OpenWeb ADSL Feedback Thread

[Budza]

To end off, I am happy with my account (11 months and counting) and am grateful for the fact that I haven't had to contact "support" for account details to "fix" a problem that shouldn't happen in the first place, or anything for fact of the matter, and out of 5 ISP's that I have experienced, I only experienced this account hopping with OW.

MrBEEP, I don't know why this only happens with your ISP, and eliminating all the other problem factors, this strategy of switching accounts to solve issues is not sustainable.

Point in fact:

You had a happy customer, account stopped working one day ("A SUDDEN COMPLETELY DEAD ACCOUNT") without warning (which was strange, as I have never experienced this out of all the ISP's I've been with), and was forced to contact support (which is a big no-no in my book) which was quick and efficient I must say, and I was provided with new account details, problem solved. A few weeks later, even tho this was a gold (proper original) account, and without "abusing" or even "using" it during the day, the day would arrive when I would get home and would be faced with a "dead" account AGAIN, contact support, new details, solved, but after the 4-5th time, it just became annoying.

I belong to the school of thought that the function of an ISP is to be exactly that, an INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER and make sure that **** just works ("best effort" and all).

From my experience, IS have it waxed! They provide a proper "semi-unshaped" service, and "unshaped" during the times I use it, and am still a happy IS customer, just not with OW anymore which is unfortunate.

Constructive criticism, which is always hard to swallow but I'm just saying..... Solve this "routing/software/account/or whatever" problem and you will stop bleeding customers because other than this, you are a great ISP, with many satisfied customers that don't/haven't experience this issue, or ones that just put up with it (but for how long).

Use it, don't use it

+1 from me- I have various posts to this effect in this thread.

I'd love to know why this happens with OW.

MrBeep? Is there at least some attempt being made at resolving this?

 

[wingnut771]

+1 from me- I have various posts to this effect in this thread.

I'd love to know why this happens with OW.

MrBeep? Is there at least some attempt being made at resolving this?

That would be a big fat NO.

One has to admit that there is a problem before you can start working on fixing it but, alas, it's deny deny deny.

There are none so deaf as those who will not hear.

We keep providing constructive critism in a roundabout way, and yet, here we are......

EDIT: Please don't take offence MrBEEP, and go on the defensive.

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

I can honestly say I haven't had any issues with either of my OW accounts (Office and Home) for at least the past year. Hope you guys having issues come right.

 

[Budza]

That would be a big fat NO.

One has to admit that there is a problem before you can start working on fixing it but, alas, it's deny deny deny.

There are none so deaf as those who will not hear.

We keep providing constructive critism in a roundabout way, and yet, here we are......

EDIT: Please don't take offence MrBEEP, and go on the defensive.

I reckon they know what the problem is / that there is a problem but can't justify fixing it. Better to deal with the churn?

Obviously if that's the case it'll never be publicly admitted that there is a problem

I'm looking forward to OW being able to offer bundles (with ADSL line included). Hopefully that upgrade comes with better account management...

MrBEEP'll likely stick to his mantra that “the account works perfectly on our side”. I think other users have even offered to have OW support TeamViewer into their PC’s to experience the slow down as seen from the user’s perspective. Not sure if anything ever came of that…

 

[Budza]

I can honestly say I haven't had any issues with either of my OW accounts (Office and Home) for at least the past year. Hope you guys having issues come right.

The first 2 years I was with OW I had an awesome time!

Then I moved and was without ADSL for a while. Since coming back I've had periodic issues- it's inconsistent though. Sometimes the account is fine for months at a time. Then it'll crap out twice in a week- requiring a new username/password.

On top of that, there's the OW standard 'reset port with Telkom' hoop you need to jump through which I've not had from MWEB/Afrihost/Plugg etc...

 

[KoKaRoT]

So trying to play a game of dota 2... with 2200 ping on SA server.

I have 4mb uncapped Gamers edition

I though gaming is prioritized on this account.. clearly not

C:\Users\Barry>tracert www.google.co.za

Tracing route to www.google.co.za [74.125.233.87]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 10 ms 9 ms 10 ms 196-210-134-1.dynamic.isadsl.co.za [196.210.134.
1]
3 11 ms 12 ms 11 ms cdsl2-rba-vl2563.ip.isnet.net [196.38.73.213]
4 17 ms 14 ms 11 ms cdsl2-rba-vl150.ip.isnet.net [196.38.73.9]
5 14 ms 12 ms 12 ms 168.209.1.140
6 13 ms 12 ms 77 ms 168.209.1.179
7 12 ms 12 ms 14 ms 74.125.49.66
8 13 ms 13 ms 13 ms 64.233.174.57
9 17 ms 12 ms 12 ms jnb01s02-in-f23.1e100.net [74.125.233.87]

Trace complete.

