Afrihoax: Just Keeping Promises

2

21stcn

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 5, 2010
Messages
109
Reaction score
1
Do any Afrihost uncapped users have problems watching video on twitch.tv?

ORIGINAL ISSUE:

I cannot stream content from twitch.tv without stutter. 720p streaming on the site requires around 200 to 220 KB/s consistently to not stutter. I upgraded to 4MB especially because I wanted to stream video and I liked your 'real time services' policy, however, it has never worked on my Afrihost account, during shaped and unshaped hours, even though 4Mbps should not have a problem with maintaining 200KB/s. The connection spikes heavily and averages around 110KB/s

LATEST UPDATE:

We have ruled out shaping as a cause of the problem. In the next post I have left the support threads which led me to believe this was the primary problem. Text in grey below is erroneous or no longer relevant. For current progress on this problem, see the latest posts in this thread.

Afrihost has been very committed to sorting this out and have been in frequent contact. I am definitely now convinced that they do want to ensure their customers understand fully what they are getting and are happy with it, and that they strive to make their service of the quality they promise.

UPDATE:

From this thread, the subsequent support and user posts, I can confirm the following:

  • Although Afrihost state in their AUP that real-time services are never shaped, even for their standard uncapped products (ie: not business), the watching of twitch.tv is limited in that the port and protocol are shaped (this, according to Afrihost). This means if shaping is active in the form of (a) network shaping during peak hours or (b) your account being managed due to high usage, then you will potentially not be able to watch twitch.tv channels at near your line capacity
  • Even on an uncapped Afrihost product or one which has no shaping applied (turbo charge active or no shaping or managing active), there seems to be problems when streaming from twitch.tv, at least in my case. I cannot claim this is network wide (although users like theLastDodo and others on this thread seem to have had the same issues, even without shaping applied). Whereas the two test accounts I was given (one a special diagnostic account and the other an @fnbconnect account) had zero stuttering or lag streaming 720p for extended periods of time (maintaining down speeds of up to 240KB/s on 720p and 340KB/s on 1080p), even the unshaped Afrihost accounts experienced no-audio-loss stuttering and/or full stuttering when trying to stream 720p, although the stuttering was definitely not as bad as when the accounts were shaped.
  • Reach out to AfriGuy before/whilst losing your **** as he can pull some strings and provide personalised, urgent support

    I would like to warn all potential new Afrihost standard uncapped users who like to watch twitch.tv that as of the current time (22 July 2013) and up until Afrihost amend their AUP or service management, this will probably not work out for you and best to look elsewhere. The problem has not been solved yet, as far as I know, but my personal problem has been addressed by AH. I would also advise ppl having issues with twitch to report it to AH as mass pressure tends to work the best.
 
Last edited:
Afrihost reply 16 July


Looking at the trace route that you sent in the first email there seems to be nothing wrong with the network.
Kindly note that with regards to shaping as we mentioned that real time services are not shaped.
Twitch.tv might be using protocols that are shaped when your account is shaped. Please read below
and see if you make changes on how to stream live.twitch.tv will make a better difference.

I would also advise you to upgrade to a 4096 kbps business uncapped as it is unshaped at all times. You
will not experience what you have been experiencing with your current account. You will always get good
speeds unless if there is a problem (with Telkom, Afrihost or on your side).

Afrhost 16 July

Apologies for the frustrations.

I have read the mail trail, and understand that this matter has gone on long enough.

It is quite clear that the management policy is shaping a protocol that should not be shaped. We need to establish what ports are in use when streaming, do you know the exact ports?

If you are not sure, please run this command from the CMD or terminal (depending on the OS you are using):

netstat

This command will show us the ports in use. We can then escalate to our provider to make sure that the port in use is not affected by the management policy.

Please let us know if there is anything else we can do to assist you.

Afrhost 18 July

I have confirmed with our network and dev team, this service is not considered real-time, and as such is subject to our management policy.

Remember that the Turbo charge will solve this issue temporarily, but if you would like not to be shaped at all, our business uncapped accounts cater for this type of service.

Apologies for the inconvenience.

18 July

You definitely need to add it to your AUP, because in terms of definition, you can't get more real time than real time video streaming.

