? Come on Cybersmart!!
I have just read this comment from http://www.thebroadbandbible.co.za/
“UPDATE, 25 May 2010: MWEB has decided to severely shape not only torrents
(understandable), but regular HTTP download sites such as Rapidshare, Hotfile, Filefactory and others. Download speeds are maximum 30-40KB/s during the day, with some let-up during evenings. Browsing is usable, but for downloading it would be frustrating for most. It is fair to say that MWEB’s Uncapped should be rebranded ‘Uncapped browsing’, as uncapped downloading clearly isn’t what these accounts were intended for. No need to have a 512k or 4Mbps line with these accounts if you intend to download – a 384K would be just fine.” Is this TRUE?
Hello Guys and Gals
I want to enquire something… Currently I have telkom DO3 package and I am really happy with telkom service. You do get there ocassional loss connection now and again. I have heard that MWEB is giving away uncapped ADSL as well. Has there been anybody that has moved from telkom to mweb? can you please give a brief history and your experience and is it worth the change or not..
I took up the Afrihost offering and the line speeds are so unstable and slow that it is unworkable. Would definaltey not reccomend using them for business. The lines are so slow that you can hardly open websites. I can not even run a speed test @ speedtest.net – awful!
Hello Guys and Gals
I could not wait any longer and i decided to take the MWEB uncapped package..(4096 line)for R539 per month..
I done 4 speed test on both of them and this is the rusult
MWEB download speed 1.10 mbps
MWEB upload speed
Hello Guys and Gals
I could not wait any longer and i decided to take the MWEB uncapped package..(4096 line)for R539 per month..
I done 4 speed test on both of them and this is the rusult
MWEB download speed 1.10 mbps average
MWEB upload speed 0.38 mbps average
ping 76 average
Telkom DO 3 package
download speed 3.42 average
upload speed 0.43 average
ping 21 average
So this uncapped options is just a huge gimmick and a money making scheme..
Hi @Pullice – I’m not sure about them giving away accounts. Moving ISPs can be quite seamless, all you really need to do is cancel your bandwidth from Telkom and get an account from MWEB, you would still pay Telkom for your line and adsl line rental though. I moved from Telkom to MWEB’s uncapped and had no problems..
@Jano – Darn, that’s annoying. I haven’t tried AfriHost, only MWEB.
@Pullice – I presume you tested during office hours? That in mind, the speeds are slower during the day, try running speedtests again this evening and see what you get..
Hi chris…
speed test dont lie!!!!
Don’t lie about what?
I ment to say speed test wont lie.
@ Chris..chris, is your speed the same with mweb?
Guys and Gals
I have contacted MWEB technical support and one of the technician said that because of uncapped package my internet would be slower, I explained to him that “slighlty” slower is acceptable but not by half and less. Telkom was 3.42 download average speedand MWEB was 1.10 download average speed on the same line.
Eventually with some arguement and verbal exchances they gave me another server connection (NOT SURE WHATS IT CALLED) and my speed test shows the same download speed as telkom, in fact slighly faster now..lol
My advice to you for those who take MWEB uncapped before cancelling your previous service provider make sure you do download tests and ask as many questions as possible
Thanks
Hi chris i need advice on uncapped internet
for around 500pm for line rental nd adsl for uncapped who should i go with ? openweb ? or mweb ?
i play online alot nd skype nd downlaod game updates (which are rather big latly) nd email nd facebook so what would u suggest ?
ps my dad wont spend much so ur advice would be much appreciated
@GEE – Do you have an ADSL line installed already? Do you have a phoneline installed already? That’s the first step. From there you need to look at line speeds and see which one fits into budget best – perhaps you should start on a slower one first and upgrade. The uncapped lines aren’t the best for gaming from what I’ve heard. I used MWEB for 2 months and enjoyed the experience with literally no issues, but I don’t game though and it’s gaming that requires stability. OpenWeb I will never say anything negative about, I’ve been a loyal customer of theirs since the first day they opened and have never been let down. Also look at AfriHost, they have a 2-for-1 special that is also brilliant, but it’s not uncapped, so there are no restrictions..
iv read about AfriHost which people arnt very happy with so i wouldnt really go towards them. and yes i have an adsl line and adsl i have 384K 3gig from telkom and was looking towards uncapped because i download alot and the game updates are getting pretty huge now days and parents well they moan because they think im going to finish the 3gig so thats why i was looking at uncapped to just be able to be free nd play nd everythng i was looking at openweb and DiaMatrix for uncapped i am at the moment trying to convince my dad to go for openweb since telkom doesnt have uncapped at the moment. i was thinking of say 512K uncapped from them. oh yes nd ahm as for the adsl line is it possible to hav the adsl line go through the isp u with instead of telkom because i hear that if u choose a isp and they go through telkom its not a good idea because they will give u hassles like disconnecting u and so forth.
