Afrihost Uncapped ADSL Feedback (Pt3)

[AfriMan]

so whats after hours ? 12-5am ?

this is yesterday's 1 file that downloaded at around 4am

View attachment 128441

and like I said my total usage for the month of june 300gb up & download where 60% of it was streaming/games/teamspeak/youtube other 100gb was downloads on nntp.

is there a issue with international traffic ? this may be a reason to why

the test tool

Local Tracert

Tracing route to news24.co.za [41.86.110.143]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 10.0.0.2
2 7 ms 8 ms 8 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 9 ms 9 ms 8 ms tb-dca-2.za--qux-c.za.mtnbusiness.net [41.181.198.188]
5 10 ms 9 ms 9 ms compj-cpt-1.mtnns.net [196.44.18.2]
6 10 ms 13 ms 9 ms ct-cr-2.za--tb-cr-1.za.mtnns.net [196.44.31.134]
7 9 ms 9 ms 8 ms 196.44.0.74
8 12 ms 10 ms 9 ms 196-28-178-141.adsl.mweb.co.za [196.28.178.141]
9 13 ms 13 ms 12 ms tengig-0-0-0-1-cpt-p-1.mweb.co.za [197.84.7.1]
10 12 ms 11 ms 13 ms vl-11-cpt-hscore-1.mweb.co.za [197.84.5.238]
11 12 ms 11 ms 10 ms 196.28.178.66
12 11 ms 15 ms 10 ms gig5-1-cpt-opt-65-1.optinet.net [196.41.133.234]
13 11 ms 13 ms 10 ms OPTI-CPT-N1-Hosting.optinet.net [197.84.196.6]
14 15 ms 10 ms 10 ms 197-84-208-146.cpt.mweb.co.za [197.84.208.146]
15 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms 41-86-110-143.mweb.co.za [41.86.110.143]

Trace complete.

International Tracert

Tracing route to thinkbroadband.com [80.249.99.130]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms <1 ms 10.0.0.2
2 7 ms 7 ms 7 ms 105-236-8-193-esr-lo.mtnbusiness.co.za [105.236.8.193]
3 28 ms 8 ms 8 ms ipc-send-tb-3a.mtnbusiness.net [41.181.53.214]
4 73 ms 9 ms 8 ms tb-dca-2.za--qux-a.za.mtnbusiness.net [41.181.184.28]
5 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms unc-cpt-1.mtnns.net [196.44.18.8]
6 9 ms 10 ms 12 ms 196.44.31.106
7 170 ms 152 ms 152 ms am-cr-1.am--lt-cr-1.uk-a.mtnns.net [196.44.31.221]
8 152 ms 152 ms 266 ms ls-pr-1.uk--ls-cr-1.uk-a.mtn.net [209.212.111.83]
9 153 ms 152 ms 152 ms linx-gw1.thn.ncuk.net [195.66.224.240]
10 153 ms 152 ms 153 ms te2-1-9.star10g.bdr-rt3.thdo.ncuk.net [80.249.97.17]
11 155 ms 155 ms 154 ms te1-1-1-31.core-rs2.thdo.ncuk.net [80.249.97.85]
12 152 ms 153 ms 153 ms www.thinkbroadband.com [80.249.99.130]

Trace complete.

International Speedtest
Downloaded 20.0 megabytes in 1:52 seconds. (182.29 KB/s)

Local Speedtest
Downloaded 15.6 megabytes in 23 seconds. (694.08 KB/s)




Test End Timestamp
2014/06/27 19:15:16.52

Test results seem pretty good as far as I can see. But there is pretty much no traffic at 4am (not nothing though, we're seeing demand pretty much almost 24/7 - though we'd like to increase after hour traffic between midnight and 7am to utilise unused resources)

 

[AfriMan]

I'm very disappointed to report that the aggressive shaping is still happening. I'm sitting at 18.8% Download/ 6.25% P2P at almost 9pm on a Friday night. Surely this hour constitutes as 'after hours'. I'm really hoping the shaping in the North eases up over the weekend.

I was really excited about the IPC upgrade, but after 2 weeks, its back to where we were while we were waiting for additional IPC a few months ago. The Afrihost home uncapped accounts aren't exactly cheap, so I'm expecting more out of it.

I'm also having streaming issues at the moment. Youtube just buffers like crazy on 360p, and even Hearthstone is lagging!

And you know what, I use a friend's uncapped account from a different ISP, and Youtube streams fine, and my gaming experience is flawless. So its is not my line, and its not the exchange!

Pull up your socks Afrihost!

We're shaping more aggressively to look at improving the overall experience that clients have on both Shaped and Unshaped products. We're going to see how the network performs and possibly makes changes based on what we find from the results over the period.

However, what concerns me is that you're experiencing buffering and lag on gaming/streaming. This should not be the case as the idea is to eliminate contention issues completely

 

[AfriMan]

Received a message from Afriman that they are testing the networks limits so we will be shaped to hell until they finish doing this. He said it will take a few days and not over the weekend, witch is a lie.. And business hours aren't from 8am to 12pm.. Somethings up.

My apologies, my understanding was that the weekend would be exempt but found out this morning that I was mistaken. For the moment it will work throughout until we finalise the way forward.

 

[AfriMan]

Fortunately Afrihost and Axxess do not throttle traffic - they shape.
Apparently the IPC in the South has been fully upgraded, but they are "testing" first.
You will notice that realtime services run super fast but Downloading anything not

Yes, that's the idea. We want to put first things first and be able to promise excellent realtime services, which is why we're testing to see what works the best for the overall internet experience.

We're also going to run tests on gaming and streaming to ensure that our thinking works on our side.

 

[AfriMan]

Afriman, some advice, 20mbps VDSL bundle? OR normal Uncapped 10mbps BUSINESS account?

