Afrihost Uncapped DSL Feedback

[AfriMan]

I can't seem to be able to isolate an IP address for any of the servers I'm connecting to. Using Microsoft's TCPView, it gives me an IP but that's only for when the game connects initially. When in a match, it just seems to list UDP with a port number that's open to any IP. No IP listing.

Also, is it normal for an Uncapped Premium 8MB to be shaped this much, even when I've only used around 185GB so far? For some reason, all day yesterday I couldn't download anything off the Play Store it would takes ages just to download a 10MB app but now this morning it's fine? Was there an issue with the Play Store yesterday or...? It's so weird because if I went on my PC and tried to download something like Nvidia drivers, then it would be full speed.

Also, in ClientZone it says that I'm currently on 8Mbps Uncapped DSL. Doesn't say anything about Premium but when I go to the Edit Package window, 8Mbps under the Premium Uncapped section is missing. So I assume I am on Uncapped Premium?

EDIT: Never mind, as of 9:38AM Play Store download speed is basically zero.

Premium is only going to experience shaping based on demand - there are no thresholds. As far as I know we're not seeing shaping except for very heavy periods, so most of the time you should be seeing good speeds.

With regard to gaming traffic, we may have to actively monitor your traffic while you play to see if it registers as P2P or correctly as prioritised gaming traffic.

 

[Vorastra]

Premium is only going to experience shaping based on demand - there are no thresholds. As far as I know we're not seeing shaping except for very heavy periods, so most of the time you should be seeing good speeds.

With regard to gaming traffic, we may have to actively monitor your traffic while you play to see if it registers as P2P or correctly as prioritised gaming traffic.

Something is weird though. I'm getting good download speeds on Microsoft updates and Nvidia driver downloads, but Google Play Store is just non-existent. I'm talking like a few kilobytes in a minute...

I switch to WebAfrica Free 1GB, it's fine. Switch back to Afrihost Uncapped, dead. I understand shaping is a thing but shaped to 99% of the line speed?

How would we handle MechWarrior Online? The issue only happens at night so you'd have to get someone to log my traffic in the evening.

 

[AfriNatic]

Something is weird though. I'm getting good download speeds on Microsoft updates and Nvidia driver downloads, but Google Play Store is just non-existent. I'm talking like a few kilobytes in a minute...

I switch to WebAfrica Free 1GB, it's fine. Switch back to Afrihost Uncapped, dead. I understand shaping is a thing but shaped to 99% of the line speed?

How would we handle MechWarrior Online? The issue only happens at night so you'd have to get someone to log my traffic in the evening.

What we can try to see if there is an issue is we can put you on a capped account to see if there is a difference. Would you be keen to try this?

 

[Vorastra]

What we can try to see if there is an issue is we can put you on a capped account to see if there is a difference. Would you be keen to try this?

I also have a Afrihost Free 1GB account I can do testing on. Whatever you guys want me to do, up to you.

 

[AfriNatic]

I also have a Afrihost Free 1GB account I can do testing on. Whatever you guys want me to do, up to you.

What would I like to do is get you to use this account over a long period of time. Maybe a full week to see if there is a difference. I have send you a PM.

 

[Rohan]

I also have a Afrihost Free 1GB account I can do testing on. Whatever you guys want me to do, up to you.

Download ping plotter and run some latency tests on there, only then will we see where the problems are.

 

[AfriGenie]

Download ping plotter and run some latency tests on there, only then will we see where the problems are.

I really appreciate any test results that you guys can provide me with, it'll help me greatly.

 

[Vorastra]

So what's actually going on with speed and ping? Also, could you get AfriNatic to get back to me or one of you guys could have a look at the issue I replied to him about?

