Afrihost Uncapped ADSL Feedback

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I can live with a 60 megabyte single-threaded download at a steady 355kB/s on a 4mb line during daytime... Perhaps there is a glimmer...
 
I am very disappointed with the account, having tested it for a couple of days now. After nothing but good experiences with AH when they were with IS, I thought all this negative feedback about MTN's network had to be overblown - but it would appear I stand corrected. I've never been so frustrated with any account - and I was extremely amused to see it actually got WORSE after hours - until a brief shining period (according to my logs) between 3am and 8am when it seems to go full speed.

Streaming youtube is ok most of the time - but anything else seems to be shaped into the ground with some draconian, blanket shaping policies.

Even local peering is abysmal. I had to log onto another account to do some SSH work on a local server at Hetzner. On the AH account, I had noticeable, unbearable LAG typing. To a local server!

I may just pony up the extra 200 bucks a month and swallow the 1 month notice period and sign up with Mweb - can't see myself renewing with AH in this state.
 
Youtube is unusable atm , buffering slower than a 384 line.
 
Well, it sure can't be fun to be Afriman these days. Afrihost simply do not have remotely enough network capacity to serve the customers they have.

According to previous posts by Afriman, the problem is not upstream capacity, but rather that they do not have enough IPC bandwidth with Telkom. He has also previously stated that they hope to get additional IPC capacity in February. This means that between now and at least 2 months into the future, things are going to run poorly with Afrihost.

To try to alleviate some of the problems caused by the insufficient bandwidth, Afrihost have implemented a scheme that gives extra priority to HTML/HTTP and Youtube downloads, as well as Speedtest.net. Everything else gets throttled as much as is required to make the formerly mentioned things work, which is often to 1/16th speed. Knowing that many customers use other video sites than Youtube, and also do other things with their internet connections than load text-based websites, Afriman is now between a rock and a hard place. He knows that things are not great currently, but there's nothing he can do to change it.

All Afriman can do is try to project a positive outlook and answer questions which are not "hey, Afrihost, when will my internet connection work properly again?". He's doing this by as often as possible stating that "the web browsing experience on Afrihost is great", even if it isn't always entirely true. It is, however, just about the only thing that's working decently with Afrihost currently.

So no, I do not envy Afriman currently. He is, in my opinion, doing a great job considering what he has to work with, and is without a doubt the most useful person related to Afrihost support, but he has hundreds of unhappy customers to deal with and no way to put out the fire currently.
 
hmmm, please forgive me, I am on Afrihost capped, but this thread just seems much more lively than the capped one :)

My line is down again - tried calling AH Support for assistence, I was 5th in line, then suddenly got an announcement that the call volumes are too high and they can't answer my call.

Then Tweeted, then DM'd them, also sent "Help" to the short code. Nobody gets back to me. Think I will just sit out this month and from Jan go with MWEB. Things can't continue like this.
 
balrog said:
My line is down again - tried calling AH Support for assistence, I was 5th in line, then suddenly got an announcement that the call volumes are too high and they can't answer my call.
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As I just mentioned, Afriman is the best asset Afrihost support has. In fact, he is often the only reasonable way to get support from Afrihost. Try sending him a message with your Afrihost user name (it's in your monthly tax invoice emails) as well as a description of the problem. It might be a bit late for today, but he will very likely get back to you tomorrow then.
 
new_in_za2 said:
As I just mentioned, Afriman is the best asset Afrihost support has. In fact, he is often the only reasonable way to get support from Afrihost. Try sending him a message with your Afrihost user name (it's in your monthly tax invoice emails) as well as a description of the problem. It might be a bit late for today, but he will very likely get back to you tomorrow then.
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Thanks dude - very worrying if they want to service all their customers with only one good Support guy...
 
balrog said:
Thanks dude - very worrying if they want to service all their customers with only one good Support guy...
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To be fair, in my ~15 phone calls to Afrihost support, I did get hold of one guy who wasn't just a bot with a script, but who could actually give me useful info. Of course that guy also promised to call me back, but never did. The problem is that there's no phone number you can call if you want an Afrihost support person who is actually helpful, it's pretty much random luck. The closest there is to that is sending Afriman a message. What Afriman then often does is passing the issue on to someone at their support department who can/will help.
 
Sorry I haven't been around much today (I have replied to all your PM's though).

