MWEB CEO explains their Uncapped ADSL Acceptable Use Policy

Well, they do offer an uncapped account. There really is "no limit" to how much you can download, but they will throttle your speed and certain ports.

On the other hand, what I am experiencing with Afrihost right now is completely aweful. I can't get more than 0.5Mbps on my 4Mb line, no matter what time of the day it is. And that's with 45GB of usage for the month. I'm cancelling and will go with OpenWeb. They seem to be a better option.

Garyvdh said:
If it requires a Fair Use Policy, then it's not really uncapped isn't it?

Uncapped should only be limited by the physical restraints of your line.

The only other limitation I am willing to concede is an after hours policy. i.e. no heavy downloading during business hours.

But after that it should be flood gates open.

What Mweb is selling is not an "uncapped" account. It is a heavily throttled high cap account.

I am surprised more people haven't taken them to the ASA already for false advertising.

But of course we warned people about this from the start. Mweb cannot be trusted.
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Garyvdh said:
What Mweb is selling is not an "uncapped" account. It is a heavily throttled high cap account.

I am surprised more people haven't taken them to the ASA already for false advertising.

But of course we warned people about this from the start. Mweb cannot be trusted.
Click to expand...

Maybe because everyone except 5 posters on MyADSL are actually extremely happy with a cheap uncapped account? It works perfectly well as a shaped uncapped account for me. Nothing else to it for all I care.

And I am really uncapped in the amount I can download given the shaping. I think we all knew we had to accept this given South Africa's limitations in bandwidth.
 
mcryan said:
Well, they do offer an uncapped account. There really is "no limit" to how much you can download, but they will throttle your speed and certain ports.

On the other hand, what I am experiencing with Afrihost right now is completely aweful. I can't get more than 0.5Mbps on my 4Mb line, no matter what time of the day it is. And that's with 45GB of usage for the month. I'm cancelling and will go with OpenWeb. They seem to be a better option.
Click to expand...

Just make sure to take the GOLD upgrade. Bit more expensive but you get less shaping and better contention ratios.
 
I'm also extremely happy with my uncapped account. :) (from OpenWeb)

It works perfectly well for me :p

You may be happy because you have never hit your limits... but once you do... you will quickly learn just how capped that account really is.

Being a "light" user on an uncapped account is a very "safe" option.
 
If it requires a Fair Use Policy, then it's not really uncapped isn't it?
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Thank you Gary for saying exactly what I've been thinking the whole time. Shaped and/or throttled is not uncapped.

And for all those people who will now bring up Comcast for example, the FCC is busy drawing up legislation that will make it illegal for any ISP in America to shape or throttle b/w in any way.
 
Alestorm said:
+1. The MWeb service happens to work great for me seeing as they do actually provide a pretty stable http service. The last thing I would want is to use uncapped where browsing during the day becomes too slow to work on.

The P2P shaping is fine for me, I can still download far more than i need in a month on torrents or on filesharing services. They generally aren't even shaped that badly at all for me. I think Tanya35 got a particularly bad service for some reason.

And Tanya35, have you used a 4mb Mweb uncapped account? You can very easily browse while downloading torrents, exactly because the torrents are shaped and the browsing not. You also don't have to wait a near a week to download anything. Your comments are way further off the mark than the MWeb CEO's if you ask me.
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If you have a 4meg line, then you have no idea of what we are talking about. Of course the impact of shaping will be very much less. As explained before, they keep changing things. If customers were happy in the beginning (& paying the same), what is Mweb doing to upset so many people? The answer must be that they are loading the service with more customers and not allowing for the impact. They are egging customers on to download as much as they can (and their ads use this as a sales point), which is a contradiction.

If they could just use their brains a little, they might create some bandwidth compartments and shape them as a group. That way, new customers won't impact on existing ones. Like many others, I believe their original idea was good, but they've become greedy.
 
"Free the Web" *

* (Not really free, just a marketing gimmick, acceptable usage limits apply). :D
 
so i can't use my uncapped account to it's max, surely that is not uncapped? if mweb or any other isp can't support it surely it's not uncapped then?
 
