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

[zll]

Yup. My HULU streaming has been perfect today. Downloads run at full speed when I need them as well. I suspect there are still some bugs with the shaper and maybe some people don't quite understand how the "shaping protocols" work after they have exceeded their unshaped data portions.

People are quick to jump on the "cancel bandwagon" without allowing CW to sort it out. I'm not saying don't raise issues as/when they arise but just a little bit of patience goes a long way (at least give them a chance to sort issues out).
Just my 2c.

I sent them a mildly annoyed message mostly because their support was saying "You're probably shaped" to which I replied "I understand the difference between being shaped vs absolutely 0 access". I know they will sort it out, but it's still annoying when support doesn't listen to feedback.

I had a similar heated discussion with TelkomZA's team until Charl himself finally followed up and said "Oh, you're right. We'll sort it out for you"

 

[Zenbaas]

I sent them a mildly annoyed message mostly because their support was saying "You're probably shaped" to which I replied "I understand the difference between being shaped vs absolutely 0 access". I know they will sort it out, but it's still annoying when support doesn't listen to feedback.

I had a similar heated discussion with TelkomZA's team until Charl himself finally followed up and said "Oh, you're right. We'll sort it out for you"

Absolutely. I'm also having some behind the scenes " discussions" at the moment but I trust it will eventually be sorted out to my satisfaction.

 

[Hectic]

and pings are crazy high.
Time to start looking again after less than two weeks. :wtf:

Does anybody here actually have access to Crystal Webs News server. I have asked at least three times now and nothing, nada.

"Why choose Crystal Web as your ISP?
Because we're just like you
We want our downloads fast
We want our streaming without buffering
We want our gaming without lag
We want to be able to use the internet day and night"

I am rarely getting this level of service that's been advertised. Was it just good marketing and nothing more?

My news server runs fine, console gaming runs fine, downloads fine. I don't really stream, apart from some sport. Rugby yesterday wasn't high quality, but it streamed without buffering. Cricket, earlier today was high quality again.

 

[Paul Hjul]

Hi we are aware of a couple of authentication roll over issues over the weekend which have been resolved as a priority matter (in my view getting a customer connected is the first priority)

A few individual instances where a customer is receiving an experience with the account which doesn't satisfy them once shaping has started to apply and we are looking at these instances.

I can assure everybody that we are making every effort to deliver the best possible service to all of our clients. Sometimes there are constraints that are reality of the nature of a DSL service (we are dependent on Telkom, network operators not observing net neutrality in London is outside our control). And sometimes we will make a mistake or drop the ball on something but if we do we make every effort to fix things.

 

[zll]

Hi we are aware of a couple of authentication roll over issues over the weekend which have been resolved as a priority matter (in my view getting a customer connected is the first priority)

A few individual instances where a customer is receiving an experience with the account which doesn't satisfy them once shaping has started to apply and we are looking at these instances.

I can assure everybody that we are making every effort to deliver the best possible service to all of our clients. Sometimes there are constraints that are reality of the nature of a DSL service (we are dependent on Telkom, network operators not observing net neutrality in London is outside our control). And sometimes we will make a mistake or drop the ball on something but if we do we make every effort to fix things.

After my account died support moved me onto a new account. I had no issues before with torrents on my other account. I started a few downloads on the backup account I was given and after a long time one of the three torrent files eventually connected and was going at about 40 kpbs (10 meg account). If this is standard service once you move onto tier 2 bandwidth please let us know.

(Everything else, except for Twitch, is fine.)

 

[Zenbaas]

After my account died support moved me onto a new account. I had no issues before with torrents on my other account. I started a few downloads on the backup account I was given and after a long time one of the three torrent files eventually connected and was going at about 40 kpbs (10 meg account). If this is standard service once you move onto tier 2 bandwidth please let us know.

(Everything else, except for Twitch, is fine.)

Remember you probably used up your "unshaped" bandwidth which is why you are now being shaped on the certain protocols as they explained ie:torrents and usenet will get shaped more heavily and "released" from 12-6 iirc.

 

[Gatecrasher]

I was on Afrihost business uncapped for too long. It spoiled me and I realize now that I can't abide being shaped, at least not the extent that CW's shaper is applying it (way too severe - i.e. 1/50th of line speed on torrents). I think I will see out next month and then move onto a combination of capped, unshaped accounts. With the drop in the prices of capped data, uncapped accounts are fast losing their appeal.