@gee
Please write in English and save this strange language for texting.
I like to understand what I read!!
First time here. Brilliant idea. Helpful comments. I am currently using Cybersmart. I quite like them. They had uncapped on weekends, but about a month (and a downgrade fee) later they stopped it. They said people were downloading too much. I don’t see the point of uncapped then. Someone else mentioned them and I agree. They jump around with offers too much. For capped they are great, but it is not that much cheaper than uncapped, so I need to migrate to another ISP. It seems high data speeds and big cap limits (or uncapped) is a choice people on a budget need to make. High speed/ 3Gig or 384kb/ uncapped. I would prefer the uncapped, but if the speed gets reduced during office hours or after a set “cap” is reached, it makes my choice even harder. In a nutshell…. is MWEB 512kb/s uncapped worth it if you use torrents, webcams, Youtube and regular constant browsing???
Hi guys, thanks for all the input. I am one of those newly returned South Africans from London where most of the internet options was dirt cheap and seemless.
I have been looking at all the options mentioned above been MWEB, Openweb, Afrihost, Axxess, etc. but must admit am still confused on what to take.
My first question:
Does anyone use Neotel in Cape Town? I have read some bad reviews saying they are more focused on corporates at the moment, but was considering them as have always heard terrible things about Telkom service – which is important for me.
If ADSL is still the way to go, could anyone throw some advise my way of what you would take if you were budgeting +-R500/m. I dont need internet during the day and only require it for browsing, emails, Skype and the occasional online PS3 gaming.
Please let me know if you think uncapped is necessary for my usage or should I look at a 3G unshaped bundle? Also, not sure what speeds I could get for that price, so open to any suggestions.
Thanks
May I add or suggest a site? do a review on lando.co.za Even with the ISP’s now charging for connection speed rather than data usage ( kinda bringing us back to the days of Dialup in a way ) our costs are still FAR more expensive than that of the international community.
What needs to happen is guys like Neotel and the like should stick it to telkom and the others and give offers in line with the rest of the world.
I know this is mostly for home users but after a disastrous experience with Datapro (if you want details I’ll provide them) we moved one of our clients across to Mweb Business Uncapped. Its R2000/month, but thats true uncapped/unshaped. Speedtest.net reveals that we’re getting a solid 3.8mbps which is within tolerance. Initially there was a problem with noise on the line sevearly limiting bandwidth (1mbps). Mweb facilitated with telkom to have this cleared within a day or 2 of it being reported. Needless to say, compared to the joke that is Datapro, I was/am very impressed! Currently we’re sitting on around 200GB of usage with no sign of throttling in sight:-)
x
I have mweb uncaped 384k shaped.. i sometimes reach 50k download speeds!!! adn there is no throtle so far the most i downloaded is 48g a month though but the speeds isnt to bad some times i get slow speeds but thats probly because im shaped, and my friend has afrihost, haha it is throtled for uncap not shure how much cap he used. but he get like 10k when he is throtled lol
oh and neotel is wireless so if weather is bad the speed is bad, although i like their service they are friendly…
Hi guys, thanx 4 ur posts, i dnt have adsl an i would like 2 get on that wagon, i have recently started playing cod online via 3g but as u know dat expensive an i get high pings sometimes, i wana get me uncapd but i must start from scratch, i just have one silly question 4 now, i dnt have a fone line and i hear neotel is wireless, does that mean i dnt need a fone line 2 my house?
The only problem with Neotel is that they only do Wireless. Thats something they really should concentrate on – expanding to lines. From what I’ve heard, there service is great in every way.
I have an Mweb 4096kpbs uncapped line at work and at home, and it works beautifully. The service from MWeb is great too. If I ever need any help, they sort it out for me right there and then over the phone.
What you need to do is have Telkom lay your line (Whichever you choose 384/512/4096) and dont take a package from them. Have them JUST INSTALL THE LINE. Then, phone Mweb and have them put you on a package. My package costs me R899 a month. and thats all inclusive, line rentals and package! Perfect!
Julian
With all due respect, the Mweb site specifically says that the Telkom phone line is NOT included, just the ADSL portion. That adds another R120 odd to the account.
What @Ian says is correct..
It’s important to always look at what the ISPs offer, they aren’t hidden costs per say, but they aren’t always put right in your face.
