*Orbrey* put the keyboard down and step away.
:hihi:

Anyone other than him use them???

Any feedback?

:D

I've used them for about 4 years and found them pretty good. People complain about their traffic management but atleast they are open about what they are doing. Other companies either just have a rubbish service at peak times or manage the traffic and don't tell you how. Also they have a great support forum, whenever I post a question I usually have a reply from a member of staff within minutes.

They still employ traffic management so, if you want to download P2P forget it.

Just for a friend who wants pretty basic browsing

utility warehouse - £20 a month including line rental, rated by which as one of the leading suppliers for customer service, etc etc

Just for a friend who wants pretty basic browsing

Could be Ok for low usage, I have heard that they have improved recently.

utility warehouse - £20 a month including line rental, rated by which as one of the leading suppliers for customer service, etc etc

£20 a month if LLU enabled exchange.
Quality of service is somewhat to be desired.

*Orbrey* put the keyboard down and step away.
:hihi:

Anyone other than him use them???

Any feedback?

:D

WTH neeeeeeeeeek? How many times have you seen this question dealt with on SF?

The most recent one was only a couple of weeks back:
http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=273943&highlight=plusnet

Out of pure courtesy I will give you the three-sentence summary as you've been around a long time and aren't a complete aretard - but most other people I'd have gone to get my flamethrower by now.


Summary:

They are the best of the large ISP options at the moment if you want ADSL and cannot get ADSL2 and don't want to spend much, however due to their size, all of the big guns are limiting the hell out of their users and PlusNet know how to limit better than the rest of them.

Their support is *pretty* good, but the presence of their comms team (eg: orbrey and james) makes it a lot more bearable. Also their general tendency for telling the truth when things go tits-up is refreshing.

If you want a decent speed connection (whether limited or not), then you want to find an EntaNet reseller instead of which nearly all of the + rated ISPs here are:
http://www.dslzoneuk.net/isp_ratings.php

*Orbrey* put the keyboard down and step away.
:hihi:

Yep. I saw the thread title and thought 'better stay away from this one'* and was apparently right...






*except for a sly read to see what everyone thinks, of course...

£20 a month if LLU enabled exchange.
Quality of service is somewhat to be desired.

the same could be said for all the major isps.

We have had (so far) excellent service from UW - once my contract runs out with BT im getting on the case with them!

the shop is on plusnet (for the remainder of the contract)and the connection can be far from perfect - usually Bt's fault but getting thru to talk to anyone has been a real ball ache.

I 'm on Plusnet at the mo' - £9.99 a month restricted to 1GB download. I m a light internet user so it suits me fine

So far so good and a vast improvement on Virgin.

getting thru to talk to anyone has been a real ball ache.

Feel free to PM me if there's anything you want looking into - it's one of the reasons I'm here after all.

I've been with plusnet for several years but am moving over to O2 as it's only £7.50 a month for 8GB which is more than enough out here in the sticks. Otherwise, I would stay with plusnet, reliable service, good comms, etc.

I've got plus net and it's all been fine for me. I chose them because of a write up in the guardian saying that they had one of the highest customer sastisfaction ratings going.

I'm on PlusNet and haven't had any real problems.

Lost the connection for hours at a time on a few occasions last year, but no probs since. In fact, just recently my download speeds have been on the increase. I'm meant to get 8mbps, but was only getting max of 250kbps http downloads when i first joined. In the last few weeks i've been regularly getting 350-400kbps. :thumbsup:

There have been numerous balls-ups by the company (theregister.co.uk has a good list of them) but they openly admit to them, which makes a change. (Though maybe i wouldn't be so fair about this if i'd actually been affected by any of the cockups).

I'm happy to stick to them... though the new O2 offering does look mighty tempting.


.

I'm thinking of signing up with either Plusnet or Utility warehouse but not sure who to go with. UW have said they want £99 to connect my line, so would like some feedback if anyone's used them at all before signing up! Plusnet seem ok too :help:

I'm getting very slow download speeds with PlusNet, they vary between 650kbps - 955kbps, although I'm paying for "up to 8Mb".

I have since found that BT, whom I believe now own PlusNet, have "set" my line speed at 1Mb! "to make my connection more stable" :suspect:

I was previously with Tiscali and getting download speeds of around 2.8Mb and BT do tell me that my line is capable of supporting speeds of up to 4.5MB!

