Thinking Of Downgrade From Sky To Plusnet

Currently have Sky Unlimited Broadband at £15 a month with BT line rental. I
also pay separately for a Giganews account as Sky doesn't provide one.

The plus points of Sky and Giganews is they have both been faultless in both
setup and operation during the past 18 months and this is important to me.

Despite this I am drawn to the Plusnet value package which is less than half
what I am currently paying and also provides newsgroup access ,at I assume
no extra charge.At first this looks a win win situation.

If I made the switch what is the likelihood of the service going downhill
e.g.: connection speeds, and periods of non service ? I currently get 5.7
download which isn't bad as I live about 2-3 miles from the exchange.

Mk.

On 31/03/11 13:48, mk wrote:
> Currently have Sky Unlimited Broadband at £15 a month with BT line rental. I
> also pay separately for a Giganews account as Sky doesn't provide one.
>
> The plus points of Sky and Giganews is they have both been faultless in both
> setup and operation during the past 18 months and this is important to me.
>
> Despite this I am drawn to the Plusnet value package which is less than half
> what I am currently paying and also provides newsgroup access ,at I assume
> no extra charge.At first this looks a win win situation.
>
> If I made the switch what is the likelihood of the service going downhill
> e.g.: connection speeds, and periods of non service ? I currently get 5.7
> download which isn't bad as I live about 2-3 miles from the exchange.
>
> Mk.
>
>

I switched some time ago and, as far as I'm concerned, there is no
appreciable difference in speeds etc. and NGs are included. You may like
to check

http://www.plus.net/support/broadban...d_speeds.shtml

to see if the traffic shaping will affect what you want (I don't have a
problem with it for my "profile" of use).

--
PeeGee

"Nothing should be able to load itself onto a computer without the
knowledge or consent of the computer user. Software should also be able
to be removed from a computer easily."
Peter Cullen, Microsoft Chief Privacy Strategist (Computing 18 Aug 05)

On 31/03/11 13:48, mk wrote:
> Currently have Sky Unlimited Broadband at £15 a month with BT line rental. I
> also pay separately for a Giganews account as Sky doesn't provide one.
>
> The plus points of Sky and Giganews is they have both been faultless in both
> setup and operation during the past 18 months and this is important to me.
>
> Despite this I am drawn to the Plusnet value package which is less than half
> what I am currently paying and also provides newsgroup access ,at I assume
> no extra charge.At first this looks a win win situation.
>
> If I made the switch what is the likelihood of the service going downhill
> e.g.: connection speeds, and periods of non service ? I currently get 5.7
> download which isn't bad as I live about 2-3 miles from the exchange.

Although I'm on plusnet, I use eternal-september.org as my news server.
I can't remember why I switched, but I'm happy with eternal-september.

In terms of service on ADSLMax I had no problems at all over the last
2years. I recently moved to ADSL2+ and had nothing but problems. This
may not be a plusnet problem, but I've yet to get to the bottom of it.

mk wrote:
> Currently have Sky Unlimited Broadband at £15 a month with BT line
> rental. I also pay separately for a Giganews account as Sky doesn't
> provide one.
> The plus points of Sky and Giganews is they have both been faultless
> in both setup and operation during the past 18 months and this is
> important to me.
> Despite this I am drawn to the Plusnet value package which is less
> than half what I am currently paying and also provides newsgroup
> access ,at I assume no extra charge.At first this looks a win win
> situation.
> If I made the switch what is the likelihood of the service going
> downhill e.g.: connection speeds, and periods of non service ? I
> currently get 5.7 download which isn't bad as I live about 2-3 miles
> from the exchange.
> Mk.

I swotched to the val;ue package last October. On the ADSL I was getting a
synch rate of 7616 kbps. During the upgrade they switched me to ADSL 2+
the synch rate was up a bit but not sufficient to raise my IP Profile from
6500 kbps. Recently - in the couple of weeks I have found that synch rate
has risen - to 9251 kbps by yesterday and the IP Profile was also upped to
8000 kbps. This morning I rebooted my router following some nasties after
that big BT outage yesterday everning. After the reboot synch rate was up
to 9417 kbps. So I reckon they are continuing to improve the line quality
between me and the local exchange.
--
Heard melodies are sweet, but those Unheard are sweeter
(E-Mail Removed) FN 2°11 +, Mungo Brandybuck of Buckland

On 31/03/2011 13:48, mk wrote:
> Currently have Sky Unlimited Broadband at £15 a month with BT line rental. I
> also pay separately for a Giganews account as Sky doesn't provide one.
>
> The plus points of Sky and Giganews is they have both been faultless in both
> setup and operation during the past 18 months and this is important to me.
>
> Despite this I am drawn to the Plusnet value package which is less than half
> what I am currently paying and also provides newsgroup access ,at I assume
> no extra charge.At first this looks a win win situation.
>
> If I made the switch what is the likelihood of the service going downhill
> e.g.: connection speeds, and periods of non service ? I currently get 5.7
> download which isn't bad as I live about 2-3 miles from the exchange.
>
> Mk.
>
>
Someone else asked a similar question a few days ago.
You'll find many responses already under that thread which may help
answer any of the queries that you raise - and others too.
The thread is entitled "Plusnet" - duh ;-)

