Official Afrihost Q&A Thread

[rabbiddog]

Thanks Gain

I will give it a month at least even though I thought the heavy shaping would cut in at a higher cap. I suppose this is the only way to test the waters with a new product and ISP. I have only been with you for a month and cant complain.

 

[grok]

Glad I didn't join in. This stepped throttling starting at 30GB model wasn't quite what was advertised. Neither 4Mbps uncapped running at 128k.
And yes I have read all the threads & understand the issues involved, but this should never have been advertised as 4Mbps uncapped. Never.
Major fail for Afrihost.

 

[Gatecrasher]

Canceled Afrihost, switched to MWEB (dislike them intensely - tx, Afrihost) - much better pings, browsing, streaming, etc. will check torrents...

Also switched to Mweb given the untenable Afrihost FUP. On Mweb are you being charged 50% of the monthly fee for half a day's use? Almost fell into that trap, but because I still haven't used the account yet and asked the MWEB rep in time, I have been credited with the March fee. So I will only be switching it on tomorrow. Currently using Axxess Express which expires tonight.

 

[killadoob]

Also switched to Mweb given the untenable Afrihost FUP. On Mweb are you being charged 50% of the monthly fee for half a day's use? Almost fell into that trap, but because I still haven't used the account yet and asked the MWEB rep in time, I have been credited with the March fee. So I will only be switching it on tomorrow. Currently using Axxess Express which expires tonight.

Not really a trap dude.

 

[scylla]

Hi

I just want to point the following out at the very top of the MWEB Terms and Conditions:

"The following ADSL terms and conditions will come into effect on 30 April 2010 for all existing MWEB ADSL customers. All new customers that subscribe to any MWEB ADSL product from 1 April 2010 onwards or any existing customer that upgrades or purchase ADSL related services from 1 April 2010, will be bound by these terms with immediate effect."

What I get from this is that everyone joining up with them now, will have happy surfing for April, come end of the month the throttling is going to start. Anyone joining tomorrow and later will be subject to throttling once you start creating "an unusually large burden on our network or otherwise generating levels of traffic sufficient to impede others' ability to send or retrieve information, or use the ADSL Services in an abusive manner."

At least with Afrihost I know what I'm getting.

 

[hambone]

Hi

I just want to point the following out at the very top of the MWEB Terms and Conditions:

"The following ADSL terms and conditions will come into effect on 30 April 2010 for all existing MWEB ADSL customers. All new customers that subscribe to any MWEB ADSL product from 1 April 2010 onwards or any existing customer that upgrades or purchase ADSL related services from 1 April 2010, will be bound by these terms with immediate effect."

What I get from this is that everyone joining up with them now, will have happy surfing for April, come end of the month the throttling is going to start. Anyone joining tomorrow and later will be subject to throttling once you start creating "an unusually large burden on our network or otherwise generating levels of traffic sufficient to impede others' ability to send or retrieve information, or use the ADSL Services in an abusive manner."

At least with Afrihost I know what I'm getting.

Time will only tell. Anyway, well done Afrihost for being honest and true to your company's mandate. Could one assume that since this a reseller of IS products, that similar ISP's will have similar outcomes in the near future? Perhaps thats for another thread...

 

[killadoob]

Hi

I just want to point the following out at the very top of the MWEB Terms and Conditions:

"The following ADSL terms and conditions will come into effect on 30 April 2010 for all existing MWEB ADSL customers. All new customers that subscribe to any MWEB ADSL product from 1 April 2010 onwards or any existing customer that upgrades or purchase ADSL related services from 1 April 2010, will be bound by these terms with immediate effect."

What I get from this is that everyone joining up with them now, will have happy surfing for April, come end of the month the throttling is going to start. Anyone joining tomorrow and later will be subject to throttling once you start creating "an unusually large burden on our network or otherwise generating levels of traffic sufficient to impede others' ability to send or retrieve information, or use the ADSL Services in an abusive manner."

At least with Afrihost I know what I'm getting.

Ummm how exactly do you grab that mweb will pull an afrihost out of that? Nobody knew what they were getting when the shyte hit the fan. I doubt that mweb can do worse than 30gb and then throttled .

Enjoy your uncapped 30gb account, i hope mweb don't be sneaky and commit fraud like afrihost have done. They set the bar pretty high, won't be easy to top the afrihost calamity of 2010.