Strangely enough – even though I have had multiple disputes with Cybersmart, they still seem to have the best offering for a 4MB line!
Still no uncapped package – but their top service offering (R799 a month, inclusive of line rental – 2am to 5am free + 15GB a month) leaves me with an average of 60 – 70GB downloaded a month – with me using the free 2am to 5am slot…
No other ISP has a similar offering for the same price…unless I am not aware of it…
Max speed I have seen – from well seeded Torrents – is around 200kb a sec.
PC and PS3 gaming – smooth!
HTTP traffic – quick (youtube on demand – limited buffering required!)
Neelesh, isat offer uncapped 4mbps line for R870. It’s a little more than what you pay, but there is no cap. Not sure how it holds for gaming though.
Does Telkom offer uncapped is my main question?
No @Kovan, they don’t.
“Unfortunately, every report I’ve heard since then has been negative and I think they will slowly slip out of the market based on their costs being more expensive and their offerings less attractive.”
- I find this funny. Yes there was a month or so of slow going, but otherwise I’m sitting with an uncapped 4mbps line on digichilli while paying for the spicy package. They are the best isp ever
Anyone know when Telkom is going to roll out the increased speed package?
Is there anyway to check? I have been to their site but the availability checker just says my exchange is ADSL capable.
My speeds are still the same as last week.
@Ian – Must admit, several of my friends who use Telkom as their ISP have said that their speeds are a lot faster. Are you certain that your line speed is up?
I’m on 3.49 megabits,on test,so according to Telkom’s press release,I should qualify for the increased speed,being a 4096 line.
ISat offer 4096k line at R371 incl VAT. This is much more cost effective than anyone else. Does anyone have specific feedback on this offering?
@ Ian
I actually phoned telkom yesterday about just that. They said it will happen in stages.
Firstly those who’s exchange can handle it will get the upgrade initialy, but depending on your area you may still wait a while. Remember, they’ll probably do all the business areas in the major cities first (joburg, capetown, etc).
You’re best bet to get an actual time frame is to phone the telkom adsl department and ask them directly.
geez..this thread really helps..hope everyone always keeps posting here..iv’e been looking around for a while, and really find this extremely helpful. I have had a 384kb 2GB line with telkom and then moved to webafrica when i saw the difference in pricing. I dont know much when it comes to (the pricing of internet and other ISP’s) as i work for an australian ISP and it’s damn ridiculous if compared to the speeds and prices we get over here. I mean where i work we offer up to 24mbps and 1TB a month for only about $100. when are going to get something similar??
anyways basically i cancelled my internet as i was just fed up with my constant disconnections and slow speeds.I just really dont see the point in paying R500 a month and then still have to fight and struggle with your ISP or telkom. I am looking for something reliable now tho..from what i can see from these threads alot of people have there opinions, so im still clueless and where i should head for the best pricing and stability
hi all, i gave telkom a phone call and they are finally done with “upgrading their exchange” and i can now have my adsl line activated. I was just wondering what adsl router should i opt for? I have a budget of about R900. I am also going to go for the mweb all inclusive deal (384 adsl and line rental) for R349 i only want it for browsing, email, the odd mp3 download and for my xbox live as they are going to bring us the service yeah! Would this line be good enough? Thanx allot
Since Afrihost got a new ISP running their uncapped the speed is up to sh@t, Dl speed at 7kb/s where it was at 40 kb/s?
I need to move, any advice on other ISP that is better?
thx
Rob
Web Africa’s Titan 3 pack – it’s not unlimited, but it’s fast, stable and worthwhile – http://www.webafrica.co.za
I have the Netgear DG834G Router – Click here to see it. It’s honestly the best one out in my opinion and I’ve been through a few. We also use this in the office without any problems.
Hope that helps!
Does anyone have any opinions on the offerings from RSAWEB?
Cybersmart account @R399pm for 4096kb ADSL line. True speed is 800-900 download + 500 upload, but Telkom issue as they need to convert my copper lines from street box to the main exchange by fiberoptic cables ie. route my copper line connection to Telkom’s UMC street box, therefore achieving closer to 4096 speeds. Should be possible then get increased speeds of up to 10240.
R399 for 4096 line with Cybersmart (this includes Telkom line rental – Telkom charge R116,93 for “Wholesale” line rental)
Then you can buy cheaper R19/1Gb from Axxess or anybody else. Can also buy “uncapped” 386 speed line. Split ADSL Router, so that multiple PPPoE logon can be established, with your various accounts you have bought from various ISPs.
