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

Are you satisfied with your Crystal Web account?

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CW, nntp is still fluctuating between 60 & 80KB/s. I don't know how one will test to see what is the issue, but I cannot sit with support and run tests at this stage. The household also wants to use the net to wrap up things.
 
Lynx_ZA said:
Crystal Web, I commend you on your efforts and investing in getting a new backbone.

I am still however concerned about Cybersmarts Network as we have seen in the past, Their network performance is not the best.

Why can you not just move backbones all together, Provide the months notice or 6 months notice or year notice, Whatever it is - I wouldn't trust cybersmart as far as I could throw them.
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You'd be surprised. We've investigated all backbone providers for months now. Cybersmart is actually an incredibly solid network in comparison to most others, especially others selling at premium prices at the moment. It's true. And some are just uninterested in leasing capacity over their own network as well. We still have high hopes for the Cybersmart backbone, knowing what we know (but are unable to disclose due to confidentiality agreements) about their plans. But there comes a time when we need to make harsh and decisive decisions - one such decision has been to double capacity and split it across networks. The other was to change our commercial agreements to be able to manage our capacity directly rather than indirectly.

But commercial agreements cannot be shirked. And we remain confident that there remains huge value to customers on both aspects of the symmetrical network moving forward. January will bring about some enlightenment in this respect.

What we have been trying to avoid, and is something people in general are too quick to do, is have knee-jerk reactions. We've evaluated over a while now, and while it's easy to say one network is better than another, it's also easy to forget that there can be quite a stark distinction in quality between each of the providers. In actual testing of various providers, the Cybersmart network remains right up there. It won't seem like it right now in light of the issues experienced, but it's true. Cybersmart is made up of a fantastic team of knowledgeable industry participants for decades. You don't remain in business that long if you run a poor network. So we don't judge them in isolation of the last 2 months' issues, which we are aware they were reliant on a certain incumbent coming to the party for as well. But we do have to be decisive on this, hence the decision to run a symmetrical system and double capacity. I was really hoping you guys would react positively to this announcement. I'm actually quite stunned that this has been received negatively, and it's pretty disheartening.

But the bottom line here is Cybersmart actually do have a solid network. Many customers will attest to this, and we still hold a lot of hope that the http download issue will be resolved very shortly. But even if it isn't, we've got everyone covered in any case. If you look at performance on the CS network, you will not find a better network (currently) for Netflix, Hulu (which had issues but is now resolved), YouTube, SuperSport and other CDN distributed streaming. Torrents and nntp ordinarily fly, most customers will confirm this. Browsing is usually snappy, VPN is usually good, and FTP is usually good. Gaming too tends to be a pleasure. This is when the network is working properly. So as an all-rounder with top marks or in the top of its class for most protocols, you'll struggle to find a better network. We selected them for good reason, and we will honour our commercial contracts with Cybersmart as long as the products work moving forward.

But let's forget the pros and cons of the Cybersmart network here for a second and rather look forward - it's December after all. Running a symmetrical network makes sense; has massive benefits; and prevents future problems. It's the sensible approach to this all, and one we're incredibly proud of and excited about. I'm hoping others will be as excited about it as we are from now on.
 
ForSure said:
Cybersmarts backbone is terrible , why would they want to move there?
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We're not moving there. We're remaining there, doubling our capacity, and splitting half off onto an entirely new network. We're also moving to a solution over the Cybersmart network where we manage our own capacity directly.
 
Crystal Web said:
/SNIP

But let's forget the pros and cons of the Cybersmart network here for a second and rather look forward - it's December after all. Running a symmetrical network makes sense; has massive benefits; and prevents future problems. It's the sensible approach to this all, and one we're incredibly proud of and excited about. I'm hoping others will be as excited about it as we are from now on.
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Like I say, I commend you guys hugely regarding the symmetrical networks.

I honestly believe that crystal web will go very far, especially now that you have your foot in the door with a new backbone.

You probably need some encouragement during all this doom and gloom with the network issues.

