Slower connectivity for MWeb subscribers

[jhart]

I remember this related article a while back here on my BB...

I have received this email from Hetzner now...



Slower connectivity for MWeb subscribers

Dear Hetzner Customer,

MWeb recently announced that they will no longer pay other local internet service providers (ISPs) e.g. Telkom for local transit bandwidth. From Thursday, 28 October all traffic between MWeb and other local ISPs that do not peer* with MWeb directly will be routed internationally.


How does this affect you?

From Thursday, if you access the Internet via MWeb you may experience slower connectivity when accessing your website hosted on Hetzner's South African network (this does not apply to our network in Germany). It may also take longer for you to send and receive email.
This issue will also affect any visitors to your website hosted in South Africa that make use of MWeb as their ISP.


Any MWeb subscriber accessing local content on any ISP network that does not currently have a peering relationship with MWeb will experience the same issues.

Unfortunately this is out of our control and not something we are able to assist customers with. We have prepared questions below that should address your concerns. If you feel it necessary to contact Hetzner, please understand that we may be experiencing high call and ticket volumes.

*Peering refers to the interconnection of administratively separate Internet networks for the purpose of exchanging traffic between the customers of each network.


Questions you may have:

1. Will this affect browsing of international sites?
No, your international browsing experience shouldn't be affected in any way. Both MWeb and MTN Business have indicated that they have sufficient international bandwidth capacity to cope with an increase in international traffic demand.

2. Why doesn't Hetzner peer directly with MWeb?
Hetzner would be open to peering with as many ISPs as possible. However, as things stand at the moment we are completely reliant on MTN Business' peering policy.

3. Why doesn't MTN Business peer with MWeb?
Hetzner is in open discussion with MTN Business regarding this possibility. It doesn't appear to be an option at present.

4. How long will I experience slower connectivity?
We are not able to give customers a timeline - the resolution of this issue is dependent on local ISPs and MWeb reaching an agreement.

5. Why are we only finding out about this now?
Hetzner was only made aware of the details of this issue on Tuesday, 26 October.

 

[czc]

So mweb is going ahead with their threats.

Is there a list somewhere that indicates all the ISP's that peer with mweb and with each other?

 

[LazerFazer]

3. Why doesn't MTN Business peer with MWeb?

Correct Answer: Because MTN Business doesn't believe in a free, open internet for all. MTN Business would much rather have other ISPs pay for the 'privilege' of peering with them.

I'm no expert when it comes to connectivity beyond what's in my PC, but how much slower will the user experience be? As far as I understand it, instead of routing requests to MTN Business servers locally, MWeb will be routing requests to MTN Business servers through London (or wherever the international link terminates) and then back along Seacom/SAT3/SAFE/whatever to the end user. At worst this will mean a longer wait for the initial loading of a page to begin (due to the increased latency of the user-London-server-London-user link compared to user-peering exchange-server-peering exchange-user link), but not much of a loss beyond that.

 

[Gatecrasher]

If you are hosting with Hetzner you should make your views heard. You and your clients are already paying for the traffic. There is no excuse for a third, hidden charge. Simply make it clear, if MTN business doesn't peer openly, you will move your hosting elsewhere.

 

[Tick]

If you are hosting with Hetzner you should make your views heard. You and your clients are already paying for the traffic. There is no excuse for a third, hidden charge. Simply make it clear, if MTN business doesn't peer openly, you will move your hosting elsewhere.

Good idea. I have some customer sites we're hosting with Hetzner, so I'll perhaps contact MTN and let them know what I think.

 

[batman-za]

Good idea. I have some customer sites we're hosting with Hetzner, so I'll perhaps contact MTN and let them know what I think.

Seems many are missing the point and aiming crit at MTN, this is NOT an MTN thing but will effect users on any network other than MWEB's, say Telkom or Vodacom.

IMHO, I see MWEB's customers as the ones who are going to suffer here.

 

[Gatecrasher]

IMHO, I see MWEB's customers as the ones who are going to suffer here.

No one is missing that point. The bigger point is that open peering is desperately needed in SA to promote cheap local transit. It is ludicrous that it costs less to route traffic to London and back than it is to get it across a local data centre. Someone needs to make a stand for change to happen. If my internet access suffers as a result of MWeb's stand, it is not them that I will be blaming.

 

[Roman4604]

IMHO, I see MWEB's customers as the ones who are going to suffer here.

Works both ways, MWEB host some of the largest local content sites e.g. news24, Supersport, DSTV. Users on other networks refusing to peer with them will find these sites to be distant.

 

[Alestorm]

Works both ways, MWEB host some of the largest local content sites e.g. news24, Supersport, DSTV. Users on other networks refusing to peer with them will find these sites to be distant.

Interesting bargaining tool, news24 is the most popular local site afaik. I'm not really too worried about the speed of many other local sites, but having their bandwidth go over the international link won't be good.

Well the big ISPs will have a chance to show their true colours here, should be interesting.

 

[bullzeye.za]

Now all MWEB has to do ( MWEB rep read this ) is offer cheap affordable local hosting solutions, and the local internet scene will be free.

In other news, all of the other ISP's users who access MWEB's hosted sites will see a massive increase in international traffic, it'll end up costing them a lot of service desk hours explaining to customers that they can't get to locally hosted sites very easily because they refuse to not pay for it.