Afrihost Business Uncapped Feedback - 2

[AfriGuy]

Ok. Will try the trial webafrica account I have.
Thanks.

Would this not be linked to the fault I escalated yesterday? Not sure how much of an impact it would have on P2P.

 

[Dianysis]

Would this not be linked to the fault I escalated yesterday? Not sure how much of an impact it would have on P2P.

I honestly don't know - relying on your expertise with this. As said to ther other person who posted, this happened since about 7pm tonight.
Pretty much like clockwork every evening - usually between 6 and 7 that this occurs.
Just don't understand why even though my speed test is decent (at this moment) my p2p downloads are dead in the water.

 

[dasco144]

Having MASSIVE packet loss on League of Legends tonight :/

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Tracing route to afrihost.com [197.242.144.102]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 10.0.0.2
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 35 ms 27 ms 27 ms 41.181.201.93
4 26 ms 25 ms 26 ms 41.181.201.94
5 27 ms 25 ms 27 ms tb-dca-2.za--qux-c.za.mtnbusiness.net [41.181.19
8.188]
6 38 ms 37 ms 35 ms compj-cpt-1.mtnns.net [196.44.18.2]
7 26 ms 30 ms 28 ms ct-cr-2.za--tb-cr-1.za.mtnns.net [196.44.31.134]

8 46 ms 45 ms 46 ms rb-cr-1.za--ct-cr-2.za.mtnns.net [196.44.31.69]

9 46 ms 46 ms 46 ms jh-dca-2.za--jh-cr-1.za-a.mtnns.net [196.44.0.22
1]
10 45 ms 45 ms 47 ms 196.30.1.53
11 46 ms 46 ms 45 ms 196.31.220.25
12 110 ms 246 ms 232 ms 196.31.63.206
13 47 ms 49 ms 46 ms vl9-ah-ha-2.za.mtnbusiness.net [196.30.42.133]
14 46 ms 47 ms 46 ms cms-gm.afrihost.com [197.242.144.102]

Trace complete.

I have been having this almost every night for the past month or so. everyone on the LoL SA Facebook page basically says if you want to have a good game change ISP or use a different account. I'm forced to use my VOX account just to play LoL...

 

[AfriGuy]

I honestly don't know - relying on your expertise with this. As said to ther other person who posted, this happened since about 7pm tonight.
Pretty much like clockwork every evening - usually between 6 and 7 that this occurs.
Just don't understand why even though my speed test is decent (at this moment) my p2p downloads are dead in the water.

That is pretty weird, it'll be quite hard to get consistent results with an open fault though. Line faults can do really odd things sometimes. Not sure if you've tested this, but are your HTTP downloads slow too?

 

[Dianysis]

That is pretty weird, it'll be quite hard to get consistent results with an open fault though. Line faults can do really odd things sometimes. Not sure if you've tested this, but are your HTTP downloads slow too?

I will try an http download quick to test.

 

[Dianysis]

Http download definitely has better speed - but very erratic. Ranges from 90 kb/s up to about 410 kb/s.
So very wonky.
Sounds like the fault causing this?
Basically averaging out at about 2mbps.

Please forgive my ignorance, but shouldn't a fault at the exchange cause trouble all the time and not just at certain times? Or am I missing the bus completely?

 

[wingnut771]

Ok. Will try the trial webafrica account I have.
Thanks.
Most probably a Telkom issue as stated previously - but this only happened from about 7pm onwards. Pretty much like clockwork every night.

I wonder if Telkom have the ability to block/throttle certain protocols when/if the exchange reaches capacity?

It would be interesting how the other account performs during the same period.

 

[wingnut771]

Http download definitely has better speed - but very erratic. Ranges from 90 kb/s up to about 410 kb/s.
So very wonky.
Sounds like the fault causing this?
Basically averaging out at about 2mbps.

Please forgive my ignorance, but shouldn't a fault at the exchange cause trouble all the time and not just at certain times? Or am I missing the bus completely?

I would say all the time is a line fault and only sometime is the exchange/isp.

 

[Dianysis]

I would say all the time is a line fault and only sometime is the exchange/isp.

Thank you for your feedback.
Hope that it will be sorted asap.

 

[wingnut771]

Thank you for your feedback.
Hope that it will be sorted asap.

Howz WA/p2p?

 

[Dianysis]

Tested WA about 10 minutes ago - close to 400 kb/s. Back on AH and getting about 370 kb/s.
Exactly the same p2p files and exactly the same program.
But my speeds usually come right between 10 and 11 at night.
So ya......
Will try again with WA tomorrow night when my speeds go belly up.

 

[electrofreeze]

funny when the clock strikes 12 how the internet speeds up again mabe it is because everybody is sleeping and there is more capacity

 

[AfriMan]

Http download definitely has better speed - but very erratic. Ranges from 90 kb/s up to about 410 kb/s.
So very wonky.
Sounds like the fault causing this?
Basically averaging out at about 2mbps.

Please forgive my ignorance, but shouldn't a fault at the exchange cause trouble all the time and not just at certain times? Or am I missing the bus completely?

It really depends, you can also get intermittent line faults, which basically means performs is unstable, or disconnects frequently. We sometimes see disconnected so brief that the user barely notices except when using certain services.

