Crystal Web (NEW ISP) ADSL Feedback

[saa044]

i've had a great experience in the western cape better than mweb trial!

Ahh great, because when i was with Afrihost I could stream, but the rest said that even buffered. Not that I wanted to fall in the same boat as them, was just making me curious.

Was on 4mbps home uncapped

 

[slasherjdc]

Ahh great, because when i was with Afrihost I could stream, but the rest said that even buffered. Not that I wanted to fall in the same boat as them, was just making me curious.

Nah location makes a huge difference. Im curious about how eastern cape and kzn is doing (if they have anyone from there )

 

[saa044]

Nah location makes a huge difference. Im curious about how eastern cape and kzn is doing (if they have anyone from there )

Ahh ok, yeah that's what I am struggling with. Because these users will get 1080p on a 4mbps capped account, but on the home uncapped everything will be crap. I could understand distance from the exchange and so on, but the data account still baffles me when a test account will work and the uncapped account wont work for them, but me on the same shaping could still stream.

 

[slasherjdc]

Ahh ok, yeah that's what I am struggling with. Because these users will get 1080p on a 4mbps capped account, but on the home uncapped everything will be crap. I could understand distance from the exchange and so on, but the data account still baffles me when a test account will work and the uncapped account wont work for them, but me on the same shaping could still stream.

it's called congestion you feel it more on uncapped accounts as they are shaped.
meh tbh if you want to stream 1080 you should be on a 10mb line also it depends what bitrate your 1080p is....... depends on what your watching, bitrate isn't constant normally(if what your watching has constant bitrate....run....run far away) sometime you can watch one thing in 1080 the next only in 720 as even youtube 1080p has a bitrate of 3.5mb - 8mb....that means you need a 10mb line to watch everything in 1080p w/o buffering but a 4mb line can handle it but will buffer depending on what your watching(netflix uses a lower bitrate last i checked though and only needs 3.5.....and yes this means netflix quality isn't anywhere close to bluray quality) :/

 

[Paul Hjul]

Nah location makes a huge difference. Im curious about how eastern cape and kzn is doing (if they have anyone from there )

*raises hand*
I am based in the Eastern Cape - not there right now, missed the surfing for Crystal Web

My mom is reporting good speeds but she uses the iPad for all her internets, and to the best of my knowledge only streams youtube videos and not any of the dodgy sites that cause problems

 

[ShoalDiverSA]

KZN here (Durban). Since resetting DNS to ISP-assigned yesterday, it's been full speed ahead. Yes, UnoTelly DNS is not supposed to make a difference, but it definitely did for me. International before DNS change - flakey, after change - rock solid.

Speed tests:
Intl:


CT:


Jhb:


Ran Glasnost ISP tests this morning: Great results for torrent, NNTP, streaming and HTTP. I won't publish the results as I was working at the time, so I may have skewed them a bit. Certainly not good benchmarking practice - I was just doing it for interest's sake.

I've had YouTube open most of the afternoon running video playlists to keep me entertained while I work (yes). Videos are defaulting to 720p. Here's the YT "nerds" stats from a video I just watched in 720p:



My sports event of the day is currently downloading (private tracker), as I've scheduled P2P from midnight to 6am, in anticipation of the planned P2P shaping policy.



So, I'm very happy with my CW account's performance, and glad I didn't jump to the temporary solution before picking up the DNS issue. I'm sure that the DNS routing will get sorted out in time. For now, my primary needs for the account are fulfilled. No gaming feedback, sorry. These days it's mostly my son and I racing split-screen on the Xbox.

 

[Electric]

*raises hand*
I am based in the Eastern Cape - not there right now, missed the surfing for Crystal Web

My mom is reporting good speeds but she uses the iPad for all her internets, and to the best of my knowledge only streams youtube videos and not any of the dodgy sites that cause problems

Lol, like the other alternatives aren't dodgy?
I would like service that streams, not just streams some services well Paul.
I don't torrent, don't really use nntp anymore, hardly go above 100gb.
Yet many 'dodgy' streaming sites don't work at all on CW.

Eastern Cape by the way.

 

[snail112]

Lol, like the other alternatives aren't dodgy?
I would like service that streams, not just streams some services well Paul.
I don't torrent, don't really use nntp anymore, hardly go above 100gb.
Yet many 'dodgy' streaming sites don't work at all on CW.

