Modem Replacement - advisable?

[#1]

We've just moved back to broadband after a few years on 3G.

My estimated line speed is 40 but I'm lucky to get 7, so was wondering if some of the 3rd-party modems would offer better speeds. I've read about Billion and TP-Link, it would appear that both offer better performance and stability.

Has anyone replaced their standard PlusNet modem recently and if so is the extra £100 or so worth it?

[#2]

We may need to look into getting a engineer out as you may have a fault.

Is the router connected to the master socket?

[#3]

Yes, I've tried it in both the master socket and another.

[#4]

If you raise this here we can get this looked into.

[#5]

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@zvakanaka wrote:

My estimated line speed is 40 but I'm lucky to get 7, so was wondering if some of the 3rd-party modems would offer better speeds.

Most modems use one of only a couple of chipsets that are available. A really old modem might not support some of the newer features but there'll be little to nothing to choose between modems of the same age as far as connection speed is concerned.

Where modems can be different is in their wifi, firewalls and IPv6 support. The latter, sadly, is irrelevant on Plusnet.

[#6]

So the £100+ for another device would be a total waste of money ....

I'm not concerned about the wifi as I use a few Apple Airport Expresses, it's the raw speed I want!

[#7]

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@zvakanaka wrote:

So the £100+ for another device would be a total waste of money ....

As far as connection speed, most likely yes. Have you tested using a wired connection instead of wifi? These days everyone and their cat has wifi so the airwaves are crowded. Admittedly wifi restricted down to 7Mb/s would be a particularly bad example but you are saying you use 'a few' base stations and even though they are operating off the same LAN I believe they can interfere with each other so you're adding to the mix of stations in your immediate neighbourhood.

If it's raw speed you're interested in then Ethernet is the way you should be going. No wifi connection will ever be as good as a wired one.

[#8]

I tested by connecting directly to the router supplied by Plusnet using ethernet cable. This gave me a marginal improvement  which could have been the timing rather then the elimination of a wireless issue. I have not yet plugged in the other base stations, will do so after I'm happy with the performance of the connection. At this stage it's just the Plusnet router plugged into the main socket and then plugged into my PC using cable.

I have raised a ticket, will see what they say.

[#9]

Judging from your estimates you should be getting a better speed that you're seeing:

Featured Products	Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)		Upstream Line Rate(Mbps)		Downstream Range(Mbps)	WBC FTTC Availability Date	WBC SOGEA Availability Date	Left in Jumper
	High	Low	High	Low
VDSL Range A (Clean)	48.5	35	10	7	--	Available	--	--

Sync Status	In Sync
Downstream Speed	7.6 Mbps
Upstream Speed	1.2 Mbps

Profile Name

0.128M-40M Downstream, Error Protection Off - 0.128M-2M Upstream, Error Protection Off

I'm just finishing testing the line and will update your fault ticket shortly.

[#10]

I guess Plusnet are still waiting for BT. It seems everything to do with my connection is going to be sloooooow.

I was hoping for a better service from Plusnet TBH.

[#11]

I can see you've been in touch this morning and there's an engineer booked for early next week. Hopefully this gets sorted then for you.

[#12]

The BT engineer has come and gone.

He replaced the master socket but indicated that it was not an issue.

More importantly he said the modem/router was set to a maximum speed and he has removed the restriction. I now get 12M instead of 7M (some improvement). Using his own kit he gets 20M which is the maximum our line can support (in his opinion the estimated 40M was never possible). Seems the modem may be faulty or needs to be replaced by a more robust model ... basically taking me back to my original question: will it pay me to buy a better quality modem?

[#13]

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@zvakanaka wrote:

More importantly he said the modem/router was set to a maximum speed and he has removed the restriction.

That sounds highly dubious and a little worrying. Did he mean he reconfigured the modem/router?

BT is only responsible for BT equipment and normally that stops at the master socket. If (like me) you have a BT modem that might be considered the 'demarcation point' but given that self-install is now prevalent I'd be very surprised if engineers wanted anything to do with any equipment owned by the customer. The couple I've dealt with showed no interest whatsoever in my own equipment nor what it reported.

What worries me is that BT engineers are authorised to investigate customer equipment but if the fault lies there they have the right to charge for the visit.

I hope he meant that the modem/router was set to run at maximum speed but something else was restricting it and he has removed that restriction.

will it pay me to buy a better quality modem?

I still doubt that quality is an issue but it's possible that yours is faulty.

[#14]

Maybe I got it wrong (I wasn't there) - apparently he is convinced that the modem/router is faulty - not sure if he actually tested it or working by process of elimination (says he will be reporting back to Plusnet). Bear in mind that my family didn't actually watch him - they simply relayed to me what he told them when he was done.

My family are pretty sure he said he's changed some sort of setting to get beyond the 7M previous limit. To quote my wife: "he did lots of fiddling".

[#15]

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@zvakanaka wrote:

To quote my wife: "he did lots of fiddling".

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Probably what he wrote on his worksheet

I guess the only way we'll know is if you try another modem. If you order it online I think you get 14 days to send it back no questions asked so might be worth a try.