Plusnet

Have plusnet now stopped customers using 3rd Party Routers ? , up to Wednesday I have been using a Asus DSL AC68U with no problems for past 5 years .
On Wednesday I lost DSL , Rang PN who said No Sync ? send BT , BT came Thursday could not find any problems Said most likely PN have changed their TR061 set up and blocked my Router .
Found my Old Hub 1 and yes it works ??
Connect my Asus and will not show a DSL connection ??? Odd

..... or your old router has gone faulty ?

No - see my sig

Possibly but going by what BT engineer told me this is fairly regular from PN , May just buy a cheap Router to test

In reply to a post by sneekyhen:

Have plusnet now stopped customers using 3rd Party Routers ?

Not as far as I know - I have a Plusnet line with Vigor 130 modem connected to Mikrotik router, and it's still up.

The most likely explanation is that your fairly old AC68U has developed a fault. Capacitors in particular do tend to fail over time.

In reply to a post by sneekyhen:

Connect my Asus and will not show a DSL connection ??? Odd

If its not showing a DSL sync then this is a failure. Normally if your ISP has a problem, e.g lack of payment, they disable the PPPoE login.

Are you on ADSL or FTTC ? If on FTTC then it is possible that Openreach have blocked the DSL AC68U because of apparent problems with this box on the Openreach network.

Make sure its on the latest firmware, or get a Huawei HG612 modem from an auction site and use as an external VDSL (FTTC) modem.

I have been on Plusnet a couple of times over many years and never used a Plusnet supplied router. I need more control and configuration options.

Plusnet have not blocked it. What is TR061 by the way?, do you mean TR069 which is used by Plusnet to access their own routers, they cannot make a connection to any 3rd party routers. BT engineers will tell you anything when they don't know what the problem is.

Anyway as jchamier says the DSL-AC68U is very bad and should never have been allowed to be connected to VDSL, it is the worst modem chip ever. Get a HG612 and use the Asus as a router, if it still works.

In reply to a post by sneekyhen:

Possibly but going by what BT engineer told me this is fairly regular from PN , May just buy a cheap Router to test

Cut out the middle man, buy a decent new router.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

Cut out the middle man, buy a decent new router.

The Asus is a decent router, I prefer the RT models with Ethernet WAN. The problem is many people want all-in-one units, and the ISP provided devices are, understandably, limited in features. (and why I dislike the new direction for phone services to be part of the ISP router).

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

Cut out the middle man, buy a decent new router.

The Asus is a decent router

Have you ever owned the DSL-AC68U?
It really isn't a decent device.

I have owned both the RT-AC68U and the DSL-AC68U.
The RT-AC68U is excellent and I still use it to this day.

I wouldn't recommend the DSL-AC68U as a doorstop for fear that it will break your door.

The Asus DSL modems with Mediatek chipsets are the only chipset I'm aware of that allow disabling of UPBO (a shocking setting to allow an end user to disable) and the only chipset I'm aware of that OpenReach have actively banned from using G.INP.

There was a specific modem that when in use on a DSLAM broke the DLM for every other line on the DSLAM.
OpenReach never confirmed what the device was but many of us suspect it to be these Asus modems.
OpenReach have since amended the DLM to work around the issue the modem in question was causing.

The Asus RT devices firmwares are maintained by a different department to that of their DSL devices.
I praise their RT models and recommend them frequently.
I do the opposite with the DSL models.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

If its not showing a DSL sync then this is a failure. Normally if your ISP has a problem, e.g lack of payment, they disable the PPPoE login.

Sync and PPPoE are two different things. You can have successful sync, and failure to login with PPPoE. Sync is between your VDSL chipset and the Openreach VDSL cabinet only; PPPoE is end-to-end from your router to the ISP's BRAS.

If there's no sync then it's either a bad line or a bad router. And the OP has ruled out a bad line, because it works with another router.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

Not as far as I know - I have a Plusnet line with Vigor 130 modem connected to Mikrotik router, and it's still up.

I have exactly this combination of equipment and it has had no issues since installation (well, since Openreach technician number ~8 found me a clean underground pair).

I had a new A&A line at the time and Plusnet were actually more willing to push Openreach for better results than A&A. There is a /29 block of IPv4 and I have found the service very reliable. If you get the right person to speak to there (admittedly it can be a lottery) excellent service can be had for a very reasonable price.

yes I know. My Post wasn’t clear on asking the mode of failure. Still no idea if it’s ADSL or VDSL.

Not owned the DSL but have had 4 RT routers.

Friends had the DSL on an ADSL service without issue. Upgraded to cable so sold router on eBay.

The Asus DSL modems with Mediatek chipsets are the only chipset I'm aware of that allow disabling of UPBO (a shocking setting to allow an end user to disable) and the only chipset I'm aware of that OpenReach have actively banned from using G.INP.

