thinking ofmoving

[Glenn]

No problem with posting here, I hope Plusnet works out for you.

[Happy Surfer]

thanks its purely to do with wanting the lower pings otherwise id stay with you guys, the home supermax option is just too expensive for me otherwise id go that route instead.

[Technical Ben]

Give us some feedback if you do get faster pings. I'm sure IDNet would be happy to learn from Plusnets model and services if they work and are manageable (read profitable as we all got to pay the bills). I'd also consider it as I'm slowly getting worse pings, but if it's exchange congestion not much I can do. 

[Happy Surfer]

will definately keep you posted on what the performance and pings are like 

i currently ping bbc.co.uk at 34-46ms in command prompt so will be interested to see what i get on plusnet pro

[pctech]

You'll be back 

You could also try Zen who I use or Demon (Cable and Wireless) who have just launched a gamers tariff although looks like its subject to a minimum term.

[Bill]

i currently ping bbc.co.uk at 34-46ms in command prompt so will be interested to see what i get on plusnet pro

I'm getting 26-27mSec to bbc.co.uk, and that's with interleaving on!

It used to be around 13mSec on FASTPATH, your packets must be taking the scenic route

[Zennon]

I shaved 5 ms off my pings moving from fast.co.uk to idnet both me and my friend moved to idnet around the same time, now this next bit tells me that the exchange has something to do with the pings you receive.
I live around nearly 3 miles from the exchange near Egremont cumbria and get 25ms my friend also with idnet lives just up the road from the exchange and also gets 25ms so proximity is playing no part for us.
I am sure the tech guys here will no the answer why this is

[pctech]

It'll depend how heavily loaded the backhaul from the exchange is.

[Steve]

The common factors involved in ping times are indeed distance from the exchange bearing in mind that this is the route your cable takes which may be totally different from say a near neighbour. The presence or not and the level of interleave in place. Whether your adsl or adsl2+ (lower pings for same connection). The level of congestion at your local BT exchange,you may not be on the same virtual path as your next door neighbour. The use of wifi for connection to your router will increase ping times compared to a wired connection.

[Bill]

...distance from the exchange bearing in mind that this is the route your cable takes which may be totally different from say a near neighbour

At a signal velocity down a cable of about 10 microseconds per mile, I doubt that's significant

[Technical Ben]

At a signal velocity down a cable of about 10 microseconds per mile, I doubt that's significant

Oh, but we are talking quality here. If half of the signal gets garbled by interference (the line acts like a aerial) then it will cause trouble. I agree on ping times not being effected. But if it's a troublesome wire, you could get spikes and dropouts.

[Bill]

Oh, but we are talking quality here.

No we're not, we're talking ping times

I agree that longer lines mean more signal problems, that's why sync rate goes down as line length goes up. But spikes are due to congestion (ping packets are low priority to most routers) and lost packets don't count in this context.

[Rik]

Hot VP or lack of backhaul would seem to be the likeliest candidates.

[Happy Surfer]

well been up and running on plusnet pro for bout week now and everything seems good, DNS seems more responsive, the other half commented at how quick her hotmail now loaded up on screen.

ping times are pretty much identical to idnet service give or take 1ms although on xbox live i am getting better connection rate to games, halo 3 has a little bar representing connection next to name, on idnet id get 4 out 5 bars regularly but on plusnet it is constant full bars and is defo helping my killrate, its giving me that extra edge on other players which is equalling a better score so the gaming traffic priority is helping me well.

download speed is a touch less than idnet, i was averaging bout 6.6-6.8 on idnet and now its about 6.4-6.7, maybe the dlm is still working out kinks.

[Simon]

Thanks for the feedback. 

[Rik]

Indeed, it's interesting to see the differences between ISPs.

[Happy Surfer]

no problem, one bad point i'll make though is that judging from their forums, there seems to be alot of problems with their billing system, left right and centre people getting overbilled and payment dates changing etc, even i have already suffered the wrath of it, got the 3 months free deal but got invoiced for payment for first month, i noticed straight away but it was too late to stop it so they going to make the next 3 bills free...

[Rik]

If you pay by direct debit, you could get your bank to refund the money.

[Simon]

Just don't let them have a CCA.