Afrihost Business Uncapped Feedback

[AfriMan]

I have some issue with my afrihost accounts - both the capped and uncapped ones. My line speed is 10m, my uncapped account is 4m - my international is crawling at 2.5m. If I switch to my webafrica capped account I get around 8.6m. Why can I not get 4m international speeds on afrihost?(local by the way is fine and running at full account speed) Videos keep buffering, sites are opening slowly and it's just not been a great experience lately.

Afrihost capped:
Download Speed: 2214 kbps (276.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 746 kbps (93.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 206 ms

Afrihost 4m business uncapped:
Download Speed: 2670 kbps (333.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 595 kbps (74.4 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 207 ms

Web Africa:
Download Speed: 8689 kbps (1086.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 795 kbps (99.4 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 196 ms
6/20/2014 11:23:13 PM

That's definitely pretty strange, international seems to be similar on Capped and Uncapped - though latency seems solid. Is local full speed or also showing similar issues?

Which DNS settings are you using?

 

[AfriMan]

Well it would seem we are all in the same sinking Afrihost boat...
Online gaming is a freaking joke, 2mb business unshaped, should be pretty spiffy you would think.

So, I whipped out my ancient Vodafone K3570Z HSDPA modem (Max 3.5mbps), threw my Vodacom sim card in it and BAM instant gaming @ 250 - 350 MS

The only thing that actually works 80% of the time with my Afrihost account is downloading stuff, ~160KB/s mostly....

I'm sorry to hear that your speeds and service are not reliable. From this post it's hard to know what could be the cause cos we're comparing DSL to mobile (sounds like 3G).

Have you run any DSL diagnostics like our Network Test App?

 

[AfriMan]

Ah, NO!!

My Internet died (disconnected) at 2014-06-21 12:15 PM
Looks like I also have the authentication BUG??
Line does Syncs, But No Connection!

This Bug at Afrihost is going on for days now.
Really would like to know why this happening to Random Customers ??

We have had a few authentication issues this last week, but only on two occasions, not regularly.

Have you got any feedback or assistance on this from our support team. If not, please PM me and I'll get one of our top guys on this

 

[jeppe777]

Thinking about switching to afrihost from openweb, i am upgrading my line to 20 mb vdsl.
What account would you recommend?

 

[AfriMan]

Hi everyone. I posted here previously with problems regarding an extremely slow account after business hours, and was told by Afriman to test my account with another ISP.

I have done so now, and here are the results (I made a Pastebin post instead of posting it all here): http://pastebin.com/AqJh22Rk

As I have almost no idea what these results mean (except for the fact that they are very bad) would someone please be kind enough to help me make sense of what is going on with my connection?

Thank you all very much!

These results (and the ones posted after) seem to indicate a severe line fault or exchange congestion.

You could test with another ISP network to confirm.

 

[AfriMan]

Thinking about switching to afrihost from openweb, i am upgrading my line to 20 mb vdsl.
What account would you recommend?

That's awesome - on the switching to us and upgrading to VDSL.

It really depends on how much data you use. But remember that once you're at higher speed, you're probably going to end up using more data. I think go Uncapped to start with, our 20Mbps Bundle is very reasonable, and then consider going capped if you see you're not using that much data.

 

[AfriMan]

All video streaming, sadly.....
Still ongoing. Downloads fly along with no problems, general browsing is painless and quick, just video streaming sucks. Youtube, Streetfire, Liveleak, etc all buffer and sometimes take ages to load. Youtube vids sometimes revert to 144p settings automatically when loading, others just don't even load....

DNS settings are "Get Automatically from ISP" in the router settings and are 196.7.7.7 & 196.7.8.9

Maybe try google or openDNS and see if that makes any difference. Have you tested any other networks to see if they behave the same?

 

[Rohan]

That's definitely pretty strange, international seems to be similar on Capped and Uncapped - though latency seems solid. Is local full speed or also showing similar issues?

Which DNS settings are you using?

Hi Afriman, I did the test with google dns and also did it with afrihost dns and both are the same results. I went and upgraded my account to the 10m business uncapped and its' actually doing worse today. I saw with the help of Zertop's tool that there is some packet loss on Tracert below. Could this be causing the problems?

