# General Business Category > Technology Forum >  Broad band in SA

## Chatmaster

I am sure we all agree that Telkom should get on the nearest space craft and go to the moon. The amount of damage they are causing SA with their idiotic prices and stupidity is unquestionable. Just want to make a few people a bit more depressed about our broadband in SA. Check this out do broadband in the UK

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## Dave A

Now what would I do with an unlimited usage 24 Meg connection....?

I don't know if even my son could rape that into submission, although it would be just the sort of challenge he'd love to try. And at about R300 per month!

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## RKS Computer Solutions

Dave, I bet you a hundred bucks, I can make that 24meg line squeal like a pig...

Especially now that 1TB Hard Drives have landed in South Africa...

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## Chatmaster

I have a server at Datapro right on their pipe. There is nothing as great as to download something on it in a matter of seconds. I usually do that and then use my FTP software to download it from there during the evening when I am not there.  I can do allot more with that type of speed. I normally run downloads on videos of speakers and software etc. It helps to stay in touch with the latest techniques.

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## Dave A

> There is nothing as great as to download something on it in a matter of seconds.


No argument there. I'd take the speed for sure. But when pretty well any file you download is delivered faster than you can meaningfully process it.... Hmm. Maybe I'm not getting my thought across too well.

Take video - that's loading faster than you are chewing when viewing, isn't it? And you can only watch so many videos at once.

We've got a 100 Mbps LAN at the office, and there is only one process where it grates me that it's too slow - otherwise accessing pretty much any file across the network delivers faster than I can use it.

(Yeah yeah - I know I need to upgrade to 1 Tb but it's not just the routers - it's all the network cards too).

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## RKS Computer Solutions

:Smile: 

You must have had a late night Dave...

Your LAN at 100mbps is the standard today, only server environments really effectively use 1gbps, would be a complete waste in a SMME environment...

The 1TerraByte HDD I referred to is space for saving files, ie, 35k photos of the Kruger National park, all at 10.1Mega Pixel and weighing in at +-9MB after conversion from RAW...

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## Dave A

> Your LAN at 100mbps is the standard today, only server environments really effectively use 1gbps, would be a complete waste in a SMME environment...


Networked financial software has a knack for needing speed. Not for all parts of the program, but for some of my more complex custom reports, I can be tapping my fingers for a while.

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## RKS Computer Solutions

Dave, I can only guess what software you are referring to, but I can say with all probability that it won't be your network speed that's the problem...

Take Caseware for instance.  Used heavily by Accountants, does all kinds of funky things with your numbers and is the ultimate speed killer....

Site has Caseware server, 50 client licenses, being used on a daily bases.

Problem, slow response from server when actively using Caseware for reporting...

Solution:  Upgrade server memory to 4GB, replace old/slow IDE HDD's with new SATA HDD's, and upgrade CPU to the max extent of the current motherboard...

50 users right now could be pulling an extensive report on their biggest client, all within milliseconds of each other, and no slow response...

All this, on a 100mbps network, some clients which were on WiFi connections...

Problem solved....

You might want to have a look at your server...

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## Dave A

> You might want to have a look at your server...


I thought that too at one stage.

Firstly, the software is Quickbooks Pro multi-user 2003. And I suspect this is the problem.

You can tick everthing else off the list when it comes to the server - it's one of the latest - dual-core, 4GB ram, 2 x 500GB SATA hard drives. It's a beast built to serve. And when you do the same functions directly on the server, even when everyone else is tapped in too, (and Nortons is doing its best to throw on the brakes as Nortons only can) it's lightning strike.

I suspect the software isn't that well designed for a networked environment. My guess is the exe files are being executed on the "terminal" machine and manipulating the data on the server from a distance, as opposed to sending a request that is using the exe files and processors resident on the server. I'm looking to upgrade to the latest version of Quickbooks to see if the problem resolves. 2003 was really their earliest attempt at a multi-user product and they might have restructured the processing.

In putting in the beast, there *was* an improvement in speed for over-network operations. Noticeable but not that significant for complex operations - an improvement which I attribute to the improved access time of the hard drives and the priority settings for network requests.

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## Eugene

The Advertising Standards Authority has ruled against wireless broadband provider iBurst for the second time in two weeks. In the latest hearing, iBurst was ordered to withdraw a claim from its advertisements that stated that subscribers could achieve speeds of up to 1Mbps. A complainant had said that the advertised claims were misleading as during the day iBurst caps its speed at 46 kbps and users are never able to reach speeds of more than 100 kbps, notes IOL Technology. The ASA found that it could not be shown that a significant number of customers could achieve the advertised speed of 1 Mbps under reasonable circumstances, and in fact there was no evidence to prove that iBurst users can ever currently achieve that speed. The claim was therefore held to be misleading, and iBurst was ordered to withdraw it from advertising with immediate effect.

Legalbrief 08-08-2007

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## RKS Computer Solutions

Dave, that might be an issue yes...  Let us know how it's going when you've upgraded...

For those interested in venting on iBurst, here you go:  http://hellburst.za.net

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## RKS Computer Solutions

http://quickbooks.intuit.com/product...l?lid=left_nav

Link for Quickbooks Pro 2007....

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## duncan drennan

> A complainant had said that the advertised claims were misleading as during the day iBurst caps its speed at 46 kbps and users are never able to reach speeds of more than 100 kbps, notes IOL Technology.


That is quite a strange claim. I have iBurst and I almost always obtain speeds between 25-80kBps, which is equivalent to 200-640 kbps. I wonder if that should read kBps, which seems more realistic.

