Afrihost Business Uncapped Feedback - 2

[AfriMan]

As per AH techs suggestion, I carried this test out.

I must also say that the frequent disconnects have stopped.

Experience is better, torrents no problem, browsing sometimes is a problem....

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

1 3 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 90 ms 115 ms 46 ms 105-236-1-1-esr-lo.mtnbusiness.co.za [105.236.1.
1]
3 123 ms 84 ms 163 ms 41.181.221.214
4 68 ms 80 ms 53 ms rb-dca-2.za--qux-b.za.mtnbusiness.net [41.181.16
5.118]
5 71 ms 50 ms 48 ms rb-cr-1.za--rb-dca-2.mtnns.net [196.44.31.122]
6 119 ms 146 ms 137 ms jh-dca-2.za--jh-cr-1.za-a.mtnns.net [196.44.0.22
1]
7 104 ms 143 ms 111 ms 196.31.220.12
8 19 ms 81 ms 53 ms 196.31.220.25
9 136 ms 103 ms 65 ms 196.31.63.206
10 34 ms 18 ms 32 ms vl9-ah-ha-2.za.mtnbusiness.net [196.30.42.133]
11 21 ms 18 ms 32 ms cms-gm.afrihost.com [197.242.144.102]

Trace complete.


Free 1 Gig Ah Account
Tracing route to www.afrihost.com [197.242.144.102]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms 3 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 8 ms 10 ms 13 ms 105-236-1-1-esr-lo.mtnbusiness.co.za [105.236.1.
1]
3 17 ms 17 ms 17 ms 41.181.221.214
4 17 ms 18 ms 19 ms rb-dca-2.za--qux-b.za.mtnbusiness.net [41.181.16
5.118]
5 18 ms * 32 ms rb-cr-1.za--rb-dca-2.mtnns.net [196.44.31.122]
6 90 ms 41 ms 19 ms 196.44.31.97
7 52 ms 29 ms 18 ms 196.31.220.12
8 20 ms 25 ms 19 ms 196.31.220.25
9 213 ms 40 ms 30 ms 196.31.63.206
10 18 ms 17 ms 17 ms vl9-ah-ha-2.za.mtnbusiness.net [196.30.42.133]
11 18 ms 19 ms 23 ms cms-gm.afrihost.com [197.242.144.102]

Trace complete.

What was that about AH has no influence on the second hop? Reason I ask is because of the obvious differences here.

These two test run one after the other this morning.

The latency still seems very inconsistent to me. Remember that Business and Capped accounts are drawn from the same "data pool" and essentially have the same business rules, so there is no real difference. If they perform differently, it could be a port reset that temporarily improves the line.

I made enquiries via MTN & Telkom regarding the 2nd hop latency (ESR) and was told absolutely that our network cannot affect the 2nd hop as that is a Telkom router which routes traffic to our network. I'm happy to make further enquiries but I'm sure the Telkom Rep here on MyBB could also confirm that for us.

 

[AfriMan]

Unfortunately loadshedding is going to be a problem for some time.. That probably means stay away from Afrihost till Eskom fixes it's problems. Oh wait...

As far as I know, if the loadshedding affects the Telkom infrastructure all ISP will be affected. We've seen many clients unable to auth or get poor throughput during loadshedding and sometimes for an hour or so afterwards until services seem to come back online fully.

 

[LegionECX]

Well considering it always used to work fine with my Afrihost business account, I am unable to logon to a PC Game (Wizard101) and a PS4 game (Destiny) and downloads from the iStore are dog slow when I have my AH credentials entered in my router, but when I get a free openweb account and enter just the username and password, I am able to login to everything and downloads are lightning fast from Istore.

This is really unacceptable, I logged a call and you support engineer told me their is high network load - why do I pay a premium for business account if you are going to shape me/throttle me (my abovementioned problem only goes away after 11pm at night, but during peak times the problem is back) and then I receive a generic answer that your network load is too high - if your network load is too high upgrade your infrastructure instead of further oversubscribing your service!

 

[Ho3n3r]

Afrigenie cancelled my ADSL and line bundle with Afrihost on the 30th of March, and it was a manual cancellation as it was after the 25th.

I had no debit orders going off then, but my line is still "Cancellation Pending". Any idea how long before it's migrated back to Telkom? 24 days seems quite long.

