No devices will connect & terrible speeds - I should be in cooling off period so can leave?

[#1]

Hi There, I've just moved to Plusnet from Virgin & regret it. Although my devices show a strong signal, most of the time nothing will connect including my TV's catch up channels. Haven't been able to get my 2 phones to connect at all, & my laptop just kept timing out & saying couldn't connect to server. I ran a speed check & it showed 5.73mb download & yet my contract states a guaranteed minimum of 52.7MB. I'm having to use 4G for any connectivity. As a new customer I'm sure I should be in the cooling off period & able to leave but I can't get through on the phone & chat keeps saying it's not availlble even though I'm trying to chat within the 'open' hours.  I feel as if I'm stuck in some Kafkesque nightmare.

I have read about changing channels but I don't know how to do this.

I'm on Plusnet unlimited fibre extra

[#2]

Welcome to the forum.  I'm afraid the two-week cooling off period starts when you sign up so will have ended by the time you have a chance to test the product.  Illogical I know, especially since your contract doesn't start until your 'go live' date, but I don't make the rules.

On the positive side, your problem sounds fairly familiar and I'm sure one of the staff members who help out on this forum will be able to help you get up and running, and at a more realistic speed.  I don't think changing channels on your router will make much difference in this case, but why not try a wired connection to see if that helps, at worst it will increase your speed by a fraction.

[#3]

Hi @jed68

Please accept my apologies for the issue with your service.

The issue appears to be wireless connectivity however, without connecting your laptop to the router via Ethernet cable we wouldn't be able to be 100% certain. If the issue no longer occurs when connected by Ethernet cable, please follow the instructions below to split the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz frequencies as this is a common cause of wireless issues.

1) To connect to your Hub One, you will need to open a browser and go to http://192.168.1.254

If you have any issues doing this via Wireless, we recommend trying to do it via Ethernet cable instead.

2) You should come to a page with information about your connection, click 'Advanced Settings' at the top and it will ask you to sign in with a Password. This is located on the back of your router under 'Admin Password'

3) Select the option for 'Wireless' followed by '5 GHz Wireless'. What we want to do to begin with is turn 'Sync with 2.4 GHz Wireless' to 'Off' and update the SSID to be different. The easiest way would be to add '-5G' to the end so it is identified as its own connection.

Once this is changed, please keep an eye on it for a day or 2 to see if the issue continues. If it does, the next step would be to change the wireless channel.

Let us know how you get on.

Thank you.

[#4]

Thank you, will try on Sat & report back

[#5]

Hi There just to let you know devices currently working when I am sitting next to the router, but not further away. TV still buffering. As laptop is fine next to router, I haven’t tried the cable. The hub shows that my Sony laptop uses channel 2.4 & my iPhone & Macbook channel 5. Should I still try & change the channel?

[#6]

OK I’ve done as instructed above

[#7]

OK I’ve done as instructed above, it seems to have hit a bit worse

[#8]

Moderator's note:

Topic moved from 'Broadband' to 'Fibre Broadband'.

[#9]

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@jed68 wrote:
OK I’ve done as instructed above, it seems to have hit a bit worse

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So can you clarify what have you done? What speed are you getting when connected via an Ethernet cable? If this is also down it's not a wireless issue. Have you split the channels then tried each in turn on each of your devices?

[#10]

Hi @jed68 I am sorry that you are still having issues.

If you haven't already, I'd advise running the wired speed test so we can be sure the issue is isolated to WiFi. If your having an issue with wired also, just report it here.

As @Baldrick1 has mentioned, try each device on both the 2.4GHz & 5GHz connection. The range on 5GHz isn't as good, so devices you use further away would be better on 2.4GHz. If this is showing to have no effect then as @Jubby advised, the next step is changing the wireless channels (if you haven't already).

The steps for doing this are as below:
(Before picking a channel you could download a free app called wifi analyzer which will scan your area for all the routers and show what channels they are on between 1-13. Although the above app isn't essential it helps you pick where your router would be best in terms of channels and saves a lot of time doing it via trial and error.)

1) Open a browser and go to 192.168.1.254

2) Click 'Advanced Settings' at the top and it will ask you to sign in with a Password. This is located on the back of your router under 'Admin Password'

3) Select Wireless and under the 2.4GHz heading, you will need to find 'Channel Selection' on the list and change this from 'Automatic' to any one of the other channels. (This can also need doing under '5 GHz Wireless' to cover both signals).

Give it a few hours of testing to see if the issue still persists and try to change the channel again if you see little or no improvement.

Let us know how it goes.

[#11]

Hi there I did as instructed in your message above. I have not connected via an ethernet cable as ethernet cables will not connect to my phones, ipad or mac notebook - what exactly do you want me to connect the cable to? As for splitting channels, that's not what you suggested before. i went in to the admin account & did as you instructed - without the message in front of me I can't recall the instructions but they are in this thread. I did a download test yesterday & it was 1.63 Mbps.  I am really fed up with this. When I buy something new I expecty it to work. I work long hours & do not have time to spend hours at home fiddling with the internet set up.  Just tell me how I can cancel this contract

[#12]

this is what I did as instructed by you:

Select the option for 'Wireless' followed by '5 GHz Wireless'. What we want to do to begin with is turn 'Sync with 2.4 GHz Wireless' to 'Off' and update the SSID to be different. The easiest way would be to add '-5G' to the end so it is identified as its own connection.

Once this is changed, please keep an eye on it for a day or 2 to see if the issue continues. If it does, the next step would be to change the wireless channel.

[#13]

I realluy appreciate all your attempts at help but I don't understand why all my devices worked perfectly on Virgin & now none of them do with Plusnet. I am not a techie & don't understand why I have to go through all these complicated procedures which may or may not impriove things. If all my devices worked with Virgin why don't they work with Plusnet? I really don't have time for all this fiddling about. The fact I have no WiFi in half the flat, so can only do any work or even WhatsApp my friends in the sitting room is driving me mad. I am a new customer and wish to cancel my contract as I feel you are not providing the service you promised, and I will be taking this up with Ofcom

[#14]

I'm sorry to hear you're wanting to cancel.

If you want to do this you'd need to contact our customer options team on 0800 013 2632 however I'm afraid you wouldn't be able to leave the contract free of charge due to this as we can't gurantee that you'll get good coverage via Wi-Fi.

Can you confirm if you've connected any devices to the 5hgz network if you've split the channels?

This should offer better performance. We'd also recommend going through the guides here to see if these help