Target Name: afrihost.com
         IP: 104.20.31.244
  Date/Time: 2018/07/04 11:47:51 AM - 2018/07/04 11:57:51 AM

Hop  Sent  PL%     Min     Max     Avg  Host Name / [IP]
  1     5    0    0.40    2.71    1.05  router.asus.com [192.168.1.1]
  2     5  100       0       0       0   [-]
  3     5    0   22.36   29.01   24.09  dbn-up2.ip.adsl.co.za [169.1.5.173]
  4     5    0   21.18   22.99   21.79  169-1-21-110.ip.afrihost.co.za [169.1.21.110]
  5     5    0   25.62   27.31   26.54  169-1-5-208.ip.afrihost.co.za [169.1.5.208]
  6     5    0  254.83  301.94  277.01  41.162.84.194 [41.162.84.194]
  7     5    0  271.42  316.00  287.38  172.18.1.162 [172.18.1.162]
  8     5    0  266.46  313.46  284.26  be5.lza-pe2-jhb.liquidtelecom.net [77.246.56.248]
  9     5    0  269.11  312.14  289.56  cloudflare.ixp.joburg [196.60.8.198]
 10     5    0  249.78  310.50  282.91  afrihost.com [104.20.31.244]

Target Name: mybroadband.co.za
         IP: 104.20.9.169
  Date/Time: 2018/07/04 11:49:30 AM - 2018/07/04 11:59:30 AM

Hop  Sent  PL%     Min     Max     Avg  Host Name / [IP]
  1     1    0    0.79    0.79    0.79  router.asus.com [192.168.1.1]
  2     1  100       0       0       0   [-]
  3     1    0   24.77   24.77   24.77  dbn-up2.ip.adsl.co.za [169.1.5.173]
  4     1    0   28.00   28.00   28.00  dbn-up2.ip.adsl.co.za [169.1.5.174]
  5     1    0   27.32   27.32   27.32  169-1-5-208.ip.afrihost.co.za [169.1.5.208]
  6     1    0  251.62  251.62  251.62  41.162.84.194 [41.162.84.194]
  7     1    0  265.46  265.46  265.46  172.18.1.162 [172.18.1.162]
  8     1    0  259.88  259.88  259.88  be5.lza-pe2-jhb.liquidtelecom.net [77.246.56.248]
  9     1    0  261.36  261.36  261.36  cloudflare.ixp.joburg [196.60.8.198]
 10     1    0  276.69  276.69  276.69  mybroadband.co.za [104.20.9.169]

 

[AfriMan]

So what's actually going on with speed and ping? Also, could you get AfriNatic to get back to me or one of you guys could have a look at the issue I replied to him about?

Target Name: afrihost.com
         IP: 104.20.31.244
  Date/Time: 2018/07/04 11:47:51 AM - 2018/07/04 11:57:51 AM

Hop  Sent  PL%     Min     Max     Avg  Host Name / [IP]
  1     5    0    0.40    2.71    1.05  router.asus.com [192.168.1.1]
  2     5  100       0       0       0   [-]
  3     5    0   22.36   29.01   24.09  dbn-up2.ip.adsl.co.za [169.1.5.173]
  4     5    0   21.18   22.99   21.79  169-1-21-110.ip.afrihost.co.za [169.1.21.110]
  5     5    0   25.62   27.31   26.54  169-1-5-208.ip.afrihost.co.za [169.1.5.208]
  6     5    0  254.83  301.94  277.01  41.162.84.194 [41.162.84.194]
  7     5    0  271.42  316.00  287.38  172.18.1.162 [172.18.1.162]
  8     5    0  266.46  313.46  284.26  be5.lza-pe2-jhb.liquidtelecom.net [77.246.56.248]
  9     5    0  269.11  312.14  289.56  cloudflare.ixp.joburg [196.60.8.198]
 10     5    0  249.78  310.50  282.91  afrihost.com [104.20.31.244]

Target Name: mybroadband.co.za
         IP: 104.20.9.169
  Date/Time: 2018/07/04 11:49:30 AM - 2018/07/04 11:59:30 AM

