Is Plusnet worth the extra cost?

Stingy_3000

It is on their website but i am not allowed to post links :mad:

You have the choice between Technicolor 582n (4-port wireless router) and SpeedTouch ST-516 (1-port wired router).

I've had the SpeedTouch ST-516 for 2 years and i've had no problems.

In 2 years with Plusnet, i have experienced only one downtime, late one evening and it was resolved in the morning. I have never had to contact their customer support.

I do make use of the large usage allowance (60GB daytime, unlimited at night), so i am happy to fork out the extra money...

dezza

Oh yes I didn't even think about the unlimited downloads at night, might need to use that sometime. Definitely couldn't manage on the 10gb package but 60 should be fine.

One thing I saw on their support pages is about traffic management, and in particular streaming... on one page it says on the Extra package that streaming was 'slowed down', and on another page it mentioned that it was maintained at 'gold standard', which I assume from what I read means that it is of a higher priority. Which one of these is true? I use iPlayer and Youtube sometimes so this would be nice to know.

Stingy_3000

Once, i was approaching the 60GB limit and they sent me an email to let me know. If you go over your limit, you are charged, so i appreciated the head-up .

ISP have several ways of managing traffic:
- limits per traffic type: at peak traffic times, they can prioritize services that are sensitive to jitter eg VoIP while they can slow down the speed of downloads which are not sensitive to jitter for example
- limits per customer: to guarantee fair usage policy, they can charge customers more once they hit their limit, or slow down their throughput, possibly in several steps over several days. Plusnet gives you some freedom here and might limit your througput to 256kpbs once you hit your own spending limit.

The ISP will modify those parameters over the years depending what level of each type of traffic it experiences, what type of customers it wants to priviledge, the bottlenecks of the network etc... It would not influence my choice of ISP as it is bound to evolve and is not always very transparent...

dezza

I saw it was £5 for exceeding the limit so that's something I'm hoping to avoid at all costs!

Thanks for the explanation by the way, at least the limits are clear on their packages.
Of course I understand that things like VoIP and gaming are time-critical so they would be prioritised - but does that make streaming unusable at those times? I can understand if the network is very busy but ideally wouldn't like it to be completely crippled every night.

Didn't think you could set a spending limit, which would be useful - is it possible to set this at just the fixed monthly cost only, or does this have to be higher?

Stingy_3000

I think it is £5 for up to 5Gb if you are over your allowance.

I watch Iplayer a lot and streaming has always been usable in my part of the country.

Yes you can set a spending limit to just the fixed monthly cost BUT they are not cutting you off at that time, they are slowing your connection down to 250kbps, which is unusable for streaming or large downloads but still let you send emails or go to the plusnet website . I would assume that they would then charge you £5 anyway as you would be over your allowance but i could be wrong.

dezza

Thanks for the info

Don't think I fancy risking either the £5 extra charge and/or the 250kbps speed - don't know which one of those is worse! I shouldn't go over 60gb I hope though - don't download films or use P2P so it should be suitable

Tightgit83

PLUSNET is a decent service. I have been a customer for over 2 years now. I've never had any problems with it and the only down time I have had is when schedule maintenance is due.

The price is a bit steep if you are outside of Optic Fibre or Cable Broadband area. However there is a new deal on at the moment which is decent.

PLUSNET may have usage limits during peak time but from 12 to 7 you can download as much as you want.
So what I tend to do is do all my big downloads after 12 and then during the day just use web-browsing or low-bandwidth games like World of Warcraft.

oldagetraveller

Be aware that there a a few complaints about the wireless efficiency of their supplied 582n router. Some, on their forum, including myself find it's signal to be very weak. My router is in the hall, connected to the master socket and the p.c. is in a room 4 metres away through open doors and almost line of sight. The indicator shows 2 "bars" of 5 on a good day with a following wind! The aerial is built in, not external.
Tried different wireless channels to no avail.
Other than that no problems.

dezza

Well I signed up today on their website and everything seemed to go through - although for the some reason the price per month on the confirmation email is higher than the one I had signed up for - not too sure why but I've emailed them to check.

Bit concerned about the wireless router now though - having put up with a ridiculously poor wireless signal for the past 12 months I don't really want to do it again! I suppose it's always possible to buy my own but I've already paid for P+P for the Plusnet one.

I've just realised, I think it's the same one BE Broadband supply and from what I've heard from a friend it's pretty poor... suppose it's probably too late to cancel the order for the router now?

notbritishgas

Set up an ID on their forum (you may need it later)
http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/board,3.0.html

They could well help with cancelling your router order.