Plusnet unlimited?

Is Plusnet Unlimited subject to any traffic management on P2P??

Yes, it's in the "bronze" priority queue.

http://community.plus.net/blog/2012/12/21/its-unlimi...

If you mean "is it slowed down so you can't download at peak", then no.

In reply to a post by KellyD:

If you mean "is it slowed down so you can't download at peak", then no.

I'm not aware of any ISP that reduces p2p speeds to 0 kbps at peak.

http://www.cap.org.uk/Media-Centre/2012/~/media/File...

Where they affect download speeds, for the downloading of large files on peer-to-peer protocols,
for instance, providers should be able to demonstrate that the effect of a traffic management
policy or mechanism is not beyond what consumers would reasonably expect.

At the same time, consumers generally understand that the speed of the internet varies during
the day and that speeds are naturally slower during periods of the day that attract the greatest
number of online users. If the provider can demonstrate that the effect of traffic management is
not dissimilar to the �slow down� generally experienced, the restriction is likely to be considered
moderate.

So, unless we are having problems without capacity forecasting, or a balance issue, you shouldn't see it much drop below your line speed. If it does drop, that is likely to be your own local contention, or we've cocked something up.

It's designed to not slow.

Clear enough?

Yes, although it's a shame CAP use vague language like "beyond what consumers would reasonably expect".

Also, I previously asked what the "minimum bandwidth allowance" was on this page. http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/speed_guide/tr...

In the context of "What this means: at busy times, higher priority queues will take bandwidth from the lowest queue(s) currently in use (but never enough to take the lower queue below its minimum bandwidth allowance)."

It implies that there is some kind of safety net for best effort and bronze traffic, in terms of low speed, but no actual figure.

I raise this as some years ago I was with a horrible package from Plusnet called "Broadband Plus" with variable traffic management. Essentially, when a user exceeded unpublished limits, Plusnet would throttle all traffic to unpublished speeds. What this meant is that http could be throttled to 128 kbit/sec for exceeding 5 GB usage. The sales literature said "no need to keep track of how much you download" (presumably they thought 128 kbit/s speeds weren't an issue)!. Support staff repeatedly refused to give any kind of usage guidelines to avoid crippling speeds, and customers were locked in for a year.

The heated discussions about this package are still in your forum archive, and the revised product description, which was changed after some pretty bitter arguments, is also in your product archive.

And yes, I accept this was some time ago (end '05 early '06) and Plusnet is a different company these days, but it's not something I'll forget quickly, as it's by far the worst experience I've had with an ISP to date. Some of the same names are still around though, I remember Ben Brown advocating the product.

See http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/plusnet/t/4196738-r... and http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/plusnet/t/4191367-r...

I.e. PN has decided that if we get it all wrong and we have to choose something to slow down, we'll slow the stuff which is more tolerant of being slowed. Slowing web/streaming = badness. Slowing torrents/usenet = slower downloads, but they'll still come down.

If you don't like that option the Pro add-on allows you to override it (but has some trade-offs, which if you are making that call you are probably happier with )

We've built it this way because we think it addresses what the average and the majority user needs. The experts should have enough information to be able to make their own call.

Sorry if I'm coming across a bit forceful on this, but I feel it's important for people to really understand what we mean by Traffic Management. This is not the rate limits you have on PN Extra, Value, or the old Premier and Plus products, and we've put more bandwidth to mean that bronze != slow.

I'm hearing ya