DSL

Ray

Hello everyone

So I've been coping sort of with a 1 MBps ADSL setup and it gets to be a bit of a sweat sometimes but never thought it worth my whole to get it bumped up. But just lately it has been getting to me. And I mentioned this to my fortune teller and she even says I should try and get some more. Now, about two years ago when I was wanting some more I discovered that the Telkom infrastructure in my area just doesnt accommodate it. But I have just recently discovered that it will sort out 4 MBps - that's what MWEB tells me anyway. So I'm definitely going to get upgraded here hey becasue yesterday it tool almost the whole day to download a sinlge issue of Guitarist and a single issue of Guitar Techniques to my IPAD. That's another thing hye - you pay 33 bux per issue which is a heck of a lot cheaper than newstand prices.

My curent setup is that I got the ADSL line from Telkom and the data from MWEB. The oke at MWEB makes a pretty convincing argument to get the line over to MWEB as well. Sort of makes sense.

So what I'df like to know is:

- is there a way I can check the line capability myself. Becasue I suspect that these guys will sell you anything and follow up with the world of reasons when you arent going so fast.
- I read somewhere that if the modem is old then maybe replace it. Any truth to that? Can you give me some good modems to go for?
- who is a good provider? I have no reason to believe that MWEB is any worse than anyone else. But who did you come up with in your investigations.

Cheers - Ray

Mannemarak

go here and check what telkom says your line can handle:
http://www.telkom.co.za/checkadsl/

Also remember that when the line is at Mweb and not you it is on MWEB's name, if that is not a problem then go for it.
Also it seems the new 20Mbps and up lines will become active soon, so prices may drop, do not know, just keep it in mind.

Chocklit_Thunda

Just don't be fooled by the name of the line... I have 4Mbps at home and work and neither have ever come close... Even on their best days.... Uploads and downloads :-\ divide it by about 8 for normal running speeds

ezietsman

Chocklit_Thunda wrote: Just don't be fooled by the name of the line... I have 4Mbps at home and work and neither have ever come close... Even on their best days.... Uploads and downloads :-\ divide it by about 8 for normal running speeds

That's because they're named by their speed in bits per second. 1 byte == 8 bits

Warren

ez wrote:
That's because they're named by their speed in bits per second. 1 byte == 8 bits

How to spot the programmer?

Look at the equivalence operator they use. ?

ezietsman

ShreddySmurf wrote:
ez wrote:
That's because they're named by their speed in bits per second. 1 byte == 8 bits
How to spot the programmer?

Look at the equivalence operator they use. ?

Obviously ?

Bob-Dubery

ShreddySmurf wrote:
ez wrote:
That's because they're named by their speed in bits per second. 1 byte == 8 bits
How to spot the programmer?

Look at the equivalence operator they use. ?

Bah! COBOL and most variants of Dartmouth BASIC use = for the equivalence test. I can't quote book, chapter and verse but they're not the only languages that use that operator. It seems to be languages in the part of the programming world that originate from C that use ==.

I think I managed to get a National Diploma in IT without having to deal with ==. Mind you, I studied things like PL/1 which are not that big a deal these days.

wirt

As a programmer, this thread makes me happy ?

Ray wrote: - is there a way I can check the line capability myself. Becasue I suspect that these guys will sell you anything and follow up with the world of reasons when you arent going so fast.

I agree with Mannemarak on your first question, just note that I have had that thing be innacurate in the past. My old place's line was stated by Telkom's website of being capable of only 4mb/s, but we got 10mb/s out of it. Similarly, my parent's place reports that the line is only capable of running 1mb/s, but they're on 4mb/s right now. Best is just to call up your ISP and ask them directly, unless your ISP is Telkom, in which case you will probably die of old age before someone picks up the phone on that end.

Ray wrote: - I read somewhere that if the modem is old then maybe replace it. Any truth to that? Can you give me some good modems to go for?

I don't know about age, but if your modem handles 1mb/s then there is no reason to suspect that it can't handle 4mb/s. If your modem can't handle 1mb/s as is, though, then buying a new modem is a mere matter of deciding how much you want to spend, what you need in a router and not buying from Incredible Connection.

Ray wrote: - who is a good provider? I have no reason to believe that MWEB is any worse than anyone else. But who did you come up with in your investigations.

I've been with Telkom, MWeb, Afrihost and Webafrica. Of the bunch, I'd have to say that Afrihost was the best of the group hands-down in all categories. Hell, I got an Afrihost account set up 10 o'clock at night on a Sunday within 15 minutes and their tech-support and billing departments are actually reachable and helpful.

To go a bit into the technical side of things, I'd check the Line Attenuation, Signal To Noise Ratio's, amount of failed and dropped packets and do both a Speedtest and Pingtest before deciding what and how to upgrade your line and/or router. Some places just can't get good internet no matter what you do, sadly. Oh, I'll gladly take you through the above steps should you feel a bit jargon-bombed ? (Not trying to be patronizing, I've just learned to assume that most people are not as nerdy as I am and have better things to do than optimize networks and ADSL connections for fun)

Ray

Thank you everybody. Even though it wont be up to the published speed it will still be an improvement from what I've got hey? So I got onto the Telkom page and ran the test on my phone number and stroos bob they say "Maximum speed available in your area is 4Mbps". Your current product speed is : 1Mbps. Now, does this mean someone need to come and do something to the line to get it bumped up to 4? Or do I just say please bump up to 4 and charge accordingly? See, my line is with Telkom and data with MWEB. So, I'll have to get the data package upgraded, but do I need to get the line upgraded?

MWEB got hold of me and they reckon I should swing the line over to them as well and then the total (line + data = R952-00). But hell, that sounds a bit much no? If not then maybe it's the way to go.

Cheers - Ray

wirt

Ray wrote: Thank you everybody. Even though it wont be up to the published speed it will still be an improvement from what I've got hey? So I got onto the Telkom page and ran the test on my phone number and stroos bob they say "Maximum speed available in your area is 4Mbps". Your current product speed is : 1Mbps. Now, does this mean someone need to come and do something to the line to get it bumped up to 4? Or do I just say please bump up to 4 and charge accordingly? See, my line is with Telkom and data with MWEB. So, I'll have to get the data package upgraded, but do I need to get the line upgraded?

MWEB got hold of me and they reckon I should swing the line over to them as well and then the total (line + data = R952-00). But hell, that sounds a bit much no? If not then maybe it's the way to go.

Cheers - Ray

It should be an improvement, yeah ?
I don't think someone has to come over as these upgrades happen at the exchange station and a copper phone line is a copper phone line. They should be able to just upgrade your package and charge accordingly, as you said.
It's usually a tad cheaper to have your line at your ISP too, I'm not aware of any drawbacks, but maybe someone else on the forums might have some more information?

R952 sounds about right to my ears.