Connectivity with a Cuppa

RedButton appeared in the news recently, read more about RedButton's growing partnership with WebAfrica here: Connectivity with a Cuppa

Product offering - Summer Special

Summer has arrived and so too have the new Summer Slam credit purchasing options. Believe it or not but you will now have the ability to purchase credit from as little as R10 at a time!

Teaser Packages
Where else can you buy credit for as little as R10? Need to quickly check an email? Want to catch up on the latest news? Buy from our two fantastic teaser packages. These are the first in the market and are made available especially for you.


Summer Slam Starts November 2nd
The on-line purchasing range will be made available from 2 November 2009 so be ready. This is also your last chance to take advantage of the highly successful Spring Special product promotion.

The Summer Slam product range will be as follows:



Welcome Summer! Its getting hot in here!

Happy surfing,
RedButton

Team RedButton Putt-Putting 2009

Once in a while we break away from the office to do a bit of good old fashioned team building. On this occasion, we went to the Vodacom World of Golf in Tygervalley, near Cape Town, and it all ended in a putt-off between Barry & Shafiqa, with Shafiqa taking the honours.

Another winner that has emerged from the event is the Pitch & Putter restaurant at the Vodacom World of Golf who now have a RedButton hotspot to serve their patrons before or after a hard round of driving, chipping and putting.


In the picture above, we have, from left to right, Shafiqa Toefy, Hanro van Tonder, Barry Steyn, Divyesh Patel, Neal Tosefky, Nico de Wet, Ryan van Aarde and Jalal Ghiassi-Razavi.

Happy surfing,
Nico

Improve your web experience with a faster browser

A major factor in the quality of your web experience is the response time between a link being clicked and the result being displayed. This response time is dependent on various factors, the health of your computer, the quality of your link to the Internet and also how "fast" your web browser is.

As a RedButton user you would most likely connect from a Windows based machine, in which case the recent "The fastest Web browser" article published on MyBroadband.co.za may be of particular interest to you. In summary their results show Google Chrome to be the fastest, followed by Apple Safari and with the final podium spot being taken up by Firefox. Using one of these browsers may just improve your web experience.

If want to give any of the winners a test drive, here are the links:

1. Google Chrome
2. Apple Safari
3. Mozilla Firefox
   

Happy surfing,
Nico

New & Improved Hotspot Site Listing

We've been grinding away at various efforts to improve our services over the last few months. Some of these efforts are now coming into fruition and the first of these is the updated and standardized Hotspot Site Listing.

If you point your browser to www.redbutton.co.za and click on the Sites button you'll see something completely different to before.

Some of the enhancements include the following:

• Uniformity in display (e.g. logos have standard dimensions).
• The end user rate & any free wifi allowance is displayed (please see further commentary on this below).
  
• Essentials are displayed, such as the address, including city, province & country.
• Each store in a chain is individually displayed along with its above mentioned essentials.
  
• The status is displayed - this is whether the hotspot is online or not, note hotspots that are offline for longer than 3 days are automatically removed from RedButton Hotspot Site Listing to avoid pointing end users to locations they temporarily cannot use.
• Powered By field - RedButton uses the services of a variety of selected companies to provide you with the quality of service you deserve, in some cases we list some of these companies.
  

Some aspects to note:

• We only list publicly accessible hotspots, that is hotspots where you could realistically access the venue and use the service within the venue. We have many private hotspots but choose only to market their availability to residents that live within these sites.
• We have a limited number of authorized third party companies that use RedButton's services to power their hotspots, such sites are currently not listed.
  

Further commentary on end user rate - average cost per Megabyte

Please note that when a free wifi privilege is enabled at a hotspot, your average cost per Megabyte will never match the advertised end user rate, it will be lower.

Let's consider a particular example, at Constantia Village Mall you get 10MB free per day, so the first 10MB costs you nothing, thereafter you pay 60c per Megabyte. Now let's say on a particular day you use 20MB, given that the first 10MB was free, you would have used a total of 20MB and used up 600c worth of credit, so your effective average rate for that session is 600c / 20MB = 30c per MB. Similarly, if you only used 1MB after your first 10MB, your effective average cost per Megabyte is 60c / 11MB = 5.5c per Megabyte. Naturally your effective cost per Megabyte is a figure that changes over time.

Now all this may be confusing, and it is, so in the near future we will be providing you with a report in the Account Manager that calculates your average cost per Megabyte in real time. If you have ever used one of our hotspots with free wifi privileges, you might be surprised to find that you are paying a lot less than you think.

