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New to Plusnet. Lots of dropouts.

oldbondstreet
Dabbler
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Registered: ‎16-03-2020

New to Plusnet. Lots of dropouts.

Hello all,

I'm new to plusnet and I've had about a month and a half of no problems whatsoever.

However last night in the early hours, and again today, I am having lots of dropouts.

I am using the hub one and I am connected to the master socket.

I am getting a flashing orange light on the router followed by a flashing red broadband light.

Lasts for about 3 minutes then i'm back online.

At the time of writing this (1:04am) It has dropped 3 times in 30 mins.

ironically it has been fine all day. Only seems to happen at this time at night.

I have changed all cables just in case and restarted the router.

 

Would anyone be able to look into this for me or offer any advice?

Thanks.

 

Hope someone can help.

18 REPLIES 18
robbieglover2k
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Re: New to Plusnet. Lots of dropouts.

Hi, I'm not sure if this will help as such but this is the exact same problems I've been having with mine and mine also at those times which was also always fine during the day too (apart from I did have a couple of Sunday's which were bad). This has been since around Christmas time for me that I've had this happen.

I had an engineer come out who tested the the line, router and also my wire that goes from the master socket to the router as I do have a direct wire going to my master socket (which is a really good expensive one too) which he tested for me direct into his box and said was fantastic however we did another test with Plusnet by using their shorter wire and they noticed a difference so it has been confusing for me because it has only been since around Christmas time this started and it's only at those times it happens for me too which baffles me. I'm going to have to move the master socket I think which will cost me £160 and I just hope this fixes the problem as I can then use the short Plusnet wire into the master socket then and at least eliminate that possibility, it's just a lot of money to do. 

But I also have the same exact things you mentioned there and at those times too which is weird as it's completely fine otherwise and sometimes I've had 11 days of solid connection until it starts again.

I know this might not have been the biggest help but I hope it's given you some insight to a degree as I've also been having the same exact thing and it's always around those hours too.

Hope this helped a little Smiley 

oldbondstreet
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Registered: ‎16-03-2020

Re: New to Plusnet. Lots of dropouts.

Thanks for your reply.

I'm still waiting to hear from Plusnet about the broadband drops.

I'm pretty confident that there is no problem with the router and internal wiring with my flat.

I think its a problem at the cabinet that serves all the flats in my development. I was with Sky a few years ago and I had a similar issue. It turned out to be something in the cabinet. The Openreach engineer moved some cables round in there and my issues disappeared.

 

I'm hoping a moderator / someone from Plusnet on the forum can look into the dropouts.

 

wylesshaun
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Registered: ‎18-03-2020

Re: New to Plusnet. Lots of dropouts.

 

Thanks for sharing your interesting experiences..I moved from Sky to PlusNet this last weekend and enjoyed fantastic speed/connection for the first 48 hours - much better than I had received from Sky for the previous 18 months - however as of Monday it all changed..... the broadband connection has been anything but reliable, dropping several times per hour during day & night. 

Can this only be explained by the increase in demand from people working from home?

robbieglover2k
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Re: New to Plusnet. Lots of dropouts.

Yeah @oldbondstreet I've said it so many times before but this is a case of how we are so behind the times with the infrastructure here, we are like 35th behind in the world now and that's because as we had the internet fairly on we never upgraded or updated our infrastructure so now most of us are on the old Fibre to the Cabinet system which is basically fibre optic wires going to the cabinets from the exchange then to our house the old copper wiring which are forever breaking, causing problems, slowing down speeds, noise on the line etc.. it's ridiculous but it's not even the Plusnet (or the ISP's) fault because they need to be upgraded.

We should be on Fibre to the Premises at least now which is basically the fibre optic wires direct from the exchange to our homes with no cabinet in between and no old ageing copper wiring under the ground delivering our internet. 

Have a look at this here:

FTTP Diagram.jpg

There's more on this here as well as a FTTP checker to see if they have any plans to upgrade your area: https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/fibre-first

I've spoken to BT and various ISP's a lot about this and apparently they are working hard to get it fully covered but a lot of places aren't done or do they say they have plans to but it really is a necessity now because it's not going to be long where it can't keep up with technology.

It's something that needs to be done and this will help us and the ISP's as it's not actually their fault a lot of the time but the infrastructure which BT Openreach have to upgrade.

Hope this helps Smiley 

robbieglover2k
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Re: New to Plusnet. Lots of dropouts.

I don't think it's to do with that @wylesshaun as mines been since before Christmas.

I'm going to move my master socket as soon as I can afford to as that should eliminate things for me or at least rule out the possibility of this as it's been so conflicting and a lot of it is a guessing game however as mentioned above is what we need now more than anything. 

I've had so many conversations about this with ISP's and engineers, the one who came out to me a couple of weeks ago said himself once this is done it'll solve half of the problems and give people a more consistent, solid and faster internet.

What we have in the UK for these premium packages are standard in lots of places such as Egypt and South Korea I believe and many others.

We'll get there eventually but I know when you put in the FTTP checker on the BT Openreach site I linked in the post above if they say they have no plans for your area they want you to drum up support in your community and contribute to funds to go towards it for them to do it however the engineer told me they do plan to do them eventually anyway, they have no choice because they are playing catch up.

