Web Africa ADSL general feedback

Been using my IS Uncapped account no issues been dialing it from my pc , This morning i forgot to connect the account and D3 2000+ ms game is not playable, Log out Connect IS account and bang 220 ms to eu severs.

Thank goodness my red hat Africa account is gone in T Minus 15 Days they better not bill me give them more than enough heads up.
 
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WA FIX YOUR DAMN NETWORK. I STILL HAVE TO SIT WITH YOUR SH!!T FOR 2 WEEKS@!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
grim said:
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WA FIX YOUR DAMN NETWORK. I STILL HAVE TO SIT WITH YOUR SH!!T FOR 2 WEEKS@!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

i was not aware there was something wrong.
please pm me your customer number.
 
grim said:
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WA FIX YOUR DAMN NETWORK. I STILL HAVE TO SIT WITH YOUR SH!!T FOR 2 WEEKS@!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've already moved to another provider. Couldn't take it anymore. I still have to pay for the rest of June and the whole month of July and I won't even be using the account... but anyway, that's their "policy"...

Feels great paying for 2 accounts!
 
Pr⊕phet said:
i was not aware there was something wrong.
please pm me your customer number.
Click to expand...

My account has nothing to do with it, the WA network is oversubscribed:

WA Capped:
Speedtest:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/2010225447.png


Ping statistics for 213.155.134.43:
Packets: Sent = 45, Received = 45, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 206ms, Maximum = 704ms, Average = 242ms

Ping statistics for 213.155.134.45:
Packets: Sent = 41, Received = 41, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 205ms, Maximum = 674ms, Average = 238ms

Axxess Lite Capped:
Speedtest:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/2010230024.png

Ping statistics for 213.155.134.43:
Packets: Sent = 125, Received = 125, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 211ms, Maximum = 232ms, Average = 214ms

Ping statistics for 213.155.134.45:
Packets: Sent = 130, Received = 130, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 222ms, Maximum = 251ms, Average = 224ms

The Axxess speedtest is more than 3 times faster to the same sever, I did the WA speedtest from my laptop and the Axxess speedtest from my PC so that there's no way it's reading from cache.
 
grim said:
My account has nothing to do with it, the WA network is oversubscribed:

WA Capped:
Speedtest:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/2010225447.png


Ping statistics for 213.155.134.43:
Packets: Sent = 45, Received = 45, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 206ms, Maximum = 704ms, Average = 242ms

Ping statistics for 213.155.134.45:
Packets: Sent = 41, Received = 41, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 205ms, Maximum = 674ms, Average = 238ms

Axxess Lite Capped:
Speedtest:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/2010230024.png

Ping statistics for 213.155.134.43:
Packets: Sent = 125, Received = 125, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 211ms, Maximum = 232ms, Average = 214ms

Ping statistics for 213.155.134.45:
Packets: Sent = 130, Received = 130, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 222ms, Maximum = 251ms, Average = 224ms

The Axxess speedtest is more than 3 times faster to the same sever, I did the WA speedtest from my laptop and the Axxess speedtest from my PC so that there's no way it's reading from cache.
Click to expand...

Exactly the same for me, but with Afrihost. Full line speed and no DNS issues on Afrihost but 384k line speed and major DNS issues on WebAfrica. When I phone to complain, they simply tell me that it is a best service account during office hours and won't believe me that it is crap 24 hours a day.
 
grim said:
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WA FIX YOUR DAMN NETWORK. I STILL HAVE TO SIT WITH YOUR SH!!T FOR 2 WEEKS@!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...


Also 2 weeks i cant stand the account given up all hope last night on 10mb line useing INT news sever 430 to 600 kps stopped it dialed IS account full 960 kps ....
 
Almost there another 2 weeks. I am still deciding which ISP to go to though as I don't like to jump ship. Seeing that this is only my second main ISP (have a backup isp with prepaid) in all the years I have ADSL it means I am willing to take $h1t up to a point. I have reached this point now with WA. Actually my cost will increase because I had good deal with WA and my RedAfrica Account and I rather pay a bit more for something that works when i want it to work

Whenever you phone them the first thing they tell you there is nothing wrong while the forums are overflowing with problems on the WA network.

Come down from your ivory tower and face the real world and problems
 
moklet said:
Almost there another 2 weeks. I am still deciding which ISP to go to though as I don't like to jump ship. Seeing that this is only my second main ISP (have a backup isp with prepaid) in all the years I have ADSL it means I am willing to take $h1t up to a point. I have reached this point now with WA. Actually my cost will increase because I had good deal with WA and my RedAfrica Account and I rather pay a bit more for something that works when i want it to work

Whenever you phone them the first thing they tell you there is nothing wrong while the forums are overflowing with problems on the WA network.

Come down from your ivory tower and face the real world and problems
Click to expand...
I feel exactly the same. I have waited 3 months for them to fix their network. No more.

I am giving up a RedAfrica account for an MWEB 4mbps uncapped account so also will be paying more for better service and delivery.

Cheapest is not always the best. I would rather pay more for something that is reliable and consistent then save the few hundred rand.
 
NeBo said:
I feel exactly the same. I have waited 3 months for them to fix their network. No more.

I am giving up a RedAfrica account for an MWEB 4mbps uncapped account so also will be paying more for better service and delivery.

Cheapest is not always the best. I would rather pay more for something that is reliable and consistent then save the few hundred rand.
Click to expand...

