MultiplayDSL Site and Ordering Relaunches [Archive]

Wizzo

27th June 2006, 17:19

We're back! http://www.multiplaydsl.net is back, revamped and taking orders again.

We've made some slight price changes to the packages, as well as introducing "gamer friendly" download caps. These caps apply to downloads you make during peak time (currently 8am-midnight) but even when you hit them, your connection will continue, albeit at a reduced 256kbps speed for the rest of that month, which is fine for gaming. Note only download traffic (not upload) counts toward the cap and you can download as much as you like between midnight and 8am (off peak).

We have also added lower cost "Home" packages with download cpas of 3GB and 10GB at £14.99 and £19.99 a month respectively. Ideal for the occasional gamer who does little or no downloading.

Note that existing customers are protected from the price changes for 3 months and download caps start from 4th July.

It's been a little while coming, but we're finally back on track to providing broadband to gamers throughout the UK that they can be proud of!

Go go - http://www.multiplaydsl.net

Chicane

27th June 2006, 17:25

\o/ woohoo etc \o/

shame no bunnies though ;)

Yorkie0362

27th June 2006, 18:04

Very reasonable... I have a couple of questions though

1. Are you measuring Download only or both Download and Upload
2. Will we all start at zero on the 4th
3. If we get put on 256 (just out of interest) what is the procedure for returning back to normal, eg. will it be automatic
4. Is there anyway for us to monitor our usage, if not I can heartily recomend dumeter, you can google it if necesary, (i cant post links)
5. As I am currently on 1meg using the IPMAX service, the new service is entitled up to 2Mbps will you raise the bar to 2meg for me ?
6. Bunnies ??

Thank you multiplay for being honest and fair with us.

apwd007

27th June 2006, 18:13

Jingles

27th June 2006, 18:13

Cheers for the updates, and a good service

RTO

27th June 2006, 18:19

Re: Yorkie0362...

1. Download only
2. Bandwidth allowances are per calendar month
3. No customer interaction will be required to return to full speed
4. That will be coming with the long awaited 'My Account' section (my next dev project to finish now we've got the site/ordering up again ;))
3(5?). MPDSL Bunnies...

http://photos.poddle.net/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=53435&g2_serialNumber=2

;)

no friends

27th June 2006, 18:26

£29.99 a month... i'm leaving when 3 months is up on the current price :|

Wizzo

27th June 2006, 18:26

So, i'm going to be paying £29.99, for a 2mb service, that has identical in-game pings as my old provider wanadoo, a download cap and that kicks me out of BF2 with the 'lost connection' error in BF2 at peak times. Great.

Sorry you feel this way, but there are a couple of points here:

The vast majority of your latency is determined by the connection with the exchange, i.e. the copper in your road. There is little a change in ISP can do to fix that. What we can help on is cutting out the additional hops to get to servers, which can save quite a few ms.

The lost connection error you're getting with BF2 is likely the server stability issues we're seeing across all BF2 servers worldwide. If it isn't and you are seeing your line drop/resync when this happens, get in touch with us and we'll investigate. Unfortunately, IP MAX is not proving to be a good service for gaming in some cases and we have had to regrade a number of people back down to GamerDSL.

dirtyginge

27th June 2006, 18:27

yup, im onboard

its well worth it for a quality connection, instead of paying for an unlimited connection that is so contended, that getting email feels like a 10 meg download.........

I understand you file downloaders being upset by this, having to be careful etc, but bear in mind that you affect everyone else, and its great to see a company come on the side of the gamer :D ...

been on the service 2 months now, and loving the performance, not just the "sync speed" but actual service to back it up...

A very happy Ex F2s customer

MajorPart

27th June 2006, 18:28

I'd have thought the IPMAX Premium would have got a 50Gb cap... :confused:

Yorkie0362

27th June 2006, 18:32

Thanks for the quick answers RTO much appreciated, I have since edited the numbers and added another question.

5. As I am currently on 1meg using the IPMAX service, the new service is entitled up to 2Mbps will you raise the bar to 2meg for me ?

i hope i explained that clearly, basically I pay for 1 meg gamerdsl which is provided via ipmax restricted to 1 meg

MajorPart

27th June 2006, 18:32

The lost connection error you're getting with BF2 is likely the server stability issues we're seeing across all BF2 servers worldwide.