Thanks for listening,
Nico

Change in Discount Offering

Dear RedButton user,

We would like to inform you that our discount offering for credit card purchases has changed slightly as of Wednesday 15th July. Please note, we have not changed the usage costs at your favourite venue. These rates remain the same. We have however implemented a different range of credit card purchasing options.

The times are a changing and RedButton has had to make some improvements to our system which will be put into effect over the next few weeks, the first of which is the credit card purchasing options. These new changes will provide you with more accurate and up to the minute reporting on your usage in real time which will keep you more informed each time you log-in. Additionally, a new splash page/login window will also be implemented and we are sure that the additional convenience this will provide will make your experience with RedButton even more fulfilling.

Regarding our billing, you will notice that we have included new purchase options. Please remember though that the discount offering is only available through credit card purchases. We would also like to inform you that we are going to begin a series of "1-time discount specials" so please keep an eye on these in the future as we would not want you to miss out on them.

For further information on our new discount purchase offering please visit our website or login to the RedButton Account Manager. The new discount structure and purchase offering is as follows:

5, 000 credits - R 50

10, 000 credits - R 100

25, 000 credits - R 244 (2.5% discount)

50, 000 credits - R 475 (5% discount)

75, 000 credits - R 694 (7.5% discount)

100, 000 credits - R 900 (10% discount)

150, 000 credits - R 1275 (15% discount)

Thank you for the wonderful support. We thank you for your much valued loyalty. Loyalty, which will not go unrewarded (keep an eye on this space).

Kind regards,
RedButton

Team RedButton Mountaineering - 2006 & 2009

We have grown quite a bit in the last three years, and the following pictures show Team RedButton on the top of Lion's Head and Kilimanjaro respectively. The more recent 2009 picture was taken at our recent team social at the end of June, while the 2006 picture was taken back in September 2006 on a more extensive trip.

You might wonder why we put these pictures up here, well its not just for posterity or to shoot for fame, at the very least you know what we look like.

June 2009

Missing from this picture is Barry, also this was Kilian's last full time month and in July 2009 Hanro joined the team.



September 2006

We were just three then in Team RedButton, proud and excited. Note we are more now, and still proud and excited.

Ubuntu powered Dell Vostro laptops

It's been a while since we've blogged, and this will also be a quick note.

We run most of our business on Ubuntu, its a platform that keeps us productive and competitive. In the past we generally purchased entry level laptops with in effect no operating system on it, we would then load Ubuntu on it but with the second last laptop we purchased it back fired horribly, we found out that it took hours on end to get it limping along and in the end gave up on running Ubuntu on the platform, we simply couldn't waste more time on it.

So, when it came to the next laptop, we decided that it would be far more prudent to spend a bit extra on a laptop where the manufacturer took the time to load exactly what we want on it, and implicitly did all the hardware checks themselves. One of our clients recently purchased an Ubuntu powered Dell Vostro and we had it in our offices for a while to turn it into an internet terminal, we loved it of course, for many reasons but in particular since this was a hotel that independently chose an Ubuntu powered laptop.

So when it came to our next laptop purchase, we decided that we'd make the smart choice and get a laptop that already sports Ubuntu, and with a name like Dell, we felt it would be a safe assumption that they did their homework and it will work out of the box - we did look at some online reviews of course. Well so far it works just fine, its not battle tested yet, so to speak, but given the time we've saved its already a hit with us.

About the Ubuntu vs Vista debate and price comparisons, we've got our mind set on Ubuntu, it works for us and not having viruses, trojans and whatever else on our machines keeps us working hard and efficiently.

Finally, have a look at the Ubuntu powered Dell Vostro here on PC Direct.

RedButton Free WiFi Pitch

In this clip Kilian Hagemann delivers RedButton Free WiFi pitch as a part of our initiative to spread the service to all of South Africa and the world beyond.

We would like to thank the team at Blue Catalyst for the production of this video clip.

Sinns Restaurant & Bar

There are a few restaurants in Cape Town that have become synonymous with Free WiFi over the last few years and Sinns, based in trendy Wembley Square, is one of them.

Sinns have recently chosen to switch their service, which has been available for a number of years, over to RedButton Free WiFi and are we are naturally delighted. So when you are next in the mood for some fine dining, a cocktail or two, or a corporate lunch coupled with a dose of Free WiFi, head on over to Sinns.

On an unrelated note, when you hover over the Sinns and Wembley Square links above you'll notice that we've installed SnapShots on this blog which basically gives you a website preview. If you don't like it, please let us know. Note its possible to turn it off, if you hover over the little cog symbol in the pop-up window, you can click on disable.

New Account Manager Features

A belated happy new year!

This is just a quick announcement, as an end user, in addition to being able to check your recent sessions using the Account Manager, you can now also check up on the status of a voucher and also see what privileges you have at various hotspots.

