Afrihost Uncapped ADSL Feedback (Pt3)

[AfriGuy]

18.8% Download/ 6.25% P2P on 4MBPS Uncapped.
(BTW, does this mean download is only @ 18.8% of 4MBPS capacity, or does it mean it's 18.8% less than 4MBPS capacity?)
Only changed to uncapped mid April.
For the last two days even realtime streaming has been terrible. I cancelled DSTV and got uncapped because I am tired of watching repeats and ads, but with the buffering taking place, it's worse than having to watch ads and repeats.

Response from Afrihost: "only non-realtime services are SOMETIMES shaped".

Are the following streaming sources realtime or non-realtime?
- YouTube
- Cricfree.tv
- tvonline.cc
- Netflix
- Hulu

If they are realtime, and nothing has changed except my package with AH from capped to uncapped, then why is the streaming buffering now, but didn't on capped?

Apologies if I don't make sense, but what I know about these things is not much. I pay and expect it to work (maybe expecting too much)?

EDIT: Another question

On Afrihost Compare Packages page, it states the price of business 4mbps as R797, but on client zone, it states the price as R697. Which is it?

Hi

The percentages show the % of your line available for these services. Remember this is adjusted dynamically based on network load at the time and doesn't affect realtime services.

It's safe to say YouTube is the standard streaming provider and is realtime. The others should be, however is determined on how the streams are setup. Netflix and Hulu can't be guaranteed due to their country restrictions and work arounds
Are you looking at the bundled or data only price on the Business accounts?

 

[AfriGuy]

I thought realtime services were meant to be the same across the board, and that only non-realtime services were shaped on home uncapped. Therefore, theoretically, we should see the same performance levels on home uncapped for youtube and other forms of streaming as on capped and business packages.
But, maybe I misunderstood afrihost, and realtime services are also shaped, and that would make shaping no different to throttling.

Realtime services are all unshaped across the board, regardless of which package you're on.

 

[AfriGuy]

AfriMan, I'm very confused with what the ClientZone reports regarding shaping.

Apparently I should be shaped to 18%/6% but yet my HTTP downloads run at full line speed, while my P2P is basically dead. Is CZ reporting it wrong or is there something else going on? :erm:

Very strange. It could be adjusting itself, it does happen but the results do usually normalise.

 

[AfriGuy]

what a f*#@ing farce Afrihost! I thought you were meant to be getting "more than enough" capacity?!?!?! More than enough to me means no shaping, and that you would be able to avoid having to "shaping to slowly release and find a good balance".

You're just a bunch of lying, thieving, manipulating b@st@rds.... no other way of putting it now!

I'm afraid shaping will always be around on Home Uncapped accounts. With the additional of the extra capacity realtime services should be improving as well as the general, overall experience on the accounts.

 

[AfriGuy]

so why are we being shaped so heavily in the east? Is the extra capacity sufficient to meet demand and you just "finding the sweetspot" for shaping? or is the east still under capacity?

I'm afraid shaping is a part of these accounts and can be expected anytime during peak periods on our network. The shaping should ease off quicker than what we've previously seen though.

 

[Mualliq]

I'm afraid shaping is a part of these accounts and can be expected anytime during peak periods on our network. The shaping should ease off quicker than what we've previously seen though.

And by quicker, you mean by 1.30 am instead of 3.30 am?

And as for streaming, I have a 10 mbps account, and yet streaming always buffers badly. Last night, I was trying to watch the Champions League Semi Final in SD, but had to give up due to how bad the experience was. I thought 10 mbps was supposed to handle even up to HD with ease, but it obviously does not, as SD is so often unwatchable.

 

[stormiezzz]

P2P is what we want. Make it happen already.

Sorry that we're seeing more shaping still. I think we're still optimising the network to find the best performance ratio between capacity and performance. Remember that this will only affect P2P and realtime services should be performing at premium following the network upgrade last week.

 

[AfriGuy]

And by quicker, you mean by 1.30 am instead of 3.30 am?

And as for streaming, I have a 10 mbps account, and yet streaming always buffers badly. Last night, I was trying to watch the Champions League Semi Final in SD, but had to give up due to how bad the experience was. I thought 10 mbps was supposed to handle even up to HD with ease, but it obviously does not, as SD is so often unwatchable.

We're still crunching a few numbers and working out the perfect balance for the network to run at. Results are improved and will continue to do so going forward

 

[AfriGuy]

P2P is what we want. Make it happen already.

P2P should be running well after hours.

 

[Wall]

I'm afraid shaping is a part of these accounts and can be expected anytime during peak periods on our network. The shaping should ease off quicker than what we've previously seen though.

100% understand this Afriguy. i don't expect to be unshaped during peak times but I don't think its unreasonable to consider 10:30pm as off peak.


I remember when I first signed up, I would get unshaped around 6pm and I thought farking hell, this is amazeballs. right now, Its just not enough.

