Plusnet is excellent isp

Since my ADSL (up to 8Mbps) and then ADSL2+ (up to 16Mbps) and now with my FTTC (80/20) I am very happy overall with their service with excellent over the last 4 years with them. I cannot fault Plusnet. Superb customer support on the forum with quick reply. Thanks Plusnet for best broadband internet service provider. I am glad I ain't migration away since 4 years ago.

By the way I had done ISPA Awards 2014 Broadband Speed Test http://postimg.org/image/fw6z18ilf/

Edited by adslmax (Wed 26-Feb-14 22:44:59)

Good to hear. I used to be with Plusnet but it was a long time ago when they were going through some troubles. Relatives were with them until fairly recently when they moved to get BT Sport (before Plusnet started offering it themselves).

I generally found Plusnet to be good and they have some great features and may well move back to them again one day.

Just a shame they don't give you the option of a pure, unthrottled, unadulterated connection ala TalkTalk, Sky, Zen etc and let the customer decide for themselves if they want to prioritise certain types of traffic or not...many decent routers let you do this. Plusnet? No thanks

TalkTalk. No way. No thanks. Worst customer service ever!

Better to have an unthrottled connection rather than a heavily managed one irrespective of customer service

I have been with plusnet for about 5 years now as a business customer.

We have moved premises twice and each move went quite well.

At the moment I am on ADSL2+ with an 8 IP block and Annex M and the service is solid. I can now get fibre in the area I am in but I'm debating on moving to it just because everything is fine as it is.

They have been very helpful over the years.

Our Unlimited product has no rate limits in place so it's certainly not throttled or heavily managed.

There is traffic management in place to prioritise non-time sensitive traffic below real time applications, but this will only slow them down if you're saturating your line with a high priority traffic.

Edited by chrisparr (Thu 27-Feb-14 11:54:42)

An unthrottled connection that has highly contended backhaul is much worse than a connection that has time critical data prioritised over non-time critical.

For some people like myself it's black and white, the connection is either traffic managed or it isn't. Plusnet, unlike the "big three" is traffic managed and no amount of reading "It's Unlimited! Why is it still traffic managed?" will convince me to favour traffic management over no traffic management. I don't want each type of my internet traffic named after metals and I suspect I'm not alone.

This isn't an invitation for discussion by the way, since we all know it's been discussed to death and everyone has made up their own minds on the isssue.

In reply to a post by chrisparr:

There is traffic management in place to prioritise non-time sensitive traffic below real time applications, but this will only slow them down if you're saturating your line with a high priority traffic.

But what about giving your customers a choice on whether they want this throttling/traffic management/whatever-you-want-to-call-it enabled on their line or not? Surely its wrong to have a 'one size fits all' approach? What if one of your customers wants P2P downloads given a higher priority over Netflix streaming?

In reply to a post by baby_frogmella:

But what about giving your customers a choice on whether they want this throttling/traffic management/whatever-you-want-to-call-it enabled on their line or not?

The thing is is it by line or overall? I've seen reps claim it's by line in one breath and then go on to talk about the overall network. As it happens I'm not overly concerned as I don't use the protocols ISPs frown on (torrents and nntp). I suspect that those complaining do rely on those protocols heavily. I do know that with the ISP I was with before I suffered from congestion and with Plusnet I don't - should I choose I can get downloads to run at close to maximum line speed at any time.

In reply to a post by kwikbreaks:

I suspect that those complaining do rely on those protocols heavily.

Some do, some don't. Personally I use a range of protocols and I don't believe in "protocol discrimination" on any level.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality

Also, like any network hardware, traffic management systems can and do go wrong, and there are instances where this has happened on Plusnet (and possibly many ongoing unreported incidences).

I don't want or need it, so Plusnet isn't for me.

They can add Pro and have all traffic in the top 2 queues. We have seen customers who have Pro with more problems using streaming etc due to the other types of traffic using all available bandwidth.

On the old products where there were overall rate limits the Pro add on had cost implications for Plusnet in that they had to factor in more bandwidth.

On Unlimited there is no cost implication as they have to factor in the bandwidth for people maxing the line anyway.

Should the Pro add-on be zero cost on Unlimited?

this I already suggested.

However my guess is plusnet dont want to make it free in the fear too many will tick it and if another ios5 day happens then there will be less bronze traffic to shove aside?

There is a Plan B. I doubt if Pro applies at that stage.

