Official Afrihost Q&A Thread

[Tweak]

Thinking about this a bit more: why don't the ISP's just have banded pricing per GB instead of this uncapped BS? In other words, if you're using less than 10GB a month you pay R29 per GB. Every gig between 10 and 30 will cost you (say) R20 each and then anything over 30 will come down to R10 per GB?

I think uncapped is just a stupid idea. Trust MWEB to fork everything up for us. I'm betting they did this on purpose to cause mayhem in the market.

I like to agree with this statement.

I liked the concept of pay per gigs u need (Unshaped) more. But I bought uncapped anyway, just to see how it will be.

 

[diabolus]

Thinking about this a bit more: why don't the ISP's just have banded pricing per GB instead of this uncapped BS? In other words, if you're using less than 10GB a month you pay R29 per GB. Every gig between 10 and 30 will cost you (say) R20 each and then anything over 30 will come down to R10 per GB?

I think uncapped is just a stupid idea. Trust MWEB to fork everything up for us. I'm betting they did this on purpose to cause mayhem in the market.

Well what alot of people don't realise, uncapped is a way to make you spend more. Where you say, paid R150 for your 5GB and probably came out fine with it, you had to manage a few things, maybe buy a boxed series instead of downloading it here and there, but you only paid R150 a month. Now comes uncapped, whoop R500...everyone jump for joy, but when it comes right down to it, you are paying R350 MORE now.

Obviously the ISPs are bargaining that most people are not mysteriously going to jump from 5GB to 100GB, but maybe to 20GB [already a big jump if you're use to 1GB or 5GB] and probably lower than that. So without realising you will be paying more for the same . Plus if an ISP are buying capacity per month, they loose out if it's not used [hence why i suppose Afrihost have the R14 specials, if no one buys GBs which they already paid IS for, they loose, you can call it "stock that expires" ], so uncapped kinda makes you pay for capacity whether you use it or not [and the ISP scores all the way, even if you use it] .

That's why i keep hammering that i prefer a capped solution with more GBs -at the same price- . My budget was never R1000 a month for internet , it was R500 and still is [on a 4MB/s line of course].

So don't for a second think uncapped is "for us" , it's just another way to make money......a way to extend your budget further. The ultimate offering is one where you dont' have a "package" at all, you buy each GB as you need them [auto topup] . This of course is perfect for users, but bad for the business , hence why you don't see this sort of offering [and if you do, it's R30 p/GB + ]

 

[Pixual]

Which is why I'm glad this "uncapped" malarkey has bitten AH on the butt. I say get rid of it and give us back our reasonably priced gigs at the line speeds that we are paying for.

I don't want to subsidise anybody else's web surfing. If they want to d/l a terabyte every month then they must frikking well pay for it. Why should we all suffer (as we are now) with throttled accounts because some small percentage of users are cocking it up for us all?

 

[hambone]

I do not understand why Gian would make this thread with the title Q&A; when there is no A apart from the OP and another 1 or two choice responses. Honestly. It should read Afrihost Uncapped Announcement. My question: Is Afrihost ready to admit that this is a service that is shaped within in inch of its life, that is best meant for my gran to download windows updates (thank goodness they're on auto)?!

 

[Wogan]

Just a sort of general response to everyone who's been "i'm being shaped/capped/throttled and I've only used 2gb OMG".

I'm with Afrihost, 4096. In the last 8 days I've done 33GB, (11GB since April 1). I have a private server in Toronto I was pulling a database dump down from. Speeds (measured at my ethernet adapter):

I know you expect low speeds on 384k (so you get what you pay for 100%), but just because you're running 4096 doesn't mean the whole internet speeds up. Other servers/peers actually need to be able to serve you stuff at a high speed, and every single link in the connection between you and them has to be fast too. Any one bottleneck can slow you down.

I know this is obvious to anyone who actually knows how the internet works, but it seems we live in a culture of "it's on the box", followed shortly by "I DEMAND".

 

[Pixual]

Wogan, what protocol are you using to d/l your dump? I'm betting it's not P2P.

I don't have an uncapped account. I buy a regular 3GB from Afrihost every month for R87 and top up as I need more. Occasionally I need to use torrents to download large files. Up until this uncapped service came out I was getting decent speeds of around 250-300kB/s on Vuze. Now I'm lucky if it gets up to 50kB/s on the 4096 line.

