-
Join the MyBroadband community
South Africa’s biggest forum. Discuss, discover, and connect with thousands of members.
-
Question of the Day: Which is the most hair-raising South African mountain pass you've driven?
Afrihost Uncapped ADSL Feedback
- Thread starter AfriMan
- Start date
- Status
So last night, for at least an hour, I was streaming Twitch.tv 360p, without any buffering. It was beautiful. Then (as luck would have it) during the final game, the buffering started... watching 30 seconds, streaming 10 seconds, and so it went on until the end of the match.
This means that the 1Mbps line is absolutely capable of streaming 360p video. What I want now is a more stable connection. Their support team is contacting me tonight, so let's see what happens
This means that the 1Mbps line is absolutely capable of streaming 360p video. What I want now is a more stable connection. Their support team is contacting me tonight, so let's see what happens
They dont shape like that, its dependant on network usage, so if there are a massive amount of people all torrenting then they scale back that traffic to allow other things like http to work. Thats why its traffic prioritization, rather than shaping. Its hidden, and difficult to know how they are doing it, and it alters if they tweak the rules etc. If your the only person on the network, then you will get your full speed, regardless of how much you download. Its when you add more people in the mix that this kind of shaping occurs. What I can say is encrypted traffic never has a very high priority. Why? Because if it did, then everyone who used P2p would dial up to a overseas vpn and get full speeds all day long on their torrents, which is considered lower priority.
- Joined
- May 18, 2011
- Messages
- 4,358
- Reaction score
- 1,603
Please feel free to private message me your username and I can see how much shaping is being applied. It shouldn't be that drastic.
- Joined
- May 18, 2011
- Messages
- 4,358
- Reaction score
- 1,603
Hello
We DON'T shape Business Uncapped. We have no reason to lie about it, please feel free to look on the package page and you'll see that we don't shape Business accounts, it's a guarantee. We also have a feature on Clientzone that allows you to monitor your account yourself and see if you're being shaped or not.
There are other factors that come into play regarding your line which isn't in our control and the most prominent issue is your local exchange. If that's congested, you'll have issues with your connection, regardless of whether we're shaping or not shaping.
- Joined
- May 18, 2011
- Messages
- 4,358
- Reaction score
- 1,603
You can find our shaping policy in our AUP.
We divide traffic into realtime and non-realtime traffic:
Instant, Realtime traffic protocols: Web browsing (HTTPS); Live Streaming (YouTube); Secure browsing (HTTPS); VOIP; Email; Terminal services (SSH)
Non-Realtime Downloading protocols: HTTP Downloads (downloading a file from your browser), Torrents (BitTorrent), News servers (NNTP)
We only shape your Non-Realtime protocols if you're on a normal Uncapped account (not Business).
- Joined
- May 18, 2011
- Messages
- 4,358
- Reaction score
- 1,603
We shape from heaviest users to lightest. You can look on our Uncapped leaderboard and see how many gigs some users use. We also start shaping when the network is under pressure- regardless of what people are doing.
We shape according to Realtime and Non-realtime protocols. Realtime activities include: Web browsing (HTTPS); Live Streaming (YouTube); Secure browsing (HTTPS); VOIP; Email; Terminal services (SSH) and Gaming
Non-realtime activities include: HTTP Downloads (downloading a file from your browser), Torrents (BitTorrent), News servers (NNTP).
We only shape the non-realtime protocols.
"We only shape the non-realtime protocols."
You see, the problem is that peoples actual demonstrable experience is different to the claims. If it was not then why do people write:
"So last night, for at least an hour, I was streaming Twitch.tv 360p, without any buffering. It was beautiful. Then (as luck would have it) during the final game, the buffering started... watching 30 seconds, streaming 10 seconds, and so it went on until the end of the match."
The thread is littered with similar claims on every page. Here we have a dilemma: Do we simply take you on your word in spite of the evidence, or do we figure out on our own what is true or not, based on reason and evidence? Your call AH. Single posts on their own mean nothing, but if we collate all the claims made by people a pattern emerges. Its up to each person to think for themselves about how to interpret that data.
You see, the problem is that peoples actual demonstrable experience is different to the claims. If it was not then why do people write:
"So last night, for at least an hour, I was streaming Twitch.tv 360p, without any buffering. It was beautiful. Then (as luck would have it) during the final game, the buffering started... watching 30 seconds, streaming 10 seconds, and so it went on until the end of the match."
The thread is littered with similar claims on every page. Here we have a dilemma: Do we simply take you on your word in spite of the evidence, or do we figure out on our own what is true or not, based on reason and evidence? Your call AH. Single posts on their own mean nothing, but if we collate all the claims made by people a pattern emerges. Its up to each person to think for themselves about how to interpret that data.
