Slow ADSL... ISP says nothing they can do... what next?

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shogun

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Hey

I've been getting sloooow ADSL on my 4MB uncapped Afrihost (yes... just after I said I'd had no issues with it yet, a few days ago on another thread - talk about a jinx). As of yesterday i've been downloading files at 40KB/s vs my usual 350KB/s.

I couldn't be throttled... I only used 27GB in July, 20GB last month, and i'm on about a gig this month. Hardly a lot of usage.

I called them, they did a line audit, whatever that is. Nothing changed. No improvement in speed. I've redialed the PPPoE via the mikrotik a few times... still slow - but very stable, hardly any fluctuation in speed. I asked if there's anything else they could do, and they said no... call Telkom.

My router is syncing at 4096 / 512.

Is there something i'm missing? Could this be a line issue? If so, what's the best way to sort it out? I don't adapt well to slow internet access:/ I've considered switching to mweb, but if it's the line... that won't help.

Ideas?
 
Where were you downloading from? Could be an issue coming from the host of the files.
Also DSLAM congestion can play a roll on slow speeds
 
Same here. For the last 2 days, I have been getting international download speeds of between 3-7kB/s. Axxess 384k uncapped ADSL. A message on their board says
IS technician has agreed that there is an international connectivity issue and they are busy investigating. Once we have more info on the situation we will update.

UPDATE: 16:15
Some MPLS DSL & INTER MPLS Kenya Outages deu to Telco failure.
--> SERVICE CURRENTLY STABLE <--

but this was on the 29 August 2010. I do download a fair amount but to be shaped this badly is pathetic. If nothing improves, I will be changing ISP's.
 
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Doesn't matter where I download from, it's all the same (and I don't do torrents etc - all legit work downloads - so it's nothing that should be shaped). I doubt it's congestion because it's been sudden - as of yesterday, and was happening at 1am this morning as well. It's affecting skype video traffic as well (i.e. not limited to HTTP downloads and websites).

Here's some speed test results... I can upload faster than download - on a 4MB line:

CPT
http://www.speedtest.net/result/937502607.png

JHB
http://www.speedtest.net/result/937503829.png

Lisbon
http://www.speedtest.net/result/937506481.png
 
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Do one more test because you call Telkom.

Buy a small prepaid data account either from Telkom or another isp like OpenWEB/Mweb/WebAfrica.

Change the logins and see if anything improves.

If not, call telkom and request a reboot on your port. If that fails, then tell them their is a line-fault =/.

Sorry about the crappy speeds man, ya...don't ADAPT to the slow speeds, make sure you get it fixed, keep us updated!
 
I followed your advice and got a little prepaid account from WA. I'm not sure if it takes time to activate or something because there's no inbound traffic on the connection even though the mikrotik can dial the connection successfully. There's just the outbound stuff for sending requests by the looks of it (4.4kbps). I'll try it again a little later, and post back with the results.

Update: Perhaps there's a setting issue on my side for this prepaid account, WA have logged 62KB of upload traffic and nothing down, so it must be my side:P
Update 2: I'm an idiot, didn't set up srcnat:P I'm on... now, wheres a local speedtest (bought a local only account just to test)
 
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Ok, so I managed to do a speedtest with another account, and it works just fine. This is definitely an issue at the ISP side and not my line.

I got a prepaid local only account from WA, and used the neotel speed test (http://speedtest.neotel.co.za/ - the main speedtest website wasn't accessible on local bandwidth for me) with both accounts less than a minute apart:

Web Africa Local:
Download Speed: 3484 kbps (435.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 385 kbps (48.1 KB/sec transfer rate)

Afrihost 4MB uncapped:
Download Speed: 415 kbps (51.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 413 kbps (51.6 KB/sec transfer rate)

Needless to say, it's time to call support back.
 
Ok, finally a decent response. Albert at Afrihost seems to have his head on straight (somebody give that man a pat on the back please). Our account was put into the throttled pool. He moved us back (as we shouldn't have been there), and everything is back in order.

Thanks for the suggestions here. Much appreciated. Pity the first support guy didn't pick up on this (and i'm still waiting for a response from my email last night).
 
Shogun,

I can promise you the Afrihost is throttling you @ 512KB :(
I had 100% the same problem on my 4MB uncapped with them.
I have now downgraded to 20GB capped.

Personally I think they trying to rid themselfs now of uncapped by selling IS accounts directly and throttling the **** out of all their current 4MB uncapped users :(

Attached is Gian's e-mail address.
[email protected]

Oops, seems I am a bit late... Yes, Albert is very helpfull.
 
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shogun said:
Ok, finally a decent response. Albert at Afrihost seems to have his head on straight (somebody give that man a pat on the back please). Our account was put into the throttled pool. He moved us back (as we shouldn't have been there), and everything is back in order.

Thanks for the suggestions here. Much appreciated. Pity the first support guy didn't pick up on this (and i'm still waiting for a response from my email last night).
Click to expand...

:) Glad you sorted it out!
 
wetkit said:
Shogun,

I can promise you the Afrihost is throttling you @ 512KB :(
I had 100% the same problem on my 4MB uncapped with them.
I have now downgraded to 20GB capped.

Personally I think they trying to rid themselfs now of uncapped by selling IS accounts directly and throttling the **** out of all their current 4MB uncapped users :(

Attached is Gian's e-mail address.
[email protected]

Oops, seems I am a bit late... Yes, Albert is very helpfull.
Click to expand...

That's an interesting assumption... only they are currently making more money off me than they would if I swapped to a (20GB + 20GB) capped account for less money. I'm one of those ideal uncapped users that don't use nearly as much as they can. I just don't want to think about how much bandwidth I use. This means they aren't loosing out by keeping me on uncapped... they're gaining. The logic doesn't make any sense when applied to "low end" uncapped users.

I'll put it down to a glitch in their system somewhere for now (unless it happens again... and perhaps once more after that:P).

This quote may apply here: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity" - Robert J. Hanlon
 
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im also in the same boat as the other Axxess dudes... I have a 4mb Express + account and yet after hours im getting 4 - 10kb/s... W T F.

Been like this for the last 3 days.

Can IS really throttle me this badly... from 400kbs a second to 6 kbs??? WTF!
 
It's not a quick change of mind... I spoke to Axxess... it's IS... nothing they can do about it... I did a TB a month with a 4mb uncapped account with them before everyone else had 10mb... I know it's possible... but IS is raping us all.
 
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