New to PN, impressed with the service and communication, but not the router

[#1]

Having been a customer of BT, Orange, AOL and TalkTalk (for ADSL) over the past few years, i've grown tired of poor service, communication and offshore support, so decided to bite the bullet at the beginning of november and switch to PN and upgrade to Extra Fibre.
Have to say what a refreshing change it is to find a communication company, that can er, actually communicate with its customers.
My experience of PN so far,
So i signed up on the 1st of Nov  to Extra Fibre and calls an was initially given/had to choose provisional install dates/times of the 15/16th Nov, and was informed if these weren't available i would be informed.
Received a phone call on Nov 3rd from a nice guy at PN  informing the dates/times i picked weren't available, but could offer me an AM call on the 20th, which i accepted and was provisionally booked (it was saturday, so couldn't be confirmed).
Received a text and email on the 5th confirming the install date was booked, also received another txt/email confirming the router had been shipped, which was a surprise as wasn't expecting it till a couple of days before installation.
Yesterday the BTOR engineer (sub-contractor from Kelly Comms) turned up 10.30, (was unable to contact me as TalkTalk had decided to terminate my phone/ADSL at 6AM and not wait till i'd  transfered to PN) fitted the new faceplate set up the BTOR modem, which took all of 5 minutes, asked if i wanted him to set-up the router and wall mount them both, which i didn't, but he waited why i connected up the router and the 15 mins to set its self and checking both my phone/Fibre were up and running before leaving.
Also when i initially ordered, i  didn't check/didn't realise caller display was an extra, so obviously wasn't active, so ordered at lunchtime, was informed it would take 24hrs to be added but within 20 minutes of ordering received an email informing me it was active.
So despite the long wait for install date, and not getting my initial install dates (though i undrestand this is down to BT and not PNs fault) at least i was notified at every step along the way, which is a rare thing these days IME.
Not all good news though, i will add my disappointment about the Technicolour TG582N supplied by PN.
It really is junk/not fit for purpose!
Is it even a proper fibre/cable type router, or just an ADSL router running modded f/w to convert a lan port to wan, i suspect the later!
The UI is woefull, and setting up dynamic DNS and port forwarding was a painful experience.
The wireless performance/coverage is appalling, and sorry i don't buy the excuses, i know wireless N is much more capable than this thing achieves.
I don't expect an all singing, dancing router to be supplied by any ISP but this thing, other ISPs manage to supply reasonable routers why can't PN?
To see what i mean,
Connected via ethernet to the router

Connected via wifi, directly next to router

Connected via wifi up the other end of the room (open plan kitchen/diner about 20 foot away) from router

[#2]

Hi there,
Welcome to Plusnet and to the community forums.
Thanks for your comments, I'm sorry to hear that you've not been happy with the router we've provided and I'm sure we can agree that one particular model of router (which ever that may be) will not suit everyone's needs. Was there anything else about the router  other than what you've mentioned in your post that you were unhappy with?
Adam

[#3]

Quote from: _Adam_Walker_

Was there anything else about the router  other than what you've mentioned in your post that you were unhappy with? Adam

Just the UI/set-up and wireless performance.

[#4]

OK, cheers for the feedback about that.

[#5]

well i have to constantly reconnect my wireless connection as i keep getting a red cross through my symbols on the bottom of the screen.
sorry i know NOTHING ABOUT CONNECTIONS ETC, but what i do know is plusnet say that there is nothing wrong.
i moved from bt to plusnet.... no problem with bt router (no cable in this area so run through phone line)
hope you have more luck with your router than i have with mine......... just cant wait for contract to end as i feel well ripped off, and i am sure it is plusnet router as nothing else has changed  GOOD LUCK... YOU WILL NEED IT. 

[#6]

Quote from: donglequality

no problem with bt router

Which BT router do you have? I know from personal experience the Hub 2.0B and the Hub 3 work well with Plusnet ADSL. If you're having connection or wireless problems with the Plusnet router, try the BT one. You'll need to log on to the router GUI and enter your Plusnet username/password, and after that Robert's you father's brother...

[#7]

hi jaggies
i had homehub 2.0 i used this for the first 2 weeks of plusnet taking over my broadband, worked as good as it did using bt as isp.
then bt disabled it and i used the plusnet one..... absolute c**p.
but they tell me it is fine, but they are not the ones with the problems.
being +50 i know nothing about computers/internet, but i know worked fine with bt hub.
plusnet tell me that they will charge me £60 if someone comes to check it out. but if the bt hub worked ok it must be down to this plusnet hub, i got someone else to get this laptop to connect to this hub (like i said i am a technology dinosaur) it connects on startup then constantly keeps losing the wireless connection. i only use it for browsing (ebay/gumtree etc) youtube streaming virtually impossible, its a joke!!
but i feel i am not paying £60 to have someone come and try pull the wool over my eyes to tell me that the router is o.k.
if the only change has been the router that has got to be the problem still 9  months time then plusnet wont see my a**e for dust.

[#8]

My Technicolor TG582n router as supplied by Plusnet works like a dream.
Through two floors and a brick wall in a large house. Wi-fi connected.

[#9]

pluscom uk
well i have tg 582n    11ft and nothing between me and router NOTHING, like i say bt home hub worked fine (until bt deactivated it)
plusnet being a subsidury company to bt should be able to do better, that is ALWAYS PLUSNET RESPONSE must be ANYTHING EXEPT THE ONLY THING THAT HAS CHANGED (router) i will get my daughter to try her new laptop via plusnet later see if that does the same as this old one

[#10]

I've never heard of BT disabling a hub, have you tried a reset on it? I used a v2 hub until I moved to fibre last month, this was one from freecycle. You should just be able to enter your pn user name/pw and it should connect.

[#11]

@donglequality, you might want to try explicitly setting the wireless channel to 1, 6 or 11 to see if there's any improvement. You can do this via the router configuration pages.

• Browse to 192.168.1.254.
  
• If prompted for a username/password then enter 'admin' as the username (minus the quotes) and use the serial number on the base of the router as the password (it's case sensitive).
  
• Navigate to Home Network > Plusnet Wireless > Configure.
  

Try each of the aforementioned three channels for a bit and see which works the best for you.

[#12]

its  not  fair    to..  say the  WI -FI/Router is useless..
  as  far  as im  concerned its  fantastic...
  the  signal  reaches  all my  home....
  May be  your  home  was  built  diffrent,

[#13]

Quote from: donglequality

i had homehub 2.0 i used this for the first 2 weeks of plusnet taking over my broadband, worked as good as it did using bt as isp. then bt disabled it and i used the plusnet one..... absolute c**p.

You aren't alone in being 50+ 
If the BT Hub 2 is a model B (I've not tried the model A) then you can use it with Plusnet. You have to remember that all BT have done is disable your account with them, so you need to log in and enter your Plusnet user details in the BT Hub.
To do this, first connect the BT Hub in place of the Technicolor. In your web browser, go to http://192.168.1.254/ - you may be prompted to log in at this point. If you have never logged in to the router GUI (and by default many BT Broadband users will never have had to do this) you will be prompted to enter the router password. This is on the label on the back, and is case sensitive. You will then have to create a password of your own. If you have already reset the default password, log in with your own when prompted. Next step is to click on Settings, then Advanced Settings, then Continue to Advanced Settings. Once you actually get to this point, there should be a link on the page that says something like "Enter username and password for BT Business or other broadband provider". Follow that link and enter your <username>@plusdsl.net and your password and click "Connect".
You should now be connected to the Internet with your Plusnet account using the BT HomeHub and getting the same wireless performance as you did previously.