Afrihost Uncapped unbearably slow?

mottamort

mottamort

Bargain Hunter
Hey there. I'm on Afrihost Uncapped 4MB and I've been noticing certain international sites are timing out outright at certain times in the day, and certain downloading is also just completely stagnant regardless of times. This doesn't happen using one of my works test accounts at ALL, so it's not the line (other line tests ive tried is diff DNS server, recreate/resync port, different router to confirm it is in fact limited to the Afrihost account).

What I wanna know is, anyone else experiencing this? Strangely it doesn't happen on anything local, including Steam (Cape Town mirror mayhaps?) but overseas google site pinging will even time out depending on when I do it. It's at its worse between 2-6pm and 12-4am, but certain things are just dead entirely... It's getting to the point where I'm now looking elsewhere and just trying to figure out the timing of cancellation and who to go to first, Afrihost to cancel or other ISP (webafrica seems ok) to initiate process.

Anyone with anything similar?
 
same problem will elaborate later today.

So I have game that is busy downloading but I throttled it to 16KB/s but it can't even keep it at that speed constantly, keeps dropping down to 0KB/s.

Local gaming is all over the place get nice 25 ping and then the next moment 200ping
 
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Found this thread over on MyBroadBand, seems its definately an issue with Home Uncapped, I can personally vouch for the fact that these issues are real... meh :/
 
mottamort said:
Found this thread over on MyBroadBand, seems its definately an issue with Home Uncapped, I can personally vouch for the fact that these issues are real... meh :/
Click to expand...

It's their network in general atm . Take a look through the capped thread - http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/473778-Afrihost-CAPPED-ADSL-Feedback-(MTN)/page474

Basically we're at the point of complaining and posting speedtests daily there >.<

A comparison of my speed on the different networks from yesterday

Afrihost - http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3916085692
Webafrica - http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3916101778
Openweb - http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3916108312
FNB - http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3916113713
 
S1ght said:
It's their network in general atm . Take a look through the capped thread - http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/473778-Afrihost-CAPPED-ADSL-Feedback-(MTN)/page474

Basically we're at the point of complaining and posting speedtests daily there >.<

A comparison of my speed on the different networks from yesterday

Afrihost - http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3916085692
Webafrica - http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3916101778
Openweb - http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3916108312
FNB - http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3916113713
Click to expand...

Thanks, yea I been reading up a bit. Just posted back on the uncapped section, I'm moving away from them....egg on my face, been advertising them and saying about how nice they are all year to clients that ask (I'm in IT :/), looking at WebAfrica now although I AM a "high usage" user (did rough math, 200gb ave dl, 50gb ave ul per month this year) and the star rating system seems a little meh. I need Voip to be good regardless of other shaping :(

Just don't really know who else is cheap, can handle my Telkom line for me(not going back to Telkom hells no), and actually delivers on promised service levels...meh

Nice Openweb speeds btw :P
 
mottamort said:
Thanks, yea I been reading up a bit. Just posted back on the uncapped section, I'm moving away from them....egg on my face, been advertising them and saying about how nice they are all year to clients that ask (I'm in IT :/), looking at WebAfrica now although I AM a "high usage" user (did rough math, 200gb ave dl, 50gb ave ul per month this year) and the star rating system seems a little meh. I need Voip to be good regardless of other shaping :(

Just don't really know who else is cheap, can handle my Telkom line for me(not going back to Telkom hells no), and actually delivers on promised service levels...meh

Nice Openweb speeds btw :P
Click to expand...

I dunno what FNB do with their accounts but that thing felt much much quicker than any other account I've tried :/ Also their pricing is ridiculous.
 
It looks like they are busy trying to sort their issues out.