So what you're saying is having an ASUS Router with this cool fun setting could play some mischief eh?

Edited by Whitehall11 (Sat 27-Mar-21 20:57:27)

In reply to a post by jchamier:

yes I know. My Post wasn’t clear on asking the mode of failure. Still no idea if it’s ADSL or VDSL.

VDSL is what is marketed as "fibre broadband", meaning FTTC (fibre to the cabinet). Sorry, I shouldn't have assumed we were talking about a VDSL service.

But the same applies for both VDSL and ADSL: if it works with one router/modem but not another, then it's almost certainly the router/modem that's bad.

But the same applies for both VDSL and ADSL: if it works with one router/modem but not another, then it's almost certainly the router/modem that's bad.

Completely agree, and was general reply to the OP yesterday

I had this sort of problem a few years ago where nothing but the Huawei modem would connect. The first BTOR person that came here had no idea and said to me maybe it was something plusnet had done, but since plusnet's own hub 1 would not connect either, I doubted that.
The second person they sent was much better, she went through the system up to the cabinet, still had no idea what the problem was, but at least she told me, they could not even get sync even with their own equipment even at the cabinet. She said the best thing would be to keep the Huawei in line since it is working. Plusnet sent me a Zyxel VMG8924-B30A, hoping that would solve the problem it did for a week and then that lost sync.

All working fine now, but it took a few months to get it up and running, and I still have no idea what happened.


Also as others have said, your old router could have given up

There was a weird fault around Huwawei DSLAMs a couple of years back. A remote upgrade by the the suppliers left some customers kit working, and some not. Likewise whether Openreach staff could gain sync with their testers was dependent on what make, and age of tester they were using ....

So looks like the Majority believe my router is on the way out , so looking like i have buy a new replacement for the PN Hub one , and its horrendous wifi my ring doorbell will not connect to it ?

It could just be the modem circuit in the Asus that has failed, is the Asus wi-fi network still working, i.e. can devices connect to the router and transfer data to another device.

If you are satisfied with the Asus wi-fi performance you could try my earlier suggestion of getting a Huawei HG612 3B modem and re-configuring the Asus to connect via Ethernet WAN to the HG612.

This would be cheaper than a new modem/router if you don't mind having the separate modem box.

In reply to a post by sneekyhen:

So looks like the Majority believe my router is on the way out , so looking like i have buy a new replacement for the PN Hub one , and its horrendous wifi my ring doorbell will not connect to it ?

To save the cash, you can use the wifi access point from your Asus together with the Plusnet router.

Turn off the Asus' DHCP server, connect one of its LAN ports to a LAN port on the Plusnet router, job done. (Optionally turn off wifi on the Plusnet hub too, if you don't want two different SSIDs - although I'd keep it on in case the Asus completely dies)

Alternatively you can buy a good-quality wifi access point, e.g. Unifi AC Lite, to connect to the Plusnet router. It's kind of like building a hifi system out of separates

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

There was a weird fault around Huwawei DSLAMs a couple of years back. A remote upgrade by the the suppliers left some customers kit working, and some not. Likewise whether Openreach staff could gain sync with their testers was dependent on what make, and age of tester they were using ....

Ah, that sounds like it could have been the problem, but it was more than a couple of years ago, I just had a look at the email i had saying they were sending me a zyxel and that was in September 2017, but the reason I had the problem makes sense.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

To save the cash, you can use the wifi access point from your Asus together with the Plusnet router.

Turn off the Asus' DHCP server, connect one of its LAN ports to a LAN port on the Plusnet router, job done. (Optionally turn off wifi on the Plusnet hub too, if you don't want two different SSIDs - although I'd keep it on in case the Asus completely dies)

Alternatively you can buy a good-quality wifi access point, e.g. Unifi AC Lite, to connect to the Plusnet router. It's kind of like building a hifi system out of separates

This is what I did with the Zyxel as I liked the Zyxel, just used the WAN port on it to connect it to the modem.

In reply to a post by Realalemadrid:

If you are satisfied with the Asus wi-fi performance you could try my earlier suggestion of getting a Huawei HG612 3B modem and re-configuring the Asus to connect via Ethernet WAN to the HG612.

At least this model has an Ethernet WAN port. Some ASUS routers have a "router mode" option where you can select Access Point mode and it does all the reconfiguring for you.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

Alternatively you can buy a good-quality wifi access point, e.g. Unifi AC Lite, to connect to the Plusnet router. It's kind of like building a hifi system out of separates

and depending on the property, you could buy a Mesh system, such as the BT wholehome systems that PCPro reviewed and highly rated recently.

As a update i just got a TP-link AC2100 and it connected straight away . must have been the Asus .
Thanks for all the replies

Correctly diagnosed 30 seconds after the opening post. 😁

TP-Link do an AC2100 dsl router with a Mediatek modem chip. I do hope it's not that one....