Hulu and Afrihost

[thorza]

Hi Afriman

Thanks for the feedback. I am using a a telkom billion 810vgt router as I understand it to be a bit more robust but wireless does on occasion pose some challenges. This is specifically why I ran ethernet for the desktops and media players. 1 drop per per port.

I ran a tracert www.hulu.com from a desktop and router came up for all three on <1ms.

My network is therefore fine although I still think there is room for improvement.

Did you perhaps see anything else funny?

 

[thorza]

Hi Buyeye

Who is your ISP and what bandwidth are you using? Also are you using a media player or watching on a PC?

 

[thorza]

Get a 1) Prepaid ADSL account (WebAfrica) & 2) an eleDNS trial account.

And using combinations with your existing AfriHost & UnoTelly accounts should enable you
to troubleshoot where the fault originates.

Hi @udi3

Thanks for the tip. Have never tried WebAfrica or eleDNS. Are you using them with Hulu Plus? and what is your experience with them?
I will try them if Afrihost does not sort this out.

 

[AfriMan]

No offence dude, but to say you don't support an internet service, whatever it is is just wrong.

Obviously there's a routing issue somewhere with some link that is at capacity.

You guys need to look at the issue.

Once you start using external proxy's and DNS, it becomes very difficult to know which is acting on your performance. I think we do have to have a reasonable disclaimer to say that we can't guarantee your performance on a service that is intentionally not available in this country.

We'll try our best to help, and will continue to do what we can, but unless we control all of the variables, it's impossible to make a commitment to clients

 

[AfriMan]

Hi Afriman

Thanks for the feedback. I am using a a telkom billion 810vgt router as I understand it to be a bit more robust but wireless does on occasion pose some challenges. This is specifically why I ran ethernet for the desktops and media players. 1 drop per per port.

I ran a tracert www.hulu.com from a desktop and router came up for all three on <1ms.

My network is therefore fine although I still think there is room for improvement.

Did you perhaps see anything else funny?

So the traces you sent we over wireless? Can I see a new trace over the LAN cable - unless I'm misunderstanding. Maybe drop me a PM rather so we can check it out

 

[Hush9300]

Netflix and Hulu work just fine for me on a 4Mbps Afrihost account using the UnoTelly DNS.

iTunes streaming is fine too provided its in SD.

 

[Grubscrew]

I have notice that hulu streams like crap on my samsung tv with smarttv, but from my PC or tablets it streams in HD no problem. Afrihost 4mb vanilla uncapped with Unotelly.

 

[boerinbeton]

Im on a 150 GB capped account. Netflix works fine. Hulu buffers every 20 seconds or so. Using unotellys unodns.

Is anyone else using webafrica for hulu?

 

[Hush9300]

Im on a 150 GB capped account. Netflix works fine. Hulu buffers every 20 seconds or so. Using unotellys unodns.

Is anyone else using webafrica for hulu?

That's strange. I find Hulu to be the better service on Afrihost due to the stream quality.

I too am using UnoTelly...

What's your line speed?

 

[buyeye]

Hi Buyeye

Who is your ISP and what bandwidth are you using? Also are you using a media player or watching on a PC?

It's afrihost, I'm using an apple tv over wifi.

lol that's why I responded to this thread due to the title.

 

[JV_011_]

no surprises there... its a business account. I would expect ALL traffic to be unshaped on a business account

Its the same thing even with a normal 4 MB line.

I am using both Hulu and Netflix on my PS3, Netflix works fine but Hulu takes 2 minutes to load an advert

 

[Wackyza]

I find this quite odd. I am not saying its not Afrihost, but I am with Telkom and experiencing the same problem. I have been using netflix and hulu for 6+ months now on 4mb Telkom uncapped and Afrihost Capped. Up untill 2 months ago i had no issues streaming hulu either account. Now, netflix works 100%, Hulu episodes work 100% but the adverts stutter and take minutes to load. It has become so frustrating that I have cancelled my Hulu subscription. If i add up all the time i wait for adds, i could of possible grabbed the episode in that time and not have watched any adds. Netflix is anyway better IMHO. My point though is, that i think this problem might not be related to specific isp's.

 

[qaz]

I have a similar issue that may be related. I'm using iMediashare to stream Wibi.tv movies. They use Amazon storage, the same as Netflix I believe.

