Official internet discussion thread

[Miz3r]

I keep getting dropped ingame and disconected,

Never had the problem before Afrihost moved over to MTN, Grr hope they fix they stuff, hate winning in Battlefield3 and then all of a sudden

BAM

DC

[KalMaverick]

Tried to download a file on Axxess uncapped, the speed was 10 KB/s, I had to use a capped account to get it above 400 KB/s, so something is seriously up with them.

[Wesley]

Axxess.

Edit: It's happening really often now. It disconnects for about 10 seconds (thus kicking me out of games), or it stalls for about 10 seconds.

It's pretty annoying.

Could possibly be the move to the MTN infrastructure or whatnot that Afirhost/Axxess did.

Our Axxess uncapped line has been seriously pathetic lately.

I keep getting dropped ingame and disconected,

Never had the problem before Afrihost moved over to MTN, Grr hope they fix they stuff, hate winning in Battlefield3 and then all of a sudden

BAM

DC

Tried to download a file on Axxess uncapped, the speed was 10 KB/s, I had to use a capped account to get it above 400 KB/s, so something is seriously up with them.

All of you have the poor misfortune of being affected by the move. Afrihost has said they're working on it (and I'm sure Afriman himself will pop on here eventually) but for now if its gaming that's a priority, look out for a capped option at another ISP. There are also other ISPs, like Openweb, who are offering subscribers free internet for a month if you cancel with your current ISP - which so happens to target both Afrihost/Axxess and Telkom subscribers.

Also, consider that the MTN network is also shared by over ten million subscribers using their cellphones or 3G modems. I knew there would be teething issues in the beginning, but this is getting really out of hand now.

[KimmyKae]

Took me about 30 seconds to download a 46kb file today.

[Cranky]

I can add that my 60GB capped Afrihost is also affected hey.

My altency jumps between 50 - 300 while my mate plays on it.

On my telkom Cap he is 20 Solid .

[brazed]

D-F-Q!!!!!!?????...No other comment.

It's mostly consistent though, and I only have it until the end of Jan...

[Metal_Mulisha]

Argh. Ah! Graarngh! Need job. Need lady. Need nets.

Has job. Has lady. Still needs net.....

[Wesley]

Green with envy doesn't even describe me now. How is your experience with 1080p videos on Youtube?

[Wesley]

Internet Explorer 10 arrives for Windows 7

So yes, its a new version of Internet Explorer. I'm sure you're all jumping for joy and foaming at the mouth to get a taste of it. IE 9 was the first major departure from the old, antiquated browser everyone was used to and it continues to get better and better. IE 10 is now available for those of you not married to Chrome or Firefox in a Release Preview version from Microsoft's website. Those of you who do check it out may appreciate the improved page load stability, reworked spell checker and the privacy-worried geeks will notice that Do Not Track is enabled by default. Go on, give it a try and report back on it! There's still those rotten toolbars available though. Some things just never change...

Source: Tom's Hardware

[FreakKing]

Telkom SAIX has limited international connectivity

Basic issue: Software - Telkom wishes to inform the public of planned maintenance on its SAIX Network Caching systems on 11 November 2012. During this time Internet users may experience degraded international connectivity affecting response and slow page download times. Local connectivity will not be affected. Telkom has taken all precautions to minimise the impact of this necessary exercise on services and wishes to thank its customers in advance for their patience during this time

At first I thought this was the cause of my pain but I'm thinking it's not related anymore.

I'm having horribly high and inconsistent pings recently on local servers. My ping used to be 15-20 or so, but has jumped to 150-350. Meaning I have a bad 300 ping on TF2 (also on speedtest.net). :(
I have a 4MB line (20GB cap) from Telkom. I live in the Cape Town northern suburbs area.

Does anyone have any idea where I should start looking for the problem?

EDIT: My download speed doesn't seem to be affected though. Guild Wars 2 and TF2 update at a normal 300-400 kb/s.

[Wesley]

You may be a part of the very small group of users still experiencing issues in Cape Town. Give the Call Center a ring and tell them your line is underperforming after the nationwide maintenance and you need a port reset. If the port reset doesn't accomplish anything, try get the account details of a friend and test to see if its Telkom giving you grief. Don't try Afrihost because they're also in a tight spot right now. Telkom may even be allowing Afrihost to route data along their network to ease congestion since Afrihost's migration to the MTN, so that could be the issue.

