Plusnet Discussion Thread

Minstadave · 16 Jul 2020 at 10:40

pastymuncher said:
So my BT contract was coming to a end so yet again I made the stupid choice to switch providers and went back to Plusnet after being away for 4-5 years. They took over the service on Monday and I am getting 30mb (was a solid 36mb with BT) at the moment but hopefully that will rise as the line training goes on. The problem I have is that the wifi is abysmal. Nothing will stay connected to either the 2.4ghz or 5ghz signals and once disconnected won't reconnect and even if they do connect it says connected to router but no internet available which is what it says at the moment although the hub has a connection to the internet as I am connected on my pc using a ethernet cable. Reading through the last page of this thread it would appear that this is a common problem with Plusnets supplied Router and the usual fix is to use a different router. Basically I have no wifi at all.

I still have my BT HH6 which I suppose they will be wanting back if I remember right from the last time I was with them and left so can anybody recommend a reasonably priced replacement for Plusnets hub please? If it's to be a BT HH how on earth do I configure it to work with Plusnet?

BT won't want your Hub 6 back. Just use that instead of the Plusnet router. All you have to do is change a couple of settings:

https://community.plus.net/t5/Library/Using-a-BT-Homehub-3-or-2-on-Plusnet-ADSL-or-FTTC/ba-p/1322578

I do this everytime I bounce between plusnet and BT. Also means all your devices don't need to be reconnected.

Caged · 16 Jul 2020 at 10:58

BT will only want your hub back if you signed up recently, as you're at the end of the contract they won't ask for it back.

ChrisD. · 16 Jul 2020 at 11:11

Shac said:
The BT and Openreach tools are not giving the same results when querying whats available for me.
BT tried to get me to swap and when he checked the Openreach data he told me good news you can get ADSL and your cabinet is down to be upgraded *soon* to FTTC.

I have been on FTTC for 3 or 4 years already!

He then checked the BT tool and confirmed that yes I was indeed already on FTTC (I know!)

I suspect many more people are being given incorrect information.

They give whatever information is available at the time, so if the cabinet is full then you can only get ADSL.

pastymuncher · 16 Jul 2020 at 13:24

@Minstadave @Caged Many thanks for the info and thankyou Minstadave for that link for the instructions on what to do. I will give it a go later and report back.

***Update*** Minstadave you are a star. I followed the instructions that you linked to and now have the BT HH6 working with Plusnet and my wifi is all sorted. Thank you so much.

Infidelus · 16 Jul 2020 at 19:25

Armadillo said:
Bit of a pain to get it on there, but openwrt should sort the hub one out. HH5A (same as hub one), was a bit glitchy, randomly reboot, randomly decide to stop giving internet after a reboot. Same hub with openwrt is rock solid, only ever need to reboot when I've made a config change.

I finally got round to doing this. It took me two days as I didn't want to do any soldering. There was a tutorial on a solderless way, but it didn't work for me. In the end I used masking tape, some wire and some crocodile clips, along with a USB to serial connector. Even then the instructions openwrt advised didn't work as there's apparently an issue with newer linux firmwares. I did find a post though that said to run picocom with ascii-xfr (and I had to install minicom to get the latter) and that finally did the trick.

The Plusnet hub still can't be run in modem only mode so I'm not sure I'll use it after all that effort, but it was a novel experience

Minstadave · 16 Jul 2020 at 19:41

pastymuncher said:
@Minstadave @Caged Many thanks for the info and thankyou Minstadave for that link for the instructions on what to do. I will give it a go later and report back.

***Update*** Minstadave you are a star. I followed the instructions that you linked to and now have the BT HH6 working with Plusnet and my wifi is all sorted. Thank you so much.

Glad it worked for you

bingham67 · 1 Sep 2020 at 13:42

Seem to be getting random disconnects lately and high ping when playing Warzone I asked my friends and there around 40 whilst mine going up to 60-100.

Im thinking it the Plusnet router and thinking of investing in a new router any recommendations prefer a all in one unit?

