May change provider

As hard as it is to say this, i may have to change my ISP as they do not seem to be offering the service I require any more, not because i want more, but because their network just can not seem to cope any more.

I have looked at a few providers, Sky, plusnet and a couple of smaller ones, I even priced up TalkTalk, but I do not fancy Talk Talk to be honest even if it does work out cheaper than plusnet over 18 months.


so to Plusnet, i know a few people on Plusnet Fibre and while most of them seems to be ok with it, the service is not outstanding, which from where some of them are in relation to the cabinet it should be.

I know Plusnet use traffic management, which to be honest I am not fond of, but then again maybe if the network I am on used it then things would be better.

My main problem is filters, BT, sky, Talk Talk they all use these filters because our nanny state say they have to, I do not see them mentioned on plusnet site, so have Plusnet got away with not using them? I know they are not a large provider, but they are still owned by BT.


Second thing is, if I go through the ordering process, which I did to see what the prices was and what I got,, i am told i must pay p and p for a router i do not want,, I know it is only a few quid, but anyway to get away from having their awful router? I have my own which is far better than what they supply,.

My problem is that they want to charge £50 for a install as I do not have a phone line, most other providers wave that, certainly since i would be trapped in a 18 month contract anyway.

I am going to give my provider until the end of the weekend to sort things out, if they can't then i will have a look at my options.

At the moment money is a hit tight as i am on the sick for a few months, so chaging networks at this time is not ideal, but I need a constant speed, not super high speed, but at least around 10Mb/s

last of all, what are other peoples opinion of Plusnet? I scurried away from them pretty quick when they took over Metronet, I wanted nothing to do with them, but as i said I do know some peopel with them and they seem happy, apart from one.

My main problem is filters, BT, sky, Talk Talk they all use these filters because our nanny state say they have to,

They all have filters, but you can opt out. There have been various changes as to whether new customers or old customers are opted in or out by default, but I am not aware of any situation where you can't opt out.

I'm very happy with my PlusNet so far.

Are you moving house that you already have a provider but don't have a phone line?

Changing provider is often the cheapest option because of the absurd first time discounts and cashbacks available. When I moved from Infinity to PlusNet BT did offer retention deals, but couldn't get close to matching PlusNet over 18 months. Partly helped by PlusNet offering 40/20 which fits my needs quite well.

Edited by StephenTodd (Fri 23-Jan-15 11:11:17)

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

so to Plusnet, i know a few people on Plusnet Fibre and while most of them seems to be ok with it, the service is not outstanding, which from where some of them are in relation to the cabinet it should be.

I know Plusnet use traffic management, which to be honest I am not fond of, but then again maybe if the network I am on used it then things would be better.

I've been with Plusnet nearly a year now. The 'traffic management' is more like QoS - doesn't indiscriminately throttle all traffic, it prioritises certain time critical applications. It also only kicks in if/when there is network congestion. I never noticed it for the first 8 months but since January some of us have been experiencing a degraded service.

I've gone from this every evening when I run a test (two or three times a week as the mood takes me):

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/14171...

To this most of the time I'm at home:

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/14213...

Aside from obviously off-peak times I'm now often finding that my single threaded throughput is variable and averaging out at less than half of my connection speed. Multi-threaded throughput is always flat lined at the maximum. Several other PN users are experiencing this but so far PN haven't really had much to say on the subject. To be fair it's unknown as yet where the congestion is occurring and/or whether PN can even be held responsible. It's also unknown how many people are affected but it seems likely to be a relatively small number.

I'm waiting until after this weekend now because there is BT maintenance work over the weekend and that might address the issue. That's my hope/assumption not PN's. Although PN have responded to the issue it's been along the lines of "that's odd, we'll get the network bods to look into it" which does come across as a little lackadaisical.

Edited by Andrue (Fri 23-Jan-15 11:27:50)

You can only opt out of cameron's porn filter (parental controls ie sky sheild),all the mass market isp's subscribe to the IWF and also filter/block web sites in accordance with relivent court orders (file sharing site ect) as well this filtering cannot be opted out of,

Edited by tommy45 (Fri 23-Jan-15 11:35:17)

He has a true local wireless connection.

Plusnet does not actively filter. There are no court orders against it so far as I know. I don't think they take any notice of the IWF either, unless BT Wholesale take care of that.

In reply to a post by StephenTodd:

They all have filters, but you can opt out. There have been various changes as to whether new customers or old customers are opted in or out by default, but I am not aware of any situation where you can't opt out.

I know that the larger providers have filters you can opt out and i know that they are also told to block certain sites, but that is easy to get around anyway.
My provider have no filters what so ever, because they are only a small provider and do not have to use them.

