Afrihost Uncapped ADSL Feedback (Pt2)

[AfriGuy]

Can you please enlighten me what else other than IPC congestion can be the cause of your latency and throughput issues? Why are there latency issues every single day until you throttle certain protocols (you refer to it as "shaping") for the general users?

I'm on the business package but every time I read this forum I empathise with all the Afrihost users here that are not getting anything close to what was promised initially nor what they were getting two months ago. In my books that's a bait and switch tactic and it's not moral and also something I expect from other providers and not you.

Spikes in demand cause the higher latency, which in turn will affect throughout. Again, we cannot link this directly to our capacity as we've seen a whole stack more software updates roll out. Seeing such a drastic change in user and content delivery patterns isn't the easiest thing to anticipate

I see you're also posting in the Business thread. Let's keep your posts there as you have a Business account with us. Also makes it easier to track

 

[bekdik]

We still believe that Uncapped is a viable product, but we'd hate to offer a heavily restricted product (when we're not experiencing the current demand issues). But we're thinking about how we can do things differently going forward to offer the best product that works for all our Uncapped clients.

Maybe split your product into with and without torrents sub-nets, then set it up so that a torrents connection will auto switch one to torrents connection for the next 7 days?

 

[AfriMan]

Maybe split your product into with and without torrents sub-nets, then set it up so that a torrents connection will auto switch one to torrents connection for the next 7 days?

That's a great idea. I don't think we'd like to split our products, but it would be great to have "voluntary" shaping for clients who don't want their staff or family running torrents and saturating their line when they need it for other purposes. I imagine that a lot of torrenting during office hours are people downloading at work so they can save on their bandwidth at home.

 

[Paul Hjul]

That's a great idea. I don't think we'd like to split our products, but it would be great to have "voluntary" shaping for clients who don't want their staff or family running torrents and saturating their line when they need it for other purposes. I imagine that a lot of torrenting during office hours are people downloading at work so they can save on their bandwidth at home.

I have no idea how big the market is but there must be more than a handful of us who have a different maximum line speed to the uncapped offering we are on (in my case 4 meg line and 1 meg uncapped) and would gladly take a more severely peak shaping if a trade off for more line speed after hours. I imagine VDSL is going to shake the numbers a bit but I strongly suspect that the move towards a different speeds is going to be one of several viable ways to address the extra capabilities

 

[kripstoe]

That's a great idea. I don't think we'd like to split our products, but it would be great to have "voluntary" shaping for clients who don't want their staff or family running torrents and saturating their line when they need it for other purposes. I imagine that a lot of torrenting during office hours are people downloading at work so they can save on their bandwidth at home.

What do you mean saving on their (uncapped?) bandwidth at home? Most companies won't tolerate torrents. Most people have no idea how the underlying technology of p2p works. They just use it 24/7 without knowing the impact. Which then leads to: should they know the impact of it? Or should AH manage it sufficiently so that it doesn't impact other clients.

 

[LazyDemoni]

I've been experiencing extreme shaping on my standard 2MB Uncapped account. Torrents go no more than 6kbps. I'm not a big downloader and have never had this kind of thing happen before.

I asked about this and was told to refer to my Client Zone which said 25% Download and 6.5% P2P. Does this mean P2P services are only operating at 6.5% speed? How long will this continue for?

 

[kripstoe]

I've been experiencing extreme shaping on my standard 2MB Uncapped account. Torrents go no more than 6kbps. I'm not a big downloader and have never had this kind of thing happen before.

I asked about this and was told to refer to my Client Zone which said 25% Download and 6.5% P2P. Does this mean P2P services are only operating at 6.5% speed? How long will this continue for?

Welcome. Scroll back some 260+ pages, and read from there. Yes, 6.25% of speed.

@AfriManGuyGirl - how often do we see clients coming here, asking this exact question. Isn't is maybe time to update ClientZone to explain how this works?

 

[AfriGuy]

What do you mean saving on their (uncapped?) bandwidth at home? Most companies won't tolerate torrents. Most people have no idea how the underlying technology of p2p works. They just use it 24/7 without knowing the impact. Which then leads to: should they know the impact of it? Or should AH manage it sufficiently so that it doesn't impact other clients.

I'm in agreement here that this should be managed from our side - and I think our shaping does an excellent job of it.

 

[AfriGuy]

I've been experiencing extreme shaping on my standard 2MB Uncapped account. Torrents go no more than 6kbps. I'm not a big downloader and have never had this kind of thing happen before.

I asked about this and was told to refer to my Client Zone which said 25% Download and 6.5% P2P. Does this mean P2P services are only operating at 6.5% speed? How long will this continue for?

We're really sorry about this We're having to implement heavier shaping on our network at the moment due to an increase in demand across the variety of software updates. Shaping is applied to keep the networking running as smoothly as it can.

The percentages displayed in your ClientZone is what you have available to you on both P2P and Downloads.