But also remember that torrents can't be relied on to give an indicator of throughput. Maybe if you queued up 1,000 torrents, it could run at max all the time, but the upload of the various seeders will vary as they use their line (because DSL is not symmetrical) and also as you switch between seeders and upload yourself as you get more of the file. You will also see some variance. If you are only testing a handful of files, it is unpredictable. Direct HTTP downloads are usually a better indication, but it also impossible to know what factors affect the server unless it's a file setup on your own server in a data centre who's conditions you know or control.

 

[AfriMan]

I wonder if Telkom have the ability to block/throttle certain protocols when/if the exchange reaches capacity?

It would be interesting how the other account performs during the same period.

We know that their dynamic system implemented has the potential to do this, but we have no clarity as yet on whether Telkom intend to use it for this purpose. For the moment we know that it's focussed on individual line stability. However, in the past Telkom techs have dropped sync rates on congested exchanges across the board to relieve congestion.

 

[AfriMan]

Tested WA about 10 minutes ago - close to 400 kb/s. Back on AH and getting about 370 kb/s.
Exactly the same p2p files and exactly the same program.
But my speeds usually come right between 10 and 11 at night.
So ya......
Will try again with WA tomorrow night when my speeds go belly up.

Not sure if you mean kB or kb, but will assume kB because most torrent clients like that

Again, it depends, whenever you switch accounts and then reconnect you could be paired with a different seeder, so it's not really an accurate test. You would need to download the exact same file, from the exact same source (server) in the same conditions to be able to make a direct comparison.

 

[AfriMan]

funny when the clock strikes 12 how the internet speeds up again mabe it is because everybody is sleeping and there is more capacity

Well I think that goes the same for congestion on exchanges, or on pretty much every link in the DSL chain, on our network and externally.

We do see high demand in the evenings, but remember that we shape Uncapped accounts (not Business) to manage demand and at the moment we're still seeing the demand in line with the available capacity. As that demand (with Uncapped shaping) gets too close to our available capacity, we'll initiate plans to order more - but we would have planned ahead based on growth projections, trend analysis, etc.

 

[Azure Wrath]

Oh no
Have you tested with your 1GB account to see if the results are any better?

Not yet, no. I'll give that a go tonight and see if it's any better.

I have been having this almost every night for the past month or so. everyone on the LoL SA Facebook page basically says if you want to have a good game change ISP or use a different account. I'm forced to use my VOX account just to play LoL...

Hmmm... Time to whip out some of those trial accounts lying around. Don't know which outcome I'd prefer; having a buggered exchange, or having a bad time with my ISP :/

 

[cortexenslaver]

Latency is very high in the Cape.... May be a Telkom issue, as the only ISP account that doesn't seem to be affected as much is my MWEB account.

Out of ALL the accounts I have (Telkom, MWEB, Axxess, Afrihost, WebAfrica), my AH accounts are the worst - 60ms to 150ms to Cape Town server (previously 11ms) and JHB 180ms to 240ms (previously 28ms).

Even my Axxess account (MTN with same routing as AH) has lower latency 40ms (CPT) and 60ms (JHB).

This cannot be exchange congestion, as ALL traces are normal, and this happens at any time in the day/night randomly. I then suffer lots of time-outs, periods of no throughput, high page load times, and sometimes certain sites are not available at all.

 

[Dianysis]

It really depends, you can also get intermittent line faults, which basically means performs is unstable, or disconnects frequently. We sometimes see disconnected so brief that the user barely notices except when using certain services.

But also remember that torrents can't be relied on to give an indicator of throughput. Maybe if you queued up 1,000 torrents, it could run at max all the time, but the upload of the various seeders will vary as they use their line (because DSL is not symmetrical) and also as you switch between seeders and upload yourself as you get more of the file. You will also see some variance. If you are only testing a handful of files, it is unpredictable. Direct HTTP downloads are usually a better indication, but it also impossible to know what factors affect the server unless it's a file setup on your own server in a data centre who's conditions you know or control.

I understand your point.
But there is a definite difference in the performance of my line since 11 Febraury - from Google play store downloads/updates, playstation and xbox updates, browsing, http downloads and p2p have all been affected. And it is usually always between about 6 pm and 10 pm at night and over the week end.
i.e. my line is most definitely not performing as it did before 11 February - speed tests were around 3,3 mbps any time of day, well seeded ( single) p2p downloads would be running at about 320 kB/s no problem ( sometimes even up to 400 kB/s), Google play store would update at about 400 kB/s, connection speed tests on playstation and xbox would show as 3,2 mbps ( mostly), you get picture.
Based on my own previous experience before 11 February, there is something seriously wrong.
Bought a new router ( to have one spare) which i used test - same story.
Tried new cables, New pots filter, with and without pots filter, wireless and cable.
So hopefully, if the Telkom fault is causing all this, it can be sorted out asap.

 

[Dianysis]

Not sure if you mean kB or kb, but will assume kB because most torrent clients like that

Again, it depends, whenever you switch accounts and then reconnect you could be paired with a different seeder, so it's not really an accurate test. You would need to download the exact same file, from the exact same source (server) in the same conditions to be able to make a direct comparison.

Yes I mean kilobytes per second. So yes, kB
Apologies.