Afrihost Capped DSL Feedback

I think the South issue is still a big problem. In the evenings it's very bad. It does seem to always be the same hop that has a problem in Cape Town.

This is a 40mb VDSL connection:

6105271040.png

BRAS:
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| WinMTR statistics |
| Host - % | Sent | Recv | Best | Avrg | Wrst | Last |
|------------------------------------------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
| 192.168.1.1 - 0 | 201 | 201 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 155.239.255.250 - 0 | 201 | 201 | 16 | 17 | 32 | 17 |

Afrihost.co.za

| Host - % | Sent | Recv | Best | Avrg | Wrst | Last |
|------------------------------------------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
| 192.168.1.1 - 0 | 205 | 205 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No response from host - 100 | 41 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| cpt-tx2.ip.adsl.co.za - 4 | 182 | 176 | 102 | 157 | 170 | 162 |
| cpt-rx2.ip.adsl.co.za - 0 | 205 | 205 | 31 | 85 | 147 | 93 |
| cpt-net1.ip.adsl.co.za - 0 | 205 | 205 | 33 | 36 | 96 | 34 |
| optinet.ixp.capetown - 4 | 178 | 171 | 99 | 156 | 178 | 132 |
| te0-7-0-3.cpt-p-2.optinet.net - 3 | 186 | 181 | 121 | 178 | 200 | 152 |
| tengig-0-7-0-1-vic-p-1.mweb.co.za - 3 | 186 | 181 | 52 | 73 | 149 | 61 |
| 101.te0-0-2-0.vic-tr-1.optinet.net - 3 | 183 | 178 | 47 | 47 | 51 | 48 |
| 197-81-226-77.jhb.mweb.co.za - 3 | 186 | 181 | 116 | 174 | 196 | 149 |
| 197-81-226-53.jhb.mweb.co.za - 2 | 198 | 196 | 47 | 48 | 129 | 48 |
| 197-81-229-2.jhb.mweb.co.za - 8 | 158 | 146 | 122 | 176 | 189 | 181 |
| 197-81-229-9.jhb.mweb.co.za - 3 | 186 | 181 | 135 | 177 | 198 | 166 |
| 41-86-112-68.mweb.co.za - 6 | 170 | 161 | 130 | 185 | 197 | 190 |
 
roadcat said:
I think the South issue is still a big problem. In the evenings it's very bad. It does seem to always be the same hop that has a problem in Cape Town.

This is a 40mb VDSL connection:

View attachment 421712

BRAS:
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| WinMTR statistics |
| Host - % | Sent | Recv | Best | Avrg | Wrst | Last |
|------------------------------------------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
| 192.168.1.1 - 0 | 201 | 201 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 155.239.255.250 - 0 | 201 | 201 | 16 | 17 | 32 | 17 |

Afrihost.co.za

| Host - % | Sent | Recv | Best | Avrg | Wrst | Last |
|------------------------------------------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
| 192.168.1.1 - 0 | 205 | 205 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No response from host - 100 | 41 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| cpt-tx2.ip.adsl.co.za - 4 | 182 | 176 | 102 | 157 | 170 | 162 |
| cpt-rx2.ip.adsl.co.za - 0 | 205 | 205 | 31 | 85 | 147 | 93 |
| cpt-net1.ip.adsl.co.za - 0 | 205 | 205 | 33 | 36 | 96 | 34 |
| optinet.ixp.capetown - 4 | 178 | 171 | 99 | 156 | 178 | 132 |
| te0-7-0-3.cpt-p-2.optinet.net - 3 | 186 | 181 | 121 | 178 | 200 | 152 |
| tengig-0-7-0-1-vic-p-1.mweb.co.za - 3 | 186 | 181 | 52 | 73 | 149 | 61 |
| 101.te0-0-2-0.vic-tr-1.optinet.net - 3 | 183 | 178 | 47 | 47 | 51 | 48 |
| 197-81-226-77.jhb.mweb.co.za - 3 | 186 | 181 | 116 | 174 | 196 | 149 |
| 197-81-226-53.jhb.mweb.co.za - 2 | 198 | 196 | 47 | 48 | 129 | 48 |
| 197-81-229-2.jhb.mweb.co.za - 8 | 158 | 146 | 122 | 176 | 189 | 181 |
| 197-81-229-9.jhb.mweb.co.za - 3 | 186 | 181 | 135 | 177 | 198 | 166 |
| 41-86-112-68.mweb.co.za - 6 | 170 | 161 | 130 | 185 | 197 | 190 |
Click to expand...

