Afrihost POC Network - Afrigreen Feedback

[Johnatan56]

I doubt Gian will be as active, seeing as some people really went a bit ape in the thread. I think he expected some frustration and anger, but quite honestly some people just took it way too far

To be honest, your line is weird. It shows latency on the BRAS, which we're assured by both Telkom and our network engineers cannot be influenced by our network. It's some kind of outlier that we don't see, I think it may be similar to something Hummercell also experienced. Really weird

I'm sorry but how can he expect some people not to go ape? They got terrible service for a couple of months, it felt like throwing cash out the window.

How has he survived being the head of a public company if he cannot stand a couple of disgruntled customers?

 

[Nikkel]

Shouldn't be, I managed to connect this morning without a hitch. Drop me a PM with your username and let me see what I can from this side

PM'd

 

[AfriMan]

I'm sorry but how can he expect some people not to go ape? They got terrible service for a couple of months, it felt like throwing cash out the window.

How has he survived being the head of a public company if he cannot stand a couple of disgruntled customers?

Disgruntled clients is definitely to be expected, but people made personal threats, really went overboard in terms of the language they used. Ultimately, this is the CEO of a major company, and I think he is entitled to the proper respect that everyone at the very least reserves for each other here on the forums. A few forum members were calling for sanity to keep the engagement going, but sadly the thread just collapsed in on itself because some people just did not want to actually have a conversation

 

[AfriMan]

PM'd

Dankie

 

[Slaught3r]

Disgruntled clients is definitely to be expected, but people made personal threats, really went overboard in terms of the language they used. Ultimately, this is the CEO of a major company, and I think he is entitled to the proper respect that everyone at the very least reserves for each other here on the forums. A few forum members were calling for sanity to keep the engagement going, but sadly the thread just collapsed in on itself because some people just did not want to actually have a conversation

And there we go. Because of a couple of childish ingrates we now seem to have lost the opportunity to deal directly with the man with our issues. Well done chaps.

 

[Splatgrave]

And there we go. Because of a couple of childish ingrates we now seem to have lost the opportunity to deal directly with the man with our issues. Well done chaps.

Last I checked he was hardly responding at all. Not much engagement going on from his side. Does he want a medal for starting the thread, or what?

 

[AfriMan]

Last I checked he was hardly responding at all. Not much engagement going on from his side. Does he want a medal for starting the thread, or what?

I think it's fair to say he posted quite a few times, gave some very fair and transparent replies, even to some very tough posts which bordered on abuse. I don't think there is any CEO out there who would do the same. Definitely got mad respect for Gian and I think the people who were there to engage and hear him, probably feel the same.

 

[Johnatan56]

I think it's fair to say he posted quite a few times, gave some very fair and transparent replies, even to some very tough posts which bordered on abuse. I don't think there is any CEO out there who would do the same. Definitely got mad respect for Gian and I think the people who were there to engage and hear him, probably feel the same.

Respect for trying, lost by leaving.
He should have used the report button for the personal abuse ones, it is a forum after all, and continued to answer/help the others.

 

[twhitehead]

Something seriously wrong this morning:

Pinging www.afrihost.com [41.181.185.18] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 41.181.185.18: bytes=32 time=33ms TTL=55
Request timed out.
Reply from 41.181.185.18: bytes=32 time=36ms TTL=55
Reply from 41.181.185.18: bytes=32 time=34ms TTL=55
Request timed out.
Reply from 41.181.185.18: bytes=32 time=33ms TTL=55
Reply from 41.181.185.18: bytes=32 time=33ms TTL=55
Request timed out.
Reply from 41.181.185.18: bytes=32 time=33ms TTL=55
Reply from 41.181.185.18: bytes=32 time=33ms TTL=55
Request timed out.
Reply from 41.181.185.18: bytes=32 time=33ms TTL=55
Reply from 41.181.185.18: bytes=32 time=33ms TTL=55
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

(Cape Town, 4Mb Uncapped)

 

[AfriMan]

Respect for trying, lost by leaving.
He should have used the report button for the personal abuse ones, it is a forum after all, and continued to answer/help the others.

I think he got through to the people that wanted to hear what he had to say. I think everyone would agree that his time is best spent sorting out the issues that replying to insults and threats

 

[CataclysmZA]

I think it's fair to say he posted quite a few times, gave some very fair and transparent replies, even to some very tough posts which bordered on abuse. I don't think there is any CEO out there who would do the same. Definitely got mad respect for Gian and I think the people who were there to engage and hear him, probably feel the same.

Gian's appearance on MyBB didn't really do anything for the current situation because he never said what's going to change, and why moving to AfriBlue or AfriGreen is better for everyone in general. He started off with a promise of detailing why things went downhill and then proceeds to sell everyone on the idea of becoming beta testers for a new network. Its not that your existing customers are irate about the service they're receiving now, they want to know what you're going to do to avoid this happening again.