On a side note here: what I've noticed is that they appear to limit any single stream to around about 25kBps, but if you use multiple streams (e.g. download manager opens 4 connections) then you obtain better results. With a download manager I typically get over 80 kBps and have even gone over 100 kBps.

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## Dave A

> The ASA found that it could not be shown that a significant number of customers could achieve the advertised speed of 1 Mbps under reasonable circumstances, and in fact there was no evidence to prove that iBurst users can ever currently achieve that speed. The claim was therefore held to be misleading, and iBurst was ordered to withdraw it from advertising with immediate effect.
> 
> Legalbrief 08-08-2007


Now that is real interesting. iBurst is of course owned by Vodacom nowadays. And the speed claims are in exactly the same format as their speed claims for HSDPA (up to 1.8 Mbps  :Whistling:  )



> http://quickbooks.intuit.com/product...l?lid=left_nav
> 
> Link for Quickbooks Pro 2007....


Thanks Riaan, but that's the US version unfortunately, which is based on GST, not VAT.

You need to go to Quickbooks UK for a VAT system. Note: 2007 version not released yet! And support is only given for 3 years based on the edition year  :Frown: 

I'm patiently awaiting the new release, which at this rate will be the VAT version for 2008.

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## RKS Computer Solutions

Never knew they were different, my bad...  Don't really deal with Quickbooks so just grabbed the first link google gave me....

Have you spoken to their support regarding the slow networking and if it's been solved in later versions? Have you contacted QuickBooks SA (PTY) LTD to see if maybe they couldn't shed some light on your issues?  http://www.quickbooks.co.za

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## Dave A

> Have you contacted QuickBooks SA (PTY) LTD to see if maybe they couldn't shed some light on your issues?  http://www.quickbooks.co.za


Oh yes. Although the primary cause for my contact with them has not been the speed over network issue - for standard operations it is a non-issue.

Quickbooks has some absolutely amazing plug-ins which I'm interested in. And this needs a recent version. I'm simply not excited about getting a 2006 version where support will drop off at some point in 2009.

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## RKS Computer Solutions

Taking into account the time you have to wait for a new version, and knowing that it's support will drop off in a certain timeframe anyway, how long are you willing to wait for a new version just so you can get the newest features...

That's a standard problem in the software industry...  Waiting for new software releases with all the bells, then it's released and a few bugs needs to be sorted...  People then wait for the next version or service pack....  and so on... and so on...

Technology will always be moving forward, no matter how much forward thinking has gone into a current release.  The moment you buy a piece of software, it's already old news...  The fact that the moment after you install any piece of software, you notice something better or faster or something with more features,  is a fact of life...

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## Dave A

You're right - but consider this for a moment.

When you buy Quickbooks, you will receive updates on that version for any changes in the operating environment until they bring out the next version. Thereafter, you will receive support if something breaks for the next two years. And thereafter, if it breaks, tough luck.

This is not the usual lifetime support thing. Although Quickbooks is sold as a once-off fee (no annual licence fee), there is a built-in obselesence in there that forces you to buy an upgraded version sooner or later.

The trouble is, despite this fact that you are going to have to spend money from time to time, it still is more cost effective - not to mention a considerably superior product, than most other well known accounting packages out there.

As for the delay - well bear in mind that what I need is not an entry level product. It might look like I only need to spend a few thousand - but it's actually closer to 30k. At 10k per year of supported product, I can just live with that.

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## Eugene

The government revealed plans yesterday to slash the wholesale price of broadband access by 95percent within five years.

But the state encountered new obstacles in Parliament to the licensing of the company that will make this possible.

Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin told the Sunday Times last week that the new state-owned enterprise, Broadband Infraco, would market bulk broadband to value- added network providers, known as VANS, at 35 percent of TelkomÃ¢â¬â¢s 2006 cost.

Yesterday, Public Enterprises director-general Portia Molefe went further, saying the cost would come down in steps to five percent of TelkomÃ¢â¬â¢s price by 2011 and would stay there.

She also promised that the new company, Infraco, would stay out of the value-add sector.

Infraco will take over the fibre- optic networks of Transnet, and Eskom will lay undersea digital links to Brazil and Europe at a cost of R3-billion to R3.75-billion.

InfracoÃ¢â¬â¢s price targets would be measured against TelkomÃ¢â¬â¢s 2006 STM-1 benchmark price for 155 megabytes/second.

Telkom recently slashed its retail prices for always-on Internet services in a bid to ward off increasing competition, but declined to say what its wholesale price was.

Molefe told ParliamentÃ¢â¬â¢s portfolio committee on public enterprises that South Africa ranked 25th out of 122 highly connected nations on regulatory provision for digital access Ã¢â¬â but only 75th on the ratio of people able to use the Internet. 

She said the wholesale price was the primary obstacle.

Urging MPs to use their power to circumvent the requirements of the Electronic Communications Act and license Infraco, she said this would be the quickest way to get the new prices into effect.

Detailing ErwinÃ¢â¬â¢s concession announced last week, she said the departmentÃ¢â¬â¢s second choice would be to amend the ECA as quickly as possible to allow the Independent Communications Authority to grant Infraco an immediate licence without having to put it to open tender.

Source: http://www.suntimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=545906

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## Dave A

> Urging MPs to use their power to circumvent the requirements of the Electronic Communications Act and license Infraco,


You know what - I want this to happen as much as anyone else (except Telkom probably), but I get more than a tad troubled by these short cuts of convenience. If the law isn't right, it needs to be changed, not "circumvented".

But then I think we're way past the thin end of the edge on the "short cuts of convenience" front.

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