topic Re: from cheap to extreme :( in Plusnet Feedback

from cheap to extreme :(

BabaOsw — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 00:58:17 GMT

Signed-up with Plusnet a couple of month ago (due to arragements with Orange expiring). Was with Orange at £15.12pm, unlimited and reasonably happy (over approx 10yr). Signed upto Plusnet for little more cost, but hoping a decent service. Our average monthly use with Orange was generally between 3.5g - 4.5g per month, yet with plusnet we exceeded our 10g allowance in approx the first 8 or 9 days! despite not actually being able to use it for the first four days! frustrated indeed!!! better-still, due to frequent drop-outs and slower than previous speeds we find ourselves using the internet less and less. So was a little shocked to be informed today that the second month bill is over £40!!! - and weve used it less in the second month???? So approx two week ago we arranged to terminate (no progress yet). We are Just glad we never opted to sign-up with Netflix/Lovefilm recently, we'd be remortgaging the house before long lol.

Re: from cheap to extreme :(

jelv — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 01:54:33 GMT

So why haven't you changed to the new Plusnet Unlimited account (launched 19th December) which is £9.99 a month if you are in a low cost area and you agree to a 12 month contract?
In the meantime you should take advantage of the unlimited usage you currently have between midnight and 8am.

Re: from cheap to extreme :(

Townman — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 12:31:54 GMT

Jelv,
I think there is a more worrying issue here - the OP says they had no use of the service, have used it less when they did use it, yet have a higher usage reported / charged for. I suggest that they need to be sure that their WiFi is locked down and they do not have file shairing technology running on their computers. PN usage is for both up and down stream bandwidth... so though the OP does not think they have knowingly used the bandwidth, there might be WiFi hi-jackers or hidden applications up loading which have unexpectedly burned their utilisation.
Cheers,
Kevin

Re: from cheap to extreme :(

jelv — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 12:48:59 GMT

That's a very good point about the P2P uploads - BabaOsw are you running any file sharing?

Re: from cheap to extreme :(

orbrey — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 12:06:01 GMT

Hi all,
There's no p2p usage showing on there, it's nearly all streaming from what I can see. Looks like the connection has been on solidly throughout as well according to our logs.
Not sure what we could do in all honesty, @BabaOsw do you have more than one computer connected? Any games consoles/smart TVs that could be streaming?
Also do you use wireless and if so is it still using the default security setup?

Re: from cheap to extreme :(

BabaOsw — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 22:27:50 GMT

hi guys and thanks for the replies. we are not using p2p, and only streamed three football matches in the first 4 weeeks of use (not the full 90 mins of each match by the way). the kids have used alittle on youtube and that is about it. we are using less and less do to drop-out, though i have locked to one channel on the router, which has helped. we do have 3 pc's, the first (a laptop), sits less than 2 foot away from the router, the second in the next room, but we are using this rarely as the connection is now very poor. the third cannot make connection now we have two mobiles too, which i would say is the most likely cause of any use. all this does not bare-sense, for 10 years weve been constant between 3.5-4.5gb per month, yet in our first 9 days (approx), we'd exceeded out 10gb - we were away for the first 4 days of service!!! I will get my relation to have alook over things as im not too hot on these things. in the meantime, why has it not been mentioned about an unlimited service???? all im getting is ping-pong messages which contradict previous messages, so im getting right pee'd-off! They are not helping and will not terminate - usless i pay stupid costs, yet its not my fault!?!? So, can i connect my old (orange) router??? which is far superior to the pile of cogg i now have!? cheers in advance. bazz

Re: from cheap to extreme :(

BabaOsw — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 11:21:00 GMT

Abit I need to add to this post, though I dont feel it makes a big difference - over the last week we have streamed on three nights, upto an hour and half on each occassion from the ps3 - watching 'catch-up' soaps i.e. iplayer etc. This obviously does add to the recent billing, but im expecting any day now that we will have exceeded this months 10gb limit - 4hr of streaming - 10gb???
dick:quote

Re: from cheap to extreme :(

gofaster — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 11:56:53 GMT

If the PS/3 is playing the HD streams then you can expect it to use about 2GB per hour.
4 hours of streaming could easily use 8 GB.
Change over to the new Unlimited account for £9.99 (in low cost areas) and you will never need to worry about using too much.

