Afrihost Uncapped ADSL Feedback (Pt2)

[froot]

Yeah being shaped to death here too...
I don't care for torrent but my news stuff i need asap
The news goodies...is that not cached? locally?

a month ago i phoned them....techie did something....voila...full speed again...
Don't they switch us between mtn and another provider?

eish
if this is the case i might as well go t FNB at half the price?

The afrihost news server resolves to highwinds, so it's hosted abroad.

 

[AfriGuy]

Yeah being shaped to death here too...
I don't care for torrent but my news stuff i need asap
The news goodies...is that not cached? locally?

a month ago i phoned them....techie did something....voila...full speed again...
Don't they switch us between mtn and another provider?

eish
if this is the case i might as well go t FNB at half the price?

NNTP is shaped I'm afraid You can turbocharge your account, that'll lift the shaping for a bit.
Our news server isn't cached locally.

 

[xera]

I am getting shaped so badly.... Downloads are not going above 10KB/s

 

[Zertop]

I commented on page 80 and I did say it was at night. I have no idea what the downloads would be during the day. I normally start one or 2 torrents at about 9pm ish. It will then finish sometime during the night.

I don't torrent 24/7.

Yea sorry, that wasnt a go at you or anything.

 

[MrGray]

As I said, please drop me a PM with your account info and we'll take a look at your account, thoroughly. We want you to have the best possible internet experience with us.

I chose not to PM you because I know that the problem is not unique to me in CPT and subsequent posts have confirmed that Afrihost has indeed suddenly become much more restrictive over the last few days. The frustrating part is you guys never acknowledge or seem to know when you have capacity issues and always make out that it's a single user issue. I also fail to understand how everything can go really well for a long period and then suddenly we're all shaped to 12.5% in the evenings and nobody understands why. Could it, perhaps, have anything to do with imminent school holidays?

 

[MrGray]

it amazes me that people don't use a scheduler... Turn your torrents off when you are at home and let them run when you are at work or asleep. That way the shaping doesn't affect you and Afrihost and quietly manage its network without incurring hate fueled comments on forums.

I used to schedule overnight, but then AH started shaping so restrictively at night time only in CT that it now works best just to download as it comes.

 

[MrGray]

Indeed. I think what many people forget or overlook is that they keep running P2P services at the shaped speed as well as trying to browse and then complain browsing is slow too.

I did this test - had some heavy shaping yesterday. Flicked on a torrent and speed was shaped and then tried to browse and youtube in HD...yeah no. Did not work at all. Even though the torrent was only running at 50kB, it does not mean that the rest of my 4mb line will be perfectly available. I stopped the torrent and whalla - perfect HD streaming full speed.

But that's *exactly* not how it's supposed to work. At all. "Real-time" services like browsing and live streaming are supposed to not be affected by their shaping policy, we are repeatedly told this applies only to P2P and downloads.

In theory this means that even though your torrent is running at 10kbps, you can still stream Youtube in HD - the alternative would not be "shaping" (which applies to certain protocols), it would indeed be throttling (which applies to your overall connection).

ps: It seems like everything is back to normal again, so I don't know what went wrong with capacity over the last few days, one never seems to get a straight answer, but I agree with you, while they were "shaping" so called real time service were also dramatically slower.

 

[Orihalcon]

But that's *exactly* not how it's supposed to work. At all. "Real-time" services like browsing and live streaming are supposed to not be affected by their shaping policy, we are repeatedly told this applies only to P2P and downloads.

In theory this means that even though your torrent is running at 10kbps, you can still stream Youtube in HD - the alternative would not be "shaping" (which applies to certain protocols), it would indeed be throttling (which applies to your overall connection).

ps: It seems like everything is back to normal again, so I don't know what went wrong with capacity over the last few days, one never seems to get a straight answer, but I agree with you, while they were "shaping" so called real time service were also dramatically slower.

Indeed.
What I tried to say was that when I just switched off my p2p everything ran lightning during shaped periods. Running both types protocols clearly gives some issues...maybe try setting up QoS up on your router as well. That is my next route I'm experimenting with.

And unfortunately bandwidth is a limited resource for now. I honestly don't care that service gets shaped to hell...because the few times it happens does not come close to the amount of time it runs smooth.

Maybe all the bitching and moaning when there is shaping is just a testament to how well Afris network runs most of the time

Oh well. Enjoying my line and account hehe.

 

[AfriMan]

But that's *exactly* not how it's supposed to work. At all. "Real-time" services like browsing and live streaming are supposed to not be affected by their shaping policy, we are repeatedly told this applies only to P2P and downloads.

