topic Re: BT to Plusnet Transfer - Advice needed please in Broadband

BT to Plusnet Transfer - Advice needed please

Ed_B — Sun, 03 Nov 2024 14:20:21 GMT

Hi Everyone

I have run through the various posts and can't find anything recent so, at the risk of missing a similar post, I will try to see if more current advice can be given.

We are currently nearing the end of a two-year full fibre and landline contract with BT. At the moment, it costs us £83 / month for a 900 MBPS connection. We have 5 BT Black discs which deliver a great wireless signal around the house.

Our contract expires in January 2025 and, in the interim, I thought that I would have a look at any suitable (and hopefully cheaper) solutions.

I suspect that we will have to hand back the router and 2 of our 5 BT black discs when the contract finishes.

What I am thinking about is moving to a 900 MBPS Plusnet service and what I would really like to do it to retain our BT Smart Hub 2 and our 3 BT Black discs, buy a further 2 black discs on eBay and configure the BT Smart Hub 2 to work with our Plusnet account.

So, this morning, I tried to access our BT router using the address http://192.168.1.254/

I clicked on 'Advanced Settings' but then couldn't find a menu where my BT connection credentials (username and password) were shown or where I could change them.

So, I am now thinking that I may not be able to re-use my BT Smart Hub 2 if I move to Plusnet but thought that, before I make any decisions on which way to go, I would check with our community to see if anyone else has tried this route and, if so, how did they get on ?

I hope this all makes sense and, again, apologies if I have missed a similar posting. If that is the case, could someone refer me on to the link please ?

Kind regards

Re: BT to Plusnet Transfer - Advice needed please

jab1 — Sun, 03 Nov 2024 14:31:55 GMT

@Ed_B BT will require the return of their Hub when you move, and whatever else was supplied as part of the contract.

Have you looked at any other ISP's? Bare in mind that if you move to PN, you will have to arrange your own VoIP service - Plusnet are the Broadband only 'cheap' arm of BT Consumer Group, and do not have a VoIP service.

I don't, off the top of my head, know what Zen charge for their 900Mb/s service, but they do have an integrated VoIP solution - the call package, if you need a landline is a flat £7../month for 1000 minutes.

Re: BT to Plusnet Transfer - Advice needed please

jgb — Sun, 03 Nov 2024 15:22:19 GMT

@Ed_B

Zen charge £55/ month for 900 Bb/s (with a £15 set up fee). That price is with Openreach. If they can supply you via an Altnet (e.g City Fibre) it will be about £6 less for the broadband.. Their Digital Voice is £6 /month for 1000 minutes.

You just plug your existing phone into their router and so there is no configuration to do.

Re: BT to Plusnet Transfer - Advice needed please

jab1 — Sun, 03 Nov 2024 15:24:02 GMT

Cheers for the prices and correction, @jgb 👍

Re: BT to Plusnet Transfer - Advice needed please

jgb — Sun, 03 Nov 2024 15:26:22 GMT

@jab1 @Ed_B I should also have said it is an 18 month contract with no in contract price increases.

Re: BT to Plusnet Transfer - Advice needed please

jab1 — Sun, 03 Nov 2024 15:29:55 GMT

I should have guessed it was an 18 month contract - mine is, and I'm well aware there are no in-contract price rises. It will be interesting to see what happens next August when I'm due to renew.

Re: BT to Plusnet Transfer - Advice needed please

Ed_B — Sun, 03 Nov 2024 19:16:55 GMT

Hi John

Many thanks for getting back to me. I'm really grateful.

Yes, I guessed that BT would want the router back so I have purchased a new / in box BT router which I plan to send back to BT when they ask for the return of their router. That would leave me with my current BT router and 3 of the BT black discs (I have bought these over the last 2 years).

Yes, the landline has been a bit of an issue. It wasn't until we sat back and said 'why do we need a landline when we have our mobiles ?' that we realised that the real reason that we thought we needed it was because we have always had one ! Old school I'm afraid !! So, moving to Plusnet and losing the landline won't be too much of an issue for us.

I must admit that I haven't looked at any other ISP purely because I think the BT wireless coverage is so good. Our house has pretty thick walls and the BT Wireless solution seems to cope with them really well.