We South Africans still are paying a fortune for ADSL internet connections and to top it off, we don’t really get “uncapped” bandwidth from IS for instance. All white collar, greedy crime again. We are still trailing behind by 10-15 years compared to Europe (UK, Scandinavian countries). No good for home based business / economics. Compare us to Norway or Finland etc. … these wise government give it away, so you can be connected to the net and become self-employed. The fiber cables have been laid on the East coast. The cables on the west coast are almost complete (should have been competed before the east coast. Not sure what happened there !) Brazil to SA is another cable. Telkom owns cables to Mauritius to London. Common Telkom ! FIFA is now over. We know you have the infra-structure. Now release the goods for all South Africans ! Viva amandla. Make us proud to be ‘working citizens’.
Im planing to swap my current 384kbs uncaped/unshaped line to a 4meg:) im with vox atm but considering mweb or telkom aswel. Any ideas which would be the best for gaming and downloads?
@Drd – I presume your line is running at 4MB? If so, then you’ll upgrade your 384 account to a 4mb account with the service provider. At this point of time, I’d recommend Web Africa, but remember, they don’t offer an uncapped option. If you’re deseperate for uncapped, then AfriHost seems to be a good choice.
To read about Web Africa’s services, here’s a quick link, check our their Titan 3 package – http://bit.ly/924z1p (I use this one)
Thanks Chris:) Do you think Vox is any good? or just trash it and go with Web Africa?:O
Thanks Chris:) Do you think Vox is any good? or just trash it and go with Web Africa?:O
Sorry i ment AfriHost instead of Web Africa
AfriHost resells Internet Solutions ADSL Services like many other ISP’s who offer these Uncapped services.
Also smtp.afrihost.com is an alias to smtp.isdsl.net
Did a speed test today only to find out my DL speed is 10kbs and upload is 36kbs….Is that right rofl? I think they have swaped somthing around some were.
Hi Chris M – I thought that you were such a fan of OpenWeb – any reason why you have moved to Web Africa and are no longer using Openweb?
I would like to start working at home and need a telephone line and internet. But don’t want 1 GB as it would not be enough. What can you suggest i do!!! Please! I already contacted Telkom and is considering using their simple plan. They will install my line and dsl line for free. I will pay R369 for everything each month. Although i don’t need the voice line, but no i need it to connect to the internet. The thing that worries me is the fact that Telkom Top Up is extremely expensive. If i install this can i change afterwards and use another internet provider with better gig prices? Please Chris reply!!!
Telkom is not that expensive. It’s only about R40 per gig. and is available instantly.Telkom’s service is top class.
@Ian – Not that expensive – agreed, but there are much cheaper solutions which are also available instantly..
Hi Chris,
Just wanted to know if these Uncapped bundles are operated in a way that you can switch it off and not be billed for a particular month? or is it like one of those Cellphone contracts?
As far as I understand, it’s a month to month thing, but if you follow the links in the post, they’ll take you right to the page to confirm..
Hi everyone,
I am thinking about getting one of the Mweb Uncapped ADSL packages.
I will readily admit that I am a complete newbie at this, so I don’t mind sounding uninformed or stupid. We are currently sharing our landlord’s wireless connection, but we will be moving to a new place.
I have a few questions and would be very grateful if someone could answer them for me.
1. Is there a significant advantage to choosing the 512kbps option over the 384kbps offering? We unfortunately can’t afford the 4096kbps option, so I am looking for the best value for money deal.
2. We download a fair amount of data per month and my girlfriend and I will both be using the selected internet connection. Can we both be connected at the same time, checking email and downloading, and is there a specific router we need to get to facilitate this?
3. What would the total cost be of getting Mweb’s 384kbps uncapped deal? We won’t require a landline to make phone calls as we both use our cellphones, so will the total monthly bill be restricted to R349p/m as stated on Mweb’s website? Or are there further costs involved?
4. How long does is take to install the internet? Basically, how long after signing will it take before we can start browsing?
I apologise if these questions have previously been covered in this forum, but I actually have to work at my job! Go figure :)
I look forward to your feedback.
Kind Regards
Wynand
@Wynand – We have a MWeb uncapped, unshaped bundle at R699 and upgraded from 384kbps to 512k (both of us work from home and at hubby’s tech dept request we upgraded) not sure about the reasons but yes the change to 512k did make a difference. The 4096 option is just so ridiculously expensive if you want uncapped.
Telkom initially took only about 10days to install our ADSL (512k on a month-month basis no contract) and I think you do have to have a landline first and pay the rental for that even if you don’t plan to use it for calls.
