Plugg Uncapped ADSL Feedback

Anyone else find it's impossible to stream anything on Plugg nowadays? I can't do YouTube during the day, and at night it struggles at lot of the time. The whole of today I couldn't stream music off Simfy - just buffers every 5 seconds. They've confirmed it's not a problem their side. My rating is currently 3 stars, but a few months ago I could still stream things during the day. Is there a known issue on the IS side, or has shaping gotten to a point that video/music services can no longer be used during the day?

Speed tests, etc., are always perfectly fine. It's just trying to stream any kind of media.

For reference:

Pinging mybroadband.co.za [197.242.89.170] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 197.242.89.170: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=49
Reply from 197.242.89.170: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=49
Reply from 197.242.89.170: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=49
Reply from 197.242.89.170: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=49

Ping statistics for 197.242.89.170:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 28ms, Maximum = 28ms, Average = 28ms

Pinging simfy.co.za [94.75.208.65] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 94.75.208.65: bytes=32 time=169ms TTL=53
Reply from 94.75.208.65: bytes=32 time=169ms TTL=53
Reply from 94.75.208.65: bytes=32 time=170ms TTL=53
Reply from 94.75.208.65: bytes=32 time=169ms TTL=53

Ping statistics for 94.75.208.65:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 169ms, Maximum = 170ms, Average = 169ms
 
My wife was unable to open her emails today, due to low speed and the connection timing out. I was barely able to log in to the Control Panel, and saw that I was running on one star.

Me and my son share a 4Mb/s account between two 2Mb/s lines. I noticed that he has done some downloading, but mostly during night time only. I therefore have a strong suspicion that overnight downloading does have an influence on the star rating, regardless of what was said about that.

The throttling is becoming ridiculous now, and daytime speeds makes the service unusable. My Plugg experience is now vastly different from when I started up 18 months ago. It looks as if I will have to call it a day...:o
 
DawieS said:
My wife was unable to open her emails today, due to low speed and the connection timing out. I was barely able to log in to the Control Panel, and saw that I was running on one star.

Me and my son share a 4Mb/s account between two 2Mb/s lines. I noticed that he has done some downloading, but mostly during night time only. I therefore have a strong suspicion that overnight downloading does have an influence on the star rating, regardless of what was said about that.

The throttling is becoming ridiculous now, and daytime speeds makes the service unusable. My Plugg experience is now vastly different from when I started up 18 months ago. It looks as if I will have to call it a day...:o
Click to expand...

Night time downloading only has no affect after 00:00. If he downloads at 20:00 it will affect your stars.
 
If you share your account your star rating will drop off quicker for the same amount of usage in case you didn't know that already ;)
 
DawieS said:
My wife was unable to open her emails today, due to low speed and the connection timing out. I was barely able to log in to the Control Panel, and saw that I was running on one star.

Me and my son share a 4Mb/s account between two 2Mb/s lines. I noticed that he has done some downloading, but mostly during night time only. I therefore have a strong suspicion that overnight downloading does have an influence on the star rating, regardless of what was said about that.
Click to expand...

Concurrent connections will 'compete' for the available bandwidth which means one could end up with 90% and the other left with 10%. The idea behind concurrent sessions is not for sharing accounts/costs but more for using the account at work during the day and then the same account at home during the evening.

Downloading off-peak will not influence your star rating, but you will find your priority will drop quicker if the system detects dual connectivity. If the system detects a second connection, whether you are sending traffic through both or not, a different rule set applies to the account.

The star rating is dependent on the amount of data used so if your intention is to do heavy download it would be best to schedule it between 00:00 and 06:00.

The two concurrent connection adds value for certain customers not everybody.

Could you PM me your username in any event, I would like to have a look at the account and the usage done.
 
Last edited:
And when did the time change? Was always between 23:00 and 6:00. Been struggling to manage my star rating, been stuck at 3 stars for weeks witch no one can explain. If I KNEW that it is 00:00 rather than 23:00 I could adjust all my download schedules. But alas, transparency of mud!!!!! THIS IS A DISSERVICE TO CUSTOMERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
straatkat said:
And when did the time change? Was always between 23:00 and 6:00. Been struggling to manage my star rating, been stuck at 3 stars for weeks witch no one can explain. If I KNEW that it is 00:00 rather than 23:00 I could adjust all my download schedules. But alas, transparency of mud!!!!! THIS IS A DISSERVICE TO CUSTOMERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

The time never changed. I've been clear on this from the start.

