Frequently Asked Questions

1st / 15th / 27th of each month

Shaping refers to how the flow of information between your computer and the servers on the network with which you communicate is treated. For example, when you send an email, your computer opens a connection to a mail server in a remote location and the two computers “talk” in a specific language – these computer networking languages are known as “protocols”.
Shaping is the act of giving one protocol (such as email) a higher priority than another protocol (such as instant messengers).
The shaped ADSL packages favour what Telkom considers to be “business protocols” over “non-business protocols.” The protocols used for email, web browsing, and normal downloads accomplished with either a web browser or an FTP program are given priority over other protocols.
When the network is busy, protocols other than those mentioned here are treated as less important and, in effect, will simply operate slower. For most people, this doesn’t present a significant problem. However, for those who use their internet connection for things such as online gaming, international share trading, Forex trading, Skype, and other applications that use non-standard protocols, the effect is that the performance of their connection suffers and can sometimes be unusable for these purposes.
Unshaped packages treat all protocols the same and provide the best possible performance for online gaming, online trading, VOIP, telephony programs (such as Skype), and all other non-standard applications.

A capped connection means you have a limited amount of data available to consume over a specific time period (usually a month). Your capped amount is not the same as your line speed. Your line speed determines how quickly a web page will load or how quickly a file will download whereas your “capped” value determines how many files you can download. Imagine a vehicle – the size of the engine (line speed) determines how fast the vehicle will travel and the size of the petrol tank (capped value) determines how far the vehicle can travel.
Uncapped means you have an unlimited amount of data available to consume. There is no overall limit to how much data you can use. It is important to note that some Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) have a monthly “threshold” value. Although you can still consume data past the threshold, your line speed may be affected through throttling or shaping policies. Consider the vehicle example above. The only difference is that the petrol tank contains an unlimited amount of petrol (Uncapped), effectively meaning that it can drive forever. However, once a certain distance (threshold) has been reached, the vehicles speed will be reduced.

Throttling can be described as the intentional slowing of internet services by the service provider. The Internet Service Provider reduces the amount of bandwidth available to the user.
Shaped services in layman’s terms, prioritises keystroke activities. That is, things you do while sitting in front of your PC such as browsing, emailing, Skype, banking and general website searches. The users seems to experience a “fast internet connection” as certain traffic is prioritised on the ISP’s network so your connection appears more responsive and quicker. However, as soon you need to download a large file, stream a movie or do large updates, your connection speed drops or appears to be slower. This is because all other activists (browsing, emailing, banking, Etc.) are prioritised first and are seen as more important.
Unshaped means that all your available bandwidth will be used for any application or function equally. An unshaped service will not shape any protocols / activities on the Internet.

Simply put, bandwidth refers to how quickly, for example, a web page can open or how fast your internet connection is. Essentially, it’s a measure of how fast data can be sent over a fixed (Ethernet cable) or wireless (Wi-Fi) connection.
Data refers to the total amount of bytes transferred over an Internet connection. All activity performed over the internet uses data, whether it’s file transfers, loading a web page or watching a video.
Basically your data refers to the limit or amount that you can consume and the bandwidth is how fast you can download or upload it.

The term wireless can be defined as using radio signals or microwaves to broadcast or transmit signals wirelessly.
Wi-Fi is a facility which allows computers, Smartphone’s, tablets and other devices to connect to the internet. Wi-Fi also allows these devices to communicate with one another over a private network.