Yes, it's Autumn. That is how quickly our year is disappearing. Our Cape Town clients have spent months dealing with heat and wind. Our clients further up country have had floods, hail and tornados. But fortunately no-one has had the remaining plagues of Egypt descend on them - and that is a win in my books!

I want to thank you for your patience over the past few months as we implemented our client and service management system. We have had our fair share of teething problems, but seem to have reached the last of these.

Starry Giveaway

Secure your loved ones with this month's giveaway.

We have a TPLink VIGI 3MP Turret Network Camera up for grabs this month, sponsored by LinkQage and worth around R800.

This camera can connect to your existing NVR to record video and is powered either via POE or a 12V power supply. Don't have an NVR? Use the camera standalone with the camera app to view live footage without a recording option.

How to win: We're collecting stars on Google this month. Click here to give us that glowing review before 15 March. Please use your real name so we can track you down if you're our winner.

Make money online - THIS IS NOT A SCAM

Here are some scary stats - South Africa's youth unemployment is top of this list. We have so many kids who have not completed school, who have not been able to study further, or who have not found a job after school.

Add in adult unemployment and the vast majority of our population is struggling to simply survive. Unemployment remains one of our biggest challenges. And yet South Africans spend R75 BILLION on online gambling each year. Yes BILLION.

Your internet connection can either drain your money and provide mindless entertainment, or you can use it to build your income.

There is no “get rich quick” secret. But there are legitimate, practical ways to use your internet to:

• Find remote work

• Learn valuable skills for free

• Earn in foreign currencies

• Offer services online

• Start a small business

• Create digital products

It requires effort and consistency — but every hour you invest builds real value.

Read our full guide on how to turn your internet connection into an income-generating tool. Stop doom-scrolling. Start earning.

From the Archives

The battle with batteries. Essential to keep your internet going when the grid fails, but not always easy to manage. They are heavy, they have to be wired in properly, kept charging and replaced after a certain number of cycles. Thieves love them and will cut open a communications hut like a can of beans to get at them. Over the past 18 years we must have gone through hundreds of batteries. Dragging them up a ladder or a mountain is not fun - ask any of the techs.

In the days before lithium we had large lead acid batteries as backup power for our network on every site. For bigger sites, there would be a few of them connected together to provide enough power for a few hours of loadshedding, random cable breaks etc., all on permanent charge.

The thing about lead acid batteries though is the acid. Batteries only have so many charge / discharge cycles in them before they start to fail - and when you start smelling that rotten egg smell, it's time to very quickly disconnect and replace them.

But what with batteries high up on a mountain, where you can't smell the smell? Well unfortunately the first you know about that problem is when power to the site suddenly disappears. That is exactly what happened a couple years ago. We rushed up the mountain and found the inside of the cabinet covered in acid, with a throat-numbing smell in the entire place and bits of battery everywhere as the pressure had built up and it had simply gone BOOM.

One does not merely mop up an exploded battery and wipe off the charger. It took very careful scrubbing with large amounts of neutralizer to get that cabinet cleaned out. I don't think we ever really got rid of the acid stains on the doors.

Shot of the month

We're often out on site at very odd hours and in very strange places - but this means we get some awesome views. Here's this month's picture perfect shot.

Watch this space for our April special edition

Michelle Bainbridge

Chief Internet Artisan

Cape Connect Internet (Pty) Ltd

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