Official Crystal Web ADSL performance feedback thread Part 2...

Are you satisfied with your Crystal Web account?

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DrJohnZoidberg said:
Every single ISP I have used I've used because I was able to test it first, if not for free then for a very small once-off payment (e.g. R29). I understand not wanting to release more accounts now, that makes sense but for future there should really be some sort of way people can test the waters without forking over R200.
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We are offering trial accounts on a limited basis (but as mentioned I have tried to stop this practice for the time being) and are looking at economically viable ways to make it possible for everyone to do this. Bear in mind that it may only be a gig to you and not seem like much of a cost, but when you have thousands of free gig accounts running continuously with most people using it as a backup and not actually a test account once off, it can become problematic. I say can only though - it does have its benefits to an extent but the focus for me right now is getting things back to normal as quickly as possible, so I will look into this again next month.
 
HavocXphere said:
Are the capped accounts live yet? Need something reliable for my parents...
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You can contact support for a capped account. At the moment though it is not reliable. There are some upgrades that will be rolling out to fix the problems but not sure when this will happen. I am hoping very soon though.
 
Electric said:
HiToKiRi - they have a policy in place that you have agreed to.
I don't think there's any point in being difficult to prove a point.
Cancel today, use the account till the end of the month and then sign up for a new account.
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Point taken.

Crystal Web said:
This would be contrary to our terms of service agreed to and payment will be due as the account will auto-provision for the following month. But come month's end there will certainly be improvements by then, of that we have been assured, and is why I have been in meeting after meeting the last two days to resolve. There is a network update going out today about this to everyone.
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Thanks CW. It's good to know that improvements are in the pipeline.
Please understand I'm not trying to be a douche because I completely understand that with a network as new as yours there are inevitable challenges and teething problems and up till now you've dealt with them very professionally. I take my hat off to you and the team because it's not an easy task trying to please the internet-hungry public.

The reality is though my wife will be at home for 4 weeks over Dec/Jan and I'll also be taking several days leave in December so the line at home will be working, A LOT. I'm therefore going to need an account that performs well regardless of whom the account is with. I really don't like jumping between ISP's but if I need to cancel my CW account for now and return at a later stage when the network is running optimally then so be it. ;)
 
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HavocXphere said:
Are the capped accounts live yet? Need something reliable for my parents...
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As per sandman's post, the capped accounts are not getting full throughput on downloads and there is high contention on the network at the moment. We've delayed rolling out the new product range until I'm confident that the core network is back to its usual 100% performance in lieu of this. It's a decision I don't take lightly and weighs heavily on me having to make that call as there are some great products coming out now. I firmly believe that when we have an issue we should do all we can to preserve the network for existing customers, so we've actively tried to minimise new signups when talking to our sales or support agents.
 
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Crystal Web said:
We are offering trial accounts on a limited basis (but as mentioned I have tried to stop this practice for the time being) and are looking at economically viable ways to make it possible for everyone to do this. Bear in mind that it may only be a gig to you and not seem like much of a cost, but when you have thousands of free gig accounts running continuously with most people using it as a backup and not actually a test account once off, it can become problematic. I say can only though - it does have its benefits to an extent but the focus for me right now is getting things back to normal as quickly as possible, so I will look into this again next month.
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Would it be possible to not just expire the account after a week or so? Then it could just be used once-off.
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
Would it be possible to not just expire the account after a week or so? Then it could just be used once-off.
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It is, certainly. We'd have to then try to prevent new signups for the same free account without coming across like punitive douches :D and it's not yet a module built into our backend. So will require some dev work to get sorted - but it's something I am considering as an option as well.
 
Crystal Web said:
It is, certainly. We'd have to then try to prevent new signups for the same free account without coming across like punitive douches :D and it's not yet a module built into our backend. So will require some dev work to get sorted - but it's something I am considering as an option as well.
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Link the account to the phone number like AH does.
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
Link the account to the phone number like AH does.
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We already do - they're line locked. It's not that this is technically unfeasible - it very much is - it's just that it will only come after proper approval for this and after serious consideration, once everything is back to 100%, which will be soon.
 
Crystal Web said:
We already do - they're line locked. It's not that this is technically unfeasible - it very much is - it's just that it will only come after proper approval for this and after serious consideration, once everything is back to 100%, which will be soon.
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Good to hear. Will pop in here every now and then to check whats happening :D
 
Looking at moving from Afrihost as their continual network issues is costing me. I am looking for an uncapped account, 10MB, that will not be slow if we download about 350GB per month. It cannot be slow during the day as that when the service will be used. How are P2P downloads handled on the network?
 
PurSpyk!! said:
Looking at moving from Afrihost as their continual network issues is costing me. I am looking for an uncapped account, 10MB, that will not be slow if we download about 350GB per month. It cannot be slow during the day as that when the service will be used. How are P2P downloads handled on the network?
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P2P does very well on the network
Capture.PNG
That is me limiting it to the speed it's running.