 

[MrBEEP]

On Gamers King, Gaming is prioritised.

If you experience a problem, drop me a PM and I will take a look for you

So trying to play a game of dota 2... with 2200 ping on SA server.

I have 4mb uncapped Gamers edition

I though gaming is prioritized on this account.. clearly not

C:\Users\Barry>tracert www.google.co.za

Tracing route to www.google.co.za [74.125.233.87]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 10 ms 9 ms 10 ms 196-210-134-1.dynamic.isadsl.co.za [196.210.134.
1]
3 11 ms 12 ms 11 ms cdsl2-rba-vl2563.ip.isnet.net [196.38.73.213]
4 17 ms 14 ms 11 ms cdsl2-rba-vl150.ip.isnet.net [196.38.73.9]
5 14 ms 12 ms 12 ms 168.209.1.140
6 13 ms 12 ms 77 ms 168.209.1.179
7 12 ms 12 ms 14 ms 74.125.49.66
8 13 ms 13 ms 13 ms 64.233.174.57
9 17 ms 12 ms 12 ms jnb01s02-in-f23.1e100.net [74.125.233.87]

Trace complete.

 

[The_Imp_ZA]

Anyone else having problems with the IS news server? It's been very unstable lately. Talking about after hours of course.

 

[Kayoss]

Anyone else having problems with the IS news server? It's been very unstable lately. Talking about after hours of course.

Yes.

But it hasn't just been the IS news server for me. Lately, my speeds have been really poor all round. News servers, torrents, youtube, and sometimes even browsing (international sites). During the day I can only watch youtube vids on 144p and at night, 240p.

My line stats are all fine too. SNR margins, attenuation etc.. all good. Not getting any disconnects at all. It's clearly shaping as it does get better after hours. If OW are only shaping when the network requires it, then perhaps they have too many subscribers for their available bandwidth because shaping is definitely more prominent now than it used to be.

Openweb Gold package btw.

 

[wingnut771]

I reckon they know what the problem is / that there is a problem but can't justify fixing it. Better to deal with the churn?

Obviously if that's the case it'll never be publicly admitted that there is a problem

I'm looking forward to OW being able to offer bundles (with ADSL line included). Hopefully that upgrade comes with better account management...

MrBEEP'll likely stick to his mantra that “the account works perfectly on our side”. I think other users have even offered to have OW support TeamViewer into their PC’s to experience the slow down as seen from the user’s perspective. Not sure if anything ever came of that…

It's exactly for the reason you say that it's easier to deal with the churn, but it's that strategy that lost them a Gold customer of 6 months, but makes me think that we must be in the minority, as, at the same time, there are plenty of comments boasting only having one account from new with no reason to change.

If I had to form a hypothesis (which has been brought up many times in this forum) with what I and others have experienced, and working with the assumption that proper IS accounts like my Plugg account which allows two concurrent connections, and I reiterate that this is only an assumption, but is the only thing that makes sense, is that OW are sharing accounts (which they vehemently deny).

If I had to paint a picture:

Day 1, actually quite excited (esp after Afrihost's 30GB uncapped horror show and Mweb sucked balls), hard not to be with all the glowing reviews about their Gold accounts (this was when consumer uncapped was still quite new and choices were limited and FUP were a lot harsher than present), admittedly, I must bring up the fact that this story is about 2 years old (fully aware that ISP's and their backbones have their ups and downs thanks to the hoops they have to jump through with telkom to get anything done, and is pretty irrelevant in this day and age, although we still hearing the same stories), to keep this as objective as possible.

I receive my new details.

Straight away I thought it was a bit weird that it had joe-blogs in the name (My Plugg account sports my real name, for 11 months and counting), but brushed that minor detail off.

I tried all the backbones, mainly VC, Altech and IS. All crap for me except IS. 100% happy with the experience for weeks and weeks, then one day, bam! Light's on but nobody home, 0kB on speedtest, receive new account with joe-soap in the name.

Happy happy weeks weeks, bam, mission for new account, happy happy weeks weeks. Rinse and repeat, copy and paste, patience finally wears out after 4th or 5th time and I give my crappy calendar months notice (Plugg, one click before the 25th, the way it should be, and is my new barometer in choosing an ISP) and leave.

At the end of the day, this annoying inconvenience is so unnecessary, which ended up being the straw that broke the camels back, and on reflection, maybe my concurrent theory doesn't hold water because then I would have noticed if my service was contended and it wasn't, always line speed, in which case then I'm all out of ideas which leaves me with a big fat WHY WHY WHY?

