Internet cafes in Cape Town

[amanoffewwords]

Q. for Mac I guess + or anyone who has had the need for Internet access in Cape Town:

I'm going there in February - will need to be able to monitor my server via the Net - kinda want to avoid lugging my laptop all the way there (and opening a temporary account with AOL).

Are internet cafes a common thing down there - and more specifically in Camps Bay? Or should I pack the Tosh?

Cheers
amofw

[newswatcher]

amofw, try these (http://www.galahlinks.com/Internet/Cybercafes/South_Africa/)

[amanoffewwords]

Thanks NW, alas I couldn't make the links to the Cape Town locations work.

I did find this link (http://www.cybercafes.com/city.asp?name=Cape%20Town) on Google - very comprehensive but no mention of Camps Bay in particular.

I'll keep digging but in the meantime if anyone else has any other suggestions, they'd be welcome of course :ok:

amofw

[newswatcher]

Apologies amofw, but they do seem screwed. Only this (http://www.unrealcafe.co.za) one seems to work! Also found these:

info cafe cape town (http://www.infocafe.co.za/)
internet cafe - outdshoorn (http://www.netcafe.co.za/)

[Mac the Knife]

'ullo aman...This end of Cape Town is stuffed with Internet Cafés and I'm sure there will be several in Camps Bay. Otherwise, back over the hill in Oranjezicht/Tamboerskloof/Gardens on the way back into town there are dozens. Quality varies I'm told and I've never used any of them so can't comment on that. PM me if you feel like dropping by!

Cheers MTK

PS: Oudshoorn is a little dorpie in the middle of the Karoo - nice if you like ostriches but not much else - bloody hot in February too.

[newswatcher]

Hi Mac,

As a "local", do you know why most of the internet cafe sites found during a search, are "unresolved" when trying to use the URL? Has there been a change in URL structure recently? Take this (http://www.abacaxis.net/netcafes/netcafes_southafrica.html) for example. Hardly any of the sites are accessible!

:confused: :confused:

[Tall_guy_in_a_152]

I used an internet cafe inside the National Library in the centre of Cape Town (next to the Company Gardens). It was clean, convenient, reliable and good value. But not in Camps Bay, unfortunately for you.

TGia152.

[Mac the Knife]

No idea. Don't use 'em as I said. I think quite a few are pretty amateur as I see them appear and disappear. Maybe they've gone out of business or can't be bothered to maintain their web page - it's mostly casual trade so there's not much incentive to promote a Web presence. I think quite a few have only a few dialup lines and aren't suitable for much more than email and a bit of casual surfing. ISDN is available most places but still quite expensive. ADSL is in it's infancy here, only available in big cities mostly and expensive. ADSL speed is very variable because bandwidth are constrained by the fact that there are relatively few big pipes to the outside world. So don't count on doing much international on-line gaming. TELKOM isn't bad, but it's a governmental monopoly and not particularly flexible or market orientated though it has improved. Talk of second and third providers drags on but probably won't happen. Local POTS charges are quite high here but phone lines are generally good and reliable.

So the short answer is still that I don't know - nevertheless, there are at least 3 active Internet Cafe's within a couple of hundred yards of my house on the edge of central Cape Town on the way to Camps Bay.

[amanoffewwords]

Thanks Mac et al,

good info to have - at least it makes me think that I don't need to take my laptop with me. I only need to access my server through a URL and check my webmail so speed is not essential - ISDN would be ok.

Cheers
amowf

[amanoffewwords]

At the risk of answering my own question, and just for the record:

In the end I didn't have the need for a NetCafe but saw loads of them in Cape Town - some look more professional than others - if I did have a need in the future I'd use those in the Tourist Offices, or as mentioned above the Library.

I tried the WiFi system at Cape Town Airport (conveniently situated at the gates) but was rejected by their server though it worked perfectly ok at Joburg International Airport. - though this last location was the most expensive I came across.

But then I was too busy sightseeing for netting...

Cheers
amofw