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Plusnet fibre is proving to be a frustrating misery!

TinyWings
Hooked
Posts: 5
Registered: ‎19-08-2017

Plusnet fibre is proving to be a frustrating misery!

Prior to joining Plusnet, I was with TalkTalk, just on ordinary broadband. With TalkTalk, I never had connection issues, never had streaming issues. Since joining Plusnet on the fibre broadband however, I lose connection to my wifi many, many times a day and have to reconnect. Trying to watch videos on youtube is usually a total misery as I keep having to reconnect. It is now almost impossible to watch movies on my media box, movies/shows/documentaries buffering or stopping altogether. Also, 'No network connection' errors coming up. Have to reconnect many, many times when using facebook. Lose connection when using eBay, online banking. 

Can somebody PLEASE help me resolve these problems? WITHOUT trying to push the blame on to my equipment. When I have rang up for help, there are always hints, or just blatant claims that the faults lie with me, my equipment, but never Plusnet. 

I had less problems back in the days when I was using dial up, and had a computer and monitor that took up more space than my local authorities bin wagons! Am deeply regretting moving to Plusnet, and if the problems continue, I will be cancelling my contract. Am totally fed up with it.

You can not change me without destroying who I am.
8 REPLIES 8
Dick_Baker
Newbie
Posts: 4
Registered: ‎09-12-2012

Re: Plusnet fibre is proving to be a frustrating misery!

I am a PlusNet subscriber [not an employee/consultant] ...

Sorry to hear about your problems, I recount recent experiences I have had that I hope may help you.

Fibre [e.g. FTTC] SHOULD be the same as copper except for increased speed, and should be stable.

Usual issues can arise especially

1. over the copper from your FTTC box to your residence (we have new housing development nearby)

2. micro-filter must be in series for all phone (POT, answerphone), alarm or healthcare systems using PSTN

3. WiFi interference due to your/neighbour usage of 2.4/5GHz ISM bands (especially clashing channel allocation)

I found that latest Hub-One has an Automatic choice of channel that you can't override (earlier Hub-Zero had this)
- but you can force router to re-evaluate channel usage to pick a quiet channel (usually 1 or 6 or 11 in UK)

Wi-Fii is the usual culprit and your can eliminate that by using wired (RJ45) connection to your router. If WiFi drops out [frequently] then you should [say] try a laptop-router RJ45 connection (if that is OK then WiFi is to blame).

Best of luck progressing this - the PlusNet techies are usually very competent but the wait-times (even freefone 0800) are often frustratingly long.

rgds

Dick

 

TinyWings
Hooked
Posts: 5
Registered: ‎19-08-2017

Re: Plusnet fibre is proving to be a frustrating misery!

Thank you for responding Dick_Baker. I am not at all savvy regarding this sort of thing, so I didn't really grasp a lot of what you said unfortunately. Regarding the phone part though, I never use a landline phone. I did, a few years ago but my rabbit dragged it off the window ledge and decimated it so I never replaced it.

Wires are not advisable with a house bunny hopping merrily around, so don't want a wired connection definitely! I just regret so very much joining up with Plusnet, and it seems I am far from alone in this. I can't get my head around how bad the experience has been so far!

You can not change me without destroying who I am.
Twoterriers
Grafter
Posts: 43
Thanks: 6
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎20-03-2017

Re: Plusnet fibre is proving to be a frustrating misery!

Same here. Had engineers out 5 times now and thought they'd fixed it but it's lasted about a month and is dropping again on a daily basis here. Absolutely cheesed off with it. Yet I didn't have this nonsense when I was a John Lewis fibre customer who USE PLUSNET !!
Trying to raise a sodding ticket is like wading through quicksand as well