Aug
10:39
New Adventures in Frog Feet
Categories: 
Author: A change in direction and a new focus
As of 1 August 2008, Frogfoot will no longer be providing consumer internet services. Frogfoot’s consumer division has been sold to Web Africa.
Frogfoot will focus on the medium and large business market and will no longer be providing commodity internet services like, ADSL, Web Hosting and eMail in the consumer market.
Frogfoot’s consumer client base will be migrated to Web Africa in the month of August. Frogfoot will still be providing support and handle billing in August.
Web Africa is most probably the best consumer focused ISP in South Africa and we are confident that our clients will find a happy new home with them.
Frogfoot will retain all its larger, business and enterprise clients.
Tighten up the main sheet
Tighten up the main sheet is a sailing phrase. It generally means you want to go faster but you’re willing to let things get a little more exciting in the process.
Many moons ago, in the story that is Frogfoot Networks, two networking geeks focused on building a company that catered to the very specific needs of other businesses. Years past by and along the way Frogfoot agreed to host some websites for a few friends and sold ADSL to someone’s cousin’s mom. That consumer base grew and grew, partly because Frogfoot was so well respected but also because we were just good at solving problems. We also had a fun name… who doesn’t like frog’s feet?!
Growth and success however does have it’s challenges. Frogfoot has grown into a business that looks after the high-tech networking requirements of some of the top companies in South Africa. We’re very proud of that fact, but as you can imagine it puts a little bit of strain on our ability to keep our regular consumer clients happy.
Providing consumer internet services is a unique challenge. It’s a competitive industry, with low profit margins. We enjoyed the challenges of building automation systems and optimising internal processes in our consumer division, but it placed a strain on our company.
Our staff were being stretched to capacity. We weren’t keeping up and it was starting to affect the quality of our service. We were forced to make a choice.
We have chosen to migrate our consumer base to one of our partner companies. We will however do everything within our power to make sure that your services are not affected.
New adventures in Frogfoot (v3.0)
It some ways we’ve made a full circle return to our initial business model. Back to the days where we pretty much knew every client on a first name basis.
Where to from here? The first step is to regroup, adapt to the changes and then focus on a small number of big and exciting things on the horizon.
In general we’ll have more focus, a better signal to noise ratio in our day to day activities and more time. We’ll aim to build more personal interactions and relationships with our clients.
It’s safe to say we’ll be doing the things we are good at.. building networks. Large scale carrier and core networks. We’ll aim to move up a step in the ISP food chain. We’ll seek opportunities to innovate, solve complex problems, have fun learning about new technologies and play with cool toys.
Thank you and goodbyes
So, on this sentimental day, we have to say goodbye to our consumer clients, wish them well and thank them. This step will give us the focus to provide the best possible service to our remaining clients.
A big thank you to all our clients, partners and staff who have been a part of our journey. Keep an eye on our blog.
Frogspeed!
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August 1, 2008 @ 17:19
What happened to Xen ? I’m currently a Xen customer and I don’t see anything on it on frogfoot or on webafrica’s website..
August 1, 2008 @ 18:32
Hi
We’ll keep providing Xen services to our business customers. Consumer Xen customers will most probably be offered an alternative hosting solution from Web Africa as part of the migration process.
August 1, 2008 @ 20:28
Damn. I didn’t see that coming. What a disappointment. Goodbye Xen, goodbye email address, great.
August 1, 2008 @ 21:46
[...] can read the official announcement and story here.. but I figured I’d share some unofficial and personal [...]
August 1, 2008 @ 22:04
Hi Al
Very sorry to disappoint you.
August 1, 2008 @ 22:39
I am happy as I use Web Africa anyway for top up internet at when my 5 gig is up as you guys never seemed to offer a top up service!!!!!
As long as it is seamless costs the same or less and I have my IS account with 5gig Int cap and 30gig local it will be plain sailing.
Will this be the case?
Trev
August 1, 2008 @ 23:54
I hope if WebAfrica doesn’t have an equivalent Xen hosting feature you’ll provide some sane way to migrate the Xen machines to a service provider that does… Frogfoot seemed to be providing a sweet Xen offering that was better than anyone else…
August 2, 2008 @ 03:00
Thanks guys – you truly provided a superior awesome service – me and my hardy heron will miss you dearly…
August 2, 2008 @ 08:30
@Trev, have a look at the Web Africa website, but I’m sure they can offer you something very similar.
@David, Xen, Wifi and our fixed IP ADSL are the more interesting ones to migrate. Frogfoot will continue the ADSL Pro Plus offering. We’ll also continue hosting Xen for a few clients.
August 2, 2008 @ 13:34
For me in a way it is a very sad day. I got to know the clients very well via accounts. I will definitely miss the clients. Thanks to all the clients.
For your services with us. It was much appreciated. Thanks for believing in us. Thank you for staying with us in difficult times.
