PlusNet kill 8Mbps

PlusNet are now throttling all protocols to a maximum of 2Mbps during
their 16 hours of peak time per day (ie when most people are awake). So
the brave new world of 8Mbps high speed internet is just a pipe dream
and PlusNet's customers would have been better off on the old 2Mbps
fixed line speed - especially since PlusNet have also announced that
they have rolled out draconian new limits on so-called critical real
time protocols eg VoIP and gaming (blaming a couple of smart kids who
allegedly managed to download 40Gb of data disguised as VoIP - which in
turn was only possible because PlusNet had forgotten to monitor its
customers' monthly download limits).

What a farce! These wide boys haven't bought any centrals since I was a
lad and they say that they don't intend to - actually, they say that
they don't need to and they won't review their position unless they get
an increase in customers (dream on) or until next spring when BT drops
its prices. This ISP claims to lead while others follow - but they
forgot to take account of customers' changing usage habits. And BT want
to shell out £67m for their "expertise"!!??

They call themselves the ISP of choice for the savvy net user but now
they wouldn't suit most grannies.

Stan

Stan The Man <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in news:291120060029457523%
(E-Mail Removed):

> PlusNet are now throttling all protocols to a maximum of 2Mbps during
> their 16 hours of peak time per day (ie when most people are awake).

I think you've misunderstood that one. From what I gather, this is due to
some phrasing that has been introduced (which I believe Zen introduced
before PlusNet). The reasoning is that this is a BT stated limit in their
wholesale agreement. BT are not guarenteeing that capacity will provide
enough for more than 2mbps at peak time.
PlusNet and Zen are restating this info to their customers.

What I did see when looking into this though (with PlusNet) was that VoIP
is being capped to 192kbps, and gaming to 512kbps - which must be a pain
if you want several calls at once or maybe a game decides it wants you to
download a big update before it'll let you play again.

--
Colin
*Drop DEAD from the email address to reply*

On Wed, 29 Nov 2006 00:29:45 +0000, Stan The Man <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>PlusNet are now throttling all protocols to a maximum of 2Mbps during
>their 16 hours of peak time per day (ie when most people are awake). So
>the brave new world of 8Mbps high speed internet is just a pipe dream
>and PlusNet's customers would have been better off on the old 2Mbps
>fixed line speed - especially since PlusNet have also announced that
>they have rolled out draconian new limits on so-called critical real
>time protocols eg VoIP and gaming (blaming a couple of smart kids who
>allegedly managed to download 40Gb of data disguised as VoIP - which in
>turn was only possible because PlusNet had forgotten to monitor its
>customers' monthly download limits).
>
>What a farce! These wide boys haven't bought any centrals since I was a
>lad and they say that they don't intend to - actually, they say that
>they don't need to and they won't review their position unless they get
>an increase in customers (dream on) or until next spring when BT drops
>its prices. This ISP claims to lead while others follow - but they
>forgot to take account of customers' changing usage habits. And BT want
>to shell out £67m for their "expertise"!!??
>
>They call themselves the ISP of choice for the savvy net user but now
>they wouldn't suit most grannies.

WRONG!

Check out uk.people.silversurfers, you'll find many granny (and grandad)
Plusnet 'fanbois' on there.

And that's now Plusnet's target audience.

People who want nothing more from the Internet than to check their
email, to post to a couple of newsgroups, and to shove a few pictures on
a website now and again.

Oldies that chant "better the devil you know" whenever you suggest to
them they could get *far* better value for money elsewhere...

On 29 Nov 2006, Simon aka Stan The Man <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>haven't bought any centrals since I was a lad

Must make you still "a lad" then, "Stan".

(At least, untrue if you are over 15! :-)

Stan The Man wrote:
> PlusNet are now throttling all protocols to a maximum of 2Mbps during
> their 16 hours of peak time per day

Isn't it 8 hours during their peak time between of between 4pm and midnight?

Great Eastern wrote:
> Stan The Man wrote:
>> PlusNet are now throttling all protocols to a maximum of 2Mbps during
>> their 16 hours of peak time per day
>
> Isn't it 8 hours during their peak time between of between 4pm and
> midnight?

You don't think Stan is going to let facts get in the way of his hysterical
outbursts do you?

