Cool Ideas Fibre ISP – Feedback Thread 4

[Joseph_]

Had no internet early this morning from 1:30 to 2:30. Getting out of hand now.

 

[PBCool]

k. But I have a friend who I play games with in the evening, living on a remote farm using telkom LTE. Who doesn't have any packet loss in the evenings. Ever. During loadshedding. His connection slows down a bit.
I find it incredibly hard to believe that there is simply not solution to this ****.

Every ****ing evening.
Every single evening for months. Then when there isn't any packet loss, it's hard to celebrate, because all you have to do is wait one more day for it.
I'm ****ing done. R1499 a month. For what?
The moment your internet connectivity starts running like a eskom schedule you're ****ed.

Hi there, we are aware of this and are awaiting for a service provider to assist in diagnosing.

It hasn't been for months relative to this issue, we can resolve this by bypassing the Accelerator in JHB but then any customer with slight packet loss will have poor performance. So a bit of a catch 22.

I will push for an update on it today.

 

[Joseph_]

Hi,

Does this have anything to do with fixing Vuma Villages? https://coolideas.co.za/announcements/22184

 

[Satedah]

Hi there, we are aware of this and are awaiting for a service provider to assist in diagnosing.

It hasn't been for months relative to this issue, we can resolve this by bypassing the Accelerator in JHB but then any customer with slight packet loss will have poor performance. So a bit of a catch 22.

I will push for an update on it today.

My first post about this problem was beginning of October. That was after I'd had packet loss for a while in the evenings. As you're aware I'm also not the only one.
Relative to packet loss, it has been months.
Where my problem with all this comes in, is I'm paying for a service here. Being told to "hang tight" when the service I'm paying for isn't being delivered. I, along with many other clients have been exceptionally patient and lenient.
It simply baffles me that two of my mates, both living on remote farms using LTE are getting BETTER more consistent service than I am.
Do I appreciate having representatives to talk to here and front the issue to, of course. Its the single reason I haven't already swapped ISP's. But if the issue simply cannot be fixed. And by fixed, I mean... fixed. Not "It should be okay tonight, but tomorrow is anyone's guess". - if it can't be fixed, even a simple deadline helps. Rather just tell me. If it required an infrastructure upgrade that's too expensive and not worth the small handful of clients complaining, that's also fair. But let me know.

 

[PBCool]

My first post about this problem was beginning of October. That was after I'd had packet loss for a while in the evenings. As you're aware I'm also not the only one.
Relative to packet loss, it has been months.
Where my problem with all this comes in, is I'm paying for a service here. Being told to "hang tight" when the service I'm paying for isn't being delivered. I, along with many other clients have been exceptionally patient and lenient.
It simply baffles me that two of my mates, both living on remote farms using LTE are getting BETTER more consistent service than I am.
Do I appreciate having representatives to talk to here and front the issue to, of course. Its the single reason I haven't already swapped ISP's. But if the issue simply cannot be fixed. And by fixed, I mean... fixed. Not "It should be okay tonight, but tomorrow is anyone's guess". - if it can't be fixed, even a simple deadline helps. Rather just tell me. If it required an infrastructure upgrade that's too expensive and not worth the small handful of clients complaining, that's also fair. But let me know.

All of your issues are different ones, from FNO to international transit. It's unfortunate that they have been continous.

Hence why I mention loss on our side on international has not been something that has been happening for "months".

It has nothing to do with upgrading infrastructure on our side, and you may still have loss when we resolve our Accelerator issue which would then need to go back to the FNO.

As mentioned previously the level of load shedding is having a major impact on the FNOs and certain routes.

My LTE this weekend would completely die off during loadshedding.

This is the sum total of observed loss out of JHB last night:



Does it correlate with what you were seeing?

 

[Satedah]

Thanks for the above,
I would say the graph is accurate, based off of last night for sure.
However, around the 8:30-9:00 mark packet loss was as high as 20% on my end. Not sure if the 2.22% is an average over the entire time span above.
Look when it comes to LTE, for me personally, it's ****. However, when there wasn't loadshedding on my tower specifically, I didn't get packet loss.
So I'm not sure, while loadshedding obviously plays a role here... I think as a nation we are passed the point of using it as an excuse for poor service delivery.
Whether the loss is due to you guys, an FNO or whomever. There has got to be accountability for it.
Are you able to help me understand how the packet loss is only an issue during peak times when loadshedding is all day and night?

