Afrihost Uncapped ADSL Feedback

[JerryMungo]

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2433875287.png

This SUCS

Who else shares your line?

 

[bradlesliect]

Who else shares your line?

nobody else...single user.

Tried diff AH accounts. Same result. Can understand if it were P2P but this is HTTP? Unless speedtest uses a diff protocol?

AH Support line closes at 3PM - how convenient. Other alternative for support is email or SMS.

Wonder is this is local to CTN only or all parts of country?

 

[bradlesliect]

WHOAH!

My DL and UL speed is now the same? this via HTTP?!! 4k!!!

 

[Grubscrew]

Tried to download a rom for my phone 150mb file nothing fancy. The best I got was 5Kb/s then it timed out. Switched over to my Telkom account and boom full line speed. Explain that to me.

 

[bradlesliect]

So I'm not alone...

Just used an acc from another ISP. ITS FLYING ALONG! Getting my full speed local and INT

 

[waz7710]

I've always given Afrihost the benefit of the doubt as they have great customer relations and great ideas but this is the general speeds I have been attaining since last week, and there is nothing wrong on my side.
Your Latest Results
Test conducted on 1/14/2013 6:19:12 AM

Download Speed: 677 kbps (84.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 193 kbps (24.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 242 ms

I cant even work on this

 

[AfriMan]

Good morning guys

Looks like we had a few slow downloads this weekend. Our system tried to give max download capacity for uncapped accounts as possible, but demand was very high. We're looking at how we can make the QoS management more subtle and reactive to get as much bandwidth usage out as possible, but we must always protect the network from latency and high pings, which will make real time services very difficult to work with.

I see someone asked if I have given up, so I take that to mean they haven't seen any posts from me. I've said it many time, please drop me a PM if you have a question, I'm always available to answer. Also the question of being oversubscribed comes up now and again. We made sure that when we moved to MTN we ordered more IPC than we had previously EVER used in highest month. However, usage patterns and behaviour changed in a way that we did not anticipate, and the capacity seemed to run out quickly. We had made the decision to move away from throttling long before the move, and we decided to stick with that plan, as we felt that it would deliver the best overall experience, but we ordered the additional capacity as soon as we realised we would run into these problem. Unfortunately, we've had to wait for Telkom to deliver, which they will hopefully do in the coming weeks.

If there's any other questions that you want answered, you can always send me a PM, I'm happy to answer any queries about how the QoS system works and where we are headed with our network upgrades.

 

[Grubscrew]

I am pretty sure when we go back there in this thread there was something said along the lines of 150gb a month on a 1mb line and 250gb on a 4mb line. I can't recall the exact words, will somebody mind having a look.

 

[Sinbad]

That was the old policy of threshold based throttling, which AH are trying to move away from.

 

[bradlesliect]

Good morning guys

Looks like we had a few slow downloads this weekend. Our system tried to give max download capacity for uncapped accounts as possible, but demand was very high. We're looking at how we can make the QoS management more subtle and reactive to get as much bandwidth usage out as possible, but we must always protect the network from latency and high pings, which will make real time services very difficult to work with.

I see someone asked if I have given up, so I take that to mean they haven't seen any posts from me. I've said it many time, please drop me a PM if you have a question, I'm always available to answer. Also the question of being oversubscribed comes up now and again. We made sure that when we moved to MTN we ordered more IPC than we had previously EVER used in highest month. However, usage patterns and behaviour changed in a way that we did not anticipate, and the capacity seemed to run out quickly. We had made the decision to move away from throttling long before the move, and we decided to stick with that plan, as we felt that it would deliver the best overall experience, but we ordered the additional capacity as soon as we realised we would run into these problem. Unfortunately, we've had to wait for Telkom to deliver, which they will hopefully do in the coming weeks.

If there's any other questions that you want answered, you can always send me a PM, I'm happy to answer any queries about how the QoS system works and where we are headed with our network upgrades.

Morning AfriMan.....HE LIVES!

