Advice please guys, Using Plusnet.

Currently I'm on a solid ADSL2 connection provided by Idnet and have been with them for several years. I'd like to move to FTTC but to afford that extra cost I need to move to one of the big ISP's.

Contacting Plusnet seems painless enough, but my question is in regard to their traffic management policy which theyve been open about for many years. I know they used to sell their broadband in a tiered way with the top product usually being free of management. But what about now seeing their product range is less specific? I don't use P2P, but do rely on streaming albeit upto a lowly but steady 3.5Mbps.

Fibre either at 38 or 76Mbps would suit me fine for large downloads including game products from Steam. But does Plusnet see such platforms which use different ports as something they need to throttle? I'm just trying to work out if moving to Plusnet so I can afford fibre would be a good move or not - or if my current solid ADSL2 connection at 16.5Mbps is worth sticking with?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Plusnet no longer manage traffic in the way they used to - essentially there is no limit other than the lower priority demands such as P2P are restricted if something on your connection with a higher priority needs the bandwidth
As to whether you should move to FTTC what are the expected speeds as given here (the impacted ones) http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/ADSLChecker.Teleph...

Thanks OldJim.

PlusNet still have a statement about traffic management hence I wondered how aggressive it is. Concerned too over the use of non standard ports on Steam and if associated downloads or multiplayer use is throttled?

Via the link you gave me, my results are:

VDSL Range A (Clean) 80 80 20 20 -- Available -- -- High, Low, High, Low
VDSL Range B (Impacted) 80 65.4 20 18.2 -- Available -- --

In which case it is worth going for FTTC
Regarding traffic management this is the latest http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/products/res_b... and basically there are no imposed speed restrictions

As well as prioritising traffic, we apply rate-limits to some products (but not our current products) to make sure everyone gets a good online experience.

Regarding Steam - I just use the normal downloader and I get full speed at al times (about 45Mb/s on my line)

PN traffic management is more like QoS. It's there to ensure that if/when you demand more from your line than it can provide the critical stuff will get through. So if you're playing a game and your kids kick off a download the PN 'traffic management' will throttle back the download to ensure that your game playing is unaffected.

Generally speaking this is a good thing.

Edited by Andrue (Mon 30-May-16 19:27:13)

Never had any problem with traffic management to be honest, I do think that they have over subscribed by giving out these free and low priced offers and they can not cope.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

Never had any problem with traffic management to be honest, I do think that they have over subscribed by giving out these free and low priced offers and they can not cope.

There's no evidence of that though. The PN forums are pretty quiet right now and the only issues appear to be line faults. There is no evidence that Plusnet has any network capacity issues.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

Never had any problem with traffic management to be honest, I do think that they have over subscribed by giving out these free and low priced offers and they can not cope.

Thanks OldJim, Andrue.

zyborg47, I had a terrible service back in 2005/6 when I had a fixed 1Mbps line with Talk Talk. They launced their broadband free forever and the service took a massive dive. Support then was at 50p a minute and it took even more hassle getting away from them.
Do you think download speeds etc are suffering particularly at peak times with these "offers" or have you noticed something else?

Plusnet seemed to be the better choice over BT, because of the support option. I'm really stuck between the big ISP's as to who would suit me best.

Just an incidental question . Do you use your landline much? Or rather, do you use it a huge amount!?

The reason I ask is that it can be well worth putting up with the surcharge of £2.50 per month Plusnet put on broadband if you don't take their line rental, and take a cheaper landline service elsewhere. In particular, Pulse8broadband line rental. (Click the "Home" tab).

Not only is the rental only £13pm, or £14 including caller display, but there are no call setup charges and calls are 1ppm charged by the second in peak time, 0.8ppm in off-peak. So for example that's 300 minutes for the cost of Plusnet E & W, and 600 minutes for the cost of Anytime.

I went that way a few months before I left Plusnet, though my line was in fact with BT itself, and some others with Plusnet rental have done the same.

RobertoS,

I usually use around 40 - 100GB a month and although many packages with Zen and Idnet have seen their package allowances increase their base products are normally not quite enough.
Edit: Sorry you asked about my Landline usage RobertoS. Yes I do use it a reasonable amount and do rely on the so called anytime bundles. I did check the link - thanks

I did used to have just my landline with BT and be free to move my broadband around, but around a couple or so years ago I moved it all to Idnet.
Yes caller display and 1571 call minder are the two features I normally require although these days adding a answer machine to say a Panasonic DECT pack invites such a small charge I could go that route and only need caller display.

I like the PlusNet pricing but it's the support centre which rates highly to me if I should need them for any issue. I've never been impressed with BT when it comes to phone support and I know if you have no issues things should be fine. But after being spoilt by the small ISP's support quality I'm looking to get as close as i can to that experience and also be able to afford to upgrade to FTTC. I know I can't have everything so it's trying to find that balance.

I'm not really savvy with who lays between the Idnet's/Zen/A&A's and the BT/Sky/PlusNet etc, so I'm guessing there may be options ie alternative ISP's there, or does the Plusnet route seem like it could fit the bill? I'm quite happy to keep the Phone and broadband together.

Edited by Vorlon (Tue 31-May-16 02:01:16)

In reply to a post by Andrue:

There's no evidence of that though. The PN forums are pretty quiet right now and the only issues appear to be line faults. There is no evidence that Plusnet has any network capacity issues.

I've been having buffer bloat issues for some time (according to this sites tester) but don't want to even think about it until I get the sync failure sorted on my parents line.

It might just be my Plusnet router, but it could just as easily be their end, and I have to be honest. I can't stomach trying to sort two issues at once with them right now.

mrnelster,

How does the buffer issue present itself? Would be interesting to know.

It's your edit re the phone line that matters to me there. Plusnet Anytime is 600 minutes of Pulse8 calls. That is a huge amount. Note also the enormous call setup charges by mainstream providers on calls outside the package. 16p on Plusnet, IIRC. That's another 16 standard minutes, and I warrant the non-standard call rates are lower too. I called Germany for seven minutes or so once last year and it cost peanuts. I'll look up the time and cost if you want .

The standard basic 1571 is included and works for me exactly like the BT retail one did. You only need to pay more if you want to do things like alter the message given out.

I'm not too sure either. On some speedtests I get a B, sometimes a D for buffer Speedtest, Quality seems to be an 'F' too and yet they all say I'm faster than the average in the East Midlands. I might add that although I'm about 250mtrs from the fibre cabinet, the village itself is about 5 miles from the exchange.

