I've recently had a problem with my MaxDSL connection at home. This was raised with my ISP, PlusNet, but they were unable to help me. The problem was that my connection speed went from around 7Mbps to 460kbps – a substantial drop.
During my "troubleshooting" I made some enquires on the ThinkBroadband forum where there is a room for discussions of PlusNet. The conclusions of these enquires are interesting, and not widely publicised (IMO) by ISP's (especially my own).
My conclusions on MaxDSL are as follows: –
1) MaxDSL really *is* anything up to 8Mbps.
2) Your connection speed can vary downward very quickly (e.g from 7Mbps to 460kbps in a day).
3) Your connection speed can vary upward very slowly (every 3 days).
4) MaxDSL is unstable ("blips" occur).
5) PlusNet would rather lose a customer than educate their helpdesk
personnel to properly advise that the above is possible and within the
scope of the service.
So, if you are prepared to accept points 1-4, then MaxDSL is a platform you can use. If not, find another platform.
By other platforms, I mean; cable broadband, and other xDSL products.
You can read the full conversation that led to these conclusions here .
The graph above nicely demonstrates what you *could* expect from your MaxDSL connection. The graphs shows a daily speed test, using the linux wget command, of a fixed size mpg file downloaded from the PlusNet webspace. The graph period is from Fri Dec 29th 2006 to Thu Feb 15th 2007. Each download took place at around 02:20hrs.