Thing is these accounts used to be brilliant, I used to be able to download 20GB easily between 00:00 and 06:00 now I sometimes struggle to get 2GB down. Also it didn't matter what time of day it was I would get 1MB/s download speeds, YouTube used to be able to stream 1080p, now it struggles with 240p from time to time.
 
Fulton17 said:
Well I have not made much use of my WA account as am enjoying MWeb. Last two days though I have been using my WA account

Must say browsing on one hand improved a lot of the time, and has been quite enjoyable, but...

I have to reload stack of pages before the page actually appears. This happens with many sites, and I had to eventually go back to MWeb as one page just was not loading, and first attempt with MWeb and all loads perfectly.

Anyone else having issues or is just me :(
Click to expand...
Hi Fulton. I had the same issue on my router.

The primary DNS and secondary DNS that my router uses is
196.220.59.188 (dnscache1.wa.co.za)
196.220.59.189 (dnscache2.wa.co.za)

What my router does is to alternate between primary and secondary looking up addresses instead of using the secondary DNS server only when the primary cannot be found. This would work normally but seeing that webafrica's second DNS doesn't contain many domains then it fails on many lookups

So for example if I run in the command prompt
nslookup www.mybroadband.co.za
only every second request will succeed. The browser does cache the successful IPs so in your browser you will only notice the first attempt often failing that is why you have to refresh only once per site.

You can test run
nslookup www.mybroadband.co.za 196.220.59.188
nslookup www.mybroadband.co.za 196.220.59.189
to query individual DNS servers to see the problem is with the second webafrica DNS cache.

Some FQDNs WA's secondary cache server fails on are support.microsoft.com, www.mybroadband.co.za, www.iol.co.za, www.facebook.com so many major sites.

I noticed the problem since last week Thursday and since then to now the secondary DNS has not been fixed or even acknowledge as having a problem

So how to fix is just set your router DNS to NOT automatically assign DNS from the ISP and only use WA's primary DNS (196.220.59.188) not the secondary one (196.220.59.189)

I am moving to another ISP seeing the long list of DNS issues WA has been getting since March this year. This latest problem is more than a week already and they haven't fixed it yet and from the symptoms you and many others have described show they don't even have the technical expertise to even troubleshoot problems or they do have but don't care to fix it.

Ideally they should have automated systems to check their DNS servers.
 
Last edited:
Just use the OpenDNS or Google DNS servers, they are a hell of a lot faster as well.

OpenDNS:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

Google:
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4
 
grim said:
Just use the OpenDNS or Google DNS servers, they are a hell of a lot faster as well.

OpenDNS:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

Google:
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4
Click to expand...
Don't think so. DNS server on the ISP backbone will be faster
 
NeBo said:
I feel exactly the same. I have waited 3 months for them to fix their network. No more.

I am giving up a RedAfrica account for an MWEB 4mbps uncapped account so also will be paying more for better service and delivery.

Cheapest is not always the best. I would rather pay more for something that is reliable and consistent then save the few hundred rand.
Click to expand...

Yeah I cancelled, although with one month notice I have to however still pay for July. After 7 years with WA... it's become unbearable. "PM me your client code" ... eish.
 
skimread said:
Hi Fulton. I had the same issue on my router.

The primary DNS and secondary DNS that my router uses is
196.220.59.188 (dnscache1.wa.co.za)
196.220.58.189 (dnscache2.wa.co.za)

What my router does is to alternate between primary and secondary looking up addresses instead of using the secondary DNS server only when the primary cannot be found. This would work normally but seeing that webafrica's second DNS doesn't contain many domains then it fails on many lookups

So for example if I run in the command prompt
nslookup www.mybroadband.co.za
only every second request will succeed. The browser does cache the successful IPs so in your browser you will only notice the first attempt often failing that is why you have to refresh only once per site.

You can test run
nslookup www.mybroadband.co.za 196.220.59.188
nslookup www.mybroadband.co.za 196.220.59.189
to query individual DNS servers to see the problem is with the second webafrica DNS cache.

Some FQDNs WA's secondary cache server fails on are support.microsoft.com, www.mybroadband.co.za, www.iol.co.za, www.facebook.com so many major sites.

I noticed the problem since last week Thursday and since then to now the secondary DNS has not been fixed or even acknowledge as having a problem

So how to fix is just set your router DNS to NOT automatically assign DNS from the ISP and only use WA's primary DNS (196.220.59.188) not the secondary one (196.220.59.189)

I am moving to another ISP seeing the long list of DNS issues WA has been getting since March this year. This latest problem is more than a week already and they haven't fixed it yet and from the symptoms you and many others have described show they don't even have the technical expertise to even troubleshoot problems or they do have but don't care to fix it.

Ideally they should have automated systems to check their DNS servers.
Click to expand...

Hi Skimread

I really appreciate your feedback - my technical skills are such I am not too sure how to do all this :(

Basically my wa account is now mainly for big downloads. My MWeb account is so much better for browsing etc, so now when I have a big DL, then I just use WA. This way seems to minimise my frustration levels (which since using MWeb have dropped greatly).

It really is annoying that WA just says the problem does not exist - or does not even bother to acknowledge your comment or query. On the MWeb thread, all issues that I have seen raised are responded to. With WA some they do; many they don't.

Anyway let's hope maybe they will eventually get round to sorting this out or else I will have to work on improving my technical skills :)

Thanks again
 
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