I hope they do because I'm moving over to a business uncapped account with Afrihost from next month because I'm getting throttled too much on Web Africa when I get to a 3 or 2 * rating (which is all the time)

Slow DSL Speeds Medium Impact 16:35, 11 Nov 2014
UPDATE 18 November 2014 8:30am We are still receiving some reports from clients who are not getting the level of experience expected. We will continue to test and monitor until we are confident that the network is working at optimal levels. We thank clients for their patience.
UPDATE 17 November 2014 14:30 Our technical team have been working tirelessly to improve network performance. They believe that have made significant progress and will be monitoring the network for performance. We thank clients for their patience during this time. Any clients experiencing poor performance should contact our support centre to perform standard troubleshooting.
UPDATE 14 November 2014 9:30am Our technical team have worked through the night for several days and are continuing to work towards improving our client’s internet experience. No expense or resource is being spared to resolve this as quickly as possible. We’d like to thank clients for their continued patience, and we hope to report more positive results very soon.
We’re receiving reports from some clients in the North, South and East regions experiencing slow speeds on their DSL connections. Our technical team are investigating incoming queries to determine the possible cause. We apologise to affected clients and assure them that we will continue to work towards improving their internet experience.
Click to expand...
https://www.afrihost.com/site/network_status?src=website_nav#tabs
 
Clicked that "cancel" button already, and i'll likely move to WebAfrica, though the rating system is worriesome, as I KNOW i'm a "high usage" user.
Also noticed "better" service as of this morning...but the issues have been going over a month (the MyBB forum is crawling with disgruntled users and question-avoiding support) now and its not enough for the service to "improve" back to where I'm getting what I'm paying for. at this junction they need to IMPRESS me. They're the most expensive ISP in this product bracket and it seems they're offering the worst service.

I blame MTN...
 
mottamort said:
Clicked that "cancel" button already, and i'll likely move to WebAfrica, though the rating system is worriesome, as I KNOW i'm a "high usage" user.
Also noticed "better" service as of this morning...but the issues have been going over a month (the MyBB forum is crawling with disgruntled users and question-avoiding support) now and its not enough for the service to "improve" back to where I'm getting what I'm paying for. at this junction they need to IMPRESS me. They're the most expensive ISP in this product bracket and it seems they're offering the worst service.

I blame MTN...
Click to expand...

matt said:
It looks like they are busy trying to sort their issues out.

I hope they do because I'm moving over to a business uncapped account with Afrihost from next month because I'm getting throttled too much on Web Africa when I get to a 3 or 2 * rating (which is all the time)


https://www.afrihost.com/site/network_status?src=website_nav#tabs
Click to expand...

How much do you guys use that you need uncapped though?
 
Mine varies between 150gb to (my max over last 12 months) 251gb. I have averaged 190gb per month dl and 40gb ul per month. I do not count the last 2 months in these figures as it has dropped considerably due to drop in quality.
 
The next question is probably how can you use 200gig a month.
So easy so easy.
2 gamers with diffrent games all those needs updates and downloads.
Twitch streaming
Youtube @480+
laptops that need updates ect.

Good good more people going away from afrihost now maybe I will get my speeds back post Dec 2013
 
Crzwaco said:
The next question is probably how can you use 200gig a month.
So easy so easy.
2 gamers with diffrent games all those needs updates and downloads.
Twitch streaming
Youtube @480+
laptops that need updates ect.

Good good more people going away from afrihost now maybe I will get my speeds back post Dec 2013
Click to expand...

If it were a capacity thing, then I'd agree with you, all those leaving in droves (and they ARE leaving) would definately relieve some strain, but its not....it's the management software stuffing up priority allocation, they've admitted this on the MyBB forum already. but they've promised for over a month now that it would be fixed "soon" and that services will "improve within the next few hours"...which hasn't happened.
 
S1ght said:
How much do you guys use that you need uncapped though?
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I go through around 100GB a month, sometimes more, but that's a fair average. Usually between 3 and 8GB per day, more if there are big game downloads though.

That isn't really excessive for an uncapped account I don't think, but I seem to be on WA's naughty list a lot of the time.

Our heavy traffic is mostly Netflix, Hulu+ and YouTube, with some game downloads here and there. Considering that Netflix streams at 720p, you can go through bandwidth quite quickly.
 
