Ok, well I am in Durban, and was told that I should wait till the 25th. A speedtest tells me that there has been no improvement, but I suppose that http://www.afrihost.com/microsites/adsl_network/ also says that Durban is not yet complete. So what am I supposed to be expecting? An improvement or no improvement at this stage?
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Afrihost Uncapped ADSL Feedback
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MrGray
Honorary Master
@new_in_za2 Are you really very bored, or do you just have some sort of imagined personal problem with me?
You seem to be splitting hairs in defense of Afrihost, and you seem to have some sort of issue with the concept that there might be certain regions which will inevitably experience differing levels of service, and the fact that users in those regions might complain about it.
Again, we have been repeatedly given the impression that the IPC will improve speed (most Cape Town and Durban users primary concern) and on the day the fabled IPC is due, Afriman posts that the primary issue is now apparently latency. While that has certainly been a concern for gamers, latency is only part of the picture, and I'm not sure why I'm on the receiving end of your ad hominem attacks for pointing this out?
You seem to be splitting hairs in defense of Afrihost, and you seem to have some sort of issue with the concept that there might be certain regions which will inevitably experience differing levels of service, and the fact that users in those regions might complain about it.
Again, we have been repeatedly given the impression that the IPC will improve speed (most Cape Town and Durban users primary concern) and on the day the fabled IPC is due, Afriman posts that the primary issue is now apparently latency. While that has certainly been a concern for gamers, latency is only part of the picture, and I'm not sure why I'm on the receiving end of your ad hominem attacks for pointing this out?
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new_in_za2
Senior Member
Dont worry, I was also under the impression that the 25th would be D-day so once the (inevitable) response comes back that actually that wasnt the whole story and I had it wrong all along, somehow, you can safely assume that I will also be wondering why I was mislead with information.
new_in_za2
Senior Member
Without knowing exactly what Afrihost are doing, we're entering guesswork territory. I'll try guessing for you anyway, but keep in mind that I could be completely wrong.
Judging by Afriman's comment earlier today, and confirmed by Speedtest.net latency readings done by a few users, the Afrihost Cape Town IPC node went live today. This means that the Johannesburg IPC (which you are presumably still on) has now been somewhat offloaded, since it no longer has to handle Cape Town users. However, we don't know if all Cape Town users are already connected to the Cape Town IPC node, or only some of them, so it's pretty difficult to guess by how much the load on the Johannesburg IPC node has now been decreased.
On top of that, Afrihost (and I'm gonna piss off a lot of people by using this word, I know) throttle its uncapped users' internet connection. How much they get throttled is a simple setting in their networking equipment, supposedly (and hopefully) one that gets updated automatically. It could however be that their algorithm for deciding how much to throttle their users is still trained to the previous usage pattern, which will have changed now that some of the load has been taken off the Johannesburg IPC, and thus it might be throttling people more than strictly necessary.
The short version is as follows: Afrihost are no doubt still busy toying around settings and measuring and testing stuff. I'd say that within a few days, users should expect a throughput increase. How much better download speeds will get is impossible for me to guess on without specific information from Afrihost's network. However, what I can say is that if users haven't noticed any throughput increases in a couple of days, then Afrihost have a problem, and one that will no doubt be difficult to explain to their customers.
MrGray
Honorary Master
Thanks ;-) it's good to know that I'm not the only one who was told that our speed should improve with the IPC on the 25th.
Not sure why I'm being accused of having a "persecution complex" and told that I'm talking nonsense, though. I suspect some ppl have nothing better to do than pick a fight over nothing to try and show how "clever" they are (ironically, achieving the opposite effect).
@new_in_za2 - that makes sense, but then why tell me to check on the 25th? I checked specifically on this day because I was directly told to do so by AH's representative. While your probably close to the truth, why not give that information to me before so that when the 25th rolled over, so I did not have some sort of expectation. It just makes no sense. Just tell me how it is, I want the straight talk, not this month after month of babble that never helps me get to a resolution. It just frustrates me.
Zewp
Banned
tl;dr. Get a blog.
new_in_za2
Senior Member
Another good question, and not one I can give you a real answer to. My guess is that Afrihost are bleeding customers badly, and they need to show a carrot at the end of a stick to try to keep as many customers on board as possible until they've managed to fix their problems. Have you noticed how the new IPC node went live on the 25th, the date that was incidentally also the cut-off date for canceling your Afrihost account? Conspiracy theorists might claim that that is not a coincidence. Reasonable people might conclude that Afrihost hadn't really thought their announcement through - just because their IPC is set up today doesn't mean that they've got all of their network fully configured to make the most of it yet.
