Afrihost Uncapped ADSL Feedback (Pt3)

[AfriMan]

yup at the same time

It's possible that the QoS component or or on your router is creating contention of sorts trying to manage bandwidth. This can happen.

 

[fluKe]

I'm 3 days into my experience with Afrihost uncapped 10mb and I am now no longer able to watch twitch.tv at any quality rating. Thank you but no thank you Afrihost, this is unacceptable. I will be cancelling and taking my business elsewhere.

 

[AfriMan]

It really seems like Afrihost forgets how their shaper works, and then starts setting it up from scratch every week.

We haven't made any changes to the shaper itself, in terms of the logic. What we've changed for the present moment is that we're shaping all Uncapped users at maximum between 7:30am and 10pm, to maximise realtime performance during peak hours, and then we let the shaper naturally manage the network for the remaining 9 hours of the day/night cycle.

 

[DeathStrike]

We don't double bill you. Becuase Telkom bill in arrears and we bill in advance, we'll bill you pro-rata when the line moves over, and then Telkom will bill you a pro-rata amount at the end of the month. Essentially you never pay for the same service period twice.

It can take up to 14 days, it depends on Telkom. The best I've seen is about a week or so.

Great. So then I will move the line now. Should be done in two weeks then.

Edit. How should I do this? Want to bundle the line and data. If I just use client zone. Can I just transfer from there? Or must I first cancel data and order a bundle?

 

[AthenianOwl]

Afrihost say they do not shape users on the amount they download (unless you go overboard) but instead according to how 'stressed' the network is.

Personally I download like mad on weekends (except last weekend but apparently Afrihost throttled everyone due to testing) and my account doesn't seem to have been affected for the months I was doing it. My experience has been that on weekends you get full speeds.

Off the topic of weekends. During the week, especially during work hours. Good luck torrenting or downloading. Overnight usually does not get affected (notice the word usually)

Ah! This is similar to OW's shaping policy... which is not too bad How is streaming during work hours? Maybe I should check out WebAfrica? You don't want that, Afriman, right?

The rules of these feedback threads don't really allow discussion all the possible options.

But, if you want a consistent experience and can schedule the bulk of your traffic, a capped account with a night surfer option (free or additional cost) might ne best.

Eh, not sure about going back to using a capped account again It's so 2008.

 

[AfriMan]

Hey all,

How's the shaping on the home uncapped accounts?

I moved to biz uncapped 2mb, but I miss the speed of 10mb ... So was thinking of moving back.

I originally moved to biz cause the shaping was making me pull my hair out.

Want to know if it's safe to move back lol

It depends on what aspect of shaping was making you unhappy. If you were wanting to torrent and use P2P during peak hours then we're shaping those services at maximum to give the best realtime and overall internet experience. However, my testing is showing excellent realtime performance - but I'm investigating a few reports here of buffering on YouTube. For the most part, I'm pretty confident that realtime streaming and gaming should be excellent.

 

[AfriMan]

Hey, I'm looking for a ISP to move to.

1. I don't live in Cape Town or any other nearby cities. CHECK.
2. My average data consumption is around 100GB per month. So I'm not one of those big fat downloaders. CHECK.
3. I always schedule my downloads between 11pm and 6AM. CHECK

The question is... is this ISP right for me? Please reply because it's very urgent.

I'm not sure what the Cape Town part refers to - is because of the rampant P2P usage in the Cape?

I really like the scheduling of downloads, that is ideal for Uncapped use, though if you're only using 100GB per month (as someone suggested) you might do well with a 50+50GB account that is unshaped. either way, you'll also score if you look at a bundle.

What line speed are you on?

 

[AthenianOwl]

It depends on what aspect of shaping was making you unhappy. If you were wanting to torrent and use P2P during peak hours then we're shaping those services at maximum to give the best realtime and overall internet experience. However, my testing is showing excellent realtime performance - but I'm investigating a few reports here of buffering on YouTube. For the most part, I'm pretty confident that realtime streaming and gaming should be excellent.

Nice. Will sign up next week or as soon as my phone line becomes online again.

 

[ainsin]

Well I was up at 3am finishing a deadline, and around about the 2:45am mark, my account became unshaped. At 7:30, my account was shaped back down to the standard. So I got about 4 hours of actual unshaped internet. Afrihost hasn't mentioned how their testing is going for the past few days, so I feel like this is 20 hours a day shaping is going to be the new standard for home uncapped.

Are there any plans to get additional IPC? Because it looks like you don't have enough capacity again.