When I was still an AH customer, I went through two periods of hellish packet loss and dismal speeds as a result of the South IPC being constrained. The first period took two months to resolve and the second one, that caused my leaving, happened just before Gian's 3AM email to customers telling them that things were going pear-shaped with optimising the additional IPC (which included flying in experts to help, no less). Afrihost has a reputation now of being good for nine months of the year and not so great for the other three, and I've seen this happen for two years in a row.

AfriBlue and AfriGreen is important for your future health and growth as a company, but you need to tell your customers why things are going to be any different now. Unless you're planning to provision capped and uncapped customers on different networks, there's no guarantees that six months to a year down the line we won't see the same mistakes being made.

 

[Gavin107]

...sadly the thread just collapsed in on itself because some people just did not want to actually have a conversation

This is a real pity because I was prepared to listen to Gian and align with what he is trying to achieve. He deserves respect for at least initiating the discussion. However his absence is now creating a vacuum and people are now unfortunately left to draw their own conclusions based on customer feedback in this forum and the other.

 

[AfriMan]

Something seriously wrong this morning:

Pinging www.afrihost.com [41.181.185.18] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 41.181.185.18: bytes=32 time=33ms TTL=55
Request timed out.
Reply from 41.181.185.18: bytes=32 time=36ms TTL=55
Reply from 41.181.185.18: bytes=32 time=34ms TTL=55
Request timed out.
Reply from 41.181.185.18: bytes=32 time=33ms TTL=55
Reply from 41.181.185.18: bytes=32 time=33ms TTL=55
Request timed out.
Reply from 41.181.185.18: bytes=32 time=33ms TTL=55
Reply from 41.181.185.18: bytes=32 time=33ms TTL=55
Request timed out.
Reply from 41.181.185.18: bytes=32 time=33ms TTL=55
Reply from 41.181.185.18: bytes=32 time=33ms TTL=55
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

(Cape Town, 4Mb Uncapped)

Looking solid on my side. Will check with AfriGuy from his connection

PING afrihost.com (41.181.185.18): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 41.181.185.18: icmp_seq=0 ttl=55 time=16.638 ms
64 bytes from 41.181.185.18: icmp_seq=1 ttl=55 time=16.078 ms
64 bytes from 41.181.185.18: icmp_seq=2 ttl=55 time=18.018 ms
64 bytes from 41.181.185.18: icmp_seq=3 ttl=55 time=16.320 ms
64 bytes from 41.181.185.18: icmp_seq=4 ttl=55 time=19.171 ms
64 bytes from 41.181.185.18: icmp_seq=5 ttl=55 time=16.568 ms
64 bytes from 41.181.185.18: icmp_seq=6 ttl=55 time=18.003 ms
64 bytes from 41.181.185.18: icmp_seq=7 ttl=55 time=17.162 ms
64 bytes from 41.181.185.18: icmp_seq=8 ttl=55 time=16.744 ms
64 bytes from 41.181.185.18: icmp_seq=9 ttl=55 time=16.932 ms
64 bytes from 41.181.185.18: icmp_seq=10 ttl=55 time=16.683 ms
64 bytes from 41.181.185.18: icmp_seq=11 ttl=55 time=15.931 ms

 

[AfriMan]

This is a real pity because I was prepared to listen to Gian and align with what he is trying to achieve. He deserves respect for at least initiating the discussion. However his absence is now creating a vacuum and people are now unfortunately left to draw their own conclusions based on customer feedback in this forum and the other.

To be quite honest, I think it would have been difficult to hear Gian through the noise of what was going on in that thread. I think we need to find a better solution, perhaps MyBB is not the right forum for those kind of conversations. Unless people are prepared to listen and actually engage, it's just chaos for everyone involved.

 

[AfriMan]

Gian's appearance on MyBB didn't really do anything for the current situation because he never said what's going to change, and why moving to AfriBlue or AfriGreen is better for everyone in general. He started off with a promise of detailing why things went downhill and then proceeds to sell everyone on the idea of becoming beta testers for a new network. Its not that your existing customers are irate about the service they're receiving now, they want to know what you're going to do to avoid this happening again.

When I was still an AH customer, I went through two periods of hellish packet loss and dismal speeds as a result of the South IPC being constrained. The first period took two months to resolve and the second one, that caused my leaving, happened just before Gian's 3AM email to customers telling them that things were going pear-shaped with optimising the additional IPC (which included flying in experts to help, no less). Afrihost has a reputation now of being good for nine months of the year and not so great for the other three, and I've seen this happen for two years in a row.

AfriBlue and AfriGreen is important for your future health and growth as a company, but you need to tell your customers why things are going to be any different now. Unless you're planning to provision capped and uncapped customers on different networks, there's no guarantees that six months to a year down the line we won't see the same mistakes being made.

