topic Re: Why hasn't Plusnet assist been withdrawn in Plusnet Feedback

Why hasn't Plusnet assist been withdrawn

Oldjim — Mon, 22 Sep 2014 10:17:23 GMT

http://www.plus.net/home-broadband/assist/

Quote
Minimum requirements
Operating system: Windows 7 (32 bit and 64 bit). Windows Vista (32 bit and 64 bit). Windows XP (32 bit with SP2). Processor type: Pentium II or higher. Processor speed: 450 MHz or higher. Memory (RAM): 128 MB or more. Hard drive space free: 200 MB or more. Browser: Internet Explorer only (up to version 9)
Plusnet Assist is not currently compatible with Windows 8 or Internet Explorer versions 10 and above.

Basically the minimum requiremt Windows 7 is a load of rubbish as anyone running that operating system will or should be on IE11
What it should say until it is patched or withdrawn (preferably withdrawn as it is unlikely to be patched) is

Quote
Minimum requirements
Operating system: Windows Vista (32 bit and 64 bit). Windows XP (32 bit with SP2). Processor type: Pentium II or higher. Processor speed: 450 MHz or higher. Memory (RAM): 128 MB or more. Hard drive space free: 200 MB or more. Browser: Internet Explorer only (up to version 9)
Plusnet Assist is not currently compatible with Windows 8 or Windows 7 fully patched or Internet Explorer versions 10 and above.

Re: Why hasn't Plusnet assist been withdrawn

MauriceC — Mon, 22 Sep 2014 11:19:34 GMT

Even when it works, it's not that good! It can - and often does - change things that it doesn't need to change and so causing even more confusion for an inexperienced user.
The kindest thing would be to formally withdraw the product and reduce the effort it takes to NOT support it.
Maurice

Re: Why hasn't Plusnet assist been withdrawn

rongtw — Mon, 22 Sep 2014 13:19:55 GMT

Easy ,,, just Get rid of it until PN can come up with something that works

Re: Why hasn't Plusnet assist been withdrawn

jelv — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 09:31:11 GMT

I wonder what the ASA's take on this will be?

Re: Why hasn't Plusnet assist been withdrawn

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 10:27:28 GMT

@ jelv ASA?

Re: Why hasn't Plusnet assist been withdrawn

jelv — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 10:42:16 GMT

http://www.asa.org.uk/Consumers/How-to-complain.aspx

Re: Why hasn't Plusnet assist been withdrawn

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 12:23:55 GMT

Of course!

Re: Why hasn't Plusnet assist been withdrawn

jelv — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 13:24:32 GMT

The more people who raise a complaint with ASA the more likely they are to take a look. Anyone who has recently joined and expected Plusnet Assist to be available would be especially significant to the ASA if they raised a complaint.

Re: Why hasn't Plusnet assist been withdrawn

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 13:46:17 GMT

With PN's apparent adoption of Open Source why don't they offer the source code to the community? By doing so they would end up with a much better product, contributed to by PlusNet's users, which in itself is worth some 'Brownie Points'. The product is digitally signed by PlusNet so they could then use this as an opportunity to audit the code and stage releases rather than have a rolling release.
Out of interest does anyone know what the software is written in?

Re: Why hasn't Plusnet assist been withdrawn

Oldjim — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 13:58:03 GMT

It is based on a BT Desktop Help I believe but modified to suit Plusnet
The BT version has been updated but not the Plusnet derivative http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/12941/~/bt-desktop-help

Re: Why hasn't Plusnet assist been withdrawn

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 14:15:13 GMT

That's reason enough not to I guess. Shame they can acquire BT's updated version.

Re: Why hasn't Plusnet assist been withdrawn

TORPC — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 16:42:26 GMT

PlusNet are so far behind the times on many things & need to play catchup as quick as is humanly possible
That said
As PlusNet Assist is not a priority & never will be, then it should be pulled, to make room for more urgent priorities e.g, updating their billing system, to add a pay now button

Re: Why hasn't Plusnet assist been withdrawn

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 17:01:19 GMT

OK this may not even be a starter, but what about a community developed version of PN Assist. I'm quite sure there is more than enough talent within the confines of these forums to come up with a replacement. If it was written using Open Source tools like Digia's Qt then there could be versions for Windows and Linux.
I know replacing it would not be a 10 minute job but with enough people on board and a properly managed project and versioning control system in place who knows, or am I just rambling?

Re: Why hasn't Plusnet assist been withdrawn

MattyC — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 17:03:24 GMT

This is definitely something that we are aware of.
It's been mentioned to products before, but I have mentioned it again. As has Chris P, I think.
Matty

Re: Why hasn't Plusnet assist been withdrawn

TORPC — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 17:40:26 GMT

It feels like the Products team are NOT listening & or adhering to the situation @ hand & there should be someone to give them a proper nudge in the right direction or they should face a demotion or lose their job(s)

Re: Why hasn't Plusnet assist been withdrawn

jelv — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 16:34:58 GMT

I really can't understand why this POS hasn't been withdrawn when we see posts like:

Quote from: Maurizio
I use WLM for all my e-mail accounts. Plusnet assist constantly pop ups to tell me it has detected a problem connecting to my e-mail service, do I want to fix or ignore. If I click fix it runs a check only to tell me there is no error but then pops up again a few minutes later, same if I click ignore, it is very annoying. Any ideas how to stop it?

OldJim quite rightly advised him to uninstall Plusnet Assist.

Re: Why hasn't Plusnet assist been withdrawn

drj — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 18:17:09 GMT

Plusnet Assist hasn't properly loaded now on my XP machine for months. I just get error messages. And, yes, I've tried a complete reinstall.

Re: Why hasn't Plusnet assist been withdrawn

drj — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 18:18:51 GMT

I've found my original topic on the subject:
http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,121344.0.html

Re: Why hasn't Plusnet assist been withdrawn

AlexD — Thu, 06 Nov 2014 10:06:17 GMT

Morning drj,
Could you try the following for me please and let me know if it's working
Load up Internet Explorer
Press F10
Click on Tools
Select Compatibility Settings
Type 'motive.com' in the address bar where it's asking you to enter an address.
Click Add.
You should then be able to use the Plusnet Assist software.
Please let me know how you get on.
Thanks alot.
Alex

Re: Why hasn't Plusnet assist been withdrawn

jelv — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 09:53:59 GMT

I have reason to believe that we will very soon be seeing changes on the main Plusnet website relating to Plusnet Assist