In theory this means that even though your torrent is running at 10kbps, you can still stream Youtube in HD - the alternative would not be "shaping" (which applies to certain protocols), it would indeed be throttling (which applies to your overall connection).

ps: It seems like everything is back to normal again, so I don't know what went wrong with capacity over the last few days, one never seems to get a straight answer, but I agree with you, while they were "shaping" so called real time service were also dramatically slower.

It's difficult to say with certainty that there will be no effect. Remember that if you're torrents are squeezing as much bandwidth out of upload and download capacity, it's going to affect real time services, whether you are shaped or not. We can say with confidence that no matter what you're shaping is, you'll be able to always use real time services at full speeds, but if you are running several services in contention with each other on your line, we just can't replicate every scenario.

With regard to the restrictions in Cape Town- honestly nothing has changed on our side, it's the same dynamic shaping we have always had. Absolutely no doubt about this. If we had rolled out any new changes, our team would definitely have let me know. If we shaped more than we may have had to, that was totally demand based, and not due to any failure or policy change from our side. That is the honest to goodness truth

 

[BravoVictor]

So what broke again ? been all good but no supersport again and youtube crawling again ? Somerset West

 

[srothman]

Well, I checked and I am getting the cr@p shaped out of me for the first time since forever.
I've done 55GB on a 4mb line for the month. Surely that's not unreasonable?

Not happy, AH. Not happy at all!!

 

[saa044]

Shaping Policy: 18.8% Download/ 6.25% P2P Pretoria East. It's a pity my previous post got deleted, really thought a decent q tree could help ADSL users.

 

[Type RSA]

Getting really bad latency tonight... Ping is always around 16 - 17ms

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/2975702284

And I never used to get shaped this badly this time of the evening!!! Maybe it is time to explore greener pastures..

Shaping Policy: 25% Download/ 6.5% P2P

 

[kripstoe]

I've only done 18.8GB this month.

Shaping Policy: 18.8% Download/ 6.25% P2P





(4Mb uncapped)

 

[Type RSA]

I've only done 18.8GB this month.

Shaping Policy: 18.8% Download/ 6.25% P2P

View attachment 71618



(4Mb uncapped)

Something is seriously wrong here. C'mon guys, spill the beans. Or is the mobile network killing you guys now?

 

[kripstoe]

With regard to the restrictions in Cape Town- honestly nothing has changed on our side, it's the same dynamic shaping we have always had. Absolutely no doubt about this. If we had rolled out any new changes, our team would definitely have let me know. If we shaped more than we may have had to, that was totally demand based, and not due to any failure or policy change from our side. That is the honest to goodness truth

Not doubting your truthfulness, but something *has* changed for CPT. It's been quite slow for the last couple of days. I tend to visit this thread when something is not quite right, and lo and behold, more people are complaining about similar things for CPT.

 

[Type RSA]

Not doubting your truthfulness, but something *has* changed for CPT. It's been quite slow for the last couple of days. I tend to visit this thread when something is not quite right, and lo and behold, more people are complaining about similar things for CPT.

I dunno hey, this seems to be affecting all regions. I am also being shaped silly in jozi..

 

[srothman]

I've only done 18.8GB this month.

Shaping Policy: 18.8% Download/ 6.25% P2P



(4Mb uncapped)

Exactly the same policy for me too, also Pretoria East.
I think to shape on such a small volume is ridiculous.

 

[kripstoe]

Doesn't seem to be exchange related. Occasionally get issues on the 4/5th hop.

1 1 ms <1 ms 2 ms router [172.25.160.1]
2 10 ms 11 ms 12 ms 105-236-4-193-esr-lo.mtnbusiness.co.za [105.236.4.193]
3 13 ms 12 ms 12 ms ipc-recieve-tb-1a.mtnbusiness.net [41.181.53.150]
4 33 ms 35 ms 34 ms tb-dca-2.za--qux-c.za.mtnbusiness.net [41.181.198.188]
5 * 13 ms 13 ms compj-cpt-1.mtnns.net [196.44.18.2]
6 42 ms 38 ms 39 ms ct-cr-2.za--tb-cr-1.za.mtnns.net [196.44.31.134]
7 36 ms 33 ms 35 ms ct-cr-2.za--rb-cr-1.za.mtnns.net [196.44.31.69]
8 33 ms 48 ms 32 ms 41.181.139.109
...

 

[kripstoe]

I dunno hey, this seems to be affecting all regions. I am also being shaped silly in jozi..

Possible, but mine has been like this for a day or two. Just thought it would be sorted this evening.