Sky vs Plusnet Fibre

Sparx

Sparx

Sparx

Soldato
Joined
30 Jul 2007
Posts
5,269
Location
Lincolnshire
Hi gents, I'm with Sky and pay £28pm for Fibre Pro and line rental. Comparing whether it's worth moving to Plusnet's Fibre Extra for the same price thereabout with £85 cashback via Quidco. Although after 6 months it'll be £37 a month...

Two things that bug me about Sky is I can't have a static IP, they still haven't setup the equipment required in my exchange for 18 months now... And I'm not sure if it's network congestion or what, but my ping monitor seems to have constant packet loss throughout the day, worse in evenings.

I don't notice it really during gaming or browsing, but sometimes it does feel sluggish. My speeds seem fine, I achieve a 66Mb sync, when I first moved to fibre when it became available I achieved the full 80Mb sync. Since then it's degraded unsure whether it's crosstalk or what (still sync'ing 20Mb upload)...

Thoughts on both networks? :)

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I moved from Sky to Plusnet a few months ago. No difference really, both are just as fast as each other, latency is the same.

Only reason I switched was because my free line rental offer with Sky ended and they refused to give me any discount.
 
They're very similar ISP's, PlusNet have UK based support which in itself is a massive plus point if you ever need it as seemingly do Sky (only spoken to them twice in 6 years?). Speeds will essentially be the same as they're all running over the same Open Reach hardware/line etc. remember to use Quidco and also remember that while the 80/20 service from PN is great, the standard fiber service is 40/2.
 
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KIA said:
PN support waiting time has been as high as 45 minutes during the past couple of weeks. Not sure what Sky's is like.
Check before you call.
Gateway congestion was an issue for people in the past. Don't know what it's like these days.
I dislike the way Plusnet interferes with the traffic.
http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/speed_guide/traffic_management.shtml
http://community.plus.net/blog/2012/12/21/its-unlimited-why-is-it-still-traffic-managed/
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You'll normally find most ISP's use QoS to make sure latency sensitive stuff is given priority over (for example) p2p, that's common sense - I don't want my phone call's via VoIP to have higher latency than is necessary, neither does my streamed content need to buffer excessively, p2p by it's nature isn't as critical or efficient.

that said as most p2p should be going via VPN anyway it's a bit of a non issue unless you're one of those odd people who likes getting speculative invoices in from Ben Dover Productions etc.
 
Avalon said:
You'll normally find most ISP's use QoS to make sure latency sensitive stuff is given priority over (for example) p2p, that's common sense - I don't want my phone call's via VoIP to have higher latency than is necessary, neither does my streamed content need to buffer excessively, p2p by it's nature isn't as critical or efficient.

that said as most p2p should be going via VPN anyway it's a bit of a non issue unless you're one of those odd people who likes getting speculative invoices in from Ben Dover Productions etc.
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Indeed. This isn't traffic management like Virgin Media employs. I've never had any issues with torrents being slowed with either Plusnet or BT's FTTC services. 8+ MB/s is typical for popular and recent content.
 
Moved from Sky Fibre to Plusnet fibre when I moved premises, no real difference as Avalon has said, both have decent UK support teams, I find PN's support team are little less scripted than Sky's but each to their own.

I guess one plus side of PN is they dont use MER so you're not restricted to using certain routers should you decide you don't want to use their supplied router/hub which can be a bonus to some.

I've been impressed with both services to be fair.
 
Terrier_Jimlad said:
Moved from Sky Fibre to Plusnet fibre when I moved premises, no real difference as Avalon has said, both have decent UK support teams, I find PN's support team are little less scripted than Sky's but each to their own.

I guess one plus side of PN is they dont use MER so you're not restricted to using certain routers should you decide you don't want to use their supplied router/hub which can be a bonus to some.

I've been impressed with both services to be fair.
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In fairness to PlusNet the supplied router/hub is better than it used to be a few months ago as they've basically got the old 5a from BT, but it's still not great - neither is the SH102 from Sky. The MER point is a good one, that said most of the middle/upper tier consumer hardware that people would normally look to as a replacement to the standard router should support MER (Billion, TP Link, Netgear, Asus), but it can vary by model so it's worth checking if you go with Sky, all *WRT compatible hardware can do MER with a suitable firmware.
 
Avalon said:
You'll normally find most ISP's use QoS to make sure latency sensitive stuff is given priority over (for example) p2p, that's common sense - I don't want my phone call's via VoIP to have higher latency than is necessary, neither does my streamed content need to buffer excessively, p2p by it's nature isn't as critical or efficient.
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Proof please.

http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/speed_guide/broadband_experience.shtml
http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/47278/~/traffic-management
http://ee.co.uk/content/dam/ee-help...ent Policy for Fibre and on net Broadband.pdf
http://my.virginmedia.com/traffic-management/traffic-management-policy-30Mb-or-higher.html

Avalon said:
that said as most p2p should be going via VPN anyway it's a bit of a non issue unless you're one of those odd people who likes getting speculative invoices in from Ben Dover Productions etc.
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People who use public torrents should definitely employ a VPN.
 
I moved from Sky to Plusnet as I wanted a fixed IP too. Saved a good bit of cash in the process. Both have been great but PN have been much better (for me) in terms of support and ease of use. I found it a piece of cake to use my own router from day 1 - the PN router is still in the box in my cellar. I've not noticed any kind of traffic management either, and I am a pretty heavy user. Don't concern yourself too much over all that small print.
 
Yeah I'm already using a TP-Link VR900 with Sky so MER isn't a problem.

From your comments I may as well stick with Sky! :p

They renew discounts each year so I can't complain I guess.

MissChief said:
Sky's standard is 40/10 so if you do a lot of uploading ten it's worth considering.
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Not sure what you mean mate, I'm already on Fibre Pro (80/20) with Sky. :)
 
Sparx said:
Yeah I'm already using a TP-Link VR900 with Sky so MER isn't a problem.
From your comments I may as well stick with Sky! :p
They renew discounts each year so I can't complain I guess.
Not sure what you mean mate, I'm already on Fibre Pro (80/20) with Sky. :)
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Sky's standard VDSL offering is 40/10, plusnet's is 40/2, they both offer 80/20.

davidcotton said:
With plusnet is an engineer visit still necessary or is it possible to do self install now?
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If you need a line installed then it's obviously an engineer install, if you don't then it's self install.

KIA said:
This is definitely a big plus point. Finding MER compatible routers can be a bit of a PITA.
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Technically it's not true MER, but that's a story for another day.
 
I wish I could get Plusnet from where I moved from...

I had to go with BT as I have FTTP but I went from Sky to Plusnet and they were really good. Static IP was not an issue, but maybe its worth just using DDNS.net if you go with someone without a static IP
 
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