Afrihost Business Uncapped Feedback - 2

[AfriMan]

It appears Cape Town connectivity to our servers in Cape Town is being routed via Joburg this morning. With 150ms-500ms latency and huge packet loss. So glad we cancelled. Can't wait for the end of the month.

PS:
In fact, even speedtest seems to think we are in Joburg. What is going on?

Post a traceroute so we can check if your routing is correct.

 

[Former member 61586]

Because it's mostly the existing client base demand more bandwidth, but paying the same rates (if not lower when we've dropped prices fro VDSL bundles for example). So instead of raising prices, we're absorbing the cost.

You advertise a service where people are guaranteed 24/7 line speed service. How much more bandwidth could such a user use? Unless of course 25 hour days are invented.

 

[cortexenslaver]

Because it's mostly the existing client base demand more bandwidth, but paying the same rates (if not lower when we've dropped prices fro VDSL bundles for example). So instead of raising prices, we're absorbing the cost.

As far as the VDSL bundle price, there is no added cost to AH - your LINE rental has decreased. NOT the cost of data.

Poor example... Let's not mention that the general cost of IPC HAS come down in recent times. The current subscriber base is constantly increasing due to AH's constant specials and giveaways. THIS is the reason your contention is so high, and not that the SAME clients are consuming more. A lot of your clients have recently switched from Home Uncapped to Capped, thus, in theory, making it much easier for AH to "supposedly" measure and project correctly the demand required to "keep all users' experiences" constant.

 

[MrGray]

Post a traceroute so we can check if your routing is correct.

Sorry, I am too busy to do your network troubleshooting for you. You are routing all local Cape Town business uncapped traffic via Joburg and to be honest if AH doesn't know what's going on with their own network there is probably no point in telling you this anyway.

 

[TEXTILE GUY]

Good Morning

I see that some clients are still having a poor experience, but the great news is that we've already seen IPC go live in the EAST and we're currently seeing excellent performance in the region.

This bodes well for the remaining regions to get more IPC very soon, ad we should start seeing improvement. Since all the upgrades were ordered at the same time, we don't expect that the rest of the IPC should be too far behind.

Yeah ... WHOO HOO partys on ... Thats me ... the EAST region - MMMM sun sea fo' sho' .....

 

[TEXTILE GUY]

Anybody in the East experiencing line speed again? Not that I don't trust Afrihost.

/raises hand

But - I am willing to give AH the benefit of the doubt here ... they say that they have put in extra capacity ... and I wil keep an eye on this.
.... Not that I dont trust Africrew .... they are a cool bunch of guys and do provide a great source of entertainemnt.

 

[AfriMan]

You advertise a service where people are guaranteed 24/7 line speed service. How much more bandwidth could such a user use? Unless of course 25 hour days are invented.

Demand is not a consistent fixed value. It's variable, according to times when demand is used, and when people use bandwidth based on their infrastructure and their requirements.

So more devices could be added onto local networks, line could be upgrades for faster speeds, or people could just be generally be using more bandwidth hungry services.

 

[Chevron]

You advertise a service where people are guaranteed 24/7 line speed service. How much more bandwidth could such a user use? Unless of course 25 hour days are invented.

Remember that they have contention ratios that they work with. You're obviously not buying a 1:1 connection as it would cost around 10times more than what you're what paying now.

 

[AfriMan]

Sorry, I am too busy to do your network troubleshooting for you. You are routing all local Cape Town business uncapped traffic via Joburg and to be honest if AH doesn't know what's going on with their own network there is probably no point in telling you this anyway.

I can't troubleshoot an issue that is specific to you and your network/equipment. I can only make an analysis based on your results, which could also be misinterpreted since I don't know what you are basing the assumption on.

 

[Chevron]

Demand is not a consistent fixed value. It's variable, according to times when demand is used, and when people use bandwidth based on their infrastructure and their requirements.

So more devices could be added onto local networks, line could be upgrades for faster speeds, or people could just be generally be using more bandwidth hungry services.

Probably more devices and more peak time services. I'm sure you've seen a big increase in streaming services which happens during peak time. This will only get worse as people move from p2p, which can scheduled for off peak times.

 

[MrGray]

I can't troubleshoot an issue that is specific to you and your network/equipment. I can only make an analysis based on your results, which could also be misinterpreted since I don't know what you are basing the assumption on.

Oh, right - just my ADSL connection has decided it should route all local Cape Town traffic via Johannesburg today with massive packet loss. Either that, or I am obviously just another dumb user who doesn't understand traceroute. Makes sense.

 

[Crusader]

Did you drop me the results on an email? I think you were chatting to our new rep, AfriGenie, but I'll double check with him as well.

