Switching to Plusnet Fibre, The Journey

It's been a long wait this year for fibre since I seen BT installing new cabling out the front of the house. I asked and they said fibre would be here in Feb, but it's only just become active on Sunday. Thankfully it did say from June online so I had some idea when it would be.

It's been a tough choice deciding over plusnet FTTC or BT infinity as I wanted a good provider with great service, few issues and a good price. BT was swinging it with the Home Hub 5 too as I wanted to upgrade to a new AC router to keep my iMac Wireless but at top speed. And top performance for my N Devices. I heard good things about the HH5 but then after doing my reading wasn't convinced and with Plusnet's recent price drop to 12.50 for 9months it was tempting me away. I was almost set on apple's airport extreme after reading a lot of good reviews even though after the last one that buzzed loads I swore I'd never get another apple router. Then I thought i'd give the Asus Routers some attention, I hadn't really payed much attention to them for networking but after reading about the AC68U wireless AC router it sounded mighty impressive and around the same price as apples router but with much better performance and spec I managed to pick the last one up from Currys today. It's nicer looking than I thought it would be too.

Fibre was also ordered with Plusnet today, phone has gone to them too saving money over BT, line rental Saver done, unlimited fibre extra at £12.50 for 9months and also did through topcashback and I should get £105 cashback which has tracked.

Speeds are estimated at 79-80Mbps and 19-20Mbps upload, the cabinet is probably less than 100meters down the road so Im looking forward to seeing my speeds.

Mac Key was requested from my ISP Coms (was changed to them when they bought out ADSL24) over the phone but I was told I had to email. Thankfully it was a quick reply back and order is progressing with plusnet with install date given as the 29th. I'll keep this thread up to date with any news regarding the install.

Good thinking re the router .

Which provider is your phone with at the moment?

How so, do u have the Asus? It's with BT has been for years.

I'm not with BT. I have an ASUS RT-N66U.

The phone question was to make sure there shouldn't be any problems transferring it. If it had been LLU with COMS it could have got messy. It should all go smoothly.

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 15-Jul-14 15:03:14)

Interesting experience. I too have Plusnet as the top candidate when my contract expires mid August so would be very interested in the actual transfer and subsequent experience. Would be grateful if you would post an update as things progress. Must say don't care much for Plusnets radio ad!

I'lll certainly keep the thread updated. I have my install date confirmed for PM on the 29th, Can anyone confirm with the data extension kit do they just run a cable from the master socket to the Fibre modem or do they install an extension box?
Having the master socket coming in on the window ledge of a landing window it's in a really stupid spot for fibre. The BT mast is directly in view of the window across the garden so it was no doubt done for ease. There's no power sockets near by so an extension will have to be run into my room and where the current router sits as I have a few ethernet devices plugged in that will only reach that far.

Edited by maximono (Wed 16-Jul-14 02:19:54)

Hi, the data extension does involve a new data socket being fitted.

We can arrange this to be fitted within 30 metres of the master socket within your home.

drop me a reply if you need to confirm any other aspects of your order with you.

Did you order the (free) data extension kit during the order process? It isn't standard, unlike BT Infinity.

Note that it an be run externally if that is better and the engineer agrees. Openreach vans carry the external cable as van stock. I doubt if the contractors do.

Yea I did order the data extension kit. Running it internally would be better anyway. All sounds good, hopefully it turns out ok.

Had fibre installed today. Was done by a Kelleys engineer. Asked for the PM slot when signing up and he came at 2pm so timing was good. Seemed a bit confused about the data extension kit I said I ordered but that was soon sorted out as it seems they just know it as moving the box (lol). The placement of the new master socket was fine and he was happy to run the cabling round. Had a good chat while he did it all. For a master cable I think it could have been done slightly better the staples holding it in aren't great and the new master box doesn't fit together that well.

Got it all connected and found plusnet hadn't switched on my fibre. I rang them and was connected in about 5 minutes, I don't know if it was a fluke but all these complaints on the forum of 30mins to 3 hour wait times which worried me are less of a concern now. The call went quick, was switched on straight away and was up and running. First speed tests are coming in at around 65-70Mbps and 18.5Mbps upload so Im more than pleased. So far so good.

Sounds good, especially for Kellys.

The Openreach DLM normally doesn't interfere till the end of the day after installation, as long as there aren't major problems/errors/disconnections before then.

At that point, if it thinks it needs to act the first step is adding interleaving, overnight is when it does it. Interleaving usually costs about 10Mbps download, and adds 8ms to the latency . In bad cases, even more of each.

In the usual case it often but not always turns it off again after a couple of weeks. Some people have it doing that on a regular basis.

Good luck - let's hope the line is clean and it leaves you on full speed .

