Afrihost Uncapped ADSL Feedback

[nerf]

Hi Afriman, if I want to change my account from 4 mbps consumer uncapped to 6 mbps business uncapped , can it be done instantly or must I wait for the first of the month ?

Telkom tech broke my line and when they fixed it my line is better than before

 

[Kwerty]

I was thinking of changing to Afrihost to save a couple of bucks a month but all this shaping seems pretty harsh to me.

I think I'll stay with my current ISP. You get what you pay for, I guess.

 

[Afrigirl]

Hi Afriman, if I want to change my account from 4 mbps consumer uncapped to 6 mbps business uncapped , can it be done instantly or must I wait for the first of the month ?

Telkom tech broke my line and when they fixed it my line is better than before

Package upgrades are instant, whereas downgrades only go into effect at the end of the month. In this case you'll be upgrading but you'll be charged pro rata until the end of the month.

 

[jannier]

Fair but where does the additional capacity from Turbocharges come from? If shaping is applied at capacity fulled IPC's and we use Turbocharges to bypass the shaping then there should be additional capacity without having to pay.

And this is the South African response..."If you don't want shaping then get Capped or Business Uncapped"
That wasn't the question but thanx anyway.

There is nothing sinister!
When IPC is at capacity, I can see my line speed drops from full speed 900+Kbs to 600-700Kbps, so my business bandwidth goes for your turbo boost!

 

[AfriMan]

Fair but where does the additional capacity from Turbocharges come from? If shaping is applied at capacity fulled IPC's and we use Turbocharges to bypass the shaping then there should be additional capacity without having to pay.

And this is the South African response..."If you don't want shaping then get Capped or Business Uncapped"
That wasn't the question but thanx anyway.

Remember that Turbocharge doesn't create extra capacity, it just temporarily changes your profile/policy to the Unshaped policy, which removes the shaping on your profile. It's all happening dynamically, and it creates a much more responsive and fair system. Instead of being stuck without the speeds you want, you get a window to make sure you can get speed when you need it. Shaping is ultimately there for a reason, to protect the network for the good of the network, but also to make sure that you always get a good experience no matter how much demand increases. While other ISPs shape by contention, i.e. everybody grabs what they can, and some grab the lion's share, while the average consumer is stuck with the scraps; our system makes sure that everyone gets a fair share of the bandwidth available, and every product we offer has the ability, in one way or another, to get the bandwidth and speeds they need, when they need it.

That's the idea anyway

 

[AfriMan]

Getting shaped to 6.25% p2p and 18.8% download which is rather ridiculous, shaping below 50% is harsh this is next level.. at least I can stream

That's the idea. We shape to preserve the core services, so that internet is always useable, as opposed to throttling where browsing and streaming are like pulling teeth (as with throttling systems which a few other ISPs still use). It's better to be shaped and have useable internet at all times than to shape than have high contention, where service becomes unpredictable and ultimately awful.

 

[PsyWulf]

IDD,I can live with shaping when my On-demand services work fine

 

[blunt]

That's the idea. We shape to preserve the core services, so that internet is always useable, as opposed to throttling where browsing and streaming are like pulling teeth (as with throttling systems which a few other ISPs still use). It's better to be shaped and have useable internet at all times than to shape than have high contention, where service becomes unpredictable and ultimately awful.

Doesnt the fact that you need to shape someone down to 6.25% of their line speed kinda warrant an IPC upgrade? Thats 256kbit on a 4096kbit line.

I can live with the P2P and download shaping - as long as my realtime is fine, just wondering whether the need to shape so low means that the IPC cant take the pace.

 

[PsyWulf]

Doesnt the fact that you need to shape someone down to 6.25% of their line speed kinda warrant an IPC upgrade? Thats 256kbit on a 4096kbit line.

If it reaches the point realtime services suffer yes IPC upgrades,but spending that kind of time,resources and bucks just to allow people higher speed on a shared and contested service would be nice for p2p,but not sensible. You know the stats where x-5% of the ADSL userbase uses 90% of the bandwidth type of thing

 

[Bufamotis]

AfriMan, I have a blinking envelope everytime I log into clientzone, but when I click on it, it says no notices. Is it normal for the envelope to blink and shine without any messages or notices pending?

