Charting Fibre speed over time.

[jacof]

If I had that problem constantly, I would be annoyed. However, I'm lucky in that I'm with Vumatel for fiber and CISP for bandwidth, so I rarely see any speeds of less than 100Mb/s for local traffic. See http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/6514724920

I wouldn't expect to get those results for international traffic as a lot depends on the configuration of the remote server.

That said, there is a small overhead to running an internet connection, so I would be happy with slightly less than 100Mb/s. But going as low as 86Mb/s would make me feel aggrieved.

The 86 is to local speedtest.net servers. So I would also love to get the 100 as you do. But I am not and I am paying for it. I will be taking this to the consumer protection board if they don't sort it out as they are taking everybody for a ride. I dont think most people even know this is happening. Like the MTN data that disappeared.

 

[mister]

The 86 is to local speedtest.net servers. So I would also love to get the 100 as you do. But I am not and I am paying for it. I will be taking this to the consumer protection board if they don't sort it out as they are taking everybody for a ride. I dont think most people even know this is happening. Like the MTN data that disappeared.

I used to get 97Mbps down through OpenServe & Afrihost... these days I get around 87Mbps

 

[Mr Scratch]

I used to get 97Mbps down through OpenServe & Afrihost... these days I get around 87Mbps

This is something I suspect has to do with GPON using shared ports. As more people in the area subscribe it may result in the same behavior we saw on DSL.

My personal opinion.

 

[cavedog]

This is something I suspect has to do with GPON using shared ports. As more people in the area subscribe it may result in the same behavior we saw on DSL.

My personal opinion.

Yeah unfortunately I'm suffering from the same. Estate used A360 to install fibre. They also use a GPON fibre setup. Now more and more people are on the fibre network and only 1 OLT next to the security office. The fact that they made the 100Mbps so cheap and used GPON for this relatively big estate sucks because now at night I get anything from 65Mbps to 80Mbps. Early mornings I get 95Mbps.....

So yeah the OLT is probably getting congested.

I have yet to see a PON fibre setup from Openserve and A360 to exceed 100Mbps. Always less or close but not over.

Vuma and those fibre companies burst over the paid for speed.

 

[Mr Scratch]

Yeah unfortunately I'm suffering from the same. Estate used A360 to install fibre. They also use a GPON fibre setup. Now more and more people are on the fibre network and only 1 OLT next to the security office. The fact that they made the 100Mbps so cheap and used GPON for this relatively big estate sucks because now at night I get anything from 65Mbps to 80Mbps. Early mornings I get 95Mbps.....

So yeah the OLT is probably getting congested.

Openserve will soon realise how ****ed they are for using GPON...

 

[cavedog]

Openserve will soon realise how ****ed they are for using GPON...

It's going to cost them money to add more OLT's and yeah they probably won't offer speeds exceeding 100Mbps so they will once again be left behind by other fibre providers.

I can't help but think this is Huawei pushing GPON in SA. They are the only company doing it. A360 also had Huawei do the estate where I stay and it's also GPON.

 

[Mr Scratch]

It's going to cost them money to add more OLT's and yeah they probably won't offer speeds exceeding 100Mbps so they will once again be left behind by other fibre providers.

I can't help but think this is Huawei pushing GPON in SA. They are the only company doing it. A360 also had Huawei do the estate where I stay and it's also GPON.

It's still better than the Mimosa Wireless resellers coming next year. Mark my words, it's going to be a **** show of note.

 

[jacof]

I dont think its the fibre. When I use the Telkom test account I don't see the drop. And it uses the same fibre from my house to their breakout. I personally think the problem is on the IS (Internet Solutions) side. I saw the same issue on the MWEB side. I have had fibre for 2 years now. All worked fine until MWEB got taken over by IS. Then I started to see these speed problems. I did not know WebAfrica was also part of IS. I only saw that this week. And now it all makes sense to me. I should move to a ISP that is ot part of IS to do the test but its not that simple to move. The otn is configured to the ISP. They had to replace the OTN at my house to get the WebAfrica account active. But I will do some more tests next week using the Telkom account to see if that stays up at 100. Then IS and Webafrica will have to explain why.

 

[mister]

I dont think its the fibre. When I use the Telkom test account I don't see the drop. And it uses the same fibre from my house to their breakout. I personally think the problem is on the IS (Internet Solutions) side.

Interesting... Here are some tests I did on the 3rd of August

Speedtest.net Down/Up Mbps

Afrihost Capped: 87/48
Axxess Capped: 87/48
Vox Fatpipe Capped: 87/48
Webafrica Capped Business Pro: 37/48
Webafrica Capped Home: 36/48

 

[jacof]

Interesting... Here are some tests I did on the 3rd of August

Speedtest.net Down/Up Mbps

Afrihost Capped: 87/48
Axxess Capped: 87/48
Vox Fatpipe Capped: 87/48
Webafrica Capped Business Pro: 37/48
Webafrica Capped Home: 36/48

Should the WebAfrica be 100/50 ?

Here are the plots from last night. All was stable between 10 pm and 10 am this morning. But I still don't get 100Mbps.

 

[cavedog]

Should the WebAfrica be 100/50 ?