John, thank you for you great reply and also thank you for sparing time on a Sunday to give me the benefit of your advice.

I'm still not sure which way to go but am really hoping that I can use our existing BT Router and the black discs and just move them to Plusnet. I have calculated that making the move to Plusnet would halve our current BT bill and, these days, every penny counts.

All the best

Re: BT to Plusnet Transfer - Advice needed please

mystreet1 — Sun, 03 Nov 2024 19:18:10 GMT

If you keep all the BT equipment you will probably have to pay a 'unreturned equipment ' cost. See how much that is. Think that PN charge is £50 for the PN hub 2.

Re: BT to Plusnet Transfer - Advice needed please

Ed_B — Sun, 03 Nov 2024 19:25:53 GMT

Hi JGB

Many thanks for your great replies.

I'm thinking that I will drop the landline. On our existing BT contract, if we use the landline, I believe we are charged 22p per minute ! We have really thought of the landline as a 'safety net' that would enable incoming calls rather than a service that we would use to make external calls.

I'm still hoping to continue to use the BT Router with Plusnet although, as I mentioned, I have had a good look through this site and, although others seem to have managed it, their responses are over a year old and it may be that the firmware in my BT Router just doesn't allow me to edit the username, password and connection url. I did notice, when I purchased our spare BT Router that a number of these routers were 'hard connected' to BT. And it maybe that what I am hoping to do (i.e. use the BT hardware on the Plusnet network) just isn't possible.

I'll keep looking for a solution and, if I manage to get one that works, I will carefully document it and post it here to help others.

All the best and with grateful thansk

Re: BT to Plusnet Transfer - Advice needed please

jab1 — Sun, 03 Nov 2024 19:38:05 GMT

@Ed_B wrote:

Hi John

Many thanks for getting back to me. I'm really grateful.

Yes, I guessed that BT would want the router back so I have purchased a new / in box BT router which I plan to send back to BT when they ask for the return of their router. That would leave me with my current BT router and 3 of the BT black discs (I have bought these over the last 2 years).

Yes, the landline has been a bit of an issue. It wasn't until we sat back and said 'why do we need a landline when we have our mobiles ?' that we realised that the real reason that we thought we needed it was because we have always had one ! Old school I'm afraid !! So, moving to Plusnet and losing the landline won't be too much of an issue for us.

I must admit that I haven't looked at any other ISP purely because I think the BT wireless coverage is so good. Our house has pretty thick walls and the BT Wireless solution seems to cope with them really well.

John, thank you for you great reply and also thank you for sparing time on a Sunday to give me the benefit of your advice.

I'm still not sure which way to go but am really hoping that I can use our existing BT Router and the black discs and just move them to Plusnet. I have calculated that making the move to Plusnet would halve our current BT bill and, these days, every penny counts.

All the best

Ed

I can see where you are coming from with regards to the BT Hub, and your 'cost reduction' requirements, and I admit to not knowing much about BT/PN kit these days - I left 2.1/2 years ago when I was still on ADSL with the TG582N router - not because I was dissatisfied with PN, but because I didn't like the way I could see the brand going.

I don't know how other suppliers (other than Zen (thanks, @jgb ) compare, but they (Z) do have a 'whole home' solution, which I understand, is very well regarded - I don't need it, so can't comment personally.

Re: BT to Plusnet Transfer - Advice needed please

Ed_B — Sun, 03 Nov 2024 19:42:45 GMT

Hi John

Many thanks again (and especially as it is a Sunday !).

I'm definitely going to follow your recommendation and take a look at Zen. Looking at our real needs, I suspect the key requirement is having a good strong wireless system around the house to enable us to run the various wireless components that we have added over the last 2 years. (we use a ring camera system which works really well across our current BT wireless system).

I will post an update once I have managed to resolve the question of where we go next.

All the best (and with grateful thanks again)

Re: BT to Plusnet Transfer - Advice needed please

jab1 — Sun, 03 Nov 2024 19:45:54 GMT

No problem, @Ed_B - although it is getting round to 'log off' time now.😀

Re: BT to Plusnet Transfer - Advice needed please

Ed_B — Sun, 03 Nov 2024 19:49:30 GMT

Ji John

Absolutely, I'm just grateful for your support.