I'm not paying Telkom a shedload of money to have a fast line if my ISP won't let me use it. I may as well go back to the 384 line and get an uncapped account, but I don't want to do that - I WANT what I am paying for, dammit!

 

[Frankc]

We cannot even connect with Afrihost ADSL

Can you perhaps explain why we cannot connect with Afrihost ADSL during the past 8 hours or more?

I am sure there is no false notes in the money that we used to PAY Afrihost but when we want to use the Afrihost ADSL service it's down and therefore a part of the service that you offer is false.

 

[Gargmel]

Working 110% here...?

 

[Frankc]

I know you expect low speeds on 384k (so you get what you pay for 100%), but just because you're running 4096 doesn't mean the whole internet speeds up. Other servers/peers actually need to be able to serve you stuff at a high speed, and every single link in the connection between you and them has to be fast too. Any one bottleneck can slow you down.

I know this is obvious to anyone who actually knows how the internet works, but it seems we live in a culture of "it's on the box", followed shortly by "I DEMAND".

Do YOU really know and have first hand experience about what is going on in the Telkom and other Big ISP's control rooms?

Old Mybroadband Post

I already had ADSL for almost 2 years and downloads was always around 30 to 90 k. Was never over 90 k. (512k line)

This morning I downloaded 21mb file and got a speed of 430 k.

Seems that Telkom have a trottle somewhere and that it was disabled for a short period, perhaps software upgrade or something.

It's Telkom that trottle the throughtput that's I am sure off.

Use ADSL for almost 2 years.
Work on internet past 3 years. (owned 200+- websites)
Same Computer
Marconi USB modem
512 k Telkom ADSL account

With around 200 websites you will understand that I upload/download thousands of files every month. Average speed to my servers 50k

This particular file was on one of my servers at Hetzner datacenter in Jhb.

21.3 MB (22,363,727 bytes)
Downloaded 21 December 2005, 10:10:44

Above file was downloaded within less than one minute with throughput of average 430k. (With SecureFX)

(While writing this I tested again. Got over 550K.)

I uploaded it again to other location with just under 500k upload speed to enable me to test download with other methods.

http://www.sa-hosting.net/onlinec_chat.zip (It's actually a text file but I renamed it to zip to force download)

With normal download as well as with win commander I only get 57k download speed.

So it seems that it's the SecureFX program or SSH connection that bypass trottling.

FACT of the matter is that, if a speed of 500+ k can be achieved then there must be a trottle to limit speed via standard protocols.

 

[Frankc]

I still don't think this product should be called uncapped. With their logic my 56k dialup modem is is also uncapped, uncapped but useless.

It's plain FALSE advertising. FACT

I don't have a uncapped account otherwise I would for sure lay a complaint about false advertising at the Advertising Standards Authority of SA

Also being trottled to speeds below BroadBand means that you pay for a BroadBand service that is according speed NO LONGER broadband. Was a certain company not so long ago slapped because their speeds was LESS than what is considered broadband?

SA has the worst consumers on the planet. You can feed them schit and they will be happy

I fully agree. Afrihost OFFER UNCAPPED accounts but then CAP accounts if it's above a certain limit so it's NOT UNCAPPED accounts but South African consumers just accept anything like a bunch of sheep and at the same time wonder why the massas vote for a certain political party.

Wonder if its cowards re-registering to hide themselves? OR......

No YOU are the coward that cannot stand for what is right. See above

 

[Frankc]

Gian's email to all afrihost users on the 24th March:

Is this a truly uncapped service? Are there
any catches? Can I really use as much as I want?

Unless you literally move hundreds of GBs per month
this service will be uncapped for you with no catches
for you

The vast majority of our Uncapped clients will be able
to use as much as they want.

If this is true Afrihost plain LIED if even just the minority of their clients cannot "use as much as they want" without everybody being capped.

In MY case I cannot even connect to Afrihost ADSL during the past 10 hours.

(10 GB account and still 9GB + left so I am hardly a heavy user that misuse the service so WHY are MY connection down??????)

 

[Frankc]

http://www.asasa.org.za/Complaint.aspx

There you go Afrihost.