If they do know what the issue is but keep it top secret, then that leaves me dissapointantingly-annoyingly-irrated, because, that's basically sending me the message that they I'm a big ****er that doesn't know his arse from his elbow.

Honesty is the best policy, and if they do cave and finally admit something, well, speaking for myself, I would understand that all isn't possible, and accept my fate and move on, satisfied that I wasn't done in, and would have had a completely different attitude towards OW on this forum, I wouldn't have been nearly as harsh, and (shock and horror!) would actually recommend your service, but burn me, and well....

Food for thought MrBEEP?

 

[wingnut771]

Yes.

But it hasn't just been the IS news server for me. Lately, my speeds have been really poor all round. News servers, torrents, youtube, and sometimes even browsing (international sites). During the day I can only watch youtube vids on 144p and at night, 240p.

My line stats are all fine too. SNR margins, attenuation etc.. all good. Not getting any disconnects at all. It's clearly shaping as it does get better after hours. If OW are only shaping when the network requires it, then perhaps they have too many subscribers for their available bandwidth because shaping is definitely more prominent now than it used to be.

Openweb Gold package btw.

Classic example of IMHO why the star rating "punish only the download-the-net-hogs-abusers and leave the rest of us alone" system is better than putting us into a ring fenced pool for us to fight over, and inevitably, the pool gets full.

 

[MrR]

Switched to OW 3 weeks ago and must say that Keoma and the team provide a brilliant service. From a quick and painless sign-up, fast & effective customer support and great internet access.

Anyone else having problems with the IS news server? It's been very unstable lately. Talking about after hours of course.

My IS News server issues started last night - not downloading any articles - but general surfing, streaming, gaming and torrents are all fine though. So suspect that it might be the IS server. I'm on Gold package

 

[MrBEEP]

Hi Kayoss,

Kindly drop me a PM so that I can take a look at your account.

Yes.

But it hasn't just been the IS news server for me. Lately, my speeds have been really poor all round. News servers, torrents, youtube, and sometimes even browsing (international sites). During the day I can only watch youtube vids on 144p and at night, 240p.

My line stats are all fine too. SNR margins, attenuation etc.. all good. Not getting any disconnects at all. It's clearly shaping as it does get better after hours. If OW are only shaping when the network requires it, then perhaps they have too many subscribers for their available bandwidth because shaping is definitely more prominent now than it used to be.

Openweb Gold package btw.

 

[MrBEEP]

Hi MrR,

Thank you for the kind words.

I have asked the engineers to look into the shaky news server issue. Should be resolved shortly!

Switched to OW 3 weeks ago and must say that Keoma and the team provide a brilliant service. From a quick and painless sign-up, fast & effective customer support and great internet access.



My IS News server issues started last night - not downloading any articles - but general surfing, streaming, gaming and torrents are all fine though. So suspect that it might be the IS server. I'm on Gold package

 

[Budza]

Hi MrR,

Thank you for the kind words.

This is how it starts. Happiness.

Then you see the other side of the coin...

How about a reply to wingnut771 ?

 

[MrBEEP]

I have replied to this gentleman and addressed all his concerns.

Unfortunately he has decided to continue making false accusations that does not need any further replies, as this would mean I will be repeating myself cluttering up the thread. Constructive criticism is great, but not when it is coming from a self proclaimed troll. (See his first post here in September).

The facts are:

* We shape based on how busy the network is at any given time
* We have thousands of very happy clients, that generally do not post here whilst they are happy, as there is no need to.
* We address each issue on a case by case basis.
* We constantly monitor for trends in tickets received, and if a trend is detected, we immediately start investigating, as it means it is a general network fault.
* Roughly under 0.5% of our userbase is currently experiencing a problem of some sorts. Out of these, 5 have the same issue of high latency in gaming. (These numbers are based on tickets logged, including telephonic tickets). The engineers are focusing on this currently.

This is how it starts. Happiness.

Then you see the other side of the coin...

How about a reply to wingnut771 ?

 

[akescpt]

im very upset at this moment as well. damn line is going to be idle soon. download queue has been decimated. damn you OW!

 

[Budza]

I have replied to this gentleman and addressed all his concerns.

Fair enough.

His experiences just echoed mine.

My account is fine for now- I'll keep a running count of problems requiring port resets or user detail changes.

 

[MrBEEP]

So sorry akescpt! Start another queue. I know you want to.

im very upset at this moment as well. damn line is going to be idle soon. download queue has been decimated. damn you OW!

 

[KALSTER]

There are always more Linux distros to download!