New customer?

Hi all first post so hi again.

Right I have just managed to get the hell out of Virgin adsl after taking nearly 2 months to get going and 3 weeks of pings of over 250ms.
What I would like to know is plusnet a good isp for gaming?
I have had a few friends say they are but none of them currently use them as their isp.
I have to admit that package 3 seems to be very good value for money and was wondering what you guys/gals in the know think?

Loon

What is your local exchange? Can you get BE*?
As for

Thanks for reply.

BE* sorry but not familiar with them?Does that include a phone package?

I have been told to stay well away from sky as for gaming (and about everything else) they are rubbish!

Nope to the P2P. Apart from the odd game patch or buying from steam and a bit of casual surfing I need a fast (low ping) connection for game playing. This was the issue with Virgin. While the speed was ok the ping was just way too high normally way over 250ms.

Pack 3 seems a very good price as you get an upto 8m connection and a phone package that includes line rental. To me that seems a very good deal.

Loon

Both my sons play on Eve (at the same time in the evenings) and although our broadband is rubbish at the moment due to line problems it is still usable.

We have an IP profile of just 500 kbps way way down from our normal 4.5 Meg connection. BT are looking into it as they say and I'm enjoying some protracted 'ticket tennis' with F9 support. So from my point of view, yes Plusnet/F9 are fine for gaming but (there is always a but) we are still on the old Premier Option 1.

If we can get back to our 'normal' 4.5 to 5.5 Meg connection then gaming would be great (or so my sons tell me).

Package option 3 should be fine and we were asked by F9 if we wanetd to 'downsize' to BBYW option 3 but we declined until the dust has settled.

Regards, Pendragon

BBYW Option 3 is designed to give better performance per protocol than the old Premier products. One caveat is that Premier now have the ability to get better performance than originally designed if there is spare capacity in the network.

As for pings, unless you have line issues, these are usually low.

sorry be is

Hi,

Gaming performance should be really good with us. Our network is designed to give different types of traffic different priorities, gaming traffic gets the highest priority to ensure low ping times at all times. There's a list of the games we have defined here (you can login with username guest and password guest). Anything that isn't defined can generally be added quite easily and we routingly look for any new games as and when (games like XBox live games will be generally included under the XBox live catagory rather than individually).

As DavidFinbarr suggests no harm in taking the month's trial and see how it goes, personally I think you're likely to stick around.

David is an ex customer... and not in a great position to give a current opinion on PN he could give you a view on AOL which IMHO is not a good option.

BE and Sky are excellent value. In the case of both you'll need your exchange to be unbundled. Sky is particularly good value in conjunction with its TV offering.

Go to Samknows.com and enter your number to find if your exchange is ready for Sky or BE. Zen are probably the best out there but expensive.

PN however for me does what it says on the tin and is highly approachable with its forums and CS. The current offerings are good value particularly if not a P2P junkie. It provides a good community of users and support.

Why did you reply to me? Think it's th OP you should have replied to,
or is it that you have such a very bad hang up

But you do seem to take turns on who you stalk!

Use the compare facility on here, compare Plusnet against the likes of Zen, IDNet or any of the Entanet resellers, and above all else remember you get what you pay for. On the whole, the connection with Plusnet is stable, woe betide you if anything goes wrong though. You have been warned!

Remember to pay a visit to some gaming forums and you may like to visit the ISP Unhapiness forum to see which ISP's appear most often. If you can find a balance between cost, customer service and your specific requirements then go for the one that ticks all those boxes.

Why did you reply to me? Think it's th OP you should have replied to,
or is it that you have such a very bad hang up

Depends who is the troll at the time! PCKB

Funny how a statement of fact to certain ex-customers views translates to stalking in their eyes.

Edited by deleted (Wed 30-May-07 10:08:12)

> Depends who is the troll at the time! PCKB

What does PCKB stand for?

Podkarpackie Centrum Ksztalcenia Biznesu (Poland)

http://acronymfinder.com/acronym.aspx?rec={F81810AC-184A-46BE-997C-69FF60BDF079}

PCKB - there's a kettle in there somewhere...

LOL!

Hey Paddy,

Are you not a member of the plusnet usergroup now - working with the plusnet team?

(just wondered because its not in your signature)

Edited by deleted (Wed 30-May-07 12:56:47)

And you Paddy stood for election for PUG!

So any person looking at your comments might see thing as being biased in favour of PN.

If you want to play the "ex" customer game, think you need to tell the OP that you might not to be seen as neutral!

My signature does not show membership as I have not taken up membership.

Thanks for the reply Dave (and everybody else).

I think I will give you guys a try so god help you if it goes pear shaped lol :-)

I can't do the 30 day trial as I don't technically have an ISP anymore as Virgin are cancelling the lot rather than giving me a MAC code. Apparently this will save me 30 days (lets hope hay).

Loon

In reply to:

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My signature does not show membership as I have not taken up membership.

---

Which begs the question, why stand for election in the first place?.

