Migrating in -- help choosing please

[MrsGrey]

I'm jumping the sinking Plusnet ship and ID looks good to me.
I have recently emailed ID to ask about the "zero contention" on Home Max. As you can tell, I am not very tech minded. I asked why anyone would opt for the Home 2000 if the contention is 50:1 and lower speed quoted, and I got a very helpful reply  -- see below:

Hi Jinny

Thank you very much for your enquiry.

Home Max is contended but BT aren't quoting any ratios anymore - it's based on data throughput instead now not on the amount of people sharing the connection.
Home Max is a Rate Adaptive service. This means that it will operate at the fastest stable speed that your phone line can support. The operative speed range is 288kbit/s - 8128kbit. Data throughput at busy (high network usage) times will be similar to that of your current fixed-rate service irrespective of the line rate achieved. You may want to consider Home 2000 as it's more definitive in terms of contention and speed stability. However, I would recommend posting the question on our user forum - we have quite a few users on there who have experienced both services and I'm sure will offer you some useful user feedback.

See: http://www.idnetters.idnet.co.uk/forums

Hope this helps and please don't hesitate to contact me if you if you require any further information.

Best regards
Tim



I think I understand this!
My dilemma is now --
which do I go for-- Max or 2000?
Currently on Plusnet Premier Option1 which is officially up to 8 Mb but daughter says usually a bit over 2.
Peak Time cap of 30GB per week, but don't use a fraction of that. Kids do P2P and downloading as well as Mir online game ( no comments on choice of game please!)

From what I read, Max SHOULD give me 2Mb+ if all goes well, but will be erratic.
Advice, anyone?

I don't understand the Sync thing-- is there an idiot's guide to Max anywhere?

[Bill]

Here's a couple of bits of light reading for you:

From Ian Willmore, an ISP rep on the Nildram forum and

from MrSaffron, one of the mods on AG.

My own experience on Home Max is that most of the time I get download speeds in the 2000Kbps to 4500Kbps range, in quiet periods it can go over 6000Kbps but in busy spells it can drop to below 1000Kbps. Not usually for long though, perhaps half an hour at the most.

Previously, when I was on what is now Home 2000, I would pretty consistently get speeds of 1850-1950Kbps, only occasionally dropping below about 1600Kbps.

So, you pays your money and takes your choice 

Note- I'm on a very good line, and get a rock-solid 8128Kbps sync rate (that's the frequency at which my router talks to the exchange, it has little to do with speed of data transfer, though the higher the better). It give me a maximum theoretical data rate of about 7200Kbps, that's 900Kbytes/sec. If your sync speed turns out to be less than that, your maximum possible data transfer speed will be lower in proportion than mine.

Hope that helps.

[MrsGrey]

Thanks. I will do my homework! But that does help some more. The 30GB limit is a lot more than on the 2000 package, which may decide it-- keep the kids happy anyway . 

[Bill]

The 30GB limit is a lot more than on the 2000 package

No, the Max and 2000 packages both have a 30Gb limit, it's the Home Lite that has the lower (2Gb) cap.

But the Max package is probably best- it will also allow the kids to brag about their high-speed line 

[Jeff]

Jinny, go for Max

[MrsGrey]

Many thanks! Looking forward to joining you'all asap which will depend on how good Plusnet are at playing ball with the MAC....

[Bill]

...how good Plusnet are at playing ball with the MAC....

Shouldn't take them too long- they must be getting plenty of practice 

[Jeff]

Plusnet usually dish out a MAC pronto. Quickest way ... I say this with a pinch of salt though as you may get into a half hour queue is to phone them. You could also raise a ticket via your portal

[EvilPC]

I asked PlusNet for my MAC and received it 33 minutes later..
Fastest they've ever answered a support ticket from me 

Anyway I migrate to IDNet on Monday 24th... 

[Jeff]

Welcome aboard Evil I received my MAC from Plusnet via a ticket, well, I received the standard non-Englander phoning me soon after my request dangling a carrot but the portion of the carrot still contained the throttling and shaping, so minus one to their CS dept. on this occassion