Although I had a slight issue with speed back in January (OR came visit twice) I can say I have no regrets going with Plusnet. The couple of delays back then were a bit niggling but seemed to be more to do with OR being in control for things like appointments etc. Plusnet for their part seemed to update fairly well. But since then I've had nowt to do with CS. It just works. I didn't bother hanging on the phone though. Messages both on the forum and off were far more easier for me. I usually got a reply by the next day and if they want to contact you, will phone or send text messages to your mobile.

I download at least 200GB a month - it was 400gb back in November (would be more but currently busy on a project, so not much time to watch streaming TV). But if there are network issues, then I can't say I've noticed them. Being on the 80/20 Unlimited product I don't even think twice any more about downloading GB's of stuff. Steam / Netflix seems to flow unhindered as well too.

One thing I have noticed lately is the speedtests say I'm using IPv6 (look at the above speedtest). Not too certain what it does for me but nice to see something new

Edited by 69bertie (Tue 31-May-16 10:53:46)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

It's your edit re the phone line that matters to me there. Plusnet Anytime is 600 minutes of Pulse8 calls. That is a huge amount. Note also the enormous call setup charges by mainstream providers on calls outside the package. 16p on Plusnet, IIRC. That's another 16 standard minutes, and I warrant the non-standard call rates are lower too. I called Germany for seven minutes or so once last year and it cost peanuts. I'll look up the time and cost if you want .

The standard basic 1571 is included and works for me exactly like the BT retail one did. You only need to pay more if you want to do things like alter the message given out.

RobertoS - sorry I'm confused as to 600 minutes of anytime usage with Plusnet, I didn't think there were any limits with the anytime package with geographical numbers, short of having to hang up after 60 minutes and to redial (although I've heard that not all telco's require that now). Or are you making a comparison to Pulse8?
I'd really prefer to keep my phone and broadband with the one company now as I do with Idnet.

I believe Plusnet does well on the thinkbroadband survey - so do most of the knowledgeable guys on here see Plusnet as being better than BT or Sky, particularly in speaking to someone in a UK call center who is helpful too?

In reply to a post by 69bertie:

I'm not too sure either. On some speedtests I get a B, sometimes a D for buffer Speedtest, Quality seems to be an 'F' too and yet they all say I'm faster than the average in the East Midlands. I might add that although I'm about 250mtrs from the fibre cabinet, the village itself is about 5 miles from the exchange.

Although I had a slight issue with speed back in January (OR came visit twice) I can say I have no regrets going with Plusnet. The couple of delays back then were a bit niggling but seemed to be more to do with OR being in control for things like appointments etc. Plusnet for their part seemed to update fairly well. But since then I've had nowt to do with CS. It just works. I didn't bother hanging on the phone though. Messages both on the forum and off were far more easier for me. I usually got a reply by the next day and if they want to contact you, will phone or send text messages to your mobile.

I download at least 200GB a month - it was 400gb back in November (would be more but currently busy on a project, so not much time to watch streaming TV). But if there are network issues, then I can't say I've noticed them. Being on the 80/20 Unlimited product I don't even think twice any more about downloading GB's of stuff. Steam / Netflix seems to flow unhindered as well too.

One thing I have noticed lately is the speedtests say I'm using IPv6 (look at the above speedtest). Not too certain what it does for me but nice to see something new

Thanks 69Bertie that's the sort of info I've been looking for. You mentioned about contact via forums, I assume you mean Plusnet have forums?
Out of interest have you been with any of the other large ISP's in recent times and if so how do they compare to PlusNet?

In reply to a post by Vorlon:

RobertoS - sorry I'm confused as to 600 minutes of anytime usage with Plusnet, I didn't think there were any limits with the anytime package with geographical numbers, short of having to hang up after 60 minutes and to redial (although I've heard that not all telco's require that now). Or are you making a comparison to Pulse8?

It says "Plusnet Anytime is 600 minutes of Pulse8 calls" i.e. what you pay for Plusnet Anytime would be the same as what you would pay for 600 minutes of calls with Pulse8. And the line rental's cheaper to boot. Do you make 600 minutes of calls a month (20 minutes a day)?

In reply to a post by Vorlon:

You mentioned about contact via forums, I assume you mean Plusnet have forums?

https://community.plus.net/

Hi RobertoS, and others too...

Apologies if I am hijacking this thread, not my intention, but I wanted to ask about moving line rental from BT to Pulse8. I too am with PlusNet for FTTC (as I said, line rental is with BT) and wanted to check there aren't any nasty "gotchas" if I were to move the line rental? Looks like you've done exactly this RobertoS ?

Thanks, Paul

In reply to a post by kasg:

In reply to a post by Vorlon:

RobertoS - sorry I'm confused as to 600 minutes of anytime usage with Plusnet, I didn't think there were any limits with the anytime package with geographical numbers, short of having to hang up after 60 minutes and to redial (although I've heard that not all telco's require that now). Or are you making a comparison to Pulse8?

It says "Plusnet Anytime is 600 minutes of Pulse8 calls" i.e. what you pay for Plusnet Anytime would be the same as what you would pay for 600 minutes of calls with Pulse8. And the line rental's cheaper to boot. Do you make 600 minutes of calls a month (20 minutes a day)?

Yes it is possible I could exceed 600minutes in a month on my landline.

I was with BT before. Now that was an education. Biggest problem I found with them was I used to end up speaking to people located somewhere in India. They did their best but I found it was hard work at times. But connection wise I couldn't really complain much - well, not much before the fibre cabinet arrived. After that and before the cabinet went live, my ADSL connection dive bombed.

Yes, I moved in July or August last year. The only gotcha is that on the current Plusnet packages your broadband cost would rise by £2.50pm.

I happened to be on the latest product, but signed up to it before that hike was introduced. My line was, and always had been, with BT itself, but I was still paying £19.99 for FTTC, not the £22.49 that people who signed up after the hike was introduced.

As it happens I have since migrated the broadband away.

Kevin (kasg posting earlier) I think has also moved his line to P8.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Kevin (kasg posting earlier) I think has also moved his line to P8.

Yes, I have, but am open to moving it back to Plusnet depending on what deal they can offer me when my contract is up next month.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Yes, I moved in July or August last year. The only gotcha is that on the current Plusnet packages your broadband cost would rise by £2.50pm.

I happened to be on the latest product, but signed up to it before that hike was introduced. My line was, and always had been, with BT itself, but I was still paying £19.99 for FTTC, not the £22.49 that people who signed up after the hike was introduced.

As it happens I have since migrated the broadband away.

Kevin (kasg posting earlier) I think has also moved his line to P8.

