What am I doing wrong?

[#1]

Thanks for all the information.  It is/was very informative, even if I didn’t understand it all.
As per my original post.  All I wanted to know was if I was doing something wrong.  Seems I wasn't.
I’ve now done my 10 days and to be honest with you, I’m a little disappointed.  I was expecting a faster connection than the one I had with Pipex.  As it is, it’s exactly the same.  7616 and ip of 6500.  The only difference is, with Pipex I had an unlimited download allowance per month and slower speeds in the evening.  With Plusnet, I have a faster connection during peak times but limited downloads per month. 
Not sure really.  The jury’s still out on that one…

[#2]

7616 is the fastest connection that you can get on an ADSL Max connection with interleaving enabled (which it is by default on PN).
If interleaving was to be turned off you'd probably sync at 8128 and get a profile of 7150.  However, unless you're into on-line gaming, there's not much to be gained by turning interleaving off.  Also, dependent upon the quality of your line, turning interleaving off can give you stability issues.

[#3]

Quote from: Jessica

with Pipex I had an unlimited download allowance per month and slower speeds in the evening.  With Plusnet, I have a faster connection during peak times but limited downloads per month.

Hmmm, that's exactly what I would expect (and exactly why I moved from Tiscali who now own Pipex to PN).
What led you to believe otherwise, especially a faster connection. It's provided by BT anyway (unless you're on LLU) so wouldn't change significantly if at all.

[#4]

Perhaps I was just ‘hoping’ for a faster connection.  I’m not really technically minded at all, I knew it couldn’t be slower than Pipex in the evenings (just 117KB/sec)
Perhaps one day, my local exchange will be LLU’d and companies like O2 and Be will be available to me.  At the moment my choice is very limited.
Thanks

[#5]

Jessica
I've just poked my head through the door on this thread again. Are you saying that you are still experiencing slow speeds?
I hate to be a pain, but what are you syncing with the exchange at and what is your IP profile now you're a few days down the road.
It's quite possible that in the evenings you might be suffering that nasty contention at the exchange.. what exchange are you on?

[#6]

@rogerloxton
She's syncing at 7616 and has an IP profile of 6500.  It's the fastest sync you can get with interleaving on so it's probably contention if she's still getting slow throughput.

Quote from: Jessica

7616 and ip of 6500.

[#7]

Thinking about it.. If Plusnet is owned by BT and is part of BT, then perhaps I should have signed up with BT.  The speed will be exactly the same, same exchange and same wires.
I’ve just been looking at BT Broadband Option 3 for just £20 with unlimited downloads and soon to have 0800 telephone support.  The only down side is the 12 month contract.  But that doesn’t really bother me.  If you get a good service, then you don’t mind the long contract.  After all, I was with Freeserve for five years and Pipex for three.  At the moment I’m on option 4 with Plusnet paying £30 per month.
Apart from the one month contact offered by Plusnet, what other reasons do you all have for staying with Plusnet?
Just wondering.
Jessica

[#8]

Suggest you read the small print
I suppose it depends how much you want to download

Quote

Fair Usage Policy 8. What is the Fair Usage Policy on BT Total Broadband? The Fair Usage Policy is designed to ensure that the service received by the vast majority of our customers is not negatively impacted because of extremely heavy usage by a very small minority of customers. This is why BT continuously monitors network performance and may restrict the speed available to very heavy users during peak time. This applies to customers on all Options. Note if you are a heavy user we will only restrict your speed. Service will not be stopped, so you will still be able to upload and download. We will not impose any restrictions outside of peak times. Only a very small minority of customers will ever be affected by this (less than 1%). 9. How do I know I’m a very heavy user? There is no hard and fast usage limit that determines if you are a heavy user as the parameters that determine heavy use vary with the demands placed on the network at that given time. If you have a query about fair usage related restrictions on your line please call us on 0800 707 6044. 10. I have BT Total Broadband Option 3 , does the Fair Usage Policy apply to me? Yes, the Fair Usage Policy applies to all customers on all Options, including Option 3. Option 3 allows unlimited downloads and uploads inclusive of the monthly rental price, so you will not be charged for over-use, however this does not preclude BT from restricting your speed at peak times if you are a heavy user. If you are an Option 3 heavy user this does not prevent you from continuing to use your service, nor does it cost you any more but it ensures that you do not negatively impact the majority of our customers who share the available bandwidth with you.

