Afrihost, and my slow descent into insanity

This is going to be a long read.

I've had Afrihost fibre for almost a year, and used them for ADSL for about 3 years before that, without any trouble. In June, for a couple of days, I had trouble connecting to my Office365 services (hosted Exchange, OneDrive for Business/SharePoint, etc) which resolved themselves after a couple of days. I have a 20Mbps uncapped line.

Then, 3 weeks ago, the problems started again. Primarily with O365 services, but also some other sites like GitHub. I'd get connectivity measured in bytes or maybe tens of kilobytes per second, mail unable to download through outlook, OWA not loading etc. But other services run fine. Neflix streams in HD on 2 screens simultaneously. Speedtest.net reports 19+Mbps down. I changed to my 3G (also provided by Afrihost) and was able to connect immediately, so the problem isn't on the remote end. So I sent a support mail, including details from my router (IP, DNS servers, gateway), and traceroutes and pings to both gmail.com and outlook.com, because gmail loads instantly while outlook does not.

Afrihost tried calling the next morning, which I missed. They then sent a mail asking for teamviewer access details, which I was only able to supply to them later in the day. I also followed up with screenshots from Free Download Manager, showing me trying to download files from GitHub over fibre and timing out, and then repeating the same download over 3G and downloading at 1.3MB/s, then repeating this over fibre and downloading at 210 BYTES/s

You'd think that I'd have addressed most of the level 1 support questions already, but you would be wrong.

They then asked for traceroutes to the sites I'm having trouble with. Remember, I started this exchange by including traceroutes to office without even being asked. Now it's important to bear in mind that these are all just applications or installers or email coming down over HTTPS. No torrents or weird protocols or ports. And I made a point of running these tests when nobody else was using the line. So I included some screenshots of files I'm trying to download and having trouble, including an estimated remaining time of 2.5 hours for a 5MB file from GitHub, and 40 minutes remaining on downloading a 9MB file from Onedrive. I also included traceroutes to all the endpoints I could track down.

I was then asked if I have VPN software installed. Which I do. But the VPN was not running when I ran the tests, and it's configured to only route traffic for the target network over the VPN, not all my traffic. Also, my wife's laptop has no VPN at all, and she's also experiencing the same problem. More screenshots of terrible download speeds included.
All this while, other sites and Netflix all run fine, and speedtest still reports a great 19+Mbps line speed. The only trouble I'm having is with O365 and GitHub and maybe one or two other sites which I don't remember.
So while I was poking around the Afrihost site, trying to work out if there's anything with my package that might be causing this, I see that because I'm on 20Mbps Uncapped Home, there's a throttle in place at 200GB (which I've exceeded - Netflix + school holidays = lots of bandwidth). So I asked them what speeds I should expect to receive if I'm throttled, because even if I am throttled, I should be getting more than 50KB/s when trying to download my email.

Afrihost jumped on this, and said that if I "have reached the threshold of 200 Gigs then definitely the throttling will play a massive affect for emails, and downloads regardless of what type of service you are trying to connect and use. Semi-shaping is also definitely a factor if there is throttling in play so that might explain the low kb/s download rate." Then he asked if disabling Windows Defender makes a difference.

Of course, disabling Defender doesn't make a difference, and again, I asked what speeds I should expect after being throttled, because receiving a speed of about 1% of my actual line speed seems a bit excessive. I also asked if the issue would go away if I upgraded from Home to Premium, which is shaped but not throttled, since they're saying that throttling would explain the trouble I'm having.

Now I'm a reasonable person and I understand that I'm on the home package so there will be throttling and shaping involved, and I'm perfectly fine with having sites or downloads slower than usual. But when you're getting download speeds in bytes per second, that's not throttling, that's an unusable service. So I again asked what speeds I would expect to receive if my connection is throttled.

My support guy responded and said that we don't want to go upgrading packages just yet, so try connecting the fibre router directly to my laptop over ethernet and see if the problem persists. Smart suggestion, I hadn't thought of that. Unfortunately, I still have the same problem even when connected directly to the fibre router. More screenshots and traceroutes are shared.

By now it's a week later and I'm still unable to access my mail in the evenings, and my wife is still battling to access hers during the day. So I decided to upgrade from the Home to Premium package, which has no throttling, just shaping. Let's hope for the best! The line was upgraded and I restarted both the fibre and wireless routers to make sure the connection is properly reset.