Your ping to bras seems good, so you shouldn't be getting this latency. Will see what our engineers can do with this :(
 
Igor III said:
Not sure if it is Telkom exchange or AH, but latency is all over the place for gaming and downloads :(

View attachment 421530

Or is this the result of changing from an Unshaped to Shaped package this month? I noticed that even my torrents are running slower than "normal" (used to run at ~300 kBs on my 4 meg line, but is now running at ~250 kBs for the last few days).

Based on discussion on the fibre thread, I was considering using AH data when I switch to fibre ..... but if I use this test result (comparing Unshaped Capped with Shaped Capped), I am not sure I like what I see :(

Obviously if I stay with AH data (fibre being from OpenServe) and use another provider for my fibre line, I would lose out on the free installation and free router deals that are currently provided by ISP's if one sign up for the full package (capped data and line). This is the main reason why I elected to move from unshaped to shaped - merely to test the "shaping" effects. Needles to say that if I move in totality from AH, I would be getting the "installation discounts" as well as stick with an unshaped capped package from the competition, as there are some pretty decent offers out there.

Any inputs would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

You can get the whole package from us with the discounts and savings. If you are looking for an unshaped experience, our Business to the Home packages are probably the way to go. We generally haven't seen latency and problems in the North for a while, so I would definitely want to troubleshoot a bit to see what you're experiencing that.

I've always been of the opinion that torrents are not a good measure of performance, but having said that, my speeds on my own tests have been very good recently, reaching about 1.4-1.5MB/s on a 20Mbps ADSL 2+ line, which is pretty much line speed. It varies according to the file, which is why I believe it's near to impossible to use torrents as a reliable indicator.
 
AfriMan said:
You can get the whole package from us with the discounts and savings. If you are looking for an unshaped experience, our Business to the Home packages are probably the way to go. We generally haven't seen latency and problems in the North for a while, so I would definitely want to troubleshoot a bit to see what you're experiencing that.

I've always been of the opinion that torrents are not a good measure of performance, but having said that, my speeds on my own tests have been very good recently, reaching about 1.4-1.5MB/s on a 20Mbps ADSL 2+ line, which is pretty much line speed. It varies according to the file, which is why I believe it's near to impossible to use torrents as a reliable indicator.
Click to expand...

As far as I am aware, AH only offer FTTH as an uncapped package - which means throttling and shaping. This brings me to the option of looking elsewhere and I found some decent capped deals (unshaped, un-throttled data during peak times as well as a fair amount of free data at night to take care of the torrents).

As the fibre provider in my area is OpenServe, the suggestion was made that I should look at AH ADSL capped data, as it can be used on OpenServe's fibre network.

The drawback is that AH do shape their standard capped ADSL data - the question is how bad is shaped capped data's performance (obviously one has the option to go for the premium priced unshaped capped data, but the costs associated with this exercise is way out of the acceptable range when one compares what the competition is offering).

Whilst I do understand your concerns when one uses torrents to verify performance, I must admit that I am also looking at the average performance speeds and I usually have 30 odd files in the que. In addition I have also noticed an increase in gaming latency - mainly on games where I link directly into the European servers (hence the ping test on the specific site) and not via steam, Blizzard, etc.

