Lower cost package deal

mrapoc · May 24, 2011, 18:04:35

Not necessarily for now, but when I go to Uni the family won't be using the internet as much, nor require as much quality from it.

I'm looking at saving money for phone line and broadband together, whilst avoiding massive lengthy contracts, talktalk and orange whilst still upholding some kind of decent service.

We would be going back to Idnet when I return / hell i'll try to get it at our Uni house.

Any advice? We only have talktalk LLU at our exchange.

Rik · May 24, 2011, 18:08:31

Not sure, Sam. I was thinking Sky, but iirc, their BT-based product doesn't come out too well. How about dropping to the basic IDNet package?

MisterW · May 24, 2011, 18:52:12

If you are likely to be happy with the traffic shaping then take a look at PlusNet. £6.49/month BB and £11.99/month phone, no contracts.

mrapoc · May 24, 2011, 20:25:47

Plusnet sounds an option if its no contract too!

We already have sky for tv (hd too) so maybe we would get a good package there.

More importantly, is there anyone to definitely avoid such as talktalk (even their LLU cannot be good) and orange

pctech · May 24, 2011, 22:15:36

Be aware though that Plisnet is heavily traffic managed on the cheap packages and when their network is under heavy load it can often slow to a crawl and that is just basic browsing.

Bill · May 25, 2011, 06:54:57

Quote from: mrapoc on May 24, 2011, 20:25:47
More importantly, is there anyone to definitely avoid

If you can't get their LLU product, O2 have a very poor reputation.

Gary · May 25, 2011, 08:38:39

Quote from: Bill on May 25, 2011, 06:54:57
If you can't get their LLU product, O2 have a very poor reputation.

Agreed, was with O2 BB and it was awful over BT but great at our old home with LLU, O2 access was slower than anything I have used since Dial up, even Freeserve/wanadoo fixed 1mb line was faster.

MisterW · May 25, 2011, 08:53:59

QuoteBe aware though that Plisnet is heavily traffic managed on the cheap packages and when their network is under heavy load it can often slow to a crawl and that is just basic browsing.

Mitch, Yes, their network is traffic shaped but I've been with them for >4 years, the last year or so on the basic product and have never had any issues. I use my connection for browsing, email and voip, I don't use p2p or download sites much (apart from my Linux updates). I have never had any problems with the traffic shaping, even the Linux updates go at full speed no matter when I do it.

Gary · May 25, 2011, 10:32:18

Not all agree http://ihateplusnet.blog.co.uk/ I dont think there is a ihateidnet page?

reminds me of Orange

Bill · May 25, 2011, 12:38:48

I always mistrust the "I Hate xxxx" sites... as often as not it's somebody being totally unreasonable in their expectations, even when they may have had a legitimate complaint at the start.

Since their low point a few years ago (when they bought my ISP, MetroNet, and I rapidly hopped it to IDNet!) they've come across as a reasonably good ISP at the cheap 'n cheerful end of the market.

Gary · May 25, 2011, 13:27:03

Quote from: Bill on May 25, 2011, 12:38:48
I always mistrust the "I Hate xxxx" sites... as often as not it's somebody being totally unreasonable in their expectations, even when they may have had a legitimate complaint at the start.

Since their low point a few years ago (when they bought my ISP, MetroNet, and I rapidly hopped it to IDNet!) they've come across as a reasonably good ISP at the cheap 'n cheerful end of the market.

I know what you mean Bill, the orange site was pretty justified I thought, having read the plusnet ones it seems likely its 50/50 as some people do blame the ISP when its BT or themselves in fact, but the never the less a Ihat exxxx site exists, which does make me wonder a bit...

pctech · May 25, 2011, 17:12:26

Quote from: MisterW on May 25, 2011, 08:53:59
Mitch, Yes, their network is traffic shaped but I've been with them for >4 years, the last year or so on the basic product and have never had any issues. I use my connection for browsing, email and voip, I don't use p2p or download sites much (apart from my Linux updates). I have never had any problems with the traffic shaping, even the Linux updates go at full speed no matter when I do it.

My experience on a mediocre line differed very much to yours and any discussion of it on Plusnet's forums was met with the same response I got from support 'must be your line'

So not sure how they might be able to explain an increase in perceived performance when I upgraded to pro.

Technical Ben · May 25, 2011, 17:35:02

Quote from: Bill on May 25, 2011, 12:38:48
I always mistrust the "I Hate xxxx" sites... as often as not it's somebody being totally unreasonable in their expectations, even when they may have had a legitimate complaint at the start.

Since their low point a few years ago (when they bought my ISP, MetroNet, and I rapidly hopped it to IDNet!) they've come across as a reasonably good ISP at the cheap 'n cheerful end of the market.

It's when the "I love [business]" sites are full of complaints I start to worry!

MisterW · May 25, 2011, 20:32:23

Mitch,
Surprised to hear about your experience on the PlusNet forums, usually the Digital Care team are pretty helpful.
As you say, its difficult to explain why performance would be better on Pro unless it was due to traffic shaping.

pctech · May 26, 2011, 15:46:34

It got particularly bad when we had the snow in early part of 2009 and certain very active member of customer support was reporting lots of 'gold drops' due to heavy VPN use.

Connection was pretty much unusable and as I was off work with a shoulder injury at the time and couldn't abide one more minute of daytime TV I was trying to browse etc.

That's an extreme example of course but it did used to slow down noticably during the evenings anyway.

I'm all for saving cash but if a service becomes unusable at peak times when you want to use it proves to be a false economy,

I wouldn't have minded so much if they had said 'yes we know there is an issue, we are planning a software or hardware upgrade to deal with it' but just the constant must be your line got irritating and after my results with pro I decided I did not really wish to deal with a company that was happy to palm customers off with excuses.

I suspect that the effect would have been lessened had the line been faster as it is in your case but that is neither under my nor plusnet's direct control.

I am of the opininon that under verified slow line conditions they should be able to lift the throttling slightly to compensate.

mrapoc · May 26, 2011, 16:46:17

Cheers guys. My uncle lives in the same town and is on talktalk so I'll go checkout how his line performs under LLU.

For now we can stay on Idnet (until I move out anyway)

Bill · May 26, 2011, 17:31:19

TalkTalk and Plusnet using the tbb ISP comparison facility...

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isp/compare.html?isp_77=1&isp_22=1&commit=Compare