Afrihost Business Uncapped Feedback - 2

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AfriMan said:
Firstly, have you checked that your Business Optimisation is turned off? Seems like a few clients had theirs turned on and this was interfering with their unshaped experience. I don't have your account in front of me, so I can't tell you if this is the case.
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Has always been off, and when I got the mail about "modifications" my first thought was "OMG, they turned optimisations on" - checked it and it is was off.

AfriMan said:
It sounds like the modification made is a port reset. Our guys also sometimes say they've tweaked your account. I think the intention is to not overload a client with technical info, but clearly for a tech-minded client this is not enough information to go on. I'll definitely have a chat with our support management around this, I also think this is a little too vague.
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I don't think a port reset helped. At least when I tried around 4am today it was as flakey as the night before the modifications.

AfriMan said:
I know that there are some issues right now, and I don't want to come off as pretending there aren't. Our team is also working on these actively. I think saying we've lost our capability is a little sensational. We have run into a snag, we're addressing it as quickly as an issue of this nature can be addressed in a live environment, and I promise we're not cutting any corners. We're looking at any short and long term solutions to have the network running as efficiently and smoothly as possible.
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You know, when I ask your technical support team if there are any known issues and if I am the only one reporting problems that night, and I am then told that "everything is fine", then I get annoyed. If someone had explained that there are issues and possibly even had give more detail about the nature and possible ETA, it would have helped. Considering that I drop R1500 every month with you on premium services, my expectation would be to get more transparent support and not just a white wash.

Unfortunately I don't follow this thread post-per-post and my first port of call was your Network page (https://www.afrihost.com/site/network_status?src=website_nav) which shows no ADSL issue in Gauteng since 27th February (which I think is untrue) and no General Notices since the 27th March. So if you want to be more transparent, why can't AH post info about the "snags" you have right now? This is a strong reminder of August-October 2014, where you guys proactively denied for months any issues, until some sad/teary email from Gian arrived about how tough/horrible it was to work in a "war-room" solving all those issues night after night.
 
MagicDude4Eva said:
Has always been off, and when I got the mail about "modifications" my first thought was "OMG, they turned optimisations on" - checked it and it is was off.


I don't think a port reset helped. At least when I tried around 4am today it was as flakey as the night before the modifications.


You know, when I ask your technical support team if there are any known issues and if I am the only one reporting problems that night, and I am then told that "everything is fine", then I get annoyed. If someone had explained that there are issues and possibly even had give more detail about the nature and possible ETA, it would have helped. Considering that I drop R1500 every month with you on premium services, my expectation would be to get more transparent support and not just a white wash.

Unfortunately I don't follow this thread post-per-post and my first port of call was your Network page (https://www.afrihost.com/site/network_status?src=website_nav) which shows no ADSL issue in Gauteng since 27th February (which I think is untrue) and no General Notices since the 27th March. So if you want to be more transparent, why can't AH post info about the "snags" you have right now? This is a strong reminder of August-October 2014, where you guys proactively denied for months any issues, until some sad/teary email from Gian arrived about how tough/horrible it was to work in a "war-room" solving all those issues night after night.
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To be fair we did acknowledge issues here on MyBB and I can understand management's reasons for wanting to delay putting up notifications, I think they did believe at the time that the issue could be addressed (or at least alleviated) using means other than IPC upgrades (even though those were ordered and fast-tracked for earlier delivery than expected). I understand both arguments here, and I can't one is right or wrong. As a client, I would love to have every bit of information. As a business, I understand the need to be cautious and confirm before issuing a crisis notice. I think this is one of the reasons we do maintain a strong presence here on Mybroadband is to bridge that gap and try to fill in the blanks for our more IT orientated users. We can be more technical and frank, and also trust that the information will be received without being blown out of proportion.
 
Hmm, both my ISP international download speeds are bad, but one is twice as bad as the other right now...

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AfriMan said:
To be fair we did acknowledge issues here on MyBB and I can understand management's reasons for wanting to delay putting up notifications, I think they did believe at the time that the issue could be addressed (or at least alleviated) using means other than IPC upgrades (even though those were ordered and fast-tracked for earlier delivery than expected). I understand both arguments here, and I can't one is right or wrong. As a client, I would love to have every bit of information. As a business, I understand the need to be cautious and confirm before issuing a crisis notice. I think this is one of the reasons we do maintain a strong presence here on Mybroadband is to bridge that gap and try to fill in the blanks for our more IT orientated users. We can be more technical and frank, and also trust that the information will be received without being blown out of proportion.
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So how many of your non-tech-savvy customers frequent MyBB? I fail to see, that the issuing of a notice about degraded performance will result in mass panic. The purposeful decision by your management team to actively hide such information from the general public is actually more of an issue than being transparent about it. Anyone using Google Apps or AWS services will be familiar with service notices pushed to customers. The only time companies should not disclose information is if this could cause more damage (and this would only apply to what companies did during Heartbleed or similar events, where you would not disclose openly that you are patching servers due to a specific vulnerability).

