Unshaped, my ass!

R

Roadrunner

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I wanted to see if maybe an unshaped account will make a difference when doing a Skype video call with a relative who resides in the UK, and this is what I found:

1. Unshaped Axxess account (IS)





2. Shaped WebAfrica account (SAIX)





There is nothing wrong with my line as I get this locally:





The logical conclusion then will be that this is a money-making scheme, just like HDMI cables that differ in price from R50 - R3,000 which have been proven to all deliver the same quality picture to your screen.
 
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You certainly getting better performance with WebAfrica...

However this doesn't mean that the Axxess account is not unshaped as there are a whole lot
of other factors to consider.

Unshaped would mean that there is no traffic priority for the different types of traffic.
With a ping test and b/w test I doubt you going to get results to show that the account
is truely unshaped.

Also ADSl is a best effort service where the ISP will oversubscribe the service to their customers.
i.e. they will provide 16 subscribers 4mbps d/l access but if we all try at the same time we each
get 4/16 mbps to give you an indication.

Axxess could have been "busy" at the time you performed the test?
 
Unshaped, my ass!
Click to expand...

fat , flat or hung ass ? :eek:.



i've been hitting very good latency with webafrica + lowerping on wow VS the other shaped, unshaped and uncapped.
 
this is the thing--who regulates and monitors what ISP are offering? Why we pay more for a service that is just that in name, and not in function?.
 
@udiS3 said:
Axxess could have been "busy" at the time you performed the test?
Click to expand...

True, but then they are always busy as this is not the first time I tried this out. Have been running various tests at various times of the day and night and all the results were similiar to this one.

Another question: Skype is definitely shaped, but is this also the case for ICMP which the Speedtest.net website must be using?
 
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Check your Axxess control panel:
Posted: 11 May 10
Emergency SAT3 Maintenance - Wednesday 12 May 2010
International ADSL AFFECTED
START DATE: Wed 12 May 10 07h45 (SAST)
END DATE: Sat 15 May 10 20h00 (SAST)
EXPECTED DURATION: Approx 4 days
IMPACT: Increased latency, slow responses
REASON FOR CHANGE: SAT3 repairs & restoration

ADDITIONAL INFO:
International traffic will be rerouted on a restoration path for the duration of the work.
Click to expand...
 
Roadrunner said:
True, but then they are always busy as this is not the first time I tried this out. Have been running various tests at various times of the day and night and all the results were similiar to this one.

Another question: Skype is definitely shaped, but is this also the case for ICMP which the Speedtest.net website must be using?
Click to expand...

If I am not mistaken ICMP(ping) will have priority on a network...

This is my biggest worry with the whole uncapped accounts that are available now...
As there will be the crowd of serial D/L'ers leaving the whole internet on queue and generally
screwing up the interwebz for the rest of us. Especially for users where the jitter
and low latencies are important i.e. Voice over broadband users as well as gamers.
 
Roadrunner said:
I know about that, but as far as I know IS is using Seacom and not SAT-3, so WebAfrica must then have had slower performance because of this maintenance.
Click to expand...

Don't know about that but Axxess wouldn't have put up the notice if they didn't think they would be affected.
 
Speak of Axxess, I emailed them suggesting a network connectivity box on the homepage, and there it is! Full credit to them for being the type of company we need more of in this country.
Follow this link to find out the full story regarding the poor performance we're all experiencing at the moment. It's so refreshing to have some honesty.

http://axxess.co.za/networkstatus.php
 
samuelbowker said:
Follow this link to find out the full story regarding the poor performance we're all experiencing at the moment. It's so refreshing to have some honesty.

http://axxess.co.za/networkstatus.php
Click to expand...

IS DSL for consumers is through Seacom. This network status is no true. The guys who provision as IS are pathetic or budget constrained. IS bandwidth is always full during the day whether you have a business product or consumer product. On DSL you will never get your performance on IS during office hours. I can guarantee you that if you do a speed test in a week or 6 weeks you will have the same result because the network is over congested.

Do a Mweb speed test if you can and then you will see true ADSL performance.
 
Do yourself a favor and compare the different accounts on the same ISP/Network or same accounts different ISP/Network.

eg. Axxess shaped vs Axxess unshaped
and WA shaped vs WA unshaped

or

Axxess shaped vs WA shaped
Axxess unshaped vs WA unshaped

I think once you do that, the difference in the accounts will become clearer, especially during business hours.

Remember, different types of accounts on the same network will perform different, same type accounts on different networks will also perform different.

WA are trying to position themselves as an ISP which, while not the cheapest offer better quality to their clients. Axxess on the other hand never seemed to do that, but instead care about selling huge quantity of accounts for cheaper than other ISPs. Well at least that is what I am seeing, I might be wrong.
 
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I see now that Axxess has posted this message on their network status page regarding the poor performance of the IS network:

"Notice 2 (12 May 2010)
Internet Solutions are experiencing bandwidth constraints due to an excessive demand for bandwidth. They have already procured more bandwidth, but this process takes 6 weeks to complete. This is affecting all IS-based ADSL products, which is the reason for the slow responses, especially across the basic uncapped products. Users can expect an improvement within the next 4 weeks.
Axxess DSL technical staff will still go through the support process to ensure that there are no other problems causing the slow responses before assuming that the problem is purely bandwidth related, just to be thorough. "

Hope this may sort out the issue with the IS network then.
 
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bloody sh**! I am sure WA must secretly gloating now. So does that mean, because user experience will be definitely be affected, they will reduce the monthly costs?
NEVER!
 
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i've come across an interesting thing here. secure vpn to US max out line with axxess lite... at least the mmo is updating at 300-400kbps VS 10-20KB it used to get.

edit:
/award noob award. somehow i got pc stuck on webafrica's unshaped and thought it to be axess lite, lol. changed now and see updating going no to so fast any more :D. now $$$ unshaped all gone :(
 
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