Crystal Web ADSL performance feedback thread Part 3...

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Anakha56 said:
See my problem? To investigate in the future maybe the help desk should be hosted locally? Or I don't know bring the friggin phone number back... 26 minutes and still no one has touched my ticket. I get you are busy with this International issue but I have been having this problem for some time now, the last time I was told that you guys need to diagnose the line before you can log a call with Telkom. Now I want the line diagnosed but it can't be done... *sigh*
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There are no local live chat providers and if we used our own hosted local solution, it would be of the garbage quality offered by many who currently offer such a solution. The phone number is there and working and is on our website, but will not help with diagnostics as that requires actual testing of the line with you.

Your issue here is related to Cloudfare not working which is part of NapAfrica going down today, so not part of a network issue related to us, nor part of the international outage (although there's a tenuous link here at the moment).

The guys are responding as quickly as humanly possible on support and I've added more guys on to support as it is as well to address.

Just a quick note, I'd suggest testing your line once Seacom, WACs, and NapAfrica are all back up, as any connection issues at the moment are in all likelihood tied to this issue...
 
I doubt the International issue has anything to do with my line authenticating issue. Using Telkom guest details the line authenticates immediately, CW details and it's dead. I have been having this issue for over a month now...
 
Anakha56 said:
I doubt the International issue has anything to do with my line authenticating issue. Using Telkom guest details the line authenticates immediately, CW details and it's dead. I have been having this issue for over a month now...
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PM me your username and I'll see what I can see on my end for you...
 
Update - the account is Cybersmart, but my brain read Crystalweb! But at least you know other ISPs are seeing the same problems - e.g. the error 522 pic above, I've been seeing that too.

[I'm seeing the same slow international speeds. (Rental btw, not my account). Cape Town speedtest gets full line speed of 4mbps, international getting 30kbps. This is the first week I've ever used CS - is this common, or is there a general problem affecting all ISPs?]
 
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nicklear said:
I'm seeing the same slow international speeds. (Rental btw, not my account). Cape Town speedtest gets full line speed of 4mbps, international getting 30kbps. This is the first week I've ever used CS - is this common, or is there a general problem affecting all ISPs?
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Hi, not sure if this was intended for us as Crystal Web (not CS) but we have a network notice out at the moment for this rather unprecedented event which is impacting all ISPs in SA. And I posted a little earlier in the thread about the issue. Our Twitter feed has also been updated.

In a nutshell, there's nothing wrong with the Crystal Web network, but both WACS and Seacom (international cable operators) have died, as have a number of services hosted by NapAfrica locally, so there's quite a major national disruption to all DSL services in the country right now.

It's certainly not a frequent occurrence and is certainly not anything to do with the way that we manage our network, but rather an isolated and quite bizarre incident...
 
nicklear said:
I'm seeing the same slow international speeds. (Rental btw, not my account). Cape Town speedtest gets full line speed of 4mbps, international getting 30kbps. This is the first week I've ever used CS - is this common, or is there a general problem affecting all ISPs?
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General affecting all. Two major Internet cables are down no idea why.
 
nicklear said:
I'm seeing the same slow international speeds. (Rental btw, not my account). Cape Town speedtest gets full line speed of 4mbps, international getting 30kbps. This is the first week I've ever used CS - is this common, or is there a general problem affecting all ISPs?
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Both WACs and Seacom international cables are reported as down or experiencing major troubles with throughput. During this time we are routing over alternate redundant international routes, and there is major pressure on these pipes due to the unexpected increased volume over the backup international cables. We also have notice of Google experiencing local peering issues. We suggest that you make use of our DNS services and not Google's during this time (if you have switched) and that you can expect increased international latencies and slower speeds while the issue is addressed by the various international cable providers.


Sauce: http://notices.crystalweb.co.za/
 
I can log in to my game (NA servers) and only have 10 more ping than usual adn only experience issues with cloudflare sites not loading - will take that with a yes please.
 
A few things I hope can be appreciated from this:

1) we have redundant links in place that work quite well (anyone recall the Seacom break a few years ago that broke SA internet?). While you can't financially plan for 2 international links going down at the same time, it helps to provision a lot of spare capacity elsewhere for such an event.
2) support was manned and numbers increased very quickly. While there was an issue initially where it took close on 30min to respond, that's no longer the case, with chats and tickets addressed in record times for an outage event. Your typical support desk response times increase massively over a time like this.
3) we kept network notices, Twitter alerts, and MyBB updated at all times and sent out SMS alerts to all customers within 15min of the confirmation of the issues. We also updated our call centre greeting to inform customers of the impact.
4) While international speeds and latencies are impacted, it's not broken and traffic still flows.

