Warning about Crystal web throttling HTTP downloads

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whatever_sa

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UPDATE: Since there is way too much content here: my main warning to people is that Crystal Web refuses to refund you a few hours after sign up and discovered they do not offer the service you expected. They also limit speed to grabitjeeves during day hours. You can be as nice as you want to be, they dont care. In my example less than 200mb of 90gb was used


WARNING ABOUT CRYSTAL WEB

I just made the mistake of signing up and paying for a home capped account with 90GB day time traffic. Hours after discovering the false advertising, they refuse to refund me.

With my 20MB VDSL line, they throttle me to 200KB/s on a HTTP download from Grabitjeeves.com (formerly downstorm).

Even afrihost and mweb home capped accounts allow full line speed of 2000KB/s.

I discovered this within hours of signup - they admit they do this and they wont even refund me.

They keep having some excuse about why they can throttle HTTP downloads while advertising these keywords on their brochure:
- Ideal for big downloaders
- Capped data is as fast as your connection
- Superior network access

Their excuse is that this HTTP download is 'bypassing' their throttling system. It's a freaking HTTP download - its not bypassing anything! How is this HTTP download ANY different? It aint'... its data i paid for....

What grabitjeeves does on their own side before an HTTP download becomes available has NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ISP. Its a HTTP DOWNLOAD?!@?!? I paid for 90GB day time traffic, and i get a tenth of my line speed.

OMG, the least they can do is refund.

So in summary, after you spend over R700 excluding telephone line rental, you are told your HTTP download should be scheduled for midnight downloading
 
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whatever_sa said:
Their excuse is that this HTTP download is 'bypassing' their throttling system. It's a freaking HTTP download - its not bypassing anything! How is this HTTP download ANY different? It aint'... its data i paid for....
Click to expand...

you dropped the ball buddy



but CW, out of curiosity you do state you only shape
peer to peer and NNTP protocol speeds being affected during business hours
Click to expand...


does this apply to HTTP too?
 
No ball dropped by my side.

I am not doing anything that should be throttled.

For all we know tomorrow they will limit everyone to 10 minutes of youtube per day.
 
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whatever_sa said:
No ball dropped by my side.

I am not doing anything that should be throttled.

For all we know tomorrow they will limit everyone to 10 minutes of youtube per day.
Click to expand...

Yes you are. Seedboxes and the like are well known methods of bypassing shaping on torrents.
 
Why shape a capped account?
You have a finite bandwidth it should be up to the customer to use as he wants.
 
If everyone moves their torrent downloads to http services, then one would have to start shaping all HTTP. Instead, we identify those services used to bypass shaping of torrents, for example, and they're treated like torrents. If we left it unabated, you'd end up with "demand is high, and we have no idea why" excuses about our network.

Our policy is pretty clear on services used to bypass shaping - it's not allowed. That won't change.

I'm sorry that you feel that this is unfair, however if we left this open it would be abused (a word we don't use often here at all), it takes a small percentage of people on super fast connections to move their torrenting to "alternate" services and you end up with network constraints. You also end up with a pricing problem. Performance of accounts is set and forecast based on usage patterns. If that usage pattern fundamentally changes, you end up with a problem. If services allow for those patterns to change (i.e. lets all move our torrents to http or try to encrypt them so the ISP doesn't realise) you have a network management issue, and months on end of playing the blame game that your users' demand is too high and you have insufficient IPC capacity as a result.

We're quite clear in our Ts and Cs about the use of these services. We also allow you in the same Ts and Cs to lodge an official dispute with us. We also have a record of resolving any marketing mishaps we may have incorrectly communicated.

In this case, it's not a marketing mishap though. It's how the network operates. You cannot use Crystal Web to download torrents over alternate or encrypted services and expect full speed. It causes network management problems, and the accounts are not designed to be used as such, nor are they priced as such. We offer entirely unshaped services, if you require full speed, on all protocols, at all times of day, and will soon be able to expand the value proposition on most accounts as well to include more overall value and less shaping. But where shaping or contention based network management comes into play, our policy is pretty simple: we consider services used to download torrents over HTTP a bypassing of our shaping and general network management. This applies predominantly to services sold, marketed, and advertised as such. Like GrabitJeeves, who sell you server space to download your torrents so your ISP identifies them as HTTP downloads thereafter.
 
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Shaped uncapped accounts? Is CW an OpenWeb follower?

Let me go look at their advertising and see it they do say the following:
- Ideal for big downloaders
- Capped data is as fast as your connection
 
supersunbird said:
Shaped uncapped accounts? Is CW an OpenWeb follower?

Let me go look at their advertising and see it they do say the following:
- Ideal for big downloaders
- Capped data is as fast as your connection
Click to expand...

Go and read the FAQ, Most definitely not an openweb follower.
 
I wouldn't expect that kind of shaping on a capped account TBH, so I understand where OP is coming from.
 
Brewmaster said:
I wouldn't expect that kind of shaping on a capped account TBH, so I understand where OP is coming from.
Click to expand...

One should expect accounts to operate in accordance with what we advertise and what one purchases. Which is transparently stated in all FAQs, which are on every product page, and this exact issue is also addressed in the terms agreed to as well.
 
Doesn't sound like CW. Please Clarify, is daytime capped shaped when downloading torrents and nzb's?
 
ghostR said:
Go and read the FAQ, Most definitely not an openweb follower.
Click to expand...

Well, I just went on their website and look the 450GB packages as I assume that's what the OP is trying to use.

Home Capped
450GB capped
R295
Sign up Home Capped Data
450GB (90GB anytime + 360GB from midnight – 6am)
Priority Bandwidth
4 Concurrent Connections
Dynamic Technical Support
Ideal for all internet services
Click to expand...

Standard Capped
R415
Sign up Business Capped Data
450GB (90GB anytime + 360GB from midnight – 6am)
Priority Bandwidth
4 Concurrent Connections
Dynamic Technical Support
Ideal for all internet services
Click to expand...

Business Capped
400GB capped
R1799
Sign up Unshaped Data
Priority Capped Bandwidth
Multiple Concurrent Connections
24 Hour Support
Ideal for all internet services
Click to expand...

Well, that's seems a bit weak, maybe someone at CW can figure out how to communicate how Home Capped differs from Standard Capped except that one costs more.
 
Crystal web seems to be avoiding the bottom line.

If the service is not for heavy downloaders, then DONT ADVERTISE IT AS SUCH!

> we consider services used to download torrents over HTTP a bypassing of our shaping and general network management

Thats is your own incorrect definition. A service such as grabitjeeves is there to remove the customer from the P2P network for security, performance and convenience. Where do you even get 'bypassing' from?

What this comes down to is that you want 'light' users on the home capped package.... while marketing it as something more powerful.


EDIT: this is what i signed up for:
450GB capped
R295
Sign up Home Capped Data
450GB (90GB anytime + 360GB from midnight – 6am)
Priority Bandwidth
4 Concurrent Connections
Dynamic Technical Support
Ideal for all internet services
 
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