Cyprus Broadband Forum

If you have tried the broadband services of Cytanet please write a review about your positive and/or negative experiences.

If your review is based on past experiences please include the time period you have been using this ISP.

Please post reviews about Cytanet only, and not about any other ISP or service. However feel free to compare Cytanet with other Internet Service Providers offering similar products.

Don't forget to cast your vote with your rating for Cytanet.

Cytanet was the first ISP for ADSL i tried. Browsing the web was fast compared to the ISDN I was used but when I tried out to download with FTP I was shocked. It was slower than dial-up! I called Cytanet support to ask them why but they were just wasting my time and I saw no improvement. After I did a bit of research it turned out that Cytanet filters many ports and many things work very slow with them. They could at least tell me this themselves when I called them instead of wasting my time! This was a couple of years ago but from what I hear they didn't improve. Stay away from Netrunner!

I used Net Runner until a couple of years ago when I discovered they use filters that prevented me downloading software updates from legitimate sites.  The tech support staff initially denied it until we convinced we actually KNEW they did so.  I switched to Spidernet but am now planning another change to rid myself of I-Choice, which until recently meant NO-Choice

In all honesty, you will get what you pay for. All packages offered by any ISP will have restrictions, whether that be blocking certain ports or traffic shaping. This is particularly so with the lower priced packages.

If you are paying for a Lada, will it perform like a Ferarri?

I decided on the Business Lite package as I use it in a SOHO situation. I do not have any login problems, there is no login necessary on a Business package. I am direct to Cytanet, there is no NAT to go through. I also cannot get MiVision. This is because they cannot guarantee QoS, if your connection is slow and you have MiVision on at the time, I guess MiVision might just be the cause.

Faster packages are on offer from other providers, all with some kind of restrictions. I have no restrictions and pretty much full speed as advertised most of the time. The only problems have been where Cyta have had problems with their external bandwidth, which is not often.

Cyta's external routing is actually not bad and the way it is set up, there is a certain amount of redundancy built in. There may be a slight issue with Latency, ping times can be a bit higher than they might be, this is something I can live with.

I've gone through most of the serious ISP's over the years. I was one of the first people online here. 9600 modems with the external connection being a 64k ISDN line to the Internet, those were the days, Netscape took hours to come down ;D Logosnet was good in those days, can't say the same now.

Spidernet's Proxy was a pain in the bum, smoke and mirrors does not work for me.

I've been bitched at by Thunderworx for downloading too much on a 128k ISDN line, I was paying premium and they wanted to tell me how I could use it, I guess I will not be going with their latest reinvention Primetel for that very reason.

I've done the one way satellite route too, whilst waiting 3 years for the local exchange to be wired up for ADSL. I worked in the industry too, so I have seen both sides of it. That said, getting a decent package as a perk was great. So was testing a 4mbit downlink for a week.

I ended up with Cyta and despite what some others may think, I'm satisfied with what I get.

I will be glad when the Competition Comission finally allow Cyta to roll out faster packages, this is pending and will come soon, I'm hearing the end of August on the grapevine. Hopefully this will give a sensible bandwidth increase without any financial hit.

Hopefully uplink speeds will increase too. A 128k uplink that is maxed out will saturate any connection and seriously decrease your download speed. Put simply, if you are doing P2P and your speed is slow, before you blame the ISP, check out things on your own system. Get a bandwidth meter and see what uploading is going on, if it is maxed out, you will find that the connection will slow down.

On the subject of DSL enabling services, they are all using a big buzzword, ADSL2+, to me that means the possibility of 10-20mbit connections (theoretically it can go up to 24mbit) yet all I see is it being used as a platform to push TV signals down a telephone line. The Internet is not their main priority.

I look at parts of Europe, where 8mbit is the norm for a basic package, with most having 10mbit, Sweden is moving to 100mbit with some areas rolling out 1gbit (sure, it's not realistic as hard drive speeds cannot handle it) - we on the other hand are just going up to 4mbit with a cable service offering 10mbit in very limited areas and practically no expansion going on.

