Afrihost Uncapped ADSL Feedback

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Hey AfriMan

I'm getting some pretty erratic download speeds on steam. It bounces between 200 to 400kbs.

Is there any particular server I should connect to make it more stable?
 
Zertop said:
As it says - you need ie 10 and above for it to work.
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If you remove the en in the browser URL, it should go to the old clientzone. After that, it should always default to the last version you used, which is stored in a cookie somewhere.

If not, drop me a PM and I'll see what we can do from our side :)
 
ainsin said:
Hey AfriMan

I'm getting some pretty erratic download speeds on steam. It bounces between 200 to 400kbs.

Is there any particular server I should connect to make it more stable?
Click to expand...

Are you getting erratic results on other services like speedtest and other downloads?

Drop me a PM so we can help :)
 
Tiny3001 said:
Okay, first tests done.

Came home at 4:30PM, did 5 back-to-back speed tests. Looks good, averaging out at 0.8Mbps. Happy so far!

Test Youtube streaming... hmmm, can't stream a 240p video... Not good :cry:

Okay, secound round of speedtests after 5PM (about 5:40PM). The same tests are averaging out at about 0.45Mbps.

Finally, a round of tests from speedtests on international servers? Choosing a random server in the UK, 5 tests (after 6PM) averaged out at: 0.09Mbps

So there's my problem. International is atrocious. Maybe compounded by over-saturated exchanges after hours? Is this problem Seacom or EASSY related? Or maybe since the switch to MTN Business as the backbone, international hasn't been too great? I don't know, I switched over very recently from iBurst over to Afrihost ADSL, and I gotta tell you people, on iBurst, I could at least stream 360p on a good day. Haven't been able to do this since the switch to Afrihost ADSL.

At least your support is good, so, just waiting for final feedback on my ticket.
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Didn't receive feedback on my ticket last night. After 10PM, international was basically dead. So far, not entirely happy with my brand-spanking new ADSL connection. Not quite sure where to place the blame though, Afrihost, MTN Business or Telkom?
 
Tiny3001 said:
Didn't receive feedback on my ticket last night. After 10PM, international was basically dead. So far, not entirely happy with my brand-spanking new ADSL connection. Not quite sure where to place the blame though, Afrihost, MTN Business or Telkom?
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Sorry that you did not get feedback on this. It's difficult to say what the issue is from your post. We definitely not running out of international capacity, but if local is perfect and international is crappy, then there's definitely something strange going on.

Please drop me a PM with your details so we can get some testing going and see exactly what's going on :(
 
Hi Folks/Afrihost team.

Firstly - thanks for the great service thus far, I have signed up for a 1MB uncapped home account and I sincerely hope that the product is as good as the service.

I have a couple of question/concerns regarding AH and my bundle.

My Bundle: I have opted to the 1MB uncapped bundle. After going through this thread, I am very skeptical about what I can expect. I saw a post on this forum where it was stated "It sucks donkeys balls". As a general rule, I stay away from anything that sucks donkeys balls.
If it helps, I need my ADSL mainly for VPN and a download here and there.

Shaping Correct me if I am wrong, P2P(Torrents) & HTTP downloads are shaped only when the need arises to do so and this will never ever happen after hours (between midnight and 6am). Also, when shaping does happen, it will never affect my normal browsing?
If I download 10GB in 20 days, am I just as susceptible to shaping as someone who has downloaded 100GB in 20 days on the same bundle?

Options I have been looking at the business uncapped bundles and from what I understand, these are never ever shaped under any circumstances? Can anyone on this thread vouch for this and please provide me with how your experience has been with moving from home uncapped to business uncapped.

Location I live in Cape Town, based on what I've seen on this forum, this could potentially be a problem. Should I be worried about this?

Any help is appreciated

Regards
 
rhodad said:
Hi Folks/Afrihost team.

Firstly - thanks for the great service thus far, I have signed up for a 1MB uncapped home account and I sincerely hope that the product is as good as the service.

I have a couple of question/concerns regarding AH and my bundle.