I think he definitely said a lot of things about where we're headed, why we're doing what we're doing. This is exactly what I've been saying, a lot of people clicked through to hear what Gian had to say and voice real concerns and feedback and just got lost in the noise of the raging and madness. Everyone has their right to say what they want within the forum rules I guess, but I think this was a lost opportunity for people to really engage with Gian and for him to give real insight into what we're about and what happens next. I think that's pretty much lose-lose for everyone.

 

[Gavin107]

To be quite honest, I think it would have been difficult to hear Gian through the noise of what was going on in that thread. I think we need to find a better solution, perhaps MyBB is not the right forum for those kind of conversations. Unless people are prepared to listen and actually engage, it's just chaos for everyone involved.

It would nevertheless be useful to hear what the status of the POC is in terms of achieving the intended objectives, what is happening with AfriBlue, has the reduction in load on AfriVanilla been significant enough to relieve the pressure there and so on.

If a forum is not the right communication channel, at least the people who have signed up as testers could get a decent status report once a week or so, perhaps via e-mail? People are after all volunteering their time and energy in helping test - that group at least should be engaged in a conversation, no matter how difficult, for their contribution.

 

[AfriMan]

It would nevertheless be useful to hear what the status of the POC is in terms of achieving the intended objectives, what is happening with AfriBlue, has the reduction in load on AfriVanilla been significant enough to relieve the pressure there and so on.

If a forum is not the right communication channel, at least the people who have signed up as testers could get a decent status report once a week or so, perhaps via e-mail? People are after all volunteering their time and energy in helping test - that group at least should be engaged in a conversation, no matter how difficult, for their contribution.

That what this thread is for, we're here to relay any information from either the network team to clients, or the other way around.

We sincerely appreciate the effort of those testing and the feedback is amazing. I just want to re-emphasize that we only ask clients to do what they would normally do on their connection, so that the network suits your needs. We definitely don't expect (though the effort is truly appreciated) people to drop their regular activities or responsibilities to spend hours looking for kinks in the network. We have a team of engineers doing this and looking for possible areas for improvement in general. If you pickup something in your regular activities, and report to us either via ClientZone or here, and if possible with steps to replicate that issue, that is already a massively appreciated effort.

Almsot forgot, there is also information being posted here, with updates on known issues and resolved ones. Only displays that for people on AfriGreen network.

 

[CataclysmZA]

I think he definitely said a lot of things about where we're headed, why we're doing what we're doing. This is exactly what I've been saying, a lot of people clicked through to hear what Gian had to say and voice real concerns and feedback and just got lost in the noise of the raging and madness. Everyone has their right to say what they want within the forum rules I guess, but I think this was a lost opportunity for people to really engage with Gian and for him to give real insight into what we're about and what happens next. I think that's pretty much lose-lose for everyone.

Here's an idea: get in touch with the mods on MyBB here and make a time for an AMA with Gian. Have the mods watch the thread (just like Reddit does) and have a cleaner Q&A thread for discussing the ins and outs of your work to resolve ongoing issues. Appearing on MyBB with his original thread that ballooned quickly because it wasn't moderated was indeed madness. Keep it to between two to three hours long. Once its done, lock the thread and ask a mod for a sticky for about a month or so so that people can find it easily.

So long as you enter into the AMA with firm rules about discussions in the thread and keep it to a Q&A process, you should have a much better time getting your points across and addressing any specific concerns people have about Afrihost's future, or anything else related to it.

 

[HelterSkelter]

Before Afrigreen my experience with Afrihost was about perfect. I think out of a whole year there were 4 evenings when I had problems, and that could have been the line, anything.
Since Afrigreen started, my normal business account went pear shaped, and Afrigreen, well, sometimes it performed 100%, other times just no connection, slow speeds etc.
The situation is now that my normal account is performing bad, Afrigreen in the testing phase is not performing well enough.
I have paused my Afrihost until November.

 

[[UJE]Mieliepap]

Account Type
capped adsl
10meg line home
also use same data account on 4meg line at my office

location
Johannesburg

Speed Test
Home

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work


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Categories tested
browsing
gaming
voip (teamspeak)

comments
-latency high at the moment but stable
-youtube loads up to 720 without buffering (wonderful!)
-vimeo plays HD back (720) without buffering but gets stuck if you skip back or forward in the timeline.
-gaming - i play Wolfenstein on a server in Germany. on old network my ping is usually 200 - 230ms. with the high latency of afrigreen initially, my ping was 230-260ms but quite stable and smooth and very playable.
-used teamspeak as well without any adverse effect on the experience.
-later in the evening my ping dropped to 200ms - lower contention ratio?
-Server in Germany displays country flags, usually shows mine as a SA flag, on afrigreen it displays it as a USA flag. routing via USA? could find faster pathways to Europe?