Eastern Cape by the way.

I hope the fix is here soon. I am in the north east subs of Pretoria and my CW account don't work well with CW nntp account either. I had to get some prepaid cap 2am this morning just to get ahead a bit on my downloads, cause my IS temp account don't work either.

I hope all this is sorted by the end of the month.....

 

[Hectic]

Nah location makes a huge difference. Im curious about how eastern cape and kzn is doing (if they have anyone from there )

4Mbps - 80km outside PE
I've had the international link problem. Speed tests on International would be between 0.34 and 1.3Mbps on my 4Mbps line. Local would give me 3.4 - 3.6Mbps.
Ping 213ms - International and local - 34ms

Download speed would not always reflect the speed tests results. Often it would be better, but I did have low speed downloads as well.
I don't stream any of the Netflix, Hulu, etc, but Supersport always streams well. You need to give it 15 -30 seconds to settle, but then it really does go well.

So far the CW preformed excellent over the weekend. Full speed downloads and Speed test does reflect line speed as well.(local and international)

I'm sticking with CW atm. They still have things to sort out, but at this stage they value their customesrs and will have my vote till that changes.

 

[Crystal Web]

Lol, like the other alternatives aren't dodgy?
I would like service that streams, not just streams some services well Paul.
I don't torrent, don't really use nntp anymore, hardly go above 100gb.
Yet many 'dodgy' streaming sites don't work at all on CW.

Eastern Cape by the way.

Most of the so-called *ahem* streaming sites are not streaming sites with CDN networks at all. They're simply a file hosting site on a VPS with an index, and it works the same as a normal http download. Actual streaming protocols are completely unshaped on our network even on the international link, but these "other" sorts of services are not possible to prioritise for an ISP, especially considering that they're continuously changing their IP addresses. Moreover many of these sites are just indexers linking to other sites. And for every ten services one customer wants us to prioritise there's another 500 from other customers.

But because it's an http download we can arrange for it to be treated properly on the network irrespective of the site in question, so we're working on that at the moment following feedback.

 

[saa044]

Most of the so-called *ahem* streaming sites are not streaming sites with CDN networks at all. They're simply a file hosting site on a VPS with an index, and it works the same as a normal http download. Actual streaming protocols are completely unshaped on our network even on the international link, but these "other" sorts of services are not possible to prioritise for an ISP, especially considering that they're continuously changing their IP addresses. Moreover many of these sites are just indexers linking to other sites. And for every ten services one customer wants us to prioritise there's another 500 from other customers.

But because it's an http download we can arrange for it to be treated properly on the network irrespective of the site in question, so we're working on that at the moment following feedback.

Nowvideo
Movreel
Gorillavid
Sockshare
Putlocker

With those you should be good to go, most videos are on those sites. The indexer sites link to those sites.

EDIT

Most of the dodgy sites work REALLY good on my end, please don't change anything. I could stream a 720P movie via xbmc on a 1.2mbps profile. 1.2mbps = my q tree for the Android stick in the front of the house on the tv.

 

[Sinbad]

Just had a half hour d3 session with mostly green and only a couple of orange spikes... Things are improving :-D

 

[zll]

Most of the so-called *ahem* streaming sites are not streaming sites with CDN networks at all. They're simply a file hosting site on a VPS with an index, and it works the same as a normal http download. Actual streaming protocols are completely unshaped on our network even on the international link, but these "other" sorts of services are not possible to prioritise for an ISP, especially considering that they're continuously changing their IP addresses. Moreover many of these sites are just indexers linking to other sites. And for every ten services one customer wants us to prioritise there's another 500 from other customers.

But because it's an http download we can arrange for it to be treated properly on the network irrespective of the site in question, so we're working on that at the moment following feedback.

Completely legit services highest priority on the network please

That's my feedback

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

Nowvideo
Movreel
Gorillavid
Sockshare
Putlocker

With those you should be good to go, most videos are on those sites. The indexer sites link to those sites.

EDIT

Most of the dodgy sites work REALLY good on my end, please don't change anything. I could stream a 720P movie via xbmc on a 1.2mbps profile. 1.2mbps = my q tree for the Android stick in the front of the house on the tv.

Just a matter of time though before any number of those sites either get their domains seized, have to move servers or just shut down completely.