I can second that. It isn't generally a connection problem (but it may say that in BF2) it's an issue with the 1.3 patch that is causing servers to crash randomly. I've had it many times on non multiplay servers, multiplay servers while using multiplay dsl and other isps. It's an EA problem and they are making a fix real soon.

I've Never had any issues with my Multiplay DSL connection even when training in the first 10 days, been very stable.

BinarySlave

27th June 2006, 18:42

I'd have thought the IPMAX Premium would have got a 50Gb cap... :confused:

Same here :(

I am disappointed with this to be honest. I really don't think £39.99 for a 40gb cap is good. My previous ISP (f2s) are still offering standard MAX with a 50gb cap for £23.99! or if you ever go over the 50gb cap they raise it to £29.99 for that month only. - so thats £29.99 for 100gb!

I am a relatively medium user.... I don't top 100gb a month by any means, 50gb is a bit restrictive but I could live with that, but 40gb and a raise in the price? .... bit like a kick in the nuts.

I appreciate that Multiplay are a much smaller operation, but cost is always going to be a factor on whether I stay or go, and as I can clearly get a much better deal elsewhere, I am going to have to go.......

*bangs head on desk* :eek:

apwd007

27th June 2006, 18:45

Sorry you feel this way, but there are a couple of points here:

The vast majority of your latency is determined by the connection with the exchange, i.e. the copper in your road. There is little a change in ISP can do to fix that. What we can help on is cutting out the additional hops to get to servers, which can save quite a few ms.

The lost connection error you're getting with BF2 is likely the server stability issues we're seeing across all BF2 servers worldwide. If it isn't and you are seeing your line drop/resync when this happens, get in touch with us and we'll investigate. Unfortunately, IP MAX is not proving to be a good service for gaming in some cases and we have had to regrade a number of people back down to GamerDSL.

For me the lost connection error is certainly not a server fault. The server does not crash, and when i'm playing on my clan server and I lose connection, no one else is experiencing any problems.

I do accept what you are saying regarding pings.

LozB

27th June 2006, 18:51

Wizzo

27th June 2006, 18:55

Not much we can do about the cap. It's set at a level that is sustainable based on the usage figures we have. Other ISPs may well be able to use their scale to subsidise larger caps that only some users (i.e. you lot) will use. We can't. At least not yet :)

If you want a connection that is clear of traffic shaping and with gaming put first, then it can't come at mass market pricing I'm afraid.

Having said this, we will be reviewing the state of play on a monthly basis. I personally wanted to set the cap for MAX and Gamer at 50 GB, but when I worked it out the figures gave me a slap.

Wizzo

27th June 2006, 18:58

3 months from the last renewal date or 3 months from this announcement? as im maxed out at 1mb with gamer, why not introduce a gamer 1mb tariff too? in theory im paying an upgrade to 29.99 for 2mb tariff when im only able to receive 1mb max. i dont mind capping i just not keen on being hit for and extra £5 for 1mb im not currently using.

The speed of your line is no longer the determining factor in price, the cost of your downloads is, i.e. it's not how big your pipe is, it's how much you use it. Users on 512, 1024 and 2048 speed lines all have the same cap which determines the price. 1 mbps and 2 mbps lines were the same price before anyway.

Yorkie0362

27th June 2006, 18:59

In that case can you raise my profile to allow 2Mbps pleaseeeeeee

Wizzo

27th June 2006, 19:02

Yes Yorkie we will be making that change. Surprised you haven't asked for it already as 1Mbps and 2Mbps are the same price anyway!

kandy

27th June 2006, 19:06

nice to see your up again, good luck with your new service all i can say is fookin customers :p

Yorkie0362

27th June 2006, 19:07

:spinface: not half as surprised as I am, I'm usually first in line for free stuff, I guess I just forgot I was on MAX, as there was no way I could get 2Mbps on the old standard system. I wont even mention putting me on 3Mbps for a month as "backpay" :devil:

Wizzo

27th June 2006, 19:35

All done. May have noticed a disconnect then Yorkie... that would be me binning your conn so you reauthed with a higher rate limit :)

Yorkie0362

27th June 2006, 19:47

guess, what, my dsl just disconnected, thanks Wizzo for all the help mate, not many ISP's do a regrade in 15 minutes is there.