The lack of planning by the government here has created this situation. All of the network should have been separated from the providers and set up as an infrastructure. Fiber should have been rolled out everywhere and a carrier neutral fiber to home network set up. This would have put Cyprus in the forefront and the size of the island would have made it viable. A further carrier neutral wimax network would have provided the necessary infrastructure to put in place the next generation of wireless data and telephony network, basically doing to mobile telephony what the internet and VoIP did to regular telephony. Wireless data, alowing PDA's and Laptops to be used anywhere would create a fantastic environment for business. This network would be carrier neutral too. All this would enable service providers to provide services and maximise their profits without needing to invest a fortune in their own networks.

It is way too late for that now and as a result we now have the legacy of bad planning for the forseeable future.

According to my sources, Cytanet will be modifying their packages in September. There are some price reductions and some speed increases. I only have rumors so far and not confirmation of the exact speeds that will be available. It is possible that uplink speeds will be increased.

New NetRunner Monthly Subscription rates from 1 Sept 2007
 
Current Name           New Name        Current Rate New Rate
 
       NetRunner       NetRunner256    -            £5,50
 
       NetRunner       NetRunner512    £9           £7,00
 
   NetRunnerfast       NetRunner1024   £12          £9,50
 
    NetRunnerplus      NetRunnerplus   £27          £18,00
 
Note: The above rates do not include VAT.
 

Businesslite 4IP is down to £45 from £50
Business 4IP is down to £100 from £130

All excluding VAT
Connection charge for NetRunnerbusinesslite is £40 and for NetRunnerbusiness £80
For customers with annual subscriptions, the 12th  month is offered free

Additionally, you are now offered the following:

-         Free corporate email facility (annual fee £72-£120).

-         Free antivirus και antispam email protection (annual fee £48).

-         Free webpage hosting space of up to 50 MB for NetRunnerbusinesslite and up to 100MB for NetRunnerbussiness (annual fee £120 for 50MB and £162 for 100MB).

-         Free DNS management.

 

We would like to remind you that the above products come with additional free facilities such as a connection to CYTANET via ISDN for NetRunnerbusinesslite and via NetRunner for NetRunnerbusiness.

I have heard that the uplink is being increased to 512k on the business packages ....might mean that home packages are increased to 256k uplink, don't quote me on that though. It seems that packages will be available with up to 4mbit in both home and business. No details as of yet as to actual packages/pricing. Expect more info once the whole island wakes up again at the end of August.

Is it possible to separate Netrunner from i-choice?

I-choice works OK (OK Cyprus is behind the rest of the world in speeds) with other ISPs - but not Netrunner.

Why don't I get the numerous service interruptions with my current provider that I had with Netrunner - and was forced to wait in CyTA's 40+ minute queue listening to their dire music, only to hear someone tell me to "turn off my computer and modem, wait 5 minutes, turn on the modem, wait for the lights to stop flashing then turn on your computer".

"I tried that when I spoke to your colleague an hour ago"

"Click on 'run' and type 'cmd'"

"I use linux"

"Fine, just click on 'run"

or

"turn off your modem"

"I have a router"

"OK turn off your modem then turn off your router"

"The modem is part of the router - its a modem/router/switch"

"OK but turn off your modem then your router".

This net runner service is crap now they have upgraded  their system to speed things up. Instead I have had nothing but trouble with it. It either says that they cannot display web page or it freezes on me. I am not the only one that is having trouble. I do wish BT from england was over here. I will be looking elsewhere for my service later on if you dont sort your selves out and make sure there is no trouble with the system in the future.Cyta  have just had new offices built so why cant you sort out your internet system. 

I use netrunner & i-choice with speed (1M/256k).

Netrunner is a very bad ISP for all those who want to run real-time applications.
It suffers from Lag spikes, and slow responce times.

On a conversation with technical support, they said that they prioritise web browsing.
This is a ridiculous company policy, as the much needed low latencies in realtime applications suffer.