Thanks in advance.

 

[MagicDude4Eva]

As far as I know, if the loadshedding affects the Telkom infrastructure all ISP will be affected. We've seen many clients unable to auth or get poor throughput during loadshedding and sometimes for an hour or so afterwards until services seem to come back online fully.

I am failing to see how loadshedding impacts your problem:

Also, can someone from Afrihost comment on the recent feedback from your support team (ticket XIF-569-52312):

I have restarted your sessions , please test this again and see if it works.
You will have to reboot your router for it to take effect in some cases.
Please change the DNS setting to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.
If this doesn't help please let us know.

 

[AfriMan]

Well considering it always used to work fine with my Afrihost business account, I am unable to logon to a PC Game (Wizard101) and a PS4 game (Destiny) and downloads from the iStore are dog slow when I have my AH credentials entered in my router, but when I get a free openweb account and enter just the username and password, I am able to login to everything and downloads are lightning fast from Istore.

This is really unacceptable, I logged a call and you support engineer told me their is high network load - why do I pay a premium for business account if you are going to shape me/throttle me (my abovementioned problem only goes away after 11pm at night, but during peak times the problem is back) and then I receive a generic answer that your network load is too high - if your network load is too high upgrade your infrastructure instead of further oversubscribing your service!

We're definitely aware of the problems, and our aim is to give you as much information as we have at the moment. We have seen some great improvements as our network team have managed to bring demand under control (mostly by shaping Uncapped P2P accounts that were bypassing shaping) and focussing on overall streamlining and efficiency on the network. We expect to see overall improvement on gaming as well as other latency dependant realtime services, and generally better throughput as that process continues.

We are testing major releases like Destiny, GTA, etc to ensure that gaming performance is good and gaming traffic has highest priority on the network.

 

[AfriMan]

Afrigenie cancelled my ADSL and line bundle with Afrihost on the 30th of March, and it was a manual cancellation as it was after the 25th.

I had no debit orders going off then, but my line is still "Cancellation Pending". Any idea how long before it's migrated back to Telkom? 24 days seems quite long.

Thanks in advance.

If you cancelled on the 30th, then cancellation would usually take place on the 31st of April at midnight.

The line would migrate back when the cancellation takes effect, unless the Genie did it manually (which I can also do for you if you need it moved ASAP). Just PM me.

 

[AfriMan]

I am failing to see how loadshedding impacts your problem:

Also, can someone from Afrihost comment on the recent feedback from your support team (ticket XIF-569-52312):

Sounds like that is the hitting the nail with a hammer, sledgehammer and brick approach. Problem with that is that if it changes we don't know which move worked

 

[TEXTILE GUY]

The latency still seems very inconsistent to me. Remember that Business and Capped accounts are drawn from the same "data pool" and essentially have the same business rules, so there is no real difference. If they perform differently, it could be a port reset that temporarily improves the line.

I made enquiries via MTN & Telkom regarding the 2nd hop latency (ESR) and was told absolutely that our network cannot affect the 2nd hop as that is a Telkom router which routes traffic to our network. I'm happy to make further enquiries but I'm sure the Telkom Rep here on MyBB could also confirm that for us.

I think your guys are working on this, thanks boet.

 

[Ho3n3r]

If you cancelled on the 30th, then cancellation would usually take place on the 31st of April at midnight.

The line would migrate back when the cancellation takes effect, unless the Genie did it manually (which I can also do for you if you need it moved ASAP). Just PM me.

No, it was a manual cancellation. And the debit order went off. Also, my account is capped and unusable now, which is fair.

Please read what I typed.

Thanks in advance.

 

[MagicDude4Eva]

We are testing major releases like Destiny, GTA, etc to ensure that gaming performance is good and gaming traffic has highest priority on the network.

I disagree - lag on Destiny and frequent disconnects have increased over the last two weeks. This happens irrespective of the account type but when I play with locals on Destiny, I will have higher latency and more lag despite being on 10Mbps uncapped compared to others being on 4Mbps Telkom.

Last night it was faster for me to look at a Youtube video on my iPad via a CellC 3G connection. When using Afrihost, Youtube suggest a 144P resolution and then still buffered, whereas the iPad played a smooth 720P - shows you that this is an AH issue and has nothing to do with: Eskom loadshedding, Xenophobic attacks, Donald Trump's hairstyle (or whatever other excuse your support team comes up with).

