Afrihost Uncapped ADSL Feedback (Pt3)

[Jim West]

We have enough capacity, we decided that we might be able to offer Uncapped users a better overall internet experience, especially on priority realtime services, if we shaped more actively during peak periods. We're assessing the data we're getting back to see what changes we'd like to make going forward (if we do make changes).

Two broad categories of products - home and power users. For each, to defuse any complexity, devise two scripts (similar to Clientzone) to enable clients to "roll their own". Consumption and priority would be amongst the ingredients. Clients "roll their own" by specifying their requirements (expectations?). Power users would have more choices.

 

[Timber_MG]

@JimWest, that is something that cannot be managed effectively.

 

[Shak_97]

If you have to shape everyone the whole day (my shaping has never been inside the hours you stipulate, btw) then you don't have enough capacity.

And part of the problem is that you consider legitimate downloads as not being important for your users' internet experience.

Completely agree- As far as i know there weren't any people complaining about afrihost service a year ago. They built a great rep and experienced huge subscriber growth. So instead of increasing capacity to keep up with demand they realised they could rather strangle connections of their high end users (keeping all the everyday users who don't know what shaping is happy) and keep capacity low and get a little more profit. Seems like exactly the same thing that MWEB did last year.

 

[saa044]

Completely agree- As far as i know there weren't any people complaining about afrihost service a year ago. They built a great rep and experienced huge subscriber growth. So instead of increasing capacity to keep up with demand they realised they could rather strangle connections of their high end users (keeping all the everyday users who don't know what shaping is happy) and keep capacity low and get a little more profit. Seems like exactly the same thing that MWEB did last year.

Although Mweb gives you basically 400GB on a 4mbps premium line before you get throttled. Also in the past premium was just a normal 4mbps mweb account, still costs the same as in the old days. Now 4mbps that is basically unshaped (I should know, currently downloading at line speed at work) is very good.

 

[UnholyMunk]

I prefer the old way of shaping... At least with that, we could actually download drivers / software updates, etc as we needed them during the day.
Now if I need to download 200mb, I have to sit and wait forever for it to finish downloading.

I really hope that this shaping method is not permanent. If it does become permanent I will be forced to cancel my account at Afrihost. At present I'd get a better experience on a 2Mbs line on any other ISP during the day.

If you have to shape everyone the whole day (my shaping has never been inside the hours you stipulate, btw) then you don't have enough capacity.

And part of the problem is that you consider legitimate downloads as not being important for your users' internet experience.

You guys are fighting a losing battle! LOTS of us have already tried to reason/fight with Afrihost, but the corporate machine will just keep on churning, regardless of the loss of reputation or income. I personally know 12 people who have left Afrihost this month alone. If that doesn't raise an eyebrow, then I don't know what will. I guess they're facing a massive attrition rate this month, but the full effects will only be felt on the 25th, when the billing cycle starts.

I'm interested to see if AH will change their tune in the next month or so, when the CEO's and Board realise they they wont reach turnover targets and their bonus's are on the line...

 

[SIlvRav]

You guys are fighting a losing battle! LOTS of us have already tried to reason/fight with Afrihost, but the corporate machine will just keep on churning, regardless of the loss of reputation or income. I personally know 12 people who have left Afrihost this month alone. If that doesn't raise an eyebrow, then I don't know what will. I guess they're facing a massive attrition rate this month, but the full effects will only be felt on the 25th, when the billing cycle starts.

I'm interested to see if AH will change their tune in the next month or so, when the CEO's and Board realise they they wont reach turnover targets and their bonus's are on the line...

Yip......agree here.


and a bigggggg LOL @Ah reps repsonses.....still cant answer a question straight.

 

[AfriGuy]

I prefer the old way of shaping... At least with that, we could actually download drivers / software updates, etc as we needed them during the day.
Now if I need to download 200mb, I have to sit and wait forever for it to finish downloading.

I really hope that this shaping method is not permanent. If it does become permanent I will be forced to cancel my account at Afrihost. At present I'd get a better experience on a 2Mbs line on any other ISP during the day.