 

[AfriMan]

Guys, what is up with this shaping??????

I mean REALLY.
You JUST got capacity????

View attachment 129511

We did get a capacity upgrade, but we've decided to test for a short while to see if we can deliver a better experience. For the moment we'll be shaping all users at maximum from 7:30am to 10pm, and thereafter we'll allow the normal demand shaping to kick. The idea is to deliver absolute premium realtime services, and ensure that clients get the best overall experience from an Uncapped product.

 

[AfriMan]

Will I get punished if I download too much on weekends?

We don't use punitive thresholds, it's dynamically based on the demand in realtime. During the peak period, everyone will be shaped on the same profile, the after 10pm the network will dynamically shape according to demand and based on usage profiles shaping from heaviest users to the lightest users.

 

[AthenianOwl]

We did get a capacity upgrade, but we've decided to test for a short while to see if we can deliver a better experience. For the moment we'll be shaping all users at maximum from 7:30am to 10pm, and thereafter we'll allow the normal demand shaping to kick. The idea is to deliver absolute premium realtime services, and ensure that clients get the best overall experience from an Uncapped product.

Hope this is temporary!

 

[UnholyMunk]

Afriman/Afriguy,

I sent you a PM

 

[fluKe]

So those of us who use the internet from 7:30am to 10pm (15 1/2 hour work day must be intense) don't get a fair experience? When will YouTube and Twitch.tv be watchable again? Who can I talk to about a refund on your services since your "fair usage" doesnt talk about being fully shaped for more than half the month?

 

[AfriMan]

Afrihost say they do not shape users on the amount they download (unless you go overboard) but instead according to how 'stressed' the network is.

Personally I download like mad on weekends (except last weekend but apparently Afrihost throttled everyone due to testing) and my account doesn't seem to have been affected for the months I was doing it. My experience has been that on weekends you get full speeds.

Off the topic of weekends. During the week, especially during work hours. Good luck torrenting or downloading. Overnight usually does not get affected (notice the word usually)

Realtime services are always going to be the priority for Uncapped, especially since the great bulk of our users (possibly not represented here) are mainly concerned with browsing, streaming and gaming. There is still a potential 9 hour window to do serious downloading overnight, and remember that torrents are not blocked during peak, just heavily shaped. So you'll still get your files either way.

 

[AthenianOwl]

We don't use punitive thresholds, it's dynamically based on the demand in realtime. During the peak period, everyone will be shaped on the same profile, the after 10pm the network will dynamically shape according to demand and based on usage profiles shaping from heaviest users to the lightest users.

Will I be okay if I schedule my torrent downloads between 11pm and 6am every day except on weekends where I don't hold back at all. I tend to stream a lot during work hours. Is my typical usage pattern alright with you?

 

[AfriMan]

So those of us who use the internet from 7:30am to 10pm (15 1/2 hour work day must be intense) don't get a fair experience? When will YouTube and Twitch.tv be watchable again? Who can I talk to about a refund on your services since your "fair usage" doesnt talk about being fully shaped for more than half the month?

If you want to use downloads and torrents during that time, you might want to rather consider capped or or Business. We have to use shaping on Uncapped (as a semi-shaped product) to deliver the best overall experience to all our users on the network. Realtime services continue to perform at full line speed, so YouTube should generally be performing well. My tests show this, but I'm definitely investigating reports of those who are reporting otherwise.

If you are within 60 days, you can use the Double Money Back Guarantee on our website if you'd still like a refund. As much as we do stand by our product quality, if you're not happy with it - that is our guarantee to you.

 

[UnholyMunk]

Realtime services are always going to be the priority for Uncapped, especially since the great bulk of our users (possibly not represented here) are mainly concerned with browsing, streaming and gaming. There is still a potential 9 hour window to do serious downloading overnight, and remember that torrents are not blocked during peak, just heavily shaped. So you'll still get your files either way.

Hold on... 9 hour window? Is this how things are going to be moving forward for the uncapped products? A 9 hour window where we're allowed to download?

 

[AfriMan]

Hope this is temporary!

I can't say at this stage, it will really depend on how the network performs and the general feedback we receive via different channels. At the moment, most clients are reporting great realtime performance, and we're mostly concerned with that for the moment.

 

[AfriMan]

Hold on... 9 hour window? Is this how things are going to be moving forward for the uncapped products? A 9 hour window where we're allowed to download?

Remember that P2P is not blocked, it is only shaped. So downloads will still be possible around the clock. And 9 hours is more than a third of the 24 hour cycle, so it's still pretty significant.