Re: Plusnet revised Terms and Conditions

MikeB (Look At End Of Message For Real Address) wrote:

> According to an e-mail received this morning, Plusnet have updated
> their T&Cs with, amongst other things, the following two additions:
>
> (1) "Introduction of 'idle time-outs' for Broadband Plus and ADSL Home
> Surf customers. This means that we will disconnect any sessions that
> are inactive for a period of thirty minutes. As long as your
> connection is in active use, you will not be disconnected. If you are
> disconnected you will be able to reconnect straight away."

30 minutes? Why so long? Why not shut 'em off after 10 minutes?
I've always had my Netgear DG632 Router set to 10 minutes idle
time-out. I'd like to know what smackhead at Netgear thought it
would be a great idea to have the default set at "0" (keep alive).
After all, the DG632 is not aimed at power users connecting their
home network of 80 PCs, but as a better alternative for users of
scabby USB modems.

> (2) "Introduction of traffic prioritisation techniques to all
> broadband accounts. This will ensure that we can continue to deliver
> an excellent and consistent service, particularly at peak times, for
> customers using time-sensitive applications such as VoIP, email, web
> browsing and gaming."

They'd be better off just setting a hard cap, then there wouldn't be
any of this dicking around with this traffic management garbage.
So if you bought a 10 GB package, that 10 GB is yours to do as
you wish. But if you use the 10 GB before the month is over, well
tough ***, you better pony up for more bandwidth or get 0 bytes.

> In respect of (1), it would appear that my *always on* connection will
> no longer be *always on* (so I would hope that any reference to
> *always on* has also been removed from the sales blurb !)

I expect many ISPs will lie and say that as long as the WAN light
stays on (ADSL sync) then you are "always on" even if there is no
active session. Look out for that whopper.

> but I don't really see what real benefit there is in disconnecting
> sessions ala dial-up except perhaps to assist in load balancing.

It's a good thing from a security standpoint. No longer connected to
your ISP means no port probes or other junk can continue to bang
away at your firewall. Saves your bandwidth too.

> delay while a new session is started/authenticated which could well be
> a bit of a PITA.

My Router takes 7 seconds to reconnect. For the enhanced security,
I am very happy to wait 7 seconds. But I guess many people couldn't
wait a whole 7 seconds - they want their porn NOW!!!

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