Advice please guys, Using Plusnet.

Currently I'm on a solid ADSL2 connection provided by Idnet and have been with them for several years. I'd like to move to FTTC but to afford that extra cost I need to move to one of the big ISP's.

Contacting Plusnet seems painless enough, but my question is in regard to their traffic management policy which theyve been open about for many years. I know they used to sell their broadband in a tiered way with the top product usually being free of management. But what about now seeing their product range is less specific? I don't use P2P, but do rely on streaming albeit upto a lowly but steady 3.5Mbps.

Fibre either at 38 or 76Mbps would suit me fine for large downloads including game products from Steam. But does Plusnet see such platforms which use different ports as something they need to throttle? I'm just trying to work out if moving to Plusnet so I can afford fibre would be a good move or not - or if my current solid ADSL2 connection at 16.5Mbps is worth sticking with?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Plusnet no longer manage traffic in the way they used to - essentially there is no limit other than the lower priority demands such as P2P are restricted if something on your connection with a higher priority needs the bandwidth
As to whether you should move to FTTC what are the expected speeds as given here (the impacted ones) http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/ADSLChecker.Teleph...

Thanks OldJim.

PlusNet still have a statement about traffic management hence I wondered how aggressive it is. Concerned too over the use of non standard ports on Steam and if associated downloads or multiplayer use is throttled?

Via the link you gave me, my results are:

VDSL Range A (Clean) 80 80 20 20 -- Available -- -- High, Low, High, Low
VDSL Range B (Impacted) 80 65.4 20 18.2 -- Available -- --

In which case it is worth going for FTTC
Regarding traffic management this is the latest http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/products/res_b... and basically there are no imposed speed restrictions

As well as prioritising traffic, we apply rate-limits to some products (but not our current products) to make sure everyone gets a good online experience.

Regarding Steam - I just use the normal downloader and I get full speed at al times (about 45Mb/s on my line)

PN traffic management is more like QoS. It's there to ensure that if/when you demand more from your line than it can provide the critical stuff will get through. So if you're playing a game and your kids kick off a download the PN 'traffic management' will throttle back the download to ensure that your game playing is unaffected.

Generally speaking this is a good thing.

Edited by Andrue (Mon 30-May-16 19:27:13)

Never had any problem with traffic management to be honest, I do think that they have over subscribed by giving out these free and low priced offers and they can not cope.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

Never had any problem with traffic management to be honest, I do think that they have over subscribed by giving out these free and low priced offers and they can not cope.

There's no evidence of that though. The PN forums are pretty quiet right now and the only issues appear to be line faults. There is no evidence that Plusnet has any network capacity issues.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

Never had any problem with traffic management to be honest, I do think that they have over subscribed by giving out these free and low priced offers and they can not cope.

Thanks OldJim, Andrue.

zyborg47, I had a terrible service back in 2005/6 when I had a fixed 1Mbps line with Talk Talk. They launced their broadband free forever and the service took a massive dive. Support then was at 50p a minute and it took even more hassle getting away from them.
Do you think download speeds etc are suffering particularly at peak times with these "offers" or have you noticed something else?

Plusnet seemed to be the better choice over BT, because of the support option. I'm really stuck between the big ISP's as to who would suit me best.

Just an incidental question . Do you use your landline much? Or rather, do you use it a huge amount!?

The reason I ask is that it can be well worth putting up with the surcharge of £2.50 per month Plusnet put on broadband if you don't take their line rental, and take a cheaper landline service elsewhere. In particular, Pulse8broadband line rental. (Click the "Home" tab).

Not only is the rental only £13pm, or £14 including caller display, but there are no call setup charges and calls are 1ppm charged by the second in peak time, 0.8ppm in off-peak. So for example that's 300 minutes for the cost of Plusnet E & W, and 600 minutes for the cost of Anytime.

I went that way a few months before I left Plusnet, though my line was in fact with BT itself, and some others with Plusnet rental have done the same.

RobertoS,

I usually use around 40 - 100GB a month and although many packages with Zen and Idnet have seen their package allowances increase their base products are normally not quite enough.
Edit: Sorry you asked about my Landline usage RobertoS. Yes I do use it a reasonable amount and do rely on the so called anytime bundles. I did check the link - thanks

I did used to have just my landline with BT and be free to move my broadband around, but around a couple or so years ago I moved it all to Idnet.
Yes caller display and 1571 call minder are the two features I normally require although these days adding a answer machine to say a Panasonic DECT pack invites such a small charge I could go that route and only need caller display.

I like the PlusNet pricing but it's the support centre which rates highly to me if I should need them for any issue. I've never been impressed with BT when it comes to phone support and I know if you have no issues things should be fine. But after being spoilt by the small ISP's support quality I'm looking to get as close as i can to that experience and also be able to afford to upgrade to FTTC. I know I can't have everything so it's trying to find that balance.

I'm not really savvy with who lays between the Idnet's/Zen/A&A's and the BT/Sky/PlusNet etc, so I'm guessing there may be options ie alternative ISP's there, or does the Plusnet route seem like it could fit the bill? I'm quite happy to keep the Phone and broadband together.

Edited by Vorlon (Tue 31-May-16 02:01:16)