Pipex Max DSL Regrades

Mook · 10 Apr 2006 at 17:58

Just found this in my inbox when i got home:

Dear Customer,

As a 'traffic managed' customer you will be pleased to hear that PIPEX has
recently refined its network traffic management measures and capabilities.

This means from tomorrow morning you will see an improvement in the
performance of your connection during the busiest periods on our network. We
are confident this will make your online experience a better one.

The issues surrounding ADSL broadband contention, managing network peak
demand and heavy users have not disappeared. They are as pertinent as they
ever were; especially with the prospect of time sensitive services such as
video-on-demand becoming mass market propositions. With this in mind, the
general advice we give heavy users to schedule large scale, prolonged
downloading activity to the quieter hours on our network, remains true. We
politely ask you to continue to follow this advice whenever possible.

We recently updated our FAQ section regarding traffic management and our
Acceptable Use Policy. You may find the information useful. Visit:
www.pipex.net/legal

We remain committed to managing our network effectively to ensure our
services deliver the class leading performance our customers expect. PIPEX
hopes you notice the benefit of the refined traffic management measures and
the whole team would like to take this opportunity to thank you for choosing
PIPEX as your service provider.

Kind regards,

Adam Knights

PIPEX

Should be interesting. Suppose at least they told me this time.

marc2003 · 10 Apr 2006 at 18:39

90 minutes from ringing them to my mac appearing in my inbox. nice one pipex. :cool:

8 I3ALL · 10 Apr 2006 at 20:48

marc2003 said:
90 minutes from ringing them to my mac appearing in my inbox. nice one pipex.

got my MAC code this afternoon

signed up with evolution this evening

DoubleCheese · 11 Apr 2006 at 01:31

Couple of questions; I've been with Pipex for about 4 years....couldn't be bothered to change ISP....I'm currently on a 1Mb ADSL line but my router connects at 2272kbps (or thereabouts) and the max DL speed I can get (torrents or any fiels from fast servers is 110Kbps. I thought it would max out at 200Kbps? Is this traffic shaping?

Now their speed test says I can get 5.5Mb ADSL now. Great, but at what cost? To upgrade to their MAX package will be going up from £23.49/month to £33.99. Nildram's is £25.99!? Whats with Pipex?

EDIT: ADSL Guide speed test shows my DL speed is 832kbps, but the router is connected at 2272kbps?

bigredshark · 11 Apr 2006 at 03:17

personally work supplies my broadband (we're an ISP and run our own service), so I don't pay, get rather good tech support and a pretty decent connection. Our access routers are quite highly contended to be fair (we use our own hardware in preference to BT central 7204s) but i think less so than most consumer ISPs.

whoever mentioned it earlier, i think you're vastly overestimating the cost of transit for connections. I know for sure it costs us nothing like that much and we use expensive transit connections (level3 and abovenet primarily)

also, it's worth noting that the BT dsl max service is expensive for ISPs to implement, BT have a couple of bizarre things they insist on and the pricing is sky high. we're holding off on dsl max still because we're looking at several hundred thousand extra a year to implement it. dsl max will probably make it harder for small isps to compete (that said, most of them resell tiscali or someone anyway)

Matrix · 11 Apr 2006 at 06:50

I'm with pipex home office 2000 package £30 a month.Was warned about my downloads a month or so ago so i don't download between 6pm-12am. ( though this was one reason i went on home office and not the residential service but still! )
i use newsgroups a lot!

I can now get 6.5mbit and would like to go for a max connection but i'm not sure the office package offers that?

I'm on a monthly contract and i may move elsewhere unless i can get pipex max?

whats evolution and whats there site ?

Thank you.

marc2003 · 11 Apr 2006 at 07:13

DoubleCheese said:
Couple of questions; I've been with Pipex for about 4 years....couldn't be bothered to change ISP....I'm currently on a 1Mb ADSL line but my router connects at 2272kbps (or thereabouts) and the max DL speed I can get (torrents or any fiels from fast servers is 110Kbps. I thought it would max out at 200Kbps? Is this traffic shaping?

Now their speed test says I can get 5.5Mb ADSL now. Great, but at what cost? To upgrade to their MAX package will be going up from £23.49/month to £33.99. Nildram's is £25.99!? Whats with Pipex?

EDIT: ADSL Guide speed test shows my DL speed is 832kbps, but the router is connected at 2272kbps?

you're synched at 2mb but throttled to 1mb as that is the speed you're paying for. this is quite common as it allows for easier upgrades. instead of getting bt involved, pipex could upgrade you to 2mb themselves. of course all that's gone out the window as max is here....

as mentioned earlier in the thread, pipex are introducing the option to upgrade to max in the mypipex control panel this week sometime. you will be placed on a new 12 months contract though with no way out (other than buying yourself out :eek:

)

marc2003 · 11 Apr 2006 at 07:49

8 I3ALL said:
got my MAC code this afternoon

signed up with evolution this evening

my god what have i done.... :eek:

i've gone back to bt :shudders:

in all seriousness they were great when i was with them and i only left because i stupidly thought the proposed 30gb cap wouldn't be enough. now it's 40gb and i doubt i'll use half that on any given month.....

finally get to ditch my trusty usb modem in favour of the free router i'm getting. i'm tied in for 12 months though - one of the reasons i got ****** at pipex....