You can also troubleshoot the problem yourself to see where exactly your latency jumps up. Start the command prompt and do the following:

1) type "tracert www.nag.co.za" and hit Enter. Let the trace complete itself.
2) Write down the IP address numbers for hops 3 and 4. These are your Telkom DNS servers that are automatically assigned to you.
3) Take note of how long it takes for your request to reach hop 2. Hop 2 is the address of your local exchange which should be anywhere within 2km of your location. Telkom has DNS servers in Cape Town as well (my line routes to Durban first) so the time taken to reach hop 2 compared to hop 3 shouldn't be much different.
4) Take note of the latency to get to hop 4 compared to hop 5. Hop 5 is where Telkom's DNS servers hand you over to the network responsible for hosting the website you're looking for, which in this case is MWEB. If this is very high compared to the others, then its likely a peering issue with other networks and they may be in the process of fixing it already.

Armed with this information, you can check if its Telkom that's giving you the issues or some other external factor. You can also try changing your DNS servers to the free Google ones (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) and see if that affects your results and ping times to game servers.

You can also keep an eye out in this thread on MyBroadband to see if Telkom's doing any maintenance in your area. Since the server restart and the addition of the WACS cable into their network this year, they have been very busy with keeping everything running smoothly and more problems are cropping up every day. I see a couple of other users on the forums are also complaining about their Telkom lines, so you may not be alone.

Edit: And I have to add, I use the Google servers for my DNS requests because routing all my information to Durban makes things terribly slow.

[brazed]

Green with envy doesn't even describe me now. How is your experience with 1080p videos on Youtube?

Smooth and without buffering delays. It's been great.

[FreakKing]

You may be a part of the very small group of users still experiencing issues in Cape Town. Give the Call Center a ring and tell them your line is underperforming after the nationwide maintenance and you need a port reset.

Thanks! Apparently it's been fixed! :D

Got this in the email from Telkom:

Kindly note that we have recreated the service on the line[...]

Finally, after 2 months, I'm able to play TF2 and other steam games with minimal lag! :D

[Zoop]

And for those of you wondering, here is the exact reason why you shouldn't even be considering Afrihost Uncapped. This pic is taken from a discussion on the sad state of Afrihost Uncapped.



I feel really bad for the Afrihost clients.

[GeometriX]

I dunno, I'm on Afrihost uncapped and everything is fine for me. Has been fine for a couple of weeks. Had some hiccups during the move but it's all settled down now.

So the question is: Am I one of the lucky few, or is the MyBB forums just filled with people who enjoy a good whinge?

[Zoop]

I'm not so sure. The MyBB guys are known for being exaggerating at times, but AH's Facebook page is also teeming with the same type of complaints.

Have you noticed any change today? Apparently Afrihost implemented new QoS settings last night which is causing a lot of users grief all over again. Also, how much downloading do you generally do?

I'll say one thing though, when Afrihost moved their clients off the IS backbone the quality of service on my IS account from Openweb increased noticeably. I haven't had any complaints about my account since AH and Axxess moved away.

[GeometriX]

I'd say my line has been absolutely fine for the last two weeks at least. Definitely took a dive during the move but it wasn't nearly as bad as the issues affecting other people. At worst my line dropped to around 1-2Mbps speeds when it was synching at about 3Mbps (I have a 4Mbps bundled line). I did have an issue with my physical line though, which Telkom took care of after I dealt with AH support and they passed it along.

I usually do about 60-70GB a month. I'm definitely nowhere near the "soft cap".

[FatalGlory]

Is there any point in me moving from a 1Mbps uncapped unshaped line to a higher speed shaped line? I download a fair amount of torrents, but my connection really isn't the greatest for streaming video - something that would really come in handy at times, specifically for internet-pay-per-view. I obviously game online, but as far as I understand it Mweb gives online gaming priority anyway. I could pretty much get a 10Mbps line for what I am paying now. Has anyone made the move?

[Toxxyc]

And MWeb launched their 1Mbps lines. Switching over today if possible! :D

[Wesley]

Is there any point in me moving from a 1Mbps uncapped unshaped line to a higher speed shaped line? I download a fair amount of torrents, but my connection really isn't the greatest for streaming video - something that would really come in handy at times, specifically for internet-pay-per-view. I obviously game online, but as far as I understand it Mweb gives online gaming priority anyway. I could pretty much get a 10Mbps line for what I am paying now. Has anyone made the move?

Its certainly worth it if you're not really maxing out your line as it is. I've been on a 10Mb/s uncapped connection and it was spectacular, using an IS backbone. If you can afford it, go for it because I don't think an unshaped account is really worth it these days - just move your torrent download schedules to between 1AM and 7AM.