plus.net new subscription questions

I am thinking about getting an £18.99/month ADSL Home Surf account from
Plus.net but can someone clarify the following:

* With this option P2P is disabled. Does this affect direct-connection
applications such as Microsoft NetMeeting, Messenger, ICQ, etc? i.e.
would internet telephony & direct file transfer work with these
applications?

* many ISPs allow downloading an individual user's and all users' mail
depending on the user ID used to logon to the mailserver every time. With
Plus.net downloading individual user's mail involves creating separate
mailboxes on the mailserver. Does this mean that if you wish to download
mail for user1@ separately sometimes, you have no choice but to download
mail for that user separately every time?

* can I move between ADSL Home Surf and the enhanced ADSL Home
Self-Install freely, or do I have to wait for the 12 months minimum
contract period to expire first? (and then another 12 months if I choose
to move back?)

* finally, Plus.net strongly recommend that I get the line activated
first before I purchase any equipment, which complicates things a bit
since I am planning to buy a router on ebay. Is there a way to know the
test results before I actually get the service going?

--
Michael Klontzas
Before enlightenment / chopping wood / carrying water
After enlightenment / chopping wood / carrying water
Zen Proverb

I believe it's only P2P which is disabled.

You can set up filters on your Outlook Express to deal with multiple email
addresses in various ways.

You can upgrade any time, PlusNet is not going to turn down the extra
moneys, not to mention there is just one month notice anyways.

No, BT will do the testing at installation time. One way out is to buy your
equipment from PC World, you can take it back within 14 days.
Regards,
Martin

Not bad response times for 2:30am

On Tue, 12 Aug 2003 02:26:58 +0100, "Martin²" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:
>I believe it's only P2P which is disabled.
>
>You can set up filters on your Outlook Express to deal with multiple email
>addresses in various ways.

Well, yes, although I don't use OE. My problem is that occasionally I
need to check email sent to user1@ only on my mobile or some other PC
(i.e. I think I'll need to set up a mailbox on the server), whereas when
I am at home I'd rather download everything in one go for efficiency.

>You can upgrade any time, PlusNet is not going to turn down the extra
>moneys, not to mention there is just one month notice anyways.

they mention something about some end of contract period through and if
you go for the most cost effective option the period is 12 months (with
cancellation penalties if terminated early).

Thanks.

--
Michael Klontzas
Before enlightenment / chopping wood / carrying water
After enlightenment / chopping wood / carrying water
Zen Proverb

"Michael Klontzas" <Michael-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I am thinking about getting an £18.99/month ADSL Home Surf account from
> Plus.net but can someone clarify the following:
>
> * With this option P2P is disabled. Does this affect direct-connection
> applications such as Microsoft NetMeeting, Messenger, ICQ, etc? i.e.
> would internet telephony & direct file transfer work with these
> applications?

These should not be effected.

>
> * many ISPs allow downloading an individual user's and all users' mail
> depending on the user ID used to logon to the mailserver every time. With
> Plus.net downloading individual user's mail involves creating separate
> mailboxes on the mailserver. Does this mean that if you wish to download
> mail for user1@ separately sometimes, you have no choice but to download
> mail for that user separately every time?

It depends how you have it set up in outlook, asumming you are using
outlook. Plusnet's mailboxes each look like seperate POP3 accounts to
Outlook. You can create autoforwarders too.

To do what you want you just need to set up Outlook to collect mail from all
your mailboxes "at home" and just collect from one mailbox on your phone. On
"other PCs" you can check mail using their Webmail front-end. IT works well
in my experience.

>
> * can I move between ADSL Home Surf and the enhanced ADSL Home
> Self-Install freely, or do I have to wait for the 12 months minimum
> contract period to expire first? (and then another 12 months if I choose
> to move back?)
>

They told me I could do this anytime, but in the end I went for the £21.99
package anyhow, becuase of the 200Mb extra web space mostly, as I'm not a
large P2Per.

