Afrihost New Network Feedback

[PurSpyk!!]

Is Afrihost going to admit there are issues with the network, I have posted my tracert results from last night, never to get a response.

 

[AfriMan]

Capped account 100 + 100.

Definitely shouldn't be seeing any shaping on Uncapped.

Did you get to test with another account as you mentioned in a previous post?

 

[AfriMan]

Is Afrihost going to admit there are issues with the network, I have posted my tracert results from last night, never to get a response.

Right now there are no issues with the network. I've looked at your results and I really believe that this is an issue on your line or exchange.

 

[Igor III]

I'm worried about the intermittent spikes in latency when you ping bras.afrihost.com. That should always be under 30ms at most, but we like to see it close to 10ms. Is that fluctuation consistent?

Not really - this is the frustrating part for me ...... the lag spike is random, e.g, things would be fine for an hour or two and just when I am really getting my gaming face on, BAM! every few minutes I have a spike (this is on Diablo/Battlenet). I have to admit that due to the lag spikes, I have not bothered to play D3 much lately, as it is more frustrating than fun. Guild Wars 2 I play for an hour or so per day and although the lag spikes is not as noticeable (I suppose their servers handle it better - only a wild guess though), I do notice the latency range from ~200 to around 350/400 ms). Again not all the time, but every now and then. PWI's Forsaken World is a different beast (mainly because PWI is merely a publisher that is in it for the cash - their servers are not too great ). In FW my ping ranges anything from 400 - 20K ms. Fortunately the high end spikes are on the odd occasion (as luck would have it, when one enter a PvP arena ).

I am currently in discussions with WA to see if they would let me buy into their services for 30 days (i.e. waive the calendar month's notice period). Hopefully this way I can put my AH account on hold for a month and run WA for a 30 day period to see if the issues I am having is ISP related or hardware/Telkom.

Switching over for short periods of time to the WA 1GB account, shows no issues - implying the problem is on my AH account. But to make 100% sure, I have decided that I should possibly run a different ISP for a longer period and then compare my experience.

I don't have a huge data demand, as I do mainly gaming (merely to take my mind off the day to day IRL issues we experience ) and also I do download a few torrents as well ..... nudge, nudge, wink, wink).

 

[AfriMan]

Its really shocking that this type of service continues, we get chargedthe same price, yet the service is always worse. Mention some compensation for poor service and you get told management will make it up to us. Been hearing the same for too long, and management is honestly not bothered with customer complaints because there is never any improvement. I know the solution is probably to move to another isp, but in the long run we cannot change every month, and this type of service should be addressed. They hide behind a best effort clause, which quiet honestly is a cowards way out, as everyone will have a different definition of what is a best effort. In Africa, a persons best effort generally is way below international standards.

Pathetic.

How can I download Fallout 4 is I cannot even download a Windows Update??

Tracing route to www.myadsl.co.za [41.203.16.67]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 7 ms 6 ms 7 ms 169-0-64-1.ip.afrihost.co.za [169.0.64.1]
3 1618 ms 2084 ms 1793 ms cpt-tx2.ip.adsl.co.za [169.1.5.81]
4 263 ms 280 ms 290 ms cpt-rx2.ip.adsl.co.za [169.1.5.82]
5 359 ms 351 ms 379 ms cpt-net1.ip.adsl.co.za [169.1.5.128]
6 384 ms 376 ms 386 ms africainx.ct1.napafrica.net [196.10.140.7]
7 433 ms 432 ms 470 ms CORE.GP-CN-HET-MEE-1.TO.GP-HV-ICT-MEE-1.DFA.P2P.
10G.za.africainx.net [41.84.13.66]
8 483 ms 479 ms 492 ms 41-66-132-246-f6.HET001-CPE-1-to-GP-CN-HET-MEE-1
.africainx.net [41.66.132.246]
9 536 ms 525 ms 455 ms core-access-switch1.jnb1.host-h.net [197.189.193
.1]
10 262 ms 275 ms 284 ms dedi67.jnb2.host-h.net [41.203.16.67]

Trace complete.

Look at the 3rd hop!!!!!!