What, however, is not a conspiracy theory is that Afrihost have been generous with handing out gifts to their customers, and in particular the most vocal ones. If it wasn't for the fact that I first got 3 months of ADSL for free, and then got 90% off on the March bill, I would have left Afrihost 3 months ago. No doubt I am not alone. Judging by the fact that they spend so much money on trying to keep their customers signed up just a little bit longer means that Afrihost at least themselves believe that their woes will soon be over, and if a little white lie (or careless omission of fact) is what was needed to keep people from canceling their accounts just yet, then apparently Afrihost are willing to do that too.
diepeterpan
Well-Known Member
Yip, shaping gone koekoes on my Uncapped Business Account, verified it using another account and suddenly my throughput was 4 times the speed; and I mean shaping between 8am and 5pm. Jikes, hope they get it fixed soon. Anybody else with a business account experiencing shaping or is just me?
At least I have ruled out my line as the problem, nor is it the IPC or Telkom. Just my Afrihost account.
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First: @diepeterpan - Im also business 10 meg, also poor international speeds, but usable at least so Im not complaining too much (yes approx 4 meg is actually usable by business if its stable).
Second: new_in_za2 Makes sense, but can in light of that also understand garps frustration (and mine).
new_in_za2
Senior Member
Oh, I can understand why every single Afrihost uncapped user is very frustrated. What I can't understand is why Garp constantly needs to try to turn it into a Cape Town issue, why he is 100% resistant to facts and why he gets so bloody angry when someone corrects his misinformation. But as I said, I've given up. Garp doesn't want to learn new things, he just wants to complain about his warped view of reality.
Now that is irritating as I have suffered through crap internet for months waiting for Afrihost to sort out their problems. Because I just paid and kept quiet I had to pay full price for a substandard service for months. It does not pay to be a loyal customer, you need to complain to get anywhere these days!
diepeterpan
Well-Known Member
Thx for the confirmation Pete_A, please log it with their support so that they know there's a problem. Seems Business Accounts today performed just like normal Uncapped ones, if not fixed there is not point on using a Business Account and pay more. The reason I say that is when I used a 1MB capped account on the same line and modem the international speed was 4 times faster.
Hope your problem get fixed soon.
Update: Hmmm, if not shaping then throttled. Thinking about it, nothing else is running fast so it appears more to be throttled, I know they said they don't throttled, but that the client experience on this side.
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Guys, I can't believe the amount of bickering and negativity that we're dealing with today. I don't know if it's wrong side of the bed thing, or just something in the water. This is really NOT what we want, and I don't know how this has happened.
The Cape Town and Durban IPC's are additional capacity (3 + 2 added to our current 8), and designed to give the country as a whole better throughput. But if it was purely a capacity issue, we would just have added 5GB's to JHB and that would have been quick and easy. We're (with MTN) spending MILLIONS putting an IPC in Cape Town because clients complained of increased latencies and slow pings overseas, and this was the primary reason for a local IPC. I don't know where this message was lost in translation, but that is the long and short of it. When Durban comes online (it has been delayed due to Telkom issues), this will also be additional capacity, but again more local IPC to improve latencies so that each region has the best possible network response and throughput. We provisioned more IPC capacity than we ever had on our previous network, and than we calculated was being used by all regions now routing through Cape Town, and doubled it.
If there is anyone who doesn't understand what the thinking is behind this, PLEASE PM me and I can explain this, there's really no reason for the name calling and hostilities.
The Cape Town and Durban IPC's are additional capacity (3 + 2 added to our current 8), and designed to give the country as a whole better throughput. But if it was purely a capacity issue, we would just have added 5GB's to JHB and that would have been quick and easy. We're (with MTN) spending MILLIONS putting an IPC in Cape Town because clients complained of increased latencies and slow pings overseas, and this was the primary reason for a local IPC. I don't know where this message was lost in translation, but that is the long and short of it. When Durban comes online (it has been delayed due to Telkom issues), this will also be additional capacity, but again more local IPC to improve latencies so that each region has the best possible network response and throughput. We provisioned more IPC capacity than we ever had on our previous network, and than we calculated was being used by all regions now routing through Cape Town, and doubled it.
If there is anyone who doesn't understand what the thinking is behind this, PLEASE PM me and I can explain this, there's really no reason for the name calling and hostilities.
The future is a long time and people's memories are rather short. Once the network is fixed people will move on to complaining about some else and your job will be nice and easy.
I am beginning to wonder about your mental health.
Myself and others are discussing what you told us, and how it had transpired to be different from what actually happened today. Its that simple. And it keeps happening.
diepeterpan
Well-Known Member
Hi Afriman
I also expected things to be better today, but now suddenly my Business uncapped account performs like a normal uncapped account. Not cool. I tested my line with another account and verified that it is the business account that is either shaped or throttled. And that was my experience from 8AM to 5PM. I can understand a business is shaped after hours but I am speaking 8AM to 5PM.
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