Bottomline, If you play online games, livestream videos, or use VOIP applications like skype, this is NOT the ISP for you.
If all you want is webbrowsing go for it, because it's cheap

Let me start with the conclusion first, NETRUNNER SUCKS. I am using Netrunner since 4 years and the number of problems this services has caused to me is sheer endless and I have no time to list here all the stupid, ridiculous and unprofessional errors and omissions CYTA has caused. So I will focus to the biggest annoyance for me, the network availability. I am starting to work usually at 4:30 am. During all the years I had between one to several times a week in the early morning a network downtime between 10 to 90 minutes. For a long time I thought that this is caused by a general ADSL infrastructure downtime and is effecting ADSL generally. But then I tried on a subscription basis another service (I registered online via www.i-choice.com.cy the ADSL package of a CYTA competitor) and checked the ADSL availability. Hard to believe, but ALWAYS when my Netrunner connection was down I could still connect via the competitor without any problems. So the cause is clearly the Netrunner service and not the i-choice infrastructure. In the CYTA service department nobody feels really responsible for these problems and sometimes you get the profane answer: "... we have a technical problem on the login server ...". Great, that helps me really! My recommendation: Stay away from Netrunner, try some of the competitors, I found the tested competitor reliable and this service worked always without downtime. CYTA is still too saturated and they still behave like a governmental service. Only a loss of a market-share can make them performing better, so leave CYTA and try the competitors.

cyta suck big time. a friend of mine pays for 4Mbps from cyta and he doesn't get close to 3Mbps

Probably the best ISP in Cyprus. The oldest actually. I have the Home4000 packet and Im very happy with it. They give me the correct speed. On COD4 and 5 always green connection and I can easily host a game. (PS3)

Come on ! Are you kidding me? the best isp in Cyprus?
You must be joking right?
Everyone knows that Cyta most of the times suck

Having been online form the very early days, I've been around since when LogosNet jumped the gun and started the Internet ahead of Cyta and over the years have tried out most of the ISP's. I also work in a support role for VSAT's, so I see things from both sides.

I've gone full circle and always end up with Cyta as a provider. Sure, I've done my fair share of Cyta-Bashing in the past, yet I feel that there really isn't a viable alternative. For all the knee-jerk reactions we get in here, I still notice that the delay in delivering upgrades was due to the need for Primetel et al to get 1000 subscribers, looks like they are not as popular after all.

I've got the new Alcatel series router which actually has the hub and wifi enabled by default, a far cry from the ECI Bfocus models with everything disabled. I have a very stable connection which is used by myself and my partner wirelessly. Sure, there is the occasional problem once or twice a year, this happens with all providers and is often out of their control.

My partner compared it to UK providers - they take forever to get you connected, especially when switching providers - they are not stable at all, especially with the provided wifi enabled routers - they also do not deliver the promised speed, she was on an (up to) 16 mbit connection and never saw that speed (BBC iPlayer used to suck worse than youtube at peak times)

Here in Cyprus, things just work. On the current connection I needed to call their tech support once to confirm that there was indeed an issue. This required the modem resetting which I already knew how to do and the problem was solved. The only other problem was the time my partner accidentally switched the router off.

If Facebook or Youtube are really slow it is likely due to their over-popularity and this is noticeable most at peak times - usually when the Brits and the Yanks are awake and not at work.

P2P is not blocked, speed depends on who is seeding. If you are using P2P and your connection suddenly slows right down to the point that you can't even browse, kill the Bitorrent client and you might find it remarkably starts to work again. This is due to limitations in the TCPIP stack and has nothing to do with the ISP. Pulling up the Task Manager or a network monitoring program will enable anybody to see how much they are uploading/downloading at any given time. This is far more valuable than any bandwidth test which also has the addition of any network traffic between you and the test site into the equation.

If you're doing nothing and there is traffic showing, this can be due to antivirus or software updates being done in the background. If your uplink is totally saturated and nothing seems to work, check out whether you have any spyware or malware on your PC, I've seen computers unable to even connect to iChoice because of this. An antivirus, no matter how good you claim it is will not stop everything, Spybot and Adaware need to be run regularly to see if anything else managed to get onto your system. Even those two programs plus your antivirus will not keep you completely safe, some malware is a real pain to remove, even for a professional.

