Pro Add-on

[#1]

@ejs
It's the other protocols that get lifted to the same priority as web browsing that is the problem.
There's no overall rate limits on the current Unlimited products like there used to be on the old ones - we get line speed all day, every day so the priorities only have any effect when the individual user's line is fully loaded. For the vast majority of users any effect the Pro add-on has is detrimental.

[#2]

PN are re-marking web traffic coming from me to CS5, as I have set all traffic leaving my PC to CS7 and the tester on www.speedguide.net is still showing CS5.

[#3]

I don't think there's much point worrying about other things being lifted to the same priority as web browsing, when any large file saved from the web will probably be at exactly the same priority. Downloading a 4 GB Linux ISO over HTTP is given the same priority as any other web browsing.

[#4]

I am still only getting 70Mbps on any speed test that I perform, both wired and wireless from different devices, which I have always got around 74Mbps before enabling the Pro Add on.
So I pay £5 extra and lose 4Mbps, thanks.
Would it worth resetting my line speed, it is currently set to 78Mbps, but could something be stuck somewhere?
My top speed has decreased but my 0-60 time has decreased, is the best way I can describe this, as I do feel that things are generally more responsive due to the higher priority, but I want both! 

[#5]

Quote from: spoon

DON'T If you are on an unlimited product it's of minimal or no benefit and a waste of money. In some circumstances it's affects are detrimental. There's a number of topics on here discussing this.

What part of that did you not understand?
It's a con and could be called a lot of other things that would get me in trouble with the moderators.
Why do you think you need the Pro add-on given that one thing it has never been described as doing is increasing your speed?

[#6]

Did you not understand my analogy?   I don't want increased speed, I want what I had plus the quicker response that the higher priority gives.

[#7]

Have you tried doing a bit a gateway hopping, and seeing if different gateways make any difference to the speedtest results?

[#8]

You are misunderstanding how it works. Unless Plusnet's network is running hot (and we have not seen that recently) it only changes the priority of the stuff on your individual line. So if you are not maxing out your line, whether the traffic is top or bottom priority will not a jot of difference. The latency is only affected by the physical length of the line, the routers etc it goes through and the speed of the connection. None of those can be changed by the add on.
The add-on has two affects:
1. If you are running protocols that are normally lower priority at the same time they will be given higher priority and so may slow down other normally higher priority tasks.
2. You will be £5 per month worse off.
Before Plusnet introduced Unlimited accounts they had less capacity and peak time contention was far more frequent. There were also rate limits on some protocols at different times of the day. The Pro add-on was introduced then and did make a difference. They should never have made it available for Unlimited users.

[#9]

Yeah, I have done that and it didn't help.
Hoping that when I get migrated on to the 'new network' that will help.

[#10]

Quote from: spoon

You are misunderstanding how it works. Unless Plusnet's network is running hot (and we have not seen that recently) it only changes the priority of the stuff on your individual line. So if you are not maxing out your line, whether the traffic is top or bottom priority will not a jot of difference. The latency is only affected by the physical length of the line, the routers etc it goes through and the speed of the connection. None of those can be changed by the add on. The add-on has two affects: 1. If you are running protocols that are normally lower priority at the same time they will be given higher priority and so may slow down other normally higher priority tasks. 2. You will be £5 per month worse off. Before Plusnet introduced Unlimited accounts they had less capacity and peak time contention was far more frequent. There were also rate limits on some protocols at different times of the day. The Pro add-on was introduced then and did make a difference. They should never have made it available for Unlimited users.

The QoS markings are end to end. It is set within the IP header and any device that performs QoS will use that information.
speedguide.net are showing what marking they receive in the packets I send them, which is set by PN, as any marking that I apply gets re-marked. The default in Windows is no marking unless one specifically alters the QoS marking of traffic which can be done in Windows, but as I explained, I am an 'untrusted' source so PN strip the marking's if any and use DPI to mark traffic according to their policy, this is for both outgoing and incoming traffic.

[#11]

I give up!
Link

[#12]

There seems to be a disparity between what we know the Pro add-on should do, and the observed effects, unless the improved responsiveness is just a placebo effect.
If you're concerned about not paying enough for your broadband, the Pro add-on is a way to pay Plusnet £5 a month more. 

[#13]

There's no disparity - we know what it should do, but that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever for people on Unlimited.
The only people who should consider this product are those on Essentials, Extra, Value, Pro, Premium, Essential, Premier, Broadband Plus, BBYW (but not BBYW Pro). For them it makes perfect sense and works as expected.

[#14]

Pro only changes the priory of VPN and other traffic.  Unless PlusNets network is bandwidth limited then Pro is only effecting your individual traffic.
Providing your own bandwidth is not saturated and PlusNets network is running as normal,  Pro will make no difference.
The only time Pro does help.
1) If say you work from home over a VPN, and other people on your line have saturated your line with games or VoIP,  it will help your VPN.
2) If there is a problem in PlusNets or general internet, say there is a 9/11 event, or say major internet systems are down,  Email/VPN/basic web browsing is already a priority in this situation, however if your Pro I read VPN priority even more.
And it's true PlusNet can't control QOS on upstream, so your router should have QOS enabled on upstream where possible.

[#15]

Traffic sent from my Windows machine by default isn't marked and my router isn't marking traffic (layer 3) on its internet facing interface. What it may do is provide queue control and if the interface becomes overwhelmed, then the traffic that the router or yourself classifies as being priority will get first dibs of existing the interface. it may/will be applying QoS internally especially if it is 802.11 traffic with WMM markings which is found within the layer 2 framing, Ethernet can only be marked at layer 2 if 802.1Q framing is present i.e. VLAN tagging. Now comes speedguide.net, they display the QoS marking within the IP header (layer 3), in the case of the pro add on, it display's as being CS5, not on the pro add on it is displayed as being CS4, to be specific it is web traffic using port 80 in this case. The packet from me hits PN's network, depending on what they use to classify traffic, so to keep it simple let's say by port number. It see's traffic destined to port 80, looks at its policy and says right, that is traffic destined to port 80 which is usually web (HTTP) traffic and that is given a QoS marking of CS5 in this case, same goes for incoming traffic from the web server, but the source port is looked at which is port 80.
If I mark the traffic in Windows to CS7, that is getting re-marked to CS5. PN are marking upstream traffic, if that isn't evidence of that, I don't know what is.
The point is, is that the QoS marking is kept all the way to the end unless ignored, wiped or re-marked, and if congestion occurs anywhere in that link and a layer 3 aware device is configured to look at the QoS marking, a packet marked CS5 will have a higher priority than anything marked below that, so the marking is useful throughout the packets travel.