:icon15:

BinarySlave

27th June 2006, 19:51

guess, what, my dsl just disconnected, thanks Wizzo for all the help mate, not many ISP's do a regrade in 15 minutes is there.

:icon15:

lol ..this is nuts :) on 1 hand i want to leave, but the customer service here is second to none! its amazing! ......you get what you pay for in that respect I guess! .... what to do! :S gonna have to think this one over long and hard for a few weeks methinks.

Wizzo

27th June 2006, 20:00

BinarySlave - you do realise you're well within the caps?

18 may - 17 Jun = 17.34 GB peak usage (88.61 GB total)

If you do the majority of your downloads overnight after midnight, this isn't going to affect you. More than 3 in 4 of you are within the caps coming in!

BinarySlave

27th June 2006, 20:13

Kibit

27th June 2006, 20:15

Wizzo is there anyway you could tell me what my highest month has been please, need to know if this is going to effect me or not.

Thanks in advance.

Wizzo

27th June 2006, 21:18

To save an inevitable torrent of Q's on the forum, can people interested to know their utilisation to date please email billing@multiplaydsl.net and we'll answer that way?

I'm hoping to do a mailshot to everyone telling them their prior usage and suggesting what their new package should be. For example, just had someone come into #mpdsl unhappy about the increase and it turned out he'd fit in Home 3 GB and save a tenner a month :)

Nikumba

27th June 2006, 21:22

ditto for a query on my download levels

Lemonshoes

27th June 2006, 23:25

I was happy when download caps where introduced as well as the price increase.

You get what you pay for. I want low ping hightly responcive ADSL and this is how its achieved. The other providers offering no caps and £20 a month are a mess.

LozB

29th June 2006, 13:44

ticket 100400 raised yesterday for request for utilisation information, no reply yet

Mr Footlong

2nd July 2006, 10:07

Pretty sure that I have answered my own question, but is all of Saturday and Sunday rated as Off-Peak?

Xilly

2nd July 2006, 10:07

I assume so

BinarySlave

2nd July 2006, 15:33

Pretty sure that I have answered my own question, but is all of Saturday and Sunday rated as Off-Peak?

I wouldnt think so to be honest. They are probably the busiest times for home net usage. As far as it looks, off peak is limited midnight-8am ..which isnt too bad really.

Mr Footlong

2nd July 2006, 15:41

'Parp' well there goes 10gb of my allowance today lol.

Edit - Just to say before I get death threats via PM :p, I am a pretty sporadic downloader, not a 24/7 leecher :)

Xilly

2nd July 2006, 17:44

weekends should be off peak, as they are with most other isps.

Dentist

2nd July 2006, 17:47

Why? Weekends should be peak, not offpeak, daytime and after 3am should be offpeak.

Those are when most serious gamers will use the internet the most, and afterall this is a service for GAMERS, not business (other than the business packages :P)

Chicane

2nd July 2006, 17:49

mpdsl is a gaming dsl service, so it makes sense that weekends are peak time as that when most people play lot of games...

BinarySlave

2nd July 2006, 18:22

XiLLy']weekends should be off peak, as they are with most other isps.

Which ISPS? I have never known an ISP to offer off peak for a weekend. It would be madness to do so IMO as that is when the bulk of home users are going to use the net (again IMO).

Mr Footlong

2nd July 2006, 18:43

Until someone with a clue that works for MPUK and is heavily involved directly in the ADSL service 'cough RTO, Wizzo' ;) says something on this officially I wouldn't go getting your panties in a bunch ladies.

BinarySlave

2nd July 2006, 18:53

This is a discussion forum isn't it? ;)

Lady my arse! :P

Dentist

2nd July 2006, 19:58

Just pointing out that Xilly is talking rubbish :P

Xilly

2nd July 2006, 22:44

weekends were off peak with plusnet.

Wizzo

3rd July 2006, 12:59

No days were mentioned in the off peak hours. They are midnight-8am every day. Weekends during the day are still termed peak hours.

Mr Footlong

3rd July 2006, 13:03

Cool, so that's settled.

mjd23

5th July 2006, 12:19

So, as it's now passed the 4th of July, we are now capped. Where can I found out my usage? I thought you were going to have this in place before the caps.