 

[CrypticZA]

Thanks for the above,
I would say the graph is accurate, based off of last night for sure.
However, around the 8:30-9:00 mark packet loss was as high as 20% on my end. Not sure if the 2.22% is an average over the entire time span above.
Look when it comes to LTE, for me personally, it's ****. However, when there wasn't loadshedding on my tower specifically, I didn't get packet loss.
So I'm not sure, while loadshedding obviously plays a role here... I think as a nation we are passed the point of using it as an excuse for poor service delivery.
Whether the loss is due to you guys, an FNO or whomever. There has got to be accountability for it.
Are you able to help me understand how the packet loss is only an issue during peak times when loadshedding is all day and night?

During peak hours especially during loadshedding the demand on a fibre network is a lot higher because everyone is on their phones, tablets, laptops etc.

I personally am on a very solid Vumatel network in Cape Town and generally do not suffer much with reduced speeds etc BUT when we have loadshedding at 6pm-10pm around that period my 100/100 line often suffers a lot because everyone is online.- this suffering is still not bad i'd maybe get like 80-90

That is the only time i see reduced speeds and response times i can have loadshedding in the morning etc and its perfect.

I am working from home today i am in 1 hour 22 minutes into my loadhsedding and speed is perfect


However i got 6 to 10pm tonight and this result won't be the same

 

[r00igev@@r]

My first post about this problem was beginning of October. That was after I'd had packet loss for a while in the evenings. As you're aware I'm also not the only one.
Relative to packet loss, it has been months.
Where my problem with all this comes in, is I'm paying for a service here. Being told to "hang tight" when the service I'm paying for isn't being delivered. I, along with many other clients have been exceptionally patient and lenient.
It simply baffles me that two of my mates, both living on remote farms using LTE are getting BETTER more consistent service than I am.
Do I appreciate having representatives to talk to here and front the issue to, of course. Its the single reason I haven't already swapped ISP's. But if the issue simply cannot be fixed. And by fixed, I mean... fixed. Not "It should be okay tonight, but tomorrow is anyone's guess". - if it can't be fixed, even a simple deadline helps. Rather just tell me. If it required an infrastructure upgrade that's too expensive and not worth the small handful of clients complaining, that's also fair. But let me know.

Where are these farms and can I buy one close by?

 

[Satedah]

Where are these farms and can I buy one close by?

Drop me a message fam, I'm about to do the same. Things I do for stable internet.

 

[Satedah]

During peak hours especially during loadshedding the demand on a fibre network is a lot higher because everyone is on their phones, tablets, laptops etc.

I personally am on a very solid Vumatel network in Cape Town and generally do not suffer much with reduced speeds etc BUT when we have loadshedding at 6pm-10pm around that period my 100/100 line often suffers a lot because everyone is online.- this suffering is still not bad i'd maybe get like 80-90

That is the only time i see reduced speeds and response times i can have loadshedding in the morning etc and its perfect.

I am working from home today i am in 1 hour 22 minutes into my loadhsedding and speed is perfect


However i got 6 to 10pm tonight and this result won't be the same

So while I understand general congestion. (Experienced this with various ISP's/Service internet etc)
I don't see how we can use congestion as an excuse.
Now is the packet loss related to congestion due to loadshedding and people not having anything to do, so they're on the net. Is it related to loadshedding in the sense that the infrastructure is dying out due to no electricity. Is it a combination of the above?
Most importantly... how does the problem get resolved. Loadshedding is going to be here for a very very long time. It has been here for an even longer time already. It can no longer be used as an excuse. It could be the REASON, but prolonged consistent issues every night due to loadshedding isn't an excuse.
I don't mind... if one night randomly there's an issue. But at this stage it is so consistent.
I also wouldn't mind if I had my invoice cost reduced, based on the number of days there's issues. Because then I'm getting what I'm paying for.
If I wanted to cancel right now, I have to give a full calendar months notice. But I cannot even get a full calendar months stable internet connectivity.

