Robski Plus Net Equals Love.

What light through yonder window breaks? It is the internet and Plusnet is the sun!

Over dramatic? maybe...

Finding that ISP can be an interesting journey into the black mists of poor service, its something I know about. My first ISP that wasn't Freeserve dial-up, happened to be NTL (now Virgin Media). For those who might stumble across this strange bloggy place of a slightly deranged English man, who do not know our English ISPs, NTL had a nick name... N T HELL. Some people have connection drop issues with their ISP's, constantly up and down up and down. To akin NTL to the workings of a yo-yo would insult the yo-yo. Actually comparing NTL's service to a dead goat, would also insult the corpse of the ex-Capra aegagrus hircus.

Moving bravely forward, and breaking free of NTL via a house move, I stumbled upon Pipex. They were wonderful, for the first few years our love blossomed. In the years I was with them (which was over 4) I think I lost connection about twice. So what went wrong? Homecall went wrong. They "merged", then they fleeced me.

Angry with no answers from Pipex Homecall, I was looking for a new ISP. A Friend of mine also frustrated with the excellently poor customer service from Pipex started looking for a new ISP opportunity. We shared a mutual friend, who kept banging on about this ISP that was so good, some company called Plusnet.

Looking into Plusnet, my first reaction was eek! usage limits! Pro Gamer package, 10gb a month?! Do these guys know what gamers do?! I had no experience of usage limits in the past, Pipex did not have one, well unless you tried to download the internet, then they objected screaming "unfair usage!!!".

Moving on I asked more probing questions of my friend, who I figured was just trying to win a shopping trip to NYC. And after knowing how much he hammered his connection , and being surprised he was only on 10gb a month I started to lower the walls.

I heard about the overnight free usage and the optimised traffic, depending on who you are and how you "surf". Being a gamer I was interested to see their concern towards our breed, and ping worries. Also the 1 month rolling contract, so I can escape if needed! I was so angry with Pipex, I just went for it.

I can't tell you how well the change over went! I had no down time and even though my connection was a fixed 2Mb by my last provider, it was working much better already. So I was settling in to my new ISP, when the friend pops up in MSN window asking me if I had "Maxed" my connection yet.

Pardon?

Maxing my connection, the process of allowing Plusnet to get personal with your phone line and fixing you at the fastest but most reliable speed for your line. It takes about a week or so for it to really take effect, but lets just say I went from 2Mb to 7Mb...

Happy Bunnies so far!

But then, disaster! Surely! Its only mid month and my usage is nearly gone! If you read the iPlayer post you will see what happened. I fired a question to Plusnet via their online help centre and something strange happened, something I have only experienced in dreams, THEY REPLIED! Yea, a few days latter I hear you cynically scoff, forget days and try minuets! Obviously in my case, they were probably wondering what the hell I was on about, as it wasn't their fault that iPlayer was draining my soul. But persistently they replied to my confused ramblings.

I figured out it was iPlayer with about 100mbs of usage to spare, oh no, I'm going down. My worst fear was going to be realised, no internet. But would my new love do that to me? No. Never. I expected to be cut off, I had reached my limit, that was that, game over. But like a rope thrown out to a bloke hanging off a cliff I was rescued. Because when you run out of usage for the month, Plusnet keep you online! They slip you to a reduced rate of about 128kbs (ISDN country for those that remember them days).

So I have to have a reduced service because of the evil iPlayer, so what! I have a service! For browsing, checking emails and essential stuff, its fine... and if I want, I could add another 1GB on for a £ if I wanted to kick it back to full speed.

Plusnet I salute you. If you are looking for an ISP, Plusnet wont disappoint.