Afrihost CAPPED fibre : Accounting seems wrong.

[mountain_lion]

Anybody using Afrihost on fibre with a capped package?

The accounting on Afrihost Capped fibre seems to be completely wrong (or else Clientzone is reporting it wrong).
For my account the total usage shown on the overview page in ClientZone does not correspond with the detailed graph.

The fibre line was only installed during April and went down with a fibre break (poor splicing by the sub-contractor) after only a few days. With a physical fibre break, Afrihost still managed to report GBs usage daily until the account was capped!
Line was only repaired on the 30 April.

So with zero trust in the accounting, I left all devices unplugged from the Fibre router and disabled Wifi.
Thus no clients connected. Just the router.
I guess there will be handshaking going on, so there will be some usage, but nothing major.

1st of the month today with fresh cap.
This is what ClientZone reported earlier today:







I have tried several times to report the accounting problem to Afrihost but keep hitting the support desk wall

This is copy paste from their reply today when I pointed out the above:

Please kindly note that you have used 202.914 MB which is about 1.20 GB

I guess I could just go Uncapped (10Mbps 100GB cap is the same price as 10Mbps Uncapped), but since 100GB ADSL cap has served us fine in the past at home, I decided to stay capped at first and avoid shaping.

Anybody having a similar experience with Afrihost capped fibre?

 

[cavedog]

Wow you have a 100GB capped account. Madness. I'm guessing you are on Openserve? If yes why did you not go with Cool Ideas? Cheaper and uncapped.

 

[mountain_lion]

Wow you have a 100GB capped account. Madness. I'm guessing you are on Openserve? If yes why did you not go with Cool Ideas? Cheaper and uncapped.

Frogfoot is the Fibre provider.
100GB cap is fine for us, or at least has been the case on ADSL for many years. Easy to change in future if needed.
Great if you are on uncapped, but not everybody needs to download the whole internet plus capped is also unshaped when those who do download the whole internet get going.
But that is not the point here.

My question is directed at other Afrihost capped fibre users.

 

[cavedog]

Frogfoot is the Fibre provider.
100GB cap is fine for us, or at least has been the case on ADSL for many years. Easy to change in future if needed.
Great if you are on uncapped, but not everybody needs to download the whole internet plus capped is also unshaped when those who do download the whole internet get going.
But that is not the point here.

My question is directed at other Afrihost capped fibre users.

You see that thinking is when ADSL was the only good internet we had. Afrihost has stuck with that thinking when they started offering Fibre too. No offense but that is backwards thinking.

On fibre uncapped should ALWAYS be uncapped, unshaped and unthrottled and if it's not then you are on the wrong ISP. Just saying. Uncapped does not mean you download the internet btw. Anyways good luck. This line alone should tell you the knowledge the afrihost support staff have....

Please kindly note that you have used 202.914 MB which is about 1.20 GB

 

[dasdk]

Please kindly note that you have used 202.914 MB which is about 1.20 GB

This made me laugh so hard

 

[mountain_lion]

You see that thinking is when ADSL was the only good internet we had. Afrihost has stuck with that thinking when they started offering Fibre too. No offense but that is backwards thinking.

On fibre uncapped should ALWAYS be uncapped, unshaped and unthrottled and if it's not then you are on the wrong ISP. Just saying. Uncapped does not mean you download the internet btw. Anyways good luck. This line alone should tell you the knowledge the afrihost support staff have....

Please kindly note that you have used 202.914 MB which is about 1.20 GB

I agree with your comments; fibre should not be shaped, but that is not what Afrihost are doing...

I have been a happy Afrihost customer for several years on ADSL and also have my mobile service with them on MTN, so it was convenient to stay when moving to fibre.

The absurdity of Afrihost support's response is why I posted it.
The move to fibre and related support from Afrihost over the past 3 weeks alone is sufficient reason for me to jump ISP.

It is month-to-month, so no problem moving.
Cancellations can be done up to the 15th of the month, so Afrihost have 2 weeks to convince me to stay...

 

[cavedog]

I agree with your comments; fibre should not be shaped, but that is not what Afrihost are doing...

I have been a happy Afrihost customer for several years on ADSL and also have my mobile service with them on MTN, so it was convenient to stay when moving to fibre.

The absurdity of Afrihost support's response is why I posted it.
The move to fibre and related support from Afrihost over the past 3 weeks alone is sufficient reason for me to jump ISP.

It is month-to-month, so no problem moving.
Cancellations can be done up to the 15th of the month, so Afrihost have 2 weeks to convince me to stay...