So far things have been running smooth. Not everything is downloading at top speed and really I don't expect it to. Just done a few speed tests on speediest.net and finding a good server I got my highest speeds yet. Though bear in mind it's at 2am.

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3660661274

If you run the BT Wholesale Performance Test and continue to the Further Diagnostics you get your IP Profile. Multiply that by 1.033 and you get your sync speed within a few Mbps. Ignore all the red instructions at the start.

Got 74MBps on the BT test, did what u said and that puts it at 77Mbps.

Upload was 15.98Mbps putting it at 16.5Mbps but I think thats a bit low cause I've been seeing higher.

Not the speed test result. The IP Profile in the Further Diagnostics.

The method doesn't apply to the upstream. Your upstream IP Profile will be 20Mbps.

In reply to a post by maximono:

Upload was 15.98Mbps putting it at 16.5Mbps but I think thats a bit low cause I've been seeing higher.

You personally? Most FTTC users never get beyond 16.5Mb/s because the BT modem has QoS enabled which seems to be reserving about 2Mb/s for something. If you flash the firmware you can disable QoS and (luckily) it stays that way even if you put stock firmware back on it.

I get around 18.7Mb/s upload speed without fail from the TBB test. I disabled QoS early on with custom firmware but haven't bothered doing it again since BTor rolled out new firmware.

Edited by Andrue (Fri 01-Aug-14 15:48:15)

ok the IP profile says 77.44 Mbps Downstream, and 20 Mbps for upstream. Im happy with my speeds so I won't be hacking any firmware anytime soon. Just letting everyone know that so far things have been ok with plusnet.

Full 80Mbps downstream sync then .

Thought I would update as it's still early days with Plusnet. Having my first bad night with Plusnet Fibre, I've been seeing speeds of 2-7Mbps download speed but no change in the 16Mbps (ish) upload speed. Done a few speed tests on different servers and different devices but it's noticeable when using the net how much slower it feels, some websites and online streaming videos, BBC news, youtube are quite slow as you'd expect. Certainly makes me appreciate the good fibre speeds I've had till now. I'll see how it is in the morning then reset my connection if nothing has changed. Only noticed it from 10pm when I got back from an evening out. Never had my connection go this bad for so long on ADSL2 but have had the odd dip now and again. I'll update in the morning.

A quick reboot of my router seems to have got things back to 60Mbps download, still below the usual speeds but I'll keep an eye on things. Middle of the day isn't the best time for a speedtest Im sure.

PN is a 2-box solution. How can the router change the downstream sync? I thought it would be the modem.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

PN is a 2-box solution. How can the router change the downstream sync? I thought it would be the modem.

Correct, but maximono didn't say that it had.

The Plusnet Fibre Router will not change in sync rate. Only the Openreach Modem if you rebooting it or turned it off. Never touch or rebooting Openreach Modem because this modem is still sync to the exchange to the cabinet to your end. Rebooting Plusnet Fibre Router will not AFFECT any sync rate but Plusnet fault team might see a fault on your line if u kept rebooting the Plusnet Fibre Router yourself.

Edited by adslmax (Thu 14-Aug-14 14:53:32)

It might be a good idea to reboot the modem well inside daylight hours.

It's possible there was a nearby thunderstorm that upset both it and the router.

We had thunderstorms three times since April and my FTTC doesn't affect at all. I guess it just a pure of luck. I know that during the thunderstorms, Openreach Modem and Fibre Router should be turned off during the storms. But, I never did!.

I have an Asus AC68U Router, and for whatever reason on wireless N and AC thats the speeds I was seeing. I didn't test ethernet. Rebooting the router certainly fixed the issue. Im not sure if it does anything to the fibre modem connection when rebooting or not but it certainly fixed the issue. Just done another speedtest when getting in and my download is at 68Mbps and my upload came in at 18.75Mbps the highest I've seen yet. Either way things are fine now. Not had any storms locally so I don't feel the need to restart the modem. Connection (websites) seem really snappy tonight.

Edited by maximono (Thu 14-Aug-14 22:58:34)

In reply to a post by maximono:

I have an Asus AC68U Router

Ah, that's a combined VDSL Modem/Router, isn't it, that you are using instead if the PN 2-box setup?

Then rebooting it could change the sync speeds.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Ah, that's a combined VDSL Modem/Router, isn't it, that you are using instead if the PN 2-box setup?

The RT-AC68U is an Ethernet WAN port router, but the DSL-AC68U would have a built in VDSL & ADSL modem.

If its the RT then a reboot would create a new PPPoE connection which will update any session bandwidth if the VDSL modem has renegotiated on the fly. (I've seen this happen - it seems like SRA is part of the VDSL spec).

Edited by jchamier (Fri 15-Aug-14 22:01:24)