I do wonder about the legality of offering speeds of "up to 8Mb" and "capping it" at 1Mb.

On 13th November 2008 my download speed dropped to 130 kbps!!!

Yikes, i didn't realise about that! So are tiscali quite good? I need a good, fast, reliable Broadband and phone service asap, and as my phone is showing as cable and not a BT line (odd as i have only left BT not long ago) it seems there will be a hefty connection fee :?

Throttling with PlusNet is time-sensitive, just don't do P2P at peak times and learn to use task scheduler (or similar) instead ;)

P2P speeds are fine in wee hours, I'm getting faster speeds on ADSL on a slower bandwidth product, than what I was getting in Ireland on a cable product rated at 4X the bandwidth unthrottled :gag:

With Plusnet for a couple of months now, because we're renting and they're the easiest option and best value/service when you're limited to short-term contracts. Good reliable service, nothing untoward to report (which is A Good Thing™ :hihi:)

I 'm on Plusnet at the mo' - £9.99 a month restricted to 1GB download. I m a light internet user so it suits me fine


You should have a 2GB allowance on 'option one' with silent hour downloads discounted.

http://www.plus.net/residential/?home=resindextop

Throttling with PlusNet is time-sensitive, just don't do P2P at peak times and learn to use task scheduler (or similar) instead ;)

P2P speeds are fine in wee hours, I'm getting faster speeds on ADSL on a slower bandwidth product, than what I was getting in Ireland on a cable product rated at 4X the bandwidth unthrottled :gag:

With Plusnet for a couple of months now, because we're renting and they're the easiest option and best value/service when you're limited to short-term contracts. Good reliable service, nothing untoward to report (which is A Good Thing™ :hihi:)

Ok, ummm.. what? Sorry but i'm not very techy! :hihi: What's task sceduler? Does that mean it's slow to download? I like to use BBC IPlayer and the likes to stream TV programs in the evenings, would this be a problem?

I've been with plusnet for several years but am moving over to O2 as it's only £7.50 a month for 8GB which is more than enough out here in the sticks. Otherwise, I would stay with plusnet, reliable service, good comms, etc.

8 Mb Internet in Stannington? With due respect Max, tha's got no chance! I was told by most of the major ISPs when I was looking to upgrade my Broadband while I was still living at Mum and Dad's, that the best I could get that far away from the exchange near Fletcher's at Wadsley, would be 512k, and that includes Plusnet.

Ok, ummm.. what? Sorry but i'm not very techy! :hihi: What's task sceduler? Does that mean it's slow to download? I like to use BBC IPlayer and the likes to stream TV programs in the evenings, would this be a problem?

Around 2MB is plenty fast enough for iPlayer & streams, depending on resolution of course (for the tech-challenged ;) resolution is the size of the moving image, e.g. VGA is 640 x 480 pixels). Think of it as a pipe you're stuffing with... err... stuff! The smaller the stuff, the easier/faster it goes through the pipe, and of course the bigger the stuff, the slower it goes through the pipe: same logic for streams, with image size (and sound and colour resolution and, and, and... I see your eyes glazing, young lady :hihi:). The idea is, you always want to pick streams that are 'size-compatible' with your actual BB speed, i.e. if you're on a 1MB package, YouTube / iPlayer should be acceptable, just don't select the High-Def option (stuff too big / pipe too small = jerky pictures and sound).

Task Scheduler is a (very old) standard program bundled with Windows, which lets you 'program' your computer to start programs at specific times, for a specific duration etc. Usually found somewhere in the 'Accessories' program folders. Nothing to do with Plusnet or broadband as such, it's only relevant if you want to do P2P (bittorrent), and it's only one solution amongst many others.

Plusnet, like many/most other ISPs, throttles ('limits', 'strangles') the bandwidth that can be used by P2P programs like Bittorrent and the like at peak times (don't know specific time, for example let's say "between 19:00 and 24:00"). During that time, normal browsing/streaming is broadband-fast, but Bittorrent downloading is slow to nonexistent. So, e.g., you leave your PC switched on and you tell Task Scheduler to start Bittorrent (and PeerGuardian while you're at it :suspect:) after 24:00, when the throttling stops. Hey presto, torrents downloaded as normal during the night, ready for in the morning.