Here is a previous posting of mine (also linked in my .sig) dating back to 2013..

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthr...DSL-Feedback?p=9892036&viewfull=1#post9892036
 
That posting says 23:00, the one just above says midnight. That's an hour different. So which one is it?

Plus weekends is no longer off peak. Also, non of these terms is mentioned on your website or in the terms of service.
 
straatkat said:
That posting says 23:00, the one just above says midnight. That's an hour different. So which one is it?
Click to expand...

You are correct. I suppose the generator fumes got to me when we did the our monthly testing earlier. I did not read and fact-checked my own posting.

It is 23:00 as stated and not 00:00.

straatkat said:
Plus weekends is no longer off peak.
Click to expand...

It is classified as off peak when it comes to shaping.

Also, non of these terms is mentioned on your website or in the terms of service.
Click to expand...

I've asked before but management decided against having it on the site. You are welcome to email them on [email protected] on this matter.

-- janitor@plugg
 
Thank you guys, for your replies.

Yes, I have been warned that sharing an account with concurrent connections, may lead to uneven priority allocation and a skewed usage pattern. However in the past (until about 2 months ago) we did not interfere with each other at all, and could not find any reason to complain.

Since we signed up, our attempted usage patterns have remained more or less the same, however the account speed (and cost) have increased, but the shaping policies have become much less lenient, allowing less usage before throttling sets in. In total, the Internet became more expensive for me to use, for the same benefit.

Yes, we try to download only after 23h00, however gaming also demands a significant amount of bandwidth. It would be unreasonable to expect my son to only game after 23h00, since he also has a daytime job, and would need some sleep after 23h00.

It looks like we now have to get ourselves our own accounts, and see how it goes from there.

Janitor, thanks, but I would rather not bother to check our usage now, since I am also currently sitting with many disconnections / re-connections every day for the last month (Telkom technician awaits delivery of new ports to replace damaged ones).
 
Can I maybe ask this question then:

1) When is the shaping applied?
2) what data usage is used (between which hours) are used to calculate the star rating?
 
straatkat said:
Can I maybe ask this question then:

1) When is the shaping applied?
2) what data usage is used (between which hours) are used to calculate the star rating?
Click to expand...

1) From 06:00 to 18:00 heavy shaping. 18:00-23:00 light shaping.
2) Usage between 06:00 and 23:00.

06:00 - 18:00 - Business hours
18:00 - 23:00 - After hours
23:00 - 06:00 - Off peak
weekends - Off peak
 
Chevron said:
1) From 06:00 to 18:00 heavy shaping. 18:00-23:00 light shaping.
2) Usage between 06:00 and 23:00.

06:00 - 18:00 - Business hours
18:00 - 23:00 - After hours
23:00 - 06:00 - Off peak
weekends - Off peak
Click to expand...

You a Plugg customer or representative?
 
Chevron said:
1) From 06:00 to 18:00 heavy shaping. 18:00-23:00 light shaping.
2) Usage between 06:00 and 23:00.

06:00 - 18:00 - Business hours
18:00 - 23:00 - After hours
23:00 - 06:00 - Off peak
weekends - Off peak
Click to expand...

Don't even bother trying to download anything between 06:00 - 23:00
I don't get more than 2kbs on a 2MB line uncapped account.
Even browsing during the day is crazy slow.
Tried to download something now at 19:50 and it just sits at 0kbs. eventually it moved to 2kbs
 
Razzle said:
Don't even bother trying to download anything between 06:00 - 23:00
I don't get more than 2kbs on a 2MB line uncapped account.
Even browsing during the day is crazy slow.
Tried to download something now at 19:50 and it just sits at 0kbs. eventually it moved to 2kbs
Click to expand...

That means nothing without you telling us what your star rating is. Sounds like you on 1 star.
 
Chevron said:
That means nothing without you telling us what your star rating is. Sounds like you on 1 star.
Click to expand...

Was on 3 stars
But regardless of stars, daytime browsing should not be so slow.
Have to refresh a google homepage 3 times for it to load.
 
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