OFFICIAL Web Africa Network Upgrade Thread

I must first say that I moved to Web Africa from an IS based ISP a while ago as the latency for gaming was too high. I also run an IT department for a small (270 user) company and we use IS for our business critical connectivity - I wouldn't change them.

On Wednesday evening with an IS ip address I hosted a Gran Turismo 5 online race - since being with Web Africa I have been know as a very stable host but Wednesday was terrible - we ended up moving to another host. I didn't think too much of it as GT5 online is patchy at the best of times. Then Sunday while I was racing at iRacing (US based client server) I saw lag for the 1st time ever.

While there are a lot of other factors that influcence online gaming I feel it's just too big a coincidence that my first 2 online gaming sessions after the switch to a historically bad gaming network were terrible. I will be trying alternative ISPs over the next couple of weeks to see.

Also downloading from Steam used to work great and around 95% of my downloads would be listed in the FreeZone total - of over 4Gb downloaded from Steam since the change 18Mb has gone to FreeZone.

I'm sure the switch to IS makes great business sense and corporate clients are probably seeing improvements from the change but it doesn't looks as if it's a good move for me, the gamer.

Chris
 
ChrisTBrowne said:
I must first say that I moved to Web Africa from an IS based ISP a while ago as the latency for gaming was too high. I also run an IT department for a small (270 user) company and we use IS for our business critical connectivity - I wouldn't change them.

On Wednesday evening with an IS ip address I hosted a Gran Turismo 5 online race - since being with Web Africa I have been know as a very stable host but Wednesday was terrible - we ended up moving to another host. I didn't think too much of it as GT5 online is patchy at the best of times. Then Sunday while I was racing at iRacing (US based client server) I saw lag for the 1st time ever.

While there are a lot of other factors that influcence online gaming I feel it's just too big a coincidence that my first 2 online gaming sessions after the switch to a historically bad gaming network were terrible. I will be trying alternative ISPs over the next couple of weeks to see.

Also downloading from Steam used to work great and around 95% of my downloads would be listed in the FreeZone total - of over 4Gb downloaded from Steam since the change 18Mb has gone to FreeZone.

I'm sure the switch to IS makes great business sense and corporate clients are probably seeing improvements from the change but it doesn't looks as if it's a good move for me, the gamer.

Chris
Click to expand...

Hi Chris,

We are working on improving our current prioritisation profiles as per my previous posts so this should improve but I would still like our Network guys to have a look at your issues. Can you provide me via PM with the following:

- Customer code;
- Type of account being used;
- Trace route results local/international at the time you normally game;
- In-game latency (if possible); and
- Speed test results at time of gaming.

We are aware of an issue affecting a few customers with Freezone that it does not allocate the usage accordingly. Once I get above details I will also be able to escalate.
 
Thanks Justin, I will gather the data and send you a PM.

I meant to post in the opening paragraph but got distracted that I have, since joining Web Africa, always had great service from you guys.

I also understand that Steam/Freezone isn't a supported thing and it doesn't really worry me, I just thought it was worth mentioning.
 
WAJustinW said:
Hi Guys,

Just an update on the slow speeds during Business hours issue. I have just spoken to our Network team and we are working on improving the prioritisation of the accounts during the day.

We will post more feedback as soon as I get more information.
Click to expand...

I don't mind that's it's slow I do wish though that we were told that it's going to be slower during the day than it was.

Update: there's a 6GB Battlefield 3 patch out, so if you could improve speeds during the day for today and tomorrow I would appreciate it :D
 
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NomNom said:
I don't mind that's it's slow I do wish though that we were told that it's going to be slower during the day than it was.

Update: there's a 6GB Battlefield 3 patch out, so if you could improve speeds during the day for today and tomorrow I would appreciate it :D
Click to expand...

I get that you don't mind, however for others the daytime performance is important. Previously before the move speeds were good during the day. After the move I expect the same performance as before, because that is the product I signed up for. That being said I am happy something is being done to improve the speeds. Though I expect it to be permanent.
 
I complained about a week ago and I was supplied with a test account which absolutely rocked. Now I'm migrated over and the experience is very underwhelming. WA? I guess I have to log a ticket? :(
 
Beylie said:
I complained about a week ago and I was supplied with a test account which absolutely rocked. Now I'm migrated over and the experience is very underwhelming. WA? I guess I have to log a ticket? :(
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As per my previous posts our Network team is looking at improving things and will feedback soon.