Thanks RobertoS, I'm also on the £19.99 FTTC price so not worried about that. More concerned about any technical issues that may or may not arise. But, sounds like it was all pretty smooth.

If the deal is better than as is?

Won't they do deals on just the broadband?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

If the deal is better than as is?

Better than what I currently pay for the broadband and line rental. I'm not too fussed about call costs as I hardly ever use the landline to make calls.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Won't they do deals on just the broadband?

Any deal is highly likely to depend on having Plusnet Line Rental, but I could try. I intend to wave the SSE stick if necessary.

Anyone considering moving broadband only to Plusnet, bear in mind that if you also want Plusnet TV you can only get that if you also take line rental.

In reply to a post by Jaggies:

Anyone considering moving broadband only to Plusnet, bear in mind that if you also want Plusnet TV you can only get that if you also take line rental.

Thanks Jaggies.

On another question, does the BT Fibre checker produce results based on line distance or testing of the line or both?

Edited by Vorlon (Wed 01-Jun-16 18:05:11)

The estimate is based on records of the line. When you get a live service, the estimate is updated to match what you are getting.

In reply to a post by Andrue:

There's no evidence of that though. The PN forums are pretty quiet right now and the only issues appear to be line faults. There is no evidence that Plusnet has any network capacity issues.

Better today I must admit, speed is still not as i think it should be, but I think some of that have to do with the line somewhere, but at least now TV is working better. But pings are still naff, not that it matters much when surfing, but I can tell they are high even without testing because web pages take so long to respond. I still think plusnet have a problem somewhere.

But it seems no matter what large ISP is used they are all more or less the same, I suppose you do get what you pay for. But to be honest if i can stream now TV and netflix, that will do.

In reply to a post by Vorlon:

zyborg47, I had a terrible service back in 2005/6 when I had a fixed 1Mbps line with Talk Talk. They launced their broadband free forever and the service took a massive dive. Support then was at 50p a minute and it took even more hassle getting away from them.
Do you think download speeds etc are suffering particularly at peak times with these "offers" or have you noticed something else?

Plusnet seemed to be the better choice over BT, because of the support option. I'm really stuck between the big ISP's as to who would suit me best.

I think you really hit the nail on the head, not much difference in the large suppliers apart from price and support, none of them are that great as they make sure you get the service you pay for, pay cheap, get cheap.
TBH, I really am getting fed up with the service we get in the UK, I thought when we went to fibre it would be better, but while it is faster, they still seem to dumb it down.


i am more in less in the same boat, I am with plusnet, but not sure if I want to stay with them, but to be honest there are not many other large providers I want to go with and I really do not want to pay the price that AAISP , XILO and other small providers charge, how ever good they may be.

In reply to a post by Jaggies:

Anyone considering moving broadband only to Plusnet, bear in mind that if you also want Plusnet TV you can only get that if you also take line rental.

i know someone who is doing this, still with BT for line rental, myself I think he is silly, paying for things he do not use, but it is up to him.
I was thinking of it when I first came onto fibre, but it was quicker and cheaper to get a all in one as I did have a landline at the time. the problem now is that person is already with Plusnet and decide to change, they will also be moved onto another long contract.

Plusnet Tv is of no interest to me, i do not really watch TV, which is why I am thinking of getting rid of my TV licence again.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

In reply to a post by Vorlon:

zyborg47, I had a terrible service back in 2005/6 when I had a fixed 1Mbps line with Talk Talk. They launced their broadband free forever and the service took a massive dive. Support then was at 50p a minute and it took even more hassle getting away from them.
Do you think download speeds etc are suffering particularly at peak times with these "offers" or have you noticed something else?

Plusnet seemed to be the better choice over BT, because of the support option. I'm really stuck between the big ISP's as to who would suit me best.

I think you really hit the nail on the head, not much difference in the large suppliers apart from price and support, none of them are that great as they make sure you get the service you pay for, pay cheap, get cheap.
TBH, I really am getting fed up with the service we get in the UK, I thought when we went to fibre it would be better, but while it is faster, they still seem to dumb it down.


i am more in less in the same boat, I am with plusnet, but not sure if I want to stay with them, but to be honest there are not many other large providers I want to go with and I really do not want to pay the price that AAISP , XILO and other small providers charge, how ever good they may be.

Ideally I wouldn't move from Idnet as I have had an excellent service from them but although they have recently increased their download allowance on some of their packages recently it's not that I really need. Ideally I'd like fibre but a cap of 200GB would be fine and even half and half if there is an off peak option.

I had signed up to move to Zen recently on a simliar adsl 2+ package as it was a bit cheaper. However the order couldn't be progressed as my address was incorrect on the "SI Portal".
Ironically and talking about quality and support centres, this odd address appeared on mail to me from BT when I had my phone with them. Unlike the correct billing address they had for , newsletters would come through with this odd address on them. When I moved my telephone over to Idnet too and most correspondence stopped with BT I didn't give it another thought, until now.

Idnet have contacted BT and I'm told the entry is now correct. I just can't imagine how painful that would have been sorting it out with any other ISP. Perhaps I'm cynical, but I'm told that happens with age.
As for the odd address, it seems that some databases have this old and now defunct address on their databases for where I live and for whatever reason I believe the call centre in India used it - as it did start appearing after moving to my current address.

I'm going to have to move to one of the larger ISP's if I want fibre as the fibre pricing for the smaller ISP's is just too rich for my blood. It's just weighing up what ISP would suit me the best and so far contacting Plusnet for info has been painless.

Just wondering if anyone has found BT's new default fibre speed (54Mbps) to be worthwhile or perhaps more of a gimmick?

I have another question, this time about ISP supplied Routers and Free WiFi.

Am I right in thinking both BT & PlusNet supply their own modems and prefer you use them?

Also is it true that The BT Home Hub is used by BT to provide free WiFi to anyone in the vicinity who has allowed access?

Do PlusNet have a similiar arrangement to BT re free wifi.

If you don't use BT's HomeHub is there a conflict of interest if my question re Free WifI from the Home Hub is true?

Thanks..

By default, the BT Home Hub has BT WiFi turned on. This is the community sharing WiFi, so in other words, BT Retail home users give up a small portion of their bandwidth and can connect to any BT WiFi hotspots for free. You can opt out of this, and it will be turned off on your Home Hub when you do. From memory, I think you can also disable it in the router yourself.

Plusnet do not have a similar service.