@Val – Thank you so much for the helpful information. It’s just a pity about the obligatory voice call rental on top of everything. It sucks having to pay for something that I won’t be needing. Anyhoo, thanks once again!
Hi guys. I am looking for an uncapped DSL bundle. The downlink bandwidth is not that critical to me. I.e. a 512k oe 1024k would be more than sufficient. What is critical to me is the uplink bandwidth. Do you have any info on this? Which bundle would support a 512k uplink bandwidth?
@Christo – You’ll find that most of the packages have the same upload thresholds, so I’m inclined to say that using any of the services will be much the same..
Hi. I know nothing about computers or the internet, so excuse the ignorance. I am about to launch a business. My supplier is in USA and they support my software. This means that from time to time I need to enter into support sessions with them where they sometimes need to do data file transfers – the one I am busy with now is 910MB as an e.g.
I have been using 3G, but this is just not working for this purpose – I also have signal issues at home.
I have a home phone – Telkom Callmore 3, which I do not use frequently, but do need to have available for phone calls.
What do I need to do here in order to ensure better connectivity? All my other internet requirements are limited to standard emailing.
Can I convert my current Telkom line to a data line and still use this for call or do I need to apply for another one? If so, what do I need to apply for?
What ADSL line and package do you recommend I sign up for?
Do you still recommend MWeb over the other SP’s?
Detailed info to assist the technically challenged here would really be appreciated.
Hi Vanessa
Sounds like you just need to convert your ADSL with Telkom. May be better advise to approach mweb directly and they can help you setup/change to ADSL line. An ADSL line will allow you to keep you landline function and number(s). I have just moved from Axxess to Mweb, as they provide priority service to email, web browsing & FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and low priority with torrents, etc. (without affecting speed on email, web & FTP). Just what you need. I took the 512 data line with Mweb, but it maybe fast enoughto have a 386 data line with Mweb, unless you need a little faster speed ? You must decide. Phone Mweb is best advise. I can advise you who to contact specifically (great service from this guy, because he actually cares). Write to me here for more info. Success !
Hello Chris,
Thank you for making this forum available.
I am Mweb uncapped on a Telkom adsl line, Billion reuter,so am perplexed as to why when there is cloud cover I have bad lag and even no signal. At other times I can also experience a lot of lag. As I play World of Warcraft this becomes a very aggravating problem and causes me problems with the guild I belong to on WOW.
Any advice? Thank you. :)
Hi Yebo,
Thanks! Yes, please let me have his details…
Venessa
Hi Vanessa
Looks like in my last message to you, they took out my email address, in think this is in case anybody starts hasseling me. Obviously it is not my “real” name or usual email address, so here we go: jeremy.pontgomery at … and it resides at google. I am sure you can guess the rest of my complete email. Well I surely believe. Until then
Hi
I’m thinking of switching from Telkom to Mweb as I’ve reached the point where I’m starting to exceed my cap regularly enough for it to be annoying. BUT I don’t really want to lose my Telkom e-mail address as a lot of my banking and business correspondence goes there.
Does anybody know if it’s possible to switch to Mweb but still retain the Telkom e-mail address as well?
Hi Grant
That’s why it is best to get a Gmail account and remain independant from any ISPs ! I recommend you organise yourself a Gmail account asap and start using that as reference to your bank etc. Also great to use Gmail as spam filtering & IMAP (form of synch). Gmail better, as you may sonner ot later want to move from Mweb too. One never knows what changes one has to adapt to these days !
you may have to keep on running your telkom account from month to month for a few more months until you have informed everybody of new, independant email address. Best to ask Telkom directly what is / is not possible.
Success !
Calling all IT Networking Gurus
Why are we all PPPoE (dialing) into local ISPs ? Why not PPPoE to European or UK based ISPs, who will provide uncapped, unshaped, un-everything to us clients ?
We are so restricted to local ‘Cartel-ISPs’ !
We have now 3 international lines in place and more to come:
1x Telkom SAIX via Mauritius
1x SEACOM (along the East Coast)
1x International line along the west coast (just completed on 26 Nov)
With FIFA we have proven that Telkom can support its South African users, so why local ISPs, who are still out-pricing themselves, relative to international prices, speeds and services ?
Your thoughts would be appreciated to BITS.
Not to certain on this, but will check up, so bare that in mind when reading this comment @Mozart
I think that on the international peering level outbound PPPoE connections are terminated, i.e. you can’t dial to a ISP outside your country. This would make sense, especially if you take into account a hacker for instance in China could just easily dial directly into a ISP sitting in Ireland. This is however not how it happens. You dial to local ISP, piggyback on their backhaul to a proxy server, which in turn dials that countries’ ISP.