Tns said:
so i can't use my uncapped account to it's max, surely that is not uncapped? if mweb or any other isp can't support it surely it's not uncapped then?
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Yep... uncapped means you are only limited by the physical restraints of your line... not by some arbitrary and erratic shaping or throttling policy.

Can anyone else show me where else in the world such a product is being marketed as "uncapped"?
 
Garyvdh said:
What Mweb is selling is not an "uncapped" account. It is a heavily throttled high cap account.

But of course we warned people about this from the start. Mweb cannot be trusted.
Click to expand...

Gary you of all people should know the difference between throttled and shaped?
As the article states "MWEB doesn’t throttle line speeds,"
now the account that you are on is throttled and shaped....good luck :)
 
Mike Smit said:
I have noticed my speeds drop sharply during business hours and steadily pickup outside of business hours.
I work from home as a contractor and use the same line for work during the day. So for me the way MWeb does things works well. During the day all normal work related activities work as I would expect them to work yet my personal downloads etc... slow down which I also expect. After work my downloads pickup again and every night I host MW2 games via XBox live with great connections for everyone.

In short, I think the way MWeb works just rocks. Suits both the personal and business sides of my life 100%. And it works consistently like this right through the month.
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Cool.
Anybody know what the pings are like to local and international game servers ? Steam etc.
 
Tns said:
so i can't use my uncapped account to it's max, surely that is not uncapped? if mweb or any other isp can't support it surely it's not uncapped then?
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If you reason it through, some sort of limitation is necessary to keep prices keen. However, the extent to which the shaping is applied gives the service its character. MWEB won't discuss contention ratios, shaping figures or anything else that will hold them accountable. The TOC are vague as well. It's a recipe to exploit.
 
ingeon said:
Cool.
Anybody know what the pings are like to local and international game servers ? Steam etc.
Click to expand...

There have been periods recently when Steam failed even to connect on uncapped, but did so happily on capped. The ping usually starts off pretty high, and then drops. Sometimes it peaks quite wildly and kicks you out of the server. Other times you can be playing quite happily, almost owning the other players and then suddenly the connection drops 10 times in a row. Again, it's very variable, probably because their shaper registers gaming ports as a nuisance and not a priority.

{Just to add - most Steam game servers are hosted internationally. Certainly Steam updates are not local. WebAfrica has some workaround, but even that isn't fully local.}
 
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drukkie said:
Gary you of all people should know the difference between throttled and shaped?
As the article states "MWEB doesn’t throttle line speeds,"
now the account that you are on is throttled and shaped....good luck :)
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In actual experience it really doesn't make much difference does it? The end result is the same... you are limited in some way.

The account that I am on is restricted during business hours only... but that was made clear from the start.
That is perfectly understandable and easy to live with.
After 7 pm at night it opens up to full speed with no restrictions whatsoever.
That is true uncapped.
 
Garyvdh said:
Yep... uncapped means you are only limited by the physical restraints of your line... not by some arbitrary and erratic shaping or throttling policy.

Can anyone else show me where else in the world such a product is being marketed as "uncapped"?
Click to expand...

personally i think your confusing uncapped access and unrestricted access.

Uncapped refers to no "cap" being an absolute limit on your line (i.e. a fixed amount of data on line as a whole, over all uses).
Unrestricted would be you can do what you want when you want for as long as you pay, at max speed line and other equipment can.
 
Garyvdh said:
You may be happy because you have never hit your limits... but once you do... you will quickly learn just how capped that account really is.

Being a "light" user on an uncapped account is a very "safe" option.
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Well what are the limits you/others hit with MWeb's uncapped?

I use about 60-100GB+ a month, I don't consider that very light usage at all really. More than that is heavy usage in my opinion. Haven't run into any problems.
 
Boomstomp said:
personally i think your confusing uncapped access and unrestricted access.

Uncapped refers to no "cap" being an absolute limit on your line (i.e. a fixed amount of data on line as a whole, over all uses).
Unrestricted would be you can do what you want when you want for as long as you pay, at max speed line and other equipment can.
Click to expand...

Same thing... at least, it is the same thing everywhere else in the world. Only in South Africa have our enterprising ISPs decided to try and alter the definition. :rolleyes:

I don't see why I should have to accept a re-defined term for what has so far worked well in the rest of the world.

It smells of BS.
 
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