Afrihost CAPPED ADSL Feedback (MTN)

[wavesailor]

The previous bandwidth issue was definitely caused by the lack of IPC capacity, our Shaping and Bandwidth management system is unique, and differs completely from most other ISPs. This is awesome as it makes our Uncapped accounts uniquely different from most other ISPs, but it does mean at times it takes a bit longer to troubleshoot and correct any issues.

AfriGenie , it's a new day with unfortunately yesterdays problems. When is my line going to return to normal? I not using uncapped but rather a capped account.

I can't work like this??? HELP

 

[MrGray]

So we may as well use a plain home uncapped account at the moment since the problem effectively seems to mean that there is no difference?

 

[AfriGenie]

My line is with afrihost. If I pause my account will that suspend my DSL line?

Edit:

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/a/1042292736

Speeds looking much better now. But I need my speed at night. During the day I am at work.

Hope tonight will be better.

Your ADSL Data Account can be Paused, but you are unable to Pause your ADSL line, you can have it moved back to Telkom as an alternative. I should also point out, your ADSL line will work with any other ISP whilst it is managed by Afrihost.

 

[AfriGenie]

AfriGenie , it's a new day with unfortunately yesterdays problems. When is my line going to return to normal? I not using uncapped but rather a capped account.

I can't work like this??? HELP

The Team worked through the night - and are still at it - to figure out what went wrong, they are making progress, and some of our users are starting to see some improvements.

I know it has been a frustrating few days, but I am sure you will start to see significant improvements soon.

 

[Syco]

The Team worked through the night - and are still at it - to figure out what went wrong, they are making progress, and some of our users are starting to see some improvements.

I know it has been a frustrating few days, but I am sure you will start to see significant improvements soon.

Simple question with a yes or no answer. (No flim-flam/smoke and mirrors please) Are we going to be compensated for the c**p we have had to put up with?

 

[Aquiva]

Good Morning Everyone

I can see that most of the posts since yesterday relate to speeds and I just wanted to post an explanation of exactly what is happening, so that there is no confusion.

Over the past weekend, we and our upstream vendors ran updates on the firmware that controls our network shaping on Uncapped accounts (we don't shape Capped or Business) and traffic management systems. This is basically the software that controls how we classify traffic and then determine what must be shaped or not. After the implementation, we saw reports of poor speeds and this is basically because of contention on the network as a result of shaping not being as effective as it should be.

Our technical team, along with our vendors, are now working to try to find where we are allowing traffic through that should be shaped, and once they have been able to identify traffic correctly, we should see contention minimised, and performance return to within the range that we expect.

I hope this explains what's happening, we want to be as open as possible so that you guys understand what is happening. If you hav questions, please PM me, I'm happy to explain as much as I can.

So the contention was cause because the uncapped accounts weren't shaped enough and everybody just went OTT? And the contention is why the capped accounts are suffering?

 

[AfriGenie]

So the contention was cause because the uncapped accounts weren't shaped enough and everybody just went OTT? And the contention is why the capped accounts are suffering?

Pretty much, we definitely are not lacking in terms of bandwidth, our system is just not allocating the bandwidth correctly to each user. This is purely a software issue, and not a hardware capacity issue as we had a few weeks ago.

 

[AfriGenie]

Simple question with a yes or no answer. (No flim-flam/smoke and mirrors please) Are we going to be compensated for the c**p we have had to put up with?

There is unfortunately not a simple Yes or No answer.

Our Accounts Department will review each credit request on a case by case basis, based on a number of factors to determine the extant to which your account was affected.

 

[techead]

Pretty much, we definitely are not lacking in terms of bandwidth, our system is just not allocating the bandwidth correctly to each user. This is purely a software issue, and not a hardware capacity issue as we had a few weeks ago.

then what is your explanation for the increased/inconsistent latency?

does your management software bug also cause erratic inconsistent latency to both local and international servers?

 

[Aquiva]

Pretty much, we definitely are not lacking in terms of bandwidth, our system is just not allocating the bandwidth correctly to each user. This is purely a software issue, and not a hardware capacity issue as we had a few weeks ago.

OK then if this was/is the case with uncapped users, why are there so many complaints on the Uncapped Thread about the same issue??? I understand they will also be affected by the contention, but no has commented on how great their "minimal shaping" was this week.

 

[AfriGenie]

then what is your explanation for the increased latency?

As some users start to contend for the bandwidth that is made available to their accounts, the time it takes for their packets to be sent and received is increased.

This latency is not consistent across our user base, it does appear to worse in the South at the moment.

 

[techead]

As some users start to contend for the bandwidth that is made available to their accounts, the time it takes for their packets to be sent and received is increased.

This latency is not consistent across our user base, it does appear to worse in the South at the moment.

Ok, Im just trying to understand this...

You said you have more than enough bandwidth, but users are contending for bandwidth available to their accounts...