Reach out the afrihost reps here
https://mybroadband.co.za/forum/forums/afrihost-support-forum.296/

Afrihost Plus+ might also be an option. For R100 more you get double data and more mobile data free.

Honestly I'm NOT a fan of Afrihost but if they are working for you then that is up to you. Hope you get it sorted

 

[mountain_lion]

Thanks,

Reach out the afrihost reps here
https://mybroadband.co.za/forum/forums/afrihost-support-forum.296/

Afrihost Plus+ might also be an option. For R100 more you get double data and more mobile data free.

Honestly I'm NOT a fan of Afrihost but if they are working for you then that is up to you. Hope you get it sorted

Thanks, I have PMed the Afrihost reps. with a link to this thread.
Will see if they reply tomorrow.

 

[Johnatan56]

Frogfoot is the Fibre provider.
100GB cap is fine for us, or at least has been the case on ADSL for many years. Easy to change in future if needed.
Great if you are on uncapped, but not everybody needs to download the whole internet plus capped is also unshaped when those who do download the whole internet get going.
But that is not the point here.

My question is directed at other Afrihost capped fibre users.

There are no capped Afrihost products on Frogfoot? https://www.afrihost.com/fibre/capped#fibre-packages
They have a 500GB and 1TB option: https://www.frogfootfibre.com/frogfoot/myaccount/home/packages/packages.jsp

Is it the "home fiber package" you mean? That nonsense FUP stuff? Rather move to another provider, there are better options that are cheaper.

 

[mountain_lion]

There are no capped Afrihost products on Frogfoot? https://www.afrihost.com/fibre/capped#fibre-packages
They have a 500GB and 1TB option: https://www.frogfootfibre.com/frogfoot/myaccount/home/packages/packages.jsp

Is it the "home fiber package" you mean? That nonsense FUP stuff? Rather move to another provider, there are better options that are cheaper.

Seems like Afrihost changed their packages from this month.
When I signed up in April they still had various unshaped capped packages vs. shaped uncapped packages on offer.

 

[AfriNatic]

Anybody using Afrihost on fibre with a capped package?

The accounting on Afrihost Capped fibre seems to be completely wrong (or else Clientzone is reporting it wrong).
For my account the total usage shown on the overview page in ClientZone does not correspond with the detailed graph.

The fibre line was only installed during April and went down with a fibre break (poor splicing by the sub-contractor) after only a few days. With a physical fibre break, Afrihost still managed to report GBs usage daily until the account was capped!
Line was only repaired on the 30 April.

So with zero trust in the accounting, I left all devices unplugged from the Fibre router and disabled Wifi.
Thus no clients connected. Just the router.
I guess there will be handshaking going on, so there will be some usage, but nothing major.

1st of the month today with fresh cap.
This is what ClientZone reported earlier today:

View attachment 651972

View attachment 651974



I have tried several times to report the accounting problem to Afrihost but keep hitting the support desk wall

This is copy paste from their reply today when I pointed out the above:


I guess I could just go Uncapped (10Mbps 100GB cap is the same price as 10Mbps Uncapped), but since 100GB ADSL cap has served us fine in the past at home, I decided to stay capped at first and avoid shaping.

Anybody having a similar experience with Afrihost capped fibre?

There is definitely something wrong here. I'll need to bring this up with our Devs and I'll give you your data back. Please send me a PM with your account information and I'll sort this out for you.

 

[mountain_lion]

There is definitely something wrong here. I'll need to bring this up with our Devs and I'll give you your data back. Please send me a PM with your account information and I'll sort this out for you.

Thanks AfriNatic, PM sent.

My primary concern is to solve the root cause of the accounting problems. Restoring the data is secondary.

The data shown on the Afrihost detailed usage graphs correspond with my own logs, but somewhere there is a factor conversion that is applied incorrectly causing 1MB used to be reported as 100MB and then shown as 1GB on the summary page.
Been trying for 3 weeks to get past the support wall with this, but the wall is very strong (and to make a wall strong it must be thick )

It will be appreciated if you can advise your first line support to rather escalate a request than to reply with factually incorrect statements hoping that "BS will baffle brains" in order to close a ticket ASAP.

However the Afrihost website has been recently updated (or at least since I last checked) and now has:


So it seems pointless to stay on capped, making this whole exercise moot. Correct?

 

[mountain_lion]

No reply yet to my PM from Thursday morning.