It doesn't end there! I just had to break it up because MyBB doesn't allow more than 10k characters per post. So, to continue:

I tried downloading some files from Onedrive. 875 BYTES per second. Another download sped past at 2.1KB/s. So now I insisted that I wanted this problem escalated.

The response, verbatim, was as follows:

Hi there


Hope you are well,

Apologies from us to see the drops in connections, known as Loss of carrier , here is some info on why your line is dropping, and causing such high ping results:

Lost carriers occur when your computer, of an internet connection disconnects without your request (even though have not chosen to disconnect using standard disconnection methods).

Please kindly disconnect your router and reconnect it again as I have refreshed. Please check if you are able to obtain the speed.

Click to expand...

Thanks for explaining Loss of carrier, and asking me again to switch it off and on again. So despite me saying repeatedly that I don't experience any of these issues from the same servers and sites if I use a different network, they're still pretending that the issue is with the remote server.

Finally, over a week after I initially reported the problem, I was told that they have logged a ticket with Openserv, who should contact me shortly. I have no idea why they wanted to log a ticket with Openserv, because my line is fine. I've told them repeatedly that I can download from other sites at full speed, and a speedtest shows that my line is operating at full speed. But still, they escalated to Openserv.

Naturally, nobody from Openserv contacted me, and my connection was still not working properly. I have now descended to sending emails all in caps, with some red added in for good measure. So I told them to call me and explain what's going on.

I then spoke to an actual human being. He said on the phone that, guess what, O365 is not marked as a real-time service, so will be throttled or shaped. I said that's unacceptable, because email is one of the most basic things you could want to use the internet for, and I cannot access my email. Then, in his follow-up email, he said that they do prioritize O365 as a real-time service, so perhaps the problem is in then MSN network, as the traceroutes show a lot of hops after the requests hit Microsoft. So, for about the 10th time, I explain again that it doesn't matter if there are a lot of hops inside MSN, I only experience this problem when connecting over fibre, and I don't experience this problem when connecting over 3G, to the same network with the same internal hops. I am again asked for more traceroutes.

I again tell them that I am not bothered by the latency, I am bothered by the fact that I can't get my email. Whether it takes 5 seconds instead of 0.5 seconds doesn't matter to me. So i send more traceroutes, to the same endpoint over both fibre and 3G. The 3G route actually has 2 more hops than fibre, but that connection works. He also said that I could be experiencing these problems due to shaping. So I said again, that if they want to use shaping or throttling as an excuse, then they need to give me figures telling me what speed my line will be shaped or throttled to. If they're not prepared to tell me this, then I'm not prepared to accept them as reasons for my lack of service.

This time, I tried something new. I have a Linux VM hosted in Europe somewhere. So I installed Squid on that, and created an SSH tunnel to it, and set that up as my proxy server. Guess what! I can now get my email and download from GitHub and Onedrive without any issues! Sure it's a little slower, but it works. So I went and installed OBS and recorded my screen, showing that I cannot download an email over fibre, but as soon as I enable the proxy, it downloads fine. I sent 3 separate recordings like this, showing email and file downloads not working when connecting directly, but working when proxied via Europe.

We're now over 2 weeks after the problem was reported, and still have no resolution. But a technician from Openserv called me and said he's at my gate to check my fibre line. Weird, I spoke to Afrihost on the phone just an hour ago, and they didn't say they were sending anyone, and I've repeatedly pointed out that there's no problem with my physical line at all. But anyways, the Openserv guy checked and said the line is fine, as expected. Afrihost has now asked to disable my firewall and see if that solves the problem.

I explained that a firewall serves to block or allow a connection. The default Windows firewall which I use will not cause traffic to slow down, it would deny the connection completely. But I've shown them repeatedly that I am able to connect to the servers, just unable to download anything at a usable speed. So 2+ weeks later, we're still in the "disable your firewall" territory.

I then got a follow-up mail a day or two later saying they're still waiting for the tests with the firewall disabled in order to escalate the issue.

So I sent through the traceroutes with firewall enabled and disabled (spoiler: they are, obviously, identical). I also did another screen recording of me trying to download an email with the firewall enabled and disabled. This was on Wednesday night, 3 weeks after the problem was reported. I asked for a call from a supervisor or manager, and now, over a day later, I've heard nothing.

And this is my story about Afrihost. I hope you enjoyed it and have a nice day.

Does changing your DNS make any difference?

beuges said:

It doesn't end there! I just had to break it up because MyBB doesn't allow more than 10k characters per post. So, to continue:

I tried downloading some files from Onedrive. 875 BYTES per second. Another download sped past at 2.1KB/s. So now I insisted that I wanted this problem escalated.