At the of being screamed at...I do find it too much of a coincidence that whenever the forum is BUSTLING with complaints and requests for answers, you nowhere to be found?

"Slow downloads" - If memory serves...this started before the weekend already? It was not only happening with uncapped but capped accounts too.

PM to you - Not sure about others, but I personally would use PM as last resort. Reason is that if you picking up a PM, should you not be receiving notifications for the forum as well? Also, forum postings is to share experience, knowledge and exchange ideas. IMHO...this is all about customer eccentricity.

What is very annoying and disconcerting is that your guys at your HD either don't know what's going on, cannot escalate, don't know where to start troubleshooting except to test your modem(this is internet support 101) but don't have the tools available to check your network, where the latency might be, collate the complaints to see if its coming from one particular geographical area or network entry point and then escalate this to 2nd level support?

Where are the days when Internet CSC Techs used stuff like ping, nslookup, traceroute, dns resolution, etc? Instead, they say..."No, everything is fine my side." Of course it will be! You are directly connected to the network! The bottleneck could be else where and the only way to determine that is start thinking when more complaints about the same thing come in.

All the above is what I found missing in the previous ISP. It become about the money. "Management has made a business decision". Surely you have influence over this decision - showing pro's and con's?

Needless to say, I am not impressed at all. I'm really hoping that AH can redeem themselves as "ISP Of The Year" or was it just a publicity stint to fill your numbers by attracting the unsuspecting because that's all I have seen since I've read this thread. Customers moved over because of your award and automatically assume better service, stability and value for buck...but...clearly its not.

Agree, disagree, comments?

:twisted:

<End of Rant>

 

[KOPITE]

That was the old policy of threshold based throttling, which AH are trying to move away from.

but at least you knew you could use the interwebz

 

[bradlesliect]

I am pretty sure when we go back there in this thread there was something said along the lines of 150gb a month on a 1mb line and 250gb on a 4mb line. I can't recall the exact words, will somebody mind having a look.

Seen that too somewhere...

 

[bradlesliect]

That was the old policy of threshold based throttling, which AH are trying to move away from.

When it comes to the internet and how it affects your business...you either do...or your don't...not try.

 

[bradlesliect]

but at least you knew you could use the interwebz

i may be misinterpreting your response...are you saying you were down completely, had the same problem or saying that Sinbad should be grateful that "our" internet was working for browsing, email and....and....thats about it.

 

[AfriMan]

I am pretty sure when we go back there in this thread there was something said along the lines of 150gb a month on a 1mb line and 250gb on a 4mb line. I can't recall the exact words, will somebody mind having a look.

Those were limits when we did direct throttling. There are no limits now, we allocate download capacity based on what the network can handle and demand for real time services (which get priority). So the old limits posted here have no relevance whatsoever anymore.

 

[Grubscrew]

Those were limits when we did direct throttling. There are no limits now, we allocate download capacity based on what the network can handle and demand for real time services (which get priority). So the old limits posted here have no relevance whatsoever anymore.

Thanks for the reply, but what was wrong with it? Can't recall having any of the problems we are having now when we were on that one.

 

[AfriMan]

Morning AfriMan.....HE LIVES!

At the of being screamed at...I do find it too much of a coincidence that whenever the forum is BUSTLING with complaints and requests for answers, you nowhere to be found?

"Slow downloads" - If memory serves...this started before the weekend already? It was not only happening with uncapped but capped accounts too.

PM to you - Not sure about others, but I personally would use PM as last resort. Reason is that if you picking up a PM, should you not be receiving notifications for the forum as well? Also, forum postings is to share experience, knowledge and exchange ideas. IMHO...this is all about customer eccentricity.

What is very annoying and disconcerting is that your guys at your HD either don't know what's going on, cannot escalate, don't know where to start troubleshooting except to test your modem(this is internet support 101) but don't have the tools available to check your network, where the latency might be, collate the complaints to see if its coming from one particular geographical area or network entry point and then escalate this to 2nd level support?