Your answer also doesn’t address why turbo charge doesn't in fact fix it temporarily, and why it doesn't work on a capped account.

In any case, I am over arguing about it as I am sure you are, so I'll be cancelling my account later this week.

Afrihost

Hi there,

I have requested this be added.

Thank you for your reply.

Please let us know if there is anything else we can do to assist you.
 
Last edited:
I can stream 720p from twitch fine, using business uncapped 6 mbps, but the data usage never exceeds 2.4 mbps
 
Hi 21stcn

It's concerning to say the least, reading through this thread. I'd like to personally take this over and discuss options on how we can move forward with our Management team to rectify this for you.
Please send me a PM with your details as well as the ticket reference numbers you've quoted here. I'll consolidate the info for our systems and have it escalated for you urgently.
 
Well well well.

I am in a similar dilemma. I do not get full line speed to any international server when downloading files. I am on a 6meg business uncapped account. The maximum I get is 200kb/sec, yet, on a capped account I get above 300kb/sec and with a webafrica capped account I get almost full line speed.

I have had this issue for weeks now. Afrihost tells me first it is due to my line syncing at 10 meg. So I downgrade the line to 6. Same shiz. The I get told the servers I download from do not have the bandwith. ROFL. They do.

@AfriGuy
How can it be that I only get a 1/4 of my line speed when downloading files from international servers? I am not talking about torrents or the like, normal files. And please dont tell me it my line, as I get a perfect connection with a webafrica account.

I am also not able to stream hulu or netflix in HD. Every now and then it works, but mostly its SD.
Youtube: 480P it buffers. 720p never works. If I force it it runs for a few seconds and switched me down to 360p.

I ran a few tests and recorded the outcome. This is what I deal with on a daily basis. Pathetic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keOAwAX9UPQ
 
Last edited:
nerf said:
I can stream 720p from twitch fine, using business uncapped 6 mbps, but the data usage never exceeds 2.4 mbps
Click to expand...

nerf, sadly this isn't saying much at all. 6Mbps should get you down speeds of around 768 KBps. The bandwidth required to stream 720 is between 170 and 240 KBps for the most part, just over a quarter of what you are paying for. (2.4 Mbps is 307 KBps so this exceeds what is required - in fact, a decent 2Mbps line could be used to stream 720p in some fantasy land where things work as they are advertised).

I can stream 480p almost perfectly on my 4 Mb, but that's not the way it should be, is it?

Can other Afrihost uncapped users share their experiences with Twitch?
 
Last edited:
koeksGHT said:
So did you end up canceling or did they change the management?
Click to expand...

koeksGHT that last post is the last of it from them, so no they did not change the management, but they promised to edit their AUP for what that's worth.

I haven't cancelled yet as I am looking for an alternative ISP with an uncapped product that has no issues with twitch tv. When I was testing, the fnbconnect account was PERFECT on 720p for hours over multiple days.
 
faaak, I am on an 8mb line and cant stream HD on youtube, Netflix and Hulu. The other night Youtube on SD was impossible.

I pm'd afriman my details as requested and no answer yet.


What gives
 
AfriGuy said:
Hi 21stcn

It's concerning to say the least, reading through this thread. I'd like to personally take this over and discuss options on how we can move forward with our Management team to rectify this for you.
Please send me a PM with your details as well as the ticket reference numbers you've quoted here. I'll consolidate the info for our systems and have it escalated for you urgently.
Click to expand...

Hi AfriGuy, thanks for swooping in.

As you saw, I was practically BEGGING for a response like you have just given, begging for an escalation. It is sad that often the only way to get someone to take your complaint seriously is with the threat of cancellation or of company smearing on a public forum like this. It didn't really work in this case, but at least a problem with your AUP was exposed.

That was your official support system, for actual customers. This is a public forum. It's absurd that it is only at this point, after exhausting official support options, becoming desperate, and leaking the issue that the option for escalation is now on the table. Why don't you rather look into the inefficiencies of the support system? You seem to deal with people's complaints on MBB pretty well, couldn't you port some of this personalised, urgent attention over to the Afrihost support system?

In any case I'll PM the details. Maybe you can sort out that policy for future users. And if you could find out why even unshaped streaming of twitch from afrihost does not work that would be a bonus.
 