I'm very happy with my PlusNet so far.

Ok, so do you get the speed you are meant to get?

Are you moving house that you already have a provider but don't have a phone line?


Changing provider is often the cheapest option because of the absurd first time discounts and cashbacks available. When I moved from Infinity to PlusNet BT did offer retention deals, but couldn't get close to matching PlusNet over 18 months. Partly helped by PlusNet offering 40/20 which fits my needs quite well.

My provider is wireless, so i got rid of the phoneline when I changed from ADSL. I can not see my provider giving me any retention deals and i do not expect it.
I said I would never go back with BT, it is a shame that Plusnet is part of BT, even if it is ran as a separate company

It is the 40/20 I am looking at as it is not worth going higher as i would not get it. I did look at Talk Talk, which works out cheaper than Plusnet, but it is TALK TALK and the thought of signing my life away with them makes me shiver.

i do not really want to leave my provider, it is a small local company, ok not so small these days, but still small compared to others. they supply a broadband service for people who can not normally get any decent broadband speed, the people who live out in the sticks and for that I praise them.

But over the last few months the quality of service to me have been erratic, i am suppose to get around 10Mb/s, which is ample for me, but I been getting between 1 to 5 most of the time, bursting to ten when it feels like it.
Like now, I am downloading a ISO, it started off at 1.1MB/s, now it is down to 500Mb/s, which is still good compared to the speeds I have been having.

It will leave me with a heavy heart if I do change, .

As has been said, the Plusnet traffic management is QoS these days on current products.

See my reply to Stephen re filters. However, the word "actively" is in there because people occasionally get caught by at least one backhaul route through BT that Plusnet sometimes use. Most other users at the same time have no problem accessing sites that are blocked to the complainer, but some experience the same problem.

I don't see any way out of the line installation charge, but of course there is always a cash back deal of some sort or other. The Plusnet router is optional. If you don't take it you don't pay the P & P.

i am told i must pay p and p for a router i do not want

Where does it say this? The router is optional but IF you select the router when ordering, Plusnet do ask you to pay p & p.

In reply to a post by Andrue:

I've been with Plusnet nearly a year now. The 'traffic management' is more like QoS - doesn't indiscriminately throttle all traffic, it prioritises certain time critical applications. It also only kicks in if/when there is network congestion. I never noticed it for the first 8 months but since January some of us have been experiencing a degraded service.

I've gone from this every evening when I run a test (two or three times a week as the mood takes me):

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/14171...

To this most of the time I'm at home:

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/14213...

Aside from obviously off-peak times I'm now often finding that my single threaded throughput is variable and averaging out at less than half of my connection speed. Multi-threaded throughput is always flat lined at the maximum. Several other PN users are experiencing this but so far PN haven't really had much to say on the subject. To be fair it's unknown as yet where the congestion is occurring and/or whether PN can even be held responsible. It's also unknown how many people are affected but it seems likely to be a relatively small number.

I'm waiting until after this weekend now because there is BT maintenance work over the weekend and that might address the issue. That's my hope/assumption not PN's. Although PN have responded to the issue it's been along the lines of "that's odd, we'll get the network bods to look into it" which does come across as a little lackadaisical.

This is what I have notice at my mates place, he lives almost next door to the cabinet and his speed can go from around 70 odd down to 40 ish in a jiffy. i know that speed is never constant, but that is one hell of a drop.

Saying that 40 would be fine for me, not that I would ever get it here, I expect the max here would be about 30 ish, which is ample for me, more than ample.

He have had some problems in the past with his phone lines, I still don't think they are 100%, but I do not think they are what knocks his speed down.

Plusnet router is awful, so maybe that do not help,

got some thinking to do over the weekend

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

Plusnet router is awful, so maybe that do not help,

I'm using a Billion 6300 or somesuch FWIW. Actually a bit of a pain because I can't find a 'disconnect' button so if I want to change gateway I have to reboot the router (or go upstairs and pull the cable manually). That's why I haven't bothered. It sometimes comes good of its own accord anyway.

In reply to a post by MCM:

i am told i must pay p and p for a router i do not want

Where does it say this? The router is optional but IF you select the router when ordering, Plusnet do ask you to pay p & p.

when i ordered there was no opt out option for the router, I had to get this organised manually and as i wanted a static IP there was no need for a refund

IWF it would appear that plusnet do use the iwf lists

Edited by tommy45 (Fri 23-Jan-15 18:56:31)

Plusnet have used IWF for a considerable time!