You going to have to explain that to me please, unless what you are saying is that you have a huge chunk of bandwidth that is not being allocated... thereby creating contention and increased pings? But you say you have more than enough bandwidth, because technically you do "have it" but its not being managed properly by your system?

 

[AfriGenie]

OK then if this was/is the case with uncapped users, why are there so many complaints on the Uncapped Thread about the same issue??? I understand they will also be affected by the contention, but no has commented on how great their "minimal shaping" was this week.

I have generally found that on MyBB people really on comment on a thread when things are not going well.

As part of the troubleshooting process they have had their shaping policies altered so that we could try to squeeze out more bandwidth. Unfortunately the problem was not corrected by simply freeing up more bandwidth as the problem is on our network management software and not our actual bandwidth.

 

[HermanTheGerman]

Great service Afrihost. One year of bad connection and still hoping for the best and playing the shill for you guys, I finally have it
After some back n forth a helpline guy sent me an email in which it said I must log into Telkom with the guest account and do some tests. Weirdly tho Telkom didn't accept my login so another guy fiddled around with my connection. Usual stuff, reset port and so ...
Result: it's even worserer now! Funny thing is I can't do **** in clientzone, all tests and tweaks time out and give fail messages. It's like I'm not even on AH/MTN network. So I sent them another mail, this time less friendly. I demanded confirmation of a clear timeline when my connection will be fixed and back to former glory. That was like 2 days ago, and no response yet.

Just one question before I embark on a new ISP: WTF???

 

[i.got~issues]

Ok, Im just trying to understand this...

You said you have more than enough bandwidth, but users are contending for bandwidth available to their accounts...

You going to have to explain that to me please, unless what you are saying is that you have a huge chunk of bandwidth that is not being allocated... thereby creating contention and increased pings? But you say you have more than enough bandwidth, because technically you do "have it" but its not being managed properly by your system?

Something indeed does not quite compute...

 

[techead]

Something indeed does not quite compute...

let's give AfriGenie time to respond...

 

[AfriGenie]

Ok, Im just trying to understand this...

You said you have more than enough bandwidth, but users are contending for bandwidth available to their accounts...

You going to have to explain that to me please, unless what you are saying is that you have a huge chunk of bandwidth that is not being allocated... thereby creating contention and increased pings? But you say you have more than enough bandwidth, because technically you do "have it" but its not being managed properly by your system?

Something indeed does not quite compute...

Let me see if I could make more sense...

Each of our Capped users is supposed to receive as much throughput as their ADSL line allows at all times. However, after the update that was done on our Network Management Software over the weekend, each Capped account was only getting between 1/3 to 1/4 of the throughput they should be getting. In some cases even less.

Our Network Management Software thinks it is assigning the correct bandwidth to each account, when it is in actual fact not doing so, creating an artificial contention as some areas are now vying for bandwidth and in other areas not. This is why some users have a very good latency and others a high latency.

 

[Orihalcon]

let's give AfriGenie time to respond...

Imagine their total data allocation split into different blocks or pool as they call them.

The data pool for downloads' demand is exceeding the capacity so the contention increases and the service goes to hell.

While this is happening the data pool that services real time use like youtube, browsing etc does not have such a high demand to cause contention. Which is why and how youtube or realtime can still function almost flawlessly while downloads are in the crapper.

This is my over simplified explanation based on replies posted by the reps on how their data setup works. This was the case when they had insufficient capacity before the IPC upgrades.

Now their software is most likely not classifying the data correctly and or not allowing the accounts access to the pools properly.

 

[Aquiva]

Let me see if I could make more sense...

Each of our Capped users is supposed to receive as much throughput as their ADSL line allows at all times. However, after the update that was done on our Network Management Software over the weekend, each Capped account was only getting between 1/3 to 1/4 of the throughput they should be getting. In some cases even less.

Our Network Management Software thinks it is assigning the correct bandwidth to each account, when it is in actual fact not doing so, creating an artificial contention as some areas are now vying for bandwidth and in other areas not. This is why some users have a very good latency and others a high latency.

Why is the Network Management software "managing" Capped accounts? Don't the line speeds determine the throughput on those accounts?

 

[AfriGenie]

Ok, Im just trying to understand this...

You said you have more than enough bandwidth, but users are contending for bandwidth available to their accounts...

You going to have to explain that to me please, unless what you are saying is that you have a huge chunk of bandwidth that is not being allocated... thereby creating contention and increased pings? But you say you have more than enough bandwidth, because technically you do "have it" but its not being managed properly by your system?

Something indeed does not quite compute...

Why is the Network Management software "managing" Capped accounts? Don't the line speeds determine the throughput on those accounts?

The Management Software is not supposed to "manage" Capped accounts, and it does not think it is "managing" the Capped users, yet it is limiting bandwidth to many Capped users, this why the Team looking into this have pretty much ripped everything apart looking for the cause of the issue.