Afrihost Uncapped ADSL Feedback

[MrGray]

Peak period shaping sucks, but at least you get informed and are not left guessing.

It's a bad joke that this is still what passes for "broadband" in SA.

 

[AfriGuy]

Just a warning to anyone coming to this thread to determine if Afrihost's 4mbps uncapped deal is any good - this is Afrihost's idea of "uncapped" - use ~80GB and get effectively [-]capped[/-]throttled to virtually zip throughput:

Yes, that's right folks, not even close to 100Gb and you'll be sailing along at 18.8% of your theoretical line speed (if you're lucky) and forget about any P2P stuff.

Just want to confirm with this, we'll only ever shape P2P - your realtime services like streaming, browsing etc will stay untouched.

 

[BarnettE]

Sign up a Free GB so you can see how our network performs before you make your decision

I have been getting poor performance with Telkom Internet, so I signed up for the free GB account to test it. Yesterday for example I tried to download a file from dropbox.com using my normal Telkom Internet account and got 20kByte/s. Then I connected with the Afrihost free account and got 210kByte/s. Changing back to my Telkom Internet account it was back at 20kByte/s. I have tried everything I can to get Telkom to fix this problem, but I give up.

So my question is, what type of Afrihost account must I sign up for to get the same performance as the Free GB account, ALL the time? (I have a 2MBit ADSL line and use about 8-12 GByte per month.) I work from home, so what I really want is something that works reliably and consistently.

 

[Gatecrasher]

I have been getting poor performance with Telkom Internet, so I signed up for the free GB account to test it. Yesterday for example I tried to download a file from dropbox.com using my normal Telkom Internet account and got 20kByte/s. Then I connected with the Afrihost free account and got 210kByte/s. Changing back to my Telkom Internet account it was back at 20kByte/s. I have tried everything I can to get Telkom to fix this problem, but I give up.

Wow, sounds like Telkom has mistaken me for one of their clients.

 

[MrGray]

It depends on which IPC you are routed through. If you're in Cape Town, we shape pretty much from about 8-9am until around 11 to midnight, in varying degrees according to the demand. You can always check your ClientZone to see how you are being shaped. Generally, between midnight and 8-9am, there is no shaping applied (depending on usage at that point in time). We look at this on a 24 hour cycle, in terms of usage, so for about a third of the day (roughly 30%) we're not shaping, and we're seeing minimal traffic on the IPC.

Remember that we only shape non-real time services. Unlike throttling that rate limits your throughput on all services, we give priority to browsing, gaming, streaming, etc. You always get full line speed available on your realtime services (provided you are not running torrents, etc in the background.

Wait, WTF! I haven't been following this thread for a while, but please update me on this latest Afrihost policy fail - you throttle differently depending on which city your user is in? Seriously now, wtf? Are you saying that my Durban R1 is not the same as my Joburg R1 or my Cape Town R1??

Come off it. That's ridiculous. You need to adjust capacity to the region and set the same policy everywhere. Better yet, stop trying to screw max revenue out of us with your silly social engineering policies and either set the price for a proper level of service or not offer it at all without all these idiotic little "turboboosts" and dynamic throttling punishment levels, etc. FFS, this is like grade school where you get sent to the corner if you use a little too much bandwith. You've been very clever in implementing these policies gradually and with flashy slick dashboard displays so that the sheeple have acquiesced without even realising what an absurd crock of shyte this all is, but really everyone, take a step back and look at how you're being manipulated into thinking that 30kbps is a great download speed at 7pm because you can always buy a turboboost and maybe it won't be so throttled at 1am instead. Anyone from a halfway civilised country will think this is utterly hilarious.

 

[jannier]

I have been getting poor performance with Telkom Internet, so I signed up for the free GB account to test it. Yesterday for example I tried to download a file from dropbox.com using my normal Telkom Internet account and got 20kByte/s. Then I connected with the Afrihost free account and got 210kByte/s. Changing back to my Telkom Internet account it was back at 20kByte/s. I have tried everything I can to get Telkom to fix this problem, but I give up.

So my question is, what type of Afrihost account must I sign up for to get the same performance as the Free GB account, ALL the time? (I have a 2MBit ADSL line and use about 8-12 GByte per month.) I work from home, so what I really want is something that works reliably and consistently.