If your uplink is totally saturated - that means you have a high number of threads using it and not necessarily physically uploading as in a lot of torrents seeding, you will likely see a degradation of service.

Most of the issues that people have come from a lack of understanding of how things work than actual problems with the providers themselves.

One man's meat is another man's poison, Cyta are not all bad, my only beef is with their mobile offerings. We have very good pricing for calls and sms, the only expensive call charges are down to greedy providers in other countries, especially greek or uk mobile providers. The mobile internet packages however need to be brought into line with terrestrial packages and an always on, sensible fixed price package introduced without limitations in order to make it really useful.

Well I tend to agree with Falcon. I have had cyta for a couple of years now and certainly I have had issues but in the bottomline we need to evaluate their service compared to the next best thing.
Cyta is semi reliable. They will try to fix your problems, of course, not always managing.
Mostly I have had an issue with i-choice being logged out on me for no apparent reason at all. When that happened ten times in the same day I called again, fuming that I am being fooled. They promised to investigate and the next day they called me and admitted it was a known issue with some users. They are trying to upgrade/change the platform needed so as to have a more stable connection for cyta users. It will take a couple of months they told me and that I would have to be patient.
Yes, it is not the response anyone likes but at least they were decent enough to avoid lying, or feeding me all sorts of ridiculous excuses.
I had been monitoring and researching the service of Cablenet and it appears to be even more erratic, to the extent that some of its loyal supporters went 180 degrees around.
Cyta is not the best but honestly they are decent enough. Overpriced too, but such it the price to pay to have a useful connection to internet it seems...
In my opinion, if any other company promises much better speeds with significantly less money it probably IS too good to be true. Once they get their market share, they simply take you for granted (much like many people complain about cyta) and ignore your issues since you are already on their wagon ;)

Of late I've been getting some disconnects on a cytanet/dsl access setup. There's no obvious reason for it. These are different from anything else I've seen. Normally just opening up the dsl access page will allow me to log back in, now I can't even get to anything beyond the modem when it happens. Connecting to the modem allows me to connect from the interface there. Once done I'm able to get onto the dsl access page and re-connect.

Hard or soft resetting the modem does nothing. I was wondering whether P2P usage might be the issue, not because of anything Cyta is doing, more that the uplink connection gets saturated and causes a loss in sync.

Other possibilities include virus/spyware/malware activity, more likely on my partner's laptop. I must check this out on my next day off. Having seen what confiker can do to a VSAT connection, I know that it is highly probable that it is oversaturating the uplink if this is indeed the issue.

My experience in supporting VSAT's shows that in 99% of cases where there is not an issue with our network that there is an issue with the end user's setup.

It's way too easy to point the finger at any ISP and many users simply do not have the necessary expertise to troubleshoot a problem. When I do call Cyta's Support I have already gone through the most obvious issues and am able to give them a reasonable amount of info regarding the actual problem. This is usually sufficient to get the query escalated to the next level of support. Invariably the tech at that level is not working from a flowchart and actually understands what is happening.

why everybody blame cyta? do you know why we dont have faster internet? because of primetel and cablenet, shakolas and mr foulis cyta when they brought dsl to cyprus they brought servers of milions of pounds to provide up to 20mb to the price of 16euros but then primetel and cablenet cry to eu and they put in charge a persons to control the competition and because cyta is a goverment company whatever the person who cheque the competinio say they do it. because if cyta was aloud to upgrade there systems mr shakolas and foulis was going to loose there money so now we stuck in this situation cyta has servers in there storage for 4 years now and they are not aloud to use them because primetel and cablenet mustprovide first the 20mb lines so cyta can provide 19mb lines so mr shakolas can have the first hand on competition. SO STOP BLAMING CYTA and blame some fools that they take money on white envelops. cyta try to avoid the person who control the competition by applying to eu court but this cases take long periods even 10 years they won the first court case last year and it was about the hsda on mobile phones thats why now we have high speed internet. thats the true so get used to it to have 4mb internet and when primetel and cable net will be able to provide 20mb internet then cyta will be able to provide 19mb

The 4Mbit connection finally went in yesterday. I now have the newer dark grey Speedtouch modem and thus far everything is fine. As there seems to be quite a few other wireless connections in the neighborhood, the wireless channel was changed to 6 - this channel also seems to have the lowest ping times to the modem.

