more realistic usage limits?

[#1]

any chance of plus.net changing the usage limits to a more realistic level for modern usage?
I just got a warning for reaching 11Gb peak time usage this month, when I check the stats I find over 6Gb+ is just web browsing
This is just me, wife, 2 teenagers and a 10yo using the internet - not a huge amount of P2P, not pirating Gb after Gb of stuff, just normal web browsing
time for a rethink?

[#2]

Hi there,
Given that our last product refresh was based on 2008 Wholesale pricing there's not much scope for additional usage to be added to the products, we're still a business and have to make money.
Since you got a warning at 11GB I assume you're on Broadband Premier, which actually has a longer off-peak period than the new accounts. Are you able to schedule the larger downloads for times between midnight and 4pm? This would give you your full peak time allowance for browsing and the time-sensitive stuff.

[#3]

6Gb plus on just web browsing is an awful lot. What kind of sites do you all visit? Heavy use of sites like youtube will result in large useage figures because of all the video streaming.
Plusnet have to pay for bandwidth, just like you do. Like most retailers they are effectively buying in bulk and selling it on in small bits to us, their customers. If you went to Tesco and asked them for bigger loaves of bread, they may be happy to do it, but they would charge more for them.
Unless there is a big change to wholesale costs I can't see PN giving us more bandwidth for free. 

[#4]

Quote from: Mand

Are you able to schedule the larger downloads for times between midnight and 4pm? This would give you your full peak time allowance for browsing

sorry Mand, did you miss the bit where I mentioned the bulk of this is web-browsing not 'larger downloads' ?
denzil, your solution seems to be to tell the teens not to use utube etc - what am I paying for if even normal browsing is now restricted so much ?

[#5]

Hi there,
When I mentioned larger downloads I was referring to the 5GB or so which wasn't browsing (you advised you'd used 11GB but approx 6GB of this was browsing).
6GB of browsing is an awful lot, in my household we use youtube, myspace, and a fair few other bandwidth intensive websites and never hit 6GB of web usage in a month. Are you using a wireless network? If so is it secured?

[#6]

I am using a wireless network but it's secured, so much that I have to specifically allow each connection
looking again, my only other 'big' usage seems to be 'streaming' @ just<3Gb - surely thats one of the things the internet is for and will only grow (not just for me) ?

[#7]

joncooper - yes, you're right - use of streaming will definitely grow. And it will cost us all. If contention ratios stay as they are at the moment, at peak times internet connections will become unusable. The use of contention to "share" bandwidth from the telephone exchange to the ISP relies on thefact that most normal usage is "bursty" - we ask for a web page, it comes down in a few seconds, then e spend a while reading it before repeating the process. As more and more people start to watch streamed material, this process will not be able to cope, which means we need lower contention ratios and ISP's need fatter pipes to cope with the traffic at their end. All of that costs a fortune, and someone has to pay for it.
If you are hitting 6Gb of browsing per month, you need to investigate it! I have three desktop PC's and two laptops on my home network, used by myself, my wife, and two teenage kids. We use between 3 and 5 Gb of paid for usage each month.
Denzil is spot-on - YouTube, MySpace etc. are all huge bandwidth eaters. The organisation I work for has blocked the use of such sites. We noticed a huge rise in our bandwidth usage,, and on investigation narrowed it down to one member of staff who was using YouTube and MySpace - his bandwidth usage was almost equivelant to everyone else on the network (about 300 users) put together!
You may find that in your case, one person visiting one site is the cause of your problem. Possibly they visit the site, leave a window open, and go for their tea. Meanwhile the browser is continuing to refresh the page, or show a video etc, wasting your bandwidth allowance.

[#8]

Does using BBC IPlayer (radio) use a lot of bandwith.I'm on it 2 hours a day and 4 on 'Gold' ?

[#9]

Yes it does but I would have thought this would show up as "streaming" and not "web" in your internet usage stats.  Others will advise I'm sure.

[#10]

Yes BBC I-player is quite bandwidth intensive. This should register as either Streaming or P2P depending on how you choose to watch the program (ie Stream it or download it to watch later).

[#11]

Possibly a silly question but would streaming radio use as much bandwidth as TV progs.

[#12]

No, streaming radio is considerably lower than streaming tv.

[#13]

Quote from: Nick

Yes it does but I would have thought this would show up as "streaming" and not "web" in your internet usage stats.  Others will advise I'm sure.

Quote from: liam1412

Yes BBC I-player is quite bandwidth intensive. This should register as either Streaming or P2P depending on how you choose to watch the program (ie Stream it or download it to watch later).

According to this information PlusNet does not class Kontiki (as used by BBC iPlayer) as P2P.
"Surfing/Streaming: This includes web browsing, online radio and services such as YouTube, 4oD and Kontiki."
http://www.plus.net/residential/broadband/bbyw_information.shtml
I can confirm that this is the case as I have recently downloaded from 4oD and the View My Broadband Usage stats have registered this as streaming.  Absolutely no P2P traffic has been recorded.

[#14]

Quote from: Jameseh

No, streaming radio is considerably lower than streaming tv.

I thought it would be - good news for "greyposter" 

[#15]

I think it is easy to use 6Gb on browsing alone. With 7 days to go, we have already used 4.56 Gb, 80% of which is browsing alone, 12 % streaming, and 5% email. And that's only the two of us and three small kids who are on very limited internet allowances. Most of it is ordinary websites, although I suspect CBeebies is quite usage intensive. We hardly ever use YouTube and never MySpace.
So in my humble opinion, joncooper, I don't think this is as huge as other people are saying, or that it needs investigating!