I honestly don't understand why you could not just post on your public notice board "We are experiencing latency and throughput issues due to overutilisation/bugs/we-dont-know/whateva on our network and our engineers are working on it. Users will experience degraded performance when doing XXX" - can't be that difficult and I am failing to understand how this can result in "mass panic".

So by the sounds of it, very soon we are all getting another soppy mail from Gian - flashback November 2014, after 3 months of not wanting to "blow things out of proportion" - http://www.fin24.com/Tech/Mobile/Afrihost-apologises-for-network-problems-20141121

I didn't think that I need to explain to your executives the basics about corporate governance and transparency, but wilfully deciding not to disclose issues which result in not providing customers with the agreed service is certainly wrong and unethical. The only reason your executives decided to withhold such information (as in previous cases) was to avoid customer churn (which you faced anyway).
 
MagicDude4Eva said:
So how many of your non-tech-savvy customers frequent MyBB? I fail to see, that the issuing of a notice about degraded performance will result in mass panic. The purposeful decision by your management team to actively hide such information from the general public is actually more of an issue than being transparent about it. Anyone using Google Apps or AWS services will be familiar with service notices pushed to customers. The only time companies should not disclose information is if this could cause more damage (and this would only apply to what companies did during Heartbleed or similar events, where you would not disclose openly that you are patching servers due to a specific vulnerability).

I honestly don't understand why you could not just post on your public notice board "We are experiencing latency and throughput issues due to overutilisation/bugs/we-dont-know/whateva on our network and our engineers are working on it. Users will experience degraded performance when doing XXX" - can't be that difficult and I am failing to understand how this can result in "mass panic".

So by the sounds of it, very soon we are all getting another soppy mail from Gian - flashback November 2014, after 3 months of not wanting to "blow things out of proportion" - http://www.fin24.com/Tech/Mobile/Afrihost-apologises-for-network-problems-20141121

I didn't think that I need to explain to your executives the basics about corporate governance and transparency, but wilfully deciding not to disclose issues which result in not providing customers with the agreed service is certainly wrong and unethical. The only reason your executives decided to withhold such information (as in previous cases) was to avoid customer churn (which you faced anyway).
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I think corporate governance is a very different issue. You are implying that no structures exist, and not that they made a clear decision which they felt was in the best interest of our clients (all our clients, not just those on MyBB) as opposed to not having the structures or corporate values to make any decision. These are very different issues, so I think let's not cloud things with big words.

You may have opted to handle things differently, that's clear and as I said, I would understand your reasons for doing so. I also have faith and believe in our leaders and I know that this is not a decision taken lightly. They weigh up a lot of factors, the impact, the value and ultimately the benefit and make a decision based on hard data and experience. I think saying it's because of avoiding this or that is really wild speculation, unless you have a crystal ball or were present at the meetings where these issues are debated and decided upon.

I couldn't make that decision, I just simply don't have the credentials behind me, but I am empowered (by management) to speak openly on these forums with the information that I have.
 
Gavin107 said:
Hmm, both my ISP international download speeds are bad, but one is twice as bad as the other right now...

2849382085.png


2849382905.png
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Seems like there is not much in it right now. Also depends on where that server is and if that is maybe the issue.

Are you experiencing poor international on services that you use for downloads or streaming, etc?
 
AfriMan said:
Seems like there is not much in it right now. Also depends on where that server is and if that is maybe the issue.

Are you experiencing poor international on services that you use for downloads or streaming, etc?
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OK, I will continue to run tests to see if there is a pattern here.


Downloading 2Gb software install file from Sharefile - business related ZIP files from our software developers. Estimated download is over 12 hours right now, running at about 20Kbps. Our company is launching a product, we never factored in this sort of delay to get source files transferred. I really hope that in optimising the bandwidth your business users are not sucking hind t*t to Youtube videos of cats...
 
Gavin107 said:
OK, I will continue to run tests to see if there is a pattern here.


