What happens when you hit the cap on your ADSL account?
Telkom is flexible with their capping, the total bandwidth is shared amongst its users, I have a 2GB account and I usually run it up to around 3.7GB (as of Dec 08 this has been reduced to 3GB, should be extended now Oct 09 with Seacom boosting available bandwidth), without being cut-off. Other ISP’s have much harder caps, when you reach your limit you are cut-off without question.
Here I suggest a simple and cost effective solution to carry you over to the next month and your next dose of bandwidth.
Let’s presume you have reached your transfer limit and have been cut-off. What you need now is a way to stay online without adding excessively to your monthly bill.
- My latest favourite is G-Connect for around 4.9c per MB (ADSL access) or R49 per GB of un-shaped traffic. Pre-paid and lasting for 12 months it gives you the ability to get internet access via ADSL, 3G or Hotspot.
- WebAfrica sells prepaid access, shaped account is R70 per GB. WebAfrica Shaped PrePaid
- Or use the new Connect service from FNB, 6.9c er MB or R69 per GB of un-shaped traffic. Connecti-FUEL
You need to change the Username & Password on your ADSL modem to change who bills you for your access.
Primary Account: your current ISP account
Top-up Account: Pre-paid account
If you have a Hub/ADSL modem you can usually access your hub by typing
192.168.1.1 into your browser of preference, if this doesn’t work you will have to check your product manual.
The default access details for most hubs are
username: admin
password: admin
Look under WAN settings, you should see PPPoE/PPPoA and underneath this
Username & Password.
Take down your current settings and make sure you know your password,
this will ensure that you can reset your details to your Primary Account
at the beginning of the next month.
Now, put in your Top-up Account details.
TIP: I setup my password details the same for my WebAfrica account as my
Telkom account so that all I am changing is the username.
Here is a link to a piece of software that will track your usage and help keep you on track. SASA v0.17
Will SASA work for my account?
To test if the program will work for your account simply visit http://userstats.adsl.saix.net/ and login with your account name and password. If you see stats then it will work (note that this link also works for IS based accounts – try it). Very important: your account must have 1 spare concurrent connection available. If your account only supports 1 concurrent connection or you are currently using all of your account’s available concurrent connections then SASA will not be able to extract usage information from SAIX.
PS If you sign-up, please use DAY02 when Webafrica asks you for an affiliate ID.
Glossary
With Shaped ADSL your download and upload speeds are fixed whereas Unshaped ADSL allows to utilize you full line speed for upload or download. Unshaped ADSL is best suited for online gaming, online trading and similar activities.
Inspired by – my own need to keep my internet connection, up permanently and fee’s down and Peter Abrahams for getting me to type it up.