Andrue, if your Billion's interface is anything like mine there's a disconnect button under status -> WAN.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

so to Plusnet, i know a few people on Plusnet Fibre and while most of them seems to be ok with it, the service is not outstanding, which from where some of them are in relation to the cabinet it should be.

I spent 18 months on BT Infinity with a solid connection, and have now been on Plusnet Fibre for 7 months, and it has been no hassle. I moved my phone line to Plusnet as well (its only there because of broadband, I make or receive no calls) and no problems.

I've not seen any mention of filters. I also refused the router on sign up as I use my ASUS RT-AC68U which is vastly superior, and I already had the BT VDSL modem as I was migrating. Plusnet should organise you to get a VDSL modem which then gives you an ethernet socket you can use with any router that supports PPPoE. You can even use your PC directly plugged in - but that's not advised for security reasons.

My problem is that they want to charge £50 for a install as I do not have a phone line, most other providers wave that, certainly since i would be trapped in a 18 month contract anyway.

Could be worth calling up and discussing but I would guess they can't wave the phone line as you don't have one - unless they can reactivate BT wires for free, they may be passing through an openreach charge.

At the moment money is a hit tight as i am on the sick for a few months, so chaging networks at this time is not ideal, but I need a constant speed, not super high speed, but at least around 10Mb/s

last of all, what are other peoples opinion of Plusnet? I scurried away from them pretty quick when they took over Metronet, I wanted nothing to do with them, but as i said I do know some peopel with them and they seem happy, apart from one.

I was also a metronet customer, and also ran away, but I've been happy with plusnet, but have had no reason to contact support since I started.

In reply to a post by jhew:

Andrue, if your Billion's interface is anything like mine there's a disconnect button under status -> WAN.

I don't have WAN under status. Only DeviceInfo, System log, Statistics, DHCP table, ARP table, Disk Status.

I get the impression it's not a very popular router although it's been good to me FWIW it's actually a BiPAC 6300NXL.

>>Plusnet router is awful

Think they got a new one out.

In reply to a post by partial:

Think they got a new one out.

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/plusnet/f/4384462-i...

OK .

OK

In reply to a post by Andrue:

I don't have WAN under status. Only DeviceInfo, System log, Statistics, DHCP table, ARP table, Disk Status.

I get the impression it's not a very popular router although it's been good to me FWIW it's actually a BiPAC 6300NXL.

that's a pity. After a quick flick through the manual it looks like there might be a disconnect option available on the NX, under ipsec, which isn't available on the NXL.

I'm using the 7800DXL, which I assumed would be fairly similar, but apparently not.

In reply to a post by tommy45:

In reply to a post by MCM:

i am told i must pay p and p for a router i do not want

Where does it say this? The router is optional but IF you select the router when ordering, Plusnet do ask you to pay p & p.

when i ordered there was no opt out option for the router, I had to get this organised manually and as i wanted a static IP there was no need for a refund

correct, because i went through the ordering process and like Talk Talk the router is added. I suppose having a spare router is useful, if mine went belly up.


anyway, my provider have got back to me and offered the 10 Mb/s for the same price of 5 until they sort out the network.

but if the network becomes unusable, like even ten pound a month cheaper, I still want to be able to watch netflix, then I will look at other options again including Plusnet

but a tenner off at the moment is useful.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

I spent 18 months on BT Infinity with a solid connection, and have now been on Plusnet Fibre for 7 months, and it has been no hassle. I moved my phone line to Plusnet as well (its only there because of broadband, I make or receive no calls) and no problems.

i spent 18 months with BT, not infinity, the worse 18 months i had with any provider, ok it was just the last 6 months of the contract that was the sworse, never again.

I've not seen any mention of filters. I also refused the router on sign up as I use my ASUS RT-AC68U which is vastly superior, and I already had the BT VDSL modem as I was migrating. Plusnet should organise you to get a VDSL modem which then gives you an ethernet socket you can use with any router that supports PPPoE. You can even use your PC directly plugged in - but that's not advised for security reasons.

they do not say anything about filters on their webapage, like Sky boast about their shield, Talk Talk about their home safe, Bt about their net protect plus, but Plusnet do not mention anything apart from some plusnet protect by McAfee, but i take that is software based.

i have a TPlink cable router which I use for the network I am on, it does what I want and it is set up to how I like it and the Plunest router do not offer me all the options I have on my router. Like I been told that even the USB port on it have now been disabled. Not that it was much cop anyway, as slow as a dog.
the wi-fi on the plusnet router is also awful and where i would put it, would make it worse, my own router have three external antennas, that provide a good coverage all around my house
I know it needs PPPoE, i took my router to my mates place and stuck it on his modem. My connection uses Dynoamic something or other, not PPPoE

Could be worth calling up and discussing but I would guess they can't wave the phone line as you don't have one - unless they can reactivate BT wires for free, they may be passing through an openreach charge.