I can get our ADSL team to have a look into your current issue in the meantime. Please PM me your customer code and I will get someone to take this further.
 
i know i know you guys are working on improvements but for crying out loud i can barley get 30kb during day on a 2mb uncapped account. good thing my account is scheduled to be canceled by end of this month.
 
aminfri said:
i know i know you guys are working on improvements but for crying out loud i can barley get 30kb during day on a 2mb uncapped account. good thing my account is scheduled to be canceled by end of this month.
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As per my reply to your post on forums our engineers are busy with the final tweaks and we should be implementing the new changes soon.

I know its frustrating to not have a proper connection but with the migration to a new network there are bound to be things that must be tweaked or changed. We are not just sitting back whilst our customers complain but are actively working on improving things for every single customer.

I will post further feedback as soon as I get more information.
 
I'm on 2Mb Home Uncapped and I'm getting 55kB/s on NNTP or torrent downloads during the day, but speedtest shows full line speed and browsing is fine. I used to download at full speed during the day when WA had their own network, sometimes even when I was over the threshold.

I can understand the shaping, but I don't understand why I'm being shaped while on 5 stars? Or does the star system simply not work (I've never seen <5 stars, and I've used over 55GB this month). Or is the shaping constantly active?

Edit: to be fair, today is the first time I tried to download at full speed during the day, so perhaps it's a temporary issue.
 
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Our engineers have advised that they have completed the changes to the bandwidth profiles, however, NNTP/P2P downloads are not going to be prioritised during business hours so those downloads will not run at full line speed which is also in-line with our Bandwidth priorities as per: http://support.webafrica.co.za/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/669/130/

All other protocols should improve during the day. Please test and let us know how things are going.
 
WAJustinW said:
Our engineers have advised that they have completed the changes to the bandwidth profiles, however, NNTP/P2P downloads are not going to be prioritised during business hours so those downloads will not run at full line speed which is also in-line with our Bandwidth priorities as per: http://support.webafrica.co.za/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/669/130/

All other protocols should improve during the day. Please test and let us know how things are going.
Click to expand...

Thank you Justin for the update.

In terms of capped account users - downloads from news servers. What can we expect?
 
Fulton17 said:
Thank you Justin for the update.

In terms of capped account users - downloads from news servers. What can we expect?
Click to expand...

The above is only for Uncapped accounts and Capped accounts should be able to get full speeds anytime.
 
WAJustinW said:
The above is only for Uncapped accounts and Capped accounts should be able to get full speeds anytime.
Click to expand...

Awesome - thanks Justin.

Just done a quick one minute test and 1 MB/s download. :) Youtube streaming at 720P; browsing is great.

May this be the start of a great hassle free product
 
WAJustinW said:
Our engineers have advised that they have completed the changes to the bandwidth profiles, however, NNTP/P2P downloads are not going to be prioritised during business hours so those downloads will not run at full line speed which is also in-line with our Bandwidth priorities as per: http://support.webafrica.co.za/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/669/130/

All other protocols should improve during the day. Please test and let us know how things are going.
Click to expand...

Speed tests now get near full speed during the day. However I do not find that translating to actual download performance. I tried downloading several large files from different websites using the browser and get around 150kb/s. Again using the WA test account I get full speed with those downlaods
 
Munch said:
Speed tests now get near full speed during the day. However I do not find that translating to actual download performance. I tried downloading several large files from different websites using the browser and get around 150kb/s. Again using the WA test account I get full speed with those downlaods
Click to expand...

Can you PM me examples of the websites you are downloading from? I would like to check with our Network guys.
 
WAJustinW said:
Hi Guys,

We have just released a visual representation of our new network, along with some behind the scenes information:

Web Africa Network
Click to expand...

Thanks Justin

"The Durban IPC is planned to start this year" is rather vague and I am guessing means late this year. Could you be a bit more specific? Thank you
 
Fulton17 said:
Thanks Justin

"The Durban IPC is planned to start this year" is rather vague and I am guessing means late this year. Could you be a bit more specific? Thank you
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, we do not have any dates at this time. We will of course provide more information as soon as we get an official date around this.
 
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