Having seen a noticeable difference in performance since I changed from an unshaped capped account to a shaped capped account, my primary concern is simply to ascertain if the degradation in performance can be attributed to the "shaping policy" or if there is a problem with my ADSL line and/or hardware that coincides with my migration date from shaped to unshaped.
 
Igor III said:
As far as I am aware, AH only offer FTTH as an uncapped package - which means throttling and shaping. This brings me to the option of looking elsewhere and I found some decent capped deals (unshaped, un-throttled data during peak times as well as a fair amount of free data at night to take care of the torrents).

As the fibre provider in my area is OpenServe, the suggestion was made that I should look at AH ADSL capped data, as it can be used on OpenServe's fibre network.

The drawback is that AH do shape their standard capped ADSL data - the question is how bad is shaped capped data's performance (obviously one has the option to go for the premium priced unshaped capped data, but the costs associated with this exercise is way out of the acceptable range when one compares what the competition is offering).

Whilst I do understand your concerns when one uses torrents to verify performance, I must admit that I am also looking at the average performance speeds and I usually have 30 odd files in the que. In addition I have also noticed an increase in gaming latency - mainly on games where I link directly into the European servers (hence the ping test on the specific site) and not via steam, Blizzard, etc.

Having seen a noticeable difference in performance since I changed from an unshaped capped account to a shaped capped account, my primary concern is simply to ascertain if the degradation in performance can be attributed to the "shaping policy" or if there is a problem with my ADSL line and/or hardware that coincides with my migration date from shaped to unshaped.
Click to expand...

The only difference between the Shaped and Unshaped Capped accounts is that P2P and HTTP downloads may be shaped. Real-time performance should be identical in terms of gaming, streaming, browsing and so on.

Have you made any other changes or updates since swopping to the Shaped Capped accounts?
 
Just noticed something strange/good I guess... torrents running way higher than 4mb line speed (upgraded to 4mb in Jan) at about 497kB/s...logged into the router and my stats now show 5120kbps down and 512 kbps up...?

How is this possible?
 
Nikkel said:
Just noticed something strange/good I guess... torrents running way higher than 4mb line speed (upgraded to 4mb in Jan) at about 497kB/s...logged into the router and my stats now show 5120kbps down and 512 kbps up...?

How is this possible?
Click to expand...

You must be on an interleaved profile which "ups" your sync rate to 5Mbps on a 4Mbps line. The downside to this is a slightly higher ping value, but trading off for a higher sync rate and virtually no packet loss. :)
 
AfriGenie said:
The only difference between the Shaped and Unshaped Capped accounts is that P2P and HTTP downloads may be shaped. Real-time performance should be identical in terms of gaming, streaming, browsing and so on.

Have you made any other changes or updates since swopping to the Shaped Capped accounts?
Click to expand...

Nope - everything else is as it used to be on the last day of February. Last night at around 8pm my in game ping hit the 10K mark and I lost my internet connection for quite a while (only the game was running at the time, all downloads were turned off) - DSL light green, internet light red. In the mornings around 7-8 AM in game ping spikes all the way up to 8K (definitely not something I had during the unshaped capped data days - I do recall experiencing similar issues before AH brought out the unshaped option on capped data packages).

As I said before, I am not sure if the issue is with AH, it might just be very coincidental with me going over to the shaped data ....... but I would be a liar if I do say that this experience is not currently having an influence on my decision with regards to which ISP to use for my fibre package when the option becomes available in my area within the next month or three.

Purely out of curiosity, seeing that I have not yet touched this month's data allocation (still using roll over data from last month), would it be possible to have my account reverted back to the unshaped option (as this would verify if my woes are with the unshaped option, or if the source of it is elsewhere)?

