Plugg Uncapped ADSL Feedback

Mweb vs Plugg on my 10Mbps line with 4Mbps uncapped accounts...
OUCH!
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/508116-Mweb-vs-Plugg
One result for one person on one day is hardly convincing. I had such a terrible experience with Mweb that I canceled my (then) free account after only a few days. Contrary to your experience my Plugg account runs practically full line speed no matter when I use it. In fact, my speeds are so consistent and good that I haven't moved in spite of their (now) over priced packages and obvious hesitance to adjust those prices. Sure, I could move to a different ISP and save quite a few bucks, but would I be back to non-functional internet like Mweb was for me, or dial-up speeds like my last few weeks at Afrihost? Internet in SA is becoming a whatever-works-for-you-personally kinda thing I'm afraid.
 
I'm running it concurrently for a month. Right now Plugg is pathetic. I'll keep everyone posted, no worries. It's quite feasable that there is an issue from my end (East London), but it's useful info for those who don't know. I've already offered my account to another user to test before they jump ship.
 
One result for one person on one day is hardly convincing. I had such a terrible experience with Mweb that I canceled my (then) free account after only a few days. Contrary to your experience my Plugg account runs practically full line speed no matter when I use it. In fact, my speeds are so consistent and good that I haven't moved in spite of their (now) over priced packages and obvious hesitance to adjust those prices. Sure, I could move to a different ISP and save quite a few bucks, but would I be back to non-functional internet like Mweb was for me, or dial-up speeds like my last few weeks at Afrihost? Internet in SA is becoming a whatever-works-for-you-personally kinda thing I'm afraid.

I have to second this , Plugg has been absolutely amazing for me. I had one issue this month with slow streaming which lasted about 1 hour. Otherwise full line speed , any time of the day on all platforms. Done 120gb this month of February on my 1mb , im sure i could get plenty more data just have no need for it.
 
Been with PluGG since Axxess decided to go "weird" on us, sometime October last year.

Can honestly say I haven't had any speed issues from the ISP side of things - they are delivering what they promise, 4meg speed in my case.

The only problem I had, was sometime in December when it went slow, but upon proper investigation it boiled down to exchange congestion, dear ol'Telkom decided to put ADSL out on special and it caused an over-sell.... and dear ol'Telkom not thinking about upgrading the incoming feeds into the DSLAM. That needs to be sorted out by Telkom by adding more bandwidth to the DSLAM. But after a proper rant-and-rave session by nearly all the ADSL users in town, something was done and the whole town got better speeds again. Exchange congestion is something you guys should keep in mind when it goes slower than normal, specially during peak hours. When doing a tracert and they very next hop after your router is anything higher than say 20ms - exchange/DSLAM congestion!

So I am still a happy camper on my Plugg account - 132gig for the month thus far.
 
Plugg is great if you don't exceed 250gb per month. That's what my Jan and Feb consumption was. the Janitor has confirmed that I'm a 'flagged user'. So I still get full line speed after hours but during peak hours my 4mb line is a joke and remote desktop to work is unusable. I posted my speed tests earlier in this thread. Apparently they are working on not shaping the popular streaming sites, even if you are flagged. Not sure when and how to get unflagged,will have to wait till 1 March and see if I get full line speed back during peak hours. If not, I have no choice but to cancel my account and try someone else.
 
Plugg is great if you don't exceed 250gb per month....

Is this 250Gb a limit an actual limit as advertised or stipulated by them? Reason for asking is that I use around 80 to 150GB per month and on Telkom I am soft capped already from around 100Gb.

Seems like Telkom apply the capps as and when they want to as many have different levels from where they were capped.

If the 250Gb on Plugg is an 'actual' limit then it should do just fine for my needs
 
I have to second this , Plugg has been absolutely amazing for me. I had one issue this month with slow streaming which lasted about 1 hour. Otherwise full line speed , any time of the day on all platforms. Done 120gb this month of February on my 1mb , im sure i could get plenty more data just have no need for it.

+1

And saw about the post of 250gb limit. If that is true.. then fine.
 
I'm running it concurrently for a month. Right now Plugg is pathetic. I'll keep everyone posted, no worries. It's quite feasable that there is an issue from my end (East London), but it's useful info for those who don't know. I've already offered my account to another user to test before they jump ship.

Is it a trial account? Could be one that's been overused. Ask for a fresh one.
 
Is it a trial account? Could be one that's been overused. Ask for a fresh one.

Nope, it's a brand new account. Today Plugg is smoking Mweb. Mweb international was pathetic and plugg was reasonable.
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/508116-Mweb-vs-Plugg

Back to this 250Gb threshold. Cans someone confirm the throttling policy with these accounts? Will something happen to me after 250Mb? I use around 400 on Mweb and that would be a deal breaker if it stopped working after 250Mb.
 
Howdy,

Since most of the staff had their lunch, I thought this Janitor would take a breather and respond to some of the questions posted over the last couple of days before returning to Janitorial duties.

Is this 250Gb a limit an actual limit as advertised or stipulated by them? Reason for asking is that I use around 80 to 150GB per month and on Telkom I am soft capped already from around 100Gb.

Back to this 250Gb threshold. Cans someone confirm the throttling policy with these accounts?

I have actually mentioned this before in this Plugg thread, so, some of you might have seen parts of this response already.

