Local bandwidth from Telkom

[popayetwo]

Can anyone tell me how to use LOCAL bandwidth from Telkom to download bittorrent movies when the blended international bandwidth has been used up and you are put on local only? I realise I need to find a local mirror site here in SA but HOW does one know where the site is originating? ARE there any such sites? I am on the 5gig/month option so I get 20 gig local AFTER the international is used up but I never use any local and was wondering how to get some movies at the end of the month when the international has been choked? I use microtorrent to d/l.

[AndyD]

FTP (rapidshare) type downloads would require finding a local server with the files (a mirror).

Bittorrent should work via DHT with local peers only. You'll need to have DHT enabled which is going to cripple your ratios if you're using private trackers, obviously if it's a non-SA tracker you won't be able to scrape and if it's a privately tracked torrent it might not be DHT enabled, also there might not be many local peers in the swarm so expect slow speeds and that's assuming it works at all. Bottom line is you're going to struggle on local bandwidth only unless you're a member of a SA based torrent indexing site which runs a locally based tracker.

The other option is a VPN that supports encryption but that's going to cost you folding stuff every month for a decent one.

[popayetwo]

FTP (rapidshare) type downloads would require finding a local server with the files (a mirror).

Bittorrent should work via DHT with local peers only. You'll need to have DHT enabled which is going to cripple your ratios if you're using private trackers, obviously if it's a non-SA tracker you won't be able to scrape and if it's a privately tracked torrent it might not be DHT enabled, also there might not be many local peers in the swarm so expect slow speeds and that's assuming it works at all. Bottom line is you're going to struggle on local bandwidth only unless you're a member of a SA based torrent indexing site which runs a locally based tracker.

The other option is a VPN that supports encryption but that's going to cost you folding stuff every month for a decent one.

Basically then local bandwidth is not worth much? Thanks for this info anyway. I can only hope that one day in the dim distant future, Telkom will give us better bandwidth and speeds but I don't expect it anytime soon.

[Dave A]

Basically then local bandwidth is not worth much?

It's terrific if you don't mind being cut off from the rest of the world...

What we need is a new URL acronym convention especially for local SA mirrors - instead of www. it would have saw.

Let's face it - Telkom knows that near everyone that's going to chew massive local bandwidth isn't going to be able to live with zero international bandwidth.

[AndyD]

Basically then local bandwidth is not worth much?

That's a bit of an understatement but it pretty much covers it. As Dave said, Telkom know damn well that local bandwidth is worthless to high usage customers, hence they give it away with such abandon. I think you're flogging a dead horse trying to bittorrent without international bandwidth. Maybe hunt around for a locally based newsgroup server.....just make sure you sandbox is working in bullet-proof mode and your AV is up to date, those places are script-kiddie central.

[popayetwo]

That's a bit of an understatement but it pretty much covers it. As Dave said, Telkom know damn well that local bandwidth is worthless to high usage customers, hence they give it away with such abandon. I think you're flogging a dead horse trying to bittorrent without international bandwidth. Maybe hunt around for a locally based newsgroup server.....just make sure you sandbox is working in bullet-proof mode and your AV is up to date, those places are script-kiddie central.

Thanks, but no thanks. I'm scared of what viruses can do (been there before!) so I will avoid those groups like the plague. To date, I have had Telkom internet for over two years and have used maybe 100 kilobytes of local data in all that time. Nice one, Telkom!

[AndyD]

Well if you're scared of virusses here's a test you can run;

1 Open Notepad and copy/paste the line of code below.

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

The text should be in one horizontal line.

2 Save file as "checkantivirus.com" including quotation-marks, DON'T WORRY IF WINDOWS COMPLAINS, just click 'yes' or 'okay'. Almost immediately after saving this file, your Anti-Virus should notify you with the message that this file is infected with a virus asking permission for its deletion/clean. This file is safe and won't infect your computer, it's a standard text developed by EICAR. Every Anti-Virus is programmed to load this file as a virus.

3 If your Anti-Virus did not detect this file as a virus you can double-click it. A program will appear as DOS window saying 'EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE.' In this case you know that your anti virus application is defective.

[Martinco]

Yep, works like a dream, please explain why the AV picks this up as a virus ?

[SilverNodashi]

Local bandwidth is actually worth a LOT. There are millions of locally hosted websites. But, if what you need isn't local then you simply need to get a normal ADSL account with international bandwidth.

[AndyD]

It was agreed by EICAR and all the major AV companies that everyone would include a signature for this particular test file and it would be recognised and treated as a virus even though it isn't. It just allows the mechanisms of the AV program to be easily tested without actually needing a real live virus to do this. If this test works on your PC it means the AV detection and containment systems are working but it doesn't necessarily mean your signature database is up to date though.

[popayetwo]

Well if you're scared of virusses here's a test you can run;

1 Open Notepad and copy/paste the line of code below.

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

The text should be in one horizontal line.

2 Save file as "checkantivirus.com" including quotation-marks, DON'T WORRY IF WINDOWS COMPLAINS, just click 'yes' or 'okay'. Almost immediately after saving this file, your Anti-Virus should notify you with the message that this file is infected with a virus asking permission for its deletion/clean. This file is safe and won't infect your computer, it's a standard text developed by EICAR. Every Anti-Virus is programmed to load this file as a virus.

3 If your Anti-Virus did not detect this file as a virus you can double-click it. A program will appear as DOS window saying 'EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE.' In this case you know that your anti virus application is defective.

Yes, my AVAST! picked it up in ten seconds flat! That's what I like about Avast! It's free, updates the virus database three times a day and detects all know bugs (and some unknown ones too!)

[popayetwo]

And just to make your day with our glorious Telkom DO BROADBAND- THE BROADEST BAND comes this report from the UK.

"Telecoms and cable giant Virgin Media today said it will test the world's fastest broadband as demand grows for lightning-quick internet connections.
The company said it planned to trial speeds of up to 1.5 gigabytes per second - more than 10 times faster than its current fastest service of 100 megabytes per second and 240 times quicker than the UK average."