Plusnet to provide unlimited broadband

[ferretuk]

Originally Posted by Qtx

If Plusnet had no worries about bandwidth, they wouldn't have had to include the QoS stuff in their plan. If they had full confidence in the network for the next year they could have offered it as fully unlimited/unmanaged like sky. Maybe small print to say that they may add it at some point if needed so they could revisit it in a years time. So it just says to me that within a year Plusnet expect the network to be running hot and having congestion issues that require traffic prioritisation. QoS makes perfect sense as the best option in that situation. Just don't agree with them trying to imply it is for other reasons.

OK, we'll just have to agree to disagree.

I'll agree that Plusnet perhaps have not done particularly well at explicitly explaining where the QoS is applied but I believe it to be 'per customer line' and that it will lead to a better performing connection than one that has no management at all.

Time will tell

[Qtx]

No doubt it will come in useful, no matter how/where they implement it. I really would like to know for sure if they are doing it per customers line though

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

I think it was quite obvious what I meant by oversubscription.

On discussions like this generally contending means having customers share capacity, but if performance isnt affected its considered not oversubscribed. Obviously I meant having too many customers sharing to the point the impact is visible.

So what you mean by "oversubscription" is really "congestion".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oversub...munications%29

Oversubscription is not the same as overselling, provided that the oversubscription ratio, for a given number of subscribers traffic, which is multiplexed over time, does not significantly impact performance.

[Qtx]

What you qouted is exactly what Chrys said lol. The impact of too many customers noticeably effecting performance. Congestion caused by over subscription means both words are valid.

Again this is just a silly pedantic argument over words when we are all aware of what each other means, however they say it.

[qasdfdsaq]

What I quoted was

Oversubscription is not the same as overselling

What Chrys did was describe oversubscription as if it were overselling. Quite the opposite.

TBH there isn't much else interesting stuff to argue about on CF these days. Everyone on VM who has problems has or is moving to FTTC and everyone who has is happy...

[bpullen]

Originally Posted by Qtx

No doubt it will come in useful, no matter how/where they implement it. I really would like to know for sure if they are doing it per customers line though

Hi there,

Trying not to go into too much technical detail, and at the risk of opening another can of worms...

Customers' downstream traffic passes through a switch that applies traffic a ToS marking based on a pre-defined signature, source IP, port or a combination of these and other factors.

Those already with us will be familiar with the usage breakdowns we give you that show how much Usenet, FTP, Email, Streaming etc. you've done each month. It's these switches that allow us to provide you with that data. It's also these switches that apply rate limits on the lesser, 'non-Unlimited' account types.

The traffic then passes through an edge router that terminates your connection. The edge routers have a number of traffic queues (bronze, silver, gold etc.). Traffic is filed into each of these queues dependent on the ToS marking. These routers have a number of parameters for each queue including a minimum guaranteed bandwidth, a queue waiting, a maximum bandwith per user and maximum bandwidth per ‘end-point’. I wouldn't expect these values to mean anything to a customer.

We've sufficient bandwidth/capacity to allow an Unlimited user to download at line speed irrespective of the queue their traffic is in.

If a user is saturating the line using a variety of different-priority traffic then the queue weightings kick in on the edge routers and packets are dropped for the lower priority stuff.

It's this logic, and having sufficient capacity, that gives the impression of QoS on a per-user basis. In reality (and based on what I've written above) this is not strictly the case, but it's probably the explanation that best fits the actual customer experience.

Hope that makes it a bit clearer.

Best regards,

[Escapee]

Originally Posted by bpullen

Hi there,

Trying not to go into too much technical detail, and at the risk of opening another can of worms...

Customers' downstream traffic passes through a switch that applies traffic a ToS marking based on a pre-defined signature, source IP, port or a combination of these and other factors.

Those already with us will be familiar with the usage breakdowns we give you that show how much Usenet, FTP, Email, Streaming etc. you've done each month. It's these switches that allow us to provide you with that data. It's also these switches that apply rate limits on the lesser, 'non-Unlimited' account types.

The traffic then passes through an edge router that terminates your connection. The edge routers have a number of traffic queues (bronze, silver, gold etc.). Traffic is filed into each of these queues dependent on the ToS marking. These routers have a number of parameters for each queue including a minimum guaranteed bandwidth, a queue waiting, a maximum bandwith per user and maximum bandwidth per ‘end-point’. I wouldn't expect these values to mean anything to a customer.

We've sufficient bandwidth/capacity to allow an Unlimited user to download at line speed irrespective of the queue their traffic is in.

If a user is saturating the line using a variety of different-priority traffic then the queue weightings kick in on the edge routers and packets are dropped for the lower priority stuff.

It's this logic, and having sufficient capacity, that gives the impression of QoS on a per-user basis. In reality (and based on what I've written above) this is not strictly the case, but it's probably the explanation that best fits the actual customer experience.

Hope that makes it a bit clearer.

Best regards,

I wonder if you could help me out with a question.

My parents and my partner are on the 60GB plusnet package, will they be automatically upgraded to unlimited?

The Q&A emphasis appears to be concentrating on 10GB customers upgrading to the new package, for the existing 60GB customers it is not so clear.

Many thanks in advance.

[bpullen]

Originally Posted by Escapee

My parents and my partner are on the 60GB plusnet package, will they be automatically upgraded to unlimited?

No, they'd have to explicitly request that their account is upgraded.

Best regards,

[Qtx]

Originally Posted by bpullen

Hope that makes it a bit clearer.

Many thanks for spending the time and effort explaining the whole process. It really is appreciated

[Escapee]

Originally Posted by bpullen

No, they'd have to explicitly request that their account is upgraded.

Best regards,

Many thanks for that.

I tried it last night and again today, it looks like the site must be very busy as it hangs when selecting 'Change my products'.

I will give it another go later.

[bpullen]

Hmmm, shouldn't do. Might be worth clearing your browser cache or trying another browser entirely.

Best regards,

[Escapee]

Originally Posted by bpullen

Hmmm, shouldn't do. Might be worth clearing your browser cache or trying another browser entirely.

Best regards,

I just tried again and it worked OK.

Yesterdays attempt was at my parents (Plusnet customers), todays first 2 attempts on my broadband connection, 3rd attempt it worked OK.

I did have a similar issue when I upgraded them from 10GB to 60GB, I put it down to the site being busy.

Thanks again.