Tracing route to youtube-ui.l.google.com [41.160.35.162]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 381 ms 264 ms 156 ms 169-0-64-1.ip.afrihost.co.za [169.0.64.1]
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 579 ms 583 ms 529 ms cpt-rx2.ip.adsl.co.za [169.1.5.82]
5 585 ms 573 ms 599 ms cpt-net1.ip.adsl.co.za [169.1.5.128]
6 582 ms 591 ms 622 ms 41.164.52.40
7 310 ms 281 ms 253 ms 172.18.1.166
8 416 ms 419 ms 442 ms 41.160.35.129
9 488 ms 532 ms 539 ms cache.google.com [41.160.35.162]

Trace complete.

Looking at these tests, the second hop is your BRAS, which definitely inidicates that this is congestion or a line problem.

 

[hawker]

Just wanted to say that my Afrihost service has been A LOT better this week.

DOTA pings have been good, download speeds good, Youtube working well. Nice work AH.

 

[AfriMan]

and then tomorrow all we get is oh we see there were reports of issues, but then what, your network is a mess, your network staff seem to have no idea, whoever is configuring your network needs to be retrained because its always the same thing. We had a POC network, we reported issues, we were guaranteed these would not happen on the production network, and look, non stop issues.

Business users pay a premium, your product site shows 24/7 support. You have no toll free number, so anyone outside of the 011 region pays a premium for telephonic support, I must then pay for an sms so you can call me back which might not be immediate and I cannot sit up all night waiting for a call, Afrihost need to rather provide punching bags for clients, as my frustration levels need a release and a punching bag now would be a great help.

I totally get your frustration, but I think it's also fair to say that we've been talking about your dissatisfaction with our network for several years now, and we've made every effort to try to meet your expectations. I know you've been through Critical Care many times, and we genuinely have made an effort to give you the best experience we can.

 

[AfriMan]

as requested:

Tracing route to bras.afrihost.com [155.239.255.250]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 428 ms 469 ms 473 ms 169-0-64-1.ip.afrihost.co.za [169.0.64.1]
3 * 14 ms 8 ms cpt-tx2.ip.adsl.co.za [169.1.5.81]
4 261 ms 295 ms 317 ms cpt-rx1.ip.adsl.co.za [169.1.5.94]
5 330 ms 329 ms 329 ms cpt-net1.ip.adsl.co.za [169.1.5.128]
6 340 ms 370 ms 396 ms 41.164.52.40
7 555 ms 516 ms 566 ms 172.18.32.33
8 657 ms 684 ms 329 ms wblv-ip-se-2-wan.telkom-ipnet.co.za [196.25.3.10
1]
9 196.43.25.205 reports: Destination host unreachable.

Trace complete.

Surely this shows a issue, or am I just imagining it?

Definitely looks like congestion or a line problem here.

 

[AfriMan]

Erm, that is supposed to be 2 hops.

C:\WINDOWS\System32>tracert bras.afrihost.com

Tracing route to bras.afrihost.com [155.239.255.250]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     1 ms     2 ms     2 ms  home.gateway.pace.net [192.168.1.1]  <-- My router.
  2   19 ms    15 ms     7 ms  155.239.255.250 <-- the exchange

Trace complete.

Bras.afrihost.com is supposed to ping the exchange.

That looks pretty healthy - should always be under 30ms and as close to 10ms as possible is preferable.

 

[kohlhtor]

Sorry packet loos only on afrihost
Webafrica was fine
Packet loss was at the Cape Town pop
The problem is on your side don't blame Telkom is your Network in Cape Town

We shouldn't have seen any packet loss on the network last night. Remember that we would only see that if we are hitting capacity or seeing high latency on the network, which I don't believe we were in any of the regions.

Which hop did you see packet loss on? Do you get the same results for both local and international?

 

[AfriMan]

... and the 100% packet loss on 2nd hop?

New MTR also shows 30% on hops 4, 5, 7 and 8, 22.2% on hop 9 and 10% on hops 3, 6.