Attached/Included is my "connection results" for last night - rather strange I would say:

AH.PNG
 
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Igor III said:
Nope - everything else is as it used to be on the last day of February. Last night at around 8pm my in game ping hit the 10K mark and I lost my internet connection for quite a while (only the game was running at the time, all downloads were turned off) - DSL light green, internet light red. In the mornings around 7-8 AM in game ping spikes all the way up to 8K (definitely not something I had during the unshaped capped data days - I do recall experiencing similar issues before AH brought out the unshaped option on capped data packages).

As I said before, I am not sure if the issue is with AH, it might just be very coincidental with me going over to the shaped data ....... but I would be a liar if I do say that this experience is not currently having an influence on my decision with regards to which ISP to use for my fibre package when the option becomes available in my area within the next month or three.

Purely out of curiosity, seeing that I have not yet touched this month's data allocation (still using roll over data from last month), would it be possible to have my account reverted back to the unshaped option (as this would verify if my woes are with the unshaped option, or if the source of it is elsewhere)?

Attached/Included is my "connection results" for last night - rather strange I would say:

View attachment 421972
Click to expand...

I think it would be easier to drop me a PM and I can give you one of our testing accounts (unshaped) to compare with.
 
Something seriously wrong here this morning

Pinging bras.afrihost.com [155.239.255.250] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 155.239.255.250: bytes=32 time=1043ms TTL=63
Reply from 155.239.255.250: bytes=32 time=1105ms TTL=63
Reply from 155.239.255.250: bytes=32 time=1036ms TTL=63
Reply from 155.239.255.250: bytes=32 time=1070ms TTL=63

Ping statistics for 155.239.255.250:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 1036ms, Maximum = 1105ms, Average = 1063ms

Speed test
Download Speed: 393 kbps (49.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 132 kbps (16.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 1413 ms

Please assist, this on a 10 MB line.
 
bigboy529 said:
Something seriously wrong here this morning

Pinging bras.afrihost.com [155.239.255.250] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 155.239.255.250: bytes=32 time=1043ms TTL=63
Reply from 155.239.255.250: bytes=32 time=1105ms TTL=63
Reply from 155.239.255.250: bytes=32 time=1036ms TTL=63
Reply from 155.239.255.250: bytes=32 time=1070ms TTL=63

Ping statistics for 155.239.255.250:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 1036ms, Maximum = 1105ms, Average = 1063ms

Speed test
Download Speed: 393 kbps (49.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 132 kbps (16.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 1413 ms

Please assist, this on a 10 MB line.
Click to expand...

:(

Something is seriously out of whack there! Could you PM me your DSL line number and I'll check what's going on.
 
DSTV Catchup downloads are at a crawl

Download speeds for DSTV catch-up content is down the tubes. YouTube is currently streaming fine at 17mbps but DSTV Now on iOS and Android devices as well as downloads on the Explorer are stone dead. Switched to Mobile and DSTV streams perfectly. Reported this on the DSTV Forum and nothed another AH user with 100mbps Fibre reporting the exact problem. Think there's a routing/peering/shaping issue.
Please advise.
 
steel_dog said:
Download speeds for DSTV catch-up content is down the tubes. YouTube is currently streaming fine at 17mbps but DSTV Now on iOS and Android devices as well as downloads on the Explorer are stone dead. Switched to Mobile and DSTV streams perfectly. Reported this on the DSTV Forum and nothed another AH user with 100mbps Fibre reporting the exact problem. Think there's a routing/peering/shaping issue.
Please advise.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll pass this info onto our Team. Please drop me a PM with your account username, I can't seem to find it in my records.
 
With reference to post #711

Local speed test @ 15:06 today ....... unless mistaken, dial up was faster :twisted:

PS: This is the result on a 4 Meg line, with no downloads, no updates, no games running in the background:

AH2.PNG

This is two minutes later - crazy, right?

AH2.PNG
 
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From CPT on AH...

This appears to be the bottleneck to the EU.
if-ae-2-2.tcore1.KLT-Cape-Town.as6453.net

And this server IP en-route to the USA.
41.164.52.40 its registered to Neotel Pty Ltd
 
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