Peter Crosland

On Wed, 29 Nov 2006 00:29:45 +0000, Stan The Man <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>PlusNet are now throttling all protocols to a maximum of 2Mbps during
>their 16 hours of peak time per day (ie when most people are awake). So
>the brave new world of 8Mbps high speed internet is just a pipe dream
>and PlusNet's customers would have been better off on the old 2Mbps
>fixed line speed - especially since PlusNet have also announced that
>they have rolled out draconian new limits on so-called critical real
>time protocols eg VoIP and gaming (blaming a couple of smart kids who
>allegedly managed to download 40Gb of data disguised as VoIP - which in
>turn was only possible because PlusNet had forgotten to monitor its
>customers' monthly download limits).
>
>What a farce! These wide boys haven't bought any centrals since I was a
>lad and they say that they don't intend to - actually, they say that
>they don't need to and they won't review their position unless they get
>an increase in customers (dream on) or until next spring when BT drops
>its prices. This ISP claims to lead while others follow - but they
>forgot to take account of customers' changing usage habits. And BT want
>to shell out £67m for their "expertise"!!??
>
>They call themselves the ISP of choice for the savvy net user but now
>they wouldn't suit most grannies.
>

The factual and correct information in the above post is summarised on
the next line:





--
Alex Heney, Global Villager
Remember, Subaru spelled backwards is U-R-A-BUS.
To reply by email, my address is alexATheneyDOTplusDOTcom

On Wed, 29 Nov 2006 Stan The Man wrote:

>PlusNet are now throttling all protocols to a maximum of 2Mbps during
>their 16 hours of peak time per day (ie when most people are awake).

Last time I checked, their peak hours totalled 8 per day: 4 p.m. to
midnight.
--
Thoss

Stan The Man wrote:
> PlusNet are now throttling all protocols to a maximum of 2Mbps during
> their 16 hours of peak time per day (ie when most people are awake).

Whilst I have to join you in condemnation of Plusnet's service. I just did a
speed test and got 5.6mbps (max off-peak being 6mbps)

It is their throttling of some news servers and p2p that I find more
concerning.
I haven't been able to connect to news.grc.com since the beginning of the
month and p2p has been totally blocked since then as well.
But both connect fine by dialup.
They accuse me of downloading binary news, yet grc.com don't carry any
binary groups. As I can connect to the MSnews and Readfreenews servers this
suggests they have blocked GRC by IP. (?) Are they blocking any other news
IPs?
As for p2p they say don't use p2p in peak time yet my client is scheduled to
only use off peak.
But the crazy bit is lots of other Plusnet users can connect to GRC and to
p2p. But some others, like me, can't. So they are blocking only some
customers!

Slatts

On 29 Nov 2006, "Sla#s" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>throttling of some news servers and p2p that I find more concerning.

It depends what account type you have as to the level of throttling.
The Broadband Plus account is probably the least usable for anything but
web browsing and e-mail, and one reason why I switched from that to a PAYG
account, a long time ago now.

>I haven't been able to connect to news.grc.com since the beginning of the month

Ages ago there was a posting in the customer-services newsgroup with a list
of news servers which carried text-only groups and which they added to the
Ellacoya filters to allow reasonable speeds. Best put a comment on either
the Usergroup ( http://usergroup.plus.net/forum/index.php?board=22.0 ) or
PlusNet "Discussion forums" when logged into the "Member Centre" section.

>... I can connect to the MSnews and Readfreenews servers this suggests they
> have blocked GRC by IP. (?) Are they blocking any other news IPs?

The default is to be 'throttled' (to a degree you get timeouts, though the
response that might come from their scripts could be "access is not blocked
but speed is not guaranteed and connection might not be reliable")

>But the crazy bit is lots of other Plusnet users can connect to GRC and to
>p2p. But some others, like me, can't. So they are blocking only some
>customers!

Depends on account type. Seems even business users get some throttling of
some traffic types, and given the prices paid, that seems only to guarantee
a wish for those customers (at the very least) to consider switching quite
seriously. Without knowing what account type you are on, can only suggest
considering a switch to Premier (if your traffic exceeds 5 GB a month) or
consider PAYG pricing (been a while since the minimum of 2 GB came into
force, and the extras are a bit more generous now...)

--
Change to DSL Max the way I did: switch ISP <http://www.dslmax.info/>