Here are the plots from last night. All was stable between 10 pm and 10 am this morning. But I still don't get 100Mbps.

Well it's very easy to find out. Use another ISP....

 

[jacof]

Well it's very easy to find out. Use another ISP....

Can I just get an account with another ISP and use that to connect ? I was told they have to change the OTN B number to move to another ISP or replace the OTN. They had to do that when I moved to WebAfrica from MWEB.

If that is not the case then I will get another account with a ISP not part of IS and test using that.

 

[cavedog]

Can I just get an account with another ISP and use that to connect ? I was told they have to change the OTN B number to move to another ISP or replace the OTN. They had to do that when I moved to WebAfrica from MWEB.

If that is not the case then I will get another account with a ISP not part of IS and test using that.

No you just need to use another username and password in the router not the ONT. You got the Huawei Openserve ONT. Then you have a router connected to that ONT right and the router connects all your stuff via LAN and Wifi. So in that router there is a username and password that webafrica has configured or given you much like ADSL.

Just change that username and password to another ISP and you are done.

I have a Vox Fatpipe account that has more than 1tb data that I'm not using right now if you want to test with it.

 

[jacof]

I have a Vox Fatpipe account that has more than 1tb data that I'm not using right now if you want to test with it.

That would be great. Then I can test using that ISP and the Telkom test account to make sure it is the ISP and not the fibre line. I will PM you later today as I am not at home and wont be able to change the login details on the Mikrotik. I am remote controlling my home PC via TV.

So I take it the B number is then just for the line retal part and not the connection to the ISP. So Telkom knows who to bill for the line rental.

 

[cavedog]

That would be great. Then I can test using that ISP and the Telkom test account to make sure it is the ISP and not the fibre line. I will PM you later today as I am not at home and wont be able to change the login details on the Mikrotik. I am remote controlling my home PC via TV.

So I take it the B number is then just for the line retal part and not the connection to the ISP. So Telkom knows who to bill for the line rental.

I also have a Huawei ONT but the fibre provider I'm using is not open like Openserve meaning they only supplied me with the Huawei ONT and that is is. There is no other router as the ONT is connected directly and from their network it breaks out to seacom backhaul.

Openserve give you an ONT that is completely locked down. I think they do that so people can't alter the fibre settings in the ONT that would cause headache for them so they make you put a router after the ONT that dials the pppoe connection.

Think of it like this. The ONT is like the wall socket of an ADSL line. You plug in your router and the router dials the PPPoE connection.

Openserve fibre is the same so you can basically use any router that allows PPPoE over a WAN port and then simply switch between ISP's just like ADSL by changing a username and password.

It is the same thing you did when you changed the username and password to the Telkom/Openserve Guest account when you tested.

 

[jacof]

OK cool. I see there are 2 line items on my WebAfrica account. One for the data and one for the line. Does that mean I can leave the line rental with WebAfrica and cancel the data part and buy data from another ISP that does not have the speed issue. Then I can move the line to that ISP over time.

 

[cavedog]

OK cool. I see there are 2 line items on my WebAfrica account. One for the data and one for the line. Does that mean I can leave the line rental with WebAfrica and cancel the data part and buy data from another ISP that does not have the speed issue. Then I can move the line to that ISP over time.

I'm sure you can cancel the data portion of the package unless it was like a bundled deal then you might need to downgrade the data option to the lowest they offer on the 100Mbps fibre line.

Most people that took Openserve took it with ISPAfrika or Axxess as a fibre line only and got their account elsewhere. Just like ADSL you can pretty much have your fibre line with anyone and your data with any other ISP.

The reason you had to get a new ONT when you moved from Mweb to Webafrica is because currently fibre lines cn't be transferred between ISP's like an ADSL line as far as I'm aware so what happens is you cancel completely with the previous ISP then the line gets cancelled and signup as a new fibre client with the new ISP. There was no installation costs involved as Openserve was running the free installation promo which as as I know has also ended so you might be better of just leaving your fibre line with Webafrica and look for another ISP elsewhere.

Most if not all ADSL accounts work with Openserve fibre lines. Just take note the uncapped accounts are usually speed limited so keep that in mind.

Some good capped unshaped options can be Vox Fatpipe, Afrihost premium capped, Axxess capped or cool ideas uncapped account but a bit pricy but excellent.

 

[jacof]

Thanks to @cavedog I can now test using a VOX account. I can already see that the speed is faster.
I have seen the router go to 100 Mbps a couple of times now.

Here you can see that WebAfrica was all over the place again from around 2:30.

I will test the rest of today and tomorrow with the VOX account. And then I will try some other also just to see which is more stable,

 

[SwiftFibreGuy]

OK I wrote some python code using the ookla speedtest API. I am now plotting the download and upload every 10 minutes.

are you willing to share the code? I sure it will be a great starting point for others in the same situation (and are able to compile)

 

[halfmoonforever]

Remember the nic port, if not greater than 100mb, will suffer from slower downspeeds as the upspeed (ack requests) will take up the rest. Had that happen on my mikrotik when I upgraded to 100mb line, the nic was also 100, and I only got max 93mbps because of the upload overhead