Hop  Sent  PL%     Min     Max     Avg  Host Name / [IP]
  1     1    0    0.79    0.79    0.79  router.asus.com [192.168.1.1]
  2     1  100       0       0       0   [-]
  3     1    0   24.77   24.77   24.77  dbn-up2.ip.adsl.co.za [169.1.5.173]
  4     1    0   28.00   28.00   28.00  dbn-up2.ip.adsl.co.za [169.1.5.174]
  5     1    0   27.32   27.32   27.32  169-1-5-208.ip.afrihost.co.za [169.1.5.208]
  6     1    0  251.62  251.62  251.62  41.162.84.194 [41.162.84.194]
  7     1    0  265.46  265.46  265.46  172.18.1.162 [172.18.1.162]
  8     1    0  259.88  259.88  259.88  be5.lza-pe2-jhb.liquidtelecom.net [77.246.56.248]
  9     1    0  261.36  261.36  261.36  cloudflare.ixp.joburg [196.60.8.198]
 10     1    0  276.69  276.69  276.69  mybroadband.co.za [104.20.9.169]

Doesn't look too good. I've asked our NOC team to have a look and see if they can see what's happening

 

[Vorastra]

So, any updates on what's happening?

 

[RunningFromFat]

Yeah the poor ping is back.

 

[AfriMan]

Yeah the poor ping is back.

We did have some issues in KZN yesterday but everything should be fine again.

 

[Vorastra]

Is there any plan to get back to me about my issue? This is the second time asking. AfriNatic seems to have just disappeared.

Edit: I guess I'll just stay on the Afriman test account until someone gets back to me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[AfriGenie]

Is there any plan to get back to me about my issue? This is the second time asking. AfriNatic seems to have just disappeared.

Edit: I guess I'll just stay on the Afriman test account until someone gets back to me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Has your connection been stable on the guest account?

 

[Vorastra]

Has your connection been stable on the guest account?

It has indeed. I also noticed that Waframe was much less laggy. (it's a P2P networked game) compared to my Premium Uncapped account.

 

[AfriGenie]

It has indeed. I also noticed that Waframe was much less laggy. (it's a P2P networked game) compared to my Premium Uncapped account.

When you have a chance, could you switch back to your Uncapped and see if there is any improvement.

 

[Vorastra]

When you have a chance, could you switch back to your Uncapped and see if there is any improvement.

This is me trying to download a ~135MB update from the Google Play Store. Speed seems very bursty. A month ago (whenever I started reporting this issue) this was not the case. Speed used to be consistent and maxed on the Play Store. Notice the the large dip of zero traffic, this is also an issue with the premium uncapped account. Downloads on the Play Store will sometimes just stop and sit there. Immediately after this update was done, I tested by downloading Nvidia drivers from the Nvidia site. Downloading the drivers, my speed was consistent and maxed so there seems to be an issue with my premium uncapped account and Google Play.



I then proceeded to test MechWarrior Online on my PC. There was an update of ~500MB. Line speed was maxed and consistent. However, the real issue I reported initially was long load times when initialising the main menu/garage which the internet connection is responsible for (loading the store, the mechs I have and so on). This is fast on the guest account but slow (when I mean slow, I mean sometimes you're sitting there for upwards of a minute) on the premium uncapped account. However, in actual games the ping is fine and stable. I did some time testing to log in. I tried 3 times on each account to ensure there was no caching by the game client.

MWO: "Time to Login" AND/OR "Time to enter main menu after match".

Uncapped Premium: ~1m14s

Guest account: ~30s

Regarding Warframe, I'll have to continue testing that.

 

[AfriGenie]

This is me trying to download a ~135MB update from the Google Play Store. Speed seems very bursty. A month ago (whenever I started reporting this issue) this was not the case. Speed used to be consistent and maxed on the Play Store. Notice the the large dip of zero traffic, this is also an issue with the premium uncapped account. Downloads on the Play Store will sometimes just stop and sit there. Immediately after this update was done, I tested by downloading Nvidia drivers from the Nvidia site. Downloading the drivers, my speed was consistent and maxed so there seems to be an issue with my premium uncapped account and Google Play.

View attachment 537839

I then proceeded to test MechWarrior Online on my PC. There was an update of ~500MB. Line speed was maxed and consistent. However, the real issue I reported initially was long load times when initialising the main menu/garage which the internet connection is responsible for (loading the store, the mechs I have and so on). This is fast on the guest account but slow (when I mean slow, I mean sometimes you're sitting there for upwards of a minute) on the premium uncapped account. However, in actual games the ping is fine and stable. I did some time testing to log in. I tried 3 times on each account to ensure there was no caching by the game client.