The response, verbatim, was as follows:



Thanks for explaining Loss of carrier, and asking me again to switch it off and on again. So despite me saying repeatedly that I don't experience any of these issues from the same servers and sites if I use a different network, they're still pretending that the issue is with the remote server.

Finally, over a week after I initially reported the problem, I was told that they have logged a ticket with Openserv, who should contact me shortly. I have no idea why they wanted to log a ticket with Openserv, because my line is fine. I've told them repeatedly that I can download from other sites at full speed, and a speedtest shows that my line is operating at full speed. But still, they escalated to Openserv.

Naturally, nobody from Openserv contacted me, and my connection was still not working properly. I have now descended to sending emails all in caps, with some red added in for good measure. So I told them to call me and explain what's going on.

I then spoke to an actual human being. He said on the phone that, guess what, O365 is not marked as a real-time service, so will be throttled or shaped. I said that's unacceptable, because email is one of the most basic things you could want to use the internet for, and I cannot access my email. Then, in his follow-up email, he said that they do prioritize O365 as a real-time service, so perhaps the problem is in then MSN network, as the traceroutes show a lot of hops after the requests hit Microsoft. So, for about the 10th time, I explain again that it doesn't matter if there are a lot of hops inside MSN, I only experience this problem when connecting over fibre, and I don't experience this problem when connecting over 3G, to the same network with the same internal hops. I am again asked for more traceroutes.

I again tell them that I am not bothered by the latency, I am bothered by the fact that I can't get my email. Whether it takes 5 seconds instead of 0.5 seconds doesn't matter to me. So i send more traceroutes, to the same endpoint over both fibre and 3G. The 3G route actually has 2 more hops than fibre, but that connection works. He also said that I could be experiencing these problems due to shaping. So I said again, that if they want to use shaping or throttling as an excuse, then they need to give me figures telling me what speed my line will be shaped or throttled to. If they're not prepared to tell me this, then I'm not prepared to accept them as reasons for my lack of service.

This time, I tried something new. I have a Linux VM hosted in Europe somewhere. So I installed Squid on that, and created an SSH tunnel to it, and set that up as my proxy server. Guess what! I can now get my email and download from GitHub and Onedrive without any issues! Sure it's a little slower, but it works. So I went and installed OBS and recorded my screen, showing that I cannot download an email over fibre, but as soon as I enable the proxy, it downloads fine. I sent 3 separate recordings like this, showing email and file downloads not working when connecting directly, but working when proxied via Europe.

We're now over 2 weeks after the problem was reported, and still have no resolution. But a technician from Openserv called me and said he's at my gate to check my fibre line. Weird, I spoke to Afrihost on the phone just an hour ago, and they didn't say they were sending anyone, and I've repeatedly pointed out that there's no problem with my physical line at all. But anyways, the Openserv guy checked and said the line is fine, as expected. Afrihost has now asked to disable my firewall and see if that solves the problem.

I explained that a firewall serves to block or allow a connection. The default Windows firewall which I use will not cause traffic to slow down, it would deny the connection completely. But I've shown them repeatedly that I am able to connect to the servers, just unable to download anything at a usable speed. So 2+ weeks later, we're still in the "disable your firewall" territory.

I then got a follow-up mail a day or two later saying they're still waiting for the tests with the firewall disabled in order to escalate the issue.

So I sent through the traceroutes with firewall enabled and disabled (spoiler: they are, obviously, identical). I also did another screen recording of me trying to download an email with the firewall enabled and disabled. This was on Wednesday night, 3 weeks after the problem was reported. I asked for a call from a supervisor or manager, and now, over a day later, I've heard nothing.

And this is my story about Afrihost. I hope you enjoyed it and have a nice day.

Click to expand...

just leave them and vote with your wallet CISP is a good one to go with

[MENTION=63454]InSanity[/MENTION] might not like it if you go into him...

Purply said:

Does changing your DNS make any difference?

Click to expand...

Not at all, and I've tried the Afrihost-supplied ones, as well as 8.8.8.8, 9.9.9.9 and 1.1.1.1. Besides, as I explained to them when they asked me the same thing, DNS would play a role in establishing the initial connection, but once a socket is connected, DNS falls away and you're just receiving data, and that's where things fall flat.

This was brilliant, thanks. It does appear Afrihost Support is not setup for the tech-savvy user, as we are way beyond their troubleshooting skills, and the fact they work from a script.

