Afrihost Uncapped ADSL Feedback

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ferryman said:
So to summarize:

The QoS tables need to be tweaked or the heavy users need to be outright throttled.
Hypothetically, if users were throttled for heavy usage and were told the cap was 100Gb, how would that fix things? Its not like you will be changing your usage habits to only attempt to consume 100Gb per month, then you could just as well buy a capped unshaped account which would amount to the same thing.

I remember when our highsite QoS tables were terrible on WUG and killed downloads for some users, few tweaks fixed it, for a while, until another group who had been used to their speeds, started complaining that their speeds were now dropping (due to the bandwidth now being more evenly shared)

For interest sake

If EVERY subscriber were to receive all content CONSTANTLY on their line speeds ALL THE TIME, how much bandwidth would AH need to have access to to cater for that
Click to expand...

I like your analogy, however, we used have a look at our network, see where the highest amount of traffic is coming from causing congestion and affecting all users, apply a packet sniffer and then apply and access-list and/or QoS to that entry to our network.

This worked because the congestion decreased, the culprits were found, the TPOC contacted and advised of our AUP and its consequences letting the TPOC know the account is being monitored and everything was just HUNKY DORY! Also...doing trend analysis we would see which times of the day there was a sudden peak and where its coming from. Most evenings and weekends Fri - Sat) we would remove the access-list and/or QoS restriction allowing the serious surfers some room.

Whenever this was applied a notice would be posted to the effect of "we are experiencing network congestion and are atending" and the customer is happy and notice is resolved when traffic subsides again. Keeping the customer informed is key! Lately I notice there is a lack thereof?

After all, I mean nowadays most users setup download managers, start them up and night, go to bed, check them in the morning and sometimes let them run even though it might be a bit slow because everyone needs connectivity.

Protocol Priority List:
1. HTTP - including DL via HTTP
2. Mail
3. FTP
4. Streaming
5. P2P

I know the above worked with companies with leased lines and ADSL connections - with Static IP Pools - but with the technology and packet sniffers available, surely this can be done too? Afterall, all services need to be made viable for the business and provide the customer with a "warm and fuzzy" feeling.
 
Just taking into account that Afriman said the QoS system had only recently been implemented, I wonder how much trial-run experience AH has with it, can't all the above gripes be chalked up to a learning curve?

I doubt the intention is to go from ISP of the year to a Z3R0. seeing as their site states their business plan is allocating advertising funds to subsidising packages and letting service speak for itself, clients are thus gained by word of mouth promotion, if service suffers the "advertising base starts airing negative ads" so to speak. IOW, no-one would intentionally piss off the client base as that would knock sales and service.

New implementations open up a plethora of unforeseen and foreseen-but-inevitable problems but only testing it in a closed user group 'sandbox' doesn't yield proper results either. Look at blizzard who stated their servers and services were beta tested and ready for action on D3 launch day, and the moment the masses started accessing, the whole "a-ok" tested structure saw its own arse and took weeks to tweak properly (*cough cough*).



Afriman,

Could you please shed light on how the techs are handling teething problems in respect of tweaking the QoS system, if it is still being tweaked and optimised etc

Thanks
 
ferryman said:
Just taking into account that Afriman said the QoS system had only recently been implemented, I wonder how much trial-run experience AH has with it, can't all the above gripes be chalked up to a learning curve?

I doubt the intention is to go from ISP of the year to a Z3R0. seeing as their site states their business plan is allocating advertising funds to subsidising packages and letting service speak for itself, clients are thus gained by word of mouth promotion, if service suffers the "advertising base starts airing negative ads" so to speak. IOW, no-one would intentionally piss off the client base as that would knock sales and service.

New implementations open up a plethora of unforeseen and foreseen-but-inevitable problems but only testing it in a closed user group 'sandbox' doesn't yield proper results either. Look at blizzard who stated their servers and services were beta tested and ready for action on D3 launch day, and the moment the masses started accessing, the whole "a-ok" tested structure saw its own arse and took weeks to tweak properly (*cough cough*).



Afriman,

Could you please shed light on how the techs are handling teething problems in respect of tweaking the QoS system, if it is still being tweaked and optimised etc

Thanks
Click to expand...