 

[pgs]

AfriMan, I have a blinking envelope everytime I log into clientzone, but when I click on it, it says no notices. Is it normal for the envelope to blink and shine without any messages or notices pending?

Me too! Who cares! Not me

 

[NarcoticJ]

There is nothing sinister!
When IPC is at capacity, I can see my line speed drops from full speed 900+Kbs to 600-700Kbps, so my business bandwidth goes for your turbo boost!

Yeah your probably right I work abroad half the year so maybe this is normal SA governments and Companies are some of the most honest institutions in the world I guess.
But that's my point what Afriman said Turbo Boosts doesn't create extra capacity. So when a IPC is fulled to capacity the new dynamic systems enforces shaping protocols right? "For the good of the network" What if 50% of that IPC's customers buy a turbo boost....? What happens then? That was my question where does that "reserve" capacity that everyone is then using from Turbo boosting come from?
Sorry I sound like a conspiracy nut just really wondering....I'm off to go make myself a tin foil hat

 

[blunt]

If it reaches the point realtime services suffer yes IPC upgrades,but spending that kind of time,resources and bucks just to allow people higher speed on a shared and contested service would be nice for p2p,but not sensible. You know the stats where x-5% of the ADSL userbase uses 90% of the bandwidth type of thing

Fair point.

I do prefer the shaping policy of making realtime services 100% speed; that way the download hogs don't cause standard users to suffer.

Dont worry Afrihost, I still <3 you

 

[AfriMan]

AfriMan, I have a blinking envelope everytime I log into clientzone, but when I click on it, it says no notices. Is it normal for the envelope to blink and shine without any messages or notices pending?

Please drop me a mail with a screenshot and your username (for CZ) at [email protected], and I'll check this out with our Dev Team.

 

[AfriMan]

Yeah your probably right I work abroad half the year so maybe this is normal SA governments and Companies are some of the most honest institutions in the world I guess.
But that's my point what Afriman said Turbo Boosts doesn't create extra capacity. So when a IPC is fulled to capacity the new dynamic systems enforces shaping protocols right? "For the good of the network" What if 50% of that IPC's customers buy a turbo boost....? What happens then? That was my question where does that "reserve" capacity that everyone is then using from Turbo boosting come from?
Sorry I sound like a conspiracy nut just really wondering....I'm off to go make myself a tin foil hat

We do extensive analysis of the trends and usage periods, so we wouldn't offer something like Turbocharge without being sure that we could do so without creating unreasonable strain on the network. remember, we also give away free sessions, so we're not using payment to make Turbocharge an exclusive feature. We're pretty happy for anyone to use the feature, whenever they want.

Adding more IPC is not a simple exercise. Firstly, there is a waiting period from Telkom, and secondly it involves major costs. We also need to look at the period that bandwidth demand is high vs bandwidth demand over a 24 hour period. What we see is that for for 80% of the day (including overnight and early morning) we are relatively unshaped. We want to encourage users, especially torrenters and file sharers, to make use of the extra capacity during this time, so we can relieve demand and also make sure that everyone can get as much bandwidth as the network can allow.

 

[Bufamotis]

Please drop me a mail with a screenshot and your username (for CZ) at [email protected], and I'll check this out with our Dev Team.

Email sent. The blinking closed envelope has been like that for months now, I don't know if it signifies pending messages, notices or something else.

At least the account is always up to date so that's not an issue

 

[AfriMan]

Email sent. The blinking closed envelope has been like that for months now, I don't know if it signifies pending messages, notices or something else.

At least the account is always up to date so that's not an issue

There's definitely an issue there, recreated it my CZ as well. We should have it sorted very quickly

 

[Bar_Rat]

Hi Afriman

How hard is it to change my line back to telkom from AH?

 

[Zertop]

Surely that's a bit extreme for a 10Meg Uncapped Account 16 days into the month?

 

[Bar_Rat]

Surely that's a bit extreme for a 10Meg Uncapped Account 16 days into the month?

Mines shaped to 75%

Really unhappy with AH.