Thinking about Plusnet as ISP

I'm looking to leave my current ISP and I'm torn between whether to go with Plusnet Option 3 or ADSL24 both are very similar packages and the 1 month contract terms certainly appeal. I just have a couple of questions if anyone could answer them that would be great.

What is the general service like, speed and connection wise?
Are there any hidden charges when signing up?
How long after using MAC code and sign up does it take to switch over?

Thanks

Dunno if you have read the info, but do you know about the Plusnet 90 day guarantee?

Yes it was one of the things that made me look twice at Plusnet, that and the short term 1 month contract.

All the good IPStream ISPs have one-month contracts don't they? Entanet resellers, IDNet, Zen, Newnet, Plusnet. Bt doesn't.

There is one huge difference you may not be aware of, ADSL24 offer "no port blocking or traffic throttling".

Plusnet traffic manage and rate limit [throttle] on Option 3 to 256Kbps max download and 192Kbps max upload speed at certain times of the day depending on protocol.

I would recommend ADSL24 over Plusnet for these reasons.

I see absolutely no point in paying for an up to 8Mb connection when at times you will only receive a maximum speed of one quarter of a Mb.

As stated though on the traffic management pages that's so other protocols are given priority during the busy times - your p2p traffic may well run that slow during the evening but you'll still be getting web pages and streaming/voip traffic at the fastest speed the line can handle, and if you leave the downloading till overnight it won't be counted towards your usage allowance. It depends how you use the service as to whether or not that works out better for you.

In reply to:

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There is one huge difference you may not be aware of, ADSL24 offer "no port blocking or traffic throttling"

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Have they stopped managing traffic at busy times with the ALT, where all protocols are slowed when the network is busy?

Its a good way of doing it, but traffic management none the less.

At the end of the day its what you want out of your connection.

I'm an above average user, but Enta's ALT doesnt work for my useage and would actually drive me nuts.
I dont use p2p - therefore with PN practically all my traffic came down at 7Mbps.
Whereas with Enta my all speeds would slow down, during their peak usage times.

If you want to use p2p/nntp/pr0n download at peak time, then go Enta... or choose the Pro Option
If youe not bothered and as long as you understand whats affected and what isnt you should be fine.

Do you have any first hand experience of that?

Because I do, and I can assure you that the experience you believe you would have is not actually what you get. My experience with enta connections is that in fact you get pretty reasonable performance even at night when the "ALT" is in force.

They're not perfect though, and I've seen a few issues, but then I've seen many many more with PN.

I have changed to Pro from Option 2 just to get a product without restrictions. The small extra cost is well worth it in my opinion.