Fix Afrihost Google Services Issues (28/06/2015)

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Fix Afrihost Google Services Issues (28/06/2015) *not perfect*

How to fix the SERIOUSLY slow Google services on Afrihost/Afrihost MTN Capped.

This guide is for Windows, but the same principles apply to other operating systems.

1. Go to this location in your file explorer: %windir%\System32\drivers\etc
2. Copy the hosts file in there to your desktop.
3. Open the hosts file on the desktop with notepad (or another simple text editor -- NOT a rich text editor like Word).
4. Enter the text from this file to the to the end of your hosts file: http://pastebin.com/n0uHqxfG (text was too long for a post, sorry)
5. Save it
6. Copy the hosts file from the desktop back to %windir%\System32\drivers\etc
7. Say yes to overwrite it.

Google has never been so fast.

Credit to everyone who contributed to the thread: http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/242316-Forcing-Google-Services-to-local-(RSA)-IP-address
 
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i remember this,

im on axxess but using this "fix" youtube vids don't even start loading
but hope this works for afrihost users,but thx for sharing :)
 
this will break Afrihost lmao

They rely so heavily on local cache...
 
NAHH this "fix" breaks alot of stuff. sites still take minutes to load now. youtube videos don't even start to load, gchat is inoperative, among other google services. if this is a solution i dont want to see the problem. Thanks for trying but this doesnt help at all. :(
 
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Thank for this. It does help with the issue a lot. Pitty we have to do this though.
Changed the format to add to Mikrotik static DNS cache if any one needs it: http://pastebin.com/R6A34JLQ
 
So what is Afrihost's problem why can't they sort the caching?
 
LBXAC20 said:
NAHH this "fix" breaks alot of stuff. sites still take minutes to load now. youtube videos don't even start to load, gchat is inoperative, among other google services. if this is a solution i dont want to see the problem. Thanks for trying but this doesnt help at all. :(
Click to expand...

tanka said:
Thank for this. It does help with the issue a lot. Pitty we have to do this though.
Changed the format to add to Mikrotik static DNS cache if any one needs it: http://pastebin.com/R6A34JLQ
Click to expand...

Yeah sorry it's not a perfect solution... There are just so many Google/YouTube servers that one simply cannot obtain a difinitive list of each and every one, and even if one could, it would change within the hour with a new served popping up.

If anyone knows some local DNS software for Windows that actually works, please let me know. The ability to use wildcards would be nice.
 
No thanks I don't believe in this extensive hacking of the hosts file
 
Now i get this:


1a95110520.png
 
Strange how the Youtube ads play fine, but the video you want to watch stutter..
 
lol at having to mess around in your hosts file to make basic services work.
 
I have afrihost but have no problems with Google ok i only have a 2 mg line my host file is blank on all my computers.maybe you should use google dns servers not the isp's dns
 
craigcul said:
I have afrihost but have no problems with Google ok i only have a 2 mg line my host file is blank on all my computers.maybe you should use google dns servers not the isp's dns
Click to expand...

Doesn't make any difference.

My understanding with how Google is meant to work is through Anycast. Basically any where in the world you get the same IP address for Google servers. However you then are routed to the closest one.

However what appears to be happening is the Google cache that is used on the MTN servers is not working so it is being routed to Europe. Now Afrihost has the worst international throughput on most services and these is extremely true for connections to Google as they expect it to be local. These international throughput is leading to the shocking and sometimes non existent connections.

Not 100% on this but based on the speed of other international services like Twitch it seems to hold. International throughput on other ISPs (Vox, Web Africa, Crystal Web) does not give me issues.

Of course they will deny it but according to them their network is rosey.
 
T-Man said:
Strange how the Youtube ads play fine, but the video you want to watch stutter..
Click to expand...
I think that the YouTube ad cache servers are covered in the hosts file, but the actual video cache servers are not. I can't find a list of all of the YouTube servers anywhere.

craigcul said:
I have afrihost but have no problems with Google ok i only have a 2 mg line my host file is blank on all my computers.maybe you should use google dns servers not the isp's dns
Click to expand...

The problem was occurring late yesterday. Changing my DNS to 8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4 resulted in literally nothing working properly, not just Google services. The problem may not have existed for all users, but, judging by the activity on the forums last night, it certainly affected a lot.
 
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