Crzwaco said:
The next question is probably how can you use 200gig a month.
So easy so easy.
2 gamers with diffrent games all those needs updates and downloads.
Twitch streaming
Youtube @480+
laptops that need updates ect.

Good good more people going away from afrihost now maybe I will get my speeds back post Dec 2013
Click to expand...

Not quite my next question unfortunately :p

Next question is what's your max line speed in your area?

Reason being is it's often cheaper to get a high cap than uncapped.

Example - My average around 250gigs where my account is shared between me, my room mate, my parents and my sister. So in other words it's not like we're holding off on our usage. So I download and stream whatever I want, when I want. My cap is currently 300gigs and I'm never hitting it. Since it's a capped account it's (supposed) to be unshaped all the time and I get my max line speed.

So currently I pay R1100 for a 40meg line + 300 gigs which we've just established that for me that it's pretty much pseudo-uncapped. The equivalent uncapped unshaped 40meg package is R3147 (Afrihost). Uncapped, unshaped 10meg is R1297.

So value wise it makes sense to find out what your ceiling limit is on your average month and get a capped account slightly higher.
 
Max supported is 10... My highest sync is 6 (much love Telkom). If you can find me a capped 250-300gb 4Mb line thats cheaper than 4Mb uncapped and also refunds me for unused data (my usage varies for work purposes), by all means :P
 
mottamort said:
Max supported is 10... My highest sync is 6 (much love Telkom). If you can find me a capped 250-300gb 4Mb line thats cheaper than 4Mb uncapped and also refunds me for unused data (my usage varies for work purposes), by all means :P
Click to expand...

https://www.afrihost.com/site/product/adsl_capped?src=website_nav
300gig: R599

https://www.afrihost.com/site/product/adsl_lines
4meg: R279
10meg: R399

Total 4meg: R878
Total 10meg: R998

https://www.afrihost.com/site/product/business_adsl_bundles?src=website_nav
Uncapped unshaped 4Mbps: R797
Uncapped unshaped 6Mbps: R1097

It won't refund you data but you'd get faster upload speeds and you'd get 10meg if Telkom allowed. But I wouldn't count the refund data as part of the argument. It's not like you can roll over uncapped data either :p
 
Why? I'll be overcharged on the months I use less data and I'd have to possibly add more on the months I use more. I have and enjoy home uncapped (R597) for a reason, because it's uncapped. Pay for my internet and use it how/when I want. I can handle shaping in the day etc... what I cannot handle (and why I've left) is bogus reasons for and delays on a poorly performing network when I'm paying for it. I'd have almost put up my own sign if I was one of those poor bastards with a 10+ business uncapped line that's getting less than 1Mb for the last few weeks....those guys are showing hardcore patience...

EDIT: Also, none of those is cheaper than 4Mb uncapped @ R597 (and cheaper elsewhere, Afrihost not been dropping prices as nice as others)
 
mottamort said:
Why? I'll be overcharged on the months I use less data and I'd have to possibly add more on the months I use more. I have and enjoy home uncapped (R597) for a reason, because it's uncapped. Pay for my internet and use it how/when I want. I can handle shaping in the day etc... what I cannot handle (and why I've left) is bogus reasons for and delays on a poorly performing network when I'm paying for it. I'd have almost put up my own sign if I was one of those poor bastards with a 10+ business uncapped line that's getting less than 1Mb for the last few weeks....those guys are showing hardcore patience...

EDIT: Also, none of those is cheaper than 4Mb uncapped @ R597 (and cheaper elsewhere, Afrihost not been dropping prices as nice as others)
Click to expand...

That's cause I quoted unshaped...

Uncapped shaped 4Mb is also R597 and that's gonna be a whole different ball game cause now you've gotta look at each ISP having their own FUP and when those kick in etc etc.

And as for the why - I'm not saying there's no point to the uncapped packages. My argument is that there are cases where a high cap is better than "uncapped". My case for instance, having it as capped is giving me a lot more value than the equivalent uncapped unshaped package. In your case your compromise is not being unshaped all the time for a cheaper price which you say works for you so nothing wrong there either.
 
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