For everybody that always paid on time.
For every friendly email to accounts.
It is like losing friends.
We will always be an email away if you need advise.
I salute all of the clients !
August 3, 2008 @ 16:51
Hi Frogs,
Thanks for the excellent service and best wishes on the new strategy!
Regards,
Gerhard
August 3, 2008 @ 16:57
Thanks Gerhard
August 4, 2008 @ 22:14
OH Boy, here we go again! Makes a person wonder why you bought up all these smaller ISP’s if you have no intention of keeping the clients in the first place eg Jaywalk – and what you are doing is not what Cassie Castens had in mind believe me. Our pain is your gain I guess.
Quote ” Web Africa is most probably the best consumer focused ISP in South Africa “
Oh come on, that is BS and you know it, pure speculation at best. Take a look at any polls and surveys and you’ll notice Web Africa doesn’t even feature – my broadband been a good start. Mweb is a better rip-off support-less bet I say!
But you are entitled to your opinion (as skewed as it may be considering you’re trying to appease your loyal subscribers who you clearly give not a hoot about) so too am I entitled to my opinion, and I think they utterly useless.
Thanks too for the advanced warning for those who do not want to deal with those idiots at WebAfrica. You controlling the billing for the month and we have to wait for the switchover and next month at the very least before we can get the dns records changed.
I for one will be pulling out – and I happen to know quite a few others too.
But now we have to wait unless it’s at our own expense, tell us after the fact,….. smart move Joe Frog, smart move, I give you that!
August 4, 2008 @ 23:45
What about Amobia clients? will we still call your ISP over weekends for support?
August 5, 2008 @ 07:58
Hi Arch
Web Africa won the MyBroadband People’s Choice Award for best ADSL Service provider two years in a row.
August 5, 2008 @ 08:02
Hey Ruark
One of the Frogfoot support people moved to Amobia. The idea is that Amobia becomes more independent, but I suspect Frogfoot will still provide backup (level 2/3) support.
August 5, 2008 @ 10:00
Arch: WebAfrica are certainly the most superior ISP in terms of service that I have personally encountered, and also has a very impressive reputation among the tech/geek community in Cape Town – I think that Joe and the Frogs have done well to move their clients there.
The Xen thing is what worries me, though – I rely on FrogXen for a cheap, fast, flexible, local shell, and I haven’t been able to find an equivalent. If Frogfoot and WebAfrica aren’t willing to continue providing it, maybe there’s a niche for somebody else to step in, even informally?
August 5, 2008 @ 10:12
Hi Jonathan
Xen is a tricky one. I wanted to keep the Xen consumer service because it’s something unique to Frogfoot, it’s a “utility” service and my theory was that it mostly serves the linux geeky community who tend to look after themselves.
When we investigated, it turned out that people get hacked fairly often and Frogfoot’s staff had to always clean up the mess and deal with annoyed customers who did not want to pay for the traffic their hacked machines generated.
If our Xen offering was twice the price it could make sense..
August 5, 2008 @ 12:06
Jonathan,
I had a chat with the people doing the migration on the Frogfoot and Web Africa side. ADSL and dial will be migrated first.
Frogfoot will still provide Xen services in August and September.
Frogfoot will continue its Xen community project sponsorships.
August 5, 2008 @ 18:45
Dear Frogfoot Team
Even though I do comiserate with the Consumer Service Client,
as a initial Frogfoot client, I am very happy about the move, as it will indeed enable the support team to fully concentrate on the business clients. So, yes, thank you for the decision, and to to resources freed up for the attention to detail
Felix
Lancia Services
August 5, 2008 @ 19:17
Hi Felix
Thanks for the positive feedback.
August 5, 2008 @ 20:07
OK Joe, I take the mybroadband award seriously – i could find nothing at the time, looks like most people have had good service. Maybe it’s just my bad luck.
I retract the negative comments re WebAfrica. But I’m not convinced enough to join them I’m afraid.
And I have my doubts we’ll get the same service (*compliment*). Mine is normally of a more technical nature and getting through to someone past front-line student support who can actually understand what i am talking about was worse than Mwebs idiots imho.
August 6, 2008 @ 12:41
[...] Release No Comments » Author: joe (Pablo) Frogfoot Networks announced the sale of its consumer client base to Web Africa this week. This move allows Frogfoot to focus on [...]
August 6, 2008 @ 18:30
Arch: For what it’s worth, when you sign up to WebAfrica, they actually ask you what your level of expertise is, presumably to try to avoid asking people with a Masters Degree whether they’ve tried turning it off and then on again.
August 9, 2008 @ 01:14
Hi,
As an alternative to Frogfoot’s Xen hosts, have a look at Linode (www.linode.com). They provide a similar service (except that they offer substantially higher bandwidth figures).
It’s a pity to see Xen go in SA – I always thought that Frogfoot would be the “local Linode” company. I applaude Frogfoot in their attempt to get VPS going in SA.
