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

[Looney]

Netflix buffering a lot the last 2 days. Any idea what's going on?

 

[Crystal Web Support]

I think you must have given me all the South's capacity, but please, continue

Aha, Gotcha! :twisted:

 

[Paparazzi]

just a brief update on the IPC situation:

We've got capacity through three points over the IS network - Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban. The usage in Johannesburg is pretty close to being well balanced and there is going to be an increase in the amount provisioned quite soon (we actually just need to confirm numbers and are good to go). Durban is a little underutilized but will get an upgrade for resilience (if you have a grandmother in kZN [would it be politically incorrect to call on all kZN gogos ?] please get her onto ADSL). Cape Town however is a problem, not outright crisis yet but we cannot just run some numbers and ask for more capacity (no "here take our money" option I am afraid) and of course because the bottleneck isn't with CW it isn't just CW, so a migration of some customers onto a different pipe isn't really the way to go. Also Cape Town isn't running optimally 24/7 and usage could be a bit better balanced and there is additional hardware involved.
Things also become a little tricky in making a call like suspending new signups on CT firstly because its difficult to monitor where a signup will definitely route through but secondly because getting the network better balanced is important.

Now the effects of the strain are also a little unpredictable because of the nature of the log jam. The current ETA is two weeks to full resolution but as everybody knows Murphy spends a considerable amount of time in the IT sector.

A good solution would be for some Republic of the Western Cape netizens to grab their passports and go on holiday to kZN (although visiting the Eastern Cape won't help) but make sure you are vaccinated before the trip.

Thanks Paul. This will explain why i've been seeing some odd shaping/speeds on my account as well. Dammit CPT

 

[Seeyou]

Is there an explanation as to why the Southern IPC always goes through these cycles continuously? I'm not pointing fingers at CW specifically - it seems to be an issue across all of the ISPs. Things will be fine for a few months and then start degrading gradually until there is noticeable poor performance. Then the ISPs say they're getting extra capacity from Telkom and there's a waiting period and a painful period of delays until it's upgraded. Then a few months later, the whole process begins again - but somehow, only ever in the South.

As I said, not pointing any fingers, I'm just curious if you guys can explain the phenomenon, as getting the other ISPs to even admit there's an issue is close to impossible and I'd love to know why there isn't better planning to prevent this from happening.

 

[crackersa]

what's the chance that CW will use Zapper as a payment method as it's similar to snap scan?

 

[CataclysmZA]

unique to youtube?

Everything's been very meh this past week, but last night it was Youtube in particular that just seemed to be stuck at 500kb/s. Twitch streaming was better, but not full line speed. Downloads, Windows Updates are also iffy, yet somehow Steam managed to hit 420KiB/s every now and then. I didn't know there were IPC issues in the Cape, but I'm definitely being routed through to there. Browsing is okay most of the time, but it is particularly evident that there's an issue when I'm using Opera Mini on my phone.

Two weeks ago, none of this was an issue. I was in the middle of explaining this to Michael on the support chats, but the power then got shut off in the middle of typing a response to him. His response to me before it went out was that "perhaps the videos you're watching aren't cached locally," but I linked him to a video that is definitely locally cached and told him I'm still seeing the exact same issue.

 

[Sharkykzn]

Thank you
This is annoying, but I am very glad that it has been identified and, more importantly, clearly stated here without trying to obfuscate the problem.

I can assume you will keep us posted on when the IPC is delivered?

Keep this level of clear honesty please!

I have same issue in same location... Trying to watch streams on Twitch this morning is a no go. Must admit it is the first time I have experienced such low performance after many months with CW. Really hope it can be resolved soonest.

 

[Paul Hjul]

Everything's been very meh this past week, but last night it was Youtube in particular that just seemed to be stuck at 500kb/s. Twitch streaming was better, but not full line speed. Downloads, Windows Updates are also iffy, yet somehow Steam managed to hit 420KiB/s every now and then. I didn't know there were IPC issues in the Cape, but I'm definitely being routed through to there. Browsing is okay most of the time, but it is particularly evident that there's an issue when I'm using Opera Mini on my phone.

Two weeks ago, none of this was an issue. I was in the middle of explaining this to Michael on the support chats, but the power then got shut off in the middle of typing a response to him. His response to me before it went out was that "perhaps the videos you're watching aren't cached locally," but I linked him to a video that is definitely locally cached and told him I'm still seeing the exact same issue.

on a related note I was in the middle of dealing with a couple of issues and the power went off. Spent the next to hours on mobile with the laptop and that died as well. Woke up this morning to a PM inbox and power

 

[Lino]

on a related note I was in the middle of dealing with a couple of issues and the power went off. Spent the next to hours on mobile with the laptop and that died as well. Woke up this morning to a PM inbox and power

Hi Paul, contacting you shortly

 

[Dipro]

You're not alone. I've got the guys from Unotelly troubleshooting my problems as well...

Strange, I have no issues in Big Bay.... and on a side note, save some money, leave Unotelly and use DNS4me .... sooooooo much cheaper for the same thing ! ps I used Unotelly for 2 years, and then found DNS4me... no regrets and a lot more configurable !

