VDSL slowdown

[peterhundermark]

I have an uncapped 20/10 VDSL service from Afrihost/Openserve. For months I have experienced a crippling slowdown shortly before 21:00 on a nearly daily basis. By this I mean a speed of under 1 Mbit/sec, and often close to zero...in other words, it is impossible to do anything useful, and certainly streaming is out of the question.

My many attempts to engage Afrihost support on this issue have been frustrating, to say the least. I have also had an Openserve technician visit my home and confirm that there are no physical problems with the line.

I find it hard to know the right questions to ask here, so perhaps I will just start with these:

• Is this a common experience relating to general congestion, and therefore I just need to suck it up?
• Is it more likely that Openserve has a localised congestion problem at their DSLAM (which is just 300m down the road from me)?
• Or is it likely that Afrihost is doing something (deliberately or not) that is slowing down my connection?

I can provide more information if that will help.

Thanks in advance.

 

[KillerOnDrugX]

I highly doubt it would be Afrihost. I had the same issue not long ago which just fixed itself (40Mbps VDSL). Contact @AfriNatic and he'll help you out.

For me, the speeds would die and there would be massive ping spikes locally (1000ms+), all of which occurred in the evenings from exactly 18:58 onward. The issue was not on my side nor the line but rather their DSLAM. They refused to acknowledge the issue despite all the proof they asked for. They would ask me to use their test account and provide the proof but the accounts provided never worked. The technician said that I should just "live with it", obviously he was quite incompetent in his area of "expertise". Openserve is quite crap when it comes to faults, or having to copy and paste DSL accounts But when Afrinatic is back I'm sure he'll be able to help and advise more effectively.

 

[peterhundermark]

Since my OP I have finally had a reply from Afrihost confirming that they are throttling me. I have exceeded my data use threshold according to their AUP (200 GB over a rolling 30-day period for my 20 Mbps "uncapped" package).

The "solution" is interesting: migrate from my current 20 Mbps Home Uncapped DSL + VDSL 20 line package, which costs me R799 per month to a 40 Mbps PureDSL package for R697 per month. The new package is not shaped or capped, according to the same AUP. And I will get double the speed (up and down) for less money. I have applied. We will see.

What is astonishing to me is that I first experienced this problem and reported it on 20 December 2020. That's not a typo--it really was a year ago! I even sked them in my very first report "am I being throttled?". And during all of this time, with dozens of additional reports by me, not one of the Afrihost support people suggested this or pointed me to their AUP. Until today.

Caveat emptor!

 

[KillerOnDrugX]

Since my OP I have finally had a reply from Afrihost confirming that they are throttling me. I have exceeded my data use threshold according to their AUP (200 GB over a rolling 30-day period for my 20 Mbps "uncapped" package).

The "solution" is interesting: migrate from my current 20 Mbps Home Uncapped DSL + VDSL 20 line package, which costs me R799 per month to a 40 Mbps PureDSL package for R697 per month. The new package is not shaped or capped, according to the same AUP. And I will get double the speed (up and down) for less money. I have applied. We will see.

What is astonishing to me is that I first experienced this problem and reported it on 20 December 2020. That's not a typo--it really was a year ago! I even sked them in my very first report "am I being throttled?". And during all of this time, with dozens of additional reports by me, not one of the Afrihost support people suggested this or pointed me to their AUP. Until today.

Caveat emptor!

Interesting, were you on one of the older packages before it became the Pure DSL without a phone line? I was on the 40mb Pure DSL which is fully uncapped as I used at least 1TB a month if not 2. It is a cheap package and well worth the price if you don't have access to affordable fibre. I would get about 41 down and 10 up on it before being moved to Fast Path for lower latency.

Sorry you had to deal with all of that for so long. But definitely message Afrinatic in the future if you need help as that is way more efficient than dealing with slow emails or phone calls.

 

[netstrider]

I would take

Interesting, were you on one of the older packages before it became the Pure DSL without a phone line? I was on the 40mb Pure DSL which is fully uncapped as I used at least 1TB a month if not 2. It is a cheap package and well worth the price if you don't have access to affordable fibre. I would get about 41 down and 10 up on it before being moved to Fast Path for lower latency.

Sorry you had to deal with all of that for so long. But definitely message Afrinatic in the future if you need help as that is way more efficient than dealing with slow emails or phone calls.

20mbps fast path over 40mbps interleaved personally.

 

[KillerOnDrugX]

I would take
20mbps fast path over 40mbps interleaved personally.

Can't say I blame you. I just couldn't deal with the slow speeds, especially since 40mbps was not enough for me, but I've since gone live with fibre so all those issues are behind me.