ADSL ISP Rolling Windows & Usage Limits

S

Skowt

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2014
Messages
125
Reaction score
29
Following the AfriHost / Axxess mass exodus this past week, I've gone ahead and moved to WebAfrica Uncapped Home account (which I see some users have advised against).

I've searched everywhere but I cannot see what the limits are for WebAfrica's rolling window on a 10MBps account? I've signed up 2 days ago, have 5 stars have downloaded 7GB (Over 2 days).

What would cause normal HTTP downloads and streaming to be limited to 200kbps for an hour, then full speed for an hour and so on back and forth?

Am I being limited based on the previous hours usage?

Perhaps this could be a thread for general rolling windows and usage limits for all ISP's. I'll update this post if it goes that way
 
IS accounts have 10days
mweb 30days
MTN not sure,but the are slower in genaral due to all the problems they have
 
sybertiger said:
IS accounts have 10days
mweb 30days
MTN not sure,but the are slower in genaral due to all the problems they have
Click to expand...

Shot for the quick reply! I'm guessing WebAfrica is IS?

Do you perhaps know where I can find the limits for those 10 days? E.g. 50GB in 10 days? (This being for a 10MB Uncapped line)
 
yes webafrica is IS
and no dont know tbh, i was on home 10mbps uncap,and used around 4-6gb perday and was always on 5stars

so if def more than 50gb in 10days
 
I see you say "was"... What made you move if I may ask :??
 
they had problems,its better now,and had been with them a year and wanted to try Axxess never been with them
they worked fine for 2weeks then MTN happend again,stay away from mtn afrihost/axxess

yah i jump from isp to isp every year,but WA have given me the best streaming of them all,
 
Aaaah hectic. Yeah I've been with Axxess for 3 months now switched to WebAfrica. Might go to Axxess again once they're good, get good unshaped connectivity on a shaped account ;)

Yeah I work from home so I'll be jumping whenever I need to as well. Axxess really choked these past 2 weeks :/
 
yah only reason why i like mtn is that torrents always works :P

in that case,when your work from home get a cap account,or latest a backup cap account
so when the kakka hits the fan u you will still be able to do yourjob
or get a business uncap account,had those in the past also and was great,but as i dont use that much data or work in the day,didnt justify the price,but really tempted to get it again
 
Skowt said:
Following the AfriHost / Axxess mass exodus this past week, I've gone ahead and moved to WebAfrica Uncapped Home account (which I see some users have advised against).

I've searched everywhere but I cannot see what the limits are for WebAfrica's rolling window on a 10MBps account? I've signed up 2 days ago, have 5 stars have downloaded 7GB (Over 2 days).

What would cause normal HTTP downloads and streaming to be limited to 200kbps for an hour, then full speed for an hour and so on back and forth?

Am I being limited based on the previous hours usage?

Perhaps this could be a thread for general rolling windows and usage limits for all ISP's. I'll update this post if it goes that way
Click to expand...

Basically if you want to download a lot you need to schedule your torrents for 00:00-06:00 as then it won' affect your FUP.

If you need to download during the day, better to upgrade to Business where the thresholds are higher.
 
sybertiger said:
yah only reason why i like mtn is that torrents always works :P

in that case,when your work from home get a cap account,or latest a backup cap account
so when the kakka hits the fan u you will still be able to do yourjob
or get a business uncap account,had those in the past also and was great,but as i dont use that much data or work in the day,didnt justify the price,but really tempted to get it again
Click to expand...

- Yeah I might look into doing this. I tend to do max 250GB a month which is a bit higher than an uncapped plan but then again it's unshaped and speeds usually are faster cause they know how much you're going to use. Still don't like the "What if" scenario. What if I need more this month. Etc etc.

Chevron said:
Basically if you want to download a lot you need to schedule your torrents for 00:00-06:00 as then it won' affect your FUP.

If you need to download during the day, better to upgrade to Business where the thresholds are higher.
Click to expand...

I found a neat trick with Axxess where I could download full speeds during the day but with the latest network issues, I just have sad faces all day.

--------------------

Day 2 of my WebAfrica account and every half an hour or so my speed limit changes, it's rather frustrating. I'm the only one hard-wired and with Wifi disabled there's no improvement. I get 900kbps for an hour, then 200kbps for an hour and now for 11AM, I'm getting 400kbps...

Spoke to their live chat and he confirmed that they don't throttle hourly but based on the star system but this isn't making sense. I was with Axxess for 3 months and got full speed day and night up until their issues this past week. WebAfrica isn't looking very promising.