We'll continue to keep everyone informed as we receive more feedback and resolutions. Until then we'll keep things working as best we can to maintain as much of an uninterrupted service as possible given the unprecedented circumstances.

As always, best course of action is live chat 1st, then tickets or phone calls. Phone calls are always incredibly difficult to use to diagnose things as it inevitably involves tests that need to be shared with us, so always best imho to reserve that as a last resort if need be...
 
I certainly appreciate CW efforts! I didnt even know there was a problem until I got the notice alert, even then still didnt notice anything wrong. Latency playing D3 for a bit was just fine and browsing was just fine too! :)
 
I didn't even notice anything ;)
Just lag spikes in D3 which I put down to the fact that it's raining and Telkom can't waterproof my line...
 
Received the notification, but redundancy seems to be excellent.
Watching Netflix at 720 on 4Mbps line.

Thank you CW.
 
a job well done, you and your team did great. Thanks!

DJ... said:
A few things I hope can be appreciated from this:

1) we have redundant links in place that work quite well (anyone recall the Seacom break a few years ago that broke SA internet?). While you can't financially plan for 2 international links going down at the same time, it helps to provision a lot of spare capacity elsewhere for such an event.
2) support was manned and numbers increased very quickly. While there was an issue initially where it took close on 30min to respond, that's no longer the case, with chats and tickets addressed in record times for an outage event. Your typical support desk response times increase massively over a time like this.
3) we kept network notices, Twitter alerts, and MyBB updated at all times and sent out SMS alerts to all customers within 15min of the confirmation of the issues. We also updated our call centre greeting to inform customers of the impact.
4) While international speeds and latencies are impacted, it's not broken and traffic still flows.

We'll continue to keep everyone informed as we receive more feedback and resolutions. Until then we'll keep things working as best we can to maintain as much of an uninterrupted service as possible given the unprecedented circumstances.

As always, best course of action is live chat 1st, then tickets or phone calls. Phone calls are always incredibly difficult to use to diagnose things as it inevitably involves tests that need to be shared with us, so always best imho to reserve that as a last resort if need be...
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Good job CW. Of my 3 isps the only one that still works even if slightly slower then usual. Appreciated.
 
Useless support staff that don't know what to do beyond what they have learnt :/ I am having problems with slow speed...they tell me its my line, I ask what it might be I don't get anything...I mean whats the point of managing my line if you can't tell me whats wrong :/ reporting it to telkom is all good but now I am syncing at 5 megs down and 58kbps up...This has never happened before and I was stable on 10 megs for years now!!!
 
mugikhan said:
Useless support staff that don't know what to do beyond what they have learnt :/ I am having problems with slow speed...they tell me its my line, I ask what it might be I don't get anything...I mean whats the point of managing my line if you can't tell me whats wrong :/ reporting it to telkom is all good but now I am syncing at 5 megs down and 58kbps up...This has never happened before and I was stable on 10 megs for years now!!!
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Our support staff are far, far from useless, and are upskilled far beyond those of other ISPs. We however cannot intercede with line syncs as ISPs any longer, and we cannot interfere with Telkom's new automated ASSIA system that processes these changes. We can report the fault, but asking our staff what is causing it and accusing them of being useless for not knowing without a Telkom technician having actually been dispatched and investigating, is quite simply not on from where I stand. Our staff, when we manage the line, do not control Telkom technicians and their schedules, nor who is dispatched to which faults. If we could, we most certainly would.

I have checked with our staff and confirmed with the logs that at all times, all faults from your line have been timeously logged and communication has in fact been very good. At all times you have however accused us of being useless (this is not the 1st time by a long shot). I do believe that it is probably best that we migrate your line back to Telkom for you so that you can deal with them directly instead, as what Crystal Web manages with respect to the line has been explained to you before, by me personally. However it doesn't appear as if you wish to accept the limitations we are bound by by Telkom, and the line would probably be best managed by you and Telkom in the future. Your data account will remain unaffected, but if you agree I think it's best that we move the line back to avoid these misunderstandings and frustrations...
 
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