My Bundle: I have opted to the 1MB uncapped bundle. After going through this thread, I am very skeptical about what I can expect. I saw a post on this forum where it was stated "It sucks donkeys balls". As a general rule, I stay away from anything that sucks donkeys balls.
If it helps, I need my ADSL mainly for VPN and a download here and there.

Shaping Correct me if I am wrong, P2P(Torrents) & HTTP downloads are shaped only when the need arises to do so and this will never ever happen after hours (between midnight and 6am). Also, when shaping does happen, it will never affect my normal browsing?
If I download 10GB in 20 days, am I just as susceptible to shaping as someone who has downloaded 100GB in 20 days on the same bundle?

Options I have been looking at the business uncapped bundles and from what I understand, these are never ever shaped under any circumstances? Can anyone on this thread vouch for this and please provide me with how your experience has been with moving from home uncapped to business uncapped.

Location I live in Cape Town, based on what I've seen on this forum, this could potentially be a problem. Should I be worried about this?

Any help is appreciated

Regards
Click to expand...

Some good questions, hopefully I can answers these all fully (but feel free to ask away)

1Mbps is a great package for home browsing and even light gaming, but otherwise, it may not handle other applications, especially if you plan to run multiple devices on the network. VPN especially, depending on the setup, can be finicky, so you always want to go for the best speed your budget can handle. I couldn't say it sucks donkey balls, but there could be some issues. Especially if there is local exchange congestion and your throughput is less than ideal.

We don't shape according to any other factor that demand vs available capacity. It's not time or usage based, purely on the activity and demand on the local IPC at any given point in time. The idea behind this is to keep as many clients unshaped (or as lightly shaped as possible) for the maximum amount of time that the network can allow, based on the current demand. However, between midniight and 6-8am, there is generally so little traffic that the network is generally unshaped in all regions.

Business DSL is never shaped, and neither are any of our capped DSL products.

Cape Town has been recently shaped much more than other IPCs on our network. This is mainly due to the heavy demand during the day and early evening. However, this only affects "Home" Uncapped products, and Business and Capped DSL is never shaped at any point.
 
AfriMan said:
Some good questions, hopefully I can answers these all fully (but feel free to ask away)

1Mbps is a great package for home browsing and even light gaming, but otherwise, it may not handle other applications, especially if you plan to run multiple devices on the network. VPN especially, depending on the setup, can be finicky, so you always want to go for the best speed your budget can handle. I couldn't say it sucks donkey balls, but there could be some issues. Especially if there is local exchange congestion and your throughput is less than ideal.

We don't shape according to any other factor that demand vs available capacity. It's not time or usage based, purely on the activity and demand on the local IPC at any given point in time. The idea behind this is to keep as many clients unshaped (or as lightly shaped as possible) for the maximum amount of time that the network can allow, based on the current demand. However, between midniight and 6-8am, there is generally so little traffic that the network is generally unshaped in all regions.

Business DSL is never shaped, and neither are any of our capped DSL products.

Cape Town has been recently shaped much more than other IPCs on our network. This is mainly due to the heavy demand during the day and early evening. However, this only affects "Home" Uncapped products, and Business and Capped DSL is never shaped at any point.
Click to expand...

Thanks - I appreciate the response and honesty

As far as multiple devices, this is not a concern for me as I am the only one that will be using the ADSL and my computer is the only device that will ever be connected to it.

"VPN especially, depending on the setup, can be finicky"
Can you elaborate on this? This is my biggest concern..

"Business DSL is never shaped, and neither are any of our capped DSL products."
Is this 100% true? I've been reading the forum dedicated to Afrihost business uncapped and it seems that it can still be shaped if AH deems necessary, it is stated that AH reserves the right to do so.

Thanks
 
rhodad said:
Thanks - I appreciate the response and honesty

As far as multiple devices, this is not a concern for me as I am the only one that will be using the ADSL and my computer is the only device that will ever be connected to it.

"VPN especially, depending on the setup, can be finicky"
Can you elaborate on this? This is my biggest concern..

"Business DSL is never shaped, and neither are any of our capped DSL products."
Is this 100% true? I've been reading the forum dedicated to Afrihost business uncapped and it seems that it can still be shaped if AH deems necessary, it is stated that AH reserves the right to do so.

