WebAfrica Home Uncapped + Netflix

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aktor

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Can anyone tell me if this is a viable option? Currently on Afrihost, but both their uncapped and capped accounts are absolutely horrible at streaming in the Cape region.

I use about 200-300GB per month for Netflix (superHD streaming on a 10mbps line). I know my high usage will see me getting shaped on the star system, but does this shaping affect Netflix streaming? Also, does Netflix streaming affect your stars?

Overall, what would you guys recommend for Netflix streaming in terms of an ISP? Capped options are too expensive (due to the amount of bandwidth required).
 
I am on this package. 5 stars was almost perfect. Hardly any buffering.
Does not take long to get to 3 stars and once there it is almost as bad as Afrihost - but not quite.
YouTube also suffers quite a bit on 3 stars - but not as bad as Afrihost.

I moved for the same reasons you want to.
 
aktor said:
Can anyone tell me if this is a viable option? Currently on Afrihost, but both their uncapped and capped accounts are absolutely horrible at streaming in the Cape region.

I use about 200-300GB per month for Netflix (superHD streaming on a 10mbps line). I know my high usage will see me getting shaped on the star system, but does this shaping affect Netflix streaming? Also, does Netflix streaming affect your stars?

Overall, what would you guys recommend for Netflix streaming in terms of an ISP? Capped options are too expensive (due to the amount of bandwidth required).
Click to expand...

What's your linespeed?

If you can schedule your downloads for midnight you'll be fine, otherwise you might wanna consider business.
 
Chevron said:
What's your linespeed?

If you can schedule your downloads for midnight you'll be fine, otherwise you might wanna consider business.
Click to expand...

10mbps - and I don't do downloads, I use it almost exclusively for Netflix. 200-300GB per month.
 
Mike Smit said:
I am on this package. 5 stars was almost perfect. Hardly any buffering.
Does not take long to get to 3 stars and once there it is almost as bad as Afrihost - but not quite.
YouTube also suffers quite a bit on 3 stars - but not as bad as Afrihost.

I moved for the same reasons you want to.
Click to expand...

Doesn't sound all that promising though - I'd reach 3 stars pretty quickly :/
 
You might want to give the IS Ignite packages a try from Incredible. Even on 1 star it will run at full line speed but that's during 5pm-8am and all weekend. During office hours it's heavily shaped.
 
The home uncapped package, if you're using it to watch netflix after hours (like 6-7pm), is fine, even on a 2 star rating (which I had once).

Their business uncapped package is even better, for during the day streaming. The only buffering I ever had whilst on Web Africa was if I was home sick during the day and wanted to stream Netflix on the home account
 
aktor said:
Doesn't sound all that promising though - I'd reach 3 stars pretty quickly :/
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I'm pretty sure Mike streamed during the day (or tried to at least) on that rating whilst on a home account. I've been with Afrihost as well and even at midnight it still buffers like crazy. Web Africa never had that issue (unless you want to stream something at 4pm during the day on a home account)
 
envo said:
I'm pretty sure Mike streamed during the day (or tried to at least) on that rating whilst on a home account. I've been with Afrihost as well and even at midnight it still buffers like crazy. Web Africa never had that issue (unless you want to stream something at 4pm during the day on a home account)
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Ah I see. Sounds a bit better - only thing is, if streaming affects the star rating (in other words, after streaming 150GB they lower your star rating), downloads would permanently be slowed to a crawl while streaming is great. Not that it's necessarily a major issue, since I rarely really download anything, but imagine having to wait a few hours for a nvidia driver download or a Steam update.. (although, to be fair, at the moment on Afrihost i AM waiting a few hours for small things like that).
 
I found Netflix to buffer a lot using Webafrica Uncapped. After about 100GB usage Netflix hardly ever went beyond 240p for me, with a lot of buffering. Perhaps I was just unlucky.

May I just say that the star rating sucks. Even after hours (after 6pm) it felt like I was shaped to death. Did not enjoy it at ALL. My free FNB Uncapped account performs better...
 
I found the home uncapped accounts quite bad when the star rating dropped. I moved to capped and it was much better.

If you are looking at WA I would say try it out and see if it works for you, but be prepared to go business or capped. Otherwise I can highly recommend Crystal Web. Chat to them on live chat at crystalweb.co.za
 
eye_suc said:
I found Netflix to buffer a lot using Webafrica Uncapped. After about 100GB usage Netflix hardly ever went beyond 240p for me, with a lot of buffering. Perhaps I was just unlucky.

May I just say that the star rating sucks. Even after hours (after 6pm) it felt like I was shaped to death. Did not enjoy it at ALL. My free FNB Uncapped account performs better...
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Remember that the thresholds are different per line speed.

You probably are on 2/4meg.

His usage on a 10Meg line probably won't even drop 1 star.
 
aktor said:
Doesn't sound all that promising though - I'd reach 3 stars pretty quickly :/
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Mike doesn't schedule things for midnight though. His day time usage is a lot higher than yours.
 
envo said:
I'm pretty sure Mike streamed during the day (or tried to at least) on that rating whilst on a home account. I've been with Afrihost as well and even at midnight it still buffers like crazy. Web Africa never had that issue (unless you want to stream something at 4pm during the day on a home account)
Click to expand...
Streaming only starts around 18H00 each day.
We canned DSTV and Netflix is the families primary means of watching TV.
It's certainly better than Afrihost though.
 
Chevron said:
Mike doesn't schedule things for midnight though. His day time usage is a lot higher than yours.
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You can't schedule the Netflix or YouTube streams though, and they account for more data usage than my NZB downloads currently.
My kids freaking live on YouTube.

My monthly usage has dropped from an average of 800GB to 1.2TB PM all the way down to 280GB for the month so far. I was down to 3 stars before mid month on the 10Mbps package.

How does business work? IE: Average GB per day before having stars knocked off?
 
Mike Smit said:
You can't schedule the Netflix or YouTube streams though, and they account for more data usage than my NZB downloads currently.
My kids freaking live on YouTube.

My monthly usage has dropped from an average of 800GB to 1.2TB PM all the way down to 280GB for the month so far. I was down to 3 stars before mid month on the 10Mbps package.

How does business work? IE: Average GB per day before having stars knocked off?
Click to expand...

Thresholds are higher.

You can roughly double your usage before going down a level. And you get higher priority even when lower.
 
aktor said:
What exactly is the threshold for 10mbps?
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That's a bit hard to answer. And not even trying to be funny.

Remember that usage between midnight and 06:00 doesn't count. It's only day time usage that counts. So 600GBs during the day will make you drop a level on a business, 600GBs after midnight means nothing.

I find you can 300GBs(a month) during the day before dropping a star. And if you pull around 500GBs after midnight you can do almost 800GBs before dropping a star.

So I start all my steam downloads when I go to bed and hardly ever drop at all.
 
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