In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

I'd rather an ISP makes it easy to use your own kit should you want more than what they offer. Plusnet do that.

My son-in-law has a suitably specced Netgear router and try as hard as we can it just will not connect via the PN supplied modem. And the new router does not appear to have a USB port either. It all seems to be lowest common denominator nowadays based on price and costs.

The modem supplied is likely the same openreach modem as supplied on most FTTC connections. If that is the case then it is probably something wrong with the config of the netgear router rather than anything specifically with the PlusNet connection.

As far as USB ports go they are possibly a nice to have if you want to share a USB hard drive but personally I would go with a proper network NAS or other storage solution rather than use a USB port on a router.

And when a router if free and only costs P&P then I wouldn't expect anything other than something that does the basic job.

In reply to a post by meldrew:

My son-in-law has a suitably specced Netgear router and try as hard as we can it just will not connect via the PN supplied modem.

If you have been supplied a modem then that's by Openreach because you have FTTC. My betting is that your router is an ADSL one and that is why it isn't working. You need what's commonly called a cable router (in fact a plain router rather than a modem/router).

What model router is it?

Please forgive me if I use the wrong terminology as I am not very technical. When I got FTTC last July I went with BT which worked out well because I ended up with a BT Boost engineer visiting after the dreaded Contractor visit to get me up and running properly. As a result I have a BT Home Hub 5 which seems to work well. However if I've got this right the Home Hub 5 combines modem and router in a single unit for fibre broadband.
If when my 12 month contract with BT is up I want to consider moving to another ISP like PlusNet what technical changes would be needed? Would my whole set up need replacement?
I am grateful for any advice you can offer.

You've got the information in your post correct sfaik.

BT supply the HH5 which is a combined modem / router. Either the modem supports ADSL and VDSL (Infinity/FTTC) or there are two modems - I don't have one and don't know the details.

On Plusnet FTTC I got an Openreach modem and opted to use my own router. Neither the old nor new Plusnet router has an inbuilt VDSL modem so if you switched to Plusnet you'd need either an Openreach modem + a router or a combined VDSL modem/router which Plusnet don't supply. How they'd provide that I have no idea unless they arranged for an engineer install which would otherwise not be required as you are already connected to your local fibre street cabinet.

My bet would be they would arrange the engineer install though.

Edited by kwikbreaks (Tue 27-Jan-15 16:24:30)

If you went with plusnet, just the username and password from plusnet would need to be entered into the hh5, then carry on, the person who came to connect me never got to unpack their kit No need for the open reach modem etc.

Just keep the kit plusnet give you!

There are a number of PlusNet customers using BT HH5 units on FTTC so it does work.

Don't you have to pay BT for the non-return of the HH5 though?

Thank you all for the advice so far.
As regards any charge by BT for the Home Hub 5 I was assuming (probably a bad thing to do with BT) that if I stay with them for my contracted 12 months there would be no charge. Thank you for the pointer.
However I can check that with BT and if there is a charge I can factor that in to calculating any costs/ savings of a change of ISP.

No charge so long as you remain for the minimum term