Actually very similar to logging a TAC case with Cisco. I used to tear my hair out with them. If you are a CCIE and Gold Partner you automatically route to a higher level service desk to stop that kind of thing.

Maybe Afrihost should consider something similar, with authenticated users being allocated a higher level engineer desk, to avoid these frustrations. I know they have a higher support team, can't remember what that are called (Delta Force?, SWAT?, SAS?, Reccies?, nah can't remember)

You should have direct access to them based on your obvious high level IT skills.

[MENTION=7389]beuges[/MENTION] I feel your pain!

I was in this exact situation with Afrihost. After years of being a loyal customer I moved to fibre through Vuma and had these same issues you have. Github files would transfer extremely slow, I'll switch to my LTE backup and download that same file in seconds.

I logged tickets upon tickets and sent all the info they would require since I'm a Network engineer myself...I still got the default "reboot your router" response. Do yourself a favour and jump ship.
I cancelled with them and moved to Cool Ideas this month and let me tell you, no known issues so far. On top of that they blamed vuma for me getting 8Mbps on my 100Mbps link..

After the move...surprise surprise, getting my full bandwidth with CISP...I even spoke to the support guys at cisp before moving and besides being able to call them when you need them, they are way more helpful and technical.
[MENTION=394133]PBCool[/MENTION] will be able to help if you have any questions..

TL;DR

Afrihost on fibre LOL when will people learn.

I'm considering moving, but I'm a bit hesitant as my understanding is that I have to cancel my sub with Afrihost, then wait for them to release my line, then get the new ISP to claim it, before I can switch over, and I'd prefer to not have any downtime if possible.

So after my email on Wednesday night asking for a call from management, I got an email back on Friday (!) from one of the support drones to assure me that I don't have to send any more traceroutes, and they have enough information for now. But I still have no call from management, and I still have to proxy via Europe in order to access my email.

Didn't realise there was a dedicated Afrihost support forum since that's under ADSL. And it seems that Afrihost support are active on the forum but don't pay attention anywhere other than their little sandbox. So, [MENTION=323060]AfriGenie[/MENTION] [MENTION=192591]AfriMan[/MENTION] [MENTION=431899]AfriNatic[/MENTION] - how's about responding over here please? Or, mods, please move this to the Afrihost forum so they can respond in there?

EADC said:

TL;DR

Afrihost on fibre LOL when will people learn.

Click to expand...

:crylaugh::crylaugh::crylaugh:

roadcat said:

This was brilliant, thanks. It does appear Afrihost Support is not setup for the tech-savvy user, as we are way beyond their troubleshooting skills, and the fact they work from a script.

Actually very similar to logging a TAC case with Cisco. I used to tear my hair out with them. If you are a CCIE and Gold Partner you automatically route to a higher level service desk to stop that kind of thing.

Maybe Afrihost should consider something similar, with authenticated users being allocated a higher level engineer desk, to avoid these frustrations. I know they have a higher support team, can't remember what that are called (Delta Force?, SWAT?, SAS?, Reccies?, nah can't remember)

You should have direct access to them based on your obvious high level IT skills.

Click to expand...

At the moment afrihost is using foreign call center staff to try and help with their issues. Hence why of late such heavy scripting

beuges said:

I'm considering moving, but I'm a bit hesitant as my understanding is that I have to cancel my sub with Afrihost, then wait for them to release my line, then get the new ISP to claim it, before I can switch over, and I'd prefer to not have any downtime if possible.

So after my email on Wednesday night asking for a call from management, I got an email back on Friday (!) from one of the support drones to assure me that I don't have to send any more traceroutes, and they have enough information for now. But I still have no call from management, and I still have to proxy via Europe in order to access my email.

Didn't realise there was a dedicated Afrihost support forum since that's under ADSL. And it seems that Afrihost support are active on the forum but don't pay attention anywhere other than their little sandbox. So, [MENTION=323060]AfriGenie[/MENTION] [MENTION=192591]AfriMan[/MENTION] [MENTION=431899]AfriNatic[/MENTION] - how's about responding over here please? Or, mods, please move this to the Afrihost forum so they can respond in there?

Click to expand...

Who is your line provider ? If its vuma then the switch is pretty quick with MFn etf it can take a while. I waited 1 day though but got everyone to sort it out long before the cancel time.

beuges said:

I'm considering moving, but I'm a bit hesitant as my understanding is that I have to cancel my sub with Afrihost, then wait for them to release my line, then get the new ISP to claim it, before I can switch over, and I'd prefer to not have any downtime if possible.