I still waiting for my ADSL to come back online so in the meantime I decided to lay a complaint at the Advertising Standards Authority of SA because of the false and misleading "UNCAPPED" product and advertisements while your boss in this very same threat say it's NOT uncapped and many users was already capped.

I don't have an uncapped account and don't misuse your ADSL service but if MY ADSL connection is now down for many hours because your guys cannot do their job then I don't see anything wrong with the filling of such complaint.

 

[P0is3nIvy]

My 384 uncapped account was mistakenly capped as well. It took me about 5 hours to get it sorted. I think they were/are lank busy. But im back up now with all my fav proggies downed already.

 

[marine1]

http://www.asasa.org.za/Complaint.aspx

There you go Afrihost.

I still waiting for my ADSL to come back online so in the meantime I decided to lay a complaint at the Advertising Standards Authority of SA because of the false and misleading "UNCAPPED" product and advertisements while your boss in this very same threat say it's NOT uncapped and many users was already capped.

I don't have an uncapped account and don't misuse your ADSL service but if MY ADSL connection is now down for many hours because your guys cannot do their job then I don't see anything wrong with the filling of such complaint.

Did you lodge a complaint? That link sends me to a page to register my own one.

 

[VQuest]

I do not understand why Gian would make this thread with the title Q&A; when there is no A apart from the OP and another 1 or two choice responses. Honestly. It should read Afrihost Uncapped Announcement. My question: Is Afrihost ready to admit that this is a service that is shaped within in inch of its life, that is best meant for my gran to download windows updates (thank goodness they're on auto)?!

I've been wondering that myself. Plenty of Q's but not many A's

Gian must be a very busy guy. Hopefully fixing our problems.

 

[marine1]

I agree, this product offering MUST NOT be allowed to be called uncapped.
It is extremely misleading and IMO false advertising.

 

[Wogan]

Wogan, what protocol are you using to d/l your dump? I'm betting it's not P2P.

I don't have an uncapped account. I buy a regular 3GB from Afrihost every month for R87 and top up as I need more. Occasionally I need to use torrents to download large files. Up until this uncapped service came out I was getting decent speeds of around 250-300kB/s on Vuze. Now I'm lucky if it gets up to 50kB/s on the 4096 line.

I'm not paying Telkom a shedload of money to have a fast line if my ISP won't let me use it. I may as well go back to the 384 line and get an uncapped account, but I don't want to do that - I WANT what I am paying for, dammit!

Why would I use p2p to pull a large file down from a private server? :S Direct http download.

And everyone wants what they pay for - but speeds are something beyond Telkom's control when it comes to international servers. It doesn't help ragging on Afrihost if it's not their fault.

Do YOU really know and have first hand experience about what is going on in the Telkom and other Big ISP's control rooms?

Do YOU actually read before replying? I keep saying the same thing over and over again: Download speeds depend on the server as much as the line.

 

[ZuBS_]

I have cancelled, cant wait to move over to MWEB. I hope everyone cancels, this will send them a message. LIARS and CHEATS

 

[Necuno]

Why is it that everyone ALWAYS assume that the content is illegal.

Is youtube illegal?
Are the opensuse, redhat/fedora/centos/trixbox/ubuntu/gentoo/vmware esxi packages illegal
Is setting up a WSUS environment to test functionality for your clients illegal
Is downloading ISO's from microsoft (package subscribers with no media which seems to be the norm now) illegal?
Is downloading Trial MS iso's for testing illegal?

Catch a wake-up just because you are limited to downloading your soaps and tunes doesn't mean that everyone is doing that. 4GB/day is NOT that much.

...steam, direct to download, ign, xbox live, psn, vpn to work, security streams, video conference, upload digital art/gis/architect/engineering, training videos (technet), msdn, beta testing. Internet is more than just warez...

 

[Pixual]

Why would I use p2p to pull a large file down from a private server? :S Direct http download.

And everyone wants what they pay for - but speeds are something beyond Telkom's control when it comes to international servers. It doesn't help ragging on Afrihost if it's not their fault.

Do YOU actually read before replying? I keep saying the same thing over and over again: Download speeds depend on the server as much as the line.

Are you using some weird kind of babelfish translator to read posts here? Try asking yourself your own question after re-reading my post. I'm talking about throttled TORRENT download speeds - NOT http or FTP downloads.