 

[Bryn]

I was on Afrihost business uncapped for too long. It spoiled me and I realize now that I can't abide being shaped, at least not the extent that CW's shaper is applying it (way too severe - i.e. 1/50th of line speed on torrents). I think I will see out next month and then move onto a combination of capped, unshaped accounts. With the drop in the prices of capped data, uncapped accounts are fast losing their appeal.

You've got me worried now. I can still cancel my Afrihost cancellation. Did streaming work fine once you were shaped? How severe was the shaping?

 

[slvR]

//off topic
Lol torrents


//on topic
why did you move from Afrihost business if it worked for you

 

[slvR]

You've got me worried now. I can still cancel my Afrihost cancellation. Did streaming work fine once you were shaped? How severe was the shaping?

I'm shaped, I don't torrent but I can say streaming hasn't changed at all. Unless you absolutely have to download during the day (for whatever reason) you don't really know you're shaped

 

[Paul Hjul]

I was on Afrihost business uncapped for too long. It spoiled me and I realize now that I can't abide being shaped, at least not the extent that CW's shaper is applying it (way too severe - i.e. 1/50th of line speed on torrents). I think I will see out next month and then move onto a combination of capped, unshaped accounts. With the drop in the prices of capped data, uncapped accounts are fast losing their appeal.

shaping does not operate on a line speed fraction (like throttling), your particular account is being looked at because it appears that a routing issue might be in play which requires that we establish how the account performs with more than a days data

 

[Gatecrasher]

You've got me worried now. I can still cancel my Afrihost cancellation. Did streaming work fine once you were shaped? How severe was the shaping?

If you read back in this thread you will see I have had a problem with the streaming after moving into the shaped zone. It only seems to work after 6pm. Before then is it is abysmal, so weekend afternoon sport is currently out the window. Today, I had to buy capped data to watch live sport. I'm sure that is not intentional though, and there are probably some problems to sort out with the (con)fusion shaper.

I use torrents occasionally. Maybe 2 or 3 times a month. But max thruput was 20KB/s on a 10Mb/s line. I still need to try out the CW news server, maybe that is a better option.

Maybe I'm just grumbling because of the streaming issues and the fact that I now have to adapt the way I do stuff.

@Woodlands. If you want to know why I cancelled AH business, just read a few pages of the AH business thread. And I'm in the South where capacity upgrades are still outstanding.

 

[zll]

Remember you probably used up your "unshaped" bandwidth which is why you are now being shaped on the certain protocols as they explained ie:torrents and usenet will get shaped more heavily and "released" from 12-6 iirc.

If that's the case then tier 2 on their network is terrible if you use P2P. I don't normally use it too much so I can live with it for a few days, but others might not.

And it's probably better than they word it "Once you hit tier 2 P2P will be unusable except between 12 and 6 AM".

 

[Zenbaas]

If that's the case then tier 2 on their network is terrible if you use P2P. I don't normally use it too much so I can live with it for a few days, but others might not.

And it's probably better than they word it "Once you hit tier 2 P2P will be unusable except between 12 and 6 AM".

Well I'm guessing here so I could very well be wrong. Best would be to clarify your slow speeds with support.

 

[zll]

Fair enough. I opened a ticket earlier this afternoon after things didn't get any better so I'll see what support has to say tomorrow.

 

[Hectic]

I'm shaped. My streaming of SS is good.

The rugby wasn't high quality yesterday, but cricket yesterday and today was.

My torrents and nzb are scheduled for 00:00 - 07:00. My downloads during the day (HP) laptop drivers) came down at full speed mostly, as they aren't huge. In total it was about 1GB.

The one that was big(300MB) started off full speed and dropped to about 75‰ line speed, before it completed.

The account is behaving exactly as advertised.

I'm hosting GT6 races with this account and if you know GT6, you will know how finicky the PSN servers are.
I have no problems with console gaming.

 

[Gatecrasher]

What is a large file for the shaper? A 17MB flash update, 1% per minute?

 

[Looney]

Well something just died...

 

[Looney]

Better, but still crap...

 

[Looney]

And we're back, please don't touch...