I am a long term Plusnet user (>10 years) and switched to fibre as soon as my exchange was activated some 2 years ago; I switched to PN anytime phone service at that time. I use a 40/20 package that is no longer available with a stable service at measured at 37/17 with a monthly download of about 100Gb. I pay my line rental yearly, note that the PN contract means that you are tied in for 18 months. I am fortunate that I have had little need of support services but have been unsettled by the many changes made to what was a previously outstanding support service.
This has caused me to look other providers of which one was IDnet. My initial estimates suggest that for me IDnet may be cheaper because PN charge a significant excess for Market 1 exchanges and I do not know if other providers continue to do this.
Caveat emptor.

Thanks Jaggies & rogerowalters, that's good feedback.

@rogerowalters, out of interest could I ask what you quite mean by this, as it's the sort of thing that is of interest to me:-

but have been unsettled by the many changes made to what was a previously outstanding support service

Something else I might have misread on a post somewhere else on here is Plusnet providing a 40/2 fibre product. I had a look on the Plusnet site and had trouble finding the specific rates (I guess they are shown there somewhere).

My belief was as with all fibre when rounded up to the nearest 10, that they were 80/20 or 40/10. So did I read 40/2 incorrectly?

Of course there's the new BT default at 54Mbps, but I assumed that to be 54/10. So my question is, are there any advertised lower than 10Mbps upload speeds and if so, is it common?

In reply to a post by Vorlon:

]

zyborg47, I had a terrible service back in 2005/6 when I had a fixed 1Mbps line with Talk Talk. They launced their broadband free forever and the service took a massive dive. Support then was at 50p a minute and it took even more hassle getting away from them.
Do you think download speeds etc are suffering particularly at peak times with these "offers" or have you noticed something else?

Plusnet seemed to be the better choice over BT, because of the support option. I'm really stuck between the big ISP's as to who would suit me best.

I think you really hit the nail on the head, not much difference in the large suppliers apart from price and support, none of them are that great as they make sure you get the service you pay for, pay cheap, get cheap.
TBH, I really am getting fed up with the service we get in the UK, I thought when we went to fibre it would be better, but while it is faster, they still seem to dumb it down.


i am more in less in the same boat, I am with plusnet, but not sure if I want to stay with them, but to be honest there are not many other large providers I want to go with and I really do not want to pay the price that AAISP , XILO and other small providers charge, how ever good they may be.


Ideally I wouldn't move from Idnet as I have had an excellent service from them but although they have recently increased their download allowance on some of their packages recently it's not that I really need. Ideally I'd like fibre but a cap of 200GB would be fine and even half and half if there is an off peak option.

I had signed up to move to Zen recently on a simliar adsl 2+ package as it was a bit cheaper. However the order couldn't be progressed as my address was incorrect on the "SI Portal".
Ironically and talking about quality and support centres, this odd address appeared on mail to me from BT when I had my phone with them. Unlike the correct billing address they had for , newsletters would come through with this odd address on them. When I moved my telephone over to Idnet too and most correspondence stopped with BT I didn't give it another thought, until now.

Idnet have contacted BT and I'm told the entry is now correct. I just can't imagine how painful that would have been sorting it out with any other ISP. Perhaps I'm cynical, but I'm told that happens with age.
As for the odd address, it seems that some databases have this old and now defunct address on their databases for where I live and for whatever reason I believe the call centre in India used it - as it did start appearing after moving to my current address.

I'm going to have to move to one of the larger ISP's if I want fibre as the fibre pricing for the smaller ISP's is just too rich for my blood. It's just weighing up what ISP would suit me the best and so far contacting Plusnet for info has been painless.

Just wondering if anyone has found BT's new default fibre speed (54Mbps) to be worthwhile or perhaps more of a gimmick?


I agree that Plusnet support is pretty good, or it was when I used it, my mate thinks it is a bit iffy sometimes, maybe because he is on broadband only

All I want is a provider that gives me a decent speed that allows me to stream my netflix, now TV, that is why I was ok with Allpay at 10Mb/s it dfoen what I wanted and until they had problems was pretty constant.
I do not really want toi pay more than £30 a month, i pay £31 a month at the moment and half of that is for a phone service i do not use.

In reply to a post by Vorlon:

I have another question, this time about ISP supplied Routers and Free WiFi.

Am I right in thinking both BT & PlusNet supply their own modems and prefer you use them?

Also is it true that The BT Home Hub is used by BT to provide free WiFi to anyone in the vicinity who has allowed access?

Do PlusNet have a similiar arrangement to BT re free wifi.

If you don't use BT's HomeHub is there a conflict of interest if my question re Free WifI from the Home Hub is true?


Thanks..

You can use your own router with plusnet, in fact when you order the service you can order without the router or you could, not sure now that they supply an all in one for fibre.

TBH, the new hub that plusnet supplies is just a modified homehub 5 I think, and it seems ok, my mate have got one and it is fine, not that he was suppose to get one, but they sent it by mistake.

BT uses something called Fon or used to be called fon or something like that, a bit of the bandwidth is used so other BT users can connect to your hub and use your internet. It used to be off by default, then BT turned it on by default, a pain in the neck, my phone when I come home kept trying to connect to my next door neighbours router instead of mine, so I disconnected the systems from my neighbours router as they will never use it. Problem solved.

You can use your own router with BT as well, but they may not give you much support if you do. i use my own router on Plusnet, well I did until a couple of weeks ago when it went wrong and changed back to the naff Sagecom.

Ah, that is a thought, I wonder if it is their naff router that is the problem.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

BT turned it on by default, a pain in the neck, my phone when I come home kept trying to connect to my next door neighbours router instead of mine, so I disconnected the systems from my neighbours router as they will never use it. Problem solved.

It would have been easier to fix the config on your phone

You didn't
There are 4 FTTC products
80/20
55/10
40/10
40/2
and Plusnet supply 40/2 much to the annoyance of a lot of users

As do TalkTalk Retail I believe.

In reply to a post by Oldjim:

You didn't
There are 4 FTTC products
80/20
55/10
40/10
40/2
and Plusnet supply 40/2 much to the annoyance of a lot of users

How do you know the difference between a 40/10 and 40/2 product when PlusNet headline just two fibre speeds (from what I can see), ie the 76Mb or 38Mb fibre on their sales webpage?

In reply to a post by Vorlon:

How do you know the difference between a 40/10 and 40/2 product when PlusNet headline just two fibre speeds (from what I can see), ie the 76Mb or 38Mb fibre on their sales webpage?

It seems like you don't - I just had a browse around their website, following quite a few of the links, and nowhere were upload speeds mentioned for either package. Not good, Plusnet.

