Plusnet Pro? Satisfactory GB Or Not Enough? Poll

[#1]

Quote from: _Adam_Walker_

Just a thought and I'm not eluding to anything here but would you think a 4th residential account type with usage somewhere between pro and extra would be a popular introduction?

Yes I reckon It would, Providing It had a decent profile, I notice no gamers rushing to this poll posting up their usage allowance, I can only come to the conclusion that.
A. All the whining I've read on here Is nothing short of trying to have their cake and eat It.
B. They still cant get connection since the weekend.
C. The poll Is In early day's yet.

[#2]

Quote from: Steve

B. They still cant get connection since the weekend.

 

[#3]

Ah well they be saving on their allowance this month.

[#4]

As I've stated I'm a moderate downloader unless I'm in the mood then I become pretty high.  My "cap" is also 20Gb except I'm throttled and at 13Gb the internet becomes unusable really during peak hours.  BUT, my peak rate doesn't go near 20Gb, in fact I'm pretty sure I have *never* went above 20Gb (and yes, my steam folder is quite large, on top of metaboli etc..).  My history is in the screenshot, 160Gb with 13Gb peak rate.
Obviously the need to offer constructive comments is paramount.  So I suggest for *all* accounts (not just Pro, that'd be unfair) on weekends the peak hours are changed, instead of 8am-midnight they revert to the old Premier timezone 4pm-midnight, this would allow people who are not at work on a Saturday/Sunday to download their games, patches, Linux distros at 2pm without having to worry about their speeds, plus it would have the additional benefit of not affecting the 4pm-midnight peak hours.  Of course, it would need to be a level playing field so also for Extra users on weekends could the traffic management be loosened a bit allowing them to use Sat/Sun to download stuff?

[#5]

Quote from: nibor

I need more than 20gb to download my games from steam, I cant stay up till midnight to start as im at work for 6.30am, one game ive bought is 15gb download.

If I were to download what I wanted this month, I would go over my usage by about 20gb, so its not about having my cake and eat it, ita about want enough reasonable usage to download what I want, eg games over steam when I purchase em withought worrying  about going over my limit ( or restricting myself to one a month, this is more so when on a high bandwidth connection..
If PN do not up it then I may look at switching to BT FTTC in the new year.

[#6]

Have you tried this.
Start the download on Steam.
Close Steam which stops the download
Setup Windows scheduler to start Steam after midnight

[#7]

Quote from: nibor

If I were to download what I wanted this month, I would go over my usage by about 20gb

Hang on a min, Am I missing the point of the Pro Package for Gaming? I thought It was for Gaming not downloading?

[#8]

Am I not allowed to have good gaming and decent download ? 
pro is also for downloading and other servcies as none of them are throttlled at all.

[#9]

no trouble with that, but we have had people on here recently saying that 20 G is not enough for gaming
and careful what you down load easpecially if you are a Civil servent  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-11664265

[#10]

Quote from: nibor

Am I not allowed to have good gaming and decent download ?

So In your opinion for just the " Gaming " allowance Is that enough? Also free usage for 8 Hrs out of 24Hrs for your " Downloads "  Not enough? Oldjim, Spider, Adam Walker and David W have made some pretty good points for discussion, Unfortunately the " Gaming " community ( Whiner's ) Have been harping on about the Pro package being of no use yet,  I see no real good discussion going on here to support their claim..
Perhaps they are to busy gaming, Rather disappointing so far, 26 votes with no evidence that this package Is no use being  shown, Its easy to vote, But please do tell us why? If you want to make a difference that Is. ( And It might do )

[#11]

So far this month 10% of my allowance as been used on gaming. Total usage is 6.8GB and still 10 days to go. In August I managed to use 11.42GB. Anyone else willing to give the percentages on gaming?

[#12]