 

[scylla]

I'm not saying they will do anything, all I'm trying to say is that their T&Cs are along the same lines as Afrihost's. It is worth a read, especially section 12:

12.2 You will not use the ADSL Service, directly or indirectly, in a way that:
12.2.4 interferes with any third party’s use of the ADSL Service;
12.2.8 in MWEB’s sole discretion constitutes abuse of the ADSL Service or of MWEB’s systems.

12.3 We reserve the right to limit the number of emails that you may send in any given period or to limit the total message volume (amount of data) sent per hour.

There are other points which all point to a similar situation. What I'm trying to point out is that they said that this will only start happening in May, so everyone going on about how they're flying along may be in for a shock at some stage.

 

[Grep]

So in a nutshell we have a few companies that went, UNCAPPED WHOOHOO! buy here. CHEAP CHEAP, all you can eat and didn't think of what would happen when we all ate? Now they say, please stop eating, we can't afford it. Sorry but /facepalm.

 

[killadoob]

Yes but i am pretty certain they will mention something if they decide to make their accounts 30gb uncapped throttled to hell and shaped to shyte.

 

[hambone]

I'm not saying they will do anything, all I'm trying to say is that their T&Cs are along the same lines as Afrihost's. It is worth a read, especially section 12:

12.2 You will not use the ADSL Service, directly or indirectly, in a way that:
12.2.4 interferes with any third party’s use of the ADSL Service;
12.2.8 in MWEB’s sole discretion constitutes abuse of the ADSL Service or of MWEB’s systems.

12.3 We reserve the right to limit the number of emails that you may send in any given period or to limit the total message volume (amount of data) sent per hour.

There are other points which all point to a similar situation. What I'm trying to point out is that they said that this will only start happening in May, so everyone going on about how they're flying along may be in for a shock at some stage.

Okay fair point, MWEB subscribers may be in for a shock. However, the rep has also indicated that those terms are under review and will be made easier to understand and address peoples concerns regarding abuse. Until then I intend to use a truly uncapped service.

 

[smb3]

==============
Initially you will be getting our standard service. (i.e.
certain ports are shaped somewhat and web and email are
prioritised.)

After you have moved 30 GBs you will be moved into a
different category whereby certain ports will be shaped
more aggressively. However, web and email will still be
prioritised.

After moving a total of 60 GBs you will be moved into a
different category where your line speed is throttled to
1024 kbps per second and certain shaping protocols are in
place.

After moving a total of 90 GBs then you will be moved
into a category where you will be throttled to 512 kbps.
Certain shaping protocols will also be in place here.

After moving a total of 120 GBs you will be moved into a
category where your line will be throttled to 386 kbps.
Certain shaping protocols will also be in place here.

After moving a total of 150 GBs you will be moved into a
category where you are throttled to 128 kbps.

You will never be capped.

Hi Gian,

Thank you for your honesty about the whole situation. I know people are giving Afrihost a little of a bad rep, but seriously you admitted your mistake, been transparent with your customers regarding the whole thing (bear in mind your competitors are not transparent); so it's really a good thing and i repesct what you are doing.

Just a few suggestions:
* Is it not possible to have email notifications of downgrading of service? (e.g. i would like to be notified that my service will degrade to an xxxx kbps speed with a xxxx kbps minimum speed)
* According to my understanding, the speeds mentioned are "up to xxxx kbps" correct? ... and theoritically, the 384Kbps and 512Kbps will almost never experience these limits until month end depending on their usage ... lol
* I think the following would sell better (just my opinion ):
- I'm fine with 30Gb as long as the shaping guarantees that im going to be over 2048kbps
- I'm fine with 60Gb as long as my line speed can be reduced to 2048kbps with a 1024kbps minimum guarantee
- I'm fine with 90Gb as long as my line speed can be reduced to 512kbps with a 384kbps minimum guarantee
- I'm fine with 120Gb as long as my line speed is always 384kbps
- I dont care about the 150Gb part ... lol
To me this is more fair since it halves all the time as opposed to shaping by a quarter which is seen as worse by customers .... additionally, those displaying extreme bandwidth usage can be notified and dropped to 1024kbps ....

So yeah that's what i would like the package to be (Because the thing that bugs me the most is the extreme drop in line speed from 4mb to 1mb .... shouldn't it be from 4mb to 2mb to 1mb?). It's sort of ridiculous to expect 24/7 downloading since the package does state that its not meant for constant downloading which people should respect. Currently i'm looking into replacing my two telkom 2gb accounts and upgrading my existing afrihost 1gb account to an uncapped account.