When you log into the Account Manager, you will see the links "Hotspot privileges" and "Voucher status" in the panel on the left hand side in the Reports section. This is shown in the image below, look in the bottom left hand corner:


The "Voucher status" functionality gives you the ability to check up on whether a voucher is valid, whether it has been used in any way and what type of voucher it is. We have two types of vouchers, Prepaid WiFi Vouchers with a Rand value, these are ordinarily sold by venues, and also Free WiFi Vouchers that give you an Internet allowance, or privilege, at a specific hotspot.

As hinted above, the "Hotspot privileges" functionality gives you a report on all the allowances you have across the RedButton network. These allowances can only be used at the specific hotspots indicated in the report.

As always, we'd appreciate your feedback, either here or by contacting us.

RedButton Free WiFi Revolution Continues

After a series of arduous night marches, we file this dispatch from our Cape Town HQ. Over the last few weeks, the advance of our Free WiFi network has continued unabated. Hard work has met its reward and our hearts stir with gratitude over every inch of ground liberated. This is however just the beginning, our noble cause is yet to reach its highest tide as the fighting spirits of our heroic comrades soar with each new client served.


By now you might be thinking that we're suffering from delusions of grandeur, its just WiFi we're talking about right? Well, we're quite passionate about what we do and in all seriousness we have been working hard on a number of projects over the last few weeks and are overjoyed at the results.

When it comes to our Free WiFi product, launched earlier in the year, we have been delighted to have a number of new restaurants join our network over the last few weeks, some of which have been in business for over a decade, no mean feat in the restaurant business!

One of the chains that have joined our network is the Saul's Group. Saul's is an icon in Cape Town, with the tasty, gigantic burgers available at Saul's Saloon & Grill in Sea Point stirring fond and often very recent memories for many Cape Townians. The Saul's group has variety in their chain of restaurants that is unbelievable, from Italian at Saul's Piccolo Mondo, to sushi at Saul's Sushi @ Vegas. Apart from enjoying the great food, you can also take your laptop along to any restaurant and enjoy 10MB free daily.


Besides new installation projects, we've also made significant updates to our system pertaining to Free WiFi as well as other enhancements. When it comes to the Account Manager, you can now view the Free WiFi allowances (or privileges) you have claimed at supporting RedButton hotspots. When you log in, click on 'Hotspot privileges' in the Reports section in the left hand panel. We'd greatly appreciate any feedback you have, so please let us know what your thoughts are.

The next dispatch will hopefully follow sooner rather than later, in the mean time, happy surfing!

Remote Network Monitoring @ RedButton

At RedButton remote network monitoring and on site management is a key part of the service we provide to our clients. We actively monitor every single managed router in our network and take action to resolve any technical issues.

What you might be interested in is how our technicians keep their eagle eyes on the network. Well we've got an internal interface for just that purpose, key information listed on it is the percentage of routers online and routers that are offline. When we see routers that are down we get on it like a company that gets paid by the Megabyte, pronto! The green icons below mean that all is well, the red icons with the doctors briefcase means help is needed.


As you can see we don't only monitor the central hotspot device but also all repeaters that have been set up behind it to increase the wireless signal coverage. What's more, as long as all these devices are online, we have dedicated remote access to the respective firmware web interfaces so that we can quickly and efficiently troubleshoot problems and undertake reconfigurations remotely. Without the need for complex port forwarding, dmz or any other hard to maintain workarounds.

Everything is automated and built-in - a technician (or even a customer in case of a self-install) plugs a preconfigured RedButton device into the network and it magically appears on our monitoring system once the orange light goes on, see previous post on our custom firmware. None of our competitors currently offer a similarly feature-rich, powerful and yet easy to maintain system.

The monitoring system as it stands is already quite advanced but we'll continue to add to it over time. Knowing whether a router is online or not, when we last saw it if online and so on is critical information yet its only the tip of the ice berg when it comes to ongoing high quality service. Watch this space!

So how do I really check my usage?

From time to time users query the amount of credit used up during a session. This is only natural when logging on to check email and seeing usage that does not fit earlier patterns. In this post, which is generally applicable whether using RedButton or not, we discuss what may cause usage spikes, how to keep them in check and how you can monitor usage in fine grained detail.

In terms of your exact usage you may verify it yourself by logging into your RedButton account ("Buy Credits" from the portal page) and clicking on "Internet Usage History" on the left. It will show you when you logged in, for how long and especially what your uploads/downloads and credit usage was per session. This aggregate information is useful but does not provide fine grained detail in terms of which programs ended up using the connection.