All the uncapped accounts make use of a progressive priority system. In other words, if your usage is high, generally the top 20% of the users, your network priority will be dropped; this starts by dropping the priority of downloading protocols. If you remain a top user eventually all of your usage will be low priority.

As an example, if your main priority is downloading you will find that during peak-hours your downloads will "slow-down". If there are however spare network capacity, you might find your downloads even during peak-hours at normal speed.

As for peak-hours; it will "normally" line-up with business and after hours:

06:00 - 18:00 - Business hours
18:00 - 23:00 - After hours
23:00 - 06:00 - Off peak
weekends - Off peak

That "slow-down" I mentioned, that would occur during the Business hours and a lesser impact during After hours.

Off peak should always be full speed.

It is important to keep in mind the priority is applied in real time, so it is not really as much -fixed times-, but more depending on usage on the network from minute to minute.

When there are plenty of capacity available on the network you will be able to use more per month, of course the opposite is also true for when everybody starts to pull as much as possible. We do not have a hard limit set when it comes to shaping (ie after 250Gigs, now we will start shaping your connection).

See shaping as a hint system for your usage.

So I still get full line speed after hours but during peak hours my 4mb line is a joke and remote desktop to work is unusable.

This is something I will need to look into, as even though you are 'flagged', during office hours RDP should not be shaped. I'll respond via email as I still owe you a response on other related matters.

Not sure when and how to get unflagged

Internet Solutions makes use of a rolling ten day window to determine your account status based on your usage. The rolling window is always today plus usage of the previous ten days; there are no specific days. Rolling ten days.

If you do find yourself 'flagged' the quickest and easiest way to get 'unflagged' is to schedule your downloads during 23:00 - 06:00, Mon - Sun. [Edit on 02/10/2013 to avoid further confusion]

If you schedule the majority of your downloads during this time, you will never be flagged.

Will something happen to me after 250Mb? I use around 400 on Mweb and that would be a deal breaker if it stopped working after 250Mb.

Any ISP would welcome you with open arms, if you only use 250Mb - 400Mb per month ;-) Yes, I know you made a typo.. :P

I'm looking for an account that will do around 350-450Gb a month, using SSL NNTP.

I'd really appreciate a straight, honest idea of what the shaping is like on nntp with Plugg

We classify NNTP the same as any other download protocol.

I take it SSL is a no-no.

We do not mind if you are using SSL for your NNTP connections purely because it would not really bypass our shaping engines.

I should however just make it clear that anything you use to bypass our shaping mechanism in order to accumulate more usage will eventually cause your entire account (all your traffic) to be further deprioritized.

Also, do you guys have an international news server?

Our server (news.plugg.co.za) is local however we pull our news articles from an international provider.

Do they do trial accounts?

Yup, Yup. Just drop [email protected] an email, together with your current line-speed and they will send you the relevant details.

Now you need to excuse me, I believe we have a faulty valve causing havoc with the irrigation system on the far end of the gardens that needs attention.

Have a good one!


--
The Janitor @ PluGG - [email protected]

PluGG - Consumer division of Internet Solutions
[email protected] | [email protected]
www.plugg.co.za | 08611 PluGG | www.is.co.za

#include <std-disclaimer.h>
 
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I like what I see.

I like that my downloads are not stopped dead and that I'm branded an abuser but rather that my downloads will just be pushed down to zero if the demand on the network is high and that it will pick-up again as the demand decreases.

I like that there is essentially no limits and that I can go 'mad' if I do all my downloading in off-peak, don't mind scheduling things like this.

I think you will have a new client by next week, thanks
 
If you do find yourself 'flagged' the quickest and easiest way to get 'unflagged' is to schedule your downloads during Off Peak (23:00 - 06:00, Mon - Fri).

If you schedule the majority of your downloads during Off Peak, you will never be flagged.

This is interesting, would it not be an idea to then have the ability for the client to be able to group his usage according to the specific time frames. Another words when i go into the usage page i get the option to see how much i have done during : Business hours , After hours and off peak. That way the customer can properly monitor it, its just an idea anyway. Use it , dont use it :)
 
I wonder how limiting your connection according to time would work:
08:00 - 18:00 - Business hours (50kb)
18:00 - 23:00 - After hours (100KB)
23:00 - 08:00 - Off peak (full speed)

on my 2MB line :p

The only thing I liked about Telkom was full speed all the time, most of the stuff I download is available at around 7am, and I like it down by the time I finish work... but I guess I'll just have to get used to an extra days wait.
 
This is interesting, would it not be an idea to then have the ability for the client to be able to group his usage according to the specific time frames. Another words when i go into the usage page i get the option to see how much i have done during : Business hours , After hours and off peak. That way the customer can properly monitor it, its just an idea anyway. Use it , dont use it :)

That is a very good suggestion; I have forward it to the Product Manager responsible for Plugg since I know that she is working on other changes surrounding the website and the customer-zone.

Thanks for this!

-- janitor@plugg
 
That is a very good suggestion; I have forward it to the Product Manager responsible for Plugg since I know that she is working on other changes surrounding the website and the customer-zone.

Thanks for this!

-- janitor@plugg

Awesome :D
 
Streaming very bad tonight. Been testing a trial account for a few days and its been great, but tonight I'm getting lots of buffering.
 
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