 

[Noah]

Can I bribe you to give me your vumatel techies number so I can harass them personally? Approaching 20 days of packetloss in the evening and there needs to be some sort of accountability.

 

[CrypticZA]

So while I understand general congestion. (Experienced this with various ISP's/Service internet etc)
I don't see how we can use congestion as an excuse.
Now is the packet loss related to congestion due to loadshedding and people not having anything to do, so they're on the net. Is it related to loadshedding in the sense that the infrastructure is dying out due to no electricity. Is it a combination of the above?
Most importantly... how does the problem get resolved. Loadshedding is going to be here for a very very long time. It has been here for an even longer time already. It can no longer be used as an excuse. It could be the REASON, but prolonged consistent issues every night due to loadshedding isn't an excuse.
I don't mind... if one night randomly there's an issue. But at this stage it is so consistent.
I also wouldn't mind if I had my invoice cost reduced, based on the number of days there's issues. Because then I'm getting what I'm paying for.
If I wanted to cancel right now, I have to give a full calendar months notice. But I cannot even get a full calendar months stable internet connectivity.

The internet is like a road, the more cars on it the more traffic, people are bored during loadshedding so they sit and all stream on multiple devices vs 1 TV for example meaning the road gets busy and congested and it leads to bumper to bumper traffic aka packet loss.

The way you overcome this is the fibre provider needs a big enough road to facilitate everyone and so does the ISP. In Cool Ideas case their network is generally big enough if it wasn't everyone would be suffering at the same time and complaining all at the same time.

The big problem is most of the fibre providers here just don't give a rats ass they will just point the blame at the ISP and the customer gets pissed off and angry and the ISP can't do much other than say its the fibre providers issue which is is. Some of the fibre providers i am not naming and shaming use cheaper hardware and their network constantly has issues where others use proper good quality equipment.

In my case Vumatel's network (road) is a lot bigger than required when they initially rolled the network out here i think they had a 20G switch they quickly upgraded that to a 100G switch and since then things have run smooth.

In some cases the lack of backup/routes going down around a pop leads to congestion on other routes since things get rerouted and a certain route is then over saturated with traffic.

Hopefully this covers everything

 

[PBCool]

Thanks for the above,
I would say the graph is accurate, based off of last night for sure.
However, around the 8:30-9:00 mark packet loss was as high as 20% on my end. Not sure if the 2.22% is an average over the entire time span above.
Look when it comes to LTE, for me personally, it's ****. However, when there wasn't loadshedding on my tower specifically, I didn't get packet loss.
So I'm not sure, while loadshedding obviously plays a role here... I think as a nation we are passed the point of using it as an excuse for poor service delivery.
Whether the loss is due to you guys, an FNO or whomever. There has got to be accountability for it.
Are you able to help me understand how the packet loss is only an issue during peak times when loadshedding is all day and night?

If you had loss outside of the darker parts of that graph then it is probably FNO congestion, what we've seen of late that FNOs often have a primary and diverse route. Primary goes down due to loadshedding and you get loss on the diverse having less capacity.

But for the most part it is just FNO congestion, PM me your account details so that we can get a head start on that part.

 

[PBCool]

Can I bribe you to give me your vumatel techies number so I can harass them personally? Approaching 20 days of packetloss in the evening and there needs to be some sort of accountability.

What is your support ref number?

 

[Satedah]

The internet is like a road, the more cars on it the more traffic, people are bored during loadshedding so they sit and all stream on multiple devices vs 1 TV for example meaning the road gets busy and congested and it leads to bumper to bumper traffic aka packet loss.

The way you overcome this is the fibre provider needs a big enough road to facilitate everyone and so does the ISP. In Cool Ideas case their network is generally big enough if it wasn't everyone would be suffering at the same time and complaining all at the same time.

The big problem is most of the fibre providers here just don't give a rats ass they will just point the blame at the ISP and the customer gets pissed off and angry and the ISP can't do much other than say its the fibre providers issue which is is. Some of the fibre providers i am not naming and shaming use cheaper hardware and their network constantly has issues where others use proper good quality equipment.

In my case Vumatel's network (road) is a lot bigger than required when they initially rolled the network out here i think they had a 20G switch they quickly upgraded that to a 100G switch and since then things have run smooth.