Good point. Perhaps then they could make it .50p a month which would discourage people selecting it for no reason other than someone who doesn't understand the traffic management posting on here that users should turn it on. It would also would encourage those that try it and find it makes no difference to turn it off again.

In reply to a post by baby_frogmella:

... Surely its wrong to have a 'one size fits all' approach? What if one of your customers wants P2P downloads given a higher priority over Netflix streaming?

What an excellent idea - why didn't I think of it? Ideal for the few people who like to watch jerky movies caused by constant buffering.

In reply to a post by Rastus:

In reply to a post by baby_frogmella:

... Surely its wrong to have a 'one size fits all' approach? What if one of your customers wants P2P downloads given a higher priority over Netflix streaming?

What an excellent idea - why didn't I think of it? Ideal for the few people who like to watch jerky movies caused by constant buffering.

Then why aren't people shifting in masses from BT, TalkTalk, Sky et al to PlusNet if their 'throttling' is the bestest thing ever? Traffic priority should be left up to the customer, not spoon fed by their isp.

I think that must people that use plusnet either don't see any noticeable problem with the traffic prioritisation (probably don't know it is there) or do know about it and either feel it is a benefit to their time sensitive traffic or do not see it as a problem.

People like yourself who do feel it is a problem are not with plusnet. The advantage of a market with lots of suppliers is that the suppliers can do different things and the customers can decide which ones suit them.

What I don't get is why you have such a big problem with them as I assume you aren't with plusnet so it doesn't affect you. If it was such a big issue to people then plusnet would be losing customers - I don't believe that is the case.

In reply to a post by baby_frogmella:

In reply to a post by Rastus:

In reply to a post by baby_frogmella:

... Surely its wrong to have a 'one size fits all' approach? What if one of your customers wants P2P downloads given a higher priority over Netflix streaming?

What an excellent idea - why didn't I think of it? Ideal for the few people who like to watch jerky movies caused by constant buffering.

Then why aren't people shifting in masses from BT, TalkTalk, Sky et al to PlusNet if their 'throttling' is the bestest thing ever? Traffic priority should be left up to the customer, not spoon fed by their isp.

Personally I prefer PlusNets logic on traffic prioritisation to yours (on a subject which I doubt you fully comprehend).

Although there are probably many PN customers who are unaware of the PN traffic prioritisation system, I'd say that the vast majority of those who are aware and understand the logic of it, are appreciative of it.

e.g. I use VoIP (an extremely time-critical traffic type) quite a lot and know for a fact how the quality of calls is improved by prioritising that type of traffic, which I have noticed ever since PN started doing it several years ago. Put it the other way, before traffic management was introduced, VoIP calls could often be 'choppy' or even drop due to other traffic hogging bandwidth - choppy calls being something we sometimes get when making SIP (VoIP to VoIP if you like) calls to a particular person whose ISP obviously does not prioritise time sensitive traffic.

Due to the logical order in which different types of traffic are prioritised I generally don't get any noticeable slow-downs with other traffic when using things such as VoIP, so as you must've guessed, PNs traffic prioritisation gets a thumbs-up from me.

Edit - typos

Edited by Rastus (Fri 28-Feb-14 09:57:25)

In reply to a post by baby_frogmella:

Then why aren't people shifting in masses from BT, TalkTalk, Sky et al to PlusNet if their 'throttling' is the bestest thing ever? Traffic priority should be left up to the customer, not spoon fed by their isp.

Actually the Plusnet customer base is rapidly increasing. It won't be anything to do with shaping being seen as a plus though as the majority will have no clue about it. What it will be is the bargain basement pricing from a major ISP. Why can they offer that? Because those that fear shaping will prevent them running torrents flat out 24x7 and in consequence use excessive bandwidth will go elsewhere.

It certainly isn't the case.

http://www.plus.net/support/displayImage.php?strImag... shows the number of customers connected over the past year (there's some obvious glitches where data has been lost but the trend is clear).

In reply to a post by ian72:

What I don't get is why you have such a big problem with them as I assume you aren't with plusnet so it doesn't affect you.

ISPs often like to hear from potential customers what they want in an ISP, it helps them form products which customers want which is good for everyone. Since Plusnet is small relative to the likes of Talktalk and Sky we have Plusnet staff in these forums who might have some influence on product design.

If Plusnet as a whole thinks people not in favour of protocol discrimination are misinformed and need to be educated I feel it's only right I should state my opinion to them and I don't see a problem with that.

