Afrihost CAPPED ADSL Feedback (MTN)

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thewusman said:
Exactly my experience over the last 3-4 weeks.

Radio silence starts when they escalate your ticket once you prove the Telkom Guest account and Axxess account you have fly, but Afrihost speedtests are suffering ... then you get the endless loop of April fools type "this defies logic" answers.

Amen. You are not alone.
Click to expand...

if you ask support i am clearly alone, but thanks for confirming i am not going crazy ...

here is my latest speedtest for a 40mbps capped, "unshaped" afrihost account
http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3415783380
 
My line only goes to 4mbps for the foreseeable future so I don't actually notice the current performance issues as heavily, but every now and then a site's CSS or javascript fails to load the first time, a youtube video doesn't start the first time, or simfy buffers a few seconds. I then switch to WebAfrica Business Capped and all is well. However, I frequently have gotomeetings at around 17:00 or 18:00 and during those meetings webafrica always drops at least once while Afrihost never drops. So while Afrihost performance goes down a bit sometimes, it still seems like they are the best at managing the capacity they have after marketing sold it all out.

So here's hoping for a speedy Afrihost recovery, I just can't seem to move away completely.
 
I have signed up for a trial MWEB account and was able to watch NTV.MX with minimal buffering. Afrihost account was unwatchable.

Axxess also wasn't very impressive - but I believe axxess and afrihost share the same MTN backbone.
 
NarrowBandFtw said:
the latest just now 2014-04-03: support tells me it is related to the Southern IPC issue, thank you so much Afrihost for lying to me and wasting my time the past 16 days ...
Click to expand...

This definitely wasn't our intention. We always need to do basic troubleshooting first, to ensure that what a client is experiencing is not due to other factors like line faults, router or exchange problems. Simply going straight to a default answer like IPC issues would probably leave a lot of clients in a sticky situation when the upgrade arrives and they are still having problems.

16 days sounds too long for a diagnosis - but that should always be the process. :(
 
thewusman said:
Exactly my experience over the last 3-4 weeks.

Radio silence starts when they escalate your ticket once you prove the Telkom Guest account and Axxess account you have fly, but Afrihost speedtests are suffering ... then you get the endless loop of April fools type "this defies logic" answers.

Amen. You are not alone.
Click to expand...

It shouldn't be like that - if that was your experience then I sincerely apologise.

Transparency is a big part of service, so if we're not empowering our clients with knowledge then we're letting you down. It's a little hard to prepare our team for situations like this, but I think this clearly shows that we need to try a lot harder :(
 
Aessa said:
My line only goes to 4mbps for the foreseeable future so I don't actually notice the current performance issues as heavily, but every now and then a site's CSS or javascript fails to load the first time, a youtube video doesn't start the first time, or simfy buffers a few seconds. I then switch to WebAfrica Business Capped and all is well. However, I frequently have gotomeetings at around 17:00 or 18:00 and during those meetings webafrica always drops at least once while Afrihost never drops. So while Afrihost performance goes down a bit sometimes, it still seems like they are the best at managing the capacity they have after marketing sold it all out.

So here's hoping for a speedy Afrihost recovery, I just can't seem to move away completely.
Click to expand...

I guess it's always about what works for you, and it sounds like the way we do things does give you the best experience overall.

Once we sort out the capacity issues in the South, we should be ticking all the boxes for you again :)
 
AfriMan said:
This definitely wasn't our intention. We always need to do basic troubleshooting first, to ensure that what a client is experiencing is not due to other factors like line faults, router or exchange problems. Simply going straight to a default answer like IPC issues would probably leave a lot of clients in a sticky situation when the upgrade arrives and they are still having problems.

16 days sounds too long for a diagnosis - but that should always be the process. :(
Click to expand...

fully understand that diagnosis should be the first step, but in this case the router and exchange was ruled out through diagnosis within two days, it is pretty damn clear when I test with another ISP and all is well that my router, line or exchange is NOT the problem, and yet in the 14 days after that to get told my router is not syncing at 40mbps (as if I'm not monitoring my line stats all the time anyway) and ultimately logging a fault with telkom and dispatching a technician???????????????????

Diagnosis is a process to rule out likely possibilities, you don't go back to things you've already ruled out beyond any doubt ...
 
NarrowBandFtw said:
fully understand that diagnosis should be the first step, but in this case the router and exchange was ruled out through diagnosis within two days, it is pretty damn clear when I test with another ISP and all is well that my router, line or exchange is NOT the problem, and yet in the 14 days after that to get told my router is not syncing at 40mbps (as if I'm not monitoring my line stats all the time anyway) and ultimately logging a fault with telkom and dispatching a technician???????????????????

Diagnosis is a process to rule out likely possibilities, you don't go back to things you've already ruled out beyond any doubt ...
Click to expand...

In your specific case there's no doubt that this was handled poorly and I thin inexperience was a big factor - and that's something that will improve over time as we groom, educate and empower our call centre team. It's a pretty difficult situation as we've pretty much more than doubled the team in a short space of time, systems are being developed as we go, teams are being formed and are still figuring out who knows what and what goes where, but we have so much pressure to get queries resolved as quickly as possible. It's a trial by fire, but our guys are doing an amazing job, working exceptionally hard, and I think we're already seeing the results as our call times are getting back to where they should be, turnaround on tickets is very much acceptable again, and I think from here we can focus on issues of service and company culture to ensure that out clients feel the benefits in every possible way.
 
Decided to do a little comparison.

