How to choose a fibre provider

[biometrics]

I have Lightstruck (https://www.lightstruck.co.za/) in front of the house and Openserve in the back. Not sure when Lightstruck will be available but Openserve is available from the end of the month. Lightstruck seems to be open access for the ISPs (https://www.lightstruck.co.za/packages/). Is Openserve too?

I don't know much about fibre, so how do I choose?

 

[Bryn]

I can only speak for PE, but also based on the Afrihost feedback thread on MyBB, the answer is basically always go with Openserve if you have the luxury. The speeds don't go up to 1Gbps, and they aren't symmetric, but the network is rock solid. It almost always stays up during load shedding and rarely experiences congestion or downtime, if ever.

I love my reliable 200Mbps Openserve connection with Afrihost. Everyone I know on Frogfoot and Metrofibre has near constant issues, and the Afrihost thread is filled with people having problems on non-Openserve fibre networks.

 

[greg0205]

I'm with Vumatel and I'd suggest Openserve too.

Not that I've had any issues with Vuma mind you, rather that they're not interested in competing on price.

Recon the bigger issue is picking a good service provider on the network... One vote for Afrihost from Bryn, and one vote for Vox from me. Plenty of folks recommend Cool Ideas too.

 

[Johnatan56]

I can only speak for PE, but also based on the Afrihost feedback thread on MyBB, the answer is basically always go with Openserve if you have the luxury. The speeds don't go up to 1Gbps, and they aren't symmetric, but the network is rock solid. It almost always stays up during load shedding and rarely experiences congestion or downtime, if ever.

I love my reliable 200Mbps Openserve connection with Afrihost. Everyone I know on Frogfoot and Metrofibre has near constant issues, and the Afrihost thread is filled with people having problems on non-Openserve fibre networks.

PE is important there. In Cape Town, Frogfoot is perfectly fine, I had issues maybe once every 3/4 months, same as OpenServe.

@biometrics the pricing on lightstruck and OpenServe seems very similar, so depends on individual package, both providers are good, OpenServe just has the bonus of pretty easily being able to swap the package to another ISP, though it's become a lot more difficult to get a cheap throw-away capped account to trial with. On e.g. 25/25 OpenServe is a lot cheaper, network wise lightstruck is good, so if 200/200 and up, I would go Lightstruck, else OpenServe.

 

[Tribs]

We have Openserve with Mweb - we have packet loss every night between 7 and midnight (or thereabout). It is unusable. People on Openserve with Level 7 have no issues and we are in the same area. So it seems to be the provider and not the fiber that is the issue. Mweb's service also sucks now. We used them for years on ADSL and they were great. But about to change now.

 

[Johnatan56]

We have Openserve with Mweb - we have packet loss every night between 7 and midnight (or thereabout). It is unusable. People on Openserve with Level 7 have no issues and we are in the same area. So it seems to be the provider and not the fiber that is the issue. Mweb's service also sucks now. We used them for years on ADSL and they were great. But about to change now.

Mweb hasn't been good since around 2012 or something like that, not sure why anyone in their right mind would have signed up with them, especially in the last few years after Mweb was bought by Internet Solutions who thought that open peering was a bad thing.

 

[Tribs]

Mweb hasn't been good since around 2012 or something like that, not sure why anyone in their right mind would have signed up with them, especially in the last few years after Mweb was bought by Internet Solutions who thought that open peering was a bad thing.

I suggested Level 7. I was over-ruled.

 

[biometrics]

I suggested Level 7. I was over-ruled.

M-Web and Afrihost won't ever see a cent from me again.

 

[Bryn]

M-Web and Afrihost won't ever see a cent from me again.

I used to feel the same way. But then Afrihost had that promo for 3 months of free fibre on any package plus a free router, so I thought screw it, may as well take advantage of that and switch back to Cool Ideas afterwards. But Afrihost has been flawless. Zero shaping or throttling at any time of day. So I'm still with them all this time later.

Compared to the issues I had with Cool Ideas' support, I find Afrihost's easier to deal with via their WhatsApp channel.

 

[biometrics]

I used to feel the same way. But then Afrihost had that promo for 3 months of free fibre on any package plus a free router, so I thought screw it, may as well take advantage of that and switch back to Cool Ideas afterwards. But Afrihost has been flawless. Zero shaping or throttling at any time of day. So I'm still with them all this time later.

Compared to the issues I had with Cool Ideas' support, I find Afrihost's easier to deal with via their WhatsApp channel.

I can't forgive Gian for his lies in 2015. Nope.

 

[Bryn]

I can't forgive Gian for his lies in 2015. Nope.

What were his lies?

 

[Johnatan56]

What were his lies?

This BS: https://mybroadband.co.za/forum/thr...twork-and-the-future-from-gian-visser.709426/

Basically obvious IPC issues for months, they kept blaming it on other things, then they upgrade again and it was fine for 3 months, then break again.

That one specifically was the third cycle of not enough IPC, that issue was beginning 2014, then beginning 2015, then again July 2015. It did happen again after that apology.

 

[biometrics]

What were his lies?

It's all on mybb if you are really really interested.

 

[Bryn]

This BS: https://mybroadband.co.za/forum/thr...twork-and-the-future-from-gian-visser.709426/

Basically obvious IPC issues for months, they kept blaming it on other things, then they upgrade again and it was fine for 3 months, then break again.

That one specifically was the third cycle of not enough IPC, that issue was beginning 2014, then beginning 2015, then again July 2015. It did happen again after that apology.

Ah, yes I think I saw all that back in the day. By that stage I'd already jumped ship to Crystal Web I think. Things with Afrihost got really bad - unusable almost for much of the time.

I wish we got a proper update from DJ / Shaun Kaplan about wtf happened with Crystal Web in the end actually.

It's all on mybb if you are really really interested.

No worries, I was around at the time. Just needed something to jog my memory.

 

[biometrics]

Must say my LTE is crappy when the weather is bad. So I think a fibre connection is in order. Will keep my LTE setup and add fibre to it.

Edit: I have a load balancer, @cavedog or who was it that documented it in on mybb?