Thanks
Click to expand...

On VPN, it depends on what you are doing over VPN. If you're logging into a server and working on that server, you should generally be fine. If you've moving large amounts of data or other resource heavy activities, it may not be ideal on a 1Mbps connection. Either way, if you have no other processes running, you'll get he best possible speed on your line as a real time service.

Business absolutely 100% unshaped, all the time, guaranteed. We did initially say we may shape only when absolutely necessary, but later changed the product to unshaped all the time :)
 
AfriMan said:
On VPN, it depends on what you are doing over VPN. If you're logging into a server and working on that server, you should generally be fine. If you've moving large amounts of data or other resource heavy activities, it may not be ideal on a 1Mbps connection. Either way, if you have no other processes running, you'll get he best possible speed on your line as a real time service.

Business absolutely 100% unshaped, all the time, guaranteed. We did initially say we may shape only when absolutely necessary, but later changed the product to unshaped all the time :)
Click to expand...

Thanks

I'll probably start out with the 1MB home and see how that goes

Now, I have to wait for AH to finish my line conversion - Hopefully this will be done soon ;)
 
@AfriMan As a CPT customer of AH can you explain why there is heavy load during the day and early evenings and is the shaping due to capacity constraints when compared to your other regions?

I've just moved from a 4mb uncapped account with TI and upgraded my line to 10mb uncapped and am concerned about shaping when the main purpose for me getting ADSL is for Netflix and Hulu Plus. Another question is about when you open the torrent taps from 11pm to 7am and how that affects streaming quality on the CPT network?
 
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SL1v3R said:
@AfriMan As a CPT customer of AH can you explain why there is heavy load during the day and early evenings and is the shaping due to capacity constraints when compared to your other regions?

I've just moved from a 4mb uncapped account with TI and upgraded my line to 10mb uncapped and am concerned about shaping when the main purpose for me getting ADSL is for Netflix and Hulu Plus. Another question is about when you open the torrent taps from 11pm to 7am and how that affects streaming quality on the CPT network?
Click to expand...

I've asked AfriMan to reply tomorrow morning around the usage comparisons, still getting used to things and don't want to pass on the incorrect information :)

If you're on a Home Uncapped account we'll only ever shape the non-essential protocols. Naturally, P2P will be the one to be shaped too most of the time. Services like browsing, streaming, SSH etc won't be shaped - realtime services are always left untouched.
If/ when you're torrent'ing and you start streaming your torrents will be slowed to allow for the streaming traffic to get through.
 
Cape Town 4mbps uncapped currently running at 0.8mbps on speedtest. Haven't used much bandwidth recently IMHO and throttled to 18.8% Download/ 6.25% P2P.

Sucks eggs.
 
rhodad said:
Thanks - I appreciate the response and honesty

As far as multiple devices, this is not a concern for me as I am the only one that will be using the ADSL and my computer is the only device that will ever be connected to it.

"VPN especially, depending on the setup, can be finicky"
Can you elaborate on this? This is my biggest concern..

"Business DSL is never shaped, and neither are any of our capped DSL products."
Is this 100% true? I've been reading the forum dedicated to Afrihost business uncapped and it seems that it can still be shaped if AH deems necessary, it is stated that AH reserves the right to do so.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Hi there,

I have a business line and I can elaborate. Yes I get shaped. Its 100% a lie if afrihost claim otherwise, and I even at one point sent them a video with evidence proving it. They communicated with me up till that point then just never mailed me back. I dont think they care to be honest, since their offering is really cheap. They dont officially support vpn, since they cant shape traffic over it, so its like a best effort service. As a result, I also have trouble over traditional VPN, so much so that eventually I just gave up on pptp and had to configure openvpn traffic over obscure ports that you just guess they prioritize based on the snippets of info they post here and there. This changes though so one day youtube traffic might be good, the next http downloads. If you watch what Afrihost shape, then you can mostly figure out what encrypted streams can get past their monumentally unintelligent shaping policies, which sometimes mean any encrypted ports are shaped. Encrypted traffic is going to get lower priority on AH network, and if you dont think thats true, just do the tests yourself, with and https download vs http. Essentially its a really cheap service. I see it as a crude offering, that if you need any real reliability in the speed front look elsewhere. The actual connectivity is stable, so you at least get something, but far from what is decent. On encrypted streams to the UK via vpn on a 10 meg business I get between 1-4 meg depending on the usage in my area. International traffic is always a disaster, so if you use the service for gaming locally or something then its great, if you use it for more complicated stuff be prepared to work for it.