 

[CataclysmZA]

If multiple people are seeing the same issues right now, should a network notice not be posted for the benefit of anyone who doesn't frequent MyBB for answers?

on a side note, save some money, leave Unotelly and use DNS4me .... sooooooo much cheaper for the same thing !

And the service is just as good? Is there something like Dynamo that also covers Sony's services, or does it have the same service support as Dynamo? I was pinging their DNS servers and there's easily a 500ms delay - does that not affect your browsing speeds and games?

 

[crackersa]

Strange, I have no issues in Big Bay.... and on a side note, save some money, leave Unotelly and use DNS4me .... sooooooo much cheaper for the same thing ! ps I used Unotelly for 2 years, and then found DNS4me... no regrets and a lot more configurable !

Try unblock-us as well

 

[Sinbad]

Strange, I have no issues in Big Bay.... and on a side note, save some money, leave Unotelly and use DNS4me .... sooooooo much cheaper for the same thing ! ps I used Unotelly for 2 years, and then found DNS4me... no regrets and a lot more configurable !

Does it support region switching?

 

[Dipro]

I don't really want to go off topic, but dns4me works like a charm... allows for region switching and has more configuration than unotelly (multiple sites, etc).

I use no-ip configured through my modem for my dyndns and then dns4me. I did play with the DNS servers (all configured on modem) to get the best speeds and I am very impressed by the service. If you have a questions, then dns4me responds super quickly. I did that with them so I could use SKY New (USA) to stream to my ipad, etc, and they did some testing with me and then added to their offerings

The best part is... they offer a 2 week FREE trial !!!

Give it a go and see if it works for you !

 

[Jimmy]

Paul I have a question for you that's a little off topic - How do do you pronounce your surname? "Hajoel"?

 

[PostmanPot]

Paul I have a question for you that's a little off topic - How do do you pronounce your surname? "Hajoel"?

I'm thinking Hayewel (as in jewel).

Y-sounding J, not a J-sounding J.

*edit*

Hajoule rather, with a Y-sounding J, not a J-sounding J. Joule makes more sense than jewel, as some people would emphasis the "el" in jewel instead of pronouncing it 'jewl'.

 

[Paul Hjul]

Paul I have a question for you that's a little off topic - How do do you pronounce your surname? "Hajoel"?

a surprisingly high number of people pronounce it that way
some pronounce it joule

but mostly people pronounce it "How do you pronounce that"

The Danes have a way of pronouncing it as do other Nordics:
http://nn.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hjul
http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hjul
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hjul

O and if you really want a laugh my second name is Axel - which is easily pronounce axle
Paul Axel Hansen Hjul
as a family we essential treat the "hj" like an Afrikaans j in "Jan" and "julle"

 

[Sharkykzn]

So for kicks since my net seems to be hit with Friday blues, did a local traceroute to CW.
Nice SNAFU with exchange congestion it seems:

Traceroute has started…

traceroute to www.crystalweb.co.za (196.22.142.217), 64 hops max, 72 byte packets
1 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 3.624 ms 1.435 ms 2.518 ms
2 * * *
3 cdsl2-ctn-vl2473-ipc.ip.isnet.net (196.38.72.194) 249.566 ms 228.895 ms 161.537 ms
4 vlan2473.cdsl2-ctn.isdsl.net (196.38.72.193) 120.870 ms 122.194 ms 128.638 ms
5 196.35.115.136 (196.35.115.136) 127.787 ms 67.294 ms 21.315 ms
6 mi-za-cpt-p8-te0-0-0-0.ip.isnet.net (168.209.6.13) 22.928 ms 63.039 ms 21.575 ms
7 css1-ctn-gi0-1.ip.isnet.net (168.209.2.10) 22.442 ms 16.508 ms 14.850 ms
8 196.36.84.154 (196.36.84.154) 41.996 ms 13.016 ms 12.391 ms
9 core.gp-cn-het-mee-1.to.gp-hv-ict-mee-1.dfa.p2p.10g.za.africainx.net (41.84.13.66) 30.553 ms 29.974 ms 29.963 ms
10 41-66-132-246-f6.het001-cpe-1-to-gp-cn-het-mee-1.africainx.net (41.66.132.246) 30.944 ms 30.382 ms 32.232 ms
11 core-access-switch1.jnb1.host-h.net (197.189.193.1) 33.109 ms 34.510 ms 34.832 ms
12 www417.jnb1.host-h.net (196.22.142.217) 33.228 ms 30.763 ms 30.146 ms

 

[CataclysmZA]

on a related note I was in the middle of dealing with a couple of issues and the power went off. Spent the next to hours on mobile with the laptop and that died as well. Woke up this morning to a PM inbox and power

I heard that our municipality's electrical dept. was actually proactive about fixing something before it became a major problem. So while it stung to not have power at 10PM at night, they might have avoided something more disastrous popping up later.

 

[Orihalcon]

I was fortunate to be off today.

While gaming was perfect, streaming was painful as I suspected.

Hoping for that IPC upgrade to come in fast!

Not hating on you CW. I understand the problem and hope it is resolved soon!