Consider the following as well:
http://www.crystalweb.co.za/relationshipagreement.html

Shaping
3. In developing product terms one or more of the following shaping policies will be used.
First tier data (‘“unshaped”’) is prioritized data where traffic is not shaped by default, unless extraordinary network preservation demands as such. On exhausting a first tier data allocation a customer will be migrated to either the second (or third tier shaping, as set out in the product description or as requested by a customer and approved by Crystal Web) for the remainder of the calendar month, or such period as set in the product term, or the account will be capped depending on the product the customer has purchased from Crystal Web. Higher allocation of this tier is recommended for large volume downloaders.

Second tier data (‘priority’) is shaped during peak hours to exclude peer-to-peer and nntp traffic, and to deprioritise large downloads on any protocols. CDN streaming, browsing, VPN, gaming and other traffic is prioritized. Between 00:30 and 07:00 shaping is released on all protocols based on network capacity availability. Higher allocation of this tier is recommended for medium to heavy users of streaming, gaming, VPN and other traffic. Second tier data is not recommended for large volume downloads during peak hours. Peak hours are determined by peak capacity load times on the network.

Third tier data (‘entry’) is shaped, with CDN streaming, browsing, and local VPN traffic prioritised. Certain accounts operating in this tier may be subjected to thresholds on usage of certain protocols depending on the product description. Shaping is released between 00:30 and 07:00 based on network capacity availability. This tier is for entry level products as part of efforts to make affordable Internet products for a broader community and is not suited to broadband intensive usage during peak hours.
 
A fourth tier of data will be added to our product range soon, to fill a few gaps and increase the value proposition as well. As soon as the network is back to 100% we will be releasing this tier, and also adding some very cool functionality in this respect into the customer portal. In addition, numerous new products will be released, as well as a new concept fibre product range suitable for home use. ;)
 
Crystal Web said:
A fourth tier of data will be added to our product range soon, to fill a few gaps and increase the value proposition as well. As soon as the network is back to 100% we will be releasing this tier, and also adding some very cool functionality in this respect into the customer portal. In addition, numerous new products will be released, as well as a new concept fibre product range suitable for home use. ;)
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You're such a tease . . .
 
Please take note of this little gem!

General Support
The upgrade was scheduled and delayed by Telkom but it is being rolled out this week. we're waiting on confirmation from our upstream provider. Also note that you're cancelling the service after the 19th meaning that the account will be active until the end of next month
our latest date for cancellations is the 18th of every month for the current month, if you cancel after the 18th, your account will be cancelled at the end of the following month as stated in our T&C's
 
StormHorse said:
Please take note of this little gem!

General Support
The upgrade was scheduled and delayed by Telkom but it is being rolled out this week. we're waiting on confirmation from our upstream provider. Also note that you're cancelling the service after the 19th meaning that the account will be active until the end of next month
our latest date for cancellations is the 18th of every month for the current month, if you cancel after the 18th, your account will be cancelled at the end of the following month as stated in our T&C's
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This has always been our policy. It's clearly stated in our terms and conditions, support agents freely provide the information when queried, sales agents too prior to sign up, and we've posted about it in numerous threads, and as recently as last night in here.
 
Crystal Web said:
This has always been our policy. It's clearly stated in our terms and conditions, support agents freely provide the information when queried, sales agents too prior to sign up, and we've posted about it in numerous threads, and as recently as last night in here.
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Apologies I didn't see your earlier post, but in retrospect why did I not just get an answer when i asked it on the 18th already as had I known then I most certainly would not have waited a moment longer!
 
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Yeah, nothing special about the 19th. Always been like that.

@CW
See you made some changes to the portal.
The white font displays much better on the primary tab colors.
Thank you very much for that.
Personally I prefer the current page layout, although I still not get the obsession with the "Change colour with hover" effect(or is it now affect)?
It could just be personal taste though and you can't cater for everyone.

My YouTube is bad though and hopefully you can cater for that.
Google RC Peterbilt.
It takes forever to load and playback is horrible for me.
I actually went to check if I farked up my QoS or throttling/shapping rules, that is how bad it is.
Browsing is a bit iffy as well.

Is it general performance issues or is something going on?
 
PurSpyk!! said:
Looking at moving from Afrihost as their continual network issues is costing me. I am looking for an uncapped account, 10MB, that will not be slow if we download about 350GB per month. It cannot be slow during the day as that when the service will be used. How are P2P downloads handled on the network?
Click to expand...

When I was with them I got about 100GB of unshaped bandwidth on my 10MB account. After that NZB (not p2p) was shaped to death during the day. So as long as you using majority after hours, you should be fine.
 
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