Local
Download Speed: 2639 kbps (329.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 788 kbps (98.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 48 ms
6/23/2014 12:28:04 PM

International
Download Speed: 243 kbps (30.4 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 565 kbps (70.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 224 ms
6/23/2014 12:30:26 PM

Ping results for last hop before account switches to ISP's hardware (Hop 2 on Tracert)

Pinging 105.236.13.65 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=254
Request timed out.
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=254
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=254
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=254
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=254
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=254
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=254
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=254
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=254
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=254
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=254
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=254
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=254
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=254
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=254
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=254
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=254
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=254
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=254
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=254
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=254
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=254
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=254
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=254
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=254
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=254
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=254
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=254
Reply from 105.236.13.65: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=254

Ping statistics for 105.236.13.65:
Packets: Sent = 30, Received = 29, Lost = 1 (3% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 11ms, Maximum = 15ms, Average = 11ms

2014-06-23 11:15:04,30
Local Tracert

Tracing route to news24.co.za [41.86.110.143]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms Billion.400G [10.0.0.2]
2 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms 105-236-13-65-esr-lo.mtnbusiness.co.za [105.236.13.65]
3 11 ms 11 ms 11 ms ipc-recieve-rb-3a.za.mtnbusiness.net [41.181.178.77]
4 13 ms * * rb-cr-1.za--rb-dca-1.za-a.mtnns.net [196.44.0.146]
5 12 ms 12 ms 33 ms jh-cr-2.za--rb-cr-1.za-a.mtnns.net [196.44.31.95]
6 18 ms 69 ms 11 ms qux-jh-dca-2.za-b.za.mtnbusiness.net [41.181.165.115]
7 * * 13 ms jh-pr-1.za--jh-cr-2.za.mtnns.net [196.44.0.222]
8 * 13 ms 12 ms postfix.wipronet.co.za [196.22.161.133]
9 40 ms 39 ms 39 ms tengig-0-7-0-3-vic-p-1.mweb.co.za [197.80.7.1]
10 37 ms 39 ms 39 ms tengig-0-0-0-0-cpt-p-2.mweb.co.za [197.84.4.46]
11 35 ms 34 ms 35 ms vl-11-cpt-hscore-1.mweb.co.za [197.84.5.238]
12 40 ms 38 ms 37 ms 196.28.178.66
13 48 ms 51 ms 46 ms gig5-1-cpt-opt-65-1.optinet.net [196.41.133.234]
14 39 ms 38 ms 38 ms OPTI-CPT-N1-Hosting.optinet.net [197.84.196.6]
15 39 ms 39 ms 39 ms 197-84-208-146.cpt.mweb.co.za [197.84.208.146]
16 38 ms 37 ms 38 ms 41-86-110-143.mweb.co.za [41.86.110.143]

Trace complete.

International Tracert

Tracing route to thinkbroadband.com [80.249.99.130]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms Billion.400G [10.0.0.2]
2 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms 105-236-13-65-esr-lo.mtnbusiness.co.za [105.236.13.65]
3 11 ms 11 ms 11 ms ipc-recieve-rb-2a.za.mtnbusiness.net [41.181.178.65]
4 56 ms 74 ms 59 ms rb-cr-1.za--rb-dca-1.za-a.mtnns.net [196.44.0.146]
5 12 ms 12 ms 12 ms jh-cr-2.za--rb-cr-1.za-a.mtnns.net [196.44.31.95]
6 11 ms 12 ms 11 ms qux-jh-dca-2.za-b.za.mtnbusiness.net [41.181.165.115]
7 209 ms 209 ms 208 ms ls-cr-2.uk--rb-cr-1.za.mtnns.net [196.44.31.114]
8 208 ms 208 ms 208 ms ls-cr-1.uk--ls-cr-2.uk-a.mtnns.net [196.44.31.156]
9 195 ms 194 ms 194 ms ls-pr-1.uk--ls-cr-1.uk-a.mtn.net [209.212.111.83]
10 208 ms 208 ms 208 ms linx-gw1.thn.ncuk.net [195.66.224.240]
11 192 ms 192 ms 192 ms te2-1-9.star10g.bdr-rt3.thdo.ncuk.net [80.249.97.17]
12 210 ms 208 ms 209 ms te1-1-1-31.core-rs2.thdo.ncuk.net [80.249.97.85]
13 209 ms 208 ms 209 ms www.thinkbroadband.com [80.249.99.130]

Trace complete.