I could be wrong, but this would explain it more from a technical level :)
Yep, that’s about it. Except for all the “dialling” … :)
The ADSL line provides a “ethernet” cable to the exchange, where it is switched into the national backbone. ISP’s, in various tiers are connected to that backbone, and the the overseas cabling is “connected” via IS (and others) to “the other side” of the ISP’s. They (local ISP’s) are our only gateway to the cables out of the country.
http : / / mybroadband.co.za/news/adsl/15798-Fastest-ADSL-ISP-accounts-revealed.html
Thank You John Clarke & Andre !!!
Got some clever folks dialed into this thread so it would seem!
Just some facts for the WoW Players, Blizzard latly changed their data packets and are now running a new trace path through ATT. Most ISPs are now picking it up as P2P and limiting it. I’m unshaped and still experincing this problem. Ither our ISPs need to change this and unshape WoW again or bliz must fix it.Until then we screwed lol
@WOW. Well that is bad news as we are about to change to Open Web Unshaped this week. Has anyone informed Blizzard? I am going to speak to a GM about this and see if there is an email address to send this info. Perhaps if enough of us do this spmething can be done?
Just to report back, we are over the moon. Gave Mweb their 30 days notice, and because Cataclysm was immenent, we had to take a chance on OPEN WEB and have them going during the notice period, as the lag on Mweb was intolerable. We have had no lag except during thunder storms and minor lag at that, our average latency varies between 292 and 495. There was a storm and the latency went much higher so we phoned Telkom and they picked up the problem on their side from their call centre and corrected it, though it took 3 calls to finally get to someone who knew what they were doing. We are able to raid again!! WOW users, here your solution.
Oh yes, we got the uncapped/unshaped/lite, R495. ADSL of course :))
@Jordan – I had the same issue on MWEB where playing WoW my latency would hit anywhere between 5k to 20k. I got a 1GB from Afrihost which brought my latency down to 300ms-400ms.
I cancelled my MWEB and then purchased a 384 uncapped through Afrihost just to see what the latency would be like and I was very surprised to see it anywhere between 300ms-450ms.
Very happy I went over to Afrihost. No issues what so ever at the moment!
@Jordan – I must admit, Web Africa’s packages, although not uncapped, are really really good when it comes to latency problems..
Hi, we’re new here in SA and we’re using this Swift Sparrow which is capped, the service is ok though quite expensive especially for a family of 2 teens and an expat’s wife who mostly stays at home. Kids loves to download music while the wife needs movies and does a lot of Skype.
Can you advice me what is the best uncapped package that you would recommend? Btw, we live in Dainfern area so not sure if this a factor when choosing the best possible ISP. Many thanks
I went from Afrihost to Mweb to Open Web. Also play WOW, Afrihost was too slow for raids on WOW. Mweb was just a nightmare for gaming. Open web has been a dream. Besides our adsl costs with Telkom we pay R495 a month for unshaped uncapped with Open Web. The CEO deals personally with his clients. Very good service, so good not to have to deal with thick call centres. Another good thing for me was I at last was able to save my bosses very large website to my TB. I can’t believe how quick and easy it was with Open Web. I had to give up when I was with Mweb, too many failed transfers. On Open Web not one failed tfr. ‘I love it when a plan comes together.’
Dear peeps
I am a regular gamer looking for an uncapped solution – if you discussed this earlier, apologies i didn’t want to read the whole thread.
I have been using an MWEB 384k capped line and finally convinced my dad to getting uncapped, the problem was the cap was 500MB and the line excrutiating even when we were inside the cap. I do have experiences with computers but not a lot with internet related waffle.
I play games like Call of Duty, Command and Conquer and Company of Heroes very often but even if I go play CoD at a time when few people are using the net my ping shoots up to 800 about and the lag makes me want to shoot myself.
I just want a line that you recommend will make my gaming lag free and of course cheaper than the others, my dad doesn’t want to pay through the teeth to get e-mails but my teen gaming habits yearn for a lag-less paradise:)
Please help:)
Hi there
Have more-or-less the same question as F1. Have a home with folks who would like to use skype as well as download quite a bit and perhaps watch tv shows online. I’ve already gotten, from reading the above, that getting the 512k for speedier downloads. Am just stumped, probably due to info overload, as to what option would be best, especially price wise. Any suggestions?
