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

[Seeyou]

Heh, was told by support to reboot my router. I'll wait to see if there's any improvement tomorrow then, I guess.

I'm using default DNS as well.

 

[Crystal Web]

Heh, was told by support to reboot my router. I'll wait to see if there's any improvement tomorrow then, I guess.

I'm using default DNS as well.

When the guys ask you to reboot they often do so because they refresh the account and it will try to refresh the routing, so it's often a good idea to do so. Same applies to a power cycle if the guys ask you to do so. I know it's a pain but there are a plethora of issues that are often resolved with a reboot on your side and refresh on our side.

 

[Leek]

Netflix is so well connected on the network that the likelihood of it being the symptom of anything on our end is incredibly slim. I suspect there may be something area specific going on here though looking at the location of the reports though.

CW you spent sometime speaking to me yesterday regarding the Netflix performance on the Roku - and yet it works fine on other test accounts. Based on the other feedback tonight it's clear where the problem lies... You hogging the Netflix bandwidth on your test bench

 

[Seeyou]

When the guys ask you to reboot they often do so because they refresh the account and it will try to refresh the routing, so it's often a good idea to do so. Same applies to a power cycle if the guys ask you to do so. I know it's a pain but there are a plethora of issues that are often resolved with a reboot on your side and refresh on our side.

Understood, but I did reboot and switched to another account to check and and then back and still had the same issues.

 

[saa044]

CW you spent sometime speaking to me yesterday regarding the Netflix performance on the Roku - and yet it works fine on other test accounts. Based on the other feedback tonight it's clear where the problem lies... You hogging the Netflix bandwidth on your test bench

Their test bench is on a 3D tv so makes sense.

 

[Crystal Web]

CW you spent sometime speaking to me yesterday regarding the Netflix performance on the Roku - and yet it works fine on other test accounts. Based on the other feedback tonight it's clear where the problem lies... You hogging the Netflix bandwidth on your test bench

Haha.

It's off now, I swear.



But thanks for the feedback. I will have a chat with the engineers about this as it's the third we've received tonight and it is not normal. Even when we had issues last year Netflix ran well, so I suspect this is a minor tweak change required. Thanks

 

[snail112]

Just upgraded my backup ISP and NNTP accounts.




Let the spice flow......

 

[Looney]

Great stuff CW! Netflix back to normal, no more buffering, no more quality drops, streaming HD. See, I knew it was a CW issue and not my issue

 

[Seeyou]

NNTP performance is much improved this morning.

Curiously though, I cannot saturate my 20mbps line when using CW's server - download speeds hover around 1.8MB/sec - 1.9MB/sec and occasionally drop lower for a bit before improving again.

If I switch to a different international provider, I can get a solid 2.1MB/sec - 2.2MB/sec, and if I switch back to my other capped account and the international NNTP provider, the speed never drops below 2.2MB/sec.

 

[Sinbad]

Hmm
My line just bounced. I know CW raised an issue with telkom for my exchange.


New stats:
Downstream Upstream
SNR Margin
:
12.4 8.7 db
Line Attenuation
:
37.6 21.2 db
Data Rate
:
10240 1023 kbps
Max Rate
:
16772 1112 kbps
POWER
:
18.8 11.3 dbm
CRC
:
0 0

Looks like it's almost becoming worth switching to 20mbps!

 

[zll]

As per my discussion with support - After a test and indication that there was packet loss on my end, I am testing Path of Exile with an alternative ISP. It's perfect (consistently sub-200ms).

You guys are investigating the packet loss, as I gently chided support, this has been ongoing since late last year.

In any event, the takeaway is that the issue with the game is most assuredly not to do with infrastructure on my end. No biggie, just get it working as well as it usually does.

Thanks!

I'm running backup WA/Afrihost accounts just so I can play League of Legends. It's a little bit annoying because for a while it was running perfectly but the packet loss has been back for a few months, so I decided just to get a few gigs for my games. CW is my download/surfing account, AH/WA are my gaming accounts.

 

[Soulcode]

I'm running backup WA/Afrihost accounts just so I can play League of Legends. It's a little bit annoying because for a while it was running perfectly but the packet loss has been back for a few months, so I decided just to get a few gigs for my games. CW is my download/surfing account, AH/WA are my gaming accounts.

It's your exchange, man. At least that's the excuse they give all of us.

 

[Crystal Web]

It's your exchange, man. At least that's the excuse they give all of us.

No, we certainly don't. But as previously mentioned it's a catch-22. If we do identify exchange issues we are duty-bound to let you know so that it can be reported to Telkom to fix. It doesn't mean that we absolve ourselves of any responsibility at that point, whatsoever. I even posted earlier just a few before yours that gaming latency is one we're reporting to be investigated and resolved.

I realise that everyone hates to be told that there is a line or exchange fault/congestion, but the reality is that we'd be quite irresponsible if we saw it and ignored it, so we rather inform those who do experience these issues of the problem, we suggest a course of action, and we also don't absolve ourselves in general of anything at that point either, so it's unlikely that I'm going to change this way of doing things on support as I believe it to be the right way. If you can suggest better ways to do this we will always listen and look to be better.

