Netflix performance on Afrihost

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bnr88

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Hi everyone.

So i signed up for netflix and unotelly in Jan this year. I have a 2mbps uncapped account with AH and line rental with Telkom. I was able to reliably stream netflix at 480-540p until about 2 or 3 weeks ago. Now, it sometimes struggles to even maintain a steady stream on the lowest quality.

I get full speeds on all other internet use, including torrents and youtube, so i don't think that this is a problem with AH, but i wanted to check with other netflix/unotelly users to see if they have had any similair experiences and know any quick fixes? I contacted unotelly's service department, who suggested changing my dns. But i'm getting the same problem with both cape town and jhb servers.

Any help??
 
bnr88 said:
Hi everyone.

So i signed up for netflix and unotelly in Jan this year. I have a 2mbps uncapped account with AH and line rental with Telkom. I was able to reliably stream netflix at 480-540p until about 2 or 3 weeks ago. Now, it sometimes struggles to even maintain a steady stream on the lowest quality.

I get full speeds on all other internet use, including torrents and youtube, so i don't think that this is a problem with AH, but i wanted to check with other netflix/unotelly users to see if they have had any similair experiences and know any quick fixes? I contacted unotelly's service department, who suggested changing my dns. But i'm getting the same problem with both cape town and jhb servers.

Any help??
Click to expand...

If youtube is fine, then it's probably an international capacity issue.
 
My netflix is fine but damn hulu buffers all the the. 2 mbs uncapped line
 
Are you running it via PC or Xbox?

I've been contemplating getting mine with unotelly.
 
Chevron said:
If youtube is fine, then it's probably an international capacity issue.
Click to expand...

Shouldn't a problem only last a short while though? This has been the same for a few weeks though.

crawler said:
My netflix is fine but damn hulu buffers all the the. 2 mbs uncapped line
Click to expand...

Hulu's quality is generally quite high so that may be the problem. Are you on AH?

Voicy said:
Are you running it via PC or Xbox?

I've been contemplating getting mine with unotelly.
Click to expand...

I have it on my pc and also my ps3. Similair performance on both at the moment.
 
Past few days on Afrihost has been up and down.

Used to get HD quality on my 10meg line without any hassles for the past few months.

Since their free bandwidth promo things seem to have gone belly up. Streaming quality has nose dived. Definitely a capacity problem.

My capped account is being shaped on the MTN backbone. After 12 midnight it flies, however.

Hope this doesn't last much longer.
 
thewusman said:
My capped account is being shaped on the MTN backbone. After 12 midnight it flies, however.
Click to expand...

This is concerning to hear. I thought their capped accounts weren't shaped?

Keep considering a move from mweb uncapped to Afrihost capped and then read things like this. At least with mweb I know I'm ok until I reach 70Gb.
 
Dubes said:
This is concerning to hear. I thought their capped accounts weren't shaped?

Keep considering a move from mweb uncapped to Afrihost capped and then read things like this. At least with mweb I know I'm ok until I reach 70Gb.
Click to expand...

Seems recent - started a few days back with their double data give away promo.

Hoping it is temporary while they allocate capacity.

Flying again this morning at 8.71Mbps and 19ms ping from PE to CT. That's how it's always been up until now. 100% super.
 
I'm in the same boat as the OP.
I was getting 720p on Netflix on AH 4meg uncapped until end of Feb. Now I get terrible 280p or nothing on 4meg uncapped, so then I moved to biz uncapped and I can only get 380p on a supposedly un-shaped connection.

I've been ranting about it for a while on the AH threads with other guys, it just gets ignored.

To test I got a Web Africa 5 gig trial and I get 720p again, or if you use a turbocharge on AH uncapped then you also get 720p.

Which proves AH are shaping realtime and probably because of the lack of capacity in the South. Hopefully they'll fix it or continue telling us Realtime is not shaped!
 
Same here, i am on 6mbps business uncapped and Netflix can hardly get to 480p. And normally used to get 1080p on the same connection. Youtube seems OK though, because i can easily stream 1080p but this is not the case with netflix , which shows that they are most probably shaping Netflix, Hulu etc... and they advertise business uncapped as real time service... Load of crap! It seems that Afrihost is just trying to get new customers by aggressive price decrease but they dont think whether they have the capacity for new customers.... its all about Quantities and no Quality in this country and Good Marketing... Poor us the users who have to pay at end of each month for crap services.
 
macedon said:
Same here, i am on 6mbps business uncapped and Netflix can hardly get to 480p. And normally used to get 1080p on the same connection. Youtube seems OK though, because i can easily stream 1080p but this is not the case with netflix , which shows that they are most probably shaping Netflix, Hulu etc... and they advertise business uncapped as real time service... Load of crap! It seems that Afrihost is just trying to get new customers by aggressive price decrease but they dont think whether they have the capacity for new customers.... its all about Quantities and no Quality in this country and Good Marketing... Poor us the users who have to pay at end of each month for crap services.
Click to expand...

+1
Like me, I suggest people claim the double money guarantee if you are still able to, they need to learn not to irritate clients.
 
Hogrod said:
I'm in the same boat as the OP.
I was getting 720p on Netflix on AH 4meg uncapped until end of Feb. Now I get terrible 280p or nothing on 4meg uncapped, so then I moved to biz uncapped and I can only get 380p on a supposedly un-shaped connection.

I've been ranting about it for a while on the AH threads with other guys, it just gets ignored.

To test I got a Web Africa 5 gig trial and I get 720p again, or if you use a turbocharge on AH uncapped then you also get 720p.

Which proves AH are shaping realtime and probably because of the lack of capacity in the South. Hopefully they'll fix it or continue telling us Realtime is not shaped!
Click to expand...

That's interesting.
 
lcbxx said:
True - Would that indicate Afrihost's shaping policy sees Netflix packets as 'Download', thereby shaping accordingly?
Click to expand...

Perhaps someone else can try it out as well who has any turbocharges left and lives in the 'South', I last tested it on Sunday.
No turbos left :(
 
Hogrod said:
Perhaps someone else can try it out as well who has any turbocharges left and lives in the 'South', I last tested it on Sunday.
No turbos left :(
Click to expand...

Can't you buy extra turbos?
 
lcbxx said:
True - Would that indicate Afrihost's shaping policy sees Netflix packets as 'Download', thereby shaping accordingly?
Click to expand...

I think this is the case as well.

As for turbocharging, i also get full speed [480p on netflix] when i turn it on. I just checked my connection on the AH site and I'm being shaped at 25% download and 6.5% p2p so i think it makes sense that netflix gets shaped as a 25% download. Very disappointing. With webafrica's drop in prices, things are not looking for AH from my side if this doesn't get sorted out soon.
 
Chevron said:
That's interesting.
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting, I just searched google for Afrihost shaping Netfilx and found this thread. I am having the same issue. my line speed has been generally terrible lately, in fact i'd say for most of 2014 as well. I was also considering moving to a business package because I can't take it anymore. So after your experience, i am glad i didnt. This past sunday I tried watching a movie on netflix but every 4 mins, it started buffering. I turbocharged and a short while later it definitely improved. I still have about 180 minutes left for the month, which i'll use when visitors come over to avoid the embarrassment.

Streaming video (be it netflix or even youtube) is the main reason I am on a 4mb uncapped account. I have complained to them but it falls on deaf ears and i get that annoying email and support telling me to check my pot filters and all that other generic stuff from the email. I left Cybersmart for the same reason when i couldnt take it anymore and sad to say, AH is slowly driving me to that as well, but where to turn?



I even resort to switching off my router for 20 mins and restarting afterwards
 
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