One thing that got me thinking when people are complaining about service interruptions, does this coincide with certain electrical appliances being in use? This can include cordless phones or video senders. Changing the channel could well help to cut down on interference.

YouTube plays OK, as does other video streaming with very little slowdown (unless somebody on the local network is hammering the crap out of P2P - easily solved with a few tweaks.

Looking forward to the speed increase by the end of the year  ;D

are there any new upgrades in
january 2011 ??
i heard somthng is going to happend

There's no "official" confirmation concerning the upgrade with dates ranging from the beginning to the end of December being the most likely. From what I've managed to find out, things are still very much down to the regulator as to when and what Cyta are eventually allowed to do. In the meantime, the customer suffers due to the lack of competition. Perhaps the Competition Commissioner should look into the activities of the regulator as they seem to be solely responsible for the lack of any real competition on the island.

Δεν πρόλαβε να στεγνώσει το μελάνι για την απόφαση της Cablenet να προσφέρει στους συνδρομητές της γρηγορότερο Internet με ταχύτητες μέχρι 20Μbps και ήρθε η PrimeTel για να αλλάξει ξανά τα δεδομένα, αφού με την έναρξη της νέας χρόνιας, θα προσφέρει 30, 50 και 100Μbps.

Η εταιρεία όπως αναφέρει σε σχετική ανακοίνωση έχει επενδύσει σε νέας γενιάς δίκτυα πρόσβασης στο Internet τα οποία παρέχουν στον τελικό χρήστη τις υπερύψηλες ταχύτητες των 100Mbps.

Ο κ.Ερμής Στεφάνου, Διευθύνων Σύμβουλος της PrimeTel, δήλωσε: «Σήμερα, αρκετές χώρες της Ευρώπης όπως είναι η Γαλλία, η Γερμανία και το Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο, έχουν προσανατολίσει την στρατηγική τους προς αυτή την κατεύθυνση. Με την εγκατάσταση δικτύων νέας γενιάς, η PrimeTel συνεχίζει ν’ αυξάνει τις δυνατότητες ευρυζωνικότητας. Οι υπηρεσίες αυτές προσφέρονται σε εταιρείες καθώς επίσης και κατοικίες.»

«Με την εφαρμογή αυτής της τεχνολογίας, η PrimeTel για ακόμη μια φορά υπερέχει έναντι των ανταγωνιστών της ως προς την καινοτομία και την τεχνολογική εξέλιξη των προϊόντων  και υπηρεσιών της, ενώ τοποθετεί την Κύπρο ανάμεσα στις πρωτοπόρες χώρες ως προς την ευρυζωνικότητα», καταλήγει σε ανακοίνωση της η εταιρεία.

Πλέον με ενδιαφέρον αναμένεται η απάντηση των ανταγωνιστών της. Όπως είναι σε θέση να γνωρίζει το InBusinessNews η Cablenet έχει την τεχνική υποδομή να προσφέρει απίστευτες ταχύτητες στο μέλλον, ενώ άγνωστες είναι οι προθέσεις της Cyta η οποία για την ώρα συνεχίζει με Internet 4M που υστερεί πολύ σε σχέση με τον ανταγωνισμό.

Σχετικά με την LTV δεν αποκλείεται και η ίδια να επιλέξει να βελτιώσει την υφιστάμενη της συμφωνία με τη Cablenet μέσω του LTV3PLAY, το οποίο προσφέρει μέγιστες ταχύτητες 10Μ.



if this happends, im leaving from cyta

yeah well from the 3 isps only cyta has the money to offer such speeds for international bandwidth..the other 2 will have problem with the outside traffic when every year they make losses..

regarding regulator/competition committee it blocks cyta cause holds 80 85% of the market so if they allow them to do anything in short time then it wont be competition..the problem is that the other isp dont have the experience/knowledge/support to have better services to get more people...i believe the only reason customers leaving cyta its because of higher speeds provided by others