Afrihost Uncapped ADSL Feedback (Pt3)

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OrbitalDawn said:
Far as I'm concerned this whole new policy is flippant and dismissive in the extreme.
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Yeah, well.... I decided that others are more worthy of my monthly stipend before this 'testing' fiasco even started. The penny dropped when I asked myself why I'm willing to spend nearly twice the going rate for a 'business' account just to maintain a semblance of general usability.
 
AfriGuy said:
The shaping at the moment is in testing, we need to collect enough data to make an informed decision.
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Don't know if someone mentioned it already, but I've finally figured out what they are testing!
Shaping uncapped so severely that consumers would either leave AH, or move to Capped, in the hopes that the extra revenue from the ones that move to capped, would be sufficient to cover loss of income of the ones that left AH.

So I think testing will go on until all the suckers on Uncapped have either moved to Capped, or to greener pastures...

I moved to Cap mid month July, and have seen varying results, from perfect line to absolutely DEAD. Last night I couldn't even connect to Netflix, let alone stream. Tested a free account, worked perfectly...hmmm...

So much for unshaped, full speed, blah blah on capped eh?
 
HapticSimian said:
Yeah, well.... I decided that others are more worthy of my monthly stipend before this 'testing' fiasco even started. The penny dropped when I asked myself why I'm willing to spend nearly twice the going rate for a 'business' account just to maintain a semblance of general usability.
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Exactly. I guess we just have to make peace with the fact that internet in SA remains a fsckup.
 
OrbitalDawn said:
Exactly. I guess we just have to make peace with the fact that internet in SA remains a fsckup.
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I wonder what's happening with the three gigantic undersea cables that were scheduled to become operational this year - SAex, WASACE and BRICS? Even one of those is sure to drastically improve South African internet. The three combined would add tons of capacity, and create multiple shorter links to the U.S.
 
Bl1zz4rd said:
I wonder what's happening with the three gigantic undersea cables that were scheduled for this year - SAex, WASACE and BRICS? Even one of those is sure to drastically improve South African internet. The three combined would add tons of capacity, and create multiple shorter links to the U.S.
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The problem isn't international transit. It's the stranglehold telkom has on last mile and IPC.
 
"The shaping at the moment is in testing, we need to collect enough data to make an informed decision. "

What exactly is being tested ?

My understanding of the word "testing" means you apply different scenarios and parameters to find the minimum and maximum points of performance of a said entity

My account shows 25% and 6.5kb for weeks - the parameters have not changed at all

So how do they test the network ?
 
jvzweel said:
Don't know if someone mentioned it already, but I've finally figured out what they are testing!
Shaping uncapped so severely that consumers would either leave AH, or move to Capped, in the hopes that the extra revenue from the ones that move to capped, would be sufficient to cover loss of income of the ones that left AH.

So I think testing will go on until all the suckers on Uncapped have either moved to Capped, or to greener pastures...

I moved to Cap mid month July, and have seen varying results, from perfect line to absolutely DEAD. Last night I couldn't even connect to Netflix, let alone stream. Tested a free account, worked perfectly...hmmm...

So much for unshaped, full speed, blah blah on capped eh?
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Sorry but the capped/business uncapped argument is absolute HOGWASH.
I've been testing a capped account now for some time and the best I get on Netflix is 720p - not that this is constant either.
Hulu also sometimes buffers to an extent where you cannot watch an episode unless you have the patience of a Buddhist monk.

If capped/Business uncapped is Afrihost in all it's glory, man... you guys messed up doing the dirty with MTN.
@AfriReps, please don't feel obligated to respond to this. I have first hand experience with the backbone you guys are sitting on, so I'd appreciate not being lied to.
 
OrbitalDawn said:
It's ridiculous that someone be classed as a 'power user' or that they would need to be on a business account just because they want to download something at a decent speed before 12 at night.

Someone who wants to get an update for a game, or download new drivers, or (god forbid) an episode of something is not a power user and yet they get shafted all the same.
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I don't think our definition of the average user is going to fit everyone's individual definition of themselves as a "power" or "regular" user. Somewhere a definition has to guide the management of the network.

Our intention is not to shaft anyone, we're trying to deliver the best experience and value that we can, with a view to doing more in the long term. The product has to be sustainable for us to do that, which means we have to look at how we manage the resources we have to give the best value and overall internet experience.
 
marduke said:
This is almost the same argument I had with mweb before leaving them, I was paying for the premium uncapped where supposedly I could be the power user I wanted to be, but that didn't fly with them, so I had to adjust my consumption behaviour in order to fit in with their policies or face throttling. I left & joined Afrihost because I thought I would get a better experience, but seems I was very much mistaken, now I can't even adjust my own consumption behaviour to get a better online experience since even if I consumed less I would still be punished for being a lowly uncapped user, & no I'm not paying more for a business account. It costs me nothing to just download less & have a better experience, but since I'm not given the choice, I will go look for an ISP that will give me the choice.
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We're not really interesting in changing our clients requirements to match our offering, we're essentially trying to match what we can offer to what we feel the large majority expect for the value they expect from an Uncapped account. Also, we would expect that clients look at the products we offer and then decide which is most suitable for their requirements. In some cases a Business account is a better option, or for others just being able to occasionally Turbocharge is sufficient.
 
Hey AfriMan/Guy,

Are you aware of any issues in Europe with your providers? My friend and I are having (what seems like) serious packet loss issues in game on the EUW League of Legends servers that make the game unplayable since last last night.
 
Bl1zz4rd said:
That's the point I tried to get across earlier this year when I discovered how annoying Afrihost's shaping system is. With MWEB, you at least know what the limit is, based on your line speed, and can download accordingly, at full speed, until that limit is reached. At times I found I could surpass that limit by quite a large amount and still not be throttled.