Fibre Broadband

� Fibre broadband speed is described as 'up to' because your actual download speeds will vary. We'll give you the best download speed available on your line, with up to 76Mb download speed and 19Mb upload speeds on Unlimited Fibre Extra, and up to 38Mb download speed and 1.9Mb upload speeds on Unlimited Fibre.

It's in "Here's the legal bit".

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

It's in "Here's the legal bit".

I didn't get that far!

I moved to Plusnet from BT a couple of weeks ago. FTTC 80/20.

Speeds are faster both upload and download, Pings faster too, 7ms on Ookla to nearby London servers.

Averaging circa 150GB a week useage up/down since the switch.

Mixture of WEB VOIP P2P Netflix/Amazon Video etc

Very happy with the switch

In reply to a post by TheBaron:

I moved to Plusnet from BT a couple of weeks ago. FTTC 80/20.

Speeds are faster both upload and download, Pings faster too, 7ms on Ookla to nearby London servers.

Averaging circa 150GB a week useage up/down since the switch.

Mixture of WEB VOIP P2P Netflix/Amazon Video etc

Very happy with the switch

I use NowTv & Amazon Prime Video with the max demand being around 3.5Mbps. Regardless of such a good download speed, do you find streaming always steady ie no buffering or reductions in bit rate even at peak times?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Fibre Broadband

� Fibre broadband speed is described as 'up to' because your actual download speeds will vary. We'll give you the best download speed available on your line, with up to 76Mb download speed and 19Mb upload speeds on Unlimited Fibre Extra, and up to 38Mb download speed and 1.9Mb upload speeds on Unlimited Fibre.

It's in "Here's the legal bit".

Thanks RobertoS.

So by that I assume the two fibre packages Plusnet do are either 80/20 or 40/2 ?

I suppose the 38Mbps one should still perform well regardless of the large ratio difference? I Don't use P2P or use Cloud Storage and only now and then some games on Steam upload saves.

Yes it's good we have no issues.

Generally 3 PCs online, streamimg/gaming , plus Amazon Prime/Netflix through a Fire TV box, no issues.

We're less than 50m from cabinet and can see the Telephone Exchange from the house so that helps

The fact that you can see the telephone exchange does not help you at all, it is completely irrelevant, for FTTC it is the distance to the cabinet that determines your connection speed along with other factors such as thickness of copper, aluminium cables etc.

In fact it seems there may still be an error of my physical address vs my telephone number via the SI Portal the ISP's appear to use.
Recently it was found that where I live a very old name for the building I live in was used which I believe BT added in error when I was with them sometime ago. The result is I haven't been able to move recently when I had an impulse to move back over to Zen and stick with ADSL2+.

However if I look here http://www.homeandwork.openreach.co.uk/when-can-i-ge... my telephone number says I can get FTTC and indicates the cab box providing it (although it looks old). But my flat address in the pull down menu (if I select that method) shows nothing available at all, but the other flats in the building I am in show FTTC available. All I can think is that there is still an issue with the BT database.

Customer support service has undoubtedly changed over time.
a. I guess that success brings more customers who raise more questions so over time more staff are needed who need more training and one gets the impression that the real expertise gradually gets spread thinner.
b. The hours during which customer support (on the phone) is available have been reduced for residential customers from 24 hours to 12 hours and customers are encouraged to use "chat" or questions on line. Look at the graphs to see when long waits can be expected and note that for connection faults (for most customers the most serious and troublesome) the average closure time currently exceeds the target time of 7 working days.
c. Take a look at the Community Forums, particularly those relating to fibre issues; the comments/discussion gives a clear flavour of some of the problems that can arise.

On the other hand if you are fortunate to live relatively close to your cabinet and have good line speeds shown by the BT tester, fibre broadband can be less troublesome than ADSL and give rise to less need for support.

In reply to a post by rogerowalters:

Customer support service has undoubtedly changed over time.
a. I guess that success brings more customers who raise more questions so over time more staff are needed who need more training and one gets the impression that the real expertise gradually gets spread thinner.
b. The hours during which customer support (on the phone) is available have been reduced for residential customers from 24 hours to 12 hours and customers are encouraged to use "chat" or questions on line. Look at the graphs to see when long waits can be expected and note that for connection faults (for most customers the most serious and troublesome) the average closure time currently exceeds the target time of 7 working days.
c. Take a look at the Community Forums, particularly those relating to fibre issues; the comments/discussion gives a clear flavour of some of the problems that can arise.

On the other hand if you are fortunate to live relatively close to your cabinet and have good line speeds shown by the BT tester, fibre broadband can be less troublesome than ADSL and give rise to less need for support.

Thanks rogerowalters,

I'm starting to wonder if it would be better for me to take on fibre for a year with Idnet (my current ISP) and get the 11month cost by paying up front. I'm still concerned about this BT database issue that BT appear to of messed up. After a part of this database was corrected a few weeks ago the checkers on most sites say via my telephone number I can have fibre and via my specific flat number I cannot or the checker just hangs.

Just tried to see if I could move to PlusNet Fibre and apparently I cannot!

Although there is Fibre available where I live the recent update to my previous incorrect address entry (that ironically BT messed up some years ago) apparently means that it hasn't been flagged as available, whilst every other flat in the block has been.

I've been given this number 0800 671 045 which is supposed to be BT wholesale to sort it out, although I'll see if Idnet can resolve the issue as they managed to get my address updated.

Update:

Have spoken to another agent at PlusNet and my order for 40/2 has been taken. Interesting to note that if I wish to upgrade to 80/20 in the next few months that the contract will be restarted at £15pm for 24 months.

So hoping it'll go through. Thanks for all the feedback guys.

Good luck . Let us know when it completes.

Everything went through today with Plusnet ie my phone and the 38/2 Fibre Broadband. It seems to be working fine and I've gone through and checked their Hub options.
My initial speeds after 2 hours uptime are here:-

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/14664...

A bit wobbly. Are you connected wirelessly to the router rather than wireless? That could explain it.

Don't mess until after midnight tomorrow night.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

A bit wobbly. Are you connected wirelessly to the router rather than wireless? That could explain it.

Don't mess until after midnight tomorrow night.

Yes it is being used in wireless mode at present, although that will change soon.

Out of interest how long is the initial training period with Fibre or is there one? I've noted that some say there isn't a training period with Fibre.

I've also noted that whilst my Line sync is at 39.06Mbps/1.952Mbps and remained that, my actual speed has gone from around 36Mbps on day 1 to around 20Mbps on day 2/3. Also I've noted that according to the routers uptime that it must have reset/rebooted at once or perhaps more times. (Unless the router is unlike the norm and reboots/resets when the wifi settings are altered - which I've done)

The router hasn't been purposely reset/rebooted by me and nor have I seen it do so.