FirebarUK · 11 Apr 2006 at 09:47

I'm stuck with Pipex for 5 more months in my contract. The way they have gone downhill is appauling. Question is, I'm stuck on solo 2MB @ 33.99, if I leave myself here I'm paying a huge amount for bugger all tbh. If I downgrade, do they then shove me on another 12month contract, and if I upgrade I guess they do the same?! erk.

DoubleCheese · 11 Apr 2006 at 10:37

marc2003 said:
you're synched at 2mb but throttled to 1mb as that is the speed you're paying for. this is quite common as it allows for easier upgrades. instead of getting bt involved, pipex could upgrade you to 2mb themselves. of course all that's gone out the window as max is here....

as mentioned earlier in the thread, pipex are introducing the option to upgrade to max in the mypipex control panel this week sometime. you will be placed on a new 12 months contract though with no way out (other than buying yourself out )

Ahhh, I see. The point still stands though that I can jump ship to Nildram or Evolution and get a much faster connection for only a couple of pound more a month, compared to the hugh increse in cost if I stay with Pipex.

When are they going do do something about it and lower their prices to keep their current customers? They cant be winning any new ones with their current prices? Do you reckon they "do deals" with current customers?

FunkyT · 11 Apr 2006 at 11:01

DoubleCheese said:
Ahhh, I see. The point still stands though that I can jump ship to Nildram or Evolution and get a much faster connection for only a couple of pound more a month, compared to the hugh increse in cost if I stay with Pipex.

When are they going do do something about it and lower their prices to keep their current customers? They cant be winning any new ones with their current prices? Do you reckon they "do deals" with current customers?

I phoned them up last year to complain about prices and they offered me 2 months free of charge...

tolien · 11 Apr 2006 at 11:27

bigredshark said:
we use our own hardware in preference to BT central 7204s

The managed Central hardware is crap.

whoever mentioned it earlier

That was probably me.

i think you're vastly overestimating the cost of transit for connections

If it was me you're referring to, I think you need to go back and read my post again...

it's worth noting that the BT dsl max service is expensive for ISPs to implement, BT have a couple of bizarre things they insist on and the pricing is sky high.

You mean you have to use the (ludicrously expensive) CBC/UBC Centrals as opposed to Standard Charging?

malccy · 11 Apr 2006 at 14:36

Was charged £58 for leaving my contract early with Pipex - signed up with Nildram and should be runniing by Friday, 50gig cap and 6mb for £25.99 (with no port throttling).

FunkyT · 11 Apr 2006 at 14:38

malccy said:
Was charged £58 for leaving my contract early with Pipex - signed up with Nildram and should be runniing by Friday, 50gig cap and 6mb for £25.99 (with no port throttling).

Sounds like a good move dude. I thought Pipex were just "traffic managing" for those who took the ****?

malccy · 11 Apr 2006 at 14:47

Spoke to Pipex last week and was told that port throttling was going to happen with all packages including PipexMax (if not happening now). I'm on xtreme4 and am restricted to 20kb/s max download with p2p/bittorrent.

FunkyT · 11 Apr 2006 at 15:06

8 I3ALL said:
it was the same when i regraded to 2mb.Pipex have always been 12 month contracts so it makes no difference to me

I've been on Solo 1000 since June 2004 (then Solo 2000) and never had a 12 month contract.

FunkyT · 11 Apr 2006 at 15:09

marc2003 said:
you're synched at 2mb but throttled to 1mb as that is the speed you're paying for. this is quite common as it allows for easier upgrades. instead of getting bt involved, pipex could upgrade you to 2mb themselves. of course all that's gone out the window as max is here....

as mentioned earlier in the thread, pipex are introducing the option to upgrade to max in the mypipex control panel this week sometime. you will be placed on a new 12 months contract though with no way out (other than buying yourself out )

I'm currently on Solo 2000 (2Mbps) and paying £33.99, if I do nothing will I be moved to Pipex Go (2Mbps) and have my monthly charge reduced to £23.99?

FirebarUK · 11 Apr 2006 at 15:16

^ apparently not, at least that is what I picked up from other forums. This basically means your being helplessly screwed

FunkyT · 11 Apr 2006 at 15:18

malccy said:
Spoke to Pipex last week and was told that port throttling was going to happen with all packages including PipexMax (if not happening now). I'm on xtreme4 and am restricted to 20kb/s max download with p2p/bittorrent.

I'm also on xtreme4 and am currently trying to download a file that should be widely shared and I'm only getting a max of 23kB/s download - am I being port throttled? :mad:

bikes · 11 Apr 2006 at 15:51

FunkyT said:
I'm also on xtreme4 and am currently trying to download a file that should be widely shared and I'm only getting a max of 23kB/s download - am I being port throttled?

I would say so matey

Im on xtreme5 and I'm in the same boat as you.........until I started using utorent and enabled encryption, so it is possible max the connection out, until the ISP's figure this out