So after my email on Wednesday night asking for a call from management, I got an email back on Friday (!) from one of the support drones to assure me that I don't have to send any more traceroutes, and they have enough information for now. But I still have no call from management, and I still have to proxy via Europe in order to access my email.

Didn't realise there was a dedicated Afrihost support forum since that's under ADSL. And it seems that Afrihost support are active on the forum but don't pay attention anywhere other than their little sandbox. So, [MENTION=323060]AfriGenie[/MENTION] [MENTION=192591]AfriMan[/MENTION] [MENTION=431899]AfriNatic[/MENTION] - how's about responding over here please? Or, mods, please move this to the Afrihost forum so they can respond in there?

Click to expand...

It definitely seems like there are a few issues going on here. Our Home Uncapped accounts are definitely throttled during peak-times once you've exceeded your usage threshold. Generally you will receive around 10% of your total speed while being throttled.

Have we provided you with a test account to try out yet?

i'm not even on afrihost and i know i would never use them - nobody can say anything good about them anymore

AfriGenie said:

It definitely seems like there are a few issues going on here. Our Home Uncapped accounts are definitely throttled during peak-times once you've exceeded your usage threshold. Generally you will receive around 10% of your total speed while being throttled.

Have we provided you with a test account to try out yet?

Click to expand...

Nope, your support personnel have just asked for traceroute after traceroute, with and without firewall, with and without defender, etc. etc., and done very little else. Also, I have been on the Home Premium package for about 2 weeks now, which has no throttling, and I have the exact same problem with no improvement whatsoever, so it's got nothing to do with throttling at all. The ticket number is [#ULN-629-20460], and you'll be able to see exactly what's going on in there.

The greatest frustration is that I've tried to assist by proactively sending detailed information, running my own tests and even sending screen videos showing exactly what the problem is, and it seems that your support team either don't understand or care. I'm not sure why your level 1 team feels the need to cling to tickets instead of escalating them to people who might have some sort of a clue as to what's going on, but it's not helping anybody.

Also, the apparent refusal to have anyone from management call me back says a lot.

under_sky said:

Who is your line provider ? If its vuma then the switch is pretty quick with MFn etf it can take a while. I waited 1 day though but got everyone to sort it out long before the cancel time.

Click to expand...

Openserve, not sure how quick/transparent a swap-over is with them.

beuges said:

Nope, your support personnel have just asked for traceroute after traceroute, with and without firewall, with and without defender, etc. etc., and done very little else. Also, I have been on the Home Premium package for about 2 weeks now, which has no throttling, and I have the exact same problem with no improvement whatsoever, so it's got nothing to do with throttling at all. The ticket number is [#ULN-629-20460], and you'll be able to see exactly what's going on in there.

The greatest frustration is that I've tried to assist by proactively sending detailed information, running my own tests and even sending screen videos showing exactly what the problem is, and it seems that your support team either don't understand or care. I'm not sure why your level 1 team feels the need to cling to tickets instead of escalating them to people who might have some sort of a clue as to what's going on, but it's not helping anybody.

Also, the apparent refusal to have anyone from management call me back says a lot.

Click to expand...

Should have gone with Cool Ideas, you would be much happier.

How people still go for capped products on Fibre is unbelievable. Honestly, just save yourself the pain and frustration already

beuges said:

Nope, your support personnel have just asked for traceroute after traceroute, with and without firewall, with and without defender, etc. etc., and done very little else. Also, I have been on the Home Premium package for about 2 weeks now, which has no throttling, and I have the exact same problem with no improvement whatsoever, so it's got nothing to do with throttling at all. The ticket number is [#ULN-629-20460], and you'll be able to see exactly what's going on in there.

The greatest frustration is that I've tried to assist by proactively sending detailed information, running my own tests and even sending screen videos showing exactly what the problem is, and it seems that your support team either don't understand or care. I'm not sure why your level 1 team feels the need to cling to tickets instead of escalating them to people who might have some sort of a clue as to what's going on, but it's not helping anybody.

Also, the apparent refusal to have anyone from management call me back says a lot.

Click to expand...

Can you please PM me your account details, let me check what's going on.

I haven't needed to contact Afrihost in while, but I will need to do it soon. Reading all the latest posts, can't phone anymore and seeing people waiting 2 days just for a response makes me worry.