Afrihost Uncapped ADSL Feedback (Pt2)

[Paul Hjul]

I really can't understand people like this.
Afrihosts uncapped home offerings are contended and shaped. They allow you to make the maximum use of the pool and if it doesn't serve your purposes you can move to a different provider without restraint. The product does what it advertises and you can use more than what you pay for without any crap from the provider. The national ADSL structure is evidently under strain at the moment and I suspect that ISPs are finding themselves dealing both with a general demand increase and the fact that many customers can use their connections more fully (as I've said before exchange congestion is an unstated advantage often to ISPs in keeping capacity of IPC and international backhaul by the ISP well contended out - as demand kicks up on the exchanges towards peak usage the same is happening on the other side of the equation) because of improvements from Telkom. Despite this Afrihost provides unbridled "realtime" access (somethings may slip through the cracks) and the ability to use the account with as little shaping as the network (and pool) allows.
Afrihost has never pretended that there isn't currently a bit of strain on the ability to deliver the product dimensions they would like but despite this their products deliver above and beyond what is advertized. The network notification system is for actual network errors that are being worked on not whether customer Z is happy with the end experience. Despite this if the experience is not satisfactorily they put a crap load of effort into improving it and generally succeed.

 

[11masoodt]

new_in_za2 my 2c
If you’re current ISP is not up to scratch take your money some ware else, we have more than one ISP here in South Africa.

I can just give you some advice, I been on the MyBB forum for a few years and every time AH hit a wobble they come back stronger than before, they are not my ISP (yet) I dealt with them this last month or so because I have the mobile data offering from them and I can tell you, you will go far for the service you get from them. I must admit I just deal with them on the forum but Afriman and Afriguy always sorted my problem out with a smile. I am moving my ADSL to them the end of the month for the simple reason they look after the customer, they care if you have a problem they will work with you to find the cause. They might have a wobble now but like always they will come back with a bang

This

I really can't understand people like this.
Afrihosts uncapped home offerings are contended and shaped. They allow you to make the maximum use of the pool and if it doesn't serve your purposes you can move to a different provider without restraint. The product does what it advertises and you can use more than what you pay for without any crap from the provider. The national ADSL structure is evidently under strain at the moment and I suspect that ISPs are finding themselves dealing both with a general demand increase and the fact that many customers can use their connections more fully (as I've said before exchange congestion is an unstated advantage often to ISPs in keeping capacity of IPC and international backhaul by the ISP well contended out - as demand kicks up on the exchanges towards peak usage the same is happening on the other side of the equation) because of improvements from Telkom. Despite this Afrihost provides unbridled "realtime" access (somethings may slip through the cracks) and the ability to use the account with as little shaping as the network (and pool) allows.
Afrihost has never pretended that there isn't currently a bit of strain on the ability to deliver the product dimensions they would like but despite this their products deliver above and beyond what is advertized. The network notification system is for actual network errors that are being worked on not whether customer Z is happy with the end experience. Despite this if the experience is not satisfactorily they put a crap load of effort into improving it and generally succeed.

And this

 

[kripstoe]

Despite this Afrihost provides unbridled "realtime" access (somethings may slip through the cracks) and the ability to use the account with as little shaping as the network (and pool) allows.

Tonight is a good example (for me at least) of how well they manage "realtime" access. Very stable and consistent.

 

[Rade84]

Tonight is a good example (for me at least) of how well they manage "realtime" access. Very stable and consistent.

View attachment 78731

Glad you do Im not going above 100kbps on my 4mb line at midnight. Oh well would have been nice to stream a bit before going to bed

 

[defcomk]

You're not the only client that's frustrated with the shaping and whatnot. Believe me. But having dealt with AfriManGuyGirl on this forum and in PMs, it has always worked out better for me with regards to service from the AH staff and my general AH experience. In my opinion, you'll have difficulty finding a more supportive ISP team elsewhere.

+1

 

[new_in_za2]

If you're current ISP is not up to scratch take your money some ware else, we have more than one ISP here in South Africa.

Hey, that's the plan. I thought I'd give Afrihost a chance to make their service actually work first, though, especially considering that it seemed like they were willing to try to make it good again. Now, however, it turns out that Afrihost considered it a bribe to make me not talk about how Afrihost performs.

The product does what it advertises and you can use more than what you pay for without any crap from the provider.

Actually, we just proved that the product does not do what it advertises, and when I brought it up, the provider gave me endless crap, so you couldn't be further from the truth.

 

[vaalpens]

Hi Afriman, how about a page or something which indicates which games' traffic are appearing as p2p traffic signatures? I think this might have been my issue as well with GW2, but I still have to confirm that

 

[Lord Nikon6]

You're not the only client that's frustrated with the shaping and whatnot. Believe me. But having dealt with AfriManGuyGirl on this forum and in PMs, it has always worked out better for me with regards to service from the AH staff and my general AH experience. In my opinion, you'll have difficulty finding a more supportive ISP team elsewhere.

+1. We all moan a lot on here at some points, but there is a limit to everything, and I can honestly say that dealing with Afriman/guy/girl/theotherone is way better than calling a support center, or logging a ticket, which can take days.

So, thanks to Afrihost for the presence on the forum.

 

[AfriMan]

Hi Afriman, how about a page or something which indicates which games' traffic are appearing as p2p traffic signatures? I think this might have been my issue as well with GW2, but I still have to confirm that

I really don't have any lists like that at present. Again, we're not using the game servers, we identify it by the packet signature. I think the P2P game services are pretty open about how their traffic works though.

