ADSL Q&A

 

Q. Why is this the best performance based connection to internet?
A. International traffic is via Fibre and not satellite which other ISP’s offer, which makes it much faster. Contention ratio is 20:1, other ISP’s go up to as much as 100:1 (http://mybroadband.co.za/nephp/?m=show&id=5304).

Q. Can I make telephone calls while connected to ADSL?
A. Yes, calls can be made and faxes sent and received.

Q. What ADSL speeds are available in South Africa?
A. There are 3 line speeds offered by Telkom: 384Kbps, 512Kbps, & 4096Kbps

Q. Which line speed would be best for me?
The speed requirements needed, will be determined by what you are using the ADSL line for. For home users, general email and Internet would require either a 384Kbps or 512Kpbs line. If used for a business we suggest the 4096Kbps line.

Q. I download a lot of music and movies and play online games. What line speed would be best?
A. Definitely a 4096Kbps line is recommended.

Q. What other costs are involved with ADSL?
A. There are 3 costs: line, bandwidth and modem The internet provider portion is determined by the end users amount of usage.

If only using the internet and email, then you can choose to have a 1GB account which allows for 1GB of Bandwidth. If you are using it to download music, gaming or movies we would suggest taking a bigger account.

Q. What is bandwidth?
A. Every time you receive or send mail or go onto a website, you are using bandwidth. If you are just viewing websites and downloading mail your usage will be low. If you download movies and music your bandwidth usage will be high.

Q. What is a ‘local only’ account?
A. A ‘local only’ account is a cheaper ISP account that only allows you to view and receive emails from Servers based in South Africa. For example, you will not be able to view International sites such as Google, Yahoo etc.

Q. What is the advantage of a ‘local only’ account?
A. A local only account is much cheaper due to the fact that International bandwidth is more expensive.

Q. How can I protect myself from other people getting my banking details and confidential information on my PC/Network?
A. There are a few steps you can take:

1. Firstly, all our DrayTek modems have built in Firewalls to protect you from hackers infiltrating your Network. We suggest installing Antivirus and Anti-spyware.
2. Try www.avg.com. You can also use Microsoft Defender which can be downloaded at the following address http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=435bfce7-da2b-4a6a-afa4-f7f14e605a0d&DisplayLang=en .
3. Also be very aware of Phishing, if you receive an email from your financial provider asking for your details, never enter you details even though it may look like it has come from the bank. This is referred to as Phishing.

Q. What is the different between shaped and unshaped traffic?
A. Shaped traffic: This setting only prioritises your standard traffic types such as web, email and ftp. This type of traffic gets priority.
Unshaped traffic: This setting makes all traffic such as gaming, music downloads or movies together with your standard traffic types, a priority giving you equal speed on all downloads.