At the moment, despite their page showing that all systems are go, it does seem worse than normal, with about 1 meg throughput and pings over 320 when using vpn type traffic. Dropping encryption seems to make the ping at around 290 and throughput increase to 2.75 meg download. To me that is worse than normal, as over non encrypted traffic normally I get around 200ms to the uk and 7 meg, so despite the happy days that the network status page is vehemently showing, it would indicate to me there is an issue somewhere. Good luck trying to tell them that, I don't bother anymore, and let other people deal with the frustration that is send us 40 different traceroutes and tests. Occasionally I think about changing to another ISP, but since afrihost have my adsl line and everything with them, doing that is also a large amount of work so I just live with it now. If another ISP comes out with a business offering that's near the same price as AH, I will probably switch but I haven't seen one yet, they are normally around 2-3X more.

Pete
 
I used Afrihost for my 4MB Uncapped, 10day's in and I was shapped down to a 384 line. Absolutely Useless. Have been with mweb since then used in some months 100 + GB without any hassels.
 
Pete_A said:
Hi there,

I have a business line and I can elaborate. Yes I get shaped. Its 100% a lie if afrihost claim otherwise, and I even at one point sent them a video with evidence proving it. They communicated with me up till that point then just never mailed me back. I dont think they care to be honest, since their offering is really cheap. They dont officially support vpn, since they cant shape traffic over it, so its like a best effort service. As a result, I also have trouble over traditional VPN, so much so that eventually I just gave up on pptp and had to configure openvpn traffic over obscure ports that you just guess they prioritize based on the snippets of info they post here and there. This changes though so one day youtube traffic might be good, the next http downloads. If you watch what Afrihost shape, then you can mostly figure out what encrypted streams can get past their monumentally unintelligent shaping policies, which sometimes mean any encrypted ports are shaped. Encrypted traffic is going to get lower priority on AH network, and if you dont think thats true, just do the tests yourself, with and https download vs http. Essentially its a really cheap service. I see it as a crude offering, that if you need any real reliability in the speed front look elsewhere. The actual connectivity is stable, so you at least get something, but far from what is decent. On encrypted streams to the UK via vpn on a 10 meg business I get between 1-4 meg depending on the usage in my area. International traffic is always a disaster, so if you use the service for gaming locally or something then its great, if you use it for more complicated stuff be prepared to work for it.

At the moment, despite their page showing that all systems are go, it does seem worse than normal, with about 1 meg throughput and pings over 320 when using vpn type traffic. Dropping encryption seems to make the ping at around 290 and throughput increase to 2.75 meg download. To me that is worse than normal, as over non encrypted traffic normally I get around 200ms to the uk and 7 meg, so despite the happy days that the network status page is vehemently showing, it would indicate to me there is an issue somewhere. Good luck trying to tell them that, I don't bother anymore, and let other people deal with the frustration that is send us 40 different traceroutes and tests. Occasionally I think about changing to another ISP, but since afrihost have my adsl line and everything with them, doing that is also a large amount of work so I just live with it now. If another ISP comes out with a business offering that's near the same price as AH, I will probably switch but I haven't seen one yet, they are normally around 2-3X more.

Pete
Click to expand...

Thanks
This is both informative and very concerning. Why would they blatantly lie about not shaping business accounts?

I sincerely hope that I'm not getting myself into something that's gonna give me more frustrations than anything else.
 
Well, it depends how you and I define shaping. AH don't consider QOS shaping, since that is traffic "prioritization" so really it boils down to arguing semantics. Its the same grey definition of throttling which seems to be obscured with all sorts of different meanings.
 
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