Diffculty reaching certain web sites since fibre installation

[#1]

After years struggling with a connection rate of around 1.6 megs, I was thrilled to get fibre recently. Our speeds seem to be rock solid at approx. 38 meg down and 9 meg up, but there are certain websites that consistently fail to load properly. These include the BBC, Radio Times, Ebay, Facebook etc. I raised a fault and was told (basically) it was something I was doing wrong! I just thought I would do a tracert to see what happens - I just picked ebay as an example  - and have attached the results. Is anyone else having these problems?

[#2]

Are you using wired/wireless? Which DNS servers are you using (the default Plusnet ones)?

[#3]

both wired and wireless... and yes standard DNS

[#4]

eBay traffic always seems to route to the US - so that doesn't look like an issue from the traceroute.
When pages don't load properly, what exactly happens? Which browser are you using? Have you tried clearing your cache?

[#5]

It happens on IE, Safari and to a lesser extent Chrome, and on all machines.
What happens varies, but mostly it drops content and sometimes format, like the CSS is failing to load properly.
Clearing caches doesn't make any difference.
I've attached the BBC and Radio Times pings from this evening

[#6]

Has anything changed other than the fibre install? Do you have a new router you're using?
You can put the browsers into like a diagnostic mode which will show you which components are slow to load.

[#7]

no, nothing else has changed, other than using the router that was supplied by PN. I'll try and find diagnostic mode next time it happens (of course it's perfect this morning!!)

[#8]

I would also try this - https://code.google.com/p/namebench/
It does a comparison of DNS servers and you will probably find that Google or OpenDNS are faster than Plusnet.

[#9]

Now this is interesting
Router controlled - Plusnet default is the fastest
The two set by windows are slower

[#10]

I'm probably missing something here, but why would changing the DNS help?

[#11]

There's been a number of threads where changing the setting in the PC's network adapter to opendns or google dns has fixed a similar issue. Unfortunately it's never been identified whether it's Plusnet's DNS servers causing the problem or the TG582n routers DNS relay causing the problem -- by configuring the DNS in the PC's network setting the routers DNS relay is bypassed.
You could test this yourself by configuring your PC's network setting to opendns or google dns.
Alternatively you could configures a Technicolor router to issue google dns settings to connected devices in place of issuing it's own dns relay.
See http://npr.me.uk/changedns.html ; --- Method 2)

[#12]

I had this problem from the moment I went on FTTC. I was given the Technicolor TG582 modem from Plusnet. I waited until the settling in time was over and  tried everything to solve the problem, different settings, using LAN instead of wireless etc.etc. ..... then a friend offered to lend me his TP-Link router. Hey presto, ALL my problems instantly disappeared. Everything loaded quickly and smoothly, no delays, no problems and perfect broadband every time.
I spoke online to an operator about this on the 13th of Feb and after a discussion of what I had done, he told me that I had done everything I possibly could and that it was obviously a fault of the router. He promised to get a new one sent to me and also send a bag for my faulty one to be returned. Unfortunately, that's the last I heard of it. Great job Plusnet.
My advice, get a decent router, not the rubbish Plusnet send.

[#13]

I must admit the blips I was having as far as pages not loading properly/fully, form submits that didn't do anything and clickable links that didn't go anywhere in the end seemed tied in with the Technicolor FTTC router. Someone on the forum suggested a TP-Link replacement which I got hold of for £20 in Argos and since then all that went away.
Previous to that I was a converted advocate of the Technicolor ADSL router as it improved my synch and reliability over the other routers I tried but that advantage was no longer applicable when I moved over to FTTC as I was then using the Openreach modem to negotiate my connection.

[#14]

thanks all - sorry for the delay in replying, I've been working away.
I have a spare TP link so will give that a go and see if it resolves the issue. It's not very helpful that PN deny the problem exists!!