Thanks
Hey Judy and Sandstorm.. I don’t know if it’ll help you guys much, but I have been with Afrihost for a few months now, and it has been going pretty good. I mean I reached about 90GB 1 month and obviously I was then shaped. That’s usually where ever you go, but the thing is recently Afrihost has been moving most of their high end users (especially the uncapped users) to IS (internet solutions) which is suppose to be a lot better and a lot less shaping. But I mean with Afrihost I have a 4meg uncapped account and even when I got capped I still had 384k line speeds which is really not bad for a shaped account and seeing as tho IS is suppose to be a lot better, well i’ll just have to wait and see on that.. hope this helps cheerz
Hi,
I’ve switched over from Telkom to MyISP.co.za.
300mb free
Uncapped starting from R149.00.
They have been around for quite some time and have superb support from therm at all times. Response is immediate
@Judy – Do you get a free @myisp.co.za email address or are you a staff member trying to plug your service here?
Good question Chris. I wondered the same thing. Also, just a clarification, the Jan 13th, 2011 at 2:52 pm post is me. Am guessing another Judy answered with the myisp! Am still at odds concerning which provider to go with so keep helping everyone. thanks :o)
Chris M, yes you do get a free email account, fax no and WifiHot spot data.
and NO i am NOT a staff member! I came across MyIsp 2 years ago and tried their FREE option first but stuck it out with Telkom after they upped my data to 5Gigs for the same price as the 3Gigs which i was paying for at the time.
I’ve got to a stage where i needed more than 5GIGs data so searched around for uncapped options, after alot of searching and weighing up options I still could not find anything better than MyISP…Price and service wise.
Made contact with MyIsp again couple of days ago (my free account was still active) and once again had instant, no hassle response from them. My Free account was upgraded within an instant.
I also looked at Cybersmart (mentioned above somewhere) excellent prices, but they did not reply to my query and secondly i find that they have too many restrictions, read their Terms & Conditions.
Judy B …Before i go signing up for anything i always check the services out by sending out numerous emails or trying out their live chats. From this i make a decision…. I also considered CellC 5Gigs for R299/mo promotion but no guarantee that you will get it for the same price when your 12month contract expires, so left that for awhile as they also did not respond to my email.
The difficult part about changing ISP’s are the email address’s, fortunately i can keep my Telkom email address’s for R15.00/mo
Hi Everyone
Best is to keep your email address always separate / independant from your ISP issued email address. ISPs will offer you free email addresses, which then binds you to them. Why not rather open a free Gmail account, which has excellent SPAM filtering as well. You also get GoogleTalk freely included (if you like), which has similar purpose as Skype has (Voice over Internet). No mess, no fuss.
I used my gmail address for business purposes as well and can use any ISP I choose to use at any given time. Viva Independancy & Free Spirit!
Dear All,
I need access to internet in Rosebank Johannesburg for private usage. Data uncapped, 384kbps or 512kbps speed will do. Can some one tell me which telco and/or ISP provider can provide the best package ?
Warm regards to all,
Ric
Dear Chris,
I recently got the uncapped internet from MTN for R749 per month. MTN is still charging like a prepaid contract. they just invoicing like crazy,
MTN sucks
That’s a great shame, you should have looked at Web Africa’s offerings, their Titan 3 pack is awesome. Link’s up in the article.
I have to disagree with the statment about Openweb. I’ve been with them for almost 3 years now. At first I had an uncapped/unshaped 512k account with them which was much slower than a normal capped 512K line from telkom and it cost me R1500.00 a month. I then moved over to their 4Mb uncapped shaped account. I couldn’t log on as they didn’t supply me with new loggin details, but cut the old account. They have no phone numbers to contact them on so how do you get hold of these guys when your IS is down? After a massivbe struggle to get hold of them I got the new login details. They overcharged me for the 4Mb line and told me it was a Gold+ account that will perfom much better. I eventually took the Gold account which according to Keoma is also supposed to be without issues. All I’ve had are issues, I have to mail them at least once every 2 weeks as the line goes slower (normal HTTP browsing) than a 512K line even If I haven’t donloaded anything for 2 or 3weeks. The P2P and Usent ports get blocked completely. When this happens. As for the owner being such an amazing guy, their service is horrible, Kemoa Wright can not give you straight answer on anything.
On the uncapped matter -I have discovered something rather interesting with Mweb – they claim not to throttle ones downloads – but – I am confident now that they do… If I download avi files, mkv’s or divx files or even iso’s – I maybe get 100kB/s from my server in the US… If I run a test against my Ookla speedtest on the server, I get full line speed. So I thought to myself: myself, lets test this theory. I renamed a file extension from .avi to .xyz and what do you know – full speed ahead ;) Hope this tip helps anyone wanting to take advantage of the “un” in uncapped.