RTO

5th July 2006, 18:27

I've spent most of today tracking down an overflow problem in one of the systems used to track individuals download usage, I'm hoping to have it fixed tomorrow, then we can launch the "My Account" section for you to check your usage. This has only become apparent with DSL connections that have been active for a number of weeks, and as such wasn't visable earlier in development.

Apologies for the delay, we just to make sure the data you are being presented with is accurate :) In the mean time if you need to check your usage, please drop us an email to support ^AT^ multiplaydsl.net and we will check for you.

Kibit

5th July 2006, 18:37

then we can launch the "My Account" section for you to check your usage.

Is this gonna use the same database (or a mirror) as on this site or will we have to be provided with new login details?

RTO

6th July 2006, 08:18

It will use your main MPUK username/password the you used (or created) when signing up for ADSL *not* your router user/pass.

Kibit

7th July 2006, 07:51

It will use your main MPUK username/password the you used (or created) when signing up for ADSL *not* your router user/pass.

Ay :confused:
Who said anything about a router user/pass?

Anyway question answered, Thank you.

Kibit

7th July 2006, 16:21

I'm hoping to have it fixed tomorrow, then we can launch the "My Account" section for you to check your usage.

Any luck with this today, are you getting any closer to a fix?

RTO

7th July 2006, 16:34

In fact, yes, I've just pushed the changes out :)

You will now see a link to "My Account" in the top right of the MultiplayDSL website (http://www.multiplaydsl.net/account/). Login using your Multiplay Account details to see you usage.

Due to the delay in getting the front end for this up and running, I have "written off" everyone's usage from the 4th and 5th :)

It's 'quite' plain at the moment, I've got a whole load more features and "tarting up" to do on it, which I'll be rolling out early next week. For now I just thought it was important to get something there for you guys to keep trakc of how it's going.

If you have any problems, or notice any bugs, please let us know by emailing support ^AT^ multiplaydsl.net - thanks!

Dunceantix

7th July 2006, 17:03

Good start Robin.. at least we can see what we are using now :)
Keep up the good work mate...

dirtyginge

8th July 2006, 23:41

and now that the overflow problem is fixed RTO, any chance of resolving my upload / interleave issues RTO... ( :D )

BinarySlave

9th July 2006, 11:08

no friends

9th July 2006, 13:18

I'm a little confused, it has two numbers on the usage bit in the box (on that day).

So for eg. It would be
2GB
4GB

Does one represent the upload, and the other the download?

Also, does the usage limit of 40GB take into account of both the upload AND the download? or just the download?

If my pc at home is still uploading, and it shows the upload aswell on the account bit, then i don't know if i can send a message home to tell someone to turn off my pc?!?!

Or simply, can someone tell me if my connection is still downloading?

Sorry if this doens't make sense, i'm not too awake yet :P

Kibit

9th July 2006, 16:04

I think the top one is your "peak time" usage and the bottom is "off peak"
and that on the 4th of every month its gets reset and does not roll over.

Though I am not MPUK staff and this is not an official answer, just how I see it.

RTO

9th July 2006, 17:56

I'm a little confused, it has two numbers on the usage bit in the box (on that day).

So for eg. It would be
2GB
4GB

Does one represent the upload, and the other the download?

As it says just above the 'calendar':

The values listed are in the format:

Day:
Peak Download
Total Download

The top figure is the peak download (what you have downloaded for that day between 08:00 - 23:59), the second is your total download figure for that day.

Also, does the usage limit of 40GB take into account of both the upload AND the download? or just the download?

At this time you download cap is only used by your *peak* download (yes, download as in 'download - not upload', I hope that makes sense ;)).

RTO

9th July 2006, 17:57

and now that the overflow problem is fixed RTO, any chance of resolving my upload / interleave issues RTO... ( :D )

Yep, still been chasing on that, will check your ticket later on :)

no friends

9th July 2006, 22:56

Hey, thanks alot :)

Hope thats usefull for others aswell ;)

BinarySlave

10th July 2006, 15:55

dirtyginge

10th July 2006, 19:25

many thanks RTO

still as before, download has stayed from 832 kbit to 448 kbit ( WHAT, NORMAL UPLOAD???? >>>HOW DARE BT !!!!!!!) :eek:

and as before, interleave remains on ...:(

cheers for all the help..give em hell, somthing very strange is afoot here ;) :smile-l:

apwd007

10th July 2006, 20:47

This is a simple question, not a moan:

As I understand, you need to be on a special rate adaptive service to get upto 8mb, but why am I already connected at 8mb even if it is capped to 2mb?

