I wish I had stayed with BT

[#1]

Well I can see why the advisor said not to get a 'mesh'! After a couple of hours of fruitless watching of youtube videos, I have finally given up trying to install this thing. He was probably right in saying that it isn't suitable.

The instructions say to connect it directly to the modem, which is presumably the thing on the wall that says openreach. I downloaded the app and followed the instructions to the letter, and it connected, but not to the internet, giving the message 'connection not successful'.

It struck me that logically it couldn't possibly connect to the internet this way, as how else would it know that Plusnet was my provider? It asked me to set up several passwords, but there was nowhere to enter the network name and password on the back of the router anywhere.

I called them, and apparently somebody will get back to me within 2 business days, which will be next week some time.

I'm afraid I'm lost when it comes to acronyms such as PPPOE, SSID, H30G or ONT  

[#2]

@Gerry5 

The instructions say to connect it directly to the modem, which is presumably the thing on the wall that says openreach.

That's correct , the things on the wall is the ONT ( its a fibre optic modem )

It struck me that logically it couldn't possibly connect to the internet this way, as how else would it know that Plusnet was my provider?

You're absolutely correct, you need to tell it!. Having got the app setup and connected to the mesh system (the H30G) , you need to change the internet(WAN) connection.

Looking at the user guide here https://static.mercusys.com/manual/Halo_H30G_UG_REV1.0.020220921032600.pdf

Goto the Advanced settings as shown on page 12 , click the dropdown menu against IPV4 and select PPPoE , that should give you a page to enter your connection details i.e username & password. The username and password are the ones you use to access the Plusnet member centre https://www.plus.net/member-centre/login. The only difference is that the username needs to be suffixed with @plusdsl.net, so say your plusnet username is joebloggs you would use joebloggs@plusdsl.net as the username in the PPPoE details.

That should give internet access on the mesh system.

If that proves too difficult then post back and we'll revert to Plan B and switch the H30G into access point mode.

[#3]

Aha - that sounds promising! I'll give it a try later.

The next thing is to connect the other ones to the main hub ... I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Thanks! 

[#4]

@Gerry5

Try @MisterW 's settings first - that is most likely to work.

ONLY IF THAT FAILS try this -

Assuming that this is what you've got - https://www.mercusys.com/uk/product/details/halo-h30g/v1/3-pack/

Watching the setup video on that page - YouTube : Setup Video for Mercusys Whole Home Mesh Wi Fi System 

using the phone app, when you get to video timestamp 1:32, you'd need to change the "Connection Type" from "Dynamic IP" to PPPoE, and presumably it would then prompt you for your Plusnet Username+Password in the format described by @MisterW 

[#5]

Aha - that sounds promising! I'll give it a try later.

@Gerry5 there will be other parameters on the PPPoE details page which can almost certainly be left at the defaults (the manual doesnt show me the page im afraid). If there are any you're unsure about then post back.

@Anunnaki thanks for that. I guessed there was an internet connection setting option as part of the setup procedure but the manual didn't show it!

[#6]

Looks like you might be getting somewhere via other routes, but thought I'd reply to (in message 14) I wouldn't know where to start with signal analysis, changing channels (I didn't even know it had different channels),  etc):

Wifi has several channels - that's one of the ways you and your neighbours can co-exist. Most routers auto-select whichever channel has least signal on it, and also adapt (i. e. they change channel); equally, most you can override that and fix them on one channel. If you have wifi extender devices, they may (I think usually do) use a different channel to the router.

There are free app.s for 'phones - the one I had worked fine on my Android 4 'phone! - that will show you, graphically, what channels are in use, wherever the 'phone is. The display on mine looked like

 x         y/\    z

/\          /  \   /\

1           4    5

i. e. a series of peaks, that changed as you moved the 'phone around; it showed the wifi network names on each peak where I've put x y and z (one of which you should recognise as your own one), and the channel numbers along the bottom (note there are two bands - 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz; IIRR there are about 11 channels on the 2.4 band. The 5 has more channels and they're faster, but it doesn't go through walls etc. as well). The app. you get may look different. I can't remember what it was called - maybe others here can suggest app.s?

Having a wander round your house with such an app. on your 'phone - as I said, free - can be quite informative: you can see which rooms have strong interference from neighbours' networks, and also how well (or badly!) your own network is reaching the various rooms. (Just changing the orientation of your wifi unit can sometimes help.)