This month alone I have logged 3 tickets which resulted in:
(1) Port resets
(2) Bounce your router
(3) Make sure to use our DNS servers
(4) Wait... change to Google DNS

The above alone indicates that you guys have no idea or could not be bothered to actually look at the problem and rather go with a "Did you try and switch it off and on again" approach

 

[TheGrove]

Hey @Afriman, sorry forgot to save the server name but according to netstat the GTA V process has no open connections however the SocialClub process has a two connections open both to an IP in Johannesburgh and the latency is 60-70ms each time with no dropped packets however I get constant lag in game.

As a test I switched over to Vodacom 3G, in game lag was completely gone and running smoothly.

The moment any of my crew try join a heist that I am hosting when running on the Afri connection they also start to lag like crazy.

Speed test shows 3.1mb down and 0.39mb up.

I have the same issue in BF4, switch to another ISP and latency is fine, but when on Afri I get constant lag spikes to 999ms.


What else can I do beside using 3G/alt ISP for gaming? Really happy with AH for everything else just gaming is an issue.

 

[Dianysis]

So, I am busy testing a p2p download through a vpn as someone suggested - guess what - getting 355 kB/s.
Disconnect from vpn - get only 20 kB/s.
Things just seem to get "curiouser and curiouser".

AH, care to comment?

 

[whatwhat]

AH, care to comment?

Check your business optimisation setting in ClientZone? That seems to have been turned on for a lot of people all of a sudden.

 

[Dianysis]

Check your business optimisation setting in ClientZone? That seems to have been turned on for a lot of people all of a sudden.

First thing I checked before posting and complaining.

 

[AfriMan]

No, it was a manual cancellation. And the debit order went off. Also, my account is capped and unusable now, which is fair.

Please read what I typed.

Thanks in advance.

No problem. If he cancelled your line manually then it should be back with Telkom within 3-5 days of the manual cancellation. I'd have to see the account to confirm if that was what was actioned.

 

[AfriMan]

Hey @Afriman, sorry forgot to save the server name but according to netstat the GTA V process has no open connections however the SocialClub process has a two connections open both to an IP in Johannesburgh and the latency is 60-70ms each time with no dropped packets however I get constant lag in game.

As a test I switched over to Vodacom 3G, in game lag was completely gone and running smoothly.

The moment any of my crew try join a heist that I am hosting when running on the Afri connection they also start to lag like crazy.

Speed test shows 3.1mb down and 0.39mb up.

I have the same issue in BF4, switch to another ISP and latency is fine, but when on Afri I get constant lag spikes to 999ms.


What else can I do beside using 3G/alt ISP for gaming? Really happy with AH for everything else just gaming is an issue.

We ran some tests with GTA and we found that the person who is lagging in the game does not experience any lag. However anyone gaming in the same game will see him rubberbanding. We ran some tests with different ISP accounts, and this seemed to be consistent when we rate limited the line on one end and swopped the accounts around.

BF4 would be slightly different, I don't know if we specifically tested it recently, but it has been working for a long time. Do you only get latency spikes in-game?

 

[AfriMan]

AH, care to comment?

I think this is heading towards suspicions of shaping and I can only confirm again that we definitely don't shape Business accounts. If services perform differently, then I am told that this is only possible due to contention.

 

[TheGrove]

We ran some tests with GTA and we found that the person who is lagging in the game does not experience any lag. However anyone gaming in the same game will see him rubberbanding. We ran some tests with different ISP accounts, and this seemed to be consistent when we rate limited the line on one end and swopped the accounts around.

BF4 would be slightly different, I don't know if we specifically tested it recently, but it has been working for a long time. Do you only get latency spikes in-game?

But that is not the case, I see everyone else rubberbanding and if someone else is driving the car teleports all over the place.

When switching to a different ISP/3G, I no longer have that issue. Surely if the fault was elsewhere I would have the issue on 3G as well?

 

[Dianysis]

I think this is heading towards suspicions of shaping and I can only confirm again that we definitely don't shape Business accounts. If services perform differently, then I am told that this is only possible due to contention.

It isn't leading anywhere.
I would like answers.

Tested same p2p download on:
AH - slow
AH using vpn - 350 kB/s
CW - 350 kB/s