Afrihost ISPA ruling upheld

km2 said:
While I'm 100% behind the complaint to the ISPA, as I'm one of those people who left AH for Vox during their bad period, it does worry me a bit that the ISPA investigation system looks to be based on the public communications of clients and the service provider. I wonder if AH had just not said anything about their network problems and just acted like MTN/Cell C ("no we don't see any problem on our side, it must be you"), if they would have escaped all punishment.

Basically just worried if a (industry) regulatory organisation indirectly punishes transparency more than it does poor service.
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My concern as well. It may well create a culture of denial or cover up, unless more people follow the process to formally complaint when they experience issues. Even then, without clear proof, all we will get is denial.
 
maccaman said:
My concern as well. It may well create a culture of denial or cover up, unless more people follow the process to formally complaint when they experience issues. Even then, without clear proof, all we will get is denial.
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This was not my experience with ISPA. It was certainly the experience I had from AH (I just updated my original post with timelines and further comments about the complaints process - perhaps read the update). ISPA relies unfortunately on facts provided and I could give them a ticket-history, emails from AH, Speedtests and other diagnostics. I also had ruled out with Telkom and other ISPs that this was a "client-premise-issue" (i.e. issue with my DSL port, my modem, my settings, my usage, my knowledge how the internet works - all questions I received from AH support staff).

Having been in IT for more than 2 decades I consider myself sufficiently literate in computers, DNS, VPNs, routing and networking and my biggest worry is that ISPs will brush off legitimate customer complaints. i.e. How many customers don't even know that they have latency/connection issues. They would then enter an ISP support process where they are asked to reboot routers, change DNS, copy & paste traceroutes, then phone Telkom to reset their ports or have their lines tested - for most people this is complex and confusing. So in my mind ISPs oftentimes overwhelm consumers with "geek talk" and do not take the necessary accountability and responsibility they should as a responsible company.
 
Rickster said:
Then how can they run an isp without being an isp?

Surely the ISPA can nail them for this.
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Same way that OpenWeb has a partner content advertisement here every week. Friends and sponsorship in the right places.
 
Rickster said:
Then how can they run an isp without being an isp?

Surely the ISPA can nail them for this.
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There is no requirement for an ISP to be an ISPA member. I hope sometime ISPA will evolve into something like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (this one: https://www.eff.org/) and really attempt to protect interests of all internet users (something I always thought ICASA was supposed to be doing).

Maybe someone from ISPA can weigh in to explain why an ISP should be an ISPA member (maybe ISPA assists with ECT/POPI/DMCA compliance?)
 
MagicDude4Eva said:
There is no requirement for an ISP to be an ISPA member. I hope sometime ISPA will evolve into something like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (this one: https://www.eff.org/) and really attempt to protect interests of all internet users (something I always thought ICASA was supposed to be doing).

Maybe someone from ISPA can weigh in to explain why an ISP should be an ISPA member (maybe ISPA assists with ECT/POPI/DMCA compliance?)
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The whole point of an association to to keep things like this regulated, otherwise isp's can just do whatever the hell they want (aka OpenWeb).
 
gconey said:
The cartel fines the hand that feeds it, one can only smile at the irony.
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Is it a difficult position to be in for the ISPA? AH has been so bad that i think it made things a little easier for the ISPA. It's not like trying to fine a mostly stable ISP , now that would be a challenge for them i think
 
Rickster said:
The whole point of an association to to keep things like this regulated, otherwise isp's can just do whatever the hell they want (aka OpenWeb).
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/Wonders if Opencrap is a member

Yep they aren't as expected , can't be with their shaddy business practicies
 
I'm curious why the same thing hasn't been lodged against Axxess, since their network is just as poor as the standard Afrihost one, where you can easily have 20% packet loss in the evening, and its been like this for months now.

Hopefully they fix this issue by moving over to a new network at end of this month - otherwise I'll also be lodging complaints with ISPA
 
Pada said:
I'm curious why the same thing hasn't been lodged against Axxess, since their network is just as poor as the standard Afrihost one, where you can easily have 20% packet loss in the evening, and its been like this for months now.

Hopefully they fix this issue by moving over to a new network at end of this month - otherwise I'll also be lodging complaints with ISPA
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Did Axxess commit to the desired service level?
 
Disclaimer: This is not only a climb-on-the-bandwagon-and-bash-AfriHost post.