Even on the previous method of shaping, P2P and downloads where still pretty limited during peak hours. I think we're trying to find a balance here to keep realtime services excellent - this wasn't really the case previously. But as AfriMan says, we're still collecting a whole stack of data to see what'll work

 

[AfriGuy]

Two broad categories of products - home and power users. For each, to defuse any complexity, devise two scripts (similar to Clientzone) to enable clients to "roll their own". Consumption and priority would be amongst the ingredients. Clients "roll their own" by specifying their requirements (expectations?). Power users would have more choices.

I'm sure this is something that a few users would really love, and I'm sure our team can build this - but not sure if everyone would use this? Or want to setup their accounts "from scratch" if you want to call it that.
We'd prefer keeping our product matrix as simple and clear cut as possible.

 

[AfriGuy]

Completely agree- As far as i know there weren't any people complaining about afrihost service a year ago. They built a great rep and experienced huge subscriber growth. So instead of increasing capacity to keep up with demand they realised they could rather strangle connections of their high end users (keeping all the everyday users who don't know what shaping is happy) and keep capacity low and get a little more profit. Seems like exactly the same thing that MWEB did last year.

Don't think it's fair to say we haven't kept up
Honestly, I've lost count how many times we've upgraded capacity for all regions. It isn't sustainable (at the price point we offer Uncapped DSL) to keep upgrading. This also isn't a particularly good way of managing the network

 

[Sinbad]

Even on the previous method of shaping, P2P and downloads where still pretty limited during peak hours. I think we're trying to find a balance here to keep realtime services excellent - this wasn't really the case previously. But as AfriMan says, we're still collecting a whole stack of data to see what'll work

Not by my recollection.

 

[AfriGuy]

You guys are fighting a losing battle! LOTS of us have already tried to reason/fight with Afrihost, but the corporate machine will just keep on churning, regardless of the loss of reputation or income. I personally know 12 people who have left Afrihost this month alone. If that doesn't raise an eyebrow, then I don't know what will. I guess they're facing a massive attrition rate this month, but the full effects will only be felt on the 25th, when the billing cycle starts.

I'm interested to see if AH will change their tune in the next month or so, when the CEO's and Board realise they they wont reach turnover targets and their bonus's are on the line...

We've always been on our clients side, and always will
The shaping at the moment is in testing, we need to collect enough data to make an informed decision.

 

[Chevron]

I'm sure this is something that a few users would really love, and I'm sure our team can build this - but not sure if everyone would use this? Or want to setup their accounts "from scratch" if you want to call it that.
We'd prefer keeping our product matrix as simple and clear cut as possible.

I think you need to rename your business packages or come up with a power user package that prices between home and business that has minimum shaping limits. eg never worse than 50%/50% regardless of time of day.

Power users really shouldn't be on the home package when when we recommend business they are a home user not a business.

You would need a cool name though.

Home premium ala mweb could work but has bad connotations.

 

[AfriGuy]

I think you need to rename your business packages or come up with a power user package that prices between home and business that has minimum shaping limits. eg never worse than 50%/50% regardless of time of day.

Power users really shouldn't be on the home package when when we recommend business they are a home user not a business.

You would need a cool name though.

Home premium ala mweb could work but has bad connotations.

I think the naming convention on the accounts are staying the same, you don't really need to be a Business to have a Business account

 

[OrbitalDawn]

I think you need to rename your business packages or come up with a power user package that prices between home and business that has minimum shaping limits. eg never worse than 50%/50% regardless of time of day.

Power users really shouldn't be on the home package when when we recommend business they are a home user not a business.

You would need a cool name though.

Home premium ala mweb could work but has bad connotations.

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.

 

[AthenianOwl]

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.

+11111111111111111111111111111111111111

 

[marduke]

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.

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.

 

[Bl1zz4rd]

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.

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.

 

[HapticSimian]

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.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

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.

Far as I'm concerned this whole new policy is flippant and dismissive in the extreme.

 

[Heisenborg]

Openweb 2.0

By the way, the idiot that dreamed up the turbocharge thing should be hung in a public place