When it comes to usage specifics, unfortunately there are many programs in the background that use bandwidth without your explicit instruction. Examples are Windows or Mac automatic security related system updates, automatic anti-virus/firewall updates, java updates, VoIP programs using bandwidth behind your back to route other people's phone calls, iTunes downloading movies and many more. Such usage is sporadic in nature, one day there will be zero available updates (though anti-virus programs tend to update itself daily) and the next your Windows Update will try to download the next service pack which may take up tons of MB's (Windows XP SP3 is 48MB for instance).

In order to prevent this from happening you may temporarily turn off these services though we do not recommend turning off security related service upgrades (operating system, anti-virus/firewall upgrades etc.). If you do it will expose your computer to a whole bunch of security vulnerabilities and problems which could ultimately cause more damage than the additional bandwidth expense is worth. For example we have had confirmed cases in the past where virus checkers were not updated, customers' laptops got infected with viruses that then proceeded to upload heavy amounts of data resulting in their credits disappearing quicker than they could look.

One thing you can do is download Netlimiter Monitor (http://www.netlimiter.com/download.php), a freeware third party tool that let's you monitor which program uses up what bandwidth and how much. It is only 2.3MB large and will help you greatly in tracking down what's using up all your credits. A word of caution, this tool will give you slightly lower total upload/download figures than our system (especially uploads) because it counts the data on a different network layer than we do.

We hope we have clarified why sometimes our system, or any other, shows more usage than you yourself have explicitly initiated. If you have any questions or feedback please let us know.

Cape Town's New Free WiFi Super Circuit @ Beleza

A picture says a thousand words and so this post consists of the picture below recently taken @ Beleza - a popular restaurant that forms a part of Cape Town's Free WiFi Super Circuit as mentioned in our previous post. Thank you to Ronald from Beleza for the picture.

Cape Town's New Free WiFi Super Circuit

We launched the RedButton Free WiFi product a few weeks ago and are pleased to report that you can now get the potent combination of free wifi and great food at a number of prime establishments in Cape Town's new Free Wifi Super Circuit. Read on to see where you can experience culinary nirvana whilst doing your business online.

Beleza - 20MB free daily

Beleza is a trendy Portuguese & Italian restaurant on the corner of Kloof Nek and Burnside roads in Tamboerskloof. They lay claim to the best deals in town and back that up with a creative list of specials, such as their famous breakfast, and a wide array of menu options. 'The proof of the pudding is in the eating' and that's exactly what we recently did, the Peri burger is out of this world.

With their RedButton Free Wifi hotspot service users get 20MB free daily, this serves as a further example of Beleza's commitment of providing fantastic deals, the following comment by an end user pretty much sums it up "I am sitting at Beleza eating the tenderest Prego steak ever, using their free wi fi, it's fantastic."

Depasco - 20MB free daily

Depasco is a cafe bakery on the corner of Kloof and Buitensingel. Not only do they have an array of freshly baked breads and other treats but also a selection of wraps that are out of this world. Try their breakfast wrap whilst checking your email using the free wifi, you'll love it.

Andiamo - 20MB free daily

Andiamo, situated in the Cape Quarter, 72 Waterkant street, is well known for the wide variety offered by its deli with over 2000 local and important delicacies on offer. We have fallen for their Parma Ham filled tramezzinis, they are irresistible. Visit Andiamo.co.za for a comprehensive coverage of what this prime establishment has to offer.

Long Street Cafe - 20MB free daily

Long Street Cafe is a Cape Town icon that has been operating for over 12 years. If you haven't been here you are missing out! We launched our Free WiFi product at Long Street Cafe and it was the perfect choice. They have since built up a loyal base of free wifi costumers who soak up the unique long street cafe ambiance. Long Street Cafe had a plain wifi router prior to using RedButton Free WiFi and now benefit from a branded and automated solution.

Kauai Shortmarket - 20MB free daily

Kauai's menu is unparalleled in terms of the nutritious smoothies, burgers, wraps and soup & sandwich combos on offer. You can not only eat healthy but also surf for free at Kauai Shortmarket, located just off Greenmarket Square.


Wimpy Rondebosch - 50MB free daily

Wimpy Rondebosch was one of the very first establishments to use RedButton Free WiFi. Wimpy is well known for their burgers and are particularly popular at breakfast times when queues are not uncommon. Wimpy Rondebosch management initially chose to give end users a 50MB free allowance but only after 3 p.m, this was later extended to 50MB free all day long. With this the RedButton's Free WiFi product is used exactly as intended, as a product that is flexible and able to meet the venue's changing requirements.