Maybe something like this, you also get 15GB FREE, PROMO till end July.
https://clientzone.afrihost.com/get-connected/206

 

[Spyk3r]

Wait, WTF! I haven't been following this thread for a while, but please update me on this latest Afrihost policy fail - you throttle differently depending on which city your user is in? Seriously now, wtf? Are you saying that my Durban R1 is not the same as my Joburg R1 or my Cape Town R1??

Come off it. That's ridiculous. You need to adjust capacity to the region and set the same policy everywhere. Better yet, stop trying to screw max revenue out of us with your silly social engineering policies and either set the price for a proper level of service or not offer it at all without all these idiotic little "turboboosts" and dynamic throttling punishment levels, etc. FFS, this is like grade school where you get sent to the corner if you use a little too much bandwith. You've been very clever in implementing these policies gradually and with flashy slick dashboard displays so that the sheeple have acquiesced without even realising what an absurd crock of shyte this all is, but really everyone, take a step back and look at how you're being manipulated into thinking that 30kbps is a great download speed at 7pm because you can always buy a turboboost and maybe it won't be so throttled at 1am instead. Anyone from a halfway civilised country will think this is utterly hilarious.

I don't think it is a secret that Jhb has 8gbps, Cpt has 3gbps and Durbs has 2gbps.

Surely you don't expect Afrihost to reroute you simply because the 3gbps is currently being used close to maximum capacity. I for one would be p'd off if they decided to do that...

What I think could happen though is that Afrihost could upgrade the Cpt IPC to 4/5gbps... That would definitely help.

I have it on good authority that the okes in Durban are at the beach more than in front of their computers. They seem to be barely using the 2gbps ipc that they were initially allocated.

I have changed my 4mbps home uncapped to the 2mbps business uncapped and get full 2mbps permanently. Perhaps consider that if you don't like the shaping on P2P or downloads?

 

[Spyk3r]

Maybe something like this, you also get 15GB FREE, PROMO till end July.
https://clientzone.afrihost.com/get-connected/206

I see what you did there

 

[BarnettE]

Maybe something like this, you also get 15GB FREE, PROMO till end July.

Do these capped packages perform the same as 1GB Free account? Or do I need to sign up for one of the business accounts?

I don't think it is a secret that Jhb has 8gbps, Cpt has 3gbps and Durbs has 2gbps.

What I think could happen though is that Afrihost could upgrade the Cpt IPC to 4/5gbps... That would definitely help.

Why, is there a problem with Cape Town?

 

[roadcat]

This is pathetic. I'm sorry, but this is the final straw for me. I put up months of problems, but I now sit at my computer having to buy gigs from your COMPETITOR just so I can download an attachment off an HTTP source and not wait 5 hours for completion.

View attachment 56445

Interesting - and I am on CT IPC as well

 

[Spyk3r]

Do these capped packages perform the same as 1GB Free account? Or do I need to sign up for one of the business accounts?



Why, is there a problem with Cape Town?

The capped accounts perform the same as the trial. maybe even better since there are more gigs

There isn't a problem with Cape Town, I think Afrihost just underestimated the uptake in CT. I would imagine they are running at an average of 75% utilisation...

 

[jannier]

Do these capped packages perform the same as 1GB Free account? Or do I need to sign up for one of the business accounts?



Why, is there a problem with Cape Town?

You get what you pay for!!

Capped and business uncapped performce the same as the free 1GB Trail account.
But why would you want to pay double if you only going to us 12GB?

There is nothing wrong with cape town, the home uncapped people just squeal because they get shaped on downloads and p2p torrents when the IPC nears capacity, hence my first statement.

Capped and business uncapped is unshaped and priorotised bandwidth 24/7

 

[BarnettE]

You get what you pay for!!

Capped and business uncapped performce the same as the free 1GB Trail account.
But why would you want to pay double if you only going to us 12GB?

If the "business" packages are more reliable then I am prepared to pay more for that. But from what you are saying it sounds like it is all the same.

Thanks.

 

[Afrigirl]

I have been getting poor performance with Telkom Internet, so I signed up for the free GB account to test it. Yesterday for example I tried to download a file from dropbox.com using my normal Telkom Internet account and got 20kByte/s. Then I connected with the Afrihost free account and got 210kByte/s. Changing back to my Telkom Internet account it was back at 20kByte/s. I have tried everything I can to get Telkom to fix this problem, but I give up.

