May Telkom burn!

[Dave A]

And, I now pay R290 for 10GB bandwidth.

That would be shaped bandwidth

Well, my Neotel solution went out the window. My location doesn't have coverage. 150 metres away but at my spot

Close, but no cigar.

So it looks like I'll have to go with Telkom unshaped after all

[SilverNodashi]

Does the unshaped bandwidth really make such a big difference to you?

[Dave A]

Shaped connection - IMAP doesn't work.
Unshaped connection - IMAP does work.

[SilverNodashi]

I use Africhost + IMAP, and I recently deleted about 20GB worth of old email (backups was taking too long). so it works fine for me

[Dave A]

Would that be to a local or overseas server, SoftDux?

When I checked with their technical department, AfriHost was clearly expecting a problem making an IMAP connection to an overseas server.

Anyway - got the unshaped service going today and the IMAP connection works perfectly.

And emails download much faster...

[SilverNodashi]

Would that be to a local or overseas server, SoftDux?

When I checked with their technical department, AfriHost was clearly expecting a problem making an IMAP connection to an overseas server.

Anyway - got the unshaped service going today and the IMAP connection works perfectly.

And emails download much faster...

This is on gmail.com which is in the USA. I'm going to setup a local IMAP server soon and transfer all of this to the local server, purely cause I need more control & functionality.

[Dave A]

Yeah, I tested gmail and it worked for some reason, possibly because the gmail IMAP connection isn't "typical". I wasn't happy using gmail to distribute the kind of corporate communications I've got in mind for this system, though.

And from the bit of testing I've done already, it's clear that unshaped is a whole lot faster for a whole range of protocols. It's internet the way it's supposed to be.

Funny, you never know what you're missing until you try it.

[jinxster]

Hi Dave,

Ok I am a new member here.

I have (sell):
Semi shaped service - R40 per gb
Prepaid service - R75
626 unshaped service - R50
Shaped Service - R110 per gb
Local - R10 per gb

In answer to SoftDux, you cannot really compare a diginet line to a DSL line by means of the number in front. A 64kb diginet line is quoted on kilobytes and the 4mb is quoted on megabits. But I agree, DSL gives more for your money.

On a 64kb diginet you should be downloading at a speed of 64kb/s. So a 64mb file should take you 1024 seconds about 17minutes to download.

On 4mb DSL line, you should be able to get 4096 / 10 (start and stop bit included) 410kb/s which is higher. However your throttled on the upload and like Dave says shaped services generally start putting you to the back of the queue for "non mainline home use" contention services and hence you may just find that if Dave lowers his speed he may actually see his IMAP working.

Some advice outside of changing your connection is to use a VPN... our service includes a vLock and vDNS (like Axxess since I resell their services) which can assist you in your IP changing and VPN needs.

In reality 410kb/s on a 4mb line doesn't exist. It is a "burstable" service. So at max speed that is what you would get. The average DSL line is shared with 3 other subscribers so if they sleeping you could get your 410kb/s. However you dont get that anyway becuase things are happening at an un synched speed, like the government queue issue issue, you downloading your file you get packets that must wait in line, then they get lost and then tcp/ip fixes the problem by saying... send packet xyz again pease.

This means if you downloaded the same 64MB file on the 4mb DSL line, you may be able to get (best case scenario) the file in 160 seconds. But in reality you end up waiting in queues and lost packets occur and hence you actually need to download 128mb to get your 64mb file.

You must understand the DSL is still a shared service and T lines and diginet lines are still where guarentees come in. The downside for T / diginet lines is the internet mesh is so well connected the users dont see problems much anymore. But I still havent seen such great speeds as the speed of the lines go up which means that Telkom are still sharing us and as people get more, we actually are competeing our own service down.

If I were to sell at R29 a gig i would actually lose out on the debit orders since the cost of the debit order pushes my cost over the R29. However what I think afrihost may be doing is (dont quote me on this maybe one of their customers can help me out), they run 2 companies, claim the VAT back on the purchase of the service and then dont give out VAT invoices from another company and so, they make the 14% profit (which is actually about 9% if you take into account the banking charge and so on. Does anyone get an invoice from afrihost? and do they send to all customers? I hear some customers complain they cannot get a VAT invoice then when it mysteriously appears the name of the company changes....

So if that is true, then SARS may go knocking on their door one day... but Afrihost may magically fix that too before SARS get to the actual audit.

Many thanks
Andrew

[SilverNodashi]

Hi Dave,

Ok I am a new member here.

I have (sell):
Semi shaped service - R40 per gb
Prepaid service - R75
626 unshaped service - R50
Shaped Service - R110 per gb
Local - R10 per gb

In answer to SoftDux, you cannot really compare a diginet line to a DSL line by means of the number in front. A 64kb diginet line is quoted on kilobytes and the 4mb is quoted on megabits. But I agree, DSL gives more for your money.

On a 64kb diginet you should be downloading at a speed of 64kb/s. So a 64mb file should take you 1024 seconds about 17minutes to download.

On 4mb DSL line, you should be able to get 4096 / 10 (start and stop bit included) 410kb/s which is higher. However your throttled on the upload and like Dave says shaped services generally start putting you to the back of the queue for "non mainline home use" contention services and hence you may just find that if Dave lowers his speed he may actually see his IMAP working.

Some advice outside of changing your connection is to use a VPN... our service includes a vLock and vDNS (like Axxess since I resell their services) which can assist you in your IP changing and VPN needs.

In reality 410kb/s on a 4mb line doesn't exist. It is a "burstable" service. So at max speed that is what you would get. The average DSL line is shared with 3 other subscribers so if they sleeping you could get your 410kb/s. However you dont get that anyway becuase things are happening at an un synched speed, like the government queue issue issue, you downloading your file you get packets that must wait in line, then they get lost and then tcp/ip fixes the problem by saying... send packet xyz again pease.

This means if you downloaded the same 64MB file on the 4mb DSL line, you may be able to get (best case scenario) the file in 160 seconds. But in reality you end up waiting in queues and lost packets occur and hence you actually need to download 128mb to get your 64mb file.

You must understand the DSL is still a shared service and T lines and diginet lines are still where guarentees come in. The downside for T / diginet lines is the internet mesh is so well connected the users dont see problems much anymore. But I still havent seen such great speeds as the speed of the lines go up which means that Telkom are still sharing us and as people get more, we actually are competeing our own service down.

If I were to sell at R29 a gig i would actually lose out on the debit orders since the cost of the debit order pushes my cost over the R29. However what I think afrihost may be doing is (dont quote me on this maybe one of their customers can help me out), they run 2 companies, claim the VAT back on the purchase of the service and then dont give out VAT invoices from another company and so, they make the 14% profit (which is actually about 9% if you take into account the banking charge and so on. Does anyone get an invoice from afrihost? and do they send to all customers? I hear some customers complain they cannot get a VAT invoice then when it mysteriously appears the name of the company changes....

So if that is true, then SARS may go knocking on their door one day... but Afrihost may magically fix that too before SARS get to the actual audit.

Many thanks
Andrew

Wow Andrew, careful with the advertising spam. P.S. Afrihost & Axxess can offer those prices since they "write off" the extra fees on advertising, marketing, etc. They take about R10/GB off of what IS charges them, but they gain those clients back much quicker than you do And they're not skimming on their VAT so be careful of such an accusation.

P.S. I been in the industry much longer than you think and know very well how DSL & diginet works. My comparison was a bit different and still stands.

[IanF]

Hi Andrew
I get a valid tax invoice from Afrihost, maybe they just get better rates than you.