Until Monday this week, I was an AfriHost Business (unshaped & unmetered) customer. Last week, I took some leave during the school holidays and got spend some quality time with my internet connection. I've been having numerous issues with my connection and I took the week to try and resolve them.

My biggest problem was poor and inconsistent network performance. The most likely culprit was Telkom, since I am far from the exchange and I have never been able to sync at more than 2mbps. My line also suffers frequent disconnects.

Steps I took:

Log a fault with Telkom
Contact TelkomZA on MyBB (by the way, Charl, you rock!)
Replace the POTS filter
Replace the router
Test both wifi and fixed line access through the router
Run frequent (30 minute interval) diagnostic tests on my line using Netalyzr (here's a typical report for my line: http://n1.netalyzr.icsi.berkeley.edu/summary/id=43ca253f-15862-c1333f01-6631-4fe3-a614)

One observation that immediately became apparent was that my line degraded from fine to not-fine almost immediately around 08:00 in the morning. It was like someone had literally flipped a switch that turned my network to mush. The line would only recover in the evening. I honestly thought it was something to do with the rise in ambient temperature during the day plus the ageing copper plus the distance from the exchange.

Charl from TelkomZA @ MyBB did a full diagnostic test from his end and then gave me a test account at Telkom DSL. The results were a sudden and immediate improvement. I did a couple of access swaps between Telkom and AfriHost and the results we consistent. Telkom was good; AfriHost was very, very bad: huge bandwidth and MTU fluctuations and massive packet loss. The line was literally unusable during the day. Almost immediately around 08:00 in the morning.

For reference:

Telkom:
http://n2.netalyzr.icsi.berkeley.edu/summary/id=36ea240d-16828-3c33567c-0526-47ec-9556

AfriHost:
http://n1.netalyzr.icsi.berkeley.edu/summary/id=43ca253f-15862-7d1a783b-9563-44f8-b1c1

I then approached AfriHost with all my diagnostic results. The first tech had me change my DNS to Google DNS. After I complied with no improvement, I asked why he thought it would help and another tech responded with AfriHost's press release from Friday about the new ADSL network. When I asked when I would be migrated, the tech said: "Well, essentially, the migration procedure would begin next week, however, they will be pulling randomly picked usernames at a time, and migrating them over to the new infrastructure. This is why, unfortunately, I am unable to give you an exact time-frame on when you will be moved onto the new network." I pointed out that I have a demonstrable issue and asked to be prioritised, but AfriHost declined. By this time, I started copying Gian Visser into the emails. I have yet to receive a response from him.

On Monday, I cancelled my AfriHost account and am currently testing WebAfrica. The improvement is dramatic.

TL;DR

AfriHost's appears to be deliberately degrading the performance of their Business ADSL network around 08:00 every morning (OR, less likely, their network simply cannot handle the load of business clients coming on-line during office hours)
AfriHost cannot even meet the minimum acceptable criteria for a 'best-effort' service

@MagicDude4Eva: If you need more weight behind your complaint in order to fight AfriHost on their appeal, please let me know.

Juice
 
MagicDude4Eva said:
Maybe someone from ISPA can weigh in to explain why an ISP should be an ISPA member (maybe ISPA assists with ECT/POPI/DMCA compliance?)
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ISPA is a voluntary association, no mechanism to compel all ISPs to be members (and if you think about it the biggest ones are not - Telkom, Vodacom, MTN, Cell C)

http://ispa.org.za/about-ispa/ as to why an ISP would want to join
 
I order that the ISP make it patently clear on initial perusal of its websites that it is experiencing technical difficulties and that service it may not meet the offered service levels at this time.
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ah status.jpg

Okeeee ... I see what the ISPA dude said ... and I also see the network status was last considered a few months ago .....

Jessss pointing this out .......
 
Sorry if I missed the post, but has anyone seen the statement they had to make per the ISPA judgement on their website?

I spent a few min on their site just now and couldn't find it.
 
AfriGenie said:
Evening!

I wasn't ignoring you, I was just getting confirmation, eventually the @afrigreen usernames will be removed from rotation, but that won't be for some time yet. We don't want to cause anyone any extra admin. :)
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Apparently, you are confused, as per normal...
 
AfriGenie said:
Evening!

I wasn't ignoring you, I was just getting confirmation, eventually the @afrigreen usernames will be removed from rotation, but that won't be for some time yet. We don't want to cause anyone any extra admin. :)
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Oops .... wrong thread Afridude :D
 
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