August 1: Lower Prices AND quality?

[Oliver]

try restoring your registry to an earlier date when it was working fine. it could be something that you've unknowingly downloaded. if it's still the same then you know that the fault isn't with your pc.

Nope, it is not my PC, I am extremely careful with every single thing that I do with it.

I have no P2P software, I have my security and privacy settings on high and medium high. I have ad-aware, spybot, norton internet security, and check for updated virus definitions twice a day (just in case). Nothing gets installed in my computer or changed in my registry without my knowledge.

It may sound like an exaggeration but I sleep well at night

Anyway, none of this has changed and then, overnight, the difference in my adsl connection was noticeable from 31 July to 1 August.

 

[mikkelz_za]

i have logged an adsl fault today because of the speed since 1 august and telkom phoned me today and told me they have to increase their bandwith but dont know when that will be

As per usual, Telkom is at fault. Assuming this is true, not saying that I don't believe what you posted electrofreeze, just that we all know how incompetent Telkom can be (and usually are), but this would definately explain the issues numerous people are having this month.

 

[lord_spaceman]

Yes ! There is a massive decrease in quality ! My Kazaa won't connect at all anymore and it takes a bit longer to get into sites. What the hell has happened ???

 

[francoistk]

I have also noticed a significant decrease in quality and speed. Don't know what they did, but at the office we have been speculating that they decided screw the users if they don't want to pay line rental. I would happily pay that rental if I get the service that comes with that money.

 

[telkomsuig]

My download speeds decreased to 20 kbps since monday used to get 30 kbps on 192 line.

 

[ernstn]

Time for speed test again RPM

It may be a great idea to run your famous ADSL test again RPM. My service has lately been up and down during the day, but most nights it seems fine.

I have always been on ADSL512 business

Edited to add speed test-

TCP/Web100 Network Diagnostic Tool v5.3.3e
click START to begin
Checking for Middleboxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Done
running 10s outbound test (client to server) . . . . . 31.67Kb/s
running 10s inbound test (server to client) . . . . . . 17.61kb/s
Your PC is connected to a Cable/DSL modem

 

[erMaC]

I have experienced decreases as well, mostly daytime(in the week). I assume that more businesses are adopting ADSL as the business price has dropped alot. Hope for their sake they only wanted to browse the internet and check mail faster, cause other stuff aint gonna speed up.

 

[Peapod]

my connection is droping about 6 -10 times a day since 1 august. weird.

 

[ernstn]

The Telkom strategy is thus-
a) Decrease the quality of the current service
b) Announced a new product that covers all of the ICASA recommendations, ie SLA,no port shaping etc except one!
c) Launch this product at an insane price!

 

[Juice]

Port-shaping?

We've also experienced quite bad latency on especially the shaped ports, since about Friday. Originally, I thought it was because of the usual end-of-the-month cap-busting frenzy, but it has now continued well into the week.

I play World of Warcraft and usually get a latency of about 700 to 1000. Now it is anything from 6000 to 18000, rendering the game unplayable. Pings to the WoW servers are in the 450 to 550 range, but as we all know, pings aren't port-shaped.

Another strange thing was that on Saturday (July 30), I was playing WoW at 550... This was way less than the norm, but after the next IP reset, my latency jumped much higher and I suffered bouts of enormous spikes.

If I had to guess, I'd say someone rolled out a new Port-Shaping service ahead of the 1 August price decrease. It was probably off-line Saturday (for maintenance) and is now largely responsible for the degredation of service on shaped traffic on shaped accounts. Pure speculation though.

Does anyone know if there's a utility available to check the latency on the shaped traffic only? Also, who is actually responsible for the shaping? Is it the ISP (Imaginet), the backbone (SAIX), or is it Telkom? In other words, where do I go to complain about it and have it fixed?

Juice

 

[RedLineR]

Seems to be port shaping on telkom's side

 

[Juice]

Port-Shaping

I've logged a fault with Imaginet, my ISP. I specifically asked them to check out the port-shaping and they are taking the problem to Telkom. Hopefully we'll have some solid information soonish.

Juice

 

[koosbeer]

Juiced, i also play wow and i experience exactly the same. Im with telkom as my isp and wow is totally screwed for me now! cant play it. I have mailed them with a complaint bu tnot expecting much :|

it makes me think of a certain jay and silent bob quote

"F^%$ telkom, F%^$ them up their stupid asses"!!

 

[Oliver]

I also logged a fault and they had my line tested. I got a call back and the lady said that they found no problems with the line.

I explained in detail what my issues were and she DID mention that they are experiencing some GENERAL "techincal problems" in my area (I am in Pretoria btw) but she would not elaborate on what those problems were, she just said it had something to do with the exchange.

I asked when those "problems" would be resolved and she told me that they did not have a date but that I would get another call back once they fix their "problems" to see if my issues were resolved.

Let's wait and see if we get more info on this...

EDIT: In terms of online gaming, I play SWG and I agree with you guys, it is unplayable now