Afrihost boasts about not having throttling, but rather shaping. That's great, but the shaping should use the same system as MWEB's. Right now, after a few months of downloading amounts that are even less than what I used to do with MWEB, I am classed as a power user and am shaped every month at the same amount (25% download and 6.5% P2P) regardless of my usage, because of my "heavy downloading history" (which I don't consider heavy at all). And there's seemingly no way to get away from that.

With MWEB, you at least started each month with a clean slate, with downloads running at full speed from the 1st and continuing to do so until you reached that ceiling again. If you didn't, full speed all the time, for everything. With Afrihost, today, at 2.30am, I couldn't dowload a torrent at faster than 5kB/s because I downloaded 200GB on my 2MB line 5 months ago.
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We're definitely looking into making sure that once we're past 10pm, we give client's the maximum amount of bandwidth possible. It's not at all our intention to skimp on the bandwidth clients can access. We pay for the IPC whether it's used or not, so it's really in our interest to move the maximum amount of data so that we can make up the cost and keep our infrastructure feasible.
 
HapticSimian said:
I've also been around this mulberry bush. Fact is, if I'm able to stream a Youtube video at 1080p, there is sufficient capacity available that I shouldn't need to wait [-]days[/-] hours to download a 200mb NVidia driver. That I am not allowed access to enough of that capacity to maintain general usability - without some 'Turbocharge' gimmick - is utterly inexcusable, and a total failing of their entire system.

Not that I expect anything to change. I would love to know whether I am alone in the perception that Afrihost has become increasingly more flippant and dismissive towards their customers.
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The fact is that everyone will feel that their need is more of a priority, so we have to set rules somehow to address the majority of clients' priority when it comes to an Uncapped service. I really do believe there are a lot more clients who would want to stream YouTube rather than an Nvidia driver - at least from the majority of our Uncapped clients. That's why I feel that Turbocharge is unique, that you can bypass the rules when you need to, and effectively managing the network gives us the headroom to let clients burst where they need to.
 
rakabos3 said:
Openweb 2.0

By the way, the idiot that dreamed up the turbocharge thing should be hung in a public place
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He's actually not an idiot, not by a long shot. If you actually met him, I promise you've never met a guy more dedicated to giving clients a great experience.

It's a feature that you don't have to use, but it's great for the clients who see the benefit in it.
 
BlaQ_PhoeniX said:
Hey AfriMan/Guy,

Are you aware of any issues in Europe with your providers? My friend and I are having (what seems like) serious packet loss issues in game on the EUW League of Legends servers that make the game unplayable since last last night.
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My tests to EU are showing excellent throughput. Are you seeing general packet loss to EU servers? Maybe you can post up some diagnostics I can look at :(
 
jvzweel said:
Don't know if someone mentioned it already, but I've finally figured out what they are testing!
Shaping uncapped so severely that consumers would either leave AH, or move to Capped, in the hopes that the extra revenue from the ones that move to capped, would be sufficient to cover loss of income of the ones that left AH.

So I think testing will go on until all the suckers on Uncapped have either moved to Capped, or to greener pastures...

I moved to Cap mid month July, and have seen varying results, from perfect line to absolutely DEAD. Last night I couldn't even connect to Netflix, let alone stream. Tested a free account, worked perfectly...hmmm...

So much for unshaped, full speed, blah blah on capped eh?
Click to expand...

What we're testing is the overall performance across the network, the amount of headroom in terms of how much play we have for shaping (and unshaping) and how usage trends are affected with the current shaping to determine how (or if at all) we should change our AUP to allow us to deliver a better experience.

A free account is a normal capped account, so there is really no difference there. I would suspect other factors would be involved :(
 
Dion Disco said:
"The shaping at the moment is in testing, we need to collect enough data to make an informed decision. "

What exactly is being tested ?

My understanding of the word "testing" means you apply different scenarios and parameters to find the minimum and maximum points of performance of a said entity

My account shows 25% and 6.5kb for weeks - the parameters have not changed at all

So how do they test the network ?
Click to expand...

Testing is also about data collection, trend monitoring, developing graphs and averages on which to base our decisions. The reality is that the current system will be in place until we feel we have enough data to make an informed decision.
 
AfriMan said:
The fact is that everyone will feel that their need is more of a priority, so we have to set rules somehow to address the majority of clients' priority when it comes to an Uncapped service. I really do believe there are a lot more clients who would want to stream YouTube rather than an Nvidia driver - at least from the majority of our Uncapped clients. That's why I feel that Turbocharge is unique, that you can bypass the rules when you need to, and effectively managing the network gives us the headroom to let clients burst where they need to.
Click to expand...

Not 'more of', just the same. Whether I'm bursting to line speed to load a Youtube vid, or bursting to line speed to download something I legitimately need should be none of your concern. That you seemingly can't manage a connection in that fashion is your failing, not mine.

I feel Turbocharge is a ****ing joke - it's the ISP equivalent of DRS in F1; a system to placate the stupid people into thinking they're getting a decent product. And at an additional cost, nogal.
 
AfriMan said:
I don't think our definition of the average user is going to fit everyone's individual definition of themselves as a "power" or "regular" user. Somewhere a definition has to guide the management of the network.

Our intention is not to shaft anyone, we're trying to deliver the best experience and value that we can, with a view to doing more in the long term. The product has to be sustainable for us to do that, which means we have to look at how we manage the resources we have to give the best value and overall internet experience.
Click to expand...

How is blanket shaping not shafting?

Some people want to use their internet for more than browsing or YouTube before 12...
 
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