Fibre optic router gives very poor coverage possible solution

[#1]

Hi. Looking for a little advice here, just moved house and upgraded to Fiber, speeds are ok but not great but that a different matter. My issue is that  I have no coverage in the majority of the house. The router I was sent (a week after installation by the way...top work Plusnet  ) is just an unattractive hunk of plastic with no ariels, I have tried re positioning but i am limited as it needs to be connected to the main phone socket and is a ugly piece of tat, not like the BT hub that the installation person tried to give me.
So I was wondering if there are any suggestions?  I have thought about buying a wireless range extended but the set up instruction mention pressing the WPA button on the back of the router but this one does not have one.
Any help would be greatly received. I did think about ringing the support desk but so far in the last 6 weeks i must of spent about 6 hours on hold waiting for their helpful if woefully understaffed customer care team,  and if i hear the Human League banging on about waitresses in cocktail bars once more i will scream
Many thanks
Kim

[#2]

It depends on a number of things.  I agree the "official" router is not much cop but it's adequate for most people.  Do you live in a large house?  Where is the router / socket positioned?  Does your house have thick walls?  Do you live in an  area with a lot of residents (i.e. interference)?
Have you considered powerline adapters?  Some also come with built in wifi and are a fairly easy solution to increasing range throughout a house. 
If you want to look at a new router there are plenty out there to suit the majority of budgets.  I recently bought an Asus RT-N66u which improved wireless performance dramatically but at £105 it's not everyone's cup of tea.  If you want to go down that route (hah!) then there's a lot of choice and a good number of online reviews. 

[#3]

Quote from: shure

Do you live in a large house?  Where is the router / socket positioned?  Does your house have thick walls?  Do you live in an  area with a lot of residents (i.e. interference)?

Hi Thanks for the reply
I relation to you comments yes it is large but i am currently sitting upstairs about 20 ft from the router with only wooden floors in the way and my signal is low but to be fiat the walls are brick. The router is by the front do as that is where the Jack is. No many residents near by though i do have 6 other networks showing on one bar.  I have ordered some powerline adapters with the built in signal booster hence my question re the WPA button and the fact my router has not got one.
Your router looks the business but not keen on paying more for something that i would have gotten free with BT etc. I am really regretting choosing plus.net but their stupid contract keeps me here 

[#4]

Well if it helps the support you usually get on this forum can make up for a lot.  When I initially moved to Plusnet I was having quite a few connectivity and speed issues but with the help and patience of some fantastic  people on here managed to rewire my phone sockets - something I would never have attempted to do on my own - and transformed my connection.  Didn't get anything like that from anywhere else and it's a major factor in me not even looking elsewhere these days.
Have you tried different channels?  Sometimes the default one isn't always the best and it's worth testing others.  My iPhone would only get a proper connection if I used Channel 1, for reasons known only to itself.
I use Powerline adapters but without the additional WiFi capability and they work fine.  I'm not 100% sure but I think the WPS is an added feature but you can still use the adapters without it.  This article suggests that it's not needed and tbh I don't know anybody who's a fan of WPS - many just disable it if they have it as it can be more trouble than it's worth.  But Powerline itself is not a bad solution for poor coverage, certainly for fixed location systems, as it couldn't be easier to set up.
I tend to go overkill so probably bought a far better router than I need but I have to say that so far it's worth it.  I travel a lot and now I can Skype home OK without the connection going funny every time my son downloads films, and I'm only on ADSL "Max"(don't get me started).  There are a lot cheaper routers though so it's worth doing your research.  I've heard good things about the HH5, which is £70 on Amazon, while you can compare others here.  It may be galling to pay for what you might have had free but they'll last you a while and this way you won't be tied to any provider in the future, either.  If you use your internet as much as me you might find it's worth it!

[#5]

Hi bilk,
Sorry to hear you're having issues and I'm sorry your router reached you later than expected.
Just to mention our router like a lot don't have external aerials, it's just a difference in design a lots of routers have internal ones now.
Regarding wireless signal you might find this help page useful: http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/wireless_broadband/wireless_signal.shtml