Switched between my IS-based account and my Afrihost Capped account on my one interface. I think it's pretty self explanatory that there is a problem at the moment.

status_rrd_graph_img%20%285%29.png


Anybody know if that capacity upgrade is still happening?
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
Decided to do a little comparison.

Switched between my IS-based account and my Afrihost Capped account on my one interface. I think it's pretty self explanatory that there is a problem at the moment.

status_rrd_graph_img%20%285%29.png


Anybody know if that capacity upgrade is still happening?
Click to expand...

Hope it's soon ... million dollar question.

(Oh Hello VOX fatpipe ... you're looking mighty fine)
 
By the looks of it, it seems clients who have high speed lines (4mb and over) are having these issues with afrihost capped.
Are clients with 2mb and under experiencing these problems?
Getting a telkom line installed 2mb is enough for me. But will be using the access mainly for p2p.
Have a friend who is with mweb uncapped 2mb and downloads p2p between 140 -180kb/s.
Will i get these speeds with afrihost capped account?..
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
Decided to do a little comparison.

Switched between my IS-based account and my Afrihost Capped account on my one interface. I think it's pretty self explanatory that there is a problem at the moment.

status_rrd_graph_img%20%285%29.png


Anybody know if that capacity upgrade is still happening?
Click to expand...

I know nothing about the capacity upgrade - but I would like to know why there's packet loss. I see that as well (to a lesser extent) on my exchange here in Johannesburg. Is it due to exchange capacity shortfall? Or is it the MTN network itself?
 
How is Afrihost up in JHB? I want to join one of the CAPPED services. It is either WebAfrica or Afrihost. Please help
 
aquadat0r said:
How is Afrihost up in JHB? I want to join one of the CAPPED services. It is either WebAfrica or Afrihost. Please help
Click to expand...

If your line with Telkom and Exchange is fine, then a capped account with either Afrihost or WebAfrica is fine.

I get consistent speeds of 1.7Mb/s with my 2Mb Telkom line.

You can sign up with either Afrihost or WebAfrica 1GB to test, before you buy.

I use both of them and I'm happy with both of them.

WebAfrica Speedtests throughout the Day:

814016061.png


813916137.png


813661377.png
 
@Afriman
Are you aware of any problems starting yesterday in the southern region ?
My account is taking about 10 minutes to authenticate after the dsl line sync with lots of :
ppp0 Timeout waiting for PADO packets on my router.
And I'm seeing a lot of packet loss pinging to google.com
PING google.com (173.194.41.163) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from lhr08s04-in-f3.1e100.net (173.194.41.163): icmp_seq=1 ttl=53 time=159 ms
64 bytes from lhr08s04-in-f3.1e100.net (173.194.41.163): icmp_seq=2 ttl=53 time=161 ms
64 bytes from lhr08s04-in-f3.1e100.net (173.194.41.163): icmp_seq=3 ttl=53 time=166 ms
64 bytes from lhr08s04-in-f3.1e100.net (173.194.41.163): icmp_seq=4 ttl=53 time=183 ms
64 bytes from lhr08s04-in-f3.1e100.net (173.194.41.163): icmp_seq=6 ttl=53 time=164 ms
64 bytes from lhr08s04-in-f3.1e100.net (173.194.41.163): icmp_seq=7 ttl=53 time=160 ms
64 bytes from lhr08s04-in-f3.1e100.net (173.194.41.163): icmp_seq=8 ttl=53 time=162 ms
^C
--- google.com ping statistics ---
8 packets transmitted, 7 received, 12% packet loss, time 7001ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 159.821/165.468/183.721/7.772 ms

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3421150443

I'm on a 10mbps capped account and was getting full line speed.
 
dculverwell said:
@Afriman
Are you aware of any problems starting yesterday in the southern region ?
My account is taking about 10 minutes to authenticate after the dsl line sync with lots of :
ppp0 Timeout waiting for PADO packets on my router.
And I'm seeing a lot of packet loss pinging to google.com
PING google.com (173.194.41.163) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from lhr08s04-in-f3.1e100.net (173.194.41.163): icmp_seq=1 ttl=53 time=159 ms
64 bytes from lhr08s04-in-f3.1e100.net (173.194.41.163): icmp_seq=2 ttl=53 time=161 ms
64 bytes from lhr08s04-in-f3.1e100.net (173.194.41.163): icmp_seq=3 ttl=53 time=166 ms
64 bytes from lhr08s04-in-f3.1e100.net (173.194.41.163): icmp_seq=4 ttl=53 time=183 ms
64 bytes from lhr08s04-in-f3.1e100.net (173.194.41.163): icmp_seq=6 ttl=53 time=164 ms
64 bytes from lhr08s04-in-f3.1e100.net (173.194.41.163): icmp_seq=7 ttl=53 time=160 ms
64 bytes from lhr08s04-in-f3.1e100.net (173.194.41.163): icmp_seq=8 ttl=53 time=162 ms
^C
--- google.com ping statistics ---
8 packets transmitted, 7 received, 12% packet loss, time 7001ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 159.821/165.468/183.721/7.772 ms

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3421150443

I'm on a 10mbps capped account and was getting full line speed.
Click to expand...


I'm also seeing massive packet loss (more than normal) since Friday afternoon-ish, it's only apparent during the day though and it's happening on two different lines. I'm just holding thumbs that the capacity upgrade is going to solve this.
 
I had the same symptoms a few months ago, went though the rabbit hole of telkom repeatedly but never got a resolution.
Magically one day it was good again.
AH said it was congestion on my exchange telkom said it wasn't them (the usual round and round we go).
I sure hope its not the same gremlin !
 
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