So my question is, what type of Afrihost account must I sign up for to get the same performance as the Free GB account, ALL the time? (I have a 2MBit ADSL line and use about 8-12 GByte per month.) I work from home, so what I really want is something that works reliably and consistently.

Hi, it looks like others have already responded to your question but just to confirm. Our Capped and Business DSL packages are unshaped, day or night. Your choice will depend on your budget, if you're certain you use between 8-12 GB a month, 15GB Capped account will cost you R190pm (minus the line) and you're able to top-up should you run out of data.

 

[Afrigirl]

This is pathetic. I'm sorry, but this is the final straw for me. I put up months of problems, but I now sit at my computer having to buy gigs from your COMPETITOR just so I can download an attachment off an HTTP source and not wait 5 hours for completion.

View attachment 56445

Sorry to see that you've reached breaking point. Could I ask you to give us one last chance? Our shaping policy is clearly laid out in our AUP, http downloads are shaped but there could be other factors involved. Please private message us your contact details.

 

[jannier]

If the "business" packages are more reliable then I am prepared to pay more for that. But from what you are saying it sounds like it is all the same.

Thanks.

You welcome.

If you start to consume more bandwidth, and you want to keep getting quality bandwidth like you will get with capped, then just upgrade to a business uncapped.

 

[Afrigirl]

Yup, I can definitely attest to the fact that I'm not shaped on youtube and gaming, but... If I try to download anything (currently downloading PlayOn setup 33mb at 30kb/sec) it's really terrible. If you are shaping 70% of the time, don't you think it's time to upgrade capacity? My understanding is that the shaping was only to kick in when the network was under particularly heavy load, not all the time.

I understand that you're massively underutilised 30% of the time, but 70% of the time you're over utilised. Or am I misunderstanding something?

Someone mentioned many pages ago, it's like Sanral building 10 lane freeways to cope with peak hour traffic but during non-peak times, the 10 lanes are abandoned. The time will come when we do upgrade the IPC but that time hasn't come yet. We just ask that people schedule their downloads in the early hours of the morning, when usage significantly drops and shaping is more laxed.

 

[Afrigirl]

That has been done several times. And I get the same results on a different computer, a different router, and with a different ISP. Individual connections get throttled as soon they go above 20kB/s. Consistently every time. I can get full line speed if I have enough 20kB/s connections! But that is not much use for live streaming, youtube, regular downloads, etc.

The deplorable state of my ADSL line is an outstanding ticket. I'm starting to regret bundling my line with Afrihost. At least when I was paying Telkom directly I could phone them, get a reference number, some feedback and a generally quick resolution to any line issues I had. Now all I'm getting are pretty words, promises and advertising slogans. Meanwhile, the disaster that is my ADSL line continues with no end in sight. I'm still waiting for some tangible feedback that something is being done to fix it.

Please give us the ticket reference number and I can follow up regarding your ADSL line.

 

[Grim|Reaper]

Sorry to see that you've reached breaking point. Could I ask you to give us one last chance? Our shaping policy is clearly laid out in our AUP, http downloads are shaped but there could be other factors involved. Please private message us your contact details.

I'm prepared to stay on a month longer, but I'm unhappy when I see that I'm been shaped so heavily based on doing just 30+ gigs a month? P2P shaping is irrelevant in this case.

I can understand the demand during the hours noted, I can live with 75% downloads shaped, or even 60% shaped. But when I see 25% of my line speed - that is very frustrating. This is going on for over a week. The only thing I can really do with my account is watch Youtube (since its prioritized).

This comes down to my cost vs benefit for my internet usage. Right now, there is not benefit :-/

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

Hi, it looks like others have already responded to your question but just to confirm. Our Capped and Business DSL packages are unshaped, day or night. Your choice will depend on your budget, if you're certain you use between 8-12 GB a month, 15GB Capped account will cost you R190pm (minus the line) and you're able to top-up should you run out of data.

I saw its R100 more to go for the business uncapped, I'm going to upgrade to that as the 1Mbps uncapped sucks donkey gonads big time.

Last night I was at 12.5% for my P2P and thats for Humble Bundle games I legally bought, did the turbo boost thingy and was running like it should . Gladly pay more to get those speeds when I need them.