I can understand that, i think i prefer to pay that charge than go for Talk Talk, which is the other option.

I did look at EE, but not worth reallly bothering as they will be taken over by BT soon

The one bugbear I have with plusnet, ok there are two, one is Traffic management, I remember the days when their traffic management was awful and the other one being owned by BT.

I was also a metronet customer, and also ran away, but I've been happy with plusnet, but have had no reason to contact support since I started.

I really liked Metronet, I like the idea of paying so much and then paying for what you use after, not sure if it would work now mind you the higher speeds and the amount of traffic most of us consume, I also like the customer service and James was great.

but yes, when plusnet took over i jumped, to AOL i liked AOL, but they could only give me 512Kb/s, i had 1Mb/s with Metronet, so I left after a month and went with ADSL24.

My supplier have given me a bit of a price cut until they get the network sorted, but even then if I can not use the network, a price cut is no good. But at least they offered it and I am greatful for that.
to be honest I would prefer to stay where i am, even if I do think maybe the extra speed of Fibre may be useful sometimes. But where i am, it would not be a huge boast, maybe 10-15M/bs more than i get now, the upload would be better.

We will see what happens in the next week or so.
The other thing is I do not want to hang on, realise that I need fibre and then find out the cabinet is full.

plusnet router is optional.

I was a F9 then MAAF user, leaving each of them once PN took over. I have since come back to PN from Sky. If you look on the cashback sites, Quidco currently has a up to £100 cashback offer on, which I got back in November as well. That will pay your £50 fee if you can wait for it a couple of months. I had no connection fee from LLU back to PN line as I was taking on their phone service,

My line had been live since mid December and with the PN supplied router, my wifi speeds are better than the Sky router, but my Samknows box says throughput is a little lower.

Had no problems so far on my 40/20 product.

Mark

FWIW, my Zyxel doesn't have a "Disconnect" button either. All I do is go to the page where I set up the connection details, username etc, and just resave the page. This initiates a reconnect without resetting the router.

Might work for you?

I'm using the 7800DXL, which I assumed would be fairly similar, but apparently not.

What settings did you have to change from adsl to get it to work on fttc?

In reply to a post by wingco1:

What settings did you have to change from adsl to get it to work on fttc?

This is what I did on my 7800DXL, which may not be the same for other models.

Connect the Openreach modem to EWAN/port 4

You can either run the quick start, or do the following:
Configuration -> WAN
Click 'Add' to add a new connection:
The WAN port needs to be set to Ethernet,
Type set as PPPoE
Description can be anything - 'Plusnet' for example
Enter your username and password
service name can be left blank
Authentication to AUTO
enable / disable the other settings as desired, but they can be left at their defaults.
Click 'Next'.

Edited by deleted (Sun 25-Jan-15 12:10:52)

In reply to a post by Discus:

I was a F9 then MAAF user, leaving each of them once PN took over. I have since come back to PN from Sky. If you look on the cashback sites, Quidco currently has a up to £100 cashback offer on, which I got back in November as well. That will pay your £50 fee if you can wait for it a couple of months. I had no connection fee from LLU back to PN line as I was taking on their phone service,

My line had been live since mid December and with the PN supplied router, my wifi speeds are better than the Sky router, but my Samknows box says throughput is a little lower.

Had no problems so far on my 40/20 product.

Mark

We will wait and see if i can use my net tonight to watch something on Netflix. i have not used Netflix for a few days, been too busy doing other stuff.
speed is around 10Mb/s at the moment, so that is ok, but it in the evening when people come home from work they have the problem.

Still a tenner off a month is pretty good as long as I can still do basic stuff. i started off on their 5Mb/s connection as it was still better than what I had on ADSL, I then updated to 10 when Netflix started to show more HD stuff.

In reply to a post by Discus:

I was a F9 then MAAF user, leaving each of them once PN took over.

That statement doesn't make sense. Plusnet was a brand created by Force9. See this web page from 2005: http://web.archive.org/web/20050706130948/http://www...

When I was with F9, they were the residential arm and Plusnet only dealt with business users, both being run as separate entites, so I was lead to believe. To my mind, that is where the split was as they had totally different customer bases. Once PN began to accept residential customers, it was the beginning of the end for F9, the same as it was when they acquired MAAF. They were swallowed up by a bigger fish and suffered service wise as a result. That is of course, all in my personal opinion.