Is there a definitive initial routine that happens with Fibre setups when they are first installed or does it differ from isp to isp and customer line to customer line depending on certain characteristic best known by BT Group?

See Section 2.2.1 of BT SIN 498.

The "intervene" there is a drastic move which is called banding. That occurs, we have seen many cases, but much more common is interleaving is applied costing often around 10Mbps sync and adding 8ms to latency. Or more.

We could do with seeing the full stats from your router.

In terms of what BT Wholesale say about training periods, that is utter bosh just like it always has been on ADSLx. The truth is that at the end of the ten days BT Wholesale sets a couple of figures to do with how it handles speed fault reports. See this page on my website. That needs updating as it refers to BTW ADSLx, but explains the principal. On FTTC it cannot have anything like as much effect as apart from the three Openreach stability settings, which as far as I know are requested by the ISP, they have no control over the line. It's all Openreach.

Even what is regarded as a speed fault by Openreach is set by Openreach. They have their own rules, with nothing whatsoever to do with MSR and FTR. ISPs also have their own approach. Some say tough luck as long as you are above the minimum of the BTW estimate for Range B, others will look at what has happened on your line following the first two days, as per that SIN. I don't know Plusnet's current position on that, but for years it was that if you get to support staff who know what they are doing then they will fight your corner if there is something obviously unusual going on.

If your sync is still at the ~39/2 speeds, then run both the [http://speedtest.btwholesale.com]BT Wholesale Perbformance Test (ignoring the red instructions), and go to the further diagnostics. Then copy and paste the down and up results text boxes please.

Also include what your Plusnet Current line speed is set to.

Edited by RobertoS (Wed 22-Jun-16 08:51:45)

Thanks for all the info Bob it is much appreciated.

Estimated line speed:
40Mb (This may vary between 80Mb and 80Mb) - Checked on 2016-06-06 11:07:07

Current line speed:
21 Mb

Actually this is as far as i've got as i'm currently on the phone to them and the tech guy has just said i'm on an adsl2 profile.

The technical chap at Plusnet has set the speed back to what it was on day 1, but reiterated when I asked about training periods that Fibre still had a 10 day training period. I imagine I could get a different opinion if I spoke to another technical agent. It's this big ISP thing again that I'm not used to after being with IDnet for years and Zen before.

Anyway, the Plusnet portal hub thingy now says:-
Estimated line speed:
40Mb (This may vary between 80Mb and 80Mb) - Checked on 2016-06-06 11:07:07
Current line speed:
37 Mb

and the BT Wholesale further diagnostics test says:-
Down: 34.31Mbps currently and 38.71Mbps achievable
Up: 1.85Mbps currently and 2Mbps achievable

All I really want to know is should I be expecting this line rate of 37Mbps (as per Plusnet portal) to remain as now and as per day 1 or should I expect to see that rate vary for x amount of days and hopefully then settle at 37Mbps or thereabouts?
I don't really want to be bothering Plusnet if in fact the line is behaving as it should do after going live.

EDIT: Slightly off the subject I see Plusnet allow you to upgrade your Broadband to PRO for £5 month :-

Pro Add On
Upgrades your service to a top-class prioritised connection, ideal for online gaming and working from home. Subject to a 1 month contract

Source:- https://www.plus.net/AddOns.html

Edited by Vorlon (Wed 22-Jun-16 09:39:35)

Does the router you are using provide any stats about the VDSL service ? If it does they may give a clue to what speeds may be available and also how stable.

Also could you describe the physical set up in your property, whats connected where and how.

There have been several hiccups recently with the PN Current line speed been erroneously set to that ADSL2+ 21Mbps at the end of the two days. Tha's why I asked you to check it and compare with the IP Profile.

Now it is sorted you should be fine. I don't recall it recurring on lines where it happens early on. I think you can relax. Your BT IP Profile shows maximum, so DLM hasn't got upset.

There is no "training" of the kind that is worrying you . SIN 498 is quite clear about that. The only three major causes of significant speed change are faults that develop, new noise sources arising between you and the FTTC cabinet, and possibly cross-talk caused by new FTTC users on lines running close to yours in a bundle. Solving the last of those is what vectoring is about, but progress on that is slow.

If you look at the BT Wholesale estimates table in the blurb under it they continue with the 10 day rubbish. All BT Wholesale ISPs are therefore stuck with it. Including IDNet and Zen. It's ridiculous that BTW have never changed the wording, or the policy of not accepting speed problems until the end of it.

I forgot! Pro is not needed. It is an add-on for legacy products that have real traffic shaping and throughput caps applied at certain times of day. Not current products which automatically prioritise gaming, VOIP and similar time-critical activities both on your own line and over the network.

It could even jepardise those on current products by letting streaming, YouTube and the like grab all the bandwidth.

The only three major causes of significant speed change are faults that develop,

...... The single most common issue being incorrect set up, bridge taps and the like, the faster it goes, the fussier it becomes.

But you know all this Bob And I recall Vorlon as posting on here way back when, so hopefully he knows too.

Of course . But that wasn't the question.

The OP was connected some time on Monday and is still connected at full downstream sync and IP Profile. The factors you cite may have reduced his Max Attainable, from the 80Mbps of the BTW estimator, but they don't appear to be affecting his actual figures. I don't recall what level of stats detail is available from the PN router. Full stats are what we need for that investigation. (@Vorlon - is that what you are using, or is it something else please?).

AIUI they also in general apply to the initial (and then ongoing if such a problem is present, until it is solved) actual figures. The question was whether or not his line should now be stable, or might he get lower speeds as the "10-day period" runs.

All I really want to know is should I be expecting this line rate of 37Mbps (as per Plusnet portal) to remain as now and as per day 1 or should I expect to see that rate vary for x amount of days and hopefully then settle at 37Mbps or thereabouts?

The answer to that is no, unless one of the three possibilities I listed comes about. Which can happen at any time in the future to any of us.

The router is Plusnets own Hub One i think its called and apparently the same as BT's HomeHub 5a. It has limited settings and information unless there is a secret area to avail more info.

Basically I installed modem on monday and had what looks like it's going to be my max speed eg 37/2.
Day 2/3 and I'm down to around 21Mbps, so I'm wondering if there still is a training period and I just have to bide my time that's fine if it's the case.

I contact PlusNet this morning and spoke to a chap in technical support, who mutters something about stuck on adsl2 profile, but I find that strange when from the outset I had a good 37Mbps.
Then I wait on hold for him to sort something on the system. When he returns he gets me to reboot router and check speed and it's back to the day 1 speed of around 37Mbps.
He says the issue shouldn't happen again so I then query about the so called "Training Period". He tells me that it still is a function and that it takes 10 days. I did politely challenge his comment but he just reiterated with confidence that this is the case!