[orca@MiniMax ~]$ mtr --report mybroadband.co.za
Start: Tue Nov 3 23:32:51 2015
HOST: MiniMax Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev
1.|-- gateway 0.0% 10 0.5 0.5 0.4 0.7 0.0
2.|-- ??? 100.0 10 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
3.|-- cpt-up1.ip.adsl.co.za 10.0% 10 801.3 1061. 801.3 1369. 166.4
4.|-- cpt-in1.ip.adsl.co.za 30.0% 10 920.7 1068. 920.7 1328. 134.8
5.|-- cpt-net1.ip.adsl.co.za 30.0% 10 914.1 1086. 914.1 1300. 114.7
6.|-- africainx.ct1.napafrica.n 10.0% 10 852.6 1028. 852.6 1207. 114.9
7.|-- CORE.GP-ID-DCE-3.TO.GP-ID 30.0% 10 894.3 1063. 892.6 1212. 135.2
8.|-- 41-66-181-59-3b.CLO008-CD 30.0% 10 911.1 1027. 889.9 1185. 107.5
9.|-- 104.20.71.110 22.2% 9 932.7 1009. 652.5 1182. 187.7
[orca@MiniMax ~]$

Sending this quick reply took minutes again. There is something seriously wrong. Maybe it's our local exchange? Too bad I can't deal with them since AH manages my account. :erm:

If you are on one of the new upgraded exchanges, you will always see 100% packet loss on the second hop, because the BRAS does not respond to ping.

Can you please ping bras.afrihost.com?

 

[AfriMan]

Sorry packet loos only on afrihost
Webafrica was fine
Packet loss was at the Cape Town pop
The problem is on your side don't blame Telkom is your Network in Cape Town

The way that the network is structured, there are several components of the regional network. I don't believe I blamed Telkom here, that was not my intention. But we need to see exactly where you are seeing packet loss to be able to address this.

 

[AfriMan]

Last night I reported my Business Account been Trottled, and they don't beleave me?

Wel, I run 2x P2P connections with over 30 000 seeders and 12 000 peers for the hole day
And this is the Result for the last 8 hours!!!! (With out rebooting or Doing something else)

View attachment 312517

This is Happening ever Night now that my P2P being killed on Business Acount sins "New Network"!!
Clearly Afrihost know's this, but they do it anyway.. Again I say.. Not the First time..
My Business Account is been Trottled like a Normal Uncapped Account.
But Last time before this Snap Shot when it happend I quickly change to 1GB Capped Test Account on Afrihost and it went Full Speed?
Change back to Business Account, then it was dead again..

I am not happy with the Service I am getting on a Business Account. It is getting worst and worst and worst now..
I use to get Full speed P2P testing begining this year ones for 3 day straigt (Then I was Happy), But now My Bandwith is going up and down like a yo-yo? All other than P2P is working fine most of the time.

There is clearly something wrong with there Network Setup, or not enough Bandwith or Capp to go around the Country??
We have been given Promises but the Results are always geting worst than before.. But still we have to Pay Full Price every month!

I realy, realy Miss the "Internet Joy" that I had...:wtf:

We definitely have enough capacity, at the moment we're doing very little shaping for most of the day and we're not seeing congestion on the network at any time (indicating that when we need to shape, this is still more than sufficient for the network to run smoothly).

Business is also never going to be shaped, as per the way the product is structured, and the only P2P limit is using the Optimisation feature (which I am assuming you have already tested). I always discourage using a single file P2P test as an indication of shaping, becuase there are way too many variables in play. To use P2P as an indicator of throughput, it much better to load up loads of files and let them run concurrently.

 

[AfriMan]

My tracert to bras.afrihost.com also times out after 9 hops, same as Purs..

Remember that this will only work if you are on a new BRAS that does not respond to ICMP or ping. If you see the second hop on your trace, then your exchange is not setup to respond to the IP that we are pinging.

 

[AfriMan]

again, im guessing that my line was syncing fine, but somewhere something on the TI side was broken. That is still for me the strangest thing, because im only using your(AH) data, you are not managing my line, or making changes. So why would a change in account, make a difference, when the issue is potentially still the line(possibly) :wtf:

Sometimes changing accounts resets your port at the exchange and performance immediately improves. Otherwise it could be an issue on the ISP network and one just performs better.