International Speedtest
Downloaded 20.0 megabytes in 6:22 seconds. (53.60 KB/s)

Local Speedtest
Downloaded 15.6 megabytes in 35 seconds. (451.89 KB/s)




Test End Timestamp
2014-06-23 11:27:41,47

 

[jeppe777]

That's awesome - on the switching to us and upgrading to VDSL.

It really depends on how much data you use. But remember that once you're at higher speed, you're probably going to end up using more data. I think go Uncapped to start with, our 20Mbps Bundle is very reasonable, and then consider going capped if you see you're not using that much data.

What is the shaping like on the 20mb R999 account? Fup?

Youtube? Speeds during the day?

 

[AfriGuy]

What is the shaping like on the 20mb R999 account? Fup?

Youtube? Speeds during the day?

There's no shaping on our Business products

 

[Bursty-dude]

Maybe try google or openDNS and see if that makes any difference. Have you tested any other networks to see if they behave the same?

What DNS settings are those, please?
And no, I do not have any other free accounts or use any other networks or ISP.

And the vids are now buffering on 480p settings.....

I have no issues at all with downloads or any other parts of browsing, just any video streaming sucks gorilla balls for the last week.

 

[Chevron]

What DNS settings are those, please?
And no, I do not have any other free accounts or use any other networks or ISP.

And the vids are now buffering on 480p settings.....

I have no issues at all with downloads or any other parts of browsing, just any video streaming sucks gorilla balls for the last week.

Google:
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

 

[AfriGuy]

What DNS settings are those, please?
And no, I do not have any other free accounts or use any other networks or ISP.

And the vids are now buffering on 480p settings.....

I have no issues at all with downloads or any other parts of browsing, just any video streaming sucks gorilla balls for the last week.

http://www.opendns.com/opendns-ip-addresses/

 

[Bursty-dude]

Google DNS settings are slightly better, but buffering still happens now and then.
OpenDNS settings are even worse than the AH settings....


And I am getting this on Speedtest so it is not a download speed issue:


What else can the issue be with online streaming vids?

 

[Chevron]

Google DNS settings are slightly better, but buffering still happens now and then.
OpenDNS settings are even worse than the AH settings....


And I am getting this on Speedtest so it is not a download speed issue:
View attachment 127179

What else can the issue be with online streaming vids?

Just grab the Free 2GBs from Web Africa and test again.

 

[AfriMan]

Looks like we have some authentication problems at the moment, we're waiting for updates from our team working with MTN on this.

Sincerely apologise to those clients battling to connect. We'll post updated on the website as we get more info

 

[Bursty-dude]

No connection for the last 40 minutes on ADSL and the mobile device.

 

[D3athR3aver]

As far as neighbours go, I am unfortunately not on such good terms with them yet, as I just moved here a couple of months ago, so that is not an option.

With regards to logging a line fault with Telkom, is there any advice you can provide as to how to go about doing this?

I have had to deal with Telkom before in the past, and from my experience all they do is show up at your house, test your line, tell you it isn't their fault and then leave again. Since my problem is visible only during certain times of the day, and there is no way to predict when the line will cause problems, it would seem a bit counterproductive to have Telkom here when the line is fine. My problem seems to be mostly after hours, and I am not sure if Telkom is going to be willing to come out during those times to test my line?

I would also just like to confirm this with you: it is not my ISP that is causing the issues with my internet? The reason why my internet is so spazzy is because of my exchange, and not Afrihost? I would hate to hold someone accountable for a problem that isn't their fault

Afriman, would you please be so kind as to provide your input on this matter?

 

[AfriMan]

Afriman, would you please be so kind as to provide your input on this matter?

These kind of issues can be tough. Telkom have a specialist team that have more advanced monitoring tools to be able to report on throughput and latency after hours directly from the exchange. They can usually pick up on intermittent problems and instability and implement more advanced solutions than the average technician. Problem is, it's pretty hard to get your fault over to them.

I'd suggest dropping me a PM for now and I'll see if there is a way for us to try to get this line issue to the right people (i'm assuming your line is with us)

 

[Ho3n3r]

Why is streaming sucking again? No matter which site, it needs to buffer at 320/360p quality. Speedtest shows no problems at all, neither with speed, nor with latency, and all downloads run about full speed, at around 210 KB/s.

It was running fine for a few months there. Guess I got happy too soon.

Please inform me whether you are aware of any problems that will specifically cause this, because it is becoming a pain in the butt.