MWEB Uncapped Subscribers Feedback

Status
Not open for further replies.
Surely when Mweb upgraded me that should have been done-- please excuse my ignorance!
 
lizl said:
Surely when Mweb upgraded me that should have been done-- please excuse my ignorance!
Click to expand...

If you have the line rental through Mweb, mweb would have need to call telkom to upgrade your profile to 512. You can check by logging into your router, and look at the status page, and look for the downstream speed.

i.e:
ADSL Firmware Version E.25.41.55 A
Modem Status Connected
DownStream Connection Speed 4096 kbps
 
Im experiencing connectivity problems. I download at 400kb/s on torrents and then I see it drop all the way to 0.1kb/s, and then the net just dies, after a few minutes it goes back up, and then again drops. Any1 else experiencing this? I wonder if mweb are still having technical difficulties. I must say, even with rollercoaster ride, I'd still say this is by far the best uncapped account.
 
Since the upgrade, my downloads & torrents have been flying! With the networking being so good I'm now considering the 4Mb option (from 384kb). MWEB FTW!
 
Gordon_R said:
Last night SEACOM was having problems, and some traffic was being switched to SAT-3. I was doing tracert for 4 different sites in 2 continents, and there were absolutely no local problems on my line.

Just because you disagree, doesn't mean you can acuse me of being untruthful...
Click to expand...
I am sorry, I wasted my time on you because clearly you do not understand how it works. Switching happens on Layer2, and SAIX Gold gives you a Layer 3 BGP feed instead of a Layer 2 feed. For Layer 2 you would need IPLC from them, and in turn you won't see the following hops on a traceroute, but you do so its SAIX gold.

The 2 hops I am talking about are nr 6/7
Code: 
  4    32 ms    33 ms    30 ms  vl-92.vic-hscore-2.mweb.co.za [196.22.189.3]
  5    35 ms    70 ms    73 ms  tengig-0-0-0-0-12.vic-up-1.mweb.co.za [196.22.169.241]
  6    33 ms    35 ms    31 ms  rndf-ip-hsll-1-wan.telkom-ipnet.co.za [196.25.110.73]
  7   220 ms   220 ms   220 ms  lon-ip-dir-telecity-gig-1-0-2.telkom-ipnet.co.za [196.43.9.217]
  8   239 ms   238 ms   240 ms  ge-6-2-903.car5.london1.level3.net [212.113.10.69]

So now that the layer2 switching is not a disagreement anymore but a fact lets move on.

Gordon_R said:
Now would be a good time to investigate your theory. International is down for the 3rd time in a week. Lets see what explanation comes up this time...
Click to expand...
They probably use it more for load balancing than for actual failover. That means if the one fails for whatever reason, the other one could take the extra load if its not already running at maximum capacity. However this information is not publicly available so no one really knows. Fact is, moving from one to the other will happen automatically with BGP. We still dont know though at what capacity their SAT3/Seacom links run at. Possibly both needs to be operational for your experience to be smooth.

Regardless, I personally haven't experienced any problems today either.
 
I've had a good connection (384 line) all night, was even streaming a live surfing event without a hitch. All was well until I opened my torrent client. Then my http became unusuable, this is not the first time. The torrents were downloading only at a few kbs and I was only trying to load a few basic websites, so the line was not busy.

What it seems like is that my whole account is being excessively shaped when I start using torrents, not just the torrents, anyone else experienced this? Has happend on a few occassions over the past week.
 
Last edited:
burn said:
I've had a good connection (384 line) all night, was even streaming a live surfing event without a hitch. All was well until I opened my torrent client. Then my http became unusuable, this is not the first time. The torrents were downloading only at a few kbs and I was only trying to load a few basic websites, so the line was not busy.

What it seems like is that my whole account is being excessively shaped when I start using torrents, not just the torrents, anyone else experienced this? Has happend on a few occassions over the past week.
Click to expand...

I been torrenting at an average of 22.8 from Sat till now. Browsing has been ok. Im also on 384k Uncapped Mweb.
 
I have to say, I have tried Afrihost, Axxess and Mweb's 4mb cheap uncapped offerings.

HANDS DOWN, Mweb wins. I was one of many that really disliked Mweb for their previously very high pricing, but they really are delivering now. Their 4mb is slightly more expensive, but is miles ahead of the competition. Consistent local latencies, 400kb/s downloads for both local and international and good international latencies (tested with HoN and WoW. Practically 0 spikes). None of the above can be said for Afrihost and Axxess which have just not been able to deliver the goods.

At R539, Mweb is slightly more expensive, but you get the best value for money.
 
Blackhand said:
I have to say, I have tried Afrihost, Axxess and Mweb's 4mb cheap uncapped offerings.

HANDS DOWN, Mweb wins. I was one of many that really disliked Mweb for their previously very high pricing, but they really are delivering now. Their 4mb is slightly more expensive, but is miles ahead of the competition. Consistent local latencies, 400kb/s downloads for both local and international and good international latencies (tested with HoN and WoW. Practically 0 spikes). None of the above can be said for Afrihost and Axxess which have just not been able to deliver the goods.

At R539, Mweb is slightly more expensive, but you get the best value for money.
Click to expand...

+1
 
Thanks for all the feedback guys. Question, is activation instant if I sign up for the Mweb 4MB uncapped via Openweb control panel?

Ta
Proff
 
Tinuva said:
So now that the layer2 switching is not a disagreement anymore but a fact lets move on.

They probably use it more for load balancing than for actual failover. That means if the one fails for whatever reason, the other one could take the extra load if its not already running at maximum capacity. However this information is not publicly available so no one really knows. Fact is, moving from one to the other will happen automatically with BGP. We still dont know though at what capacity their SAT3/Seacom links run at. Possibly both needs to be operational for your experience to be smooth.

Regardless, I personally haven't experienced any problems today either.
Click to expand...

When I made my original post (some days ago) I was a bit fuzzy about how the switching occurs, and in the absence of any 'official' explanation I put forward my own 'theory'. Thank you for clarifying the details. It is unfortunate that these breaks have occured, and that users have been left in the dark.

The remaining issue for me is that the 'press release' says that MWeb have redundant links to SEACOM and SAT3, but clearly if one link has less capacity, then it is not redundant, but a backup, which is an entirely different scenario.

My (limited) experience with tracert on the 2 previous breaks, is that while the route switching may occur, the capacity bottleneck when a break occurs, overwhelms the shaping process, and the quality of service effectively becomes 'dead' for end users.

Tinuva said:
Switching happens on Layer2, and SAIX Gold gives you a Layer 3 BGP feed instead of a Layer 2 feed.
Click to expand...

A bit (technical) off-topic: The Wikipedia article on Border Gateway Prototocol (BGP) indicates that lots of things can go wrong when trying to balance the load on two fibre paths, and intermittent problems on one can causing routing instability. This is exactly what I was trying to describe in my origiinal comments:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bgp
 
Last edited:
proff said:
Thanks for all the feedback guys. Question, is activation instant if I sign up for the Mweb 4MB uncapped via Openweb control panel?

Ta
Proff
Click to expand...

Yes, it's instant (I ordered via phone). They ask you to fax through some docs but they activate your account before they get them
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X