Support

Frequently asked questions

• How do I get connected with Wan4U wireless internet?

  First we need a filled in application form and the necessary accompanying documents (proof of income, 3 months bank statements and proof of address). If you qualify for our services, we will then do a line of sight inspection – if this is successful, we will install your internet equipment for you.

• What is line of sight inspection?

  During a line of sight inspection we check if we can directly see our towers from the premises, and we decide which equipment would be appropriate for your installation.

• What if I don't have line of sight with Wan4U's tower?

  Line of sight is crucial for stability purposes in linking your equipment to our towers; if there is no line of sight, we will not be able to provide you with Wan4U wireless internet.

• How many computers can I use Wan4U's internet on?

  You can connect as man y as you want. Although our packages are all uncapped, we only allow 100 simultaneous concurrent connections per router. As a computer connects to the internet, it uses up these connections for Windows Updates, anti-virus updates, browsing, downloads etc. Multiple computers connecting to the internet will use up these connections more quickly, and if all 100 connections are used up, you are likely to experience problems with browsing. We do supply extra connections in special cases such as large companies with large networks.

• What are concurrent connections?

  Concurrent connections are defined as "The number of authenticated "handshakes" between a client and/or server during any given time before all communications have been disconnected whether by force or by refusal." We realize that this sounds a bit complicated though, so here's a simple explanation: A single web page does not necessarily use a single connection to the internet. Concurrent connections are all the connections that your computer makes to the internet.

• Why do we limit concurrent connections?

  We limit our concurrent connections to 300 per client. The reason for this is that our tower might encounter problems if it is flooded with connections. Your PC uses these connections even when you aren't using it, for example to do Windows updates, anti-virus updates, weather checks, etc. Things that use a lot of concurrent connections are live web applications such as Facebook, Skype and YouTube and peer-to-peer software such as torrent downloads. In some cases, as with torrents, you can limit the amount of connections it makes in the clients settings.

• Is there a way to increase this concurrent connection limit?

  We can increase it for corporate clients (businesses) where there are many computers on a network. For this, we will need to receive a letter of motivation for this, explaining why you need more than the default amount of connections.

• How can I check my computer's concurrent connections?

  Open a command prompt window, and enter "netstat" without quotes. Give the computer a minute or two to complete the command and you will see a list of all the connections your computer is currently using.

• What are torrents and peer-to-peer clients?

  "Torrenting" is a method of downloading content. With ordinary direct downloads, you download from a server directly - using minimal concurrent connections. Torrents, on the other hand, connect directly to other users' computers around the world and download content from them. This tends to use a lot of concurrent connections and can severly affect your internet quality. Torrents are downloaded using torrent clients such as BitTorrent or uTorrent; these clients normally have a setting that you can adjust to limit the global maximum number of connections it can make. Limiting these connections to around 50-100 can help improve your interent quality, although it may slow down your torrent download speed.

• How do torrents work?

  Torrents share files that you choose directly from your PC to other PCs in the world, and you download directly from other PCs too, as mentioned above. The number of "seeds" in a torrent is the number of people who have already downloaded the entire torrent - they are simply uploading the torrent to other people now. The number of "peers" (a.k.a "leeches") in a torrent is the number of people who are currently downloading the torrent. When selecting a torrent to download, always check that there are as many seeds as possible. If there are too few seeds, or too many peers, then the torrent will download at unbearably slow speeds.

• My internet is slow when I download torrents; why does this happen?

  Torrents and other peer-to-peer software tend to use up a lot of concurrent connections – this means that your internet browsing speeds will slow down because all available connections are used up. If you wish to browse, simply stop any torrents and wait 5 to 10 minutes. You should then see an improvement in browsing speeds.

• If I see unauthorized computers on my netwrk, how do I block them?

  You will need to contact Wan4U for this, only we can block computers from your network. We will need an e-mail from the owner of the internet line at the very least for this to be done.

• How do I test my internet line speed and quality?

  To test your line's speed, go to Speedtest.net and wait for the test screen to load. When it's loaded, click on "BEGIN TEST". Wait for the test to complete, and it will display some results. If you see any problem with the uploading/downloading speed of your line, please consult us for assistance. To test the line quality, simple go to Pingtest.net. Again, wait for the test screen to load and click "BEGIN TEST". After the test is complete, it will display a line quality result. If you see any problems with the ping times (they should preferably not be over 100ms) then please let us know so that we can take a look for you.

• What is the difference betweek kilobits (kb) and kiloBytes (KB)?

  The word "bit" stands for binary digit (a '1' or a '0'). A kilobit is 1024 bits (or 1024 1's and 0's). A byte is 8 bits, and a kilobyte is 1024 bytes. This means that a kilobyte = 8192 bytes. If you have a 512kbps line, you will be able to download at about 64KB per second; and this is with no bursting. To find out how many KB per second you are going to get, simply divide by 8. For example, 1024kbps ÷ 8 = 128kBps.