Re: from cheap to extreme :(

Chris — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 11:58:03 GMT

If you combine the 4 hours of streaming with the 3 football matches too, that could easily be well over 10GB if the streams are in HD.

Re: from cheap to extreme :(

zubel — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 12:15:25 GMT

And most streaming sites will detect if you can support the HD stream vs the SD stream and will automatically switch you.
Thus, if your connection is "better" with Plusnet compared to your previous provider, which is likely given the appropriate prioritisation that Plusnet employ, then this would explain the apparent increase in usage.
I would consider moving to the Unlimited account as has been suggested.

Re: from cheap to extreme :(

BabaOsw — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 20:43:23 GMT

thanks again for the replies guys !!
the three football matches were in November (possibly 2 nov, 1 at the beginning of Dec) and the '4 hour' of soaps was the very recent - all of which were in sd. thanks again, awaiting a reply from the 'snotty' email i sent yesterday. ironic that after last nights post - i recieved an email stating that were approaching our 10gb limit, only for the next email to state we had exceeded grrrrrrr.....
This would have been from approx 23:30hrs onwards = GuttedAndFrustrated.com

Re: from cheap to extreme :(

jelv — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 20:50:59 GMT

Are you using anything like NetWorX to monitor the usage yourself?

Re: from cheap to extreme :(

BabaOsw — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 20:36:07 GMT

NetworX??? no, never though of anything like that - will visit download.com shortly (after 23:59 lol) and download something similar - CHEERS!
I will say, im dissapointed that the unlimited package was not mentioned in early Dec when matters were highlighted. More-so after more letter on the 12th! I have, therefore changed yesterday (5th) - but have to wait until the 27th for the changeover ! THIS COULD HAVE BEEN DONE pre-27th Dec?!?!?!?!
Today, I have recieved a second email, stating another 'bundle' is being added (the 2nd time since the 27th Dec). I accept my son has spent sometime today on 'you-tube', as much-as 1.5-2 hours, but again, this leaves me frustrated and annoyed. I cant see how weve used over 20gb since Dec27th...
again, thanks for the replies guys!

Re: from cheap to extreme :(

jelv — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 21:13:45 GMT

If you are running Windows don't look at anything other than NetWorX - it's the best free usage monitor going (the download is at the bottom left below the sponsored links).

Re: from cheap to extreme :(

VileReynard — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 00:36:29 GMT

You can set a limit of no more than 10GB - which limits your costs.
Your speed will be limited for the rest of the month to "very slow" - good enough for email and browsing, but not much else.

Re: from cheap to extreme :(

nadger — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 09:48:11 GMT

Quote from: BabaOsw
I will say, im dissapointed that the unlimited package was not mentioned in early Dec when matters were highlighted. More-so after more letter on the 12th!

Unlimited didn't become available until 19th December but was " sneaked" on forum the previous weekend.

Re: from cheap to extreme :(

gswindale — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 20:33:27 GMT

With regards to NetWorx, unless I'm mistaken; you will need it installed on each PC that is hooked up to your router & combine the output from all of them to give you a true indication.

Re: from cheap to extreme :(

jelv — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 22:56:49 GMT

NetWorX will do that itself - all instances on the LAN communicate with each other.

Re: from cheap to extreme :(

quelquod — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 11:53:31 GMT

Quote from: jelv
NetWorX will do that itself - all instances on the LAN communicate with each other.

You need to check that you're only counting your broadband traffic - not so easy with some routers.

Re: from cheap to extreme :(

jelv — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 12:35:44 GMT

That's a doddle with NetWorX it has an option to ignore the LAN subnet.