 

[kripstoe]

I'm in agreement here that this should be managed from our side - and I think our shaping does an excellent job of it.

I agree completely that shaping does an excellent job of managing it. If done temporarily, which we also know is at present more than temporary.

 

[AfriGuy]

@AfriManGuyGirl - how often do we see clients coming here, asking this exact question. Isn't is maybe time to update ClientZone to explain how this works?

It is in the process of being added, our team have the button "Find out more" we just need to link up the right documentation. Our new ClientZone is always seeing new features added

 

[AfriGuy]

I agree completely that shaping does an excellent job of managing it. If done temporarily, which we also know is at present more than temporary.

Absolutely. The last thing we want is to shape clients like this 24/7. Trust me, every time I see it I feel for you guys I'm sure we'll have something put into place soon!

 

[gconey]

Spikes in demand cause the higher latency, which in turn will affect throughout. Again, we cannot link this directly to our capacity as we've seen a whole stack more software updates roll out. Seeing such a drastic change in user and content delivery patterns isn't the easiest thing to anticipate

I see you're also posting in the Business thread. Let's keep your posts there as you have a Business account with us. Also makes it easier to track

Okay, awaiting your response on the Business thread. Just as an aside I highly doubt software updates is the cause of your network woes. If that was the case you would experience nation wide congestion. You only have a general issue in the Northern region (from your own admission).

Also software updates will continue to increase therefore provision for this needs to be made in the long run on your network so that it doesn't affect performance so adversely. I still believe you're using this as an excuse as you are not really mentioning solutions for the problem, other than hoping it will go away (which is not going to happen). Just look at how many updates Microsoft has released since MS02-039 (the update that arguably started the focus on software updates) and updates will only increase.

 

[kripstoe]

It is in the process of being added, our team have the button "Find out more" we just need to link up the right documentation. Our new ClientZone is always seeing new features added

I'd be interested to see this once implemented. The "Find out more" in combination with "right documentation" sounds like it might be obscure. Just a bar graph with: Max speed vs Your speed would have worked.

 

[Type RSA]

Come on AfriGuys, Offer me the 10mb Business Uncapped account at the home uncapped account price until the shaping is fixed... I will then move over to the home uncapped account once the shaping is gone. Please LOL

 

[SL1v3R]

Sorry AH but I can't put up with the current service levels anymore nor justify the money that I'm paying for it, so I too am moving on. My main purpose for the line was Netflix and Hulu and these last two months have been painful and frustrating. The AfriTeam on this forum is awesome but the product is suffering badly.

Cheers.

 

[AfriGuy]

Okay, awaiting your response on the Business thread. Just as an aside I highly doubt software updates is the cause of your network woes. If that was the case you would experience nation wide congestion. You only have a general issue in the Northern region (from your own admission).

Also software updates will continue to increase therefore provision for this needs to be made in the long run on your network so that it doesn't affect performance so adversely. I still believe you're using this as an excuse as you are not really mentioning solutions for the problem, other than hoping it will go away (which is not going to happen). Just look at how many updates Microsoft has released since MS02-039 (the update that arguably started the focus on software updates) and updates will only increase.

The most obvious point to look at is the recent software updates. This is also determined by the usage patterns of each IPC region - so it's very likely.
That being said though, we don't want to push the blame here - we know we need to come to a solution to have this fixed up once and for all.

 

[AfriGuy]

I'd be interested to see this once implemented. The "Find out more" in combination with "right documentation" sounds like it might be obscure. Just a bar graph with: Max speed vs Your speed would have worked.

Graphs are there displaying your usage though, adding another for shaping could get confusing and a bit messy
When I say linking up the right docs, we aren't trying to do anything shady here - just word things correctly and hit the "go live" button.

 

[AfriGuy]

Sorry AH but I can't put up with the current service levels anymore nor justify the money that I'm paying for it, so I too am moving on. My main purpose for the line was Netflix and Hulu and these last two months have been painful and frustrating. The AfriTeam on this forum is awesome but the product is suffering badly.

Cheers.

Sorry to see you leave, best of luck going forward though
Hopefully you'll join us again once we've got our house in tip top shape again!

 

[Hush9300]

Okay, awaiting your response on the Business thread. Just as an aside I highly doubt software updates is the cause of your network woes. If that was the case you would experience nation wide congestion. You only have a general issue in the Northern region (from your own admission).

Also software updates will continue to increase therefore provision for this needs to be made in the long run on your network so that it doesn't affect performance so adversely. I still believe you're using this as an excuse as you are not really mentioning solutions for the problem, other than hoping it will go away (which is not going to happen). Just look at how many updates Microsoft has released since MS02-039 (the update that arguably started the focus on software updates) and updates will only increase.

My theory is that the lack of relief in terms of shaping is causing even more congestion at the IPC link because the downloads just don't finish.