Should I join your happy band?

Hi.

After a variety of technical and customer service problems with Pipex (and their increasing habit of limiting access to Usenet etc.) I've decided to jump ship.

I can�t get O2/Be at my exchange and have been toying with IDNET and a couple of other niche providers such as AAISP, however my current favourite is the Plusnet Pro package. I do a bit of online gaming and like the sound of the prioritised, non-shaped/throttled service. The 15 GB limit may be an issue, but I don't actually think I normally download any more than this and extra usage is apparently £2 for 2GB which doesn't sound too bad, especially as I'm often on the net after midnight and into their "free" period. So it's £19.99 per month for a 12 month contract including router.

Oh, and apparently you get 250mb of web space, although it doesn't list this on the Plusnet site.

So what's not to like? I�ve seen there are people moaning about contract changes, but is there anything I need to be aware of? Does the Pro package deliver as claimed? Any limitations at all or better offers I should consider?

Any honest feedback would be much appreciated.

Cheers.

Only downside of late is the mad 12 & 18 month contracts. You need to consider the fact that they have the option to have the service degenerate badly over the contract term and you have no escape. That's not to say it will get worse BUT you do surrender a lot of control.

If you are a gamer BUT NOT a user of p2p you may be quite happy on one of plusnet's other (cheaper?) services. They claim that gaming traffic is not heavily shaped on most (all?) services. Pro is really aimed at those who need p2p and usenet and downloads without throttling but with a limited appetite!

Assuming you are happy with the price vs contract length then do consider the other packages too. There are details about the throttling and data rates on various pages on their site. Its worth remembering that most gaming is sensitive to packet speed (called latency) and not throughput (what most people call speed). They did recently claim that if you used a gaming server and had latency problems they would add it into their controls.... WMMV.

Sadly I think you will find that the webspace is no longer provided. It was on the previous Pro (which was strictly BBYW Pro, but not called that). The New Pro - like the other new packages - is just broadband and email and we're meant to be grateful for that. Plusnet's new head honcho dropped all the useful package addons the same time he upped the contract lengths. Sigh - another mad ISP boss entered the fray....

Plusnet Pro is indeed a very good product, I have been on it for 2 months and constantly get 3.5Mbps download on a 4Mb IP profile line during peak periods.

The only reason I have decided to leave is I use less than 8GB a month, if Plusnet Pro have a cheaper package with less allowance then I would happily stay.

You may want to consider any of the packages offered by Madasafish depending on your usage requirements. Its exactly the same product as Plusnet Pro. Run by the same company.

In reply to a post by KevinR:

There are details about the throttling and data rates on various pages on their site. Its worth remembering that most gaming is sensitive to packet speed (called latency) and not throughput (what most people call speed).
...
Sigh - another mad ISP boss entered the fray....

Throttling details page. Prioritisation guide is the top right menu link on that page.

Webspace isn't included according to this http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/products/value...

In reply to a post by Oldjim:

Webspace isn't included according to this http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/products/value...

Now that's interesting as I phoned Plusnet and they told me it definitely was included. Not a good sign!

I have flagged up the contradiction in the Plusnet forums - hopefully we will get clarification on Monday

No clarification needed: the website is clear, the agent was wrong. Again.

Simon

I suspect you'd still be eligible for the PAYH hosting which may have been what the agent was referring to.

I think we'd rather see clarification from an official source... then feel free to snipe afterwards

Edited by deleted (Sun 29-Mar-09 10:56:31)