 

[AfriMan]

+1. We all moan a lot on here at some points, but there is a limit to everything, and I can honestly say that dealing with Afriman/guy/girl/theotherone is way better than calling a support center, or logging a ticket, which can take days.

So, thanks to Afrihost for the presence on the forum.

I'm really glad that we're able to assist and make your experience a little better. Really means a lot to the whole team

 

[Jhbgirl]

I was unshaped from midnight to 8am so managed to download some things. I hope you taking your vitamins AfriMan, this has to be the most stressful forum on the internet

 

[grim]

I really don't have any lists like that at present. Again, we're not using the game servers, we identify it by the packet signature. I think the P2P game services are pretty open about how their traffic works though.

Do you not think that even if a game uses p2p that it should still receive priority on the network?

What if a AAA game launches and makes use of p2p for gameplay?

You are going to have thousands of very angry gamers that can't play because your network guys just mark everything that is p2p into the same category.

The MTN network guys should be able to easily differentiate between a game's p2p packets and p2p downloads by looking at the packets and adjusting the shaping rules accordingly.

 

[AfriMan]

I was unshaped from midnight to 8am so managed to download some things. I hope you taking your vitamins AfriMan, this has to be the most stressful forum on the internet

I had a sympathy yoghurt with our AfriTeam this morning

Supportive (and low GI)

 

[AfriMan]

Do you not think that even if a game uses p2p that it should still receive priority on the network?

What if a AAA game launches and makes use of p2p for gameplay?

You are going to have thousands of very angry gamers that can't play because your network guys just mark everything that is p2p into the same category.

The MTN network guys should be able to easily differentiate between a game's p2p packets and p2p downloads by looking at the packets and adjusting the shaping rules accordingly.

I don't think it's really that simple, and game designers are also aware that ISP networks don't really like P2P traffic because of the way they saturate the network through the number of connections. I'm not sure what the advantages of using P2P are for gaming, but it's pretty much accepted that P2P will be shaped - even on overseas ISPs.

 

[new_in_za2]

Do you not think that even if a game uses p2p that it should still receive priority on the network?

What if a AAA game launches and makes use of p2p for gameplay?

Judging by the OpenTTD case, a game in no way has to have anything at all to do with P2P in order to be classifed as P2P by Afrihost. If it can happen to one game, it can happen to any game.

 

[vangar316]

Judging by the OpenTTD case, a game in no way has to have anything at all to do with P2P in order to be classifed as P2P by Afrihost. If it can happen to one game, it can happen to any game.

Except maybe use a port that really isn't used at all for games ever. Is not a high port and have packets that act like P2P traffic. Seriously I feel you are really blowing things out of proportion. We are all frustrated but getting antagonistic and attacking is not going to help anybodys case.

 

[new_in_za2]

Except maybe use a port that really isn't used at all for games ever. Is not a high port and have packets that act like P2P traffic. Seriously I feel you are really blowing things out of proportion. We are all frustrated but getting antagonistic and attacking is not going to help anybodys case.

I'm really curious how you can interpret pointing out that Afrihost's throttling system classifies some games as P2P and thus makes them completely unplayable is "antagonistic and attacking". Can you explain that to me? In my opinion, being "antagonistic and attacking" would be threatening a user with closing their account if they don't agree that a game is not a game. What would you call that?

 

[grim]

Except maybe use a port that really isn't used at all for games ever. Is not a high port and have packets that act like P2P traffic. Seriously I feel you are really blowing things out of proportion. We are all frustrated but getting antagonistic and attacking is not going to help anybodys case.

I doubt MTN shapes based on port numbers, it's way to easy to bypass then.

I don't think it's really that simple, and game designers are also aware that ISP networks don't really like P2P traffic because of the way they saturate the network through the number of connections. I'm not sure what the advantages of using P2P are for gaming, but it's pretty much accepted that P2P will be shaped - even on overseas ISPs.

IS and WebAfrica (When they had their own network) investigates and changes their shaping when a game is affected by it, why can't MTN?

 

[AfriMan]

I doubt MTN shapes based on port numbers, it's way to easy to bypass then.



IS and WebAfrica (When they had their own network) investigates and changes their shaping when a game is affected by it, why can't MTN?

I can't speak to how other ISP do their shaping, but I do believe they work more on protocol, whereas we use packet signatures. I think the amount of games that use P2P traffic are in the minority by a large extent, so we we hardly ever get this type of enquiry.

I also think we're speaking theoretically here. At no point did we actually look any any specific gaming service to determine whether it is P2P or not, the question was asked if it would be shaped if it was P2P - and the answer is yes.

 

[Orihalcon]

Glad you do Im not going above 100kbps on my 4mb line at midnight. Oh well would have been nice to stream a bit before going to bed

Funny you should mention that...

I am having the exact same experience. Some nights it doesn't happen, but most often it does. Sometime from 17:00 onward some kind of QoS kicks in that limits my 4mb account to 1mb speeds effectively. Yes - it get's limited as I can see that continuous throughput NEVER spikes above 120 odd kB/s. Looking at the data graph it is flat. I've asked Telkom to investigate this and their feedback shows that my exchange and mini dslam is not congested (confirmed with my tracert's) and is only at around 60% utilization. This means there is overhead at the exchange. The limiting is occurring somewhere on my line...either from Afrihost or Telkom.

And no - this is not an issue where there is line interference. If it was my SnR ratio's would change drastically, which they don't, and my data graphs would have spikes, which they don't.

Still trying to get to the bottom of this. It is a real crappy situation that my line runs 100% between 01:00 and 17:00...but when I am actually home it performs sub par.

And I tested this on multiple streaming sites - the limit remains. Very annoying I can assure you hehe.