Best ADSL ISP in South Africa: survey

Mybroadband’s June 2013 broadband survey results showed that Afrihost was the top rated ADSL Internet Service Provider (ISP) in South Africa, followed by Axxess and FNB Connect.
The survey was successfully completed by 4,329 South African broadband users, which included over 2,800 ADSL subscribers.
The surveyed ADSL subscribers rated their ISP on price, network quality, billing, support and overall satisfaction.
This survey tested ADSL users’ satisfaction with their ADSL ISP and their perception of the service, rather than the actual performance of the service. The results therefore show how happy users are with their ADSL ISP.
This survey used a token system where only users who formed part of a random sample could do the survey. This ensured more accurate results.
The survey results show that Afrihost was rated as the top ISP, followed by Axxess, and FNB Connect.
The following table provides an overview of the ADSL ISP survey results. It should be noted that only ISPs with a high enough number of ratings are listed.

ADSL ISP	Price	Network quality	Billing	Support	Overall satisfaction	Average
Afrihost	7.86	7.37	8.56	8.33	7.96	8.02
Axxess	7.57	7.14	8.29	8.07	7.76	7.77
FNB Connect	8.71	6.71	8.38	7.29	7.24	7.66
Web Africa	7.21	7.21	8.14	8.08	7.64	7.65
Openweb	7.27	7.20	7.67	7.32	7.45	7.38
Internet Solutions	6.48	7.77	7.80	7.15	7.44	7.33
Vox Telecom	7.00	7.75	7.08	6.36	7.42	7.12
MWEB	6.25	6.55	7.42	7.37	6.88	6.89
Cybersmart	7.15	6.08	7.23	6.16	6.47	6.62
Telkom Internet	5.40	5.24	6.12	5.38	5.43	5.51

Telkom’s forced ADSL price cuts

Telkom have reached a settlement agreement to resolve a series of complaints lodged against Telkom from 2005 to 2007 by various companies, including the Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA), Internet Solutions, Multichoice, and Verizon.

The settlement package includes an admission of guilt by Telkom, a R200-million penalty, a functional separation between Telkom’s retail and wholesale divisions, a transparent transfer pricing programme, and wholesale and retail pricing commitments for the next five years estimated to yield R875m savings to customers.

See what ISP CEOs have to say  Read more 

Credits: Staff Writer -  http://mybroardband.co.za

SSD Price round Up

In 2008 the first SSDs were pretty expensive. The highest size you could get back then was 120GB and Intel’s first 80GB SSD went for about R5,000. The benefits massively outweighed the cost for people who needed that speed, but the drive sizes left most wanting.
Fast-forward through a few years of turmoil, price hikes and drops, and Sandforce dragging its feet – today’s SSD market is very different. We have good prices, a lot of competition between brands, read and write speeds that put HDD to shame, reliability, and power usage that can’t be matched. SSDs are here to stay so isn’t it time you looked at getting one yourself?

Credits Wesley Fick  Read more:
http://mygaming.co.za/news/hardware/54462-sa-ssd-price-roundup.html

Read  my article SSD vs HDD  to see what suits your needs better.

Start Windows 8 in Safe Mode

Safe Mode is a way to get into your system when something won't allow you to start up normally. Troubleshooting becomes a breeze when corrupted drivers and files aren't loaded that prevents a system from functioning.
It used to be as easy as tapping the F8 key when the system starts up, but doing so with Windows 8 will take you to Automatic Repair Mode. The trick to getting back to good old fashioned Safe Mode? Hold down the Shift key and press F8 while booting up.
 
This takes you to the Recovery mode. Select "advanced options," then "troubleshoot," then the "advanced options" again (there are a lot of advanced options).Select Windows Startup Settings and finally the Restart button. This will reboot the computer and give you the option to boot into Safe Mode.

 If you need to get into Safe Mode from within Windows, open the dialog box (the Windows key + R) and type "msconfig" (no quote marks). Select the Boot tab and check the Safe boot box. The system will continually boot into Safe Mode until you go back and uncheck the box.