My ADSL Rant

[Glingfram]

So, for the past year, my internet is unusable after 4PM weekdays, and aroun 10AM on weekends - I'm lucky I can still browse right now. A tracert to Saix gives me a +- 2400ms response on the first hop with the Telkom test account and my Afrihost account.

After months of Telkom blaming congestion of the Edenvale exchange, I get hold of them on Twitter and they eventually come to the conclusion (after a 2 week investigation) that it is their ESR (Edge Services Router). This could take a month to fix, and I must sit tight.

So like a fool I try think for myself a bit. Afrihost is using MTN for it's ADSL, so if I try another ISP, maybe I won't be having this problem.

FNB has pretty cheap internet at the moment if you are a customer, so I try to sign up for FNB connect to test my theory. Near the end of the process I get sent back to the beginning of the process and am told the fields require input (I'd filled them in the first time).

After repeating the process twice more, I get frustrated and hit back 1 too many times and get sent to Google. Go back to FNB and try to log in, enter the wrong password ONCE because I am frustrated and get my account blocked.

Fine. Lets try reset my password to unblock my account. Fill in the info, and the Continue button doesnt work.
Fine. Try reset my ID and password - afterf illing in the fields required, get told that "The field is invalid, please contact online banking support on..."

Phone Online banking, get told they will charge me R50 for support. Jesus fine, I need my internet banking. Speak to the agent and he tells me they are having issues with Google Chrome and I must unse another browser.

I'm so frustrated I want to drive a knife into my eye socket.

 

[ponder]

FNB has pretty cheap internet at the moment if you are a customer, so I try to sign up for FNB connect to test my theory. Near the end of the process I get sent back to the beginning of the process and am told the fields require input (I'd filled them in the first time).

After repeating the process twice more, I get frustrated and hit back 1 too many times and get sent to Google. Go back to FNB and try to log in, enter the wrong password ONCE because I am frustrated and get my account blocked.

Fine. Lets try reset my password to unblock my account. Fill in the info, and the Continue button doesnt work.
Fine. Try reset my ID and password - afterf illing in the fields required, get told that "The field is invalid, please contact online banking support on..."

Phone Online banking, get told they will charge me R50 for support. Jesus fine, I need my internet banking. Speak to the agent and he tells me they are having issues with Google Chrome and I must unse another browser.

I'm so frustrated I want to drive a knife into my eye socket.

This has nothing to do with ADSL.

 

[Bryn]

So, for the past year, my internet is unusable after 4PM weekdays, and aroun 10AM on weekends - I'm lucky I can still browse right now. A tracert to Saix gives me a +- 2400ms response on the first hop with the Telkom test account and my Afrihost account.

After months of Telkom blaming congestion of the Edenvale exchange, I get hold of them on Twitter and they eventually come to the conclusion (after a 2 week investigation) that it is their ESR (Edge Services Router). This could take a month to fix, and I must sit tight.

So like a fool I try think for myself a bit. Afrihost is using MTN for it's ADSL, so if I try another ISP, maybe I won't be having this problem.

FNB has pretty cheap internet at the moment if you are a customer, so I try to sign up for FNB connect to test my theory. Near the end of the process I get sent back to the beginning of the process and am told the fields require input (I'd filled them in the first time).

After repeating the process twice more, I get frustrated and hit back 1 too many times and get sent to Google. Go back to FNB and try to log in, enter the wrong password ONCE because I am frustrated and get my account blocked.

Fine. Lets try reset my password to unblock my account. Fill in the info, and the Continue button doesnt work.
Fine. Try reset my ID and password - afterf illing in the fields required, get told that "The field is invalid, please contact online banking support on..."

Phone Online banking, get told they will charge me R50 for support. Jesus fine, I need my internet banking. Speak to the agent and he tells me they are having issues with Google Chrome and I must unse another browser.

I'm so frustrated I want to drive a knife into my eye socket.

Your issue is with Telkom and no one else. Your exchange is obviously congested to hell. Don't blame Afrihost, FNB or Chrome for your issues, and don't use MyBroadband like it's Hello Peter. Consider a 3G connection if ADSL isn't currently a reliable option for you.

 

[Glingfram]

Your issue is with Telkom and no one else. Your exchange is obviously congested to hell. Don't blame Afrihost, FNB or Chrome for your issues, and don't use MyBroadband like it's Hello Peter. Consider a 3G connection if ADSL isn't currently a reliable option for you.

Funny you should say that. I have a relative that is on the same exchange and gets perfectly normal speeds.

I've also just signed up with MWEB (yes I know...) and got a free 7 day trial and the speed has improved quite a bit.

So I was hoping somebody else out there has had a similar issue and managed to get it resolved 100%, so I'm not using MyBroadband like it's Hello Peter.

Thank you for your well thought through feedback.

 

[Glingfram]

This has nothing to do with ADSL.

Nothing? Really? I know I vented a bit and included other bits, but the main issue, highlighted in the FIRST PARAGRAPH is an ADSL issue.
Y U join forum and not read?

 

[Hectic]

Just help me out here.
Who is responsible for the ESR?
Is it Telkom or Afrihost?

 

[Glingfram]

Just help me out here.
Who is responsible for the ESR?
Is it Telkom or Afrihost?

Hmm, just to interpret your "tone" -

I'm not having a go at Afrihost, all I was saying is that because they use MTN for the DSL, my possibly flawed logic told me to try to change to a different provider that didn't use MTN. and there has been an improvement.

 

[JasDan]

Hmm, just to interpret your "tone" -

I'm not having a go at Afrihost, all I was saying is that because they use MTN for the DSL, my possibly flawed logic told me to try to change to a different provider that didn't use MTN. and there has been an improvement.

All ISPs have to make use of Telkom's network, up until the IPC. Thus, if the issue is Telkom's ESR, no matter which ISP you choose, they will all 'inherit' the ESR issue. Telkom don't allow ISPs to put their own routers in exchanges, so unfortunately you have to wait on Telkom to get their router fixed.

So the issue is on Telkom's network before the ISP takes over. As long as you're on ADSL, Telkom is the middleman between you and your ISPs network.

 

[Glingfram]

All ISPs have to make use of Telkom's network, up until the IPC. Thus, if the issue is Telkom's ESR, no matter which ISP you choose, they will all 'inherit' the ESR issue. Telkom don't allow ISPs to put their own routers in exchanges, so unfortunately you have to wait on Telkom to get their router fixed.

So the issue is on Telkom's network before the ISP takes over. As long as you're on ADSL, Telkom is the middleman between you and your ISPs network.

Hmm, that sounds fair. It's intriguing me how the MWEB uncapped is so much faster than the Afrihost. I'm even streaming a YouTube video while typing this. Seems it's solved my problem