This month, not much but I do play MMORPG's (patch downloads = fun) which you can't schedule to an off peak period to download (unless you don't want to play), I'll also play FPS online, I don't host servers but my internet connection can get heavily hammered, I am interleaved and not fastpath so my pings are in the 40's but that's alright because I'm not ultra competitive.
However I use my internet for a lot of things, downloading tools to mess with programming (ide's can be hefty downloads, as well as sdk's), dlc for games, game patches, if I'm using metaboli I'll download whole games, I have games on steam that are quite a few Gb in size (empire: total war, bioshock 2 etc.) and a *lot* of streaming (including HD streaming).
Put into context, I'm in Cornwall which means in the near future BT will upgrade my area to either FTTC or FTTH (hopeful for FTTH and 100Mb connection).  Even with a 100Mb FTTH connection I'd happily stick on my current plan which drops my speeds down to unusable at 13Gb, of course that won't be an option unless BT pull their thumb out and let me join the PN Fibre Trials.  As a medium downloader who doesn't really bother to look at the time for most of my downloads/streaming (unless it is a really big file) I can make do with 13Gb/month which is less than 500Mb/day peak rate.  I manage to do this by keeping an eye out for the 11Gb warning email, when that arrives I start to use my internet sparingly during peak hours, it doesn't always work and I often go over 13Gb but when off peak starts my speed becomes normal and I can download to my hearts content.
My gaming profile is "line speed" 24/7, what the "gamers" want (and I am a gamer, a serious gamer with a large collection of games) is a totally unmetered product with a huge cap but if PlusNet say "ok, we'll give you 40Gb/month" no one will use Extra, there would be no point in having a restricted product if an unrestricted product was available with a large enough cap.
Pro is a premium product, it's (I'm guessing) not designed for heavy downloading of files, or indeed lots of downloading of files, it's for occasional downloads of needed files, patches, updates, maps, dlc and whatnot which shouldn't reach 20Gb/month unless you decide to download a lot of games and if you do decide to, you have 100% unmetered access to that service from midnight till 8am and with modern operating systems you can schedule your PC to do that downloading after midnight and once it's done, shut everything down and turn your PC off.

[#13]

Steve,  
whats ur beef with people who play games ?
Some people take these discussions to seriously and to heart, its just my opinion that I would like more download limit in line with BT (parent company), if not ill move my ISP.

[#14]

Nibor to be fair I think more accurately you want more unrestricted usage for no or very little extra cost. The Pro package offers extra GB at a price (I'm not saying I agree with the chunks though, as I would like to see both a per GB price and a bulk purchase discounted price) or you can choose Extra with a 60GB included. This does have have traffic shaping, but all the recognised games can be still played at line speed as per the Pro package.

Quote from: Steve

.....  Unfortunately the " Gaming " community ( Whiner's ) Have been harping on about the Pro package being of no use yet,  I see no real good discussion going on here to support their claim.. Perhaps they are to busy gaming, Rather disappointing so far, 26 votes with no evidence that this package Is no use being  shown, Its easy to vote, But please do tell us why? If you want to make a difference that Is. ( And It might do )

As Steve M started this thread to gauge opinion I do hope at least some of the unsatisfied are willing to posts more on why as well as showing what percentage of their usage is actual on physical gaming.

[#15]

Quote from: David

Gaming is not shaped at all, it always runs priority/linespeed so 20Gb or 100Tb makes no difference to actual gameplay. Is 20Gb enough? I dunno, I get 13Gb and find that perfectly adequate and yes, I have been known to download a lot each month.

Heh, if you only manage to rack up 13Gb a month, I wouldn't call that a lot.
So far this billing month (since the 21st October, so that's 12 days) we've managed to use 16.7Gb out of our 20Gb, with a further 36Gb being used off-peak.
It's all very well saying that the Pro package is "for gamers" but people seem to forget that just because you play games online, that doesn't mean you don't do anything else. In fact, the heavy gamers are more often than not the ones who use their line heavily for other tasks as well, like watching iPlayer videos and such. Personally, I watch vids on YouTube (especially film trailers and the like) as well as stream music to/from an online radio station. Steam game updates, Windows updates, other software updates, plus the fact that I'm one of two web developers in my household, all means that we use way more than 20Gb each month, and it's a struggle to keep under the 20Gb. We never do, in fact.

Quote from: Steve

Yes I reckon It would, Providing It had a decent profile, I notice no gamers rushing to this poll posting up their usage allowance...

See above.

Quote from: Steve

Quote from: nibor If I were to download what I wanted this month, I would go over my usage by about 20gb Hang on a min, Am I missing the point of the Pro Package for Gaming? I thought It was for Gaming not downloading?

Again, people assume that gamers only play games, and do nothing else with their line, which is a ridiculous assumption.
All this talk about "having your cake and eating it"... well yeah, why shouldn't you? You pay for the internet, so you should be able to use it for what you like. Just because I play games, and want to do so to a decent level (i.e. not have ping times so ridiculous that I can't play) then why should I be restricted to just that? Why should I not be able to play games AND download an almighty game update via Steam without worrying about going over my limits?
I'm not saying I won't pay for it, of course, but the standard 20Gb is too low, and £1.80 per 2 gigs if you go over your limit is rather steep.