Zen Internet - what is the point

[zenpmd]

I used to use them 10 years ago as it seemed (among other players like Eclipse) to be the only good way of getting fast and reliable ADSL.

Now Im on plusnet fibre and I pay £10 a month for a 40mb line. That is amazing! I cannot see how Zen justify their prices anymore - however good their customer service you just dont need to use it that much to justify such a price increase?

[peterb]

I tend to agree with you, I have been with Zen for about the same time. The static IP addresses (8) are useful though, and is an extra with many of the budget providers, if they offer it at all.

[abaxas]

Customer service is only as good as when things break.........

[shaithis]

I know people on plusnet and they do not get the top speeds as often as I do on Zen.

For a lot of people, that doesn't matter, to me it does. I also needed 2-3 IP addresses to host things, Zen gave me a block of 8 for free. I also have yet to have any downtime from them. I also do not want a FUP and expect my line to max out 24/7. Last month alone I did 1.2TB down and 800GB up, I doubt any other ISP would allow me to do that.

I've just been through all the fibre providers with my brother and Plusnet do not do a £10pm fibre package, only ADSL. Their unlimited 40Mb package is £15pm and has a FUP.

Horses for courses.

[zenpmd]

I know people on plusnet and they do not get the top speeds as often as I do on Zen.

For a lot of people, that doesn't matter, to me it does. I also needed 2-3 IP addresses to host things, Zen gave me a block of 8 for free. I also have yet to have any downtime from them. I also do not want a FUP and expect my line to max out 24/7. Last month alone I did 1.2TB down and 800GB up, I doubt any other ISP would allow me to do that.

I've just been through all the fibre providers with my brother and Plusnet do not do a £10pm fibre package, only ADSL. Their unlimited 40Mb package is £15pm and has a FUP.

Horses for courses.

It was an unusual upgrade offer from adsl I had. So cheap. I get 40mb on it, which is the maximum I can get in my area anyway. On usenet I get 45mb oddly.

[virtuo]

We are getting FTTC enabled in our area "soon", it's installed at the exchange - just waiting for the cabinet to be upgraded.

I'm in a similar boat to shaithis, I want every possible scrap of speed I can get without having to worry about caps/FUP. I haven't looked at prices yet, but Zen are on my very short shortlist. I've always been willing to pay extra for a technically superior offering as long as they don't take the mickey.

The one thing that does put me off is the minimum term contracts - everywhere seems to be 18 months at the minute, I've had the luxury of a rolling 1-month contract on my current ADSL supplier. It encourages them to look after their customers as they could lose them at the first hint of a ballsup.

[DanceswithUnix]

Eclipse customer here, but paying the extra for reverse DNS entry editing, static IP addresses, unfiltered connection that tends to keep a good speed and a general lack of grief. I could get a cheaper connection, but that would be facebook optimised not for running home servers.

[probedb]

It depends what you're after. And abaxas, PlusNet have excellent customer service, especially when things break.

[shaithis]

It depends what you're after. And abaxas, PlusNet have excellent customer service, especially when things break.

I have had first hand experience of Plusnet support and must admit I was surprised, especially considering BT own them!

They are quite hot on packet-shaping and FUPs though....and don't have the bandwidth that the premium suppliers and BT do.

[zenpmd]

What do you mean dont have the bandwidth? I max out the technical speed of my line with Plusnet?

Re FUP I've downloaded 1.2TB this month no problems

[Bagnaj97]

I average around 400G/month on plus.net but have been approaching a TB a few times and haven't been hit by FUPs or noticeable packet shaping. As I understand it their packet shaping is for QoS, i.e. P2P packets get lower priority if the network's congested, rather than hard caps/limits/throttling on P2P. I've never noticed torrents not saturating my connection, providing the swarm is large enough.

A static IP is a one off £5 charge (no idea if you can have more than one though) and you can request rDNS changes through their help assistant, but it says you may have to provide proof of ownership of the domain.

I've been more than satisfied with their service so far!