>Which begs the question, why stand for election in the first place?.

Don't forget Paddy wasn't elected.
He failed to get elected, but they offered him a place anyway.

Loon,
Virgin still have to give you your MAC

Can't see why you can't take up the offer,
if you don't like PN ask for your MAC and try another ISP.

Edited by deleted (Wed 30-May-07 18:28:50)

I'm not sure what Plus.Net are like for games as I ghave only played Red Alert a few times and I have had no problems.

As for a Good ISP Plus.Net are hard to beat, ticket response times are now extremely good!!! (Never thought I would say that again). General surfing is excellent...

I take it the service and speeds have improved for you in the last few months

Unless you're moving from cable Virgin should give you a MAC key. Not only does it make the transfer easier (no downtime) but they also need to be this under the new Ofcom rules.

In reply to:

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Sky is particularly good value in conjunction with its TV offering

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I can't believe anyone in their right mind would recommend Sky as a gaming ISP

If you don't use a MAC key you will be lumbered with a

Makes sense then

I get pings of 18 and I am on Sky - and only

Dave

According to the guy I spoke to about cancelling if I want to wait for the MAC code I will have to wait 30 days. It's a bit complicated as I moved from Blueyonder cable to Virgin Adsl (house move being the reason). I was very happy with BY and wrongly assumed by staying with Virgin the move would be easy and straight forward. Oh how wrong could I be.
After waiting 7 weeks for the line to be made ready (in which time Virgin seemed to do [censored] all unless I hounded them daily) the line speed was absolutely pants. Even after the 10 days while a small improvement in speed the latency was horrendous. After multiple calls to tech support (and many

You have been given the wrong info.
You have to use a MAC withing 30 days, Virgin must give you a MAC within working 5 days of asking.

Edited by deleted (Thu 31-May-07 10:00:04)

Ah but the way I see it as I am now not paying them any money for the initial setup of the line, they are pulling the plug and I need to set it up all over again. Does that make sense?

As I am saving

Hiya,
I understand where you are coming from.

Personal I would request my MAC (and they have to give it to you without you having to pay the

Dave

What is the advantage/disadvantage of having or not having the Mac code?

Is there anyway I check that my line is clear? As one of the major holdups before was the fact that BT (so I was informed) had not cleared the line properly and I ended up waiting a further 10 days for this to be carried out!

Can I sign up to PN before this work has been done or do I need to wait?

Loon

Having a mac will allow your next ISP to just "take over" your line and normally takes about 10 days. (and you will have internet).
By Virgin disconnection you, your line has to be free, and errors can happen stoppping your next ISP giving you service. There have been cases where a line has been "blocked" and weeks have gone by with a new ISP the old ISP and BT all failing to sort it out.

IMO Virgin have clearly not offered you the service you signed up for, so you can break the contract and get your MAC.

Hopefully others will give their opinon, as this is just my advice.

David

The problem is he would have signed a 12 month contract with them. He could get out of it but is it worth the trouble and risk if they've given an option to cancel and start from scratch?

In reply to:

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This is also why I have come here for advice as I was planning to jump in with both feet and go for the years contract, as I then do not need to pay the connection charge.

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You do not need to pay PlusNet for 12 months up front to avoid paying the connection charge. You will be on a monthly contract and will be charged monthly without needing to pay the connection charge. If you stay for 12 months or more then the connection charge disappears. If you leave within the 12 months then you will need to pay the charge when you leave.

Ok thanks that makes sense.

Looks like Virgin are as bad as getting rid of me as they were at setting me up.

Cancallation date has now moved from 5 days to 10!

Am I right in thinking I need to wait for the cancellation to go through until I can sign up?
Or can I sign up now so that it is all in process when the cancellation happerns?

Rob

I see no reason why you cannot sign-up now.

That's where it becomes a personal choice.

If the OP wants to agree to Virgin cancelling his contract and not getting a MAC that's the right choice for him.

I would have got my MAC and stated they broke the contract by not giving me a usable service.

Like I said, each to their own.

The problem there is what is a usable service?
Yes the latency was rubbish but there is nothing in their contract/sales blurb about that.
If all I wanted to do was surf the net and the odd p2p then it was fine. My problem was I could not play games on it........in some ways it's my fault because if I had read these very forums first I would have kown that.

Still mind now made up I will wave them good bye and not look back.

Rob

The main thing is you're happy now you are leaving Virgin.
I wish you luck with your new ISP.

The best way to look at it is what is which option suits you best for leaving Virgin ?

I left TalkTalk free of charge only months into a 12 month contract as the service was appalling. To do this I had to make notes of all contact with them and let them fail time after time and also lie to me repeatedly to get evidence to leave free of change mid contract. Do what suits you best.

I have used Plusnet for gaming for 8 months now and for CS, BF2 and BF2142 normally get pings of around 20ms in game. The last time my friends came over we were on for about 8 hours and had no problems at all with 3 of us using my 2Mb connection. The pings stayed low and stable.

Hope that helps.