compatible alternative router?

[#1]

Hi,

 Don't have fibre, barely have broadband most of the time (lol) but was sent the new hub router by plusnet and suddenly my perfectly good HP printer will not print via wifi. Don't do what plusnet does which is try to tell me it is the printer or I don't know all the variety of different options of how to connect it etc etc, just answer me one question please:

What is the cheapest alternative router I can buy which is compatible with my plusnet account and which will actually connect to my printer? (HP2450 if you must know but sending me the manual, or telling me to download the software etc etc etc won't help, been there got the T shirt, sorry to sound defensive but have wasted an hour of my life on the phone to plusnet being gaslighted on this subject.)

How do I know if a router is compatible with plusnet?

Many thanks

[#2]

Not the answer you were looking for, but it MAY save you some money. As your router has changed, you will need to reset the printer, because it will still have the old credentials.

[#3]

Try this:

 Set the new routers wifi name and password to the same one as your old router

It will save you having to change every wifi password on every device ( and you will have ore than you think) instead you only need to change the name/password on one ( the router)

[#4]

Is that not the same as what would have happened every time I changed service provider over the past few years, plus every four plusnet routers I have had over the years prior this hub? what specifically needs doing differently for this router that all the previous new ones I have set up and connected manually to my printer, but which have worked, didn't need?

[#5]

why would that cure the printer connection? anyway i don't have the old router it went back to plusnet broken. I wish they'd just sent me the old style one, of which I have gone through several over the years and managed to connect them all no problem.

[#6]

If what you say above is correct - and I'm not doubting you, just find it very strange - that must be a very clever printer, because every time I've changed my router - three times in the past 6 months, I've certainly had to reset my Canon 3250.

I don't know if your 'why would that solve the printer connection' is aimed at me or @pint , but it would tell the printer which SSID to connect to.

[#7]

I don't know why the reply to function doesn't automatically tag the person I was replying to, but I don't know what you mean either, John. What is the difference between setting up a new router, which i have done countless times, and connecting my printer to it successfully, which I have done countless times too, and this new router? That was my point, not that I haven't had to connect my printer to a new router many many times, but that I have done it, therefore do know what it entails and trust me it doesn't work for this one, I have also scoured the web and followed various instructions  for different methods, and none of them have worked either. Which was why I said what I said in my original post, because I am not actually so stupid I didn't know I had to set up the router and change the password on the laptop etc and alter my network to include the printer and get it speaking to the new router. Why would I be capable of doing that successfully on countless previous ocassions but suddenly i can't? Because it doesn't work. And if you google this problem you will find there are other people like me who have had the same problem, and I have read everyone arguing with them as if they are incompetent idiots who don't know the difference between a system which works and a system which simply needs connecting/changing/updating

[#8]

replying to myself here as I can't seem to edit my post. If I don't respond to any future suggestions of how to connect my printer or it must be my printer or it must be me, it will be because you have failed to read my post and answer the question I actually asked but are mansplaining the obvious.

[#9]

OK, @Sulamaye666 I think I get your point, but I've set a number of printers up for family and friends when they have changed ISPs/routers, and all the instructions I have read in the printer manuals have said categorically that for them to function wirelessly, they must be reset to factory settings and re-authenticated.

[#10]

In answer to your original question, any combined modem/router is compatible with Plusnet. I CBA to read back, but if you are on an FTTC connection, it must be an FTTC piece of kit, if on ADSL, the same argument applies, unless the kit is specified as suitable for both technologies.

[#11]

Thank you John, that is the information I was requiring and am grateful for, as the exam boards always say, carefully read the question.

[#12]

@Sulamaye666 - Unless I've overlooked it, you haven't specified what router you have moved from/to?

It could be that all of your previous routers were 2.4GHz only, whereas the newer device is 'dual band' and therefore operates at both 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies.

Some older wireless networking equipment isn't compatible with 5GHz Wi-Fi networks and it can struggle in the presence of a 2.4GHz and 5GHz network that have the same SSID/name.

There are solutions/workarounds to this, however no point going into them without knowing details of your equipment.

[#13]

Thanks @bobpullen that might explain things. I only know that the new router was a hub thing, big wide affair, with one big band of light across the bottom rather than the smaller, neater rectangle with 4 lights. However, plusnet managed to find me an old one after much complaint making and trying to make out it was my printer or my inability to know how to connect it to a new router, and as if by magic i have now have a wifi printer again, although i will have to jump ship if it pegs out as they won’t be able to send me another, so it would be interestinb to know how hard it would be to set the hub up for an old HP printer. Do you think any new printer would be able to connect without these problems? 

[#14]

@Sulamaye666 thanks, sounds like you have a Hub Zero/2704n and we sent you a Hub One.

If this is the case, then what I said is accurate. The Hub Zero is single band 2.4GHz device. The Hub One is dual band and has both a 2.4GHz and 5GHz radio.

It requires a bit of fiddling in the admin interface of the Hub One, but one possible solution is to go into the Wi-Fi settings where you can independently name the 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi network names. Out of the box they share the same name, which is what can cause problems in situations like this.

By adding '_5GHZ' or something like that to the end of the 5GHz network name, you basically end up with two visible wireless networks when you scan from a device e.g. PLUSNET-ABCD and PLUSNET-ABCD_5GHZ. What this does, is allow the printer to continue connecting to the 2.4GHz radio in isolation, without getting confused by the presence of an unsupported 5GHz network with the same name.

In way of explanation: 2.4GHz networks are better over range but are slower and more susceptible to interference. 5GHz networks are shorter range but much quicker and less susceptible to interference.

[#15]

Thank you so much @bobpullen that makes total sense, i just wish the technical support and everyone else i have spoken to at plusnet was as well informed about their own products. How do you access the router’s settings in order to label the two frequencies differently?