Although the Afrihost website now advertise their uncapped product with "No Thresholds" and "No Routine Shaping", they still have this on the same page:


So what is it?

Can one of the Afrihost reps provide some clarity?

 

[mountain_lion]

One week later and no reply here, no reply to my PM and silence from Afrihost support on my open tickets.
Giving up.

 

[AfriNatic]

One week later and no reply here, no reply to my PM and silence from Afrihost support on my open tickets.
Giving up.

So sorry about this. I managed to find the issue and have fixed it for you.

 

[mountain_lion]

So sorry about this. I managed to find the issue and have fixed it for you.

Thanks Afrinatic; I will check my logs versus the usage reported by Afrihost, but am seriously considering moving to another ISP.

Any comment on the functionality of the Afrihost Capped vs Uncapped products?
Seems like the products are changing, but as posted above on 2 May 2019, the information on the Afrihost website is confusing.

I went with capped to avoid shaping and throttling. Is this still a valid reason for using a capped product or is uncapped the better option? (10Mbps 100GB capped costs the same as 10Mbps uncapped).

Will the Afrihost Home uncapped fibre product be subject to throttling and/or shaping?
If so, under what conditions?

 

[cavedog]

Thanks Afrinatic; I will check my logs versus the usage reported by Afrihost, but am seriously considering moving to another ISP.

Any comment on the functionality of the Afrihost Capped vs Uncapped products?
Seems like the products are changing, but as posted above on 2 May 2019, the information on the Afrihost website is confusing.

I went with capped to avoid shaping and throttling. Is this still a valid reason for using a capped product or is uncapped the better option? (10Mbps 100GB capped costs the same as 10Mbps uncapped).

Will the Afrihost Home uncapped fibre product be subject to throttling and/or shaping?
If so, under what conditions?

I think you should change to the uncapped option. They seem to have removed the shaping on non Openserve networks so uncapped actually makes sense if you are on Frogfoot.

 

[mountain_lion]

I think you should change to the uncapped option. They seem to have removed the shaping on non Openserve networks so uncapped actually makes sense if you are on Frogfoot.

It does seem like it, but the information on the Afrihost website is contradicting. Been trying to get an official straight answer out of Afrihost now regarding this.

Best response I could get from Afrihost support is:

We’ll have a single Uncapped product, which will simply be labelled as “Uncapped”.

The product is based on our existing Home Uncapped offer (and will have the same pricing) but will have new business rules around shaping to provide the best experience for clients.

Here’s some important stuff to note:

This will only be applied to the sales process (Website and OrderForm). Clients can still upgrade or downgrade to the old product experiences in ClientZone and the App.
We will be running the offer for a limited time and, depending on the results, it may become permanent.
The offer applies to all providers EXCEPT Openserve.
Capped Fibre will no longer be available to clients for signup."

Please be advised that no throttling will be applied to the service but shaping might occur on specific types of data traffic during peak times if necessary

Existing Home Uncapped was clearly stated as subject to FUP (throttling) and shaping...

Guess I have 2 options:
1. Change to uncapped and see how it goes for the next few months.
2. Bite the bullet and pay Afrihost R999 for their "free"modem and be rid of them.

 

[Johnatan56]

It does seem like it, but the information on the Afrihost website is contradicting. Been trying to get an official straight answer out of Afrihost now regarding this.

Best response I could get from Afrihost support is:


Existing Home Uncapped was clearly stated as subject to FUP (throttling) and shaping...

Guess I have 2 options:
1. Change to uncapped and see how it goes for the next few months.
2. Bite the bullet and pay Afrihost R999 for their "free"modem and be rid of them.

I think 2. gets pro-rated according to how many months you've had it for. So 900/6*months you've paid for >= 0.

 

[AfriNatic]

Thanks Afrinatic; I will check my logs versus the usage reported by Afrihost, but am seriously considering moving to another ISP.

Any comment on the functionality of the Afrihost Capped vs Uncapped products?
Seems like the products are changing, but as posted above on 2 May 2019, the information on the Afrihost website is confusing.

I went with capped to avoid shaping and throttling. Is this still a valid reason for using a capped product or is uncapped the better option? (10Mbps 100GB capped costs the same as 10Mbps uncapped).

Will the Afrihost Home uncapped fibre product be subject to throttling and/or shaping?
If so, under what conditions?

The idea with the package changes is to give our clients the best experience possible. This means we don't want to shape of throttle at all. Meaning we are giving our clients as freedom as we possibly can on our network. As you will see on our website.