Thanks, I needed a laugh this morning. Glad you are happy with your service from Plusnet. I find that their customer support is pretty poor and the service they provide average at best.

Not much different to Tiscali who I was with before.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

I feel it's only right I should state my opinion to them and I don't see a problem with that.

Understand your view, but it's a little odd (discussing it) when you indicated you didn't want to open up a repeat discussion on the matter. I know you suspect there are others similarly interested in a "no management" option, but the question is, would PN be happy with it.

Obvious answer is "no" else they would have that now - I don't know what proportion of users will have switched to one of the Unlimited accounts since they came in during December 2012, but if 90% are happy/uncaring, and the other 10% either want it (and may decide to switch ISP) or have it (by opting in to Pro) then PN has absolutely no reason to change.

I'm guessing you'd want no traffic management kit in your path, so would it be worth a few quid a month to you for it, or not? Seems an obvious "no" but if cost isn't the attraction for possibly using PN, what is?

In reply to a post by ultra:

Understand your view, but it's a little odd (discussing it) when you indicated you didn't want to open up a repeat discussion on the matter.

It was only meant to be a little bit of feedback for Chris but I guess this topic always ends in debate so I should have known better.

In reply to a post by ultra:

I'm guessing you'd want no traffic management kit in your path, so would it be worth a few quid a month to you for it, or not? Seems an obvious "no" but if cost isn't the attraction for possibly using PN, what is?

From a purely selfish point of view, when choosing a new ISP I want as much choice as possible. ISPs with traffic management obviously limit my potential choices due to my stance on net neutrality and protocol discrimination. Possibly my words and other peoples' words will have no effect on Plusnet, but who would have though a £2.50 ISP like Talktalk would drop their traffic management?

Feedback is good, no problem with that. But, I feel you think you are representative of the majority whereas most users I know (those that don't use this site) have either no interest or no issue with Plusnet's current policy.

This thread in itself has to make you think you are in the minority even on this site? It doesn't change your opinion and it doesn't make your opinion wrong for you but it does suggest that Plusnet aren't doing anything particularly wrong for most of their user base (at least as far as this is concerned).

Personally, I think most people would have no clue about setting QoS on their routers/systems and so an ISP that does that for them to ensure critical traffic has priority is going to be a hidden benefit for them.

In reply to a post by ian72:

Personally, I think most people would have no clue about setting QoS on their routers/systems and so an ISP that does that for them to ensure critical traffic has priority is going to be a hidden benefit for them.

Open to argument, but surely setting QoS in your router can only affect outgoing traffic?

In reply to a post by ian72:

Feedback is good, no problem with that. But, I feel you think you are representative of the majority whereas most users I know (those that don't use this site) have either no interest or no issue with Plusnet's current policy.

I don't assume I'm in a majority and I'm not really bothered either way since I'd still have the same opinion. But I would say that the vast majority of UK DSL connections are not traffic managed; whether that means most people prefer not to have traffic management is open to interpretation. Also up for debate is whether Plusnet would have 1.5 million customers instead of 800,000 if they dropped their traffic management, we have no way of knowing.

I'm sure that if we ever had any evidence of our Traffic Management putting off a significant number of people from signing up, our Sales and Marketing team would be queuing up at my desk to tell me to turn it off

There is nothing wrong with traffic management on my fibre. I can download and watching streaming. No problem with it.

In reply to a post by KellyD:

I'm sure that if we ever had any evidence of our Traffic Management putting off a significant number of people from signing up, our Sales and Marketing team would be queuing up at my desk to tell me to turn it off

It depends how much market research they have done, I suppose. They never asked me.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

I would say that the vast majority of UK DSL connections are not traffic managed

That is the nub of the argument. The Plusnet claim is that their prioritisation system for time-critical traffic is a beneficial USP.

whether that means most people prefer not to have traffic management is open to interpretation.

I would warrant that the over-whelming majority of your "vast majority" would have to google "traffic management" if the words were put in front of them. Unless they simply thought it was some new vehicle control scheme.

The main factors these days in the choice of mainstream ISP are price; word-of-mouth for and against; whether the monthly allowance on the cheapest from each is sufficient, or whether they would be better on unlimited; sport and TV on-demand plus catchup.

given the state of my performance tonight and my tbb graph's I dont think plusnet will be making pro easier to turn on any time soon