Afrihost POC Network - Afrigreen Feedback

[PurSpyk!!]

The improvements we've been talking about simply can't be put into play over a single post on these forums.
They're long term upgrades that will see improvements. More updates will be posted when they're available.

We have been hearing similar things from months now, I hope for Afrihosts sake this will be the case. I might not be around to witness it though.

 

[electrofreeze]

The improvements we've been talking about simply can't be put into play over a single post on these forums.
They're long term upgrades that will see improvements. More updates will be posted when they're available.

this sounds familiar and like a replay
at the moment speeds are down the crapper downloads are crap and legal torrents has come to a standstill just so ah can survive and the weekend is upon us

 

[AfriGuy]

We have been hearing similar things from months now, I hope for Afrihosts sake this will be the case. I might not be around to witness it though.

I've stressed this in previous posts. I understand that you feel that way, but the fact that we're setting up a new network should tell you that we're doing things differently.

 

[AfriGuy]

this sounds familiar and like a replay
at the moment speeds are down the crapper downloads are crap and legal torrents has come to a standstill just so ah can survive and the weekend is upon us

Will you run through some tests with our team at least? I really do want to help, but you do need to post some substance so we can help. I haven't seen any test results posted by you, even when things have been working fine. Unfortunately I can't do much with "things aren't working so well"

 

[caroper]

What I cant understand is that you deliberately overloaded it to see where the limits are, broke it, then said great now we know the limits lets go live. That leaves us with a broken network now for however long it takes to get the equipment in place.
Shouldn't the infrastructure have been in place first?

 

[AfriGuy]

What I cant understand is that you deliberately overloaded it to see where the limits are, broke it, then said great now we know the limits lets go live. That leaves us with a broken network now for however long it takes to get the equipment in place.
Shouldn't the infrastructure have been in place first?

Nothing was purposefully broken. The POC was initially setup with a hard limit in place.

 

[PurSpyk!!]

What I cant understand is that you deliberately overloaded it to see where the limits are, broke it, then said great now we know the limits lets go live. That leaves us with a broken network now for however long it takes to get the equipment in place.
Shouldn't the infrastructure have been in place first?

I think all the official responses for November/December 2015 have already been written: Please be patient, this is a new network, you need to understand things take time to tweak and get fully optimised, but if you can please post a tracert to the sites you are having issue with, then I will get our team to look into this.

 

[AfriGuy]

I think all the official responses for November/December 2015 have already been written: Please be patient, this is a new network, you need to understand things take time to tweak and get fully optimised, but if you can please post a tracert to the sites you are having issue with, then I will get our team to look into this.

That's a bit out of context though, as this was all discussed on the previous network. Which is exactly the reason why we're setting up a new one.

 

[Melkman182]

I've been on Afrigreen since the start of the POC with only minor hicups when maintenance is being done.

Got full speed on my 4Mbps line, upgraded to 8Mbps as soon as it came out and full speed as well. 1080p Streaming by default on Youtube and HD on Netflix, usenet works perfectly fine at full speed. Gaming with latency between 40-60ms on Dota/CS connecting from durbanville...International latency is between 190 and 240 (Diablo3)

 

[AfriGuy]

I've been on Afrigreen since the start of the POC with only minor hicups when maintenance is being done.

Got full speed on my 4Mbps line, upgraded to 8Mbps as soon as it came out and full speed as well. 1080p Streaming by default on Youtube and HD on Netflix, usenet works perfectly fine at full speed. Gaming with latency between 40-60ms on Dota/CS connecting from durbanville...International latency is between 190 and 240 (Diablo3)

Great to hear it's been working for you You can look forward to a similar experience when the new production network rolls out!

 

[Tolstoy]

Started at 4pm today. Seems it just goes to hell in a handbasket when the AH offices close for the day.

http://i.imgur.com/et6rVId.png

http://i.imgur.com/XUszso0.png

http://i.imgur.com/08LSr1w.png

http://www.speedtest.net/result/4712328741.png

It's impossible to get tracerts of gaming servers, what with their different ports n all.

As you can see, speedtest shows everything fine for a 4mb uncapped home account. It's the latency to local servers that's god-horrid.

 

[AfriGuy]

Started at 4pm today. Seems it just goes to hell in a handbasket when the AH offices close for the day.

http://i.imgur.com/et6rVId.png

http://i.imgur.com/XUszso0.png

http://i.imgur.com/08LSr1w.png

http://www.speedtest.net/result/4712328741.png

It's impossible to get tracerts of gaming servers, what with their different ports n all.

As you can see, speedtest shows everything fine for a 4mb uncapped home account. It's the latency to local servers that's god-horrid.

Sorry to hear
Those results are very strange indeed. Is it only gaming you're seeing an issue on?

 

[DonaldMickey]

Nothing was purposefully broken. The POC was initially setup with a hard limit in place.

Ok so if it has been set up with a hard limit, why the hell was it allowed to reach and go beyond said limit, again (referring to AfriRed frequently reaching its limit) without a back up plan? It seems to me as if you guys were caught with your pants down and are now running around trying to fix it.
I understand limits get reached but what seems to have happened here is that you guys weren't prepared for it. If you were, the production phase of AfriGreen would have already been in place and the switch over could've been done much sooner than "sometime in October".
What also isn't helping is the track record of issues over the past 12 months, if not longer.

 

[Tolstoy]

Sorry to hear
Those results are very strange indeed. Is it only gaming you're seeing an issue on?

Gaming only. Browsing, youtube, downloads are fine (test-dl'd something now and get the normal 400-500kb/sec). It's literally just these servers I play games on. Is it a port issue? I made a fault query a week or more back and the tech chap there said they'd reset my ports, whatever this means?