I think you were the last person I chatted to. Have dropped them in an email, but it's the same pathpings as ones I posted in the thread over here

 

[AfriMan]

Probably more devices and more peak time services. I'm sure you've seen a big increase in streaming services which happens during peak time. This will only get worse as people move from p2p, which can scheduled for off peak times.

Definitely a lot more HD yOuTUbe and Apple Services (iTunes) streaming. P2P still consumes a hell of a lot, but we've seen an increase in streaming for sure.

 

[Crusader]

The numbers look even worse this morning.

Computing statistics for 225 seconds...
            Source to Here   This Node/Link
Hop  RTT    Lost/Sent = Pct  Lost/Sent = Pct  Address
  0                                           PC [192.168.0.10]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  1    0ms     0/ 100 =  0%     0/ 100 =  0%  192.168.0.1
                                7/ 100 =  7%   |
  2   43ms    16/ 100 = 16%     9/ 100 =  9%  105-236-4-193-esr-lo.mtnbusiness.co.za [105.236.4.193]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  3   43ms     8/ 100 =  8%     1/ 100 =  1%  ipc-recieve-tb-1a.mtnbusiness.net[41.181.53.150]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  4   43ms     7/ 100 =  7%     0/ 100 =  0%  tb-dca-2.za--qux-a.za.mtnbusiness.net [41.181.184.28]
                                1/ 100 =  1%   |
  5   45ms     8/ 100 =  8%     0/ 100 =  0%  compj-cpt-1.mtnns.net [196.44.18.2]
                               92/ 100 = 92%   |
  6  ---     100/ 100 =100%     0/ 100 =  0%  ls-cr-2.uk--tb-cr-1.za.mtnns.net [196.44.31.113]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  7  ---     100/ 100 =100%     0/ 100 =  0%  am-cr-1.nl--ls-cr-2.uk-a.mtnns.net [196.44.31.183]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  8  ---     100/ 100 =100%     0/ 100 =  0%  am-tpr-1.nl--am-cr-1.nl-a.mtn.net[209.212.111.141]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  9  ---     100/ 100 =100%     0/ 100 =  0%  xe-4-1-0.edge5.Amsterdam1.Level3.net [212.72.41.89]

Trace complete.


Computing statistics for 225 seconds...
            Source to Here   This Node/Link
Hop  RTT    Lost/Sent = Pct  Lost/Sent = Pct  Address
  0                                           PC [192.168.0.10]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  1    0ms     0/ 100 =  0%     0/ 100 =  0%  192.168.0.1
                                6/ 100 =  6%   |
  2   32ms    14/ 100 = 14%     8/ 100 =  8%  105-236-4-193-esr-lo.mtnbusiness.co.za [105.236.4.193]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  3   34ms     6/ 100 =  6%     0/ 100 =  0%  ipc-recieve-tb-1a.mtnbusiness.net[41.181.53.150]
                                1/ 100 =  1%   |
  4   32ms     7/ 100 =  7%     0/ 100 =  0%  tb-dca-2.za--qux-a.za.mtnbusiness.net [41.181.184.28]
                                2/ 100 =  2%   |
  5   31ms     9/ 100 =  9%     0/ 100 =  0%  compj-cpt-1.mtnns.net [196.44.18.2]
                               91/ 100 = 91%   |
  6  ---     100/ 100 =100%     0/ 100 =  0%  ls-cr-2.uk--tb-cr-1.za.mtnns.net [196.44.31.113]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  7  ---     100/ 100 =100%     0/ 100 =  0%  am-cr-1.nl--ls-cr-2.uk-a.mtnns.net [196.44.31.183]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  8  ---     100/ 100 =100%     0/ 100 =  0%  am-tpr-1.nl--am-cr-1.nl-a.mtn.net[209.212.111.141]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  9  ---     100/ 100 =100%     0/ 100 =  0%  xe-4-1-0.edge5.Amsterdam1.Level3.net [212.72.41.89]

Trace complete.


Tracing route to afrihost.com [197.242.144.102]