So now I have a router running at a reasonable speed. It's faster than what I had but some sites are just not as snappy and instant as they were when i was with Idnet. I'm a little dissapointed, but I do have fater speeds even though general surfing is sluggish.

I have considered buying a new VDSL router. It's a shame that my Asus DSL-N55U which has been superb only supports up to ADSL2+

Also that "Pro" upgrade is available easily from my log in page as extras for your service. It makes no mention that it's no longer required and it wouldn't surprise me if people had tried and succeded to sign up for it.

I did pay the one off fee for a fixed IP address which I prefer.

EDIT: I have narrowed down the reason why my laptop is now quite lacklustre in internet performance. It seems that the PlusNet hub (and I've checked/tweaked the WiFi settings as neccessary) isn't being friendly with my Laptop Broadcom Chipset. It's never been an issue on Wifi with any of my ADSL2 routers.
Trying though a TP-Link Archer T4u USB3 Wifi Dongle which I normally use on my PC whilst sorting my wired setup proved to perform well with the PlusNet hub.

I'd still prefer a different VDSL modem, but what to buy is another question.

Edited by Vorlon (Wed 22-Jun-16 15:46:51)

You can get the actual basic line stats from the HubOne by logging into >Troubleshooting >Helpdesk. You can copy/paste to a post but best to redact the Serial number, Username, SSIDs and MAC address.

Thanks ChrisAO, but i think the way things now stand as per my previous post is that Plusnet tweaked something this morning after I called them and now my line is back to where it should be.The tech guy didn't seem to be that surprised and perhaps moreover came across as though it was a common occurrence.

The only thing that is unclear is in regard to the training period and if it exists for fibre or not. I have no idea as to why their system changed my throughput (line sync speed remained the same). IF however there is a training period (as per the comments of the Plusnet Tech) I would happily except that speeds could be changeable during that time.

They probably tweaked your previously incorrect your Current Line speed (Login required)
What does it say now? It should be the same as the BT IP Profile from the BTw Diagnostic Test

If you post the Stats, it should tell us how well the line is performing.

There is no 10 day training period on FTTC - the only training period is the first 24hours when DLM is assessing the line which is unrestrained at initial connection - it will go as fast as the Line length & SNRM will allow during that time. DLM then makes any changes during the early hours typically 0200/0300 and it's then an ongoing monitoring by DLM and it will apply further changes as/when it deems necessary, usually in the early hours again.

We seem to be in a loop.

We covered all this in this in the posts by the OP and myself timed at:-

Wed 22-Jun-16 08:04:05
Wed 22-Jun-16 08:49:59
Wed 22-Jun-16 09:03:30
Wed 22-Jun-16 09:30:11

Vorlon then unfortunately repeated much of what he said in that sequence in the post you replied to .

I wouldn't really call that a training period, more an initial extended daily monitoring. The monitoring starts the instant the connection is made and is not for 24 hours, it is until the end of the day after connection as long as it was connected for at least 15 minutes on the first day. So 24 hours plus the connection time on the first day.

It is worth finding the stats as Chris described, and posting them. If only for the record if anything goes wrong in the future.

As you have a static IP, which I did as well on Plusnet, it's worth setting up a thinkbroadband Broadband Quality Monitor (BQM). See mine in my sig.

A large number of people on the forums have one. It is mainly a ping monitor, though it's just occurred to me the Hub One may not support it. I expect Chris will know.

If it is supported it often helps by identifying when various events occurred. Mainly disconnection, base latency changes, and unexpected high periods.

There is no training period. If you find things start going down the pan, get in touch with CS. Since October last year I've had 2 occasions to get in touch. with their CS. Both times required an OR visit, so not a Plusnet issue.

As for speed and congestion, maybe I'm lucky, or maybe I'm just an average customer of Plusnet, but no issues on either count. They perform well for the money. I gave up looking at the router stats long ago as well. Running TBB speedtest does me fine, oh and the BQM. Handy.

Enjoy

As I said there is no training period. The first 24hrs is the nearest thing you could call a training period, after which DLM will apply the conditions it thinks is appropriate. And to be precise, the time period is as Roberto described.

Edited by ChrisAO (Thu 23-Jun-16 14:13:24)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

As you have a static IP, which I did as well on Plusnet, it's worth setting up a thinkbroadband Broadband Quality Monitor (BQM). See mine in my sig.
A large number of people on the forums have one. It is mainly a ping monitor, though it's just occurred to me the Hub One may not support it. I expect Chris will know.

I'm afraid just like any of BT's HH's, the Hub One does not permit pings either

In reply to a post by ChrisAO:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

As you have a static IP, which I did as well on Plusnet, it's worth setting up a thinkbroadband Broadband Quality Monitor (BQM). See mine in my sig.
A large number of people on the forums have one. It is mainly a ping monitor, though it's just occurred to me the Hub One may not support it. I expect Chris will know.

I'm afraid just like any of BT's HH's, the Hub One does not permit pings either

Line speed is currently as it was on Day1 which is good if it stays that way:-

Estimated line speed:
40Mb (This may vary between 80Mb and 80Mb) - Checked on 2016-06-06 11:07:07
Current line speed:
37 Mb

Edit: As per my other post I've ordered a basic wifi usb dongle for my laptop as the Broadband Wifi chipset really doesn't get on with the PlusNet Hub at all. It's not about range or anything like that, but if you have several windows open wifi will for want of a better description will lockup and browsers will just sit there trying to update the page. Never had issues with any previous routers wifi I've used with this laptop. Trying an upmarket Wifi USB dongle does cure the problem, hence why I'll use another wifi dongle on my laptop until all my devices that can be wired are wired.

Edited by Vorlon (Thu 23-Jun-16 14:31:22)

In reply to a post by Vorlon:

I'll use another wifi dongle on my laptop until all my devices that can be wired are wired.

It might be worth (cheaper!) checking for an updated driver for your existing WiFi adaptor first, if you haven't already done so.

It's a Broadcom Chipset in a Dell laptop approx 4 years old (N5110) and it's been running Windows 10 for around 6 months without issue on Wifi supplied by an Asus DSL-N55U. If I remember rightly I looked at the time for various driver updates and in most cases Windows 10 provided the latest across the board (and informing as such).

If I'm not mistaken, Win 10 has a tendency to replace the manufacturer's drivers with its own "latest". I have always found Windows drivers in earlier versions inferior to manufacturers'. I only use them if there isn't a manufacturer's one for the hardware in question.