PsyWulf
Honorary Master
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2006
- Messages
- 20,358
- Reaction score
- 16,003
If ADSL could be a guaranteed service I think many people would be much happier with it. But as it's not,and it relies on the interaction of many different systems,and is also affected by MANY factors including ones that are out of the ISP's hands I think it's understandable that there are exceptions. If it was a general issue this thread would grow by hundreds of posts daily,rather than the occasional issue post.
Also people don't really post when things go right,but when they go wrong the internet is abuzz
,for every 1 person that has a random problem there's probably 100 more that are happily unaware of anything
MrGray
Honorary Master
You forgot to mention that this depends on the area as well - i.e. you have different policies apparently for the Joburg, Durban and Cape Town IPC's.
My 1st month on Afrihost so the last few posts have been very helpful, thanks.
Regarding their shaping of heavy users 1st: Does it make any difference if you schedule your downloads to be after hours only? It makes sense that users are encouraged to do this and therefore place less stress on the network vs just counting the no of bytes.
Daytime performance / stability is paramount to me as someone in my household works from home so I would hate if I get throttled/shaped/whatevertheycallitnow during the day due to my nighttime downloads.
Regarding their shaping of heavy users 1st: Does it make any difference if you schedule your downloads to be after hours only? It makes sense that users are encouraged to do this and therefore place less stress on the network vs just counting the no of bytes.
Daytime performance / stability is paramount to me as someone in my household works from home so I would hate if I get throttled/shaped/whatevertheycallitnow during the day due to my nighttime downloads.
There is no difference. If the network is busy qos kicks in. Apparently they hit the biggest users first, so if you download lots then you might be in that group. It makes no difference when you download, despite that amazingly good idea that would be. Its just not implemented at AH.
If ADSL could be a guaranteed service I think many people would be much happier with it. But as it's not,and it relies on the interaction of many different systems,and is also affected by MANY factors including ones that are out of the ISP's hands I think it's understandable that there are exceptions. If it was a general issue this thread would grow by hundreds of posts daily,rather than the occasional issue post.
Also people don't really post when things go right,but when they go wrong the internet is abuzz
That's all good and well and I understand your point of view, but that doesn't mean my point is invalid.
Look at this from my point of view:
* I have had ADSL for less than two weeks
* My average speedtests (and I've run many) are at about 0.3Mbps, out of a possible 1Mpbs
* So far, my old iBurst connection has been reliable 9 out of 10 times.
* My ADSL has been reliable 1 out of 10 times (when I said I was streaming Twitch.tv last night)
So from my limited ADSL experience, it currently looks like iBurst is more reliable. Doesn't that just sound so wrong when you say it out loud???
Agreed that ADSL is a best-effort service, but that doesn't mean I should settle for less than I was getting at iBurst... Especially not when paying more for it. It's been said somewhere before on this forum: Wired > Wireless... I'm not so sure anymore...
And AfriMan, the tech guys definitely forgot to call me tonight. Which is a shame, because tonight my connection was dreadful :erm:
- Joined
- May 18, 2011
- Messages
- 4,358
- Reaction score
- 1,603
ADSL works on copper infrastructure, unfortunately there are a lot more variables that come into play- the cold, distance or noise level can affect your connection, it's sometimes unpredictable. Please private message me and I can ask someone to contact you.
- Joined
- May 18, 2011
- Messages
- 4,358
- Reaction score
- 1,603
We have the same shaping policies, it's just those cities have different capacities. For example, Durban hardly hits it's max (hope I don't jinx it), so we are more laxed with the shaping. Joburg, now and then throughout the day, so we shape accordingly and we all know about Cape Town.
- Joined
- May 18, 2011
- Messages
- 4,358
- Reaction score
- 1,603
Max usage throughout the day and low usage after 12am.
Last edited:
Mike2408
Well-Known Member
So then my question is, what is Afrihost going to do to improve the situation in Cape Town? Because I can tell you, the numbers are going to grow. And if that happens, particularly in Cape Town, then we'll be shaped even more.
Reaper84
Expert Member
Im with everyone on this. Not fair to CPT people and PE people if we get shaped because some guys are too stupid to schedule downloads etc. CPT has a problem and if you tell me the guys in DBN are hardly getting shaped and we are getting shaped into the ground and we both pay the same per month then that is not fair.
Is this even being looked at or is the capacity never going to be upgraded?
Maybe start a new leader board for CPT users as well.
Is this even being looked at or is the capacity never going to be upgraded?
Maybe start a new leader board for CPT users as well.
Last edited:
- Status