Yesterday I restarted my Plusnet TG582n router. The router itself had been operating fine, but I wanted to restart my whole system in the hope of settling other problems. Unfortunately, when I turned the router back on the Internet light came on red and I had no Internet connection. Repeated attempts, with waits of a minute with the router off each time, failed to get any other result. On my computer browser it showed a page indicating “Error 3: Not Connected”, with the link status “LocalDisconnect”, and stating that a red Internet light means “Connection failed”. Clicking on the Attempt to Reconnect button raised a “Connecting” dialogue box, but no connection.
I contacted customer services who reported no problem visible from the Plusnet end, and suggested a factory reset of the router, which did not help.
I had a spare unused, previously unopened, Plusnet 2704N router. After setting it up, I was able to get its browser page on my computer, which revealed that I had to switch it to Fibre mode (I am on the FTTP trial). After doing so, neither the Broadband nor Internet lights came on. The ethernet cable from the Openreach ONT is plugged into the ETH4 socket as instructed - this was also the case on the old router.
It appears that there is some sort of authentication problem. I confirmed with customer services that my Broadband username is my Plusnet member name plus @plusdsl.net and that my Broadband password is the same as my Plusnet member password. However, it would not accept the password. Indeed, it appeared to reset the password to the obscured six-character password previously in place (unless this is just how the page shows a missing password). I tried a factory reset together with Plusnet customer services adding its serial number manually to the Plusnet database, but this did not change the result.
At this point I tried going back to the old router. I got the same result as before (red Internet light), but I found that, in addition to the error page, I could also get to the router’s browser admin pages. Having done a factory reset (again together with a manual entry to the Plusnet database by a very patient customer services person), I found that I also had to input the correct Broadband username and password. This still did not give me a connection, but gave the Connection Information: “Link Status: Disconnected; Last Error Message: Authentication failed”. According to Plusnet customer services, I show up at the Plusnet end as having a connection/being signed in, even though there is no sign of that at my end.
I have since tried factory resets on both routers as well as restarting the ONT box (unplugging it and the router, waiting 30 minutes, and then plugging everything in again), and replacing the ethernet cables running between the ONT box and the router and out from the router. None of these efforts have resulted in any improvement.
I find it strange that two routers should give the essentially the same result. This seems to suggest that a router hardware problem is unlikely (though I am down to get a new router, just in case). In any event, I am now left without an Internet connection - except a weak and unreliable mobile connection (mobile reception inside the house is poor, despite having changed to a provider giving better reception, which shows how bad the previous one was) on a very limited 1G data plan. This is, to say the least, inconvenient, as I work from home.
If anyone has any suggestions for resolving this, I would be most grateful.