I am on Open Web and lately I am positive that they are throttling me. I am a WOW player and am extremely angry as I am supposedly uncapped gold. Anyone have a better supplier for me. I have heard that there are sattelite (sorry I know spelling is wrong).
@PeterPan – of course Mweb throttle you. I speak from experience. I have reached that stage with Open Web even on their uncapped unshaped gold, methinks. I am looking at Axxess, I have been told that they are best for gamers. I hope so, but am interested in sattelite.
Concerning the above, forget the rest, Openweb is the best. What an experience. I won’t try and leave them again. And forget Mweb, it is a JOKE. And their WTFast is even more of a lag. (excuse the pun, hehe) Sorry Openweb, I really learned to appreciate you the hard way.
@Edan – OpenWeb are a great company, I used them for many years. These days I use Web Africa though, and haven’t had a single problem.
Then it must only be a few us that get throttled heavily. Over the last 2 months it’s been so bad, even this page took about 10-15 seconds to open. That is not a proper 4MB line. Obviously I can’t speak for M-Web or the rest, but it’s satrting to look to me that internet sales are the same as every other service in South Africa. There is bad and then there’s horrible.
I’ve been using Web Africa now for the last several months and I’m definitely not being throttled at all. I was on their Titan 3 package and have since moved onto one of their new business packages, neither one has given me any problems..
“Abuse” of one’s connection is an ARTIFICIAL term invented by South African ISP’s to shift blame away from the abysmal services they offer (specifically the concept of shaped and unshaped services). I have lived and worked in several places around the world and have used fantastic broadband internet that was much faster than most of what SA ISP’s can offer, at lower prices, and have met many people from many different countries and guess what? NONE of them have ever heard of the term “shaped” or “unshaped” or “abuse” regarding internet services. They also haven’t heard of a condition whereby one has to by slivers of (overpriced) internet time (essentially the “capped” and “uncapped” concepts SA uses), they have all always been familiar with “always-on”, “uncapped” internet.
That illustrates how far behind SA has been ( and still is) in the ISP industry. There is no excuse: if SA really wants to be a player on the international scene it needs to have an internet service that matches those available in so-called 1st-world countries.
Hi, I’d like to add one things about latency (ping) to Wow, a lot of u guys are probably playing on euro servers. These servers are (i thought) located in sweden, which also gives you lag (increased ping).
HI i am been with iburst for about 2 or 3 years on a 1MB wireless internet.About a year ago i added uncapped , were their are two two choices 64kb/s or 128 kb/s.I have to say i download excessively 150 to 200 GB a month. on average i get actual speeds of 20 to 40 kb/s and after 12 at night 60kb/s – 110kb/s.Witch is ant fast i no but it works for me most of the time but for the last 3 months they started throttling my speeds 9 -12 kb/s once you go over 60GB.they say after 12 at night is free down load at 1MB and so i do most of my downloading after 12 at night but for the last 3 months they don’t speed up the down load speeds ,i would go so far as to say its slower after 12 then during the day. i never had issues with them till now.they throttle my speed so much that i cant get on the internet so i say now they have never given the speed that they promised and i never complain but now they cut me of once i reach fair user policy that sucks!!! besides the last 3 months their service was good.o and price wise. i have an 2GB contract incl. modem -R198 and R249 for uncapped 128KB/S wireless.
Jacques, it might be better if you checked your spelling. This is almost unintelligible.
@Ian, you make an irrelevant point and is completely off topic. I’m sure somewhere there’s a forum dedicated to spelling that you could check out.
My experience with Openweb has improved a great deal again. I suspect they had some bandwidth issues or lack thereof rather for a couple of months. All seems well with them again.
Wernich,
My point is that I do not take seriously comments that seem to have been written by a 7 year old.
@Ian
Don’t you mean:
“I don’t take comments serious that seem to have been written by a 7 year old”?
Karma…it’s a bitch *just saying* :)
Well, if I did put it that way round, I would have used the adverb “seriously” not the adjective “serious”.
Enough of this now!!!
I guess we have all learnt something valuable over here…
When you’ve accomplished all that you are begin to do the most important point.
i want to start an internet cafe how much do l pay a month?
@ Chris M – Very interesting and educational site although a lot of it is still beyond me!
What is the correlation between Telkom ADSL line speed and line speeds of ADSL products offered by ISP’s?
I have Telkom’s ADSL Fastest line (4096Kb/s) with MWEB’s 3GB capped (384Kb/s). Is this a mismatch? For optimum results should I have MWEB’s 4096Kb/s?