If you read this far into the reply then thanks for reading

 

[pevans]

Where did 30GB come from? The original write-up says 60GB before you might incur throttling.

 

[Fjorko]

Guys

we shouldn't even be having this arguement. Uncapped is Uncapped - no limits not shaping and no throttling.....

If this has to be done to deliver us so called "uncapped", then it just means the infrastructure in SA is not really ready for truly uncapped services.....

 

[killadoob]

LOL how do you think you will get to 60 or 90gb's with torrents and nzb's moving at 5kbs after the first 30?

 

[LancelotSA]

Here is what the plan was (and is) for the 4096 Uncapped:

Firstly, excellent response Gian and I think you will find a number of us were already defending Afrihost prior to this response as we were aware of the intention of this service to start with. Your company stated in more than one place that this service was not meant for 24/7 downloading... unfortunately some people were always going to just ignore this in the hope that they would be the one to benefit at the expense of everyone else. It is unfortunately a bit of a disease in this country, a lot of people are just out to look after themselves, screw everyone else.

Anyway, now that I have that off my chest, your post goes on to say the above. Obviously those specific terms will terms only apply to your 4Mb service due to the speeds mentioned. (By the way I feel those terms are extremely fair even by overseas standards which people usually gleefully refer to. A number of overseas ISPs seem to throttled straight down to 128k after very few Gbs) I know the other services are not offered as yet but what will the "fair use policy" be on the 384k service for example? You are unlikely to be able to download 100Gb on this account in a month anyway. Would this account enjoy full 384k speeds the whole month?

I'm not sure if this has already been asked as this thread got too big too quick to check it all. Thanks.

 

[killadoob]

Lance just goes to show the public will support anything dude. Feed you guys crap and you will eat it. They have mentioned hundreds of gb's and 200gb.They should have said we offer 30gb accounts that are throttled to hell after the limit. Why would someone hearing 200gb think ok let me only download 29 so i don't go back into the stone age? Funny how you can be open and honest once you have lured everyone in and to think people still support this


No uncapped.

Lance once you 30gb you get shaped and throttled regardless of line speed dude, stick with them though sounds like a great deal. 30 gb accounts for cheap cheap.

After you have moved 30 GBs you will be moved into a
different category whereby certain ports will be shaped
more aggressively. However, web and email will still be
prioritised.

That is scary, what ports?

Youtube?
Gaming
Video streaming?
pirate networks?

Leaves it very open to abuse again. Basically at 30gb you can browse and check email forget about anything else.

 

[LancelotSA]

Lance just goes to show the public will support anything dude. Feed you guys crap and you will eat it. They have mentioned hundreds of gb's and 200gb and they would not be in this position. They should have said we offer 30gb accounts that are throttled to hell after the limit. Why would someone hearing 200gb think ok let me only download 29 so i don't go back into the stone age.

No uncapped.

Lance once you 30gb you get shaped and throttled regardless of line speed dude, stick with them though sounds like a great deal. 30 gb accounts for cheap cheap.

This service may not suit you, that's great, as requested find something else. It may, however, be perfect for the rest of us. The fact that they are chasing away those milking the line for all it is worth actually makes it more appealing to me. Just because you do not like what is being said don't just assume it is crap.

Try looking at what was actually said rather than just typing based on your anger. You state the user will be throttled regardless of your line speed. The quoted fair use policy shows the initial throttling, at 60Gb, to be down to 1024k. Hardly worrying to someone on a 384k line. It is only at 150Gb that those stated terms will have an effect on a 384k line. A number which is going to be rather difficult to attain anyway.....

 

[xrapidx]

Isn't the debate over? You guys are wasting seriously precious bandwidth by continuing.

 

[Grep]

Ugh you know what, this back en forth won't stop. AH thought their T/C would deter rapings, but it will never. I totally understand what AH tried to achieve, most SMB clients could happily live with -10GB's a month just doing what they normally do, emails and their normal surfing and not worrying about the cap all the time. This is the target audience which this product was aimed at, which almost I guess covers 90% of the SA users, but most of us at MyBB do not fall into that category. Open the flood gates, and we shall rape. The funny thing is that I would for a said company that has a huge pipe via leased line and I have full means to rape it silly but I don't. Not because I worry, but because there is only so much one can download that's really worthwhile.

If it was up to me I would seriously think about things worth downloading, being movies, series, games, whatever. Where is one going to be to watch or play all those things while D'L so much? Not possible, if one has a life. So get one, it is better than you think )