Not really sure what's going on to be honest.

 

[AfriGuy]

Ok so if it has been set up with a hard limit, why the hell was it allowed to reach and go beyond said limit, again (referring to AfriRed frequently reaching its limit) without a back up plan? It seems to me as if you guys were caught with your pants down and are now running around trying to fix it.
I understand limits get reached but what seems to have happened here is that you guys weren't prepared for it. If you were, the production phase of AfriGreen would have already been in place and the switch over could've been done much sooner than "sometime in October".
What also isn't helping is the track record of issues over the past 12 months, if not longer.

It's reached it's limit because it's a POC network. It's being used exactly what it was setup for, as a proof of concept.
Again, I need to stress that having a new production network introduced is tackling the previous queries that have been posted here.

 

[DonaldMickey]

It's reached it's limit because it's a POC network. It's being used exactly what it was setup for, as a proof of concept.
Again, I need to stress that having a new production network introduced is tackling the previous queries that have been posted here.

So at the moment it is providing proof of a congested network? Is this what is to be expected in future?

 

[LaraC]

Account type
10Mbps Home Capped

Speedtest results:


Category/ categories tested

Browsing (page load times, etc)
Video Streaming (YouTube)
Latency (Trace route)
Downloads (P2P)

Comments

* Browsing is good with pages loading quickly.
* YouTube Video Streaming is flawless and load without buffering. Connection speed is excellent.


* Latency (Trace route) - Latency fluctuated a bit on the first hop.

 Tracing route to google.com [216.58.223.46]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3    77 ms    57 ms   121 ms  41.170.79.229
  4    42 ms    41 ms    39 ms  41.170.79.230
  5    46 ms    45 ms    45 ms  41.170.79.236
  6    40 ms    40 ms    40 ms  google.jb1.napafrica.net [196.46.25.166]
  7    45 ms    45 ms    45 ms  72.14.239.129
  8    42 ms    40 ms    40 ms  jnb01s08-in-f14.1e100.net [216.58.223.46]

Trace complete.

* Downloads(P2P) Tested with Ubuntu file AfriGuy posted and it ran very fast.


AfriGreen is working exceptionally good for me.

 

[AfriGuy]

So at the moment it is providing proof of a congested network? Is this what is to be expected in future?

No.
The POC has proved we're moving in the right direction.

Hey guys

The network guys have given us an update on the Afrigreen POC.

The feedback and participation of everyone here is vital to everything that has got us this far, and both the network team and all the reps are supremely grateful for everyone’s contribution.

We’ve now come to the end of the POC phase and are preparing to move into production. We have already started implementing the infrastructure required to have points of presence (IPC) in 3 regions (North, South & East).

We believe that LAB simulations aren’t always a true reflection of how we use the internet so part of the POC required that we simulate a constrained network.
Due to physical limitations on the physical Network Core Equipment we cannot upgrade the POC IPC capacity but we’re very excited that the new Network Core Equipment is being deployed and will soon be ready for use.

We’ll keep Afrigreen running and we’ll migrate it to the new production network over the next few weeks (in October). We’ll be sending out official communications early next week (from Gian, our CEO) with more accurate dates.
Till then, our team will continue running tests on Afrigreen with intentions of making the migrations as smooth as possible.
You can still use your afrihost.co.za ADSL username on the MTN network and we’ll let you know once we’ve migrated Afrigreen to the new network.

We’re very grateful to have had the opportunity to drive demand on the POC as high as possible to simulate conditions in the real world, like if we experience a major loss of IPC capacity. This has been extremely valuable to the team to be able to test scenarios and network policies that will ensure that we provide the best experience we can under difficult conditions.

Again, we’d like to thank everyone for testing, providing feedback and just being part of this awesome new phase of Afrihost’s development as a service provider. We’re honoured that so many have been so diligent in their feedback both here and via ClientZone, you’ve made a huge contribution to the new network!

Afrigreen, as a POC, was setup to tackle long term issues and quirks we've seen previously.
So yes, it will improve in the long run. a POC network isn't a long term project - using what we've learnt during the POC time and putting that into practice in a production environment is.

It will be resolved on production.

 

[AfriGuy]

Account type
10Mbps Home Capped

Speedtest results:
View attachment 302062

Category/ categories tested

Browsing (page load times, etc)
Video Streaming (YouTube)
Latency (Trace route)
Downloads (P2P)

Comments

* Browsing is good with pages loading quickly.
* YouTube Video Streaming is flawless and load without buffering. Connection speed is excellent.
View attachment 302064

* Latency (Trace route) - Latency fluctuated a bit on the first hop.

 Tracing route to google.com [216.58.223.46]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3    77 ms    57 ms   121 ms  41.170.79.229
  4    42 ms    41 ms    39 ms  41.170.79.230
  5    46 ms    45 ms    45 ms  41.170.79.236
  6    40 ms    40 ms    40 ms  google.jb1.napafrica.net [196.46.25.166]
  7    45 ms    45 ms    45 ms  72.14.239.129
  8    42 ms    40 ms    40 ms  jnb01s08-in-f14.1e100.net [216.58.223.46]

Trace complete.

* Downloads(P2P) Tested with Ubuntu file AfriGuy posted and it ran very fast.
View attachment 302066

AfriGreen is working exceptionally good for me.

Latency is a bit high, but everything else looks spot on. Nice

 

[LaraC]

Latency is a bit high, but everything else looks spot on. Nice

Totally agree, it's awesome. If the network performed like this for everyone you will have lots of smiling faces.