So I have to say, Well Done Shaun and Paul.

BTW, I have to ask who is backing you guys, Someone needs to have deep pockets to power this whole thing.
 
snail112 said:
CW, nntp is still fluctuating between 60 & 80KB/s. I don't know how one will test to see what is the issue, but I cannot sit with support and run tests at this stage. The household also wants to use the net to wrap up things.
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I've reported it off to look into. Unfortunately with it being a public holiday, I get the impression we're the only ISP really working. We've even had support up all day, and still have live support all through the night. So we're not going to see it resolved straight away this evening.

But note that we will be limiting support hours a little over December as of next week to during the day only, and we won't be available on days like Christmas and New Years. I'm hoping this isn't held against us. :o
 
Lynx_ZA said:
BTW, I have to ask who is backing you guys, Someone needs to have deep pockets to power this whole thing.
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The shareholders, of which I am the majority shareholder.

I have wrapped up all of my other businesses to look after Crystal Web full-time now. Everything has been put into this. Blood, sweat, tears, life savings, and I've forgotten what sleep is. No idea why I started an ISP, but I love it nonetheless. :D
 
Lynx_ZA said:
So I have to say, Well Done Shaun and Paul.
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Thank you. It should be noted that while we remain the public-facing directors of Crystal Web, considerable effort has been put in by all of our employees, and other directors and shareholders. In terms of shareholder-directors, there is Karen, Paul, Jeanre, and myself. And then there are quite a few employees, most of whom look after you guys on the support and sales desks 24 hours a day. Behind the scenes they all keep the walls up around here. :D
 
Crystal Web said:
We're not moving there. We're remaining there, doubling our capacity, and splitting half off onto an entirely new network. We're also moving to a solution over the Cybersmart network where we manage our own capacity directly.
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I hope it works out for you guys , lots of time and effort has gone in to your new project and looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with :)
 
Crystal Web said:
We're not moving there. We're remaining there, doubling our capacity, and splitting half off onto an entirely new network. We're also moving to a solution over the Cybersmart network where we manage our own capacity directly.
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Crystal Web said:
/snip

No idea why I started an ISP, but I love it nonetheless. :D
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Think SS pissed you off.

:D
 
Good Luck with it all guys. I wish you guys the best to grow from strength to strength.
 
Gaming is not a pleasure when updates run at 40kb/s and you have to wait 3 days for a 1.5 gig patch only to time out at 1.4 gigs. All of which you are paying 430 bucks a month for.
 
Crystal Web said:
I've reported it off to look into. Unfortunately with it being a public holiday, I get the impression we're the only ISP really working. We've even had support up all day, and still have live support all through the night. So we're not going to see it resolved straight away this evening.

But note that we will be limiting support hours a little over December as of next week to during the day only, and we won't be available on days like Christmas and New Years. I'm hoping this isn't held against us. :o
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Hey, no problem. Thought you need more info from my side.

It is just annoying when nntp downloads goes between 60 & 80KB/s and sometimes even less than 30KB/s on a 4Mbps line when there is less than 30GB for the month.

As for the Support hours, it is reasonable to scale down a bit, but if you go to slack on those support slaves you will have trouble to get them back to work in the new year :D.
 
BTW guys, with regards to payment options:

Debit orders we are busy (actually right now) integrating.
Credit card payments as well - just awaiting approval from Visa and Mastercard as the site needs approval and we have to integrate into effectively 3 different sites.

We have been delaying the invoice cycle this month (as we invoice early in December for obvious reasons) to try to get this in on time but it's possible that there may be this last month of EFTs. Thankfully as of January both options will be available though.

So the new year brings with it new payment methods; a massive network upgrade; a symmetrical network; a better portal; new account types; massive specials; network problems resolved; and a massive thank you from us to you. So we're hoping all of this will being some smiles to Crystal Web customer dials.
 
Good thing we didn't tell you lot about Tamryn who's on support. Sheez.
 
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