FTTC - Too much shaping!

[#1]

Hello
Hopefully someone from PN can respond on this.
Just signed up to Value Fibre and had a really smooth set-up. Excellent service all round.
Ran a speed test once set-up, happily receiving around 30meg speeds. Happy days!
However, my first gripe is that I was at work when the connection went live - And when I checked my usage around 4 hours later from work I'd racked up 500mb of usage! By the end of the day it was one gig. Great - Having been with BE's unlimited I had no idea what was causing this and customer services weren't very sympathetic to the issue.
However, my biggest problem is the heavy management of traffic which I was not aware of when I signed up. My P2P downloads are slower than they have ever been (feels like dial-up) and PS3 gaming seems to be restricted to 2meg speeds. So the two reasons I moved to PlusNet Fibre for have now been rendered useless! Oh, unless I do all this from 1am. Is there something that can be done about this as there's no point in being on Fibre if I can't make use of it.
Alternatively, under the Distance Selling Regulations, where do I stand with regards to cancelling within the 7 day colling off period?
Hopefully someone can get back to me on this 
Thanks
MJ

[#2]

Traffic is heavily managed on Value.  I would read http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/speed_guide/download_speeds.shtml if you haven't already.
Personally I have the Pro add on which costs an extra £5 per month but means that there is no traffic management.  It's well worth the money in my view.

James

[#3]

Quote from: mjqx78

However, my first gripe is that I was at work when the connection went live - And when I checked my usage around 4 hours later from work I'd racked up 500mb of usage! By the end of the day it was one gig. Great - Having been with BE's unlimited I had no idea what was causing this and customer services weren't very sympathetic to the issue.

Don't forget that Plusnet count uploads against your allowance, so if you leave your P2P software active and sharing files with other people you will rack up a lot of usage. The best bet would be to configure your P2P so that it only uploads between midnight and 8am.

[#4]

The free option, for P2P at least, is to just wait... The transfers between Midnight and 8AM, both up and down, are outside your usage allowance, and between 1AM and 7AM they are also at line speed. The question is whether you can schedule your P2P usage to match, and whether the 6 hours of line-speed, plus 2 slow hours, each night will be enough.
JEB's given you one answer that costs £5pm - to add Pro onto the Value Fibre package. That removes the speed limits, but not the prioritisation levels. So you might still find P2P slowed down during peak hours - simply because it is prioritised behind almost all other traffic (P2P on Value, with or without fibre, is classified as "Best Effort" on the prioritisation page, where it is described as "This traffic is the lowest priority, and is the first traffic to slow if the network gets busy. It is heavily rate-limited at peak times".
Gaming is classified as "Gold" on Value, so shouldn't be held up too much at peak hours. It isn't the top bracket, but not far off.
You would also still have the same 40GB usage allowance, so would probably need to tread carefully for the P2P anyway.
A different option costing the same £5pm is to upgrade to Extra Fibre. That has a 120GB allowance, and prioritises both P2P and Gaming at 1 step higher (Bronze and Titanium respectively). With this option, there would still be speed restrictions to both Gaming and P2P, but they are both higher than the Value equivalents.
Finally you could stump up for both - in which case you'd get both sets of benefits combined.

[#5]

Thanks for the responses.
By the time I've stumped up an additional tenner I may aswell have gone for BT Infinity who are (or are about to) scrapping their FUP. Not sure as to their traffic management protocol though.
Anyone from PN (or anyone else for that matter) care to fill me in as to my point about a cooling off period?
Thanks
MJ

[#6]

I imagine these are the T+C that apply: http://www.plus.net/support/service/policies/cancellation.shtml#earlyCancellation

[#7]

I did a bit of a search for my friend, who has just signed up for infinity and all I could find was complaints from end users over the traffic management. Whats worse is I couldnt find any definative guide on their website, just that they manage the traffic at peak times. PN at least tell you exactly what to expect and £5 to get line speed all day long is pretty darn good if you ask me.
I havnt got the heart to tell my friend he may find his new FTTC installation useless, I just hope all the moaning is wrong or irrelevant, or maybe I could persuade him to cancel and be my first referral.........

[#8]

Mikey, when you say £5 extra a month, is that for the Pro add-on that is being referred to?
I guess I'll stick with it - Just need to be careful about what I do. Coming from Be where I was totally unlimited and unmonitored this is all a bit of a shock to the system and a bit of a pointless move with hindsight. It's all well and good having fibre speeds, but pointless if you can't make use of it!!
Lesson learnt (and very quiet with regards to a response from PN who are clearly rubbing their hands together and laughing at me for not doing my homework properly!) 

[#9]

Sorry, one more point - Just checked on one of the Help pages (http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/speed_guide/download_speeds.shtml) and it indicates that with the Pro add-on there is no traffic management on any services. Is this true? So I'll get my 31meg speed on whatever I do, 24/7?

[#10]

Yes, Mikey is referring to the Pro add-on in that post. You'll not get restricted by plusnet - but of course anything else could limit you anyway. Exchange congestion or server congestion included, but not from plusnet.
I agree that it is a bit of a culture-shock, having to watch your usage. But it isn't that bad once you are used to it, and you find your own level over a few months.
I only use P2P on occasion - mainly for Linux disks - but when I do, I have Azureus (or whatever it is called now) configured to only work overnight. It is a bit of a pain if I want something there-and-then.
I'm on Extra Fibre without Pro, but haven't come close to needing any speed improvements yet.

[#11]

HI mjqx78,
Sorry no-one got back to you sooner on this. As you may have seen from WWWombat's link, the cancellation option becomes invalid once the service is used.  I do a lot fo my downloading during the free time. Most applications will allow you to schedule then for a certain time.
Jojo

[#12]

Thanks for all your responses.
Yes Wombat, 'culture-shock' does sum it up quite nicely, but I'm learning to control myself to stay within my limits!
Just a shame to have such an awesome speed that I can only use to browse the web with! Mind you, you should see how fast my Google homepage comes up 

[#13]

Hi mjqx78,
Although you may not wish to part with an extra £5 for pro, if you were to take up the extra package for an extra £5 you'd get 120GB allowance and slightly more relaxed rate limits.
Jojo

[#14]

I am also on Value Fibre. I don't have any problem with the 40Gb usage allowance but I am interested in full speed without traffic management during the daytime. I am also interested in the faster upload speeds. Am I correct in thinking for an extra £5 a month I will get full speed throughout the day no matter what I do? Is there anyway of getting more than 2Mb upload speed?
(I realise there are other limitations outside Plusnets control)
Thanks
Chris

[#15]

Quote from: square

Am I correct in thinking for an extra £5 a month I will get full speed throughout the day no matter what I do?

Yes

Quote from: square

Is there anyway of getting more than 2Mb upload speed?

Not at the moment (watch this space!).