 

[slasherjdc]

Completely legit services highest priority on the network please

That's my feedback

that disqualifies netflix too just so you know, because alot of those dodgy streaming sites are legal in some countries which actually means they are just as legal as netflix

Just a matter of time though before any number of those sites either get their domains seized, have to move servers or just shut down completely.

the sites he just mentioned are over 5 years old, they can only get seized if they are actually illegal in the country they are hosted in :/

 

[Crystal Web]

We don't make a distinction between "legal" and "illegal" at all. If a product is offered over a proper streaming service and protocol you won't get a better connection than Crystal Web as streaming services operate in a completely uncontended pool of bandwidth. We've had a few questions about Twitch in this respect as well - Twitch is an interesting one. We spent some time analysing it and setting up the shaping tags to register it correctly, but for some reason Twitch have this tendency to switch between streams and downloads, so we're constantly having to update stuff for Twitch to always work perfectly. The biggest issue with Twitch though appears to be their peering in Europe, but since we peer directly in London these issues are mitigated on our network as well.

Twitch in our testing now works beautifully on Crystal Web accounts.

Quite literally the only two issues left are the slow international download speeds on http for some users in Gauteng, and occasional packet loss for gamers on the international link. The packet loss we're quite sure we've got sorted out now as well but are still testing it on our end.

We've even hired a gamer to test for us, and we've even downloaded Diablo to test in-game now as well as management on occasion. We have no idea what we're doing in Diablo to be honest, and please, no guides! We're ok with not knowing. We have no time to get hooked on online gaming now too.

 

[slasherjdc]

We don't make a distinction between "legal" and "illegal" at all. If a product is offered over a proper streaming service and protocol you won't get a better connection than Crystal Web as streaming services operate in a completely uncontended pool of bandwidth. We've had a few questions about Twitch in this respect as well - Twitch is an interesting one. We spent some time analysing it and setting up the shaping tags to register it correctly, but for some reason Twitch have this tendency to switch between streams and downloads, so we're constantly having to update stuff for Twitch to always work perfectly. The biggest issue with Twitch though appears to be their peering in Europe, but since we peer directly in London these issues are mitigated on our network as well.

Twitch in our testing now works beautifully on Crystal Web accounts.

Quite literally the only two issues left are the slow international download speeds on http for some users in Gauteng, and occasional packet loss for gamers on the international link. The packet loss we're quite sure we've got sorted out now as well but are still testing it on our end.

We've even hired a gamer to test for us, and we've even downloaded Diablo to test in-game now as well as management on occasion. We have no idea what we're doing in Diablo to be honest, and please, no guides! We're ok with not knowing. We have no time to get hooked on online gaming now too.

twitch is a nightmare for every ISP there is complaints in almost every country not just here.....it's not like only SA struggles with twitch

sounds like a plan

 

[saa044]

We don't make a distinction between "legal" and "illegal" at all. If a product is offered over a proper streaming service and protocol you won't get a better connection than Crystal Web as streaming services operate in a completely uncontended pool of bandwidth. We've had a few questions about Twitch in this respect as well - Twitch is an interesting one. We spent some time analysing it and setting up the shaping tags to register it correctly, but for some reason Twitch have this tendency to switch between streams and downloads, so we're constantly having to update stuff for Twitch to always work perfectly. The biggest issue with Twitch though appears to be their peering in Europe, but since we peer directly in London these issues are mitigated on our network as well.

Twitch in our testing now works beautifully on Crystal Web accounts.

Quite literally the only two issues left are the slow international download speeds on http for some users in Gauteng, and occasional packet loss for gamers on the international link. The packet loss we're quite sure we've got sorted out now as well but are still testing it on our end.

We've even hired a gamer to test for us, and we've even downloaded Diablo to test in-game now as well as management on occasion. We have no idea what we're doing in Diablo to be honest, and please, no guides! We're ok with not knowing. We have no time to get hooked on online gaming now too.

Defiance is free, hint hint. Although I'm the only one playing it. US North server if you guys decide to test it, but for now it works OK on my end. I know I am only one customer and can't expect you guys to tune the shaper just for me, but hey I am taking a chance here.

 

[Sinbad]

Please make sure you have all the D3 traffic tagged as realtime. I've seen many ISPs who mistakenly flag some of it as p2p, and then EINA.

 

[Lord Nikon6]

this is good news, will be sorted by the Destiny launch date then