It's this here which we need. 

FTTP Diagram 2.jpg

The sooner it's done the better as we'll have less problems at least, not saying it will be perfect but it'll be much better than what it is now which is why no matter which ISP you go to you tend to have problems at some point along the lines and it's usually due to this which is not even a fault of the ISP's either. 

wylesshaun
Newbie
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Registered: ‎18-03-2020

Re: New to Plusnet. Lots of dropouts.

Thank you very much for the detailed description of the fibre landscape...looking at Openreach's 'build-out map' makes me even more depressed! Let's hope the government enforces a quicker roll-out ...

robbieglover2k
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Re: New to Plusnet. Lots of dropouts.

You're welcome, it's the same for me, says they have no plans to do my area however the engineer told me that they do and will be doing so I think it's just a case of being patient.

It does need to be done though, we shouldn't have these problems we have with the internet at the moment to the level which we do but as I say it's not even Plusnet or the ISP's fault most of the time, it's usually an issue due to this but the ISP's are the one's who get the stick for it at times.

Hopefully they'll do it soon, we need to be up to date with things not behind the way we are at the moment.

It'll be better for them too cause the amount of call out's and engineer visits BT Openreach are forever having to do could also be limited too with a better more up to date infrastructure which we should have anyway.

 

Guess we're just going to have to be patient however you're welcome in regards to the description Smiley 

oldbondstreet
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Re: New to Plusnet. Lots of dropouts.

That's a shame you have had a similar experience since coming to Plusnet.

Have you had any contact with them or a moderator on here?

oldbondstreet
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Re: New to Plusnet. Lots of dropouts.

Agreed.

We are so behind in a nation in this respect and Openreach having a monopoly on all the copper wire infrastructure doesn't help.

There is something going on in my cabinet that affects my connection around this time. A suspect it's a cross wire or something, I have no ideas about these things.

But as I mentioned before, it happened when I was with Sky and the Openreach engineer said another engineer had moved my connection or something and that caused the fault.

Rubbish!

robbieglover2k
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Re: New to Plusnet. Lots of dropouts.

Yeah loads, Gandalf has been very helpful here it's just a bit weird how it's been lately.

I'm going to eventually do the master socket move but it's just costs a lot of money to do and I don't even know for sure if it'll fix it but will have to see, it will eliminate that possibility at least.
oldbondstreet
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Re: New to Plusnet. Lots of dropouts.

I'm guessing with the current state of things that Gandalf isn't around at the moment.

I could really do with someone from Plusnet getting in touch with me even though I understand there are more important issues at the moment.

Moving your Master Socket seems extreme! Did the engineer sound why?? I would hate you to move it and nothing changed!

robbieglover2k
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Re: New to Plusnet. Lots of dropouts.

Yeah, this is what I mean they're always problematic, you can guarantee nine times out of ten when there's internet problems it's to do with the old copper ageing wire which should have been replaced years ago.

There's really no need to have a fibre optic wire to the cabinet and then a copper wire to the house when we really should have direct fibre optic from the exchange to our homes (basically cutting out the cabinet boxes in the street), it should have been done years ago but they didn't.

And now we have this with so many problems for so many people but it's still a battle to get them what's needed to be done.

We're supposed to be much better than this but hopefully sooner rather than later they will get this all done, it's just been left so long and getting close to a have to point that it's now a big job needed more than what it would have been if they had have done it slow and steady over the years previously.
oldbondstreet
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Re: New to Plusnet. Lots of dropouts.

I think the ISP's have to take some of the flack for internet problems as they sell promises of speed and reliability on an aging network that can be very unreliable.

Things do go wrong but as you know, but the aging copper wire issue will give you problems before you start.

Not to discredit the technicians and moderators which can be very helpful!

robbieglover2k
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Re: New to Plusnet. Lots of dropouts.

Well this is the confusion for me and I don't want to disbelieve anyone either as I have no idea myself 100% but the engineer tested everything from the line to the wire to the router etc.. as he tried to find the problem.

The setup in our home is needed for the router to be upstairs but the master socket is downstairs however when I first joined Plusnet I explained this situation and they advised me on the exact wire to get to connect it (I forget what they said exactly but the wire wasn't cheap), it's really well installed and hasn't been touched or anything since and the engineer actually plugged the wire into his box directly and tested it which he said was great and better than he expected saying there's no need to move the master socket cause of this however the problems started again with the drop outs at early hours (like you mentioned) and Plusnet had me unplug the router and take it downstairs for half an hour using their short wire that came with the router direct to the master socket and said how they noticed straight away a difference basically looking like it is the wire after all and advising me to use their short wire that came with the router but that would mean I would have to move the master socket as I don't have a choice to use the router downstairs due to how everything is here.

It's such a catch 22 and it will cost me £160 to do this however if it still happens after then it can't be the wire 1000%.

It's just strange cause it does happen at the same hours you mentioned too, it's stayed on for 11 days with no drops at times as I did initially think maybe it's maintenance when it drops due to the times but it was happening a lot and it's started again a little recently so I'm really not sure what exactly it is if we move the master socket and it still occurs.