Afrihost Uncapped ADSL Feedback (Pt2)

[Orihalcon]

what i am saying is also very simple - this system does not work for me .

i must spend time now researching alternatives - bad, bad , bad

It is unfortunately true that Afrihost never needed to use their system as it has the last two months. So people were blissfully unaware that the system even existed. When it came time to use it, people want to complain - and this is not in reference to your complaint btw.

It is not an ideal situation by any stretch. And as you say, the current system does not work for you, perhaps mweb premium? Currently throttling thresholds on their accounts have been worked out to 100gb/mbps package. So a 4mb premium will get throttled when you reach 15gb/day average. Maybe look at that?

 

[emcy]

It is unfortunately true that Afrihost never needed to use their system as it has the last two months. So people were blissfully unaware that the system even existed. When it came time to use it, people want to complain - and this is not in reference to your complaint btw.

It is not an ideal situation by any stretch. And as you say, the current system does not work for you, perhaps mweb premium? Currently throttling thresholds on their accounts have been worked out to 100gb/mbps package. So a 4mb premium will get throttled when you reach 15gb/day average. Maybe look at that?

thanks for the suggestion, i signed up for the free trial at mweb earlier today and will check it out tonight . will also try cybersmart as as suggested on the weekend . all the best.

 

[AfriGuy]

what i am saying is also very simple - this system does not work for me .

i must spend time now researching alternatives - bad, bad , bad

I'm sorry that it doesn't work for you, we have tried other shaping systems in the past and they didn't work
We strongly feel that the current shaping policy is the best.

 

[XperiAnce]

Afri*

I believe the biggest bone of contention is not that you need to shape (we all understand the business model), but that legitimate and important content is shaped in the form of HTTP downloads.

Let's be honest - P2P and NNTP is mainly pirated content (please spare me the Linux ISO arguments guys, you're not downloading TB's of these a month). However, content via HTTP is often important and needed 'asap' (Graphics Drivers, Steam Game Updates, .exe files, etc).

Having P2P shaped to 6% of line speed during business hours... yeah I can understand that. You're talking about GB's and GB's worth of content that saturates the network and probably isn't needed as soon as possible... but 12% of HTTP downloads which is most likely a sub 300MB .exe file? Is that level of shaping needed?

I'm on a Business Account (need them 'Linux ISOs'), but this is what I'm gathering from the feedback here.

 

[IziWhatNow]

Just remember that a lot of users try to bypass their P2P shaping by using services that deliver their pirated content in HTTP format

 

[AfriGuy]

Afri*

I believe the biggest bone of contention is not that you need to shape (we all understand the business model), but that legitimate and important content is shaped in the form of HTTP downloads.

Let's be honest - P2P and NNTP is mainly pirated content (please spare me the Linux ISO arguments guys, you're not downloading TB's of these a month). However, content via HTTP is often important and needed 'asap' (Graphics Drivers, Steam Game Updates, .exe files, etc).

Having P2P shaped to 6% of line speed during business hours... yeah I can understand that. You're talking about GB's and GB's worth of content that saturates the network and probably isn't needed as soon as possible... but 12% of HTTP downloads which is most likely a sub 300MB .exe file? Is that level of shaping needed?

I'm on a Business Account (need them 'Linux ISOs'), but this is what I'm gathering from the feedback here.

We do understand that HTTP downloads are important, a lot of content is pushed through this protocol. It's really hard to make exceptions here though We definitely feel that the way our shaping is setup is the perfect option for both our clients and ourselves.

P2P is definitely the most resource intensive protocol out there, and while HTTP isn't huge - it does still take up a fairly big portion of use, especially when sites pull down from multiple sources and serve you the content that way

 

[aktor]

We do understand that HTTP downloads are important, a lot of content is pushed through this protocol. It's really hard to make exceptions here though We definitely feel that the way our shaping is setup is the perfect option for both our clients and ourselves.

P2P is definitely the most resource intensive protocol out there, and while HTTP isn't huge - it does still take up a fairly big portion of use, especially when sites pull down from multiple sources and serve you the content that way

I absolutely agree with XperiAnce. Can your system not unshape HTTP downloads, and then rather shape specific HTTP download sites (put.io etc). You say that your shaping setup is the perfect option - in terms of P2P I agree, but in terms of HTTP downloads it simply isn't.

I understand your need for shaping, and I support you 100% in that endeavour. But this isn't on.

 

[AfriGuy]

I absolutely agree with XperiAnce. Can your system not unshape HTTP downloads, and then rather shape specific HTTP download sites (put.io etc). You say that your shaping setup is the perfect option - in terms of P2P I agree, but in terms of HTTP downloads it simply isn't.

I understand your need for shaping, and I support you 100% in that endeavour. But this isn't on.

This is where the complications come in though. It's not as easy as popping in a few websites and hitting submit Shaping is a protocol based service so it's really hard to identify websites that are looking to be shaped
The shaping has been setup the way it is to provide the absolute best overall experience. I'm sure we should start seeing improvements soon.

 

[pjjdp]

This is where the complications come in though. It's not as easy as popping in a few websites and hitting submit Shaping is a protocol based service so it's really hard to identify websites that are looking to be shaped
The shaping has been setup the way it is to provide the absolute best overall experience. I'm sure we should start seeing improvements soon.