In some cases the lack of backup/routes going down around a pop leads to congestion on other routes since things get rerouted and a certain route is then over saturated with traffic.

Hopefully this covers everything

Yeah I worked for vuma for 6 years. I was there during the CPT saga.
I guess the issue for me is that after months of issues, whether it be routing, CISP, loadshedding, a failed network upgrade/downgrade and broken switch or a change in the weather. It has now all boiled down to "Most likely FNO congestion". See where the anger is coming from ?
I don't see congestion as a viable excuse either. It all boils down to "don't sell a product you cannot supply".
Perhaps in my area CISP should downgrade everyone running a package higher than 50mbs. If it means my packet loss goes away. I'm fine with that.

 

[Noah]

Yeah I worked for vuma for 6 years. I was there during the CPT saga.
I guess the issue for me is that after months of issues, whether it be routing, CISP, loadshedding, a failed network upgrade/downgrade and broken switch or a change in the weather. It has now all boiled down to "Most likely FNO congestion". See where the anger is coming from ?
I don't see congestion as a viable excuse either. It all boils down to "don't sell a product you cannot supply".
Perhaps in my area CISP should downgrade everyone running a package higher than 50mbs. If it means my packet loss goes away. I'm fine with that.

So true.

 

[PBCool]

Yeah I worked for vuma for 6 years. I was there during the CPT saga.
I guess the issue for me is that after months of issues, whether it be routing, CISP, loadshedding, a failed network upgrade/downgrade and broken switch or a change in the weather. It has now all boiled down to "Most likely FNO congestion". See where the anger is coming from ?
I don't see congestion as a viable excuse either. It all boils down to "don't sell a product you cannot supply".
Perhaps in my area CISP should downgrade everyone running a package higher than 50mbs. If it means my packet loss goes away. I'm fine with that.

Well no this is why I mentioned there are multiple moving parts, hence me sharing our graph. Once that is cleared up then it would be onto the FNO.

Downgrading everyone actually doesn't really matter, the average use per line at scale is around 5Mbps at peak.

The solution would be OLT or backhaul upgrades. I would suggest doing iperfs during peak times and off peak.

What service are you having issues with at peak?

 

[Satedah]

It depends, I would say streaming services (Netflix etc) are fine. But that's almost always the case with Packet loss.
Playing any games internationally, severely impacted. I often work between 6-9PM with the States. Every now and again my zoom calls will be buggered.
Most of the issues lie when hitting the UK. If I test to Georgia at the same time, I generally have no packet loss, while having 20% to UK such as last night.

 

[CrypticZA]

It depends, I would say streaming services (Netflix etc) are fine. But that's almost always the case with Packet loss.
Playing any games internationally, severely impacted. I often work between 6-9PM with the States. Every now and again my zoom calls will be buggered.
Most of the issues lie when hitting the UK. If I test to Georgia at the same time, I generally have no packet loss, while having 20% to UK such as last night.

This message complicates things because you saying getting to the UK is problematic but all traffic going to NA goes via the UK so if all traffic to the UK has packet loss all traffic going to the US will also have traffic.

Netflix is served local, Zoom if i recall is peered locally so doesn't use CISP transit international - could be wrong here

The US traffic however could be like Amazon which is picked up locally which would point to packet loss on CISP network, it could also be packet loss on a peer in the UK someone like Coreix is in the UK as well but they pickup traffic at London exchange so the hosts of these tests would need to be consistent.

Gaming international quite a lot of gaming traffic these days seems to go via Google/Microsoft and Amazon all picked up locally so would suggest packet loss on fibre network.

 

[luckystrike]

Hello,

I just wanted to let you guys know that exitlag improved a lot for South Africa. And the pricing isn't in USD anymore(Was $6.50) R69 per month or R40 pm if you take it for a year. I know we all want our ISP's to have the best solution but I thought I would just share what works for me. Maybe somebody finds it helpful.

I will list some in-game screenshots for Apex Singapore and Overwatch EU from Pretoria. I also use it for EU Apex and I found that the ping would always be the same or better compared to my brother with just Cool Ideas. They also fixed the option that you select Europe for Apex and exitlag will pick the servers.