 

[Soulcode]

No, we certainly don't. But as previously mentioned it's a catch-22. If we do identify exchange issues we are duty-bound to let you know so that it can be reported to Telkom to fix. It doesn't mean that we absolve ourselves of any responsibility at that point, whatsoever. I even posted earlier just a few before yours that gaming latency is one we're reporting to be investigated and resolved.

I realise that everyone hates to be told that there is a line or exchange fault/congestion, but the reality is that we'd be quite irresponsible if we saw it and ignored it, so we rather inform those who do experience these issues of the problem, we suggest a course of action, and we also don't absolve ourselves in general of anything at that point either, so it's unlikely that I'm going to change this way of doing things on support as I believe it to be the right way. If you can suggest better ways to do this we will always listen and look to be better.

If a CW account drops packets and a backup ISP account does not drop packets then it is my view that it is not an exchange problem. Simple logic, support should know this. I've heard the stories of it's because it's a new connection when you switch to the backup account or whatever, but even with extended testing of the backup account the packet loss does not return. Upon switching back to the CW account (hours later) it is instantly back. Any rational person can see the problem is not my exchange.

Judging by what Zolly and others say, support is doing the exact same thing to them.

 

[Crystal Web]

If a CW account drops packets and a backup ISP account does not drop packets then it is my view that it is not an exchange problem. Simple logic, support should know this. I've heard the stories of it's because it's a new connection when you switch to the backup account or whatever, but even with extended testing of the backup account the packet loss does not return. Upon switching back to the CW account (hours later) it is instantly back. Any rational person can see the problem is not my exchange.

Judging by what Zolly and others say, support is doing the exact same thing to them.

A Telkom exchange exists long before our network. We don't have equipment at the exchanges, and we don't purchase capacity at exchanges. Our network starts at data centres for which the Telkom last mile and national network carry the data from your connection to those points. Those points are typically from the third of fourth hop on any trace depending on your network setup. You'll find that all ISPs have to deal with the accusation that somehow the exchange works differently on one account vs another (or one ISP vs another) but the only company who can answer why is Telkom. Just because it works differently on different ISPs does not mean it is the ISP who are to blame when the network itself that you are looking at is not the ISP's network. It also doesn't mean that everything is fine at the exchange - exchanges are huge in size with massive amounts of networking equipment - some may be 100% operational, and some may be experiencing difficulties at times. It's not possible for us to know - we don't own the equipment at the exchanges, and we cannot test that equipment either. Only Telkom can.

So while it is understandable that from a simplistic determination perspective it always appears to be the ISP at fault in this scenario, the reality is that it's not, and one has to contact Telkom to fix exchange related issues, and not the ISP unless the line is managed by the ISP, at which point we liaise with Telkom on your behalf.

 

[copacetic]

Please CW, keep me updated as to the situation with Telkom/congestion/latency situation. At the moment, my internet is largely unusable. :/

 

[Soulcode]

A Telkom exchange exists long before our network. We don't have equipment at the exchanges, and we don't purchase capacity at exchanges. Our network starts at data centres for which the Telkom last mile and national network carry the data from your connection to those points. Those points are typically from the third of fourth hop on any trace depending on your network setup. You'll find that all ISPs have to deal with the accusation that somehow the exchange works differently on one account vs another (or one ISP vs another) but the only company who can answer why is Telkom. Just because it works differently on different ISPs does not mean it is the ISP who are to blame when the network itself that you are looking at is not the ISP's network. It also doesn't mean that everything is fine at the exchange - exchanges are huge in size with massive amounts of networking equipment - some may be 100% operational, and some may be experiencing difficulties at times. It's not possible for us to know - we don't own the equipment at the exchanges, and we cannot test that equipment either. Only Telkom can.

So while it is understandable that from a simplistic determination perspective it always appears to be the ISP at fault in this scenario, the reality is that it's not, and one has to contact Telkom to fix exchange related issues, and not the ISP unless the line is managed by the ISP, at which point we liaise with Telkom on your behalf.

It is a FACT that some of us have packet loss on CW and not on other ISP's. I can guarantee you Telkom is gonna use that to say it's not their fault. So you blame Telkom and Telkom blames you, the age old ZA story, but where do we go from here? As consumers what can we do when nobody wants to take responsibility for these problems?

I could go to another ISP of course, but I don't really want to. I WANT to believe that CW is the ISP for the people and that things will get better. I have been with you for 6 months and I keep telling my self "CW is not like the others! They will fix things!"
I WANT to keep supporting what you are trying to do, but it seems completely irrational of me to do so.

What am I supposed to do now? I want to keep using you as my ISP, but I also want the packet loss to stop and I want to be able to watch twitch.tv
You blame Telkom, Telkom blames you, and my internet is not working right. Here I sit...

 

[Seeyou]

I've had to switch back to my other capped account because of this image loading issue. Utterly bizarre, never seen the like before. Everything's perfectly normal on another account.

 

[Soulcode]

Apologies to CW for my angry posts. My frustration levels with South African internet as a whole is just at an all time high.
Sorry

 

[Rohan]

Apologies to CW for my angry posts. My frustration levels with South African internet as a whole is just at an all time high.
Sorry

I can't do any gaming with CW either, high latency and packet loss forces me to use my backup account for gaming - I don't experience any of these issues on WA. It doesn't bother me much as I don't use up huge amounts of data for gaming - 5gb a month is fine. Maybe CW can give gamers some wtfast accounts like mweb used to do when latency etc. was bad on their network.