Which? Broadband report - PlusNet

Which? magazine have just done a report on broadband ISPs.
They rated PlusNet first, then Demon & Pipex as Best Buys.

I'm a member, but you may be able to get some details from
http://www.which.co.uk/



I need a broadband ISP that:

* allows me to send email with a 3rd party email address (such as my
current one)
* has an "uncapped" package at a reasonable price
* is reliable
* manual set-up - doesn't require a CD or download
* has all the legal newsgroups, or a large number

Any thoughts on PlusNet with regard to these?


--
Nigel M

On Tue, 01 Feb 2005 12:00:43 GMT, Nigel M <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Which? magazine have just done a report on broadband ISPs.
>They rated PlusNet first, then Demon & Pipex as Best Buys.

And one of the criteria they considered was it's uncapped service!!

"PlusNet stood out in our satisfaction survey, performing well in almost
all areas, from ease of use to connection speed and customer and technical
support. Its 512 kilobits per second (Kbps) service costs £14.99 a month,
with a usage allowance of 1 gigabyte (GB) a month; its uncapped package
costs £21.99 a month."
--

Regards

John [Essex, UK]
Remove the obvious spamtrap to reply

In uk.telecom.broadband, JC wrote:

>And one of the criteria they considered was it's uncapped service!!

I assume from the double !! that there are some issues with this?


--
Nigel M

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, JC <johncalias-
newsgroupsATyahooD0TcoD0Tuk>, a.k.a says...

> On Tue, 01 Feb 2005 12:00:43 GMT, Nigel M <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> >Which? magazine have just done a report on broadband ISPs.
> >They rated PlusNet first, then Demon & Pipex as Best Buys.
>
> And one of the criteria they considered was it's uncapped service!!

And it still is such, so the report was/is accurate at the time of going
to press.

On Tue, 01 Feb 2005 12:00:43 GMT, Nigel M <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Which? magazine have just done a report on broadband ISPs.
>They rated PlusNet first, then Demon & Pipex as Best Buys.
>
>I'm a member, but you may be able to get some details from
>http://www.which.co.uk/
>
>
>
>I need a broadband ISP that:
>
>* allows me to send email with a 3rd party email address (such as my
>current one)
>* has an "uncapped" package at a reasonable price
>* is reliable
>* manual set-up - doesn't require a CD or download
>* has all the legal newsgroups, or a large number
>
>Any thoughts on PlusNet with regard to these?

What did they say about Wanadoo?


cheers

Harry

On Tue, 1 Feb 2005 12:45:10 -0000, Tx2 <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, JC <johncalias-
>newsgroupsATyahooD0TcoD0Tuk>, a.k.a says...
>
>> On Tue, 01 Feb 2005 12:00:43 GMT, Nigel M <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>
>> >Which? magazine have just done a report on broadband ISPs.
>> >They rated PlusNet first, then Demon & Pipex as Best Buys.
>>
>> And one of the criteria they considered was it's uncapped service!!
>
>And it still is such, so the report was/is accurate at the time of going
>to press.

Not in the original context it was used, i.e, recommending an unlimited
replacement for Plusnet (assuming they introduce their caps).

--

Regards

John [Essex, UK]
Remove the obvious spamtrap to reply

On Tue, 01 Feb 2005 12:38:49 GMT, Nigel M <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>In uk.telecom.broadband, JC wrote:
>
>>And one of the criteria they considered was it's uncapped service!!
>
>I assume from the double !! that there are some issues with this?

In the context of what it was in response to...Yes!

--

Regards

John [Essex, UK]
Remove the obvious spamtrap to reply

In uk.telecom.broadband, Harry wrote:

>What did they say about Wanadoo?

In terms of customer satisfaction, they were the lowest of the 15
listed, at 30%. But the chart (repeated below) is misleading, it is
based on BB and dial-up, and silly numbers of samples.

Since my OP, I've heard from Clara, they wrote:

> No ISP can support a uncapped policy using the current CBC price plans
> from BT wholesale. We are currently reviewing a fair usage policy and
> you can read more about this on the link below,
http://www.plus.net/supportpages.htm...action=archive

So I guess it's back to a choice of Demon or Pipex then?



Clara.net 71%
Waitrose.com 61%
PlusNet 59%
Pipex 53%
Demon 52%
Blueyonder 50%
One.Tel 43%
Virgin.Net 39%
Tesco.Net 38%
AOL 33%
BT Yahoo! 32%
Tiscali 31%
Supanet 30%
Wanadoo 30%
NTL 30%

Typical "Which?" nonsense! The Clara.Net is based on a sample of 59
users, the Wanadoo and AOL are based on 1190.

--
Nigel M

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Nigel M <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Which? magazine have just done a report on broadband ISPs.
> They rated PlusNet first, then Demon & Pipex as Best Buys.
>
> I'm a member, but you may be able to get some details from
> http://www.which.co.uk/
>
>
>
> I need a broadband ISP that:
>
> * allows me to send email with a 3rd party email address (such as my
> current one)
> * has an "uncapped" package at a reasonable price
> * is reliable
> * manual set-up - doesn't require a CD or download
> * has all the legal newsgroups, or a large number
>
> Any thoughts on PlusNet with regard to these?

I'd say that they meet all your criteria.

You can continue to use your existing email address - as I do with my
Freeserve address. All you have to do is make a small change to your email
client so that *outgoing* mail goes via PlusNet's smtp server rather than
the current one. The pop server remains the same.

PlusNet's 512k "uncapped" service costs £21.99 per month. A lot of noise has
recently been generated by a very small number of vociforous users because
PN are proposing to restrain very heavy users who download literally tens of
GB per *day*. So a 'cap' may ultimately be imposed - but this will be
indistinguisable from truly 'uncapped' for the vast majority of users.

All ISPs suffer outages from time to time. PN is as good as any in this
respect, and better than most. At least,when there *are* problems, they come
clean and keep users informed of what is happening.

They give you sufficient information to set up your connection manually. [I
don't think that *is* a setup CD?]

They carry a good selection of newsgroups. There are about 35 with 'legal'
in the name - not all uk of course, but including uk.legal and
uk.legal.moderated. However, many people - myself included - use third
party news servers such as news.individual.net for most of our newsgroups,
which de-couples newsgroup considerations from the ISP selection process.

I would certainly recommend PlusNet. If you *do* sign up with them, perhaps
you would consider using my referral code of "mills37" which could save me a
few pence!
--
Cheers,
Tim
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

On Tue, 1 Feb 2005 12:38:49 UTC, Nigel M <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> In uk.telecom.broadband, JC wrote:
>
> >And one of the criteria they considered was it's uncapped service!!
>
> I assume from the double !! that there are some issues with this?

The double !! is probably a mistake - along with the apostrophe!

--
[Davism - a condition by which the sufferer experiences an inability
to give concise answers, express reasoned argument or opinion.
Usually accompanied by silly noises and gestures - incurable, early
euthanasia recommended. (also known as Gee-axia)]