MWO: "Time to Login" AND/OR "Time to enter main menu after match".

Uncapped Premium: ~1m14s

Guest account: ~30s

Regarding Warframe, I'll have to continue testing that.

Thank you for the feedback. Would you be able to let me know when you've tested Warframe? I may need to ask our Critical Care Team to contact you so that they can work with you and the Network Team to make sure that you are getting a more consistent experience.

 

[Vorastra]

Thank you for the feedback. Would you be able to let me know when you've tested Warframe? I may need to ask our Critical Care Team to contact you so that they can work with you and the Network Team to make sure that you are getting a more consistent experience.

Testing is kind of difficult in Warframe since the point of the game is to play with randoms so the host tends to not be the same for each "match". Individuals are responsible for hosting a "match" in Warframe since it's P2P. However, I did test in one match where I was noticing doors taking longer than usual to open (connection is responsible for this in Warframe) as well as markers taking much longer than usual to place. So I changed connection halfway through the game and changed to the guest account forcing the game to drop connection and allow for me to reconnect to the same game and host. The game was noticeably improved (there will always be lag since most people I connect to tend to be Europeans). This was the only solid test I did.

I do "feel" like the guest account is much better over a large range of matches compared to the uncapped premium account but the issue there is that could just be anecdotal.

The issue is that working with the Afrihost team will be kind of difficult since any changes they want to test will be off since hosts change quickly.

Again, this issue only started after I started having issues with MWO and Google Play downloads. If that helps narrow it down.

Also, I tried playing some matches of MWO. There is definitely packet-loss style lag (enemies jittering) on top of the long garage time I already listed when using the premium uncapped account. It's perfectly smooth on the guest account. Seems I was wrong about there being no lag in matches. So seems like both MWO and Warframe have lag issues on premium uncapped.

EDIT: I tried getting onto mega.nz to download something from my cloud storage, the site failed to load on the premium uncapped but worked perfectly on the guest account. I switch back to the uncapped account to download a 21KB file, it just sits there forever. I switch to the guest account and it starts instantly.

Guys. Seriously. What is actually happening with this "premium" uncapped account?

So many issues that were never here before June.

 

[AfriGenie]

Testing is kind of difficult in Warframe since the point of the game is to play with randoms so the host tends to not be the same for each "match". Individuals are responsible for hosting a "match" in Warframe since it's P2P. However, I did test in one match where I was noticing doors taking longer than usual to open (connection is responsible for this in Warframe) as well as markers taking much longer than usual to place. So I changed connection halfway through the game and changed to the guest account forcing the game to drop connection and allow for me to reconnect to the same game and host. The game was noticeably improved (there will always be lag since most people I connect to tend to be Europeans). This was the only solid test I did.

I do "feel" like the guest account is much better over a large range of matches compared to the uncapped premium account but the issue there is that could just be anecdotal.

The issue is that working with the Afrihost team will be kind of difficult since any changes they want to test will be off since hosts change quickly.

Again, this issue only started after I started having issues with MWO and Google Play downloads. If that helps narrow it down.

Also, I tried playing some matches of MWO. There is definitely packet-loss style lag (enemies jittering) on top of the long garage time I already listed when using the premium uncapped account. It's perfectly smooth on the guest account. Seems I was wrong about there being no lag in matches. So seems like both MWO and Warframe have lag issues on premium uncapped.

EDIT: I tried getting onto mega.nz to download something from my cloud storage, the site failed to load on the premium uncapped but worked perfectly on the guest account. I switch back to the uncapped account to download a 21KB file, it just sits there forever. I switch to the guest account and it starts instantly.

Guys. Seriously. What is actually happening with this "premium" uncapped account?

So many issues that were never here before June.

Thank you for running these tests. I've just sent your details through to our Critical Care Team, they'll be contacting you directly to help get this resolved.