Signing up to Plusnet problem

I was just signing up to Plusnet but while in the process came across the 'Only provide my broadband through BT (not recommended)' checkbox. Next to it it says 'you may NOT get the fastest speeds available from us if you check the box.'

Now i know there's some strange LLU business where you may never be able to leave if you get put onto LLU or something. Will i still be able to get up to 8mb/s? I was planning on moving over to BE in feb anyway, so would being on LLU matter anyway?

Thanks in advance for any help

Yes, not all LLU is the same as LLU to LLU migrations are pretty much non existant..

You should still find that you can achieve up to 8Mb using the BT wholesale circuit without having to go through LLU though.

It does seem nice of them to provide you with an opt-out of LLU when you sign up for them though

If you are only planning on staying for less than a year then you might want to avoid anything like the You stay, we pay promotion.

I'm not sure if Plus.net won't actually charge you for leaving before 12 months is up because even though they have "monthly contracts" it's not something like join them for one month then leave the next without owing them anything.

I could be wrong though.. you be best to check the T's and C's very carefully before you do sign up.

Edited by caesar_salad (Thu 28-Sep-06 16:48:19)

Have you worked out how much you will pay if your only with PlusNet for 5 months?

They have (or had) an arrangement where you paid a a small amount on sign up that gives you the right to leave at anytime. I think it was a one month notice. Study their terms and conditions very carefully, they are not for the weak hearted!

> Study their terms and conditions very carefully, they are not for the weak hearted!

Probably ideal bedtime reading material..

Senza,
Who are you leaving to go to PlusNet?

"Out of the frying pan, into the fire" springs to mind.

Yeah it seems like the 'you stay, we pay' thing is unavoidable unfortunately. I've heard things about Plusnet putting people on Tiscali LLU so i think i'll avoid that by checking that box, and hopefully make it easier when i migrate.

David, it seems i'll be paying an extra

No service just now, new flat! I've got a BT line up and running though.

You are right, there really isn't any point in paying for the activation up front as you will never be out of pocket since the first year exit fee is the same and after 12 months you would pay less.
The only thing to make sure is that you choose a monthly contract and not an annual one (there used to be options for monthly or annual contracts).

If you take the "You stay we pay" option, you will have to pay back the

If you require bedtime reading: Acts of the Apostles 9,5

The connection's going to be shared between 3 18-26 year olds so it probably will be used quite intensively although i think we can learn to live with the peak period of Plusnet (which is 4pm to 12am). I find this much more reasonable than other companies where the peak period is usually 8am - 11pm or thereabouts.

I would prefer to go with AOL or Bulldog because they're unlimited but they require a 12 month contract and we'll most likely be moved out in 9. AOL currently have an offer of going onto a monthly contract but only if you're migrating and we currently have no connection with any ISP. But if Plusnet really is awful at least we can cancel, albeit with a

TBH the vast majority of PN customers don't appear to have any problems. I left in May and came back after 3 months as I found the service I got from PN was far superior.

I've specified to only be connected to BT's circuit so hopefully that will mean any problems people have been having with maxdsl will be kept to a minimum. Hopefully we'll be actiavted onto 8meg and not put in a line like others on plusnet, although i doubt that can be the case.

Edited by senza (Thu 28-Sep-06 17:49:04)

Senza,
If you are happy with 1Meg speed then AOL would be cheaper, even if you break
the contract in Feb.

If you want max from the start then if PN is the best, good luck

All new activations AFAIK are ordered on MaxDSL now, so your new connection would be upto 8Mb.

I've just ordered so now i'll go to the broadband buyer website and buy me a router!

David, I might have considered that had I seen your reply before i ordered but i'm sure i'll be very happy with plusnet as long as they hold up their end of the contract. Speeds up in the 800kb/sec range excite me a little

Also i'm about 140m from my exchange so i expect decent speeds. Again, thanks for everyone's contributions!

Senza.

Edited by senza (Thu 28-Sep-06 18:08:06)

Don't expect too high during peak periods. BT Wholesale advised speeds around 2Mb during peak although my experience is I can regularly get around 4-5Mb peak and max my line off peak.

I wish you luck with PN.

And if you have problems with PN you can pay the

In reply to:

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I would prefer to go with AOL or Bulldog because they're unlimited but they require a 12 month contract

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I think that AOL will provide a monthly contract if you provide your own hardware.

Check in the AOL forum first though, I could be wrong.

Bill,
That's only if you have broadband and are moving to them.
If like the OP you need a new broadband line, it's a 12 month contract.

Thanks for the clarification- good thing I put that rider on the end of my post

Looking at both AOL and PlusNet to can see a big difference in taking a new broadband line.

After a year with AOL you owe them nothing, and you have a wireless router.

