Failure to connect....suggestions please

I've got the 76Mb FTTC service. Sometimes the web browsing is fine (although the wireless hardly ever gives speeds above 28Mbps). But a lot of the time there is a problem. I type a URL into the browser, nothing happens for 30 seconds, then a message appears saying that the web page cannot be displayed, and then a second later it is displayed. Sometimes nothing at all happens. This morning, everything was fine for a couple of hours, and now every page takes ages to load.

I get these problems with my Windows 8.1 laptop but not with my iPad. So I thought the problem is not with Plusnet but with Windows. But my son also has a Windows 8.1 laptop which works fine with the Wifi in his house but he gets the same problems as me when he comes home. So that makes it look like it might be a wifi problem in my house.

I contacted Plusnet months ago. They told me to try different wifi channels and I have been working through the channels one by one, without any improvement.

In desperation I am willing to move to another ISP, just in case it solves the problem. But before I do, I hope someone here has seen this problem before and can offer some advice.

If you are seeing issues with one device and not another, it's unlikely to be the wireless channel, but more likely the wireless adaptor on the laptop. That assumes that you've tested the iPad from the same location as the laptop.

Possible suspect is the wireless adaptor in the laptop - is it a fairly new laptop or have you upgraded an old one to Windows 8.1? It would be worth checking for updated drivers.

Another way you could check the laptop would be to take it to your son's house and see if you have the same problems connecting to his router. That also assumes your son lives close enough to home for you to try that. If not, if you're on good terms with your neighbours, perhaps one of them would be up for letting you try theirs?

You could try changing the DNS settings on the laptop to use public DNS servers, Googles (8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4) or OpenDNS (208.67.222.222 208.67.220.220). There are plenty of guides available through a Google search.

EDIT: You can proabably ignore the above, I misread and thought all the computers were being used in your house.

Edited by deleted (Sat 09-May-15 13:44:36)

Have you tried a few different web browsers?

I usually use Chrome but the problem is the same with Firefox and IE. I have not seen the problem with Safari on my iPad. My laptop is about 18 months old and I upgraded it to Windows 8.1 as soon as it arrived with Windows 8 on it.

I might take my laptop somewhere else and I'm sure I have used it in other places in the past. The problem is that it's only an intermittent problem. So I might have to use it for several hours somewhere else to be sure about the results. But, as I say, my son's laptop gives no problems at his place (so he tells me) but starts giving these connection problems here and he also uses Windows 8.1.

I forgot to say that sometimes when this connection problem happens, I disconnect the wifi on the laptop and then reconnect. That often fixes the problem, at least for a while.

Apart from moving ISP, I am thinking if I should get a router to replace Plusnet's technicolour router or buy a wifi booster. But if it's some network problem in Windows that might not be a solution either.

Thanks for the suggestion. I found the wireless network adaptor in Device Manager and asked to update it. But Windows searched online for a couple of minutes and then told me the driver is up to date. I get normal Microsoft updates installed automatically anyway.

what router are you using?

Technicolour TG582n.

Bin it and use a decent branded one is a start.

Yes definitely git rid of that, even if it isn't the cause of your problems you're better off without it

When the slowdown happens try using ethernet. If it is ok then it's a wireless issue and you can go from there.

As people say, I'll try ethernet next time (it involves sitting on the floor in the hallway).

Any suggestions for good routers? And will Plusnet provide one if I ask? If they don't, and I have to buy one, will Plusnet provide the instructions to get it connected to my account with them? Also, the router is connected by cable to a modem (also provided by Plusnet). Do I need to replace the modem too?

Thanks to everyone for the ideas so far.

In reply to a post by greenwich:

As people say, I'll try ethernet next time (it involves sitting on the floor in the hallway).

Any suggestions for good routers? And will Plusnet provide one if I ask? If they don't, and I have to buy one, will Plusnet provide the instructions to get it connected to my account with them? Also, the router is connected by cable to a modem (also provided by Plusnet). Do I need to replace the modem too?

Thanks to everyone for the ideas so far.

I have an Asus AC68U, the signal is great although I have a second router at the back of the house to provide a strong signal there as well. TP-Link seem to have some good offerings at good prices but I haven't used one of their routers before.

I don't think Plusnet will provide you with another router. As for getting it working you go to to the WAN settings and use your plusnet username then @plusdsl.net and your password.

i.e: [email protected].

The modem will not need replacing.

Edited by deleted (Sun 10-May-15 12:28:32)

In reply to a post by beardedwonder:

The modem will not need replacing.

But the router will need a WAN port. Many people don't realise that what is frequently called a router here is a modem/router.

Of course, there are VDSL2modem/routers, but these need to comply with the Openreach SIN 498. Particularly now wrt G.INP, and probably soon wrt vectoring.

In reply to a post by greenwich:

As people say, I'll try ethernet next time (it involves sitting on the floor in the hallway).

A long temporarily strung Ethernet cable might make for better comfort.

In reply to a post by greenwich:

Any suggestions for good routers? And will Plusnet provide one if I ask? If they don't, and I have to buy one, will Plusnet provide the instructions to get it connected to my account with them? Also, the router is connected by cable to a modem (also provided by Plusnet). Do I need to replace the modem too?

Plusnet do provide some connection instructions at http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/hardware/broad... and say that you are on your own if you use something they did not supply.

Rather than replacing the router, why not turn off its WiFi and get an access point? I use a TP Link WA901, with replacement long aerials, and am quite happy with it. I cannot get fibre here, so cannot comment on fibre routers or router/modems.