George

"mk" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:(E-Mail Removed) ...
> Currently have Sky Unlimited Broadband at £15 a month with BT line rental. I also pay separately for a Giganews account as Sky
> doesn't provide one.
>
> The plus points of Sky and Giganews is they have both been faultless in both setup and operation during the past 18 months and
> this is important to me.
>
> Despite this I am drawn to the Plusnet value package which is less than half what I am currently paying and also provides
> newsgroup access ,at I assume no extra charge.At first this looks a win win situation.
>
> If I made the switch what is the likelihood of the service going downhill e.g.: connection speeds, and periods of non service ? I
> currently get 5.7 download which isn't bad as I live about 2-3 miles from the exchange.
>
> Mk.

I am always intrigued as to why people need/expect their ISP to provide
Usenet access, or for that matter POP email.

Nether of these were on my radar when I chose an ISP.

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

On 31/03/2011 17:23, Graham. wrote:
> "mk"<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:(E-Mail Removed) ...
>> Currently have Sky Unlimited Broadband at £15 a month with BT line rental. I also pay separately for a Giganews account as Sky
>> doesn't provide one.
>>
>> The plus points of Sky and Giganews is they have both been faultless in both setup and operation during the past 18 months and
>> this is important to me.
>>
>> Despite this I am drawn to the Plusnet value package which is less than half what I am currently paying and also provides
>> newsgroup access ,at I assume no extra charge.At first this looks a win win situation.
>>
>> If I made the switch what is the likelihood of the service going downhill e.g.: connection speeds, and periods of non service ? I
>> currently get 5.7 download which isn't bad as I live about 2-3 miles from the exchange.
>>
>> Mk.
>
> I am always intrigued as to why people need/expect their ISP to provide
> Usenet access, or for that matter POP email.
>
> Nether of these were on my radar when I chose an ISP.
>
Well, in the case of Plusnet, they do have their own newsgroups, which
are only available to their customers from their own news server.
These include customer feedback and service status, which I find very
useful.

George

On 31/03/2011 17:23, Graham. wrote:
>
> I am always intrigued as to why people need/expect their ISP to provide
> Usenet access, or for that matter POP email.
>
> Nether of these were on my radar when I chose an ISP.
>

One stop shop. If I have no news access I know who to call.

If someone was to supply ISP only at significantly lower cost to other
ISPs I might think again - but it doesn't seem to be a factor in the
pricing.

Andy

On 31/03/2011 17:23, Graham. wrote:
> "mk"<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:(E-Mail Removed) ...
>> Currently have Sky Unlimited Broadband at £15 a month with BT line rental. I also pay separately for a Giganews account as Sky
>> doesn't provide one.
>>
>> The plus points of Sky and Giganews is they have both been faultless in both setup and operation during the past 18 months and
>> this is important to me.
>>
>> Despite this I am drawn to the Plusnet value package which is less than half what I am currently paying and also provides
>> newsgroup access ,at I assume no extra charge.At first this looks a win win situation.
>>
>> If I made the switch what is the likelihood of the service going downhill e.g.: connection speeds, and periods of non service ? I
>> currently get 5.7 download which isn't bad as I live about 2-3 miles from the exchange.
>>
>> Mk.
>
> I am always intrigued as to why people need/expect their ISP to provide
> Usenet access, or for that matter POP email.
>
> Nether of these were on my radar when I chose an ISP.
>

To my mind they are basic services which an ISP should provide.

At the moment there are quite good free alternatives such as Gmail and
Eternal-September but they may not remain free for ever.

Ultimately it is a matter of money. If my broadband was free I would
accept it without these services


--
Michael Chare

Michael Chare wrote:
> On 31/03/2011 17:23, Graham. wrote:
>> "mk"<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed) ...
>>> Currently have Sky Unlimited Broadband at £15 a month with BT line
>>> rental. I also pay separately for a Giganews account as Sky
>>> doesn't provide one.
>>>
>>> The plus points of Sky and Giganews is they have both been faultless
>>> in both setup and operation during the past 18 months and
>>> this is important to me.
>>>
>>> Despite this I am drawn to the Plusnet value package which is less
>>> than half what I am currently paying and also provides
>>> newsgroup access ,at I assume no extra charge.At first this looks a
>>> win win situation.
>>>
>>> If I made the switch what is the likelihood of the service going
>>> downhill e.g.: connection speeds, and periods of non service ? I
>>> currently get 5.7 download which isn't bad as I live about 2-3 miles
>>> from the exchange.
>>>
>>> Mk.
>>
>> I am always intrigued as to why people need/expect their ISP to provide
>> Usenet access, or for that matter POP email.
>>
>> Nether of these were on my radar when I chose an ISP.
>>
>
> To my mind they are basic services which an ISP should provide.
>

well thats your POV.


> At the moment there are quite good free alternatives such as Gmail and
> Eternal-September but they may not remain free for ever.
>
> Ultimately it is a matter of money. If my broadband was free I would
> accept it without these services
>
>

Hah! the bandwidth costs far more than the shoddy services that people
accept for hosted services.