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

Are you satisfied with your Crystal Web account?

  • Total voters
    126
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Hectic said:
I agree that the CW service and Online support is good.

Unfortunately Im not happy about Http shaping levels.

I'm not going to pay for the most expensive 4Mbps account in the country(iirc) and receive 30 KB/s - 40KB/s on http downloads.

I rarely stream atm and it seems everything takes a backseat for that.
I said at the beginning of the month when the shaping policy was announced, that I would give it two weeks.

It is not quite two weeks, but the status quo won't change much in that regard.

So here I go again in search for an ISP that suits my usage patterns.
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Problem is in peak no ISP can unshape streaming, gaming, a few other protocols and then all downloads as well. Well, we can, but at a cost, naturally. I will be implementing a cool change to this though with some config changes, and moving capped customers over to an entirely different part of the network to ensure that this doesn't impact on uncapped account performance at all, as capped customers pull line speed at all times.

This means that we can offer capped at very competitive rates, but in order to ensure that we get some guarantee of cost recovery, we'll be introducing a new cancellation policy on the capped stuff, as it's a massive additional expense. It does however means that we'll be giving you guys additional night-time data as well, and changing the package sizes. In fact we'll be offering an almost identical product to another IS capped ISP and at similar or better rates.
 
Crystal Web said:
/snip
Problem is in peak
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That is the problem for me.
Peak seems to be from 07:00 - 01:30.

I thought shaping was going to be dynamic, but I haven't experienced that at all. Also "bursting" does nothing when you download big downloads.
I'm not criticizing in a bad negative way. I understand that you need to make money and that you balance things.

At the moment the account setup don't suit my patterns and that is tough luck for me. I need to go and try find something that will be closer to my expectations.

My expectations are:
I want an uncapped account that can I can download http files during "peak hours" (07:00 - 00:00) in the 250kB/s -320kB/s range.
That allows for full or close to full speeds during 00:00 - 07:00.
Have gaming prioritized.
Some streaming at times.
Allow for usage of about 230GB per month.

Now I'm sure as an ISP owner you are either throwing your hands in the air in disgust or rolling on the floor laughing and pointing to the screen, telling your staff to read what that crazy ****er typed.

The fact is, those are my expectations.
I don't want to download a driver or an update at 30 - 40kB/s, bursting to 50KB/s.
I don't want my scheduled Nttp downloads to come down at an average of 85KB/s between 00:00 -01:30.
Even if the proposed changes are implemented before the 19th, which I doubt and speed increase by 100%, it will still only be about 100KB/s out of a possible 427KB/s for me.
Maybe I will never get an ISP that can meet the mentioned expectations and I will have to fork out an additional R200.00 - R300.00 for a business account, but until my expectations are somehow changed, that is what i will be looking for.
I know some might say that a capped account might be the better route to go, but I prefer uncapped accounts for those "in case" months.

Obviously the current account setup will suit guys that are at work during the day and stream early evening till midnight, but don't really use the account during the day.
Unfortunately for me, I don't fit that profile.
 
@Hectic,

Are you willing you pay a premium for such an account? If so, you should have no problems. If not, consider adjusting your expectations.
 
I was on with support now but whoever I was talking to left the chat, did the power go out by the office again?
 
CataclysmZA said:
I was on with support now but whoever I was talking to left the chat, did the power go out by the office again?
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No, not at all. Looks like there was an issue with the chat system there. More agents are available still if you retry the chat?
 
As long as my capped account still performs the same as it is now. I need full speed during the day on NNTP and streaming etc. That is why I went for capped and not uncapped.
 
Crystal Web said:
No, not at all. Looks like there was an issue with the chat system there. More agents are available still if you retry the chat?
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The chat system is offline now? Are you guys doing a reboot?

Edit: Nevermind. Must be a glitch in the Matrix.
 
Looks like there are some intermittent issues with the chat system. Seems to be disconnecting every few minutes. Looking into this now.
 
Crystal Web said:
This is on a 4Mbps account?
Click to expand...

F1 Fan said:
@Hectic,

Are you willing you pay a premium for such an account? If so, you should have no problems. If not, consider adjusting your expectations.
Click to expand...
@CW - Yes

@F1
Remember this ad?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1rwH0HQF-I

I had the above mentioned service and much better from various ISP's, including CW and It does seem that it is getting rarer though and obviously economics and viability plays a big part.

I'm not asking CW to change their way of operating. I would not be that presumptions and I have to much respect for Shuan. He and his staff has gone to great lengths to accommodate and help during my stay with CW and maybe my usage pattern can just not work without changing the price for everyone drastically.

I accept that I must go and search for something that works for my household or something that is close enough.
So yes, I will probably have to adjust my expectations.
What premium will I have to pay for "such an account"?

There is a Business account option for R697.00. It is an unshaped, eat as you want account.
I receive a pension, so no I don't really want to pay that, but if that is my final solution, I will consider it.

Another option is the 300GB capped account for R199.00/m
I haven't got all the details yet ito performance, etc, but If that will meet my expectations, yes I will pay that premium.
I would like 200 - 250GB a month.
I would like to download faster than 40KB/s during the other 17 hours of the day.
I don't want to download Nntp or torrents during those peak hours that seems to last from from 07:00 - 01:30.
That I will happily schedule for download during 00:00 - 07:00.

Is that really so terrible to expect the above for R429/m for a 4 Mbps account?
I don't have access to the data that CW and other ISPs have, so maybe it is, maybe it is not, but I'm just trying to get the best deal for myself.
 
I can customise something for you perhaps. But when you talk about price, ours are fixed, and high. So if you get something in addition for the same price, something else must be "taken away" so to speak. Otherwise the ISP simply subsidises its users (which we have actually done a lot of over the previous months).

Give me a chance to push some changes over the next week and let's revisit then?
 
Crystal Web said:
I can customise something for you perhaps. But when you talk about price, ours are fixed, and high. So if you get something in addition for the same price, something else must be "taken away" so to speak. Otherwise the ISP simply subsidises its users (which we have actually done a lot of over the previous months).

Give me a chance to push some changes over the next week and let's revisit then?
Click to expand...
Thanks.
Will look forward to the changes.
:)
 
Well I can't say that I'm happy with the outcome of my recent chat with Support. I'm seeing low line utilisation on my CW account, while WebAfrica's 2GB capped works pretty well for anything that I test that I should be getting line speed for at this time of day (browsing, Youtube, etc.). I hope that asking Telkom to recreate my port helps with this because I can't work when browsing is at sub-60KB/s and Youtube jumps all over the place and buffers on 720p. Either that, or I'm affected by the shaper in some weird way and we'll have to figure that one out. I hope its not the latter.
 
CataclysmZA said:
Well I can't say that I'm happy with the outcome of my recent chat with Support. I'm seeing low line utilisation on my CW account, while WebAfrica's 2GB capped works pretty well for anything that I test that I should be getting line speed for at this time of day (browsing, Youtube, etc.). I hope that asking Telkom to recreate my port helps with this because I can't work when browsing is at sub-60KB/s and Youtube jumps all over the place and buffers on 720p. Either that, or I'm affected by the shaper in some weird way and we'll have to figure that one out. I hope its not the latter.
Click to expand...

Definitely not the latter. We don't have a hundred different profiles on the backend. Everyone is pretty much on identical profiles bar capped and a handful of testers and legacy accounts.
 
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