–deckert
August 14, 2008 @ 22:00
The key for us with Xen was having a local provider – wanting to run things like a VPN, Jabber, monitoring software in South Africa without having a dedicated host…
Does anyone have any other South African Xen recommendations?
August 15, 2008 @ 08:43
Hi David
We are busy working on the details of our new Xen services. Our new product offering will be up at the end of August.
August 19, 2008 @ 16:25
Great, thanks Joe – looking forward to it!
August 21, 2008 @ 22:44
Sad, sad news. Will miss Xen.
For months I have been planning a Xen implementation and I will now have to find a Xen provider outside of SA. Certainly, there is not a word of any sort on Webafrica regarding virtualisation or Xen. And other SA Xen providers use CentOS and not Debian/Ubuntu. (sigh)
No, I am not happy. Not at all.
ADSL, hosting, connecting, email – those things are consumer products. But no, running a Xen account for the purposes of a dedicated mail host, or for running a CRM system, or a dedicated database in a vertical business application, those are not exactly consumer services.
Maybe sanity will prevail – if not, I will have to shop for a Xen host in the international market.
August 24, 2008 @ 20:18
To date I’ve received one email from WebAfrica of the form ‘Welcome and here’s our support telephone number’. I don’t feel well-informed.
When is the changeover? What must I do this side? What will my new email address be? Will there be any automatic forwarding of email for a limited time? Will the Zen a/c terminate at the same time?
Please some more detailed information – I’m in the dark.
August 27, 2008 @ 11:23
From the Web Africa Forums:
> Q. What will happen with XEN services as it is not a product provided by Web Africa?
> A. XEN will remain with Frogfoot, so your service should continue uninterrupted.
( http://forums.webafrica.co.za/showthread.php?t=1834&referrerid=1995 )
However….
Frogfoot has XEN listed on their website under consumer services. And clicking on that link tells me:
> Consumer Services
> Discontinued
Aaaargh!!!
Can anyone tell me if Frogfoot is still offering Xen, and if so where can I sign on? I planned on implementing a rollout starting mid August 2008 and am now left in the lurch.
August 28, 2008 @ 21:56
From my side i won’t have anything good to say about frogfoot in the future, sorry guys but this is swak.
August 29, 2008 @ 19:59
I have had one encounter with Web Africa to date. It was supposed to be a simple matter or replacing a leased line with fixed IP ADSL, with some DNS changes. It took almost a month. I have dealt with such a bunch of clowns in my entire 40+ years. These people don’t deserve to be in business. I assume that they won’t be for long. Thank heavens all the services I buy are staying with Frogfoot.
PS: I might just mention that despite the fact that all my services are staying with Frogfoot I still get badly formatted, broken HTML mail, without html tags, welcoming me to Web Africa.
September 2, 2008 @ 11:45
@Al, you should have Web Africa’s support contact details. They can help you with all the details you need.
@Johan, not sure what you are unhappy about.
@Mark, I think you’ll find that Web Africa is focused on consumer services.
September 8, 2008 @ 16:02
Hey
I guess I’m a bit too late to place my order for a Xen Box as a consumer client then. Hope everyone at FrogHQ is doing well.
September 8, 2008 @ 16:41
Hi Igshaan
Yeah, we’re not taking orders for Xen at the moment, but we’re busy re-working our product offerings.
November 20, 2008 @ 08:33
Web Africa is hopeless, based on 1st hand experiences.
Since the migration:
They broke all internal linking on my website- 3 attempts to fix
THey broke my “contact” and “enquiry” forms on my website- 3 attempts to fix.
My mail server is down for hours or days at a time- current record is 4 days.
Clients call to complain that I don’t respond to their emails, or that they get a bounce telling me my email address no longer exists- it hasn’t changed and they are using the address that they always have used in their address books.
Web Africa’s spam filtering has been filtering out genuine enquiries direct from my website’s “contact” and “enquiry” forms.
In August, 80% of my business queries were directed to the email address displayed on my website and linked to the forms- the other 20% were telephonic or via the email address in the Yellow Pages. Currently it is 80/20 the other way around. I have almost completely lost my web presence.
In the last 2 days I have spoken to a website builder and an ISP reseller and they have both dealt with migrations of ex Frogfoot clients away from Web Africa to other hosting companies within the past week. I am negotiating with Frogfoot to come back.
November 25, 2008 @ 07:58
No news? What’s going on at FrogFoot?
November 27, 2008 @ 13:04
Hi David
Not much news at the moment. The migration of the consumer client base is coming to an end and we are keeping our focus on the business market.
We’re working on a few interesting projects. Should be able to share more details early 2009.
March 9, 2010 @ 00:49
[...] August 2008 Frogfoot sold its consumer client base to focus on providing business services. This is a return to the business model we had when we [...]