Help an ADSL noob

Dan

Dan

Makhulu Silverback
I've decided it's time to hook up some cheap uncapped ADSL at home, but since I haven't had 'net access there for an unmentionable number of years I'm somewhat out of the loop as to how to set everything up and get the best deal.

The criteria:

1. I don't want to be spending much more than R600 total i.e. including line rental, ISP, etc. I can squeeze a couple hundred more if need be but the cheaper the better.
2. It must be uncapped.
3. It needs to be as fast as possible. (Well, obviously.)
4. It needs to be suitable for downloading stuff as well as online gaming via my PS3.
5. I need wireless access (for my PS3, iPhone and lappy) as well as ethernet access (for my desktop Mac).

So, where do I start? I assume I must sort a line through Telscum first? Will they provide me with a router or must I sort my own? Who's the best ISP for my needs?

Any help or advice would be appreciated.
 
MWEB All Inclusive
Includes both your uncapped data and ADSL line rental
R349 per month
(All you need in one package at a great price)

Thats the Mweb uncapped solution I think for a wireless DSL router ur looking at around R700 its either a D-link or a Netgear router :)I think Telscum offer a router but on a 24month contract or something to that effect...
 
I see their Bigtime Broadband Uncapped offer is R900 for a 4mb uncapped line: I assume that's shaped? Would that be cool for gaming/downloading/surfing?
 
RustPuppet said:
I see their Bigtime Broadband Uncapped offer is R900 for a 4mb uncapped line: I assume that's shaped? Would that be cool for gaming/downloading/surfing?
Click to expand...
All these DSL packages are shaped accounts and i think they start throttling peoples lines to half speed after it reaches around 30gigs :)
 
sycogrim said:
I think Telscum offer a router but on a 24month contract or something to that effect...
Click to expand...

Correct - I got my router for free (Netgear, wireless, 4 ethernet ports) by simply signing a 24 month contract with Telkom.

I would really advise against having any ISP control your line: there have been so many nightmare stories on myBB where people have really battled to get their "line back" after they decided to switch ISPs.

If you go with Mweb for uncapped (from the looks of it these guys have been the more stable ones barring the issues the last few weeks) take a look here: http://www.mweb.co.za/adsl/ - for the 4MB line uncapped you can get for R899 pm all inclusive or R539 for data only (your line will cost you R 413 extra pm through Telkom). All-inclusive is a good deal but like I said if you're one for ISP hopping and changing to backup accounts, etc. keep your line with Telkom.

I'm not sure about gaming with MWeb so I suggest you ask some guys on uncapped to reveal their experiences either on this forum or the PS3ZA forum.
 
RustPuppet said:
I see their Bigtime Broadband Uncapped offer is R900 for a 4mb uncapped line: I assume that's shaped? Would that be cool for gaming/downloading/surfing?
Click to expand...

For that price it will be shaped. The only packages that are unshaped 24/7 are the high-level/business packages and are nothing less than R 1000 (I see Mweb 4MB uncapped and unshaped is R1999 pm data only).
 
How it works!

Okay, I going to break it down to explain it. ADSL is made up of 3 parts:

1. Your Telephone line (ADSL requires this) - currently you have to get this from Telkom.
2. ADSL Portion of your line, this is your Sync Speed (384k, 512k, etc) - also from Telkom, no matter who bills you for it.
3. Your Bandwidth (GB Usage, uncapped etc) - this is determined by the account you have. This you can get from any ISP eg. MWEB, Axxess, Telkom, etc. This is what you look for when looking around for pricing and such.

Obviously signing by contracts some ISPs give you special deals and icentives which i wouldnt recommend seeing as pricing is dropping the way it is!

The benefit of getting these independently is that you can chop and change ISPs as you see fit. No messy contracts and such. Currently I have a uncapped account, which sees majority of my browsing and downloading. I also have a unshaped prepaid for my WOW gaming when the latency gets out of hand.

Hope this helps!
 
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H4VoC said:
Okay, I going to break it down to explain it. ADSL is made up of 3 parts:

1. Your Telephone line (ADSL requires this) - currently you have to get this from Telkom.
2. ADSL Portion of your line, this is your Sync Speed (384k, 512k, etc) - also from Telkom, no matter who bills you for it.
3. Your Bandwidth (GB Usage, uncapped etc) - this is determined by the account you have. This you can get from any ISP eg. MWEB, Axxess, Telkom, etc. This is what you look for when looking around for pricing and such.

Okay. How much is the telephone line rental from Telkom? Am I right in saying that it will be that amount + the R349 all-inclusive deal from Mweb?
Click to expand...
 
yup!

this will vary, ask about the differnet packages, sometimes you can get a nice deal if you need to make calls and such. Ive got the Closer package and its about +R160 per month.
 
I'm thinking of splurging and going with this option from Openweb:

256k speed (shaped) during office hours, 4mb speed (unshaped) during evenings and over weekends. Uncapped too. Apparently runs via fibre cable and their site states that some dudes are pulling over 800gbs a month on it.

Not bad for R1300, right?
 
RustPuppet said:
I'm thinking of splurging and going with this option from Openweb:

256k speed (shaped) during office hours, 4mb speed (unshaped) during evenings and over weekends. Uncapped too. Apparently runs via fibre cable and their site states that some dudes are pulling over 800gbs a month on it.

Not bad for R1300, right?
Click to expand...

Thats not bad at all :) and ive never had any problems with openweb very helpful support team :)
 
Only problem though is I still need to fork out for the line rental, so total cost is quite hectic.
 
is it really worth it? 800 GB a month of what? torrents? you gona spend another R800 bucks every month buying bigger harddrives.

why spend that much on super fast bandwidth when you dont need it!

if you not going to be home, and want huge bandwidth, get an MWEB or IS uncapped account. I have one and i got about 400GB a month at a quater of that price.
 
I don't plan on downloading that much, so you're probably right. All I really want is to be able to grab the occasional TV episode, play/download from PSN, and surf to my heart's content at a good speed.

What package are you on, H4VoC? Line speed?

EDIT: Hmmm, what about their 4mb shaped line with no cap for R539 ex. line rental?
 
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i have a 4mb line with a 4mb IS uncapped account.currently you have two choices for value uncapped. Mweb or IS (majority of ISPs simply resell IS uncapped accounts, these are the ones slin mweb, eg ghtly cheaper thauncapped 384k for R219 (Mweb) IS is 199 for 384k) I can recommend Axxess as not only are they VERY simple to use (awesome control panel) but i havent had one issue that wasnt solved by a quick phone call (i dont work for them btw, acutally work for a different ISP)
 
Shot for the help, dude.

Would the 4mb uncapped shaped line from Axxess (R496 ex. line rental) be a smart choice then?
 
RustPuppet said:
Would the 4mb uncapped shaped line from Axxess (R496 ex. line rental) be a smart choice then?
Click to expand...

Not too sure about that one, take a look here and here. People are really complaining about that package, in fact Axxess REMOVED that package shortly after launching it as they were unable to sustain decent service levels (it was later reinstated). I have heard good things about their Express+ account but it starts at R 999 pm for 384Kbps. All around people still tend to prefer Mweb uncapped for cheap uncapped at decent speeds.
 
Axxess okes are cooking. If I didn't have my 30GB @ R199 deal from WA, I'd definitely be with them for capped accounts...but right now the only stable uncapped package seems to be Mweb's
 
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