I recently upgraded my 2Mb line to 4Mb and switched from Mweb to Afrihost, chiefly because their AUP was favourable to
...Realtime traffic protocols such as: Web browsing (HTTPS); Live Streaming...
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, since I switched accounts I have been unable to watch streams on twitch.tv. I can't even stream at 480p, when this wasn't a problem at all on my 2Mb line with my old account. I can, however, stream youtube videos at 720p with no problem.

This quote makes me livid:
I have confirmed with our network and dev team, this service is not considered real-time, and as such is subject to our management policy.
Click to expand...
Twitch.tv uses RTMP (Real Time Messaging Protocol) on port 1935 and for Afrihost to declare that this is not real-time is completely unnacceptable and a breach of the agreement they lay out (and celebrate!) with the user.

I too would like to see Afrihost address this issue properly or I will be moving on.
 
TheLastDodo I'm kinda glad I'm not the only one who has actively experienced and identified this problem and who can see the hypocrisy of the AUP, although I feel your pain. Why should we be denied proper access to a service like twitch? SA internet is terrible, but do we really need to stagnate further as the world moves forward and changes their internet habits increasingly to 'real time services' like twitch and netflix?

Twitch.tv uses RTMP (Real Time Messaging Protocol) on port 1935 and for Afrihost to declare that this is not real-time is completely unnacceptable and a breach of the agreement they lay out (and celebrate!) with the user.
Click to expand...

This is completely true and explains why the SA ISP consumer is so jaded.
 
Last edited:
21stcn said:
Hi AfriGuy, thanks for swooping in.

As you saw, I was practically BEGGING for a response like you have just given, begging for an escalation. It is sad that often the only way to get someone to take your complaint seriously is with the threat of cancellation or of company smearing on a public forum like this. It didn't really work in this case, but at least a problem with your AUP was exposed.

That was your official support system, for actual customers. This is a public forum. It's absurd that it is only at this point, after exhausting official support options, becoming desperate, and leaking the issue that the option for escalation is now on the table. Why don't you rather look into the inefficiencies of the support system? You seem to deal with people's complaints on MBB pretty well, couldn't you port some of this personalised, urgent attention over to the Afrihost support system?

In any case I'll PM the details. Maybe you can sort out that policy for future users. And if you could find out why even unshaped streaming of twitch from afrihost does not work that would be a bonus.
Click to expand...

I can fully understand where you're coming from. The situation isn't ideal, but I've requested a full investigation from our top guys to get to the bottom of this with you.
 
AfriGuy said:
I can fully understand where you're coming from. The situation isn't ideal, but I've requested a full investigation from our top guys to get to the bottom of this with you.
Click to expand...

Thanks AfriGuy. I appreciate it. Someone has called me. We are running tests and I will report back with a verdict.
 
Had my 1 meg line with Telkom and 1 meg uncapped with mweb. I was thinking of moving over to the bundled 1meg line/acc at afrihost for R297. But decided to go give mweb a go first. So far so good with them. Steaming Twitch every night at 480p with no buffering . Paying a R1000 ( R700 more than me ) for your 4meg uncapped and being forced to watch the same resolution as me is quite bad. If they do not sort you problem out, definitely need to look elsewhere.
 
@21stctn
Any resolution to your issues? Hoping that Afrihost fixes their shaping, rather than their AUP.

@afriguy
Any news on what Afrihost plans to do about this issue?
 
Yeah, streaming from Twitch.tv is always a problem. I hope they fix their shaping on it!
 
Experiencing the same issues with 2 different 4meg home uncapped accounts in different cities.

Slow download speeds from international servers. Speeds as low as 40kb/s at the worst of times with sometimes bursting to 120kb/s. Best speeds I've gotten from international is about the 200kb/s mark, never much more than that.

When tested, I actually saw similar download speeds from a dedicated server hosted in Afrihost on an international download.

The downloaded sources were all tested for speed from various other servers in other locations within and outside of SA, so I know for a fact there's no slowdowns on the files being downloaded.

So something is definitely not right ;)

I won't even begin to share the battle I'm having with them actually getting back to me with regards to this.
 
Last edited:
the internet is a lie :( there seems to have been a steady downgrade from all our isp's.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X