echo still wont connect problems

[#1]

got bought an echo dot for xmas. last week finally got round to connecting it and was excited. after several hours trying it will not connect under any circumstances. tried all advice on here and after numerous reboots of dot, router phone, laptop etc still wont connect.  have split signals, renamed signals and still wont connect. took it to my dads in bolton and within 5 mins he had it connected to bt. hes 88 and a total computer ludite. i have to reprogramme his contacts every time i go see him. took it to a friends on sky and i connected it in 5 mins and its brilliant but he lives too far away and i cant hear it. took it to my neighbours on talk talk and it connected imediately and worked fine but again i cant hear it from my house and they wouldnt let me use their connection. tried it on several other netwoorks and it connects to them all. contacted plusnet who imediately told me its faulty and i have to contact amazon. i contacted amazon and was contacted back by their tech services who talked me through splitting router again which didnt work. they took over my pc remotely and checked plusnet router and told me it wont recognise the echo dot and they hve had this issue some time now but cant resolve it as its plusnet issue. now totally stuck with ech dot i cant use and plusnet not accepting any responsibility as they are adamant its my ech dot. i brought my friends echo dot round and hes had it working for ages and his wont connect to my router so i find it a bit hard to acceprt that his is broken aswell. i borrowed my neighbours and again theirs wont connect on my system but has worked fine in theirs for ages. but still they must all be broken at my house and not at theirs. three options 1 fire off plusnet, buy new router or bin 50 quids worth of faulty at my house only echo dot.

would appreciate any help at all on what to do or alternative routers or alternative AI speakers. really at end of my tether

[#2]

@gaz1655 

The easiest solution is to swap the flaky Plusnet Hub One for a BT Smarthub 6. These are available for very little money from auction sires such as EBay. Setting instructions are here.   https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Router/Using-the-BT-Smarthub-6-on-a-Plusnet-Account/m-p/1587673#M85...

[#3]

The echo dots can be very tricky to set up at times. We have 3 dots in our house and 2 connected easy and the third was a right pain in the rear. The only thing I can say is try and reset the echo dot from with in the Alexa app. When you set up the dot did you get an orange circling ring when in set up mode ?

[#4]

@Shep41 

On the other hand @gaz1655  has connected this same device to three different routers without problems. The only problem has has occurred when trying to connect to a Plusnet Hub. Hence my advice to dump this is favour of a much better and stable Smarthub 6.

[#5]

One thing to note about the echo dot, apparently it only supports channels 36 to 48 on the 5g band. Not sure if the hub one will support the > 48 (dfs) channels and whether it will select them if on auto allocation?

[#6]

My connectivity issues are well documented.
My fix occured when i went to a neighbours house, he had talk,talk broadband/wifi.
I tried to connect to his network, it connected, then did a software update. Took it back to mine and it worked instantly. Does this mean these echo dots are missing a software update???
Seems suspicious...but im working now.

[#7]

Download a wifi app that checks the strengths of your and other competing, nearby wifi routers that could be affecting your connection.

[#8]

 fi checked and running well. very fast on fibre 

[#9]

i understand what your saying but im not a techy and a bit loath to spend money if it doesnt resolve it. managed to get amazon to change the bloody thing and low and behold the new one is exactlt the damn same. think im destined to just have one

[#10]

Take your 2nd echo back round to your friends house, get it running there. It may pick up a software update. Completely understand your frustration, my 2nd one wouldnt connect straight as well. Still unclear whether its echo software or plusnet configuration, will say, Amazon and I spent a good hour trying everything conceivable so top marks to them.
They also suggested using my mobile phone carrier service as a hotspot, quite fiddly, couldnt manage that myself.

[#11 · Accepted solution]

took 2nd echo back to friends and it connected. updated software and bingo yehaaaaa

now ell impressed its finally working but about 15 hours of my life i'll never get back

many many thanks for all your help and support to everyone who contributed

Gaz