I am one of the customers they p!ssed off. I happened to be on a 3 week holiday when the changeover happened. When I got back, I was greeted with a line running between 1/16th to 1/4 line speed.

Now bearing in mind that I was 100% happy when they were with IS and was really experiencing "Pure Internet Joy" I had now learned my lesson as I had used Afrihost the first time they attempted uncapped when Mweb shook the market with cheap home uncapped. They promised it wouldn't be like their first attempt, and while with IS they were keeping their word, well, fool me once shame on me, fool me twice shame on you.

I cancelled my account on 5 Nov and signed up with Internet Solution's Plugg, and as I was a customer for more than 60 days they wouldn't honour the double money back guarantee nor a prorata for the 5 days I had already used, so I paid for 2 4mb uncapped accounts in Nov.

There is nothing wrong with the QoS, it is working (the green light on their page indicates this), the problem is not enough bandwidth. I'm sorry, I've experienced all the ISP's 4mb uncapped accounts and when ISP's don't manage their bandwidth properly, I move on.

This is my rating of the ISP's so far:
1. Plugg (Pure Internet Joy)
2. Openweb (left because account kept going dead and getting new log in details to remedy, rinse and repeat)
3. Webafrica (joined when they launched, was great for 2 months then became oversubscribed)
Tie for last place:
Mweb: (left because I didn't like the shaping where you are shaped from 1st MB, and on principle becuase they charged me 60 days up front (R599x2))
Afrihost: (same reason as Webafrica as I don't support ISP's who don't know how to plan their bandwidth needs, these IPC upgrades in Dbn and CT should have been in place 6 months ago before the switch!, and because they burned me with unusable internet and arrogant attitude regarding refund for the 25 days of Nov I didn't bother with the service)

EDIT: At least Webafrica gave us discounts when their network was sub par
 
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wingnut771 said:
I am one of the customers they p!ssed off. I happened to be on a 3 week holiday when the changeover happened. When I got back, I was greeted with a line running between 1/16th to 1/4 line speed.

Now bearing in mind that I was 100% happy when they were with IS and was really experiencing "Pure Internet Joy" I had now learned my lesson as I had used Afrihost the first time they attempted uncapped when Mweb shook the market with cheap home uncapped. They promised it wouldn't be like their first attempt, and while with IS they were keeping their word, well, fool me once shame on me, fool me twice shame on you.

I cancelled my account on 5 Nov and signed up with Internet Solution's Plugg, and as I was a customer for more than 60 days they wouldn't honour the double money back guarantee nor a prorata for the 5 days I had already used, so I paid for 2 4mb uncapped accounts in Nov.

There is nothing wrong with the QoS, it is working (the green light on their page indicates this), the problem is not enough bandwidth. I'm sorry, I've experienced all the ISP's 4mb uncapped accounts and when ISP's don't manage their bandwidth properly, I move on.

This is my rating of the ISP's so far:
1. Plugg (Pure Internet Joy)
2. Openweb (left because account kept going dead and getting new log in details to remedy, rinse and repeat)
3. Webafrica (joined when they launched, was great for 2 months then became oversubscribed)
Tie for last place:
Mweb: (left because I didn't like the shaping where you are shaped from 1st MB, and on principle becuase they charged me 60 days up front (R599x2))
Afrihost: (same reason as Webafrica as I don't support ISP's who don't know how to plan their bandwidth needs, these IPC upgrades in Dbn and CT should have been in place 6 months ago before the switch!, and because they burned me with unusable internet and arrogant attitude regarding refund for the 25 days of Nov I didn't bother with the service)

EDIT: At least Webafrica gave us discounts when their network was sub par
Click to expand...

...Man....you summed it up nicely. Couldn't have said it better. A few posts back I mentioned HelloPeter. I also find it ironical that an ISP that was ISP Of The Year has gone from Hero to ZERO!!! The complaints on HelloPeter says it all. You'll see there that AH and WA aree neck and neck...almost as if they are competing for WORST ISP of the year.

I have heard some rumblings that the move to MTN was PURELY a business decision...Yes Folks! There you have it! It was a case of SHOW ME THE MONEY!!! Screw the LOYAL customers and what they enjoyed and how they supported you right from the beginning.