ChrisD. · 1 Sep 2020 at 13:47

Are you cabled or wireless?

koolpc · 1 Sep 2020 at 13:55

Just popped into this thread.

Plusnet a good provider? Only after a basic package and theirs come out cheaper than most.

Minstadave · 1 Sep 2020 at 13:56

koolpc said:
Just popped into this thread.

Plusnet a good provider? Only after a basic package and theirs come out cheaper than most.

Yeah no problems with them, their router is a bit old but you can get a BT Smarthub for very little and they work fine with Plusnet.

ChrisD. · 1 Sep 2020 at 14:03

Also no issues, I WFH, game and stream. I've been with them for 4 years now I think. Although I do use my own router and access point.

koolpc · 1 Sep 2020 at 14:07

Ok, cheers guys

bingham67 · 1 Sep 2020 at 14:13

ChrisD. said:
Are you cabled or wireless?

cabled for gaming

Armageus · 1 Sep 2020 at 14:19

@koolpc Is there any chance of your area getting FTTP any time soon? If so then I would't recommend Plusnet, as they currently have no FTTP option or plans announced (although I would hope they will at some point)

Otherwise...

Been with them several years - customer service normally very good on the few occasions I've needed it, although a bit hit and miss recently (officially due to Covid staffing issues etc)

The only real issue I've had with them, was that the Billing system is archaic and easily confused (e.g. so better to speak to an advisor to do any package changes etc rather than online).

koolpc · 1 Sep 2020 at 14:32

Not bothered about fibre to be honest..

flea.rider · 2 Sep 2020 at 08:43

koolpc said:
Not bothered about fibre to be honest..

just left them after they dropped my speed from 64mb down to 48-52 mb it was at that speed for 7 yrs ..and they charged me £76 to leave ..

Armageus · 2 Sep 2020 at 08:45

flea.rider said:
just left them after they dropped my speed from 64mb down to 48-52 mb it was at that speed for 7 yrs ..and they charged me £76 to leave ..

I'm sure there's more to it than that?

flea.rider · 2 Sep 2020 at 08:54

Armageus said:
I'm sure there's more to it than that?

they did a full report could not find anything wrong .. after that asked them for a house move ..you know the free!!! one .. was told i had to sign another contract (was 3 months into a new one for £27.50) @ £32 for 2 yrs ..
told them to stick it ..

Avalon · 2 Sep 2020 at 10:01

flea.rider said:
they did a full report could not find anything wrong .. after that asked them for a house move ..you know the free!!! one .. was told i had to sign another contract (was 3 months into a new one for £27.50) @ £32 for 2 yrs ..
told them to stick it ..

You are perfectly within your rights to tell them to stick it, they are perfectly within the contract terms to expect you to pay for the privilege, as is pretty much every other UK ISP. We had a move fall through a few weeks back, I was moving to an FTTP area and going with 900Mbit, when it fell through I migrated to Sky to save £40/m, but I did so with full awareness that if I want to cancel (for example because the area has cable and Sky can only offer FTTC or I want 900Mbit FTTP if it’s available) I either move the line and re-contract or pay a termination fee (or take a slow FTTP package and wait given Sky’s recent changes).

flea.rider · 2 Sep 2020 at 12:56

Avalon said:
You are perfectly within your rights to tell them to stick it, they are perfectly within the contract terms to expect you to pay for the privilege, as is pretty much every other UK ISP. We had a move fall through a few weeks back, I was moving to an FTTP area and going with 900Mbit, when it fell through I migrated to Sky to save £40/m, but I did so with full awareness that if I want to cancel (for example because the area has cable and Sky can only offer FTTC or I want 900Mbit FTTP if it’s available) I either move the line and re-contract or pay a termination fee (or take a slow FTTP package and wait given Sky’s recent changes).

my point is a free move is just that .. to then say you must take a contract of a longer length and pay more is not free .. so went to ee had to pay nothing for £27 a month 63mb as it stands ohh and got 5gb data on my phone ..

and taking plusenet to tribunal ..free means free