Wizzo

11th July 2006, 09:00

just trying to figure out how much bandwidth i have available to me at the min and when it resets.

My month renews on the 18th - does that mean my usage resets then? or does it reset every 4th (since caps were introduced on the 4th) ?

i have used 1.77gb of my allowance as of now. does that mean i could theoretically use the remaining 38.33gb by the 18th and then be reset on the 18th?

Your bandwidth quota runs for a calendar month from your renewal date. In your case this is the 18th-18th. This means for some people they'll have a full 40 GB to use in a short period of time whilst we bring the caps in line with their billing. Yours will get reset on the 18th for example and you will have a full 40 GB to use from that point for your next calendar month.

also, we can carry bandwidth over from one month to the next cant we? if so, say i only used a few gb a month for the next few months, does that all collect up ?

No. As with just about every other provider I've seen, if you do not use your allowance for one month it does not carry on to the next. The only exception to this will be paid for additional GB, but more on that once we have the systems in place to support it.

Wizzo

11th July 2006, 09:16

This is a simple question, not a moan:

As I understand, you need to be on a special rate adaptive service to get upto 8mb, but why am I already connected at 8mb even if it is capped to 2mb?

A number of connections ordered as Home 500/1000/2000 were in fact provisioned by BT as IP MAX. Rather than regrade people to the correct service immediately, we just put limitations on the connection in RADIUS to ensure you get the correct speed. This means in the future if you wanted to upgrade to the higher speed it's simply a change to RADIUS and you have it immediately.

BinarySlave

11th July 2006, 20:45

Your bandwidth quota runs for a calendar month from your renewal date. In your case this is the 18th-18th. This means for some people they'll have a full 40 GB to use in a short period of time whilst we bring the caps in line with their billing. Yours will get reset on the 18th for example and you will have a full 40 GB to use from that point for your next calendar month.

No. As with just about every other provider I've seen, if you do not use your allowance for one month it does not carry on to the next. The only exception to this will be paid for additional GB, but more on that once we have the systems in place to support it.

Fairy nuff! thx for the reply ;)

Xilly

11th July 2006, 22:07

I can confirm the smoothness of that, within 1 minute of requesting to be re-graded to max from standard 2 meg (i was one of those provisioned on to max and just limited) I had nice and lovely 8.5 meg connection :)

Species

15th July 2006, 07:14

I like the new useage tracker nice job there, out of interest how come upload won't be included?

Wizzo

15th July 2006, 14:32

Our billing on bandwidth is done at 95th percentile on outbound or inbound raffic, whichever is the greater. This is how most traffic is billed in the ISP world. As you might expect, on an ADSL service download is by far and away the largest traffic direction so it makes sense for us to only meter that. Upload is in essence "free traffic".

therubble

17th July 2006, 09:04

When will the traffic charts start to work on multiplaydsl.co.uk? Apparently I have zero usage, I've slipped under the subnet LOL.

RTO

17th July 2006, 09:14

What's your MH number therubble? I'll look into it ;)

therubble

17th July 2006, 10:36

What's your MH number therubble? I'll look into it ;)

MH4915

LozB

17th July 2006, 10:58

how come the 8mb IPMAX shows as 6.5mb when i use the availability checker? i appreciate that i live in a rural area. does this mean my MAX = 6.5mb?

Dunceantix

17th July 2006, 11:21

IP Max is a rate adaptive service, so you will get the fastest that your line can support.

I live far enough from my exchange that i can't get a full 2meg broadband, and i'm stuck with 1 :( and on IPMAX i can just about hit 4, which is what the availbility checker tells me as well, but i'm to poor to afford it ;)

Boffykins

17th July 2006, 11:40

Also note the Availability Checker is only a rough guide and doesn't guarentee a speed.