It might be worth checking them out and possibly trying one. You can always roll back to the Win 10 one.

Have you split the SSIDs for 5ghz and 2.4ghz? This often solves a lot of issues where chipsets are poorly designed.

Have you used 5Ghz WiFi in the past? Some chipsets have compatibility issues (again poor chipsets).

The Plusnet One Hub is a rebranded BT Homehub 5A, so you have the same router as plenty of BT broadband customers... Hence it should be fairly reliable.

Thanks guys for all your feedback but I really am not overly impressed with the PlusNet Home Hub. I believe It is BT's Home Hub 5A and BT have since updated theirs to the HH5B. I didn't ask nor investigate if other advanced menu's/information were available on the Plusnet Home Hub (sorry it's late I'm not sure if that's it's proper product title).

I had the idea of buying a VDSL Modem/router when I initially looked at Fibre packages. As I considered staying with Idnet I would have had to either source my own or pay extra for their offering. Also I considered their feature of paying the full 11/12 months up front and benefit from the discounted charge at 1 month free - but the pennies started to build up. In fact unlike many other ISP's that now offer line rental I found the extra phone type features with Plusnet (that usually attract charges of varying amounts) were very good value, with some even being free - that helped my decision!

So after being really impressed with perhaps my most bells and whistles adsl2 router to date the Asus DSL-N55U I thought I'd go down a similar route. Hence after doing what I've now considered enough fault finding on my Wireless system I've gone for a TPLink Archer VR900. Eventually my setup will be part wireless part wired.

Thanks though for all the suggestions though.

I swapped from BT (due to cost) to Plusnet and defo not a happy bunny. It seems strange that on BT I could get a steady 72mbps and have an IP of 76K, yet on Plusnet, with same service I get variable 62-66mbps at any time of the day - there is no pattern. The only difference I see is my IP is now 71k, my Latency has dropped to 7.4ms and my speeds are haywire. Even when I go back to the HH5, I get the same readings - perhaps I need to run the HH5 for a week or two, to see any improvement?

I had this standard email from PN over night...

When you signed up for Plusnet Broadband, we gave you an estimated line speed. Now that your broadband has now been active for 14 days, we thought we'd let you know the speed as it stands today, by way of comparison.

Estimated line speed 64.3Mbps to 80Mbps
Current line speed 71.6Mbps

What a load of rubbish.... the IP profile is 71.6mbs, how the F*** can I get 71.6ms

6. Data rate: 19999 / 73994
7. Maximum data rate: 28154 / 74209
8. Noise margin: 15.0 / 6.5
9. Line attenuation: 17.1 / 15.1
10. Signal attenuation: 17.1 / 15.1

Download speed achieved during the test was - 65.23 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speed is 40 Mbps-71.62 Mbps .
Additional Information:
IP Profile for your line is - 71.62 Mbps

If BT can give me 72mbs why can't Plusnet.

In reply to a post by blfamily:

If BT can give me 72mbs why can't Plusnet.

But you don't know you would get that on BT now. If your IP profile has dropped, as you say, it seems unlikely.

I do wish people wouldn't use filter evasion, or even feel the need to trigger it. It's a sad time when people can't express strong feelings without that. The English language has plenty of acceptable strong words.

Also if the post is reported, which I shall not be doing, the whole post will be deleted. Which rather defeats the object.

As kasg says, if the IP Profile has fallen then it would have fallen with BT too. Neither has any control over it. Not even BT Wholesale has. Openreach, who have full control, will only manually reset it after correcting a diagnosed fault, and not always even then.

Thanks guys for all your feedback but I really am not overly impressed with the PlusNet Home Hub. I believe It is BT's Home Hub 5A and BT have since updated theirs to the HH5B. I didn't ask nor investigate if other advanced menu's/information were available on the Plusnet Home Hub (sorry it's late I'm not sure if that's it's proper product title).

This is not true, BT always have 2 different types of hub, a Type A and a Type B. This is due to resilience, if the manufacturer of one hub goes out of business, they can quickly just supply everybody with the other type of router made by another manufacturer. If they did not do this, and the manufacturer went out of business they would be stuck. This is the logic behind this...

As for updating theirs to a HH5B, not true, they still send out HH5A and will continue to do so for the lifecycle of the HH5. It is a 50/50 which hub you get. Customers signing up today will be supplied 5A's.

It is possible you have a faulty hub, or more likely, your device does not work well with the bands not being split and 5Ghz.

Generally you need to set the following:
1. Disable smart setup (already disabled I believe by plusnet)
2. Seperate 2.4 and 5Ghz bands. Name the SSID different.
3. Some devices do not work well with wireless channel set to AUTO, so sometimes setting a fixed channel helps with drop-outs and/or data stalling when the router is channel changing on the fly.

ukhardy07,

Thanks for putting me straight about the BT home hubs.

I know you have mentioned about faulty Modem/routers before but this is not one of those faults - that I am quite sure of, particularly through my years of experience in electronic repair and servicing.

Also and I reiterated this a number of times throughout this thread that I have gone through and carried out the steps you have written above and I still experience issues. Therefore I've been happy to thank people for their feedback but have also explained that a new VDSL router was on the cards, hence I wasn't going to spend any more time faffing around with my current setup.

In reply to a post by Vorlon:

a new VDSL router was on the cards

You could try and find a HG612 modem on ebay and then use an Asus ethernet router such as the RT-AC68U that I have or the later models. Just one option, and the HG612 is incredibly solid.

As long as it's a version 3B. I have a feeling we may start seeing some earlier ones around soon.

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 01-Jul-16 19:42:31)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

As long as it's a version 3B. I have a feeling we may start seeing some earlier ones around soon.

Very good point.

Thanks Guys,

But I think I've already updated this on my other thread about recommended VDSL Routers. I've already purchased a TPLink Archer VR900 as it came out good in the reviews and also Mr Saffron was positive about it from the feedback he had received.

It's not connected yet and won't be until I've a least run the Plusnet Hub for another week . The current Plusnet uptime is 9+ days and I want to see as others have reported if there are any quirks in that.

EDIT: It's actually this thread on Page 9 (in flat mode) where I've said that I've gone for the VR900.

I appreciate the feedback, but at times it's become groundhog day. No doubt, busy people vs skip reading !

Edited by Vorlon (Fri 01-Jul-16 23:42:25)

Perhaps having a record of download speeds from July 2015 that are nearly all in the high 60's and low 70's.....

Apologies for the filter breaker, was a wee bit angry at the time.