Streaming account options for the Cape

S

SL1v3R

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Location
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So with Crystal Web and Web Africa both having IPC capacity issues in the Cape life is pretty miserable for some of their streaming reliant customers even on capped accounts. What are some good home capped alternatives suitable for streaming? A 120gb capped account is currently going for approx R400 on both Crystal Web and Web Africa (IS backbones).
 
My Axxess 10mb capped account also buffering and getting pings of 55 to 200ms and speedtests of 2 to 5mb. Sooooo fokking tired of this. It's never them when u phone in.
 
Looking at the Afrihost capped account thread it seems that their Cape users are also unhappy.
 
No issues on Web Africa Business Capped in CPT.

For me at least.
 
Can't say I'm having issues with my IS accounts.

Platinum capped:

4404448948.png


CW Home capped:

4404454197.png
 
Don't get me wrong, my speed tests are spot on but streaming is being heavily impacted and the general consensus on CW is that streaming is being shaped to under 300kbps in the Cape.
 
SL1v3R said:
Don't get me wrong, my speed tests are spot on but streaming is being heavily impacted and the general consensus on CW is that streaming is being shaped to under 300kbps in the Cape.
Click to expand...

I'm watching Netflix now. It was definitely affected earlier (around max 4Mbps), it's now improved and getting full 1080p.
 
I just sent a PM to WebAfrica about this problem. Here is an abstract of the message with my test:

Using this video as an example, purely because the number of number of views will guarantee the video is available from a local CDN.

This video was streamed at 720p quality and couldn't not play without buffering every few seconds. This test was performed 2015/06/02 at about 21:00. My connection is a 10mbps ADSL line syncing at 10240. The line stats are acceptable, no signficant line errors reported, and the connection has been stable for 4 days (last reset was due to power outage).

Here is the bandwidth graph as recorded by the Mikrotik router while playing the video.
http://imgur.com/u11rkKC
As you can see, bandwidth during streaming appears to be limited to about 1mbps. Oddly I have noticed the exact same behaviour while trying to download an Ubuntu torrent where the maximum download rate is also limited to almost exactly 1mbps.

Here is another bandwidth graph while trying to download Ubuntu Desktop from the Ubuntu
http://imgur.com/8EZSGHr

For comparison, here is the same video being played while connected using my Afrihost home capped account. The video consistenly streams at 8.8mbps and manages to buffer ahead without having to pause.
http://imgur.com/SckWt0h

And the same Ubuntu download using Afrihost account:
http://imgur.com/Y04vrxH


EDIT: Don't be fooled by speedtests. This is the speedtest for my WA account: http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4404584764
 
Last edited:
SL1v3R said:
Lack of capacity in the Cape currently. They applied for extra capacity which should apparently come on stream within the next two weeks.
Click to expand...

Is this application by IS? So basically both CW and WA are waiting on this?

Kinda works well for me because I'm in CT and just applied for a line to be put in my flat. Knowing Telkom, it'll take around 2 weeks.
 
GSRit01 said:
Is this the application by IS? So in basically both CW and WA are waiting on this?

Kinda works well for me because I'm in CT and just applied for a line to be put in my flat. Knowing Telkom, it'll take around 2 weeks.
Click to expand...
And if it's sooner you promise to eat your hat?
 
Hi, I'm on an Afrihost 10 Mbit uncapped account. It streams well at any time of the day. I only stream now, as the P2P is heavily shaped. So if you want to mainly stream that might be an option as you will not get shaped on the streams.

I got 300 Gb per month in average and when being off round about 6Gb a day.
 
Smokey_sa said:
Hi, I'm on an Afrihost 10 Mbit uncapped account. It streams well at any time of the day. I only stream now, as the P2P is heavily shaped. So if you want to mainly stream that might be an option as you will not get shaped on the streams.

I got 300 Gb per month in average and when being off round about 6Gb a day.
Click to expand...

I want to know this as well. Just switched from WebAfrica to CrystalWeb and looks like they really re-sell the same product.

Is Afrihost really a viable option here? I used to be a very happy Afrihost uncapped customer until they switched to MTN and service deteriorated drastically.

Their capped capped is competitively priced but anything with MTN involved in my experience can not be trusted.

Anyone using Afrihost Capped for streaming (mostly Netflix) and happy with it?
 
lestoran said:
I want to know this as well. Just switched from WebAfrica to CrystalWeb and looks like they really re-sell the same product.

Is Afrihost really a viable option here? I used to be a very happy Afrihost uncapped customer until they switched to MTN and service deteriorated drastically.

Their capped capped is competitively priced but anything with MTN involved in my experience can not be trusted.

Anyone using Afrihost Capped for streaming (mostly Netflix) and happy with it?
Click to expand...

I switched from Mweb to Afrihost to WA to Telkom because of their poor streaming. I'll keep hopping around to whomever provides the best quality service for my needs as every ISP undergoes bad phases it seems.
 
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