Easy ... when you know how, of course :thumbsup:

I achieved my record low download speed (so far) today 16/10/08 of 330kbps! (I'm on Option 2 - up to 8Mb)

I need to stick with them though as they conned me into getting a "free" router from them and I'd have to fork-out £50 if I cancelled within 12 months.

They said my modem was no good when I couldn't get connected to the internet, after my account had been activated.
It turned out that they'd miss-spelt my password - although it's district of Sheffield :huh:

Do you still have a fault raised? The offer to look into it still stands, if you'll PM me a username so I can find your account.

I hope your putting this down to overtime Mr Matthew :)

sorry Orbrey, we were with Plusnet 2 years ago and we moved house, so they were supposed to re-connect phone line(keep same number) line rental and broadband but they didn't and even took money out of bank via direct debit then they even had the cheek to send us a bill for re-connecting.... we didn't pay it so it went to DCA and they got a few choice words I can tell you. Why should I pay £105 for a service they never provided

so two months after we moved , we went to and still are with BT , just had the bill for last 3 mths - £133, yes, expensive I know but tried Talk Talk, then Plusnet....

Blimey, that's not on - you don't need to apologise in any way for that, it's shocking service. I know there can be issues with line provision in some cases but it's obvious we shouldn't have tried to take the money, let alone pushed it any further than that. I'm sorry you had all that happen.

I guess all I can say is that I haven't heard of anything like that happening recently, if there is anyone with any kind of issues please let me know so I can look into it and get it sorted.

Be also aware that with PlusNet you may be on a monthly contract but they'll charge you a whopping £40 for cancelling. Grrrr - the robbing b******s :rant:

Lowest download speed 130kbps!!!

Be also aware that with PlusNet you may be on a monthly contract but they'll charge you a whopping £40 for cancelling. Grrrr - the robbing b******s :rant:

Lowest download speed 130kbps!!!

Yup, a monthly contract usually means you don't have to pay for a full years subscriptions if cancelling

The £40 is only requested if you choose to defer the activation fee over the initial 12 months and if you request to cancel during that time, then the £40 fee needs to be paid before the account is cancelled.

You could pay the activation fee up front when registering, then there'd be no cancellation costs.

Not read theother replys,but responding tohe firstguy, plusnetwould be goodfor a simple user, just browsing and email. forget other stuff.

Tried them a year or 2 back, gave up after the first month. One word HORRIBLE. Might have improved now (if they sacked most of the support staff from back then hat is.) wonder if they still ban ppl from theirforumsfor stating truths? ;) I was really appauled at the stuff I saw going on there.

For good downloading, NO CAPS no traffic shaping nonsence etc, go with an entanet reseller like UKFSN. £35 for 2mb, you do pay premium but you get a full uncapped unshaped REAL service. They do an uncapped 8mb one aswell if you have the mega bux :P

They also do peak/offpeak type packages too.

(to plusnet support ppl viewing, no offence guys, the quality of the service wasen't your fault)

I guess all I can say is that I haven't heard of anything like that happening recently, if there is anyone with any kind of issues please let me know so I can look into it and get it sorted.

It happened as recently as 6th Dec,
Its well documented on the thinkbroadband.com website, a site that your fellow employees contribute to.

Currently downloading at 5842 kbps (730kB/s) which is pretty good :)

I'm a long-time Force9 customer, and have never had many real issues - until now. I went 1MB over my daily bandwidth allocation last week, as too many friends viewed some photos I posted. My site was disabled as 'punishment' four days ago, and is still down, with no access allowed. I've been told via support that it's been queued for switching back on, but so far I've had no further response, my site is dead, and the folks I really needed to see my pics are now ringing me, asking what's happened to my website.

I'm really puzzled and angry, as it's impossible for me to monitor my bandwidth in real-time, and therefore I could not have remedied this anyway until afterwards. An email warning that the allocation had nearly been reached would have allowed me to sort the problem out before it was disconnected. Given I'm paying a monthly hosting fee and now getting no hosting, I'm obviously considering my options, and I think I'll have to move my domain and sites asap, as this is not acceptable in my opinion.

Aha! I'm back on at last! Many thanks to my guardian angels, who clearly work in mysterious ways...:)

Sorry about the delay there, I'll be taking that up with our CSC guys. Glad it's all working for you now though.

im with aol and used to have a capped 2mb account but my speed was way lower so i complained to them.. they took all restrictions off the line and i have not been slower than 2mb since and am normally about 4mb..