Plusnet Hub one intermittent dropout

[#1]

This long standing problem is driving me absolutely nuts so I wanted to post the history and current status to the forum in the hope that somebody out there may be able to provide some additional ideas. We'd already upgraded to plusnet fibre and running a new hub one router. Initially the router worked fine and started developing issues about 2 years ago - that's when the fun started. Since then we've lived with it but now with everybody at home or working from home, i'm trying to get to the bottom of it

Description of the issue

- On a daily basis, can be upto 3 times per day, the router will start disconnecting devices connected to it. 

- It can happen to both wired and wireless devices

- When the problem occurs, devices cannot connect to the internet although the blue light on the router is steady and checking the router status shows that its connected when logging into the router. It shows everything OK

- It can happen that some devices are still connected while others drop out, eventually all will drop out

- The only way to fix the issue is to restart the router

Steps I've taken to resolve the issue

- Replaced the plusnet hub one for another but identical model about 18 months ago - same problem happening

- Plusnet sent an engineer to do a line check a couple of weeks ago - all perfect

- I've seen other posts detailing problems around the 5G wireless so turned that off, it seemed to improve the situation but still occurring 

- I've checked all the event logs in the hub one and there doesn't appear anything around the time we start losing the connections

- HAd a long chat with a very helpful plusnet support person yesterday to go through different options and what i could do next. Poor guy, he was as stumped as I am

What are the next steps?

- I've now disabled the Wifi on the plusnet hub one and added a wired connection to a netgeat wifi router. All wifi devices are now connected to that. I do have a feeling it is a bug in the plusnet hub one somewhere but trying to prove that is near impossible so its a process of elimination

- If the above doesn't work, i'll put a completely new VDSL router to replace the hub one - any ideas on there best one out there to go with?

- Today, i'll check how congested the wifi channels are and move from auto to a specific channel with lower traffic

- Another option is to add some wifi boosters in the opposite end of the house

The big BUT here is - how can it be a wifi problem if i lose the wired connections also? Thats the part i don't get.

Any comments and input from the community out there greatly appreciated!

[#2]

I have same issue. I believe it may be because I have too many items connected to Wifi?

[#3]

Thanks for posting. In theory there is a technical limit of 256 wireless devices. in this case the router will not allow you to connect any more devices. But it should not drop - you would only notice a drop in speed on each device as they all use more and more data.

Are you getting exactly the same issue as me requiring a reset?

I've connected a different wireless router yesterday, performance is much better and still no dropouts. I'll post on here with an update after a few more days. I suspect quite a few people are experiencing this issue. 

[#4]

I have quite a few but nowhere near 256. I have quite a decent signal strength but do find connection drops out for no apparent reason. Only occasionally, it is more of an inconvenience than an issue for me.

[#5]

Thanks for getting in touch @MikeLewis I'm sorry for the issues you're having. I've tested your line today and as you know from the engineer visit the tests aren't showing any issues and we aren't seeing the amount of drops you are either. From what we can see your broadband's only dropped out once yesterday at about 5pm in the last 4 days.

Just to confirm have you swapped the Hub One out now for a different router? We're still seeing the Hub One connected up. Also are your wired devices plugged into the router via an ethernet cable with no switches or powerline adapters? 

Finally could you post up the event log (if there's anything private in there like a username or IP address, I'd recommend removing it before you post) so we can have a look and see if we can spot anything?

[#6]

@MikeLewis 

I was just going to post about the very same thing! Have you found a solution?

I've tried all the things you have, and had a call open with PlusNet for over a month. They eventually sent a new router, but that didn't make a difference. If you've found a router/modem that works for you, I'd love to know which one.

Thanks

[#7]

I'm posting up the fix here for the problem - hope it helps all of you out there!

It was nothing to do with the Wifi connections. I used another nether router for the wifi, wired into the back of the plusnet router. After a while this behaved exactly the same as before.

Solution = I bought a BT router on eBay, changed the username and password for my plusnet account and hey presto, it hasn't missed a beat for months now. I can't believe that nobody in Plusnet doesn't know about this issue! This has caused me months of pain and suffering especially that we need to work from home. The problem is clearly with the plusnet router and nothing else. I would really like to hear from plusnet team to provide some feedback on this.

For reference the router that worked for me was 

BT Smart Hub (Home Hub 6) Type A Plusnet FTTC ADSL Broadband Wireless AC Router

Best regards, Mike

[#8]

@MikeLewis Thanks you, thank you, thank you!!!!

On your advice, I purchased the recommended router from ebay. I got a reconditioned one for < £25 (with detailed instructions, a 1 year warranty and the promise of tech support, if needed).

It took only a few minutes to set up according to the enclosed instructions and appears to be a complete fix of all the issues my  household has been suffering with over months. Harmony reigns in chez goldfishes.

How Plusnet can continue to supply the Hub One is beyond me. 

[#9]

@goldfishes Really pleased that my effort and suffering has helped other people. 

I agree with you that its beyond me that plusnet do not acknowledge problems with their current router

Plusnet team, Can you respond to us please. Why are many people facing this issue and the fix seems to be a different router ?

Kind regards, Mike

[#10]

@Gandalf See my solution for the fix to this issue. Please can you comment on that. I think the community and other users facing this same issue would benefit from that

Kind regards, Mike