You know gaming is extremely important to me, as well as being able to download a torrent, file, update, whatever, when I need it.

Sounds like Business is the one you want to go for

 

[DeathStrike]

Hey afriman. Just wanted to confirm that the capped account is 100 % unshapped. Going onto 50gb account tomorrow. Also client zone reports only 50 gb not the 50 free gb also. Is that special still on?

 

[AfriMan]

Latency seems relatively stable, so only throughput was affected. Improved a bit on Thursday/Friday.

That seems to be consistent when we tightened up on shaping on the network. This is part of our thinking that we need to ensure realtime services work perfectly before we look at downloads and torrents.

 

[AfriMan]

Is it possible to switch from a bundled 4Mbps uncapped package to a capped 50Gb package without having to pay for next month's uncapped?

I know the billing run has passed, but I don't want to cancel with AH, just change my connection. [Presently I have a 4Mbps uncapped + ADSL bundled package] For July onwards, I want to use a capped 50Gb package and stop the uncapped package. Is it possible to change this before July hits us, without having to pay for both uncapped and capped in July?

It seems that at any given month we use less than 100Gb data, so a capped bundle (50+50) would make more sense as the speed will be proper whenever I actually want to connect, and it costs less than uncapped.

It's a little too late after the billing run for us to do a package change effective in July. Unless it's a higher value package with a pro-rata billing component we have to provide you with the higher service which you have already paid for.

 

[AfriMan]

You had to jinx it. I was unshaped, and now back to the 18.8% Download/ 6.25% P2P hellhole.

I think this shaping has something to do with the uncapped accounts. Maybe a ton of people are trying to finish up their cap before next month starts, and its causing strain on Afrihost. And since Uncapped users are second-class citizens, we suffer so that Afrihost doesn't fall over

We'll be shaping everyone from around 7-7:30am and unshaping them again after 10pm. It will be pretty much this way for at least the next few days as we test on our side.

This will be across all 3 regional networks.

 

[AfriMan]

Was it just me, or was streaming utterly useless this weekend? Netflix, iPlayer and Youtube were all buffering literally every 30 seconds or so.

If that's the case, please drop me a PM so we can determine why streaming is poor. With the shaping on the network, it can't be due to throughput, or if it is, we need to investigate and troubleshoot

 

[AfriMan]

I had a bad time with streaming as well. I was getting buffering issues on 240p videos on youtube. Realtime services were definitely affected. Maybe the IPC upgrades didn't fix anything?

That is definitely odd, so we'll need to look further into this. We're also going to be conducting stringent tests on realtime streaming over the next few days to ensure we're managing the network properly.

 

[AfriMan]

Streaming on my side was fine. Watched Netflix the whole day yesterday.

Awesome

 

[Lord Nikon6]

We'll be shaping everyone from around 7-7:30am and unshaping them again after 10pm. It will be pretty much this way for at least the next few days as we test on our side.

This will be across all 3 regional networks.

Nice one. please define the next few days a bit more if you can?

 

[AfriMan]

Nice one. please define the next few days a bit more if you can?

That I can't say, it depends on the findings and the feedback we get. As things unfold, I'll post more info where I can.

 

[AfriMan]

Just a general message.

If you having problems with gaming or realtime services that you believe are shaped, please run a clean test (no background services) and see if you are still experiencing lag or latency. You can also run something like BitMeter OS to see if you not getting more than a maximum throughput on that service.

Also, please try a Turbocharge and then let me know if that actually improves the lag/latency and if so, please then PM me with as much details as possible (and your username) so we can monitor traffic while you game and verify if we're shaping that traffic.

I guess that goes for any realtime service like streaming that you believe to be shaped.

 

[B1G_WH1T3]

Test results seem pretty good as far as I can see. But there is pretty much no traffic at 4am (not nothing though, we're seeing demand pretty much almost 24/7 - though we'd like to increase after hour traffic between midnight and 7am to utilise unused resources)

Yea I know that's why I could not understand why its still being shaped, but I'm giving it 3 weeks if its not fixed I'm moving to a Other provider.

 

[B1G_WH1T3]

Just a general message.

If you having problems with gaming or realtime services that you believe are shaped, please run a clean test (no background services) and see if you are still experiencing lag or latency. You can also run something like BitMeter OS to see if you not getting more than a maximum throughput on that service.

Also, please try a Turbocharge and then let me know if that actually improves the lag/latency and if so, please then PM me with as much details as possible (and your username) so we can monitor traffic while you game and verify if we're shaping that traffic.

I guess that goes for any realtime service like streaming that you believe to be shaped.

will be doing this from tomorrow, will play wildstar - if you guys are going to look into it, and pm you when I activate my hour turbo charge.

 

[NightowlZA]

Just a general message.

If you having problems with gaming or realtime services that you believe are shaped, please run a clean test (no background services) and see if you are still experiencing lag or latency. You can also run something like BitMeter OS to see if you not getting more than a maximum throughput on that service.

Also, please try a Turbocharge and then let me know if that actually improves the lag/latency and if so, please then PM me with as much details as possible (and your username) so we can monitor traffic while you game and verify if we're shaping that traffic.

I guess that goes for any realtime service like streaming that you believe to be shaped.

Do we need to reiterate our issues with Diablo 3 being treated as a p2p service and being shaped to hell and back? Or have you guys finally got this issue on your radar?

 

[Orihalcon]

I would like to know about the above as well...

D3 should not be shaped! Also what changes are you investigating making going forward on your shaping system, if any?

 

[AfriGuy]

Do we need to reiterate our issues with Diablo 3 being treated as a p2p service and being shaped to hell and back? Or have you guys finally got this issue on your radar?

We're busy collecting info on this and running some extensive tests.