After a year with PlusNet you still owe them

Far be it from me to set any sort of precedent by criticising any of Plusnet's policies....

p2p, usenet and gaming are all pretty useless on plusnet, on any package. Especially at peak time, though midnight to 3am is probably the worst time as everyone fires up their downloads.

As long as you stay on BT based service they seem to be able to manage (just) for basic internet stuff. Probably because it's little more than hooking up a router to a BT managed network. For anything more complex -- LLU, for example, run to the hills.

I would have to disagree with usenet as I am capable of maxing my connection from just after midnight most nights. Even during peak periods I can get around 2Mb.
I can't comment for p2p as I dont use it, but a friend recently used my connection to play CS for a while during peak and he said it ran so fast compared to his MaxDSL BT connection.....in fact he keeps asking to come over to use my connection now.

I`m on plusnet premier, and I game online a lot, and also download a fair bit on P2P so the statement you made is incorrect.

When I was with PN the P2P connection was anything but good during peak time and was heavily throttled by their network shaping down to 5kB/s. Ten minutes past midnight the traffic shaping would be removed and I would jump to 110kB/s. So I disagree with you. Web browsing was however never a problem for me.

In reply to:

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I`m on plusnet premier, and I game online a lot, and also download a fair bit on P2P so the statement you made is incorrect.

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These people are suffering and there are plenty of them. I am not for one minute suggesting that you are making these things up but it is a known fact that PN shape P2P and Usenet heavily during peak time due to limited bandwidth. If you are therefore not affected then you are a one of the lucky few.

http://portal.plus.net/central/forums/viewtopic.php?t=47641&highlight=p2p

http://portal.plus.net/central/forums/viewtopic.php?t=47171&highlight=p2p

http://portal.plus.net/central/forums/viewtopic.php?t=48813&highlight=p2p

http://portal.plus.net/central/forums/viewtopic.php?t=48489&highlight=p2p

http://portal.plus.net/central/forums/viewtopic.php?t=48517&highlight=p2p

http://portal.plus.net/central/forums/viewtopic.php?t=48024&highlight=p2p

http://portal.plus.net/central/forums/viewtopic.php?t=48030&highlight=p2p

http://portal.plus.net/central/forums/viewtopic.php?t=47710&highlight=p2p

http://portal.plus.net/central/forums/viewtopic.php?t=48026&highlight=p2p

As a test I have just started a usenet download and am downloading at 391KB at present. My line is currently limted by the BT BRAS at 4000Kb so I am not far off maxing my line....and I am browsing and using messenger at the same time.

In reply to:

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When I was with PN the P2P connection was anything but good during peak time and was heavily throttled by their network shaping down to 5kB/s. Ten minutes past midnight the traffic shaping would be removed and I would jump to 110kB/s. So I disagree with you. Web browsing was however never a problem for me.

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Totally agree with you about throttling,.
I left PN as I was getting 1 to 2kB/s, the same torrent I'm got between 25 to 40kB/s the day I moved over to AOL.

It's been common knowledge for a while now that if you want heavy P2P or Usenet, then don't use Plusnet.

I agree with that statement except for the use of the word 'heavy'. I was using on average 3-5 GB/month on Premier and even so never received a good speed on P2P or my 'clean-to' allowance (as it was then known).

There are 3 or 4 threads which I contributed to at the time without resolution. It was apparent to me the reasons for the slow speeds but it took me almost two weeks to figure out what was going on because it was denied then and in many ways still being denied now. Perhaps 'denied now' is not the correct description but the explanations given do not discuss the traffic shaping effects in conjunction with the limited bandwidth PN have. People are being told that the new Ecolaya (SP?) signatures will remove the issues, without admission that it will not become better until PN invest in more bandwidth.

Anyway, the only reason I posted to the two threads today in relation to technical issues that don't affect me directly is only to post contradictory information that I knew to be true for a lot of people and not to undermine posts by other current users or even in some way attack PN. I like to normally stay out of these type of threads for obvious reasons and I will try to stay away from these type of threads if I am misunderstood in my reasons for posting to them.

edit: double negative deleted

Edited by rsharma (Fri 29-Sep-06 10:14:42)

i totally agree too got similar speeds 1-5k so i've migrated away to ukfsn and noticed a marked improvement.

Darren

Some pipes are differently loaded than others. Some are horiffically overloaded and some quiet. As for the other statement, that's just claptrap. There is no reason that BT would be any slower (or faster) than yours for anything else than config issues.

In reply to:

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Some pipes are differently loaded than others. Some are horiffically overloaded and some quiet. As for the other statement, that's just claptrap. There is no reason that BT would be any slower (or faster) than yours for anything else than config issues.

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Actually there is - it's "likely" [In the PlusNet sense of the word obviously] that the LLU exchanges provide speed over 8Mb before BT release a higher speed wholesale product ... which is probably what is being referred to here ...

When I was with PN - it was impossible to become a heavy user of P2P - it was a struggle to download anything at all!

Michael