Really Poor Signal! Had Enough!

[#1]

Signal from Plusnet router is shocking. Spend most evenings watching tv buffer every few minutes and final straw now trying to watch match and 15 minutes of trying to connect!

Router is on another floor from living room, but never had this issue with previous providers, Talk Talk and Sky. Have fibre too, so really don’t understand why I now have this problem with Plusnet. Is a more powerful router available?

[#2]

Amazon have been selling BT Whole Home WiFi 3-pack recently for £150. This system works by plugging one of the disks in to your Plusnet router, where upon it will create a whole new WiFi network (and you can forget the old PlusNet one in you phone, TV etc).

The other two discs can then be positioned around the home to provide a more even signal everywhere. Setup is very quick and easy and the coverage and performance frankly stella.

These discs are 4x4 MIMO. To highlight what a good deal the BT system is; Unifi 4x4 access points are £170 each. Yet you 3 discs with the BT system for £150 and, being that this product has now been around quite a while, a thoroughly debugged and dependable product.

Hope that helps. I have no association with the product or Amazon - and I use Unifi gear at home. But I've installed this system for a neighbour and am frankly blown away by it, especially considering it's low cost.

[#3]

Why not try & configure one of your old Router's to PN's settings?

[#4]

Moderators Note

This topic has been moved from Fibre to My Router

[#5]

Hi @Lizizzard,

I'm sorry to hear that you're experiencing issues with your connection. I've tested your line and everything appears to be performing as we'd expect, which leads me to believe this is most likely a Wi-Fi issue. I'd recommend connecting via Ethernet cable where possible, especially when streaming or gaming, as this will generally result in a much smoother experience.

In terms of the Wi-Fi experience, I would recommend splitting the wireless networks that your router is operating on and there's a guide on how to do this here. I would also recommend running through this guide to see how you can get the most out of your wireless connections.

[#6]

I’ve had no tv connection most of the night tonight! Run speed check and the line speed is way below what it should be for normal broadband let alone fibre. Please check again. This is so frustrating. Never had these problems before moving to Plusnet. 0.46 download 8.27 upload.

[#7]

Thanks for your response @Lizizzard

Altho9ugh what you're saying does contradict what we can see on our side. I've checked, again, and can see similar results that were observed by @TheMightyAJ yesterday. simply advising the forum that you've ran speed tests does not offer enough information for us to be able to assist I'm afraid. how did you run your speed test, was it wired or wireless? Do you have any figures that you can help us with?

Have you had a look through the articles provided by @TheMightyAJ in his previous post? If so, have you managed to split the wireless bands on your router? If you have a look through similar forum posts, you'll find that this is suggested quite often. The reason being is, at the moment, your Plusnet Hub One decides for itself which wireless band to connect your devices to, which can cause problems, especially with the 5GHz band. Splitting your wireless bands allows you to decide which band to connect your devices to.

A general rule is that the 2.4 GHz network provides lower speeds, but it's range is greater than that of the 5GHz band, which provides greater speeds. If you have any issues in splitting the bands, let me know and I'll be able to do it on my end.

it might also be worth downloading a WIFI analyser app, which will give you the least congested WIFI channel, which you can then set your router to.

I'm going to pop my test results onto this post for your reference.

The above - a Visual radius, shows your connection, and any drop outs over a specified amount of time. you'll see that there was a slight drop out last night, however the connection was quickly re-established and has been stable since. There aren't enough drop outs here for us to determine that there is a fault with your network.

KBD

GEA Test Detail
Circuit ID	NA	Service ID

Test Outcome	Pass
Test Outcome Code	GTC_FTTC_SERVICE_0000
Description	GEA service test completed and no fault found .
Main Fault Location	OK
Sync Status	In Sync
Downstream Speed	79.9 Mbps
Upstream Speed	20.0 Mbps
Appointment Required	N
Fault Report Advised	N
NTE Power Status	PowerOn
Voice Line Test Result	Pass
Radio Frequency Ingress	Not Detected
Repetitive Electrical Impulse Noise	Not Detected
Cross Talk	Not Detected
Estimated Line Length In Metres	253.1
Upstream Rate Assessment	Very Good
Downstream Rate Assessment	Very Good
Interference Pattern	Not Detected
Service Impact	No Impact Observed
Home Wiring Problem	Not Detected
Downstream Policing Discard Rate	0.0
Customer Traffic Level	Upstream and Downstream traffic detected
Technology	VDSL
Current 15Min Bin Retrains	0
Last 15Min Bin Retrains	0
DP Type	External
Profile Name	0.128M-80M Downstream, Retransmission Low - 0.128M-20M Upstream, Error Protection Off
Time Stamp	2021-06-11T11:30:00

Parameters	MIN	MAX	AVG
Down Stream Line Rate	79.9 Mbps	79.9 Mbps	79.9 Mbps
Up Stream Line Rate	19.9 Mbps	19.9 Mbps	19.9 Mbps
Up Time	2.0 Sec	900.0 Sec	888.6 Sec
Retrains	0.0	1.0	0.0

[#8]

@Lizizzard - no guarantee it will help, but I've just pushed a software update to your router. It will update the next time you turn it off/back on.

Worth a shot.

[#9]

The plusnet supplied router has a poor reputation, if you want a better connection you should look at putting the plusnet router in the the best location, the box it came in and getting an alternative- there are examples on here for that

Also Wifi issues cause a lot of problems, regardless of router and if you can its better to use a wired connection, that is a physical cable from the router to the device. There are a few options down this route such as putting a cable in the wall cavity, running it along skirting boards, or you could go down the homeplug kit route if running physical wires aren't easy/possible.

Plusnet are not alone in supplying low cost budget equipment, the hub one is a re badged BT home hub 5a which has long since been discontinued by BT at least PN arent calling it a super router or other such name.

 and again its not unique to plusnet for people to have issues caused by the suplied router  ,

maybe plusnet will soon supply something a little better in the future, and if they want to go down the gimmick route, put a few Yorkshire teabags in the packet so people can have a propper cuppa while setting up

[#10]

Thanks, but had to return it to Sky. Their routers obviously have value and now I know why 🤣

[#11]

Thanks for the links to tips to improve it. I’ll give it a go. I appreciate Ethernet gives a reliable connection, but it’s not practical in my house and really shouldn’t be the only option in this day and age. Never had to with last two broadband providers.

[#12]

Thank you. It does seem slightly better at the minute.

[#13]

Interesting about the low quality router. As I mentioned, never had problems with either Sky or Talk Talk. Definitely cheaper and easier to switch back than start trying to rewire my house!