Downloading 2Gb software install file from Sharefile - business related ZIP files from our software developers. Estimated download is over 12 hours right now, running at about 20Kbps. Our company is launching a product, we never factored in this sort of delay to get source files transferred. I really hope that in optimising the bandwidth your business users are not sucking hind t*t to Youtube videos of cats...
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Yeah, that would suck. Ironically, the best way to express that would be a grumpy cat meme ;)

Drop me a PM, let's see if we can try a few things to get this done for you.
 
I also have been experiencing bad service recently. I thought it was Telkom, logged a fault with them. Tech was out the next day, says everything is fine from their end. Logged a fault with AH, customer support said there were a few people that night who complained about slow international speeds...As he was busy trying to resolve the issue, my international speeds picked up to full speed...He said that maybe one of the MTN techs picked up the issue and resolved it, I did not believe that was reason but I had no proof to base any of arguments on, so i left it as it was....I stll seldom experience these issues and it is frustrating considering that I am spending R997 pm for 10mb business uncapped....When will these issues be ironed out?
 
MagicDude4Eva said:
So how many of your non-tech-savvy customers frequent MyBB? I fail to see, that the issuing of a notice about degraded performance will result in mass panic. The purposeful decision by your management team to actively hide such information from the general public is actually more of an issue than being transparent about it. Anyone using Google Apps or AWS services will be familiar with service notices pushed to customers. The only time companies should not disclose information is if this could cause more damage (and this would only apply to what companies did during Heartbleed or similar events, where you would not disclose openly that you are patching servers due to a specific vulnerability).

I honestly don't understand why you could not just post on your public notice board "We are experiencing latency and throughput issues due to overutilisation/bugs/we-dont-know/whateva on our network and our engineers are working on it. Users will experience degraded performance when doing XXX" - can't be that difficult and I am failing to understand how this can result in "mass panic".

So by the sounds of it, very soon we are all getting another soppy mail from Gian - flashback November 2014, after 3 months of not wanting to "blow things out of proportion" - http://www.fin24.com/Tech/Mobile/Afrihost-apologises-for-network-problems-20141121

I didn't think that I need to explain to your executives the basics about corporate governance and transparency, but wilfully deciding not to disclose issues which result in not providing customers with the agreed service is certainly wrong and unethical. The only reason your executives decided to withhold such information (as in previous cases) was to avoid customer churn (which you faced anyway).
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I have been on about this since the debacle last year and have made a few posts about it.

Doubt anything will change dude.
 
JesseG said:
I also have been experiencing bad service recently. I thought it was Telkom, logged a fault with them. Tech was out the next day, says everything is fine from their end. Logged a fault with AH, customer support said there were a few people that night who complained about slow international speeds...As he was busy trying to resolve the issue, my international speeds picked up to full speed...He said that maybe one of the MTN techs picked up the issue and resolved it, I did not believe that was reason but I had no proof to base any of arguments on, so i left it as it was....I stll seldom experience these issues and it is frustrating considering that I am spending R997 pm for 10mb business uncapped....When will these issues be ironed out?
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Sorry that you're getting the occasional hiccups. I think it's important to remember that a network is less like a static machine and more like a living organism. There are lots of moving parts and variables (like demand, releases, protocols, etc) that change on a regular basis. This is a constant process of planning, maintenance and optimisation, rather than a once-off fix.
 
Mypro-D said:
I have been on about this since the debacle last year and have made a few posts about it.

Doubt anything will change dude.
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A lot has changed, I think it would only be fair to acknowledge that many of the technical issues that have plagued us (like authentication, etc) have been gradually improved and mostly behind us, and those still with us are being more proactively dealt with. We 're seeing faster turnaround times on solutions and we've also been open about this throughout. I know the big acknowledgement must go to our clients who have stuck with us and put their faith and trust and us through these times, but our team have also done well in a short space of time.
 
AfriMan said:
Sorry that you're getting the occasional hiccups. I think it's important to remember that a network is less like a static machine and more like a living organism. There are lots of moving parts and variables (like demand, releases, protocols, etc) that change on a regular basis. This is a constant process of planning, maintenance and optimisation, rather than a once-off fix.
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I do understand that service will not always be perfect and there will be the occasional hiccup....
Thanks for at least responding....
On the other hand it should be made public and not put away like a skeleton in a closet....
When your service works, it's unbelievably awesome, here's hoping that things get sorted out soon.....
 
JesseG said:
I do understand that service will not always be perfect and there will be the occasional hiccup....
Thanks for at least responding....
On the other hand it should be made public and not put away like a skeleton in a closet....
When your service works, it's unbelievably awesome, here's hoping that things get sorted out soon.....
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We're pushing hard to make sure things are running as they should as quickly as possible.

Keeping you guys up to date on the network status and the goings-on is definitely a top priority for us.
 
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