I experienced a lot of buffering (every 10-20 seconds) on my normal capped Afrihost account, streaming SD content. Afer a few days of testing I got a capped trial account from Openweb (IS) and the same content now streams smoothly, with no buffering issues.

Strangely, I ran a ping plot on both accounts and neither has obvious issues - no spikes, packet loss or abnormally high pings. Obviously a tracert isn't the same as streaming content, so could this be a shaping issue from Afrihost?

 

[droplet]

youtube is crap on uncapped afrihost. on capped afrihost it is fine. that is my experience since moving to afrihost this month

 

[freethenet]

DO NOT USE Afrihost for Hulu & Netflix!!!

Hi Guys

I hope you can help. I have Netflix and Hulu plus with Unotelly. I am using a Samsung blueray player and WD tvplus to stream to tv. both media players are connected via ethernet cables. I was with Mweb and have now joined Afrihost based upon the reviews got here. My account is a 4mbs uncapped and I have reduced my streaming to sd650kbs for Hulu Plus. Challenge I got is that since I moved to afrihost I cannot watch Hulu on my media players. it pause for buffering every 30 seconds. Two responses I got from Afrihost was one a straight we do not support Hulu and second was more helpful requesting that I run a traceroute to Hulu. What I am not sure about is does the hulu.com site I access from my computer the same as the one used by the media players(Devices vs on-line)?
Also has anyone else had this problem with Afrihost and how did they resolve it.

Thank you in advance for the assistance tips.

I tested Netflix and Hulu on Afrihost as well as Webafrica: Afrihost is shocking! Buffering all the time and video quality is terrible. Webafrica streamed with no problem in HD on my 4 meg line.

 

[JV_011_]

youtube is crap on uncapped afrihost. on capped afrihost it is fine. that is my experience since moving to afrihost this month

On your side yes,

I can streem from Netflix, watch youtube video without having it buffer every 2 minutes on my uncapped 4 MB

 

[Tango]

I tested Netflix and Hulu on Afrihost as well as Webafrica: Afrihost is shocking! Buffering all the time and video quality is terrible. Webafrica streamed with no problem in HD on my 4 meg line.

Dude, I think you need to do some more testing.

I have been with various ISP's to try and resolve the problem (Hulu + buffering). I initially was using an Axxess account. (their 384 Fibre account.) It wouldn't work. I even tried a different capped account from Axxess. I then went over to Openweb, Tried various packages there - from Gold to capped, various line speeds as well. I eventually ended up with an Afrihost business package. I still get buffering on Hulu + - but it is a damn sight better than any of the other ISP's out there.

I still think that I need to "play around" with the quality settings to get it perfect. Your statement not to use Afrihost is not true. I found just the opposite. :wtf:

 

[Hush9300]

What devices are you guys using? I stream via the Apple TV and for the most part streaming is a pleasure.

I hardly get any buffering (had some issues Monday evening and yesterday morning but it wasn't related to buffering - was more poor quality stream).

Also, I find that Hulu performs a lot better for me than Netflix in terms of stream quality. I think Hulu has better stream algorithms as they don't have as many resolutions as Netflix.

I'm on a 4Mbps line.

Have you tried streaming with a wired connection instead of wirelessly?

 

[essop1@gp]

I am on a 4mb uncapped account through Afrihost, Hulu and Netflix works fine, that is until recently, netflix 480p at best, used to be 720p, so not sure what happened there. Hulu works fine, just had issues for the last couple of days, where i just get kicked out and have to restart the app on my PS3.

 

[Hush9300]

I am on a 4mb uncapped account through Afrihost, Hulu and Netflix works fine, that is until recently, netflix 480p at best, used to be 720p, so not sure what happened there. Hulu works fine, just had issues for the last couple of days, where i just get kicked out and have to restart the app on my PS3.

Netflix hasn't been great for me either but I think that is due to a shift in their streaming algorithms...

Previously under Account Settings > Playback Settings it showed that their high setting would consume up to 2.3Gb of data per hour whereas now it shows 3Gb per hour. The low and medium settings have remained unchanged though which implies, to me at least, that my 4Mbps connection now keeps defaulting to medium quality whereas previously it could squeeze into the high category. This doesn't even take into account the various bitrates available at a given resolution...

Ever since they've changed this (happened sometime last week) I have never had the crisp images I previously had.

Hulu on the hand only streams in SD (480p) and HD (720p) which requires 1.5 and 3 Mbps respectively as per their website. They have a much simpler streaming algorithm which leads to better quality.