PlusNet Opinions? And Option 3 vs Pro

Hi there,

I've been with Entanet for a while, but when moving to a new place with work for 6 months I needed a second provider at home for the rest of the family. I took up with PlusNet because they seemed quite reasonable, and didn't charge me for a setup charge.

Now, I'm moving back in with my family and then rapidly moving again to the other end of the country. I've closed my Entanet account at the second residence and I'm using PlusNet at home.

PlusNet understandably want �56 to close my account in lieu of the original setup charge, or �40 to move to another place. I'm relatively happy with them, but I've been warned about throttling by a friend who used to be on PlusNet. I'm currently on what I think is Option 2 but will probably switch to Option 3 for the 30Gb allowance. We currently use slightly over 15Gb per month, with a fair bit of Xbox Live gaming.

I'm reasonably happy, so the simplest option is to pay the �40 moving fee and stick with PlusNet, while increasing my usage allowance. I thought I'd post here to see if other users were happy and recommended them, and also ask if people have noticed the difference between the standard "Broadband Your Way" options, and the Broadband Pro package they offer?

Thanks in advance,

Elmlea

I came from Entanet and originally went on the Pro plan, which was absolutely fantastic. Your friend is right yes they do throttling however its clearly defined on each tariff. I later switched to Option 3 as i needed the bigger usage allowance and was still just as happy, reliable and efficient. It all depends what you use it for, if you use P2P regular then get the pro plan definately. If your not a regular P2P user you will find Option 3 is still a fantastic plan. There is minor slow downs occasionaly but very rare. You can find the expected speeds at http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/quality_broadband/speed.shtml, bear in mind thats the minimum speeds you will receive.

Download servers speed restrictions are high volume content delivery servers such as Akamai and rapidshare for example (Largely used file distribution basically). Windows update uses Akamai so you will find download speeds can be slower on Option 3, whereas there isnt any restriction on the Pro Plan. Which makes sense as a lot of people will be downloading automatic updates on new releases possibly at the same time which could swamp speeds. General HTTP download speeds arent too bad, it all depends how busy the network is at the time which you can view at http://www.plus.net/support/network_performance/broadband_packets_drop.shtml?supporta=networkpbroadbandpackets.

Hope this explains a lot, so basically if you purchase the pro plan you loose the extra usage allowance that option 3 gives as your getting a premium service if you will. Whereas you could have more usage on Option 3 if you can put up with delays on certain protocols. Of course you can always add more usage to your account on the Pro plan, 75p per GB upfront or �1 on demand if you went over 15GB.

Edited by deleted (Sat 11-Oct-08 12:53:27)

Wow, Plusnet packages are very complex for a new subscriber to get to grips with.

Why not join BeThere or an ISP who offer a simpler solution?

No throttling, No management, No limits.

One without pages and pages of management, throttling and bandwidth cap limits to read through.

Plusnet arent complex at all, the different packages are very easy to understand? You click on the package and it tells you what it offers? Your talking about LLU isps anyway, Plusnet is xDSL based so what are you expecting? If the OP can get LLU in his area then yes its the better option in terms of cost and performance. Otherwise Plusnet is the best option for ADSL

Edited by deleted (Sun 12-Oct-08 17:36:32)

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Plusnet is the best option for ADSL

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Really? So which of the 1000 or so customers voting don't think so?

Seems to be similar here.

You call the throttling tables easy to understand? I suppose for the few who know what the techie terms mean they may be, but how many ADSL users in this country know what classes of traffic their use falls into? Why should they need to?

And I have yet to find how those tables relate to Gold Silver Platinum or Corroded levels of service.

How is all that better than IDNet, Zen or Newnet for consistent high speed on all traffic types, and Entanet resellers for high bandwidth users?

In certain restricted circumstances Plusnet can be very cost-effective, such as people just falling foul of the Newnet Lite 3GB allowance, but that's a budgetry problem for users. Best is an entirely different set of criteria.