Also, I am not sure how I missed it initially but I have just found a link that sheds more light on using a BT SmartHub 2 on the Plusnet Network.

Here's the link..

https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Router/Using-A-BT-Smarthub-An-Update/td-p/1795292

I'm not sure if I will be able to use the black BT WiFi mesh discs but I'm going to call Plusnet in the morning and ask them. Hopefully, they will be able to advise me one way or the other.

All the best

Re: BT to Plusnet Transfer - Advice needed please

MisterW — Sun, 03 Nov 2024 20:16:48 GMT

@Ed_B customer services will have no idea whether the discs will work ,why would they know about BT equipment.

have a look at this thread though https://community.plus.net/t5/Full-Fibre/Compatibility-of-BT-Black-Disc-Range-Extenders-with-Plusnet-Hub2/m-p/1919025

Re: BT to Plusnet Transfer - Advice needed please

markhawkin — Sun, 03 Nov 2024 23:39:13 GMT

@Ed_B

I suggest setting up your "new in box" router on your BT account.

That will require account credentials (as your existing router is "tied" to your account).

I guess you will also need to send back the "right" device to get your return registered.

If the "new" router can be made to work on BT (it may require credentials to be entered with the device "offline") the process will show you how to enter the Plusnet credentials as well.

Re: BT to Plusnet Transfer - Advice needed please

Ed_B — Sun, 03 Nov 2024 23:42:39 GMT

Hi MisterW

Fantastic. I think that one link has solved the problem.

It looks like my existing BT SmartHub 2 will work on the Plusnet network. The BT black discs connect in to the BT SmartHub 2 router so they should still be able to mesh as the currently do. The only difference will be that our link to the internet will be via Plusnet rather than BT.

Now all I have to do is to figure out how to reconfigure the BT SmartHub 2 router to access the new Plusnet connection. On one of the earlier posts that I looked at, I seem to recall that the DSL lead needs to be disconnected before the username and password are changed. That suggests to me that it is by disconnecting the DSL lead that edit is actually enabled when accessing the router via the http://192.168.1.254/ direct connection from a PC / Laptop.

The starting point for me will be to disconnect the DSL lead now and then access the router using the http://192.168.1.254/ link and then see if the username and password suddenly become accessible. If they do, then, hopefully, I will be able to move to Plusnet and, hopefully, halve my monthly broadband charge. If they don't, then I'm back to square one and will look at all other fibre offerings as I won't be any worse off and will sell my spare router and black discs on eBay and recoup some of my previous investment.

I suppose one further option would be to go back to BT and renegotiate a new 12 / 18 / 24 month deal but the real issue here is that most of the deals are great for the first six months of a 24 month contract and then the get steadily ramped up.

I'll re-post the solution here once I have worked out and tested a way forward.

All the best (and thanks again for all of your help)

Re: BT to Plusnet Transfer - Advice needed please

spile — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 07:44:20 GMT

I moved from BT to PN last year after deciding to do without the landline. We still have voip from Voipfone. The two smart hubs are identical apart from colour so as BT wanted theirs back I just use the Plusnet one.

Re: BT to Plusnet Transfer - Advice needed please

Dan_the_Van — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 07:57:22 GMT

@Ed_B

You should find the broadband username and password in >Advanced Settings >Broadband Connection Information

My understanding is for BT the broadband username will be bthomehub@btbroadband.com with a blank password

You maybe required to connect a Plusnet supplied Hub in the event of a fault on your connection.

Re: BT to Plusnet Transfer - Advice needed please

MisterW — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 07:59:25 GMT

The two smart hubs are identical apart from colour

They might look identical but they're not!. The hardware is the same but the firmware is different. The Plusnet Hub has no voip or mesh support.

Re: BT to Plusnet Transfer - Advice needed please

Baldrick1 — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 10:20:24 GMT

@Ed_B

With the DSL lead plugged in the hub default username and password automatically logs in to the BT management system. If you try to set your Plusnet credentials these will be recognised as not being associated with BT so will kick you out.
Consequently, you must enter the Plusnet settings prior to connecting the DSL lead.

Fundamentally there’s little difference to connecting the old Smarthub 6. Full instructions for that will be found here:

https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Router/Using-A-BT-Smarthub-An-Update/m-p/1795292#M24601