Computing statistics for 325 seconds...
            Source to Here   This Node/Link
Hop  RTT    Lost/Sent = Pct  Lost/Sent = Pct  Address
  0                                           PC [192.168.0.10]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  1    0ms     0/ 100 =  0%     0/ 100 =  0%  192.168.0.1
                                6/ 100 =  6%   |
  2   32ms     8/ 100 =  8%     2/ 100 =  2%  105-236-4-193-esr-lo.mtnbusiness.co.za [105.236.4.193]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  3   35ms    12/ 100 = 12%     6/ 100 =  6%  ipc-send-tb-3a.mtnbusiness.net [41.181.53.214]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  4   35ms    10/ 100 = 10%     4/ 100 =  4%  tb-dca-2.za--qux-c.za.mtnbusiness.net [41.181.198.188]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  5   33ms    11/ 100 = 11%     5/ 100 =  5%  compj-cpt-1.mtnns.net [196.44.18.2]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  6   33ms     7/ 100 =  7%     1/ 100 =  1%  ct-cr-2.za--tb-cr-1.za.mtnns.net [196.44.31.134]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  7   56ms     6/ 100 =  6%     0/ 100 =  0%  rb-cr-1.za--ct-cr-2.za.mtnns.net [196.44.31.69]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  8   52ms    11/ 100 = 11%     5/ 100 =  5%  196.44.31.97
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  9   89ms    10/ 100 = 10%     4/ 100 =  4%  196.31.220.12
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
 10   51ms     6/ 100 =  6%     0/ 100 =  0%  196.31.220.25
                                3/ 100 =  3%   |
 11  133ms     9/ 100 =  9%     0/ 100 =  0%  196.31.63.206
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
 12  126ms    16/ 100 = 16%     7/ 100 =  7%  vl9-ah-ha-2.za.mtnbusiness.net [196.30.42.133]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
 13  129ms     9/ 100 =  9%     0/ 100 =  0%  cms-gm.afrihost.com [197.242.144.102]

Trace complete.

 

[Bursty-dude]

I switched my PC off as I cannot even open emails since 11am due to the connection being so damn slow...

Switch to Telkom guest account login on the router, and BOOM! 5.2MB on the saix.net Speedtest.

 

[JesseG]

Good Morning

I see that some clients are still having a poor experience, but the great news is that we've already seen IPC go live in the EAST and we're currently seeing excellent performance in the region.

This bodes well for the remaining regions to get more IPC very soon, ad we should start seeing improvement. Since all the upgrades were ordered at the same time, we don't expect that the rest of the IPC should be too far behind.

Is this true? Will have to test, some good news for today...

 

[Ho3n3r]

I switched my PC off as I cannot even open emails since 11am due to the connection being so damn slow...

Switch to Telkom guest account login on the router, and BOOM! 5.2MB on the saix.net Speedtest.

Had similar results on Saturday evening. Streaming was buffering heavily in 240p on a 2Mbps line, then switched to WebAfrica's free account - Smooth as a baby's bum on 480p. Switch back to AH after 20 minutes, same buffering on 240p again.

What I noticed though, on the traceroute, is that one out of every 3 pings on most hops had an abnormal value. I.e.:
- 3rd hop looked like this: 75ms 12ms 13ms
- 5th hop: 16ms 18ms 81ms
- 8th hop: 202ms 200ms 318ms

Very inconsistent. Not sure if this had anything to do with it.

EDIT: The major problem I have with jumping ship, is I moved to AH because of the same reason. First 10 months were great, similar as to my previous ISP. Now it's happening here again.

So, should I move, I will sit with the same crap at my next ISP in a few months, even though they're the bee's knees right now. Somehow I feel it will be better - not ideal - to wait this out. At least they are very aware of the problems.

Another thing: Save yourself some money, AH, and abolish your call centre. These guys are good for nothing more than the response of "Try turning it off and on again". They have as much technical knowledge as my dog.

 

[AfriGuy]

Is this true? Will have to test, some good news for today...

It definitely is

 

[CataclysmZA]

What I'd like to know is now that it is officially an IPC problem, how close was Afrihost to the limit of their existing IPC before these problems began to appear? How close were you running to the wall before you started to hit it?

Obviously, I'll never get a straight answer, but I'd like some insight as to how the network is managed so that we know why this happened in the first place. I don't think any ISP in the country wants to be in the same situation as those in the US where they have to levy 150GB fair usage policies on line speeds as high as 50Mb/s because of overcontention on networks thanks to greater usage of streaming services. If the prevailing practice is to only upgrade IPC when absolutely necessary then things are not going to get easier from now on.

 

[AfriGuy]

What I'd like to know is now that it is officially an IPC problem, how close was Afrihost to the limit of their existing IPC before these problems began to appear? How close were you running to the wall before you started to hit it?

Obviously, I'll never get a straight answer, but I'd like some insight as to how the network is managed so that we know why this happened in the first place. I don't think any ISP in the country wants to be in the same situation as those in the US where they have to levy 150GB fair usage policies on line speeds as high as 50Mb/s because of overcontention on networks thanks to greater usage of streaming services. If the prevailing practice is to only upgrade IPC when absolutely necessary then things are not going to get easier from now on.

I think we'd want to avoid this as much as possible going forward, I'm afraid I can't discuss exact stats
We've learnt a lot though!