Might pack up and head to VOX before the end of the month.
 
Skowt said:
- Yeah I might look into doing this. I tend to do max 250GB a month which is a bit higher than an uncapped plan but then again it's unshaped and speeds usually are faster cause they know how much you're going to use. Still don't like the "What if" scenario. What if I need more this month. Etc etc.



I found a neat trick with Axxess where I could download full speeds during the day but with the latest network issues, I just have sad faces all day.

--------------------

Day 2 of my WebAfrica account and every half an hour or so my speed limit changes, it's rather frustrating. I'm the only one hard-wired and with Wifi disabled there's no improvement. I get 900kbps for an hour, then 200kbps for an hour and now for 11AM, I'm getting 400kbps...

Spoke to their live chat and he confirmed that they don't throttle hourly but based on the star system but this isn't making sense. I was with Axxess for 3 months and got full speed day and night up until their issues this past week. WebAfrica isn't looking very promising.

Might pack up and head to VOX before the end of the month.
Click to expand...

Are you in Cape Town?

I think IS are still having capacity issues there.
 
Hey,

Nope. Port Elizabeth but it seems to have improved slightly. Will monitor the rest of today.

Thanks chaps for all your answers!
 
Even though WebAfrica denies rolling periods, I can confidently say that they have a 15day rolling window on their home uncapped 10mb account.

I do not have it in writing :) but i did extensive tests to figure this out.

this is what i got thus far (this is an AVG. that i worked out):

15day rolling period
1-2gb on avg per day (for a 15 day window) gets you a 5 star rating.
2-4gb on avg per day (for a 15 day window) gets you a 4 star rating.
4-8gb on avg per day (for a 15 day window) gets you a 3 star rating.

I have not tested an avg of over 8gb per day yet. i seriously do not know what to use all the bandwidth on.

I have asked a few firends on WebAfrica home uncapped 10mb to work within these brackets, and it all checked out.

Untill Webafrica can come back and tell me that the above is not more or less true, i will stick to it :)


Please note.

My personal usage falls in the 3 star rating window, and this is my experience when i hIt 3 stars.
  • gaming still yields 9ms ping on local server (CS:GO)
  • I can still stream netflix and hulu without buffering, sometimes quality drops for a minute, but this does not happen often.
  • youtube streams at around 150kbps during office hours
  • http downloads is around 200kbps during office hours.
  • i get full speeds on everything after 5pm (even torrents)

I use on avg 180gb per month, and i am yet to drop below 3 stars on home uncapped package. I torrent a total of around 100mb a month so i did not test it that much

.... the above tests was done with 3 other 10mb uncapped packages, peak usages was at different times and dates. and all 3 yielded the same patterns as my account.

To round things up:
  • Thanx WebAfrica for this package :) it actually performs quite well if you know the limits
  • Thanx WebAfrica for wasting my time figuring this out, you could have just said so, or at least given us an idea
 
Last edited:
Polemus said:
Even though WebAfrica denies rolling periods, I can confidently say that they have a 15day rolling window on their home uncapped 10mb account.

I do not have it in writing :) but i did extensive tests to figure this out.

this is what i got thus far (this is an AVG. that i worked out):

15day rolling period
1-2gb on avg per day (for a 15 day window) gets you a 5 star rating.
2-4gb on avg per day (for a 15 day window) gets you a 4 star rating.
4-8gb on avg per day (for a 15 day window) gets you a 3 star rating.

I have not tested an avg of over 8gb per day yet. i seriously do not know what to use all the bandwidth on.

I have asked a few firends on WebAfrica home uncapped 10mb to work within these brackets, and it all checked out.

Untill Webafrica can come back and tell me that the above is not more or less true, i will stick to it :)


Please note.

My personal usage falls in the 3 star rating window, and this is my experience when i hIt 3 stars.
  • gaming still yields 9ms ping on local server (CS:GO)
  • I can still stream netflix and hulu without buffering, sometimes quality drops for a minute, but this does not happen often.
  • youtube streams at around 150kbps during office hours
  • http downloads is around 200kbps during office hours.
  • i get full speeds on everything after 5pm (even torrents)

I use on avg 180gb per month, and i am yet to drop below 3 stars on home uncapped package. I torrent a total of around 100mb a month so i did not test it that much

.... the above tests was done with 3 other 10mb uncapped packages, peak usages was at different times and dates. and all 3 yielded the same patterns as my account.