Years back, before I left, I suggest to AH they do a customer satisfaction survey...guess it never happened? I suggested the 1st question on the survey is " When you think SERVICE, what is the first thing that comes to mind - bearing in mind that you have to pay for it?"
 
bradlesliect said:
...Man....you summed it up nicely. Couldn't have said it better. A few posts back I mentioned HelloPeter. I also find it ironical that an ISP that was ISP Of The Year has gone from Hero to ZERO!!! The complaints on HelloPeter says it all. You'll see there that AH and WA aree neck and neck...almost as if they are competing for WORST ISP of the year.

I have heard some rumblings that the move to MTN was PURELY a business decision...Yes Folks! There you have it! It was a case of SHOW ME THE MONEY!!! Screw the LOYAL customers and what they enjoyed and how they supported you right from the beginning.

Years back, before I left, I suggest to AH they do a customer satisfaction survey...guess it never happened? I suggested the 1st question on the survey is " When you think SERVICE, what is the first thing that comes to mind - bearing in mind that you have to pay for it?"
Click to expand...

Why thank you my good man :)

Just to give a bit more detail about Openweb.

It was the Gold 4mb package and I tried all the backbones and IS was the best, so they seem to be the HEROS of the time.
 
All gone to hell once again. Downloading at a blistering 10kb/s on anything, tried to download 64bit java update, 5kb/s! Yay.
I had to actually cancel that download to browse to this forum, connection was timing out! 2mb line? 2.5% - 5% of my line speed?
Suppose for a dial-up connection this is pretty stable :mad::mad:

Reset my router a few times, and did the Afrihost "Fix my line" thing.
 
I'm waiting on the line conversion, clientzone seems to show the order was placed 9th, logged 10th, so I guess its going to be minimum next weekend or more. Hate having to rely on telkom... how long is the average wait for a line that had never before had adsl?

Hmmm, last time I used a landline for internet I used that same white US Robotics modem, actually snuffed at a friends offer to get a 33k modem from him back then, lol... Telkom had some offer that you can stay online long as you liked however you paid x rand for the first minute or something for the connection, still didn't get anything done... ahhh, good times :poo:
 
I'm actually looking forward to getting connected, despite the nay-saying.
Atleast there are users who provide positive feedback as well

People do tend to vocalise negative things over positive though, but giving feedback is what the thread requests and the problems can then be addressed
 
Yeah YouTube the only thing that's working well, like they turned off everything else to dial-up so that we can only YouTube O_o
But that said the ads (even though I don't like ads) don't actually load while streaming, the box loads up and is blank with an "x" lol, so yeah, YouTube downstream win, everything else suuuucks.
Can't jam games either, times out in random short intervals. :(
 
I'm sick of this. Going to test my line with my FNB connect account and if that solves the problem, I'll be shopping for a new ISP. Honestly feels like I'm being robed.

I can't comment on download speeds, but my ping if horrific. The connection is totally unstable.
 
[URL=http://www.speedtest.net][/URL] 10Mbps line Afrihost

[URL=http://www.speedtest.net][/URL] 10Mbps line FNB Connect.

This is just a ripoff of an ISP! I am sick to death with their constant, "We are working around the clock to sort this out. You have our word" It has been weeks now and still nothing!!! Works for a few hours, and then back to square one. R900pm for a 1mb account basically. Everything timesout, everything buffers for 9 minutes, everything is slow. Cannot download any driver updates as it loses connection.

Last month with this poor excuse of an ISP.
 
I've pretty much had it now. It just too me 30 minutes to download pdf-xchange viewer. My speed was pretty much capped at 15KB/s. Apparently the congestion was meant to "ease-up" during the weekend (ok, granted it is still working hours) but I'm now at 20KB/s. So much win! Yaaaaay... :cry:
 
Seriously WTF Afrihost. Get over your new years hangover and sort out your network. I'm now ready to admit the move to your network was a mistake on my side.
 
Tried the "Test My Line" and the feature is broken, eish

UPDATE: Just swicthed to the free 1GB and everything is fine. They are shaping the crap out of uncapped. I'm on 2MB and only done 42gigs this month.
 
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