Plusnet Pro upgrade Q

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I'm thinking of getting Plusnet broadband as it is the absolute cheapest I can find. It also has a 1 month contract option if I figure I can't put up with them (I hear their service is pretty poor).
I only want to use it for browsing, emails, and gaming: no high volume stuff like streaming or large downloads.
My question is, if I want to PC game, is the Pro upgrade (which prioritises gaming traffic based on deep packet inspection recognition) absolutely required, or just a nice to have?

Anybody got Plusnet and want to share their pings (and city)?

Cheers.
 
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Hi there,

I'm thinking of getting Plusnet broadband as it is the absolute cheapest I can find. It also has a 1 month contract option if I figure I can't put up with them (I hear their service is pretty poor).

Disappointing to hear that's what you've been told! I'd like to think our service is pretty good. ** No promotion of business **

I only want to use it for browsing, emails, and gaming: no high volume stuff like streaming or large downloads.
My question is, if I want to PC game, is the Pro upgrade (which prioritises gaming traffic based on deep packet inspection recognition) absolutely required, or just a nice to have?

Probably a nice to have. Gaming is prioritised in our 'Gold' traffic queues for Value and Extra, whereas it's classified as 'Titanium' on Pro. Realistically though, Gold traffic rarely suffers from latency problems unless there's a massive service outage or some event that means every man and his dog is trying to get online!

One thing to consider is the fact that gaming on Value is rate limited to 2Mbps. Whilst this is sufficient for one or two people gaming simultaneously, you may suffer problems if there's ever more (the rate limit isn't applied to the 'Extra' account or Pro).

One other thing to consider is what happens to games that our traffic management switches don't recognise. These are few and far between (and we can sort it out if you tell us), however on Value and Extra you're likely to suffer problems in this situation whereas with the Pro add-on you wouldn't.

Anybody got Plusnet and want to share their pings (and city)?

To any particular server/location? I'm in Sheffield (our egde routers are in London), I have Extra Fibre (without the Pro add-on) and here's a series of pings to the BBC:

Code:
>ping bbc.co.uk -t

Pinging bbc.co.uk [212.58.241.131] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 212.58.241.131: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=248
Reply from 212.58.241.131: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=248
Reply from 212.58.241.131: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=248
Reply from 212.58.241.131: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=248
Reply from 212.58.241.131: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=248
Reply from 212.58.241.131: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=248
Reply from 212.58.241.131: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=248
Reply from 212.58.241.131: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=248
Reply from 212.58.241.131: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=248
Reply from 212.58.241.131: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=248
Reply from 212.58.241.131: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=248

Ping statistics for 212.58.241.131:
    Packets: Sent = 11, Received = 11, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 14ms, Maximum = 16ms, Average = 14ms
Control-C
^C

Hope that helps!

Best regards,
 
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Thanks for the swift feedback, very useful. As I am no way a hardcore gamer (I play for fun :) ) I think I'll try without first. My small group of gaming friends always use private servers, so a location isn't helpful I suppose, and hopefully 2M wil be plenty. I can always add if required.

Interesting reading on the awards too, that does look good. My info is from forum talk and ThinkBroadband comparison charts: and certainly the Plusnet scores are much better than the last time I was looking for an ISP!
 
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I had th prioritised line when I first started with plusnet, now I have a normal line and I see no difference in my online gaming....also I have had great support from plusnet in the past....some times they can be a bit slow reacting but generally no problems.

When I lost my job last year they helped me out with a cheaper package which was nice and kept me on line while i searched for work....so in my opinion I think they are a good provider and I would recommend them....I am sure other people would disagree but i can not comment on others experiences with them.
 
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Apologies, have you a link to the forum rules? (that I undoubtedly arbitrarily agreed to back when I registered my account :rolleyes:)

Rgds,

Hi, the links to the rules are;
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/faq.php?faq=vb_faq#faq_vb_read_and_post
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/faq.php?faq=vb_read_and_post#faq_vb_special_codes

Least I can do as I was the one that queried the rules in this instance. I try to be impartial with any information I post in this forum, and whilst I can understand being enthusiatic about your companies products I felt your posts stepped over into being promotional. Hence me asking the dons.
 
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Thanks :)

Edit: I wouldn't personally class us as a 'competitor' not being in the hardware business, but none-the-less I'll be more careful in future.

Rgds,
 
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