In reply to a post by ec5779:

All the PlusNet routers

Actually the Technicolor TG582n wasn't a Plusnet router, that one was supplied by a previous ISP - but I've noticed on other forum posts it looks like plusnet have also in the past supplied a similar (maybe the same) model.

In reply to a post by ec5779:

It's not like they ever get updates

The current one I'm using (Plusnet Hub One) says it was last update on 22nd May 2019 which was around about the time I installed it.

In reply to a post by ec5779:

put one of them in bridge mode hook up to a PC

I'm happy to have a go at that. Is there anywhere I could find instructions for how to do that. I'm not sure that either of the plusnet routers support bridge mode?

In reply to a post by ec5779:

I'm happy to have a go at that. Is there anywhere I could find instructions for how to do that. I'm not sure that either of the plusnet routers support bridge mode?

Use Google? Apparently the following will work for the TG582n, which was indeed supplied by PlusNet in the past. They made me take one back in the day when I upgraded to VDSL. Taken out as soon as the BT engineer left (yep managed installs back then) and the VDSL modem plugged straight into my router

https://support.aa.net.uk/Router_-_TG582N_-_Bridge

If you can't get that working you could get a Draytek Vigor 120 modem cheap on eBay. A quick check shows the v2 hardware versions can be had second hand delivered for ~£10 and it's a current model so still getting firmware updates.

Rather than using a browser as you are using Linux try doing a wget on an ISO image. I find that much more reliable than speed tests in browsers.

I would also be tempted to install WiFiman from Ubiquiti (it's free) on a phone/tablet and try it's speed test. I just got 200/100Mbps on my phone at work via the universities Eduroam network so it should be able to max out an ADSL connection.

I have to say, it turned out to be a little easier than I expected to configure the TG582n to act as a bridge.

I'm not 100% sure I set it up correctly as I've never done it before, but I think it was, this is how it appeared on my laptop.

And the routers' setup page definitely said it was in bridge mode and nowhere was my WAN ip address listed like it normally would have been in routed mode.

But my speedtest result was very much the same:



Edit 1: As for using wget vs browser, when I tried download an ISO image of CentOS using wget I got speeds fluctuating between 35-90kB/s = 0.3-0.7Mbps

Edit 2:

In reply to a post by jabuzzard:

There is also a possibility that the IP address (if you have a static one) is being pounded by hackers which can result in horrible throughput.

I just realised I never addressed this - I don't have a static ip. In the time this issue has been ongoing I must have been testing from many different IP addresses

Thanks again everyone for all your advice

Edited by ec5779 (Sun 16-Jun-19 02:40:54)

In reply to a post by Malwaremike:

I'd go for fibre. Many people including myself from last November are getting PN fibre for the price of ADSL2. You'll have to give them a call and explain your problem. Good luck.

it would not surprise me if it is a way to get people to update to fibre, lets slow ADSL down and get people to update with a great offer, then at the end of the offer, bump prices up.
not saying that they are doing it, just that it would not surprise me.

I know a couple of people still on ADSL and they get slowdowns, they are not on Plusnet, I would not be surprised if the providers don't start increasing ADSL prices to push people to fibre

In reply to a post by jabuzzard:

All the PlusNet routers are junk and I speak as a long time PlusNet user. It is quite possible that it could be compromised immediately. It's not like they ever get updates so it will be on whatever was loaded when it was manufactured.

I would look to put one of them in bridge mode hook up to a PC and enable the PPPoA session directly on that then do the speed test.

There is also a possibility that the IP address (if you have a static one) is being pounded by hackers which can result in horrible throughput. However this is difficult to spot on the junk that ISP's send out.

they sent me a zyxel, certainly not junk, still not solved the problem, but that is nothing to do with the router.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

they sent me a zyxel, certainly not junk, still not solved the problem, but that is nothing to do with the router.

That depends on your definition of junk. If Zyxel don't provide firmware updates beyond a couple of years (I have no personal experience but strongly suspect this is the case) like most of the other vendors then IMHO it's junk no matter how good the hardware is.

If a device does not get long term security updates, then I consider it to be a heap of junk. Most ISP provided routers don't get security updates beyond a couple of years, despite that fact that they are functioning perfectly well and don't actually need updating other than they are insecure.

In reply to a post by jabuzzard:

That depends on your definition of junk. If Zyxel don't provide firmware updates beyond a couple of years (I have no personal experience but strongly suspect this is the case) like most of the other vendors then IMHO it's junk no matter how good the hardware is.

If a device does not get long term security updates, then I consider it to be a heap of junk. Most ISP provided routers don't get security updates beyond a couple of years, despite that fact that they are functioning perfectly well and don't actually need updating other than they are insecure.

For the less technically aware like myself, could you help me by explaining what risks I actually face from using "junk" and whether these risks fall into the "certain", "likely", "unlikely" or "crying wolf" categories, please. That way I will be able to build a risk matrix and have some guidance about the checks and balances in regard to whether I should bin my first generation Billion 8800NL which is delivering what seems to be a perfectly adequate service on my FTTC line.

Thanks everyone for your replies.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

it would not surprise me if it is a way to get people to update to fibre, lets slow ADSL down and get people to update with a great offer, then at the end of the offer, bump prices up.
not saying that they are doing it, just that it would not surprise me.

I know a couple of people still on ADSL and they get slowdowns, they are not on Plusnet, I would not be surprised if the providers don't start increasing ADSL prices to push people to fibre

This was my initial suspicion too. Especially as the first few engineers who turned up were all saying how much better Fibre was.

However since then plusnet have sent 8 openreach engineers, and have even done a 'lift and shift', so its unlikely they would have put that much effort into trying to improve the service if this was a deliberate ploy to get people to shift to Fibre. I'm guessing it would be cheaper just to pay the difference between the ADSL service and the Fibre service for 12 months rather than waste all that effort on engineers.

There "could" be some truth ISP's drop performance to get people to upgrade to fibre my exchange is not that far away from my house and I used to get nearly or even just above 17Mbps down and 0.7Mbps up for ages and now I get 16+Mbps down, which still is reasonably acceptable but the up speed keeps going down to as little as 0.4Mbps up which is disappointing!

In reply to a post by jabuzzard:

That depends on your definition of junk. If Zyxel don't provide firmware updates beyond a couple of years (I have no personal experience but strongly suspect this is the case) like most of the other vendors then IMHO it's junk no matter how good the hardware is.

If a device does not get long term security updates, then I consider it to be a heap of junk. Most ISP provided routers don't get security updates beyond a couple of years, despite that fact that they are functioning perfectly well and don't actually need updating other than they are insecure.

i updated it last week to a new update, I thought it may have solved my problem, but it has not.