> * finally, Plus.net strongly recommend that I get the line activated
> first before I purchase any equipment, which complicates things a bit
> since I am planning to buy a router on ebay. Is there a way to know the
> test results before I actually get the service going?
>

There is no way to know in advance, but this is SOUND advice. Typically,
assuming your exchange is already activated you should know your test
results about 4 working days after you apply (from several experiences
applying) Buy the kit when you know the test result is a pass.

Jc <plusnet customer>
..

On Tue, 12 Aug 2003 17:34:32 +0100 and in article
<(E-Mail Removed) >, Peter Morgan - 0870
432 9631 said...
: On Tue, 12 Aug 2003 16:16:41 +0100, chris <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
:
: > How exactly do you do this?
:
: Do you seriously expect an answer to that ?

I won't know unless I ask them..

--
chris

"chris" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Tue, 12 Aug 2003 17:34:32 +0100 and in article
> <(E-Mail Removed) >, Peter Morgan - 0870
> 432 9631 said...
> : On Tue, 12 Aug 2003 16:16:41 +0100, chris <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> :
> : > How exactly do you do this?
> :
> : Do you seriously expect an answer to that ?
>
> I won't know unless I ask them..
>
> --
> chris
Search the plusnet discussion groups on their portal, they made a few
comments on there not so long ago.

Jc.

On Tue, 12 Aug 2003 18:43:14 +0100 and in article <UL9_a.2696$z7.440028
@wards.force9.net>, Josey said...
: "chris" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
: news:(E-Mail Removed)...
: > On Tue, 12 Aug 2003 17:34:32 +0100 and in article
: > <(E-Mail Removed) >, Peter Morgan - 0870
: > 432 9631 said...
: > : On Tue, 12 Aug 2003 16:16:41 +0100, chris <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
: > :
: > : > How exactly do you do this?
: > :
: > : Do you seriously expect an answer to that ?
: >
: > I won't know unless I ask them..
: >
: > --
: > chris
: Search the plusnet discussion groups on their portal, they made a few
: comments on there not so long ago.
:
I'll have a look, I take it I dont need to login??
--
chris

Michael K:
>Not bad response times for 2:30am

Well, it was still 26C in my bedroom, I see you couldn't sleep either..
Now that I am little more awake:

I bought Netgear DM602 modem from PC World on the day of activation, but it
didn't work, not even the software would load (or uninstall !), wasted
several days phoning help line (in India !) etc. then returned it !
It was in fact ten days before I got Draytek 2600We, my original choice
(which was out of stock and not available from PCW).

Today I got email from PlusNet saying that BT has resolved their MTU
problems etc., so I did a speed check
and at 7 p.m. got cracking 501.7kbps !
Regards,
Martin

On Tue, 12 Aug 2003 18:56:31 +0100, chris <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I'll have a look, I take it I dont need to login??

You can use "guest" and "guest" to login, but you can't post with
that!

Regards,

Ian
--
| Ian Wild Unmetered & ADSL solutions
| Customer Support for Home & Business
| PlusNet Technologies Ltd. @ http://www.plus.net
+ ------- My Referrals - It pays to recommend PlusNet -------

On Tue, 12 Aug 2003 16:16:41 +0100, chris <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:


>How exactly do you do this? Do you block all ports after a certain
>number, or do you just block the known ports that these P2P clients use?
>
>If the latter is the case, what is to stop me either config'ing these
>clients to use port 80 (as people at Uni did when our backward admin's
>tried to restrict our service) or tunnel the port ranges using SSH?

We utilise a number of different technologies. As has been pointed
out, it's probably not something I am in a position to publicise in
any detail. Suffice it to say that you are not allowed to use P2P apps
on the Home Surf products.

Regards,

Ian
--
| Ian Wild Unmetered & ADSL solutions
| Customer Support for Home & Business
| PlusNet Technologies Ltd. @ http://www.plus.net
+ ------- My Referrals - It pays to recommend PlusNet -------