 

[HapticSimian]

I'm afraid shaping is a part of these accounts and can be expected anytime during peak periods on our network. The shaping should ease off quicker than what we've previously seen though.

Yeah. 'Peak'. Like 7pm - 2am, or the Monday of Easter weekend. Think I'll be downgrading my 'uncapped' to a R29 account tonight, and giving some other options a try. You've not offered value equivalent to your asking price for a long, long time on these accounts and - much as it pains me - my frustration is starting to well exceed the regard I have for Afrihost.

I might find that other ISPs offer no better in the current climate, but I think it's time to test the waters.

 

[Mualliq]

P2P should be running well after hours.

But, what do you mean by after hours? My p2p shaping remains at 6.25% until 1.30 am every day.

 

[AfriGuy]

100% understand this Afriguy. i don't expect to be unshaped during peak times but I don't think its unreasonable to consider 10:30pm as off peak.


I remember when I first signed up, I would get unshaped around 6pm and I thought farking hell, this is amazeballs. right now, Its just not enough.

Fully agree with you, I know it isn't ideal at the moment
We are working to improve this, and the capacity is helping. Our team are working to a perfect balance between performance, shaping and overall network greatness.

We'll be right back up at amazeballs really soon

 

[Wall]

Yeah. 'Peak'. Like 7pm - 2am, or the Monday of Easter weekend. Think I'll be downgrading my 'uncapped' to a R29 account tonight, and giving some other options a try. You've not offered value equivalent to your asking price for a long, long time on these accounts and - much as it pains me - my frustration is starting to well exceed the regard I have for Afrihost.

I might find that other ISPs offer no better in the current climate, but I think it's time to test the waters.

+1. I'm thinking of moving over to TI.

 

[AfriGuy]

But, what do you mean by after hours? My p2p shaping remains at 6.25% until 1.30 am every day.

I covered this in my post above to Wall
We're getting there, I promise!

 

[TwilightWalker]

P2P should be running well after hours.

100% understand this Afriguy. i don't expect to be unshaped during peak times but I don't think its unreasonable to consider 10:30pm as off peak.


I remember when I first signed up, I would get unshaped around 6pm and I thought farking hell, this is amazeballs. right now, Its just not enough.

What I want to know is what is "after hours" and "off peak"? After businesses close for the day from 6PM? After most people go to bed from 11PM? Right now "after hours" seems to be 1AM, I know the south only received a partial upgrade but whenever it does get a full upgrade will we know what after hours is?

 

[Wall]

What I want to know is what is "after hours" and "off peak"? After businesses close for the day from 6PM? After most people go to bed from 11PM? Right now "after hours" seems to be 1AM, I know the south only received a partial upgrade but whenever it does get a full upgrade will we know what after hours is?

No clue, The east got a full IPC upgrade and our shaping only eases off after 11pm.


Afriguy, just to give you an illustration of my lack of faith in your product right now. I woke up at 4am this morning to catch up on some work. I actually thought let me just check if I'm unshaped. ( and yes I was) The fact that I considered being shaped and wouldn't have been surprised to see shaping at 4am illustrates how much I think your letting us the users and your company down.

 

[aybbleek]

No clue, The east got a full IPC upgrade and our shaping only eases off after 11pm.


Afriguy, just to give you an illustration of my lack of faith in your product right now. I woke up at 4am this morning to catch up on some work. I actually thought let me just check if I'm unshaped. ( and yes I was) The fact that I considered being shaped and wouldn't have been surprised to see shaping at 4am illustrates how much I think your letting us the users and your company down.

Yeah this is true, I feel the same way unfortunately

Edit: I don't think AfriMan/AfriRep is letting the company down, his company is letting him down, whoever is calling the shots needs a kick in the ballas

 

[AfriMan]

What I want to know is what is "after hours" and "off peak"? After businesses close for the day from 6PM? After most people go to bed from 11PM? Right now "after hours" seems to be 1AM, I know the south only received a partial upgrade but whenever it does get a full upgrade will we know what after hours is?

We can't really use hours as a guideline, as there is no way to predict demand. So while we can have some idea of when people leave work or go to bed, demand can sometimes continue well into the early hours of the morning.

Remember that we are also only releasing new capacity very slowly, to ensure that we maintain premium performance on realtime services and low latency, and the determine how much we can unshape so that we have a good balance until we receive additional capacity.

But going forward we'll continue to shape according to realtime demand and not time based schedules.

 

[Mualliq]

We can't really use hours as a guideline, as there is no way to predict demand. So while we can have some idea of when people leave work or go to bed, demand can sometimes continue well into the early hours of the morning.

Remember that we are also only releasing new capacity very slowly, to ensure that we maintain premium performance on realtime services and low latency, and the determine how much we can unshape so that we have a good balance until we receive additional capacity.

But going forward we'll continue to shape according to realtime demand and not time based schedules.

But premium performance on realtime services has not been maintained as streaming and youtube are both still performing very poorly, as I mentioned in my post earlier.