LozB

17th July 2006, 13:06

ok the following scenario.

im on gamerdsl and i can support 2mb or close to from the exchange im on. what happens if i upgrade to IPMAX and find that the gain isnt much better? can i degrade back to standard 2mb.

i guess i kinda mean trial?

Boffykins

17th July 2006, 13:12

I'm regrading back to 2Mb after going to MAX. There's no trial period, it took a few months to discover the problems with it anyway.

LozB

17th July 2006, 13:13

probs? like what?

RoboStac

17th July 2006, 13:45

I've just done the same. Max is great if your line can handle it. However, at best mine synced at around 4mbit during the day, usually dropping to 3mbit or below in the evening (not sure what caused this, but I consistently got disconnected over the course of the evening), whereas other people have had max and it stays connected at one speed for long periods of time. In the end I decided the disconnects weren't worth the extra 1mbit or so I was usually getting, so downgraded to 2mbit last week. It took 3 days from when I got really annoyed at the disconnects till I got 2mbit again.

I knew my line wasn't going to be great (5mbit on bt checker) as I'm not really near the exchange, and we've had line noise problems in the past. At worst your paying for one month of ADSLMax (minimum contract), which you've got to decide if thats worth the extra speed / potential problems. As far as I know theres no way to tell without trying it, and even though I've had problems, I'd recommend max as worth trying, as the extra download speed was nice, just wasn't stable enough on my line :(

RTO

17th July 2006, 15:17

how come the 8mb IPMAX shows as 6.5mb when i use the availability checker? i appreciate that i live in a rural area. does this mean my MAX = 6.5mb?

BT quote us "this line can support IPMAX up to an estimated speed of x.xmb", the 6.5mb is this speed. In reality they're done in tiers, 6.5mb is the minimum for 6.5-8.0mb.

Murray-Mint

17th July 2006, 15:24

And on the flip side of the ADSL Max arguement. At home I used to have 2mbps Gamer DSL and went for Max as soon as it was available, good line, not far from the exchange - synchronised at 8mbps on day 1, and over the 10 day training period the speed fluctuated, but then stabilised giving approximately 7mbps download speed (Not bad considering you should lose roughly 10% for ATM overheads - this is why previously 2mbps ADSL used to actually syncrhronise at 2.2mbps, giving you 2mbps of actual data transfer)

Remember, if you find ADSL Max worse for you than normal ADSL, then you can always regrade back down.

Yorkie0362

17th July 2006, 23:23

My renewal is shown as the 17th but the meter has not reset yet, can someone look into for me, or have I missed something.

Wizzo

18th July 2006, 07:55

They're still putting the finishing touches to the system to reset your usage. No-one is being restricted yet until this is done, which should kick in this week.

therubble

20th July 2006, 13:45

Hi any news on why I don't see any figures in the control panel for my adsl connection>?

RTO

21st July 2006, 13:19

Hi any news on why I don't see any figures in the control panel for my adsl connection>?

Hi, sorry for the delay. The reason you didn't have any stats was due to an error in our database, I've corrected this now, so you should start to see some stats :)

I've also checked the last 2 months for your piece of mind. May/June you used 10GB, June/July 6GB, so well within the 40GB cap :)

Lemonshoes

27th July 2006, 16:18

Hi, sorry for the delay. The reason you didn't have any stats was due to an error in our database, I've corrected this now, so you should start to see some stats :)

I've also checked the last 2 months for your piece of mind. May/June you used 10GB, June/July 6GB, so well within the 40GB cap :)

Hi, i too dont have any stats on my account page when i log in :redface:

wishy

27th July 2006, 17:51

Hi

Order ref: MH5242
Username: wishy

Well, lines up and running, but I get "No services found." when i try and look at my useage. Can you have a poke

Steve

Wizzo

27th July 2006, 21:44

It just means we haven't updated your account yet in response to BT's "connection live" email. This can sometimes come several hours if not a day after your service actually gets turned on.

Dan

27th July 2006, 22:50

Could I get my current ADSL Line added to my account please?

MH Number is 5150

I can already view bandy details by changing the MH No in the URL, but theres no direct link in my account!

Cheers

Lemonshoes

30th July 2006, 13:05

It just means we haven't updated your account yet in response to BT's "connection live" email. This can sometimes come several hours if not a day after your service actually gets turned on.

I been here for almost 2 weeks :P