Café Sofia Kloof & Sea Point - free 20MB voucher with your order

Café Sofia is a rapidly growing and group of Meze and Tapas bars that bring together exquisite decor and their trademark menu that includes various tapas, fine wine cocktails and various specials. They have coupled the launch of their Free WiFi service at their Kloof street & Sea Point branches with a selection of fantastic breakfast specials.

Cafe Chameleon, Plattekloof - 10MB free daily

Cafe Chameleon is another Cape Town icon nestled just below the Tygerberg Hills in Plattekloof. It has been in business for over a decade, step inside and you'll see that the reasons for this impressive stint are self evident. Great food, ambience, specials (such as their current "R1 a cup" special before 9 a.m.), a fantastic view over the mother city and of course Free WiFi.

Final word - maps coming soon

In addition to our existing list of hotspot locations, we'll be releasing a national Free WiFi map in the next couple of weeks so you can see exactly where to go. With this you'll be able to either map out your route in Cape Town's Free WiFi Super Circuit or just find the nearest spot where you can get your fix. Happy surfing!

New Default Prepaid WiFi and Free WiFi Portal Pages

The current default RedButton portal page, a stalwart that put in a good 16 months worth of service, is due for a face lift and so from coming Friday you'll see the new default RedButton Prepaid WiFi and RedButton Free WiFi portal pages go live at relevant hotspots.

If you have any feedback or suggestions we'd greatly appreciate it, in fact we'll send each of the first 10 users to comment a free R50 voucher as a token of appreciation for your time. Please click on the images to enlarge them before your review, some of the changes are subtle but we'd rather not point them out.

NEW Portal Page @ RedButton Prepaid WiFi Hotspots


OLD Portal Page @ RedButton Prepaid WiFi Hotspots


NEW Portal Page @ RedButton Free WiFi Hotspots



OLD Portal Page @ RedButton Prepaid WiFi Hotspots

RedButton's Cutting Edge Network - Fully Upgraded

We're proud to announce that the upgrade of each and every router in our network has now been completed. Each router in our network now sports the production release of version 0.9.12 of our hotspot firmware bringing a multitude of improvements in service levels to our customers.

We completed the beta testing phase of version 0.9.12 of the RedButton Hotspot Firmware, mentioned in an earlier post, a few weeks a go and subsequently started the roll-out of the production release.

A primary benefit to our customers has been that RedButton is now able to pro-actively attend to network health issues, rather than an inadequate reactive approach. That's valid even for repeaters deployed at hotspots to increase signal coverage. So if there is an issue at any one of the more than 200 routers in our network we know which one is affected, where it is located and when it last reported in. With this our network has truly reached the cutting edge.

Prepaid WiFi Rate Announcement

We have some good news for our end-users, we are in the process of standardising our RedButton Prepaid WiFi hotspot rates into three rate classes - promotion, standard and premium.

Regardless of the rate class at any particular hotspot users also enjoy the following benefits:

• Free 12 month carry-over on credit purchased
• No monthly contract required
• Only pay for the megabytes needed
  
• Convenient prepaid payment by credit card or voucher
• Convenient wireless Internet
• Use standard, inexpensive WiFi equipment
  

RedButton Prepaid WiFi rate classes, as of July 2008 onwards, are:

1. Promotion rate: 12c/MB bulk to 15c/MB default
2. Standard rate: 24c/MB bulk to 30c/MB default
3. Premium rate: 48c/MB bulk to 60c/MB default

The default rates are displayed on the portal pages and users benefit from bulk rates with discounted credit purchases.

Please note that even the premium rate is significantly lower than those offered by our major WiFi competitors, the best prepaid wifi rate you'll get from from one in particular is 72c/MB and your credit expires after 30 days to boot.

Please note that there are exceptions to these rates at selected hotspots:

• legacy locations with existing agreements with stakeholders
  
• locations that use the Free WiFi product - highly variable since the venue owner can change the rate at will

Enterprise grade, high quality hardware

At RedButton we run a network of hundreds of routers with our hardware platform of choice predominantly being the Linksys WRT54GL and also MikroTik Routerboards. In both cases the devices run RedButton firmware resulting in a fully integrated, managed and monitored network. Both devices are used by a plethora of local and international hotspot and wireless Internet service providers (WISPs).




Why do we point this out?

Well, we've recently had an amusing report of a competitor claiming that the we do not use enterprise grade, high quality hardware. While this claim in itself is laughable, as most hotspot and WISP companies would point out, it also misses the point in terms of what consumers want, and that is good service. Hardware in itself, regardless of technical merits, will never equate to good service. One company that just about anybody would bow down to when it comes to service is Google - who incidentally use off the shelf hardware, weaved together in ingenious ways.