RobertoS is quite right on this one !! Newnet, IDnet, and Zen are all top notch ISPS probably the best !! but as he says if you fall between the 3GB and the 15 GB usage mark Plusnet are hard to beat on value .
I do not know how there service will compare with Newnet yet and if the sacrifice is to much !! but I am really hopeful and I am prepared to sacrifice a bit consistency for a bigger allowance as with anything its all about compromise and the support staff really seem to be on the ball

Yes i do call the throttling tables easy to understand Robert? I want to remind you what people say (including myself) in these forums are solely opinions. I have many valid reasons why i said Plusnet is the best ADSL provider, but i didnt come here to start banging on about them or comparing them to dozens of other ISPs. In my opinion Plusnet is the best value for money option by far, without a doubt and i can explain why i think this but i wont. But like i said thats my opinion, i didnt come here to start arguments about the whole ISP market i came to help the OP. If you can afford to go with an ISP that charges a lot more to get a premium service thats fine, however i am an ex entanet user for the record and i found Plusnet to be far better even when Entanet didnt throttle. Thats all im going to say, but even if i wasnt technical minded i would still understand what each tariff explains. It all depends on the customer and what they would want obviously, i dont go off charts showing speed tests i think theres a lot more too it than that. Anyway if the OP has any more questions ill be happy to answer them and im sure next week a Plusnet rep will post to you as well

Edited by deleted (Sun 12-Oct-08 19:39:20)

I remember a time when Plusnet were a top five ISP on most online rating sites, They seem to be slipping closer to the bottom five nowadays:

http://www.dslzoneuk.net/isp_ratings.php

They used to be for the 'discerning' subscriber, now you have to be a technical genius to understand the network.

What happened?

I think you should learn to think before typing, then read and think about what you have typed before posting.

Your first post in the thread was fine, and I expect very helpful to the OP.

Your second, challenging Pod, was twaddle as I demonstrated. Note all I objected to was "Plusnet is the best option for ADSL". I'm afraid the word "best" automatically contradicts your statements now:-

"i didnt come here to start banging on about them or comparing them to dozens of other ISPs"
and
"i didnt come here to start arguments about the whole ISP market"

That is precisely what you did. I only mentioned four as a contradiction to "best".

If you "were not technically minded" you would still understand the difference between Peer-to-Peer, Binary Newsnet, External FTP, Download sites, Download servers, and Everything else? Perhaps you would like to explain them to the rest of us. Particularly in relation to BBC iPlayer in all its forms, similar offerings from other TV channels, Microsoft updates, AV supplier updates, Newsgroups in general, Adobe pdf downloads, and the uploading of fifty holiday or wedding/christening photographs from a 6 mega-pixel camera to your web site for your friends and family to view. Not to mention a few minutes video.

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If you can afford to go with an ISP that charges a lot more to get a premium service thats fine

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To get the unrestricted speeds that three of the four I mentioned provide you can pay considerably less than the �19.99 that Plusnet require for the same level. The fourth provides double the peak time allowance and 300GB off-peak for the same price.

I see BBYW Option 3 says "Broadband Your Way Option 3 is designed for serious Internet users and is ideal for all Internet activities" yet Plusnet give it 3 stars out of five. A little self-contradictory I think. BBYW Option 4 with four stars is no longer available for sale or upgrade.

Then of course at the bottom of the tables there is "*Even though there are no individual restrictions, the speeds you receive are still affected by traffic prioritisation and the activities of every other customer who is sharing the network". Oops!

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i dont go off charts showing speed tests i think theres a lot more too it than that.

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Agreed. Neither do I. But charts showing several hundred or thousand opinions of speed, reliability and customer service are interesting.

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It all depends on the customer and what they would want obviously

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Exactly!

I disagree that they are the best option for MaxDSL.

After reading one of your posts I just noticed Plusnet rate limt upstream traffic too! I never knew...

Answer me a query related to the OP;

They mention Xbox Live gaming;

If they subscribed to Option 2, what would their theoretical maxium upload and download speed be at 4:45pm on a Tuesday afternoon [full moon too]?

Would this be enough bandwidth to host a 16 player server for Halo3?

Presume they get a fullspeed 8Mb connection?