In reply to a post by greenwich:

I've got the 76Mb FTTC service. Sometimes the web browsing is fine (although the wireless hardly ever gives speeds above 28Mbps). But a lot of the time there is a problem. I type a URL into the browser, nothing happens for 30 seconds, then a message appears saying that the web page cannot be displayed, and then a second later it is displayed. Sometimes nothing at all happens. This morning, everything was fine for a couple of hours, and now every page takes ages to load.

I get these problems with my Windows 8.1 laptop but not with my iPad. So I thought the problem is not with Plusnet but with Windows. But my son also has a Windows 8.1 laptop which works fine with the Wifi in his house but he gets the same problems as me when he comes home. So that makes it look like it might be a wifi problem in my house.

I contacted Plusnet months ago. They told me to try different wifi channels and I have been working through the channels one by one, without any improvement.

In desperation I am willing to move to another ISP, just in case it solves the problem. But before I do, I hope someone here has seen this problem before and can offer some advice.

Sounds like a DNS issue, try changing the DNS on your laptop to use Google servers 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.

Someone else suggested that above but then took back the suggestion. I suppose I have nothing to lose by trying it. But if the DNS servers are going slow, that ought to affect lots of people?

I've got no experience of access points, so would be a bit nervous. I could buy a router and get it working I reckon. Switching to another ISP would mean getting another cheap router from them, so I'm thinking I may be better off with a more expensive router and staying with Plusnet.

I found the following two sets of instructions for changing the DNS settings:

http://petesentme.com/plusnet/changing-dns-servers-o...

http://chrismcleod.me/2014/03/05/changing-the-dns-on...

Do these look safe and reliable to people? I'm a bit nervous about screwing up the router by typing the wrong command. Plusnet's website doesn't seem to explain how to do this.

Incidentally, the second link above does say that the web surfing got much faster after the DNS change. So I hope that may happen for me too.

I would just change them on your windows laptop to start off with. I don't run Windows 8.1 so am not 100% sure how to change them now but there should be plenty of info. online.

FWIW this is how I've navigated to changing DNS on my Win8.1 laptop.

Control panel - Network & sharing centre - connections - ethernet/properties - TCP/IPV4 - properties . Then travel to lower part of page. (Hope this is intelligible)

In reply to a post by greenwich:

Someone else suggested that above but then took back the suggestion. I suppose I have nothing to lose by trying it. But if the DNS servers are going slow, that ought to affect lots of people?

Most people have got no idea about DNS and just put slow loading speeds down to the time of day or the content on the site.

In reply to a post by Bryer:

Most people have got no idea about DNS and just put slow loading speeds down to the time of day or the content on the site.

Given most modern operating systems cache DNS responses if you're accessing mostly the same set of websites its only visible if the ISP DNS is incredibly slow.

Older operating systems didn't cache and the difference would be noticeable.

In reply to a post by greenwich:

I've got no experience of access points, so would be a bit nervous. I could buy a router and get it working I reckon. Switching to another ISP would mean getting another cheap router from them, so I'm thinking I may be better off with a more expensive router and staying with Plusnet.

Access points are easy. Think of them as being a WiFI router with the router side disabled. People often use spare routers as such.

Some cheap routers are surprisingly good. Others are not. I took a dislike to the Technicolour ADSL router supplied by Plusnet, tried my true and trusty Netgear DG384, tried a cheap as chips TP Link router, and settled on a second hand DrayTek 2820.

Cheap or not, ensure that any router&fibre modem you buy does support G.INP.

Thank you, everyone!

My plan A now is to change the DNS settings this weekend (trying the Windows settings first before touching the router). Plan B might then be to try a new router/access point.

An UPDATE for people who helped me above:

I found that in my internet options for LAN the "Automatically detect settings" box had been checked. Not sure how that happened but on the Google forums I found a thread saying uncheck it and I did. I also changed to using Google's DNS servers as people here recommended.

The slow connections problem seems to have gone now, so thanks for that.

I find that sometimes the Plusnet wireless drops and I have to manually reconnect. A few times I have seen not just my Plusnet wireless but also most of the neighbourhood wirelesses also disappear, and I have to turn wireless off and on in Windows to get them back. Not sure what's happening there but things are better than before at least.

Edited by deleted (Mon 01-Jun-15 21:24:05)

In reply to a post by greenwich:

I find that sometimes the Plusnet wireless drops and I have to manually reconnect. A few times I have seen not just my Plusnet wireless but also most of the neighbourhood wirelesses also disappear, and I have to turn wireless off and on in Windows to get them back. Not sure what's happening there but things are better than before at least.

That looks like something in your machine. It's only there that neighbouring wifi stations are detected. So of it loses those it is probably the computer wireless that is losing your own router, as opposed to the router dropping the computer.

Yes, I thought it must be Windows. It's always made heavy weather of wifi connectivity. When Windows 7 came out, Microsoft actually ran TV ads boasting about how it connected automatically to wifi - something Linux and OS users had been taking for granted for years.

Would people mind if I asked for a bit more advice? I am thinking of buying the NETGEAR WNDR4500-200EUS N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00AKD407Q

This would replace the Technicolour router Plusnet gave me but I would keep on using their modem (for my 76Mbps FTTC service). Is this a good choice?

I've been thinking of switching to Zen but decided maybe this would be a better change. I know Windows is responsible for some of my problems but I also feel sure the router is not at all good.