[#9]

Hi Jessica,
I can give you a very long list of reasons!
- Our Customer Support Teams
- The Comms Team
- These forums
- Our customer portal is better
- We have an open and honest policy, their "unlimited" is not unlimited.
Are you aware that BT Option 3 is £24.99 after the first 6 months?
I can give you some more reasons if you'd like some more

[#10]

Quote from: Jessica

Thinking about it.. If Plusnet is owned by BT and is part of BT, then perhaps I should have signed up with BT.  The speed will be exactly the same, same exchange and same wires.

Not strictly true!
BT Retail own PlusNet.
BT Wholesale own the wires.
The two parts of BT are completely seperate, and the ever so lovely Ofcom ensures that BTw don't treat BTr more favorably than they treat other ISPs.
You may also come across a third aspect of the BT setup; the engineers responsible for twiddling the wires about etc are called Openreach - the seperation being designed to help keep the network maintenance side of the operation at arms length from the other entities.
So, the question; Would BT have been a better option?
Possibly, sometimes.
Because they have more customers, they have more network bandwidth.
However, if a large proportion of those customers are online at any one time, the whole network experiences slower rates.
PlusNet on the other hand prioritise their traffic differently depending upon which package you are on, and the time of day, and the type of traffic you are routing through their network.
Theoretically the overall experience should work out better, but as you don't have such peaks and troughs, you get an experience closer to the median.
Does this make sense?

[#11]

Customer service isn't one of BT's strong points either.  Having had first hand experience of their Indian call centre after a two hour wait in a queue (trying to get a problem resolved with a friend's broadabnd) I wouldn't touch BT Retail with a barge pole.
Have a look here. (You'll need to sift through the phone related complaints to find the broadband complaints!)

[#12]

As the PlusNet staff wouldn't dream of pointing this out  I will
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/25/phorm_isp_advertising/

[#13]

Quote from: Jessica

Apart from the one month contact offered by Plusnet, what other reasons do you all have for staying with Plusnet? Just wondering. Jessica

Others have majored on the customer support team, these forums, etc.  I cannot but second this.  I have received excellent service from Metronet (before they joined Plusnet) and I am about to move to Plusnet, because the Metronet package structure does not fit my usage needs.  Having helped my father in law with BT Internet I very much regretted spending endless time on the phone to be told by an Indian call center that all I need to do is reboot my computer (BTW, that was a computer running Linux with thousands of hours of uptime, not MS Windows . . . )
Another thing to consider is whether you can actually get on the Internet at full speed in the evenings.  Have a look at these comparisons.  They may not be completely up to date, but essentially show that with Plusnet you should be able to browse the Internet in the evening without any speed restriction - unlike say Pipex and BT.  Your exchange will give you the same max unrestricted speed with any provider - that's determined by the BT exchange hardware and your distance from it.  The difference comes in the speeds that you will be able to achieve in the evenings and busy times - then is where traffic shaping comes into it.  Plusnet's policy is meant to ensure that the majority of internet uses remain unrestricted at the busiest times.  Other ISPs allow high traffic contention to slow down the connection speeds for all users indiscriminately - whether they are browsing The Daily Mail newspaper or downloading illegally videos and music.  The result is your previous experience of slow speeds with Pipex.
Then of course it's the price.  I guess all of the above Plusnet elements combined make up what I would consider to be a good value proposition.  That said, so would Sky with its allegedly unlimited broadband, if I wanted to also pay £16.00 a month for Sky Movies.  These days I spend less and less time infront of the TV, so the Sky package does not interest me personally, but there are others who I guess would find it beneficial.  Mind you, with £30pm you should have a very broad choice of packages and tarrifs, much broader than mine (@ £14.99pm).
Just my 2c's.
--
Regards,
Mick

[#14]

I've have just come over from BT (OPTION3)Slower by a country mile and communication with customer services was difficult though very polite.

[#15]

Where do I start?  Thanks to everyone for the replies, you’re all very informative, aren’t you?
Looks like I started a BT v Plusnet thread (I didn’t mean too, honest)
Thanks for all the views (yes, this is an excellent forum, I agree).  I suppose it all depend on what you download, when you download and the amount you download.  I’ve never been with BT so I can’t comment on their service.  Using Pipex in the evenings, reminded me of the days when I use to pay a penny-per-minute to get online (anyone else remember those days?).  So far, with Plusnet, my download speed in the evening is approx. 762KB/sec average.
Anyway, I’m happy to be with Plusnet.  I’m not really complaining, just confused.  Don’t worry, I’ll sort myself out.
Love you all…
Jessica