Right, time for me to contribute to this thread as one of the ignorant silent majority.
I didn’t know what “packet loss” was nor its relationship with the symptoms before this thread prompted me to read up on it. All I knew was that my broadband service was (is) useless. I just assumed that that’s how it is and I just have to put up with it seeing as I’m tied in to a contract. I got used to restarting my router numerous times per day and “enjoying” an hour or so of improved broadband until if failed again. I put this down to the notoriously poor router supplied by PlusNet.
I don’t have time to spend ages on the phone to customer support – in fact, I don’t have a home phone at all so would need to borrow/buy one to call at all. Reading this thread suggests that I’d be wasting my time anyway. Good to know in one way – saving me the frustration – but an awful indictment of PlusNet. Makes their TV adverts laughable. “Do you proud” indeed!
I stumbled across this thread because I’d finally got so sick and tired of my broadband that I felt I had to try something. It’s noticeable that this was a) the most recently updated thread and; b) one of the longest threads on the forum (fortunately for me because I had no idea what to look for)
My symptoms are exactly what everyone else here has. Stuttering and buffering on videos (iPlayer, YouTube et al), DNS failures(?) on random websites. Very frequently my YouTube videos would randomly pause on my Firestick and pressing play would resume… followed by some stuttering. I put it down to me overestimating what Fibre BB could do and that it was normal for streaming to be so bad given my speed of <40 Mbs… I now know that that’s wrong. In one way it’s encouraging to see so many people having exactly the same issue – to know that I’m not expecting too much for my money but on the other hand it’s discouraging to see the disinterest PlusNet appear to show with regards to the problem.
I admire those on here that are able to do the diagnosis for PlusNet with their graphs and “tracert”s and other technical gubbins. However, I don’t understand such things. I just want to hand over my hard earned money and to receive the service PlusNet advertise. I think that’s an eminently fair request.
So, in summary, and this is aimed squarely for PlusNet’s attention…
The broadband service I receive is well below the standards I’d expect… standards that I PAY for. This thread is a damning indictment of the quality of your service - both technical and customer. WHY has this problem been going on so long? It’s so frustrating for someone like me rendered impotent through lack of technical knowledge and through contractual bindings.
I have to say that my excitement was piqued when I saw that someone managed to get an early exit from their contract without a fee… I would love to leave PlusNet. I only chose them because of a poor experience with BT customer service a few years ago… that said, their broadband provision was exemplary and the issue was only when waiting for installation. I genuinely regret choosing PlusNet. I suspect however that to put the wheels in motion to annul my contract will require an exasperatingly protracted and frustrating period with PlusNet customer support. I don’t have the time nor inclination to do this and therefore, by default, PlusNet will continue to receive my money – as much as it pains me to concede this.
Please up the priority of this fixing problem before your reputation gets well and truly ruined. It won’t be long before people like myself will be shouting from the roof tops to make sure others are aware of the PlusNet’s mediocrity.
:sigh:
You know what… the sad thing is that I suspect I’m whistling in the wind in writing this post. God, that’s frustrating.
“Plus-la la la I’m not listening-Net” please give me value for my money.
UPDATE: Last night at around 9pm I gave the PingTest.net thing a go. I consistently got grade F with packet loss in the 40%-60%, ping at around 50ms-115ms.
I am on the 146 IP range.