Where are the days when Internet CSC Techs used stuff like ping, nslookup, traceroute, dns resolution, etc? Instead, they say..."No, everything is fine my side." Of course it will be! You are directly connected to the network! The bottleneck could be else where and the only way to determine that is start thinking when more complaints about the same thing come in.

All the above is what I found missing in the previous ISP. It become about the money. "Management has made a business decision". Surely you have influence over this decision - showing pro's and con's?

Needless to say, I am not impressed at all. I'm really hoping that AH can redeem themselves as "ISP Of The Year" or was it just a publicity stint to fill your numbers by attracting the unsuspecting because that's all I have seen since I've read this thread. Customers moved over because of your award and automatically assume better service, stability and value for buck...but...clearly its not.

Agree, disagree, comments?

:twisted:

<End of Rant>

I'm sorry that I can't respond to each and every complaint. When the thread blows up, it can be pages of comments, some general complaints and others are specific relating to a particular issue (which are the ones I would generally address). I have seen the posts you have made though, so I am aware of what you are talking about. I have said many times that the best way to reach me is a PM, and I can deal with your issues quickly and specifically, instead of giving a general answer, which may or may not be relevant or detailed enough.

In terms of finding latency and cause for high pings, they should be asking you for traceroutes, and to be more correct, a series of traceroutes, to find consistently long hops which are causing problems. However, it might also be good to clarify with the support technician what he means when he says "It's good on my side". What he might mean is that he can see you are authenticating correctly, your throughput settings are correct, and he cannot see any issues on your sync. I think it's easy to assume that the network is crashing, and if we as a call centre started at that point, we'd never get anywhere. We must always assume there is a specific individual issue, and then work from that basis. When we have several individuals with the same issue, and it can all be traced to the network, then we know where to look and we'll inform general users that they may run into the same problem.

We won the ISP of the Year Award for several reasons, our approach to innovation and client service, as well as our pricing and brand loyalty. If you recall, when the award was being voted, we were going through a spate of technical difficulties, on both hosting and ADSL. So it's not just about having no issues, but how you handle them and how you treat your clients, and we do believe that we stand apart. Our CEO, Gian, firmly believes that if it is within our power to help a client, we should do so at all costs. Our claim about marketing budgets being put back into better pricing is not just a PR spin, it's the absolute truth. We have continued to be a market leader in pricing, and we daily make decisions that probably make bad "business" sense, but make great client service sense (as in we go the extra mile for our clients, even when it puts us in the red). We're all about our clients, because when our client's win, we win. Millions of rands are being spent on upgrading the network to improve uncapped service and overall issues, and we will NOT be raising prices to recover this. Surely that is proof enough that we are dedicated to delivering service, and not accumulating money.

 

[AfriMan]

Thanks for the reply, but what was wrong with it? Can't recall having any of the problems we are having now when we were on that one.

While you may not have had an issue, we had many unhappy clients being throttled to the point where internet was basically useless and they were forced to use back-up capped accounts. While some ISP's might think this is good business to get more money, we felt it was not the best service we could deliver. We wanted a better system that could dynamically give as much as possible, while ensuring a premium real time experience at all times. So maybe torrents are in the toilet, but we didn't want our client to have to spend more money just to check their email and surf a few websites, as well as being able to game, stream and use VoIP.

 

[AfriMan]

When it comes to the internet and how it affects your business...you either do...or your don't...not try.

We have moved away from throttling, hence the threshold limits which are mentioned much earlier in this thread have no relevance whatsoever.

 

[bradlesliect]

Thanks for feedback Afriman. Apologies if this came across as an attack - not my intention at all. The tech should have asked customr for traceroutes, pings, etc but didn't?

When I call in, i check here first nd then call. So in my defense, i make no assumptions. Not sure if ur techs are trained but surely there is a "script" or rather set of FAQ that is followed? On times that i calld, ur techs were all over the place.