To round things up:
  • Thanx WebAfrica for this package :) it actually performs quite well if you know the limits
  • Thanx WebAfrica for wasting my time figuring this out, you could have just said so, or at least given us an idea
Click to expand...

I must say this is an excellent overview and Kudos for taking the time to post this.

Two points here irked me and I experienced the same although I'm on 5 stars:
youtube streams at around 150kbps during office hours
http downloads is around 200kbps during office hours.

That's total BS for a 10Mb line during the day. I am able to get 1Mbps on Axxess Uncapped Shaped plan all day and night (Apart from this last week of their crap and I will be going back to them once this mess is sorted).

Currently I've moved to Vox Telecom and I'm getting 800kbps during the day on YouTube Streaming & downloads which works for me and what I need.

As a side note, I download 120GB -> 250GB a month. Average is around 150GB. So I shouldn't be too heavily shaped I don't think. Specially on a 10Mb.

Safe to say I'm leaving WebAfrica after 2 days.
 
Skowt said:
I must say this is an excellent overview and Kudos for taking the time to post this.

Two points here irked me and I experienced the same although I'm on 5 stars:
youtube streams at around 150kbps during office hours
http downloads is around 200kbps during office hours.

That's total BS for a 10Mb line during the day. I am able to get 1Mbps on Axxess Uncapped Shaped plan all day and night (Apart from this last week of their crap and I will be going back to them once this mess is sorted).

Currently I've moved to Vox Telecom and I'm getting 800kbps during the day on YouTube Streaming & downloads which works for me and what I need.

As a side note, I download 120GB -> 250GB a month. Average is around 150GB. So I shouldn't be too heavily shaped I don't think. Specially on a 10Mb.

Safe to say I'm leaving WebAfrica after 2 days.
Click to expand...

the streams and http downloads i mentioned was when i hit the 3 star rating.
 
Polemus said:
the streams and http downloads i mentioned was when i hit the 3 star rating.
Click to expand...

Yeah I see that. I download around 5gb a night so I think they might be throttling me but haven't updated the star rating as 7 days hasn't elapsed. All I know is, I've tested the service for 2 days and it's been crap.

Vox Telecom, smooth sailing so far.
 
WA = Streaming and general good behaviour stuff.

Afrihost = Torrents and all those yummy naughty naughty goodies :)
 
Skowt said:
Following the AfriHost / Axxess mass exodus this past week, I've gone ahead and moved to WebAfrica Uncapped Home account (which I see some users have advised against).

I've searched everywhere but I cannot see what the limits are for WebAfrica's rolling window on a 10MBps account? I've signed up 2 days ago, have 5 stars have downloaded 7GB (Over 2 days).

What would cause normal HTTP downloads and streaming to be limited to 200kbps for an hour, then full speed for an hour and so on back and forth?

Am I being limited based on the previous hours usage?

Perhaps this could be a thread for general rolling windows and usage limits for all ISP's. I'll update this post if it goes that way
Click to expand...
Fast forward to 2022

Afrihost launches uncapped mobile data @ R497 per month

Meh. Supersonic is waaaay better. Its actually pretty bad, they route everything through jhb even stay in cpt, not sure if they fixed routing yet
mybroadband.co.za mybroadband.co.za
 
Herr der Verboten said:
Fast forward to 2022

Afrihost launches uncapped mobile data @ R497 per month

Meh. Supersonic is waaaay better. Its actually pretty bad, they route everything through jhb even stay in cpt, not sure if they fixed routing yet
mybroadband.co.za mybroadband.co.za
Click to expand...

Not so fast :)

With people moving to Fibre and LTE ADSL and VDSL is a really affordable alternative. Performance have improved a lot an I see more and more DSLAM/ISAM's being pretty empty so they are performing well.

Screenshot 2022-08-17 144756.png
 
AfriNatic said:
Not so fast :)

With people moving to Fibre and LTE ADSL and VDSL is a really affordable alternative. Performance have improved a lot an I see more and more DSLAM/ISAM's being pretty empty so they are performing well.

View attachment 1366517
Click to expand...
Of course, but it is kinda funny if you think back to the whole rolling windows and fake-uncapped and generally speaking we still have not moved away from those practices. We (Tag) have challenged this back in the day, however, as you know TAG doesn't really exist anymore and companies are quite safe seeing the general activism has died with hellkom/telkom/myadsl. (to be blunt) When last have you seen something like R29 uncap and direct pressure from this site?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X