How soon will we know what soon means?

 

[Zertop]

Dont think the Somerset West area is having the best time getting used to all the new 10mbps clients :/

 

[kripstoe]

Dont think the Somerset West area is having the best time getting used to all the new 10mbps clients :/

Having issues?

Me too. Cpt. 10Mb line.

 

[Zertop]

Having issues?

Me too. Cpt. 10Mb line.

View attachment 82043

Back to normal

I think the telkom upgrades were busy settling in

 

[Dade Murphy]

With the line upgrades I think it will be a long time to get a better experience with AH. Downloaders should just pause their accounts and get their data from another ISP so they don't go crazy with frustration and continue to support AH again once they've sorted themselves out.

 

[Zertop]

Hey Everyone,

Im having an issue this morning (and last night) where my int. speeds were a bit shaky.

Local:

International:

As you see, the speedtests look fine? I can manage 1.2MBps on my downloads from local servers, but only 0.2MBps from international ones? Im not shaped (as I can see either through the clientzone or my local downloads).

Could it be all the new (higher speed) clients clogging up the international pipeline?

Tracing route to bbc.co.uk [212.58.251.195]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 10.0.0.1
2 7 ms 7 ms 7 ms 105-236-8-193-esr-lo.mtnbusiness.co.za [105.236.8.193]
3 8 ms 8 ms 8 ms 41.181.201.94
4 8 ms 8 ms 7 ms tb-dca-2.za--qux-a.za.mtnbusiness.net [41.181.184.28]
5 9 ms 9 ms 8 ms compj-cpt-1.mtnns.net [196.44.18.2]
6 152 ms 152 ms 151 ms ls-cr-2.uk--tb-cr-1.za.mtnns.net [196.44.31.113]

7 151 ms 151 ms 151 ms ls-pr-1.uk--ls-cr-2.uk-a.mtn.net [209.212.111.20
1]
8 152 ms 152 ms 152 ms bbc-linx.pr01.thdow.bbc.co.uk [195.66.224.103]
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 152 ms 152 ms 152 ms ae0.er01.telhc.bbc.co.uk [132.185.254.109]
12 152 ms 167 ms 152 ms 132.185.255.140
13 153 ms 152 ms 152 ms bbc.co.uk [212.58.251.195]

Pings are fine (except hop 9/10), so I dont know whats wrong. I have detected no packet loss, so that isn't the issue?

I have nooo clue

 

[Orihalcon]

Telkom been doing some magic

They cleared up the congestion on my DSLAM Happy days. Got full 420kB the whole of last night. Youtube actually AUTO selected 720p for the first time. SWEEEEEEEEETness.

Hopefully I will have 10mb option once they done tinkering at the boxes

 

[KinsZA]

Ok well uncapped unshaped 4mbit at about 50% (at best) of a normal capped account (I have a 4mbit line), skype quality almost unsuable last night (voice only). I tested normal uncapped account gave me max speed. Traceroutes are all low latency and no packet loss. Reboot of adsl router overnight made no difference.

I'd go business if it would fix my problems but no idea if it would.

Update:Borrowed FNB Connect account full speed

 

[AfriMan]

Telkom been doing some magic

They cleared up the congestion on my DSLAM Happy days. Got full 420kB the whole of last night. Youtube actually AUTO selected 720p for the first time. SWEEEEEEEEETness.

Hopefully I will have 10mb option once they done tinkering at the boxes

That's awesome! Did Telkom mention anything further with regard to ASR rate limits?

 

[Reaper1242]

If this is anything to go by I doubt we'll see any upgrades at all. To be honest, now that I think about it, that may not be a bad thing.
http://mybroadband.co.za/news/adsl/91387-uncapped-adsl-quality-concerns.html

 

[AfriMan]

Ok well uncapped unshaped 4mbit at about 50% (at best) of a normal capped account (I have a 4mbit line), skype quality almost unsuable last night (voice only). I tested normal uncapped account gave me max speed. Traceroutes are all low latency and no packet loss. Reboot of adsl router overnight made no difference.

I'd go business if it would fix my problems but no idea if it would.

Update:Borrowed FNB Connect account full speed

Any shaping should not affect VoIP services like Skype, so we'd need to look further into this. Are you saying your throughput on any services performed at 50%?

Please PM me

 

[AfriMan]

If this is anything to go by I doubt we'll see any upgrades at all. To be honest, now that I think about it, that may not be a bad thing.
http://mybroadband.co.za/news/adsl/91387-uncapped-adsl-quality-concerns.html

At the moment we can definitely provide the line portion of the upgrades for free as per Telkom, but data will need to be upgraded seperately for now. We're going to wait a little longer for the upgrades to settle so that we can assess the impact. We're still not certain how many people are going to actually be upgraded at the end of the day. Telkom has not confirmed whether people who cannot achieve higher sync rates will be upgraded, or simply left out of the process. We also have many clients on lower sync rates on 4Mbps and 10Mbps products due to distance from the exchanges and poor copper cabling - and we're not sure whether they are going to be upgraded or would prefer not to be if they are ultimately going to receive a degraded service (even if it looks better on paper).

We'll offer our clients the option to rather downgrade their line after the upgrade to take a saving rather - if they don't feel they need or can take advantage of the speed upgrades.