I've been listening to everything that guys have said here on MyBB and also pay close attention to posts on Twitter and Facebook. To be honest, I wouldn't be human (which I definitely am to those who were wondering) if I also didn't ask a few questions. And I have to say both Afrihost management and MTN have been pretty forthcoming and open about what has been happening. And having now been given a peek at the future, I can say it's nothing short of amazing.

What I've been told exceed my expectations, and I think it's going to blow your minds too. But I did also get an opportunity to go on a guided tour of MTN's data centres just to get a sense of just exactly what comes behind their network and what they provide. I was completely gobsmacked, and I think most people would be to see that everything is state of the art. They've got some of the top people in the country running their hosting and core broadband network, though when you actually walk around - you hardly notice cos everything is being monitored and just seems to run awesomely. I've seen a few people post here about MTN running on an old network. Nothing looked old, in fact everything looked brand spanking new. Their data centres are run to the highest standards, and there were nerdgasms galore amongst our team as we were shown what they bring to the table. Though numbers weren't discussed, I'm guessing we were looking at billions of rands worth of investment!!

I am absolutely 100% confident that we made a great move to MTN, and it's almost humbling to see what their vision of the future of SA is. These are a passionate and capable bunch of guys, and together with them we are going to change the landscape of broadband in SA. Man, so inspired by what I've seen today!! :)
 
That's all good to hear AfriMan, and thanks for sharing. That being said, do you think the folk at MTN realise how poorly they are perceived 'round these parts? And not without reason, going be the (admittedly anecdotal) stories of others who have had dealings with MTNNS?

I've moved ISPs too often to just have things turn to balls 3 months later. That sounds worse that it is... 3 times, OK? :o I'll give you okes a fair shake to get things sorted before I jump ship again, as long as my connection stays bearable in the interim. As I'm not a big fan of faith, I really hope my faith isn't misplaced.
 
HapticSimian said:
That's all good to hear AfriMan, and thanks for sharing. That being said, do you think the folk at MTN realise how poorly they are perceived 'round these parts? And not without reason, going be the (admittedly anecdotal) stories of others who have had dealings with MTNNS?

I've moved ISPs too often to just have things turn to balls 3 months later. That sounds worse that it is... 3 times, OK? :o I'll give you okes a fair shake to get things sorted before I jump ship again, as long as my connection stays bearable in the interim. As I'm not a big fan of faith, I really hope my faith isn't misplaced.
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They're very linked into the IT info networks, so their team also follow MyBB. In fact, quite a few of them were happy to meet Afriman!! (but did they meet my decoy??) :)
 
AfriMan said:
I am absolutely 100% confident that we made a great move to MTN, and it's almost humbling to see what their vision of the future of SA is. These are a passionate and capable bunch of guys, and together with them we are going to change the landscape of broadband in SA. Man, so inspired by what I've seen today!! :)
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No offence, but if your intention is to shape people into the ground when they have average download requirements, then I don't think you're changing it for the better.

You might be making great advances by providing cheap uncapped for 'moms and pops,' but other ISPs seem to be beating you in the race to providing sustainable 'true' uncapped.
 
It still seems to be a select few that are having problems. im on 1 Meg uncapped and my speeds are actually ok. They are slightly lower than the normal (125kb is max for 1meg and I'm getting about 85kb on average.)

This wasn't just on speedtest.net but also on torrents and other downloads too.

All in all I'm fairly happy with Afrihost ATM and I'm sure there are a few others that feel the same way too. The only major problem is the support center, Telkom (strangely) has a faster response to queries and faults...
 
new_in_za2 said:
All Afriman can do is try to project a positive outlook and answer questions which are not "hey, Afrihost, when will my internet connection work properly again?".
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AfriMan said:
What I've been told exceed my expectations, and I think it's going to blow your minds too.
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AfriMan said:
I am absolutely 100% confident that we made a great move to MTN, and it's almost humbling to see what their vision of the future of SA is. These are a passionate and capable bunch of guys, and together with them we are going to change the landscape of broadband in SA. Man, so inspired by what I've seen today!! :)
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Afriman, that you should write such a message just after I wrote mine is something I find a bit funny :) However, despite your positive projections, I hope you actually soon get your things fixed. Although I generally like Afrihost (despite the piss poor support department), I am at the point where I want to see real progress, and see it soon. Otherwise I'll probably move to a 1Mbps uncapped account with a different ISP, which is no doubt gonna perform a lot better than my 1/16th of a 2Mbps uncapped account I currently have with you guys.
 
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