Towards the end of last year local ISP WebAfrica announced that they would be launching their FreeZone; a service which will allow their customers access to online gaming servers without using their precious bandwidth. Furthermore, they announced that their users would be able to access international digital distribution network Steam without using bandwidth.
Many gamers immediately asked whether it would be possible to simply purchase a 1GB prepaid WebAfrica account for R70 and gain unlimited and indefinite access to Steam and online gaming without exhausting their bandwidth. More questions have been asked about how close the service is to going live.
MyGaming got in touch with WebAfrica’s Johnathan Enslin to answer these questions and more.
Hi Johnathan, thanks for your time.
Could you start by introducing yourself and explaining your role at WebAfrica?
Hi everyone, my name is Johnathan Enslin. As Games Master, I have been given the unique opportunity to facilitate and aid in the development of WAGE. I ensure that the game services are up and running and that WAGE remains constantly up to date.
How well has FreeZone been received so far?
The public response to FreeZone has been overwhelming and is growing substantially as more subscribers are taking advantage of the value added benefits of FreeZone access. The amount of users connecting to the servers is very good, considering that the gaming service is only a month old. In the near future we hope to see many new faces join in on the action. Performance wise; I am happy with the way the servers are performing, however we are looking at improving the experience for all our customers.
Exactly what do you need to purchase in order to take advantage of the bandwidth free gaming servers?
Any Web Africa ADSL subscriber will automatically gain the benefit of FreeZone. Just to clarify: this would include all @wadsl, @wadsl.unshaped and @wadsl.local accounts, unfortunately our IS packages are excluded. By using any of the accounts listed below and appending a .V or .S at the end of a user name, will force the account to connect to either the SAIX or Verizon network resulting in the use of bandwidth as usual.
All the packages below include the cap savings of FreeZone:
Monthly packages
https://www.webafrica.co.za/adsl/local/
https://www.webafrica.co.za/adsl/standard/
https://www.webafrica.co.za/adsl/unshaped/
Prepaid packages
https://www.webafrica.co.za/adsl/prepaid/
Bundled monthly packages which include ADSL line rental and bandwidth
https://www.webafrica.co.za/adsl/complete/
https://www.webafrica.co.za/adsl/complete_unshaped/
What will the requirements be to make use of the bandwidth free Steam access? For example, will it be possible to purchase a 1GB per month subscription and gain access to unlimited Steam downloads and the Web Africa servers?
Absolutely, any FreeZone qualifying package will automatically take advantage of the bandwidth savings of FreeZone when accessing those servers. However, in some cases, international authentication may be needed and you must therefore ensure that you have the appropriate package.
Of course, some bandwidth will be needed on the package to be able to access the FreeZone enabled areas of our network, and these will clearly display the FreeZone logo.
What is currently happening with the Steam servers?
The server is currently undergoing some final testing and is expected to be released towards the end of the month. We are however keen to make it publically available as soon as possible.
Will all Steam content be available in the Freezone?
Web Africa has requested to host a full mirror of all English content, which is currently approximately 3.5TB. Provision has also been made for an additional 1TB of disk space to allow for expansion.
Many users are put off by the technical knowledge required to make use of the current IS Steam mirror. How easy will it be to configure your router/Steam settings in order to ensure that you do not use bandwidth when downloading from Steam as a Web Africa customer?
This is one of the concerns that we are actively addressing and we will be sure to post updates regarding this on our forums (forums.webafrica.co.za). Although it is a bit too early to tell whether it will be easier to configure than other setups out there, we are testing various methods and will look for the simplest and most reliable solution possible.
The server is currently firewalled off to the public while we conduct these tests and allow the server to stream data from the master server.
The streaming process is slow, and to completely download the full catalogue to our server, will take several weeks. We are in discussions to find out if it would be possible to speed up that process.
Can we expect full line speed downloads from Steam using the FreeZone?
By default the Steam client, as I understand, will stream from multiple servers in order to secure download at the fastest possible speed. So locking onto one server will have an effect on the connection speed between the client and server. But since it will be a local connection, the server will be on par with other offerings out there. We will be monitoring the server and doing everything we can to ensure that the performance is as fast as possible.
Lastly, could you briefly explain how it is possible for Web Africa to provide unlimited Steam downloads at no charge?
This has been made possible due to Web Africa’s recent network upgrade to Tier 1 status. We are now supplying our own bandwidth and have extensive control over our package offerings. This has in turn allowed us to come up with innovative new product offerings and value added services, such as setting up an area within our network that does not utilize our subscribers’ bandwidth.
Gaming on the WAGE services; using our TeamSpeak or Mumble servers or downloading from our media section of the wage site are all included in the FreeZone and will therefore not use a Web Africa customers’ bandwidth.
Discuss WebAfrica’s Steam mirror in the forums
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