Mweb Premium uncapped or Afrihost business uncapped - 4mb

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getafix33

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My adsl line get installed tomorrow and am looking for an ISP.

These two are very similar in price

So which one to go for.

What you guys think?

I don't do torrents but want to stream Hulu, Netflix and other online services. Preferably in HD where it is available.
 
Afrihost business is unshaped in business hours and aims to be unshaped afterhours. MWeb premium is shaped but unthrottled. The definition of shaped and throttled may differ, but in practice they have the same effect. So the price might be the same, but shaped and unshaped are two very different animals.
 
SO you saying by your understanding of shaped vs unshaped you wuld opt for the Afrihost option?
 
getafix33 said:
My adsl line get installed tomorrow and am looking for an ISP.

These two are very similar in price

So which one to go for.

What you guys think?

I don't do torrents but want to stream Hulu, Netflix and other online services. Preferably in HD where it is available.
Click to expand...

Good day, please see the private message I have sent you.
 
Afrihost Business Uncapped is unshaped during office hours with every effort made not to shape after hours, but we do reserve the right to shape after hours.

We have been fortunate enough that we have not had to shape any business accounts in the last 3 months.
 
I've just been told that if I have a news group application even open (even if no downloads are running) I get shaped as I if were downloading, and all connections (no matter what ports) suffer from severe shaping.

Mweb Guy - is this true or hogwash?

I also told your "so called Techie" Edward last night that my browsing and Netflix streaming suffered as well however I was told in a very rude manner that he cannot help me.
 
shreez said:
I've just been told that if I have a news group application even open (even if no downloads are running) I get shaped as I if were downloading, and all connections (no matter what ports) suffer from severe shaping.

Mweb Guy - is this true or hogwash?

I also told your "so called Techie" Edward last night that my browsing and Netflix streaming suffered as well however I was told in a very rude manner that he cannot help me.
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Hi shreez

If you are on a shaped account, bear in mind that the network is shaped dynamically. There are certain protocols that receive higher priority than others.
 
MWEB Guy said:
Hi shreez

If you are on a shaped account, bear in mind that the network is shaped dynamically. There are certain protocols that receive higher priority than others.
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Hi MWEB Guy,

Thank you for the response.
I am indeed on a shaped account - 4Mb Premium Uncapped to be specific.
However, while I do acknowledge shaping of these protocols, if my above statement is true, you are painting all traffic with the same brush, which is not on.

I, like many others on the other Mweb feedback forum have only noticed this issue in the past few weeks.
So while it is shaped, something on your network has changed as it is not running as it used to (over 400KB/s constantly).
 
shreez said:
Hi MWEB Guy,

Thank you for the response.
I am indeed on a shaped account - 4Mb Premium Uncapped to be specific.
However, while I do acknowledge shaping of these protocols, if my above statement is true, you are painting all traffic with the same brush, which is not on.

I, like many others on the other Mweb feedback forum have only noticed this issue in the past few weeks.
So while it is shaped, something on your network has changed as it is not running as it used to (over 400KB/s constantly).
Click to expand...

These speeds you are referring too, are they only on news that you are experiencing this with? Also, what other active traffic do you have running in the background?
 
MWEB Guy said:
These speeds you are referring too, are they only on news that you are experiencing this with? Also, what other active traffic do you have running in the background?
Click to expand...

In my experience, my news group downloads have been a great indicator of performance. However, whenever I notice a severe drop in speed, it also affects my Netflix streaming as well as my general browsing experience.

Just FYI - if my news groups are steaming along, it never affects my browsing - and that is how I know that there is a marked difference in performance.
Just to answer your question, no other background traffic of substance that would cause congestion.
 
OP: To pitch in here, I have also noticed that for about 1-2 months I am unable to stream. I think a portion of this stems from my exchange performing badly...but some of it I believe lies with MWEB. I tried out an OpenWeb Gold account and noticed that I was able to stream more consistently than with my MWEB account, leading me to believe shaping is a culprit.

I could accept, if not forgive, the congestion problems before. But as I'm completely unable to use YouTube or Netflix during hours that aren't at an ungodly hour in the morning I'll be looking to see if an unshaped account elsewhere can solve my problems.
 
Go Afrihost, They also have better international redundancy with the undersea cables than mweb (seacom outage a few weeks ago)
 
nerf said:
Go Afrihost, They also have better international redundancy with the undersea cables than mweb (seacom outage a few weeks ago)
Click to expand...

While redundancy is definitely a requirement, you still need a solid connection at all times. I know that Afrihost throttle the hell out of your line if they deem you to be pulling down heavy traffic.
 
We do not throttle. We do however shape download protocols like P2P when network demand is high and we only shape while network demand is high. We relax shaping as soon as network demand decreases.
 
Go with Afrihost, stay far away from Mweb....

I have just left Mweb and moved to Afrihost..... And I myself can not believe what an improvement it has been!
 
I moved to Afrihost business a couple of months ago and I have had pretty much full speed 24/7. So far it is the best ADSL account I have had
 
+1 for Afrihost, been with them for a month again and they are far more stable these days, havent had any down time.

I'm on the Home Uncapped.

Also the throttling is misleading, your realtime speed (eg: streaming/browsing) is pretty much always fine (100%) and it's just downloads + P2P that get throttled.

All of which you can see in real-time on your client panel - transparency goes a long way.
 
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