Hard to say without doing some proper troubleshooting

 

[AfriMan]

Not really - this is the frustrating part for me ...... the lag spike is random, e.g, things would be fine for an hour or two and just when I am really getting my gaming face on, BAM! every few minutes I have a spike (this is on Diablo/Battlenet). I have to admit that due to the lag spikes, I have not bothered to play D3 much lately, as it is more frustrating than fun. Guild Wars 2 I play for an hour or so per day and although the lag spikes is not as noticeable (I suppose their servers handle it better - only a wild guess though), I do notice the latency range from ~200 to around 350/400 ms). Again not all the time, but every now and then. PWI's Forsaken World is a different beast (mainly because PWI is merely a publisher that is in it for the cash - their servers are not too great ). In FW my ping ranges anything from 400 - 20K ms. Fortunately the high end spikes are on the odd occasion (as luck would have it, when one enter a PvP arena ).

I am currently in discussions with WA to see if they would let me buy into their services for 30 days (i.e. waive the calendar month's notice period). Hopefully this way I can put my AH account on hold for a month and run WA for a 30 day period to see if the issues I am having is ISP related or hardware/Telkom.

Switching over for short periods of time to the WA 1GB account, shows no issues - implying the problem is on my AH account. But to make 100% sure, I have decided that I should possibly run a different ISP for a longer period and then compare my experience.

I don't have a huge data demand, as I do mainly gaming (merely to take my mind off the day to day IRL issues we experience ) and also I do download a few torrents as well ..... nudge, nudge, wink, wink).

We definitely try to use Blizzard/Battlenet games as a benchmark for gaming performance and our tests haven't shown massive spikes. I think we need to do more troubleshooting with you and monitor from our side to see what changes could be happening.

It's definitely good to monitor over long periods. Remember that changing accounts could be resetting your connection the exchange and establishing a new connection might hide other symptoms that continuous testing will show more clearly.

Happy to set up further testing with us if you drop me a PM

 

[AfriMan]

Just wanted to say that my Afrihost service has been A LOT better this week.

DOTA pings have been good, download speeds good, Youtube working well. Nice work AH.

I'm really glad to hear that. All the DOTA players at the office (always surprised by how many there are) are reporting good in game performance.

Thanks for the awesome feedback

 

[PurSpyk!!]

Right now there are no issues with the network. I've looked at your results and I really believe that this is an issue on your line or exchange.

and this all start at basically 21:00 last night, I always find it odd when outages happen at exact times. Afrihost manage my account so can you find out what is going on? its also irritating that its always an issue unrelated to Afrihost, when many users with test accounts from other ISP's have proven that its not the case. I currently don't have any test accounts so I cannot do any alternative tests. But previously my exchange was blamed and my test alternative account proved this not to be the case.

The other issue I have "right now". the problem is your service is a 24hrs service, I need to have my account working 24/7 and especially when I have important things to do, so having issues last night and many other nights/days is unacceptable.

I am still waiting to see how management plan to make up for the continual issues.

 

[kohlhtor]

The way that the network is structured, there are several components of the regional network. I don't believe I blamed Telkom here, that was not my intention. But we need to see exactly where you are seeing packet loss to be able to address this.

This was last night and I was not the only one with this problem check all the post last night

 

[Slaught3r]

Right now there are no issues with the network. I've looked at your results and I really believe that this is an issue on your line or exchange.

Sorry, but I have to disagree. I also had massive issues last night (pings in excess of 1000 to the Dota servers) Downloads @ <2mb on a 4mb line, latency to JHB of >150ms. Started relatively early - just before 7PM, but couldn't have been bothered to see what time it got better (IF it got better). There seems to be a problem at night with the network, starting around 7PM and lasting till who knows when. If you go back to posts from 6PM last night on this thread you will see I posted my results.

I can't give you my experience during daytime because I am at work, but between 3PM and 7PM the network usually flies and I have no issues, but from 7 I have to listen to my wife complain that she can't go on Facebook because it won't load - I can't play Dota because of latency and Twitch is basically dead. Don't get me wrong - it streams, but at such low quality that I have to squint to try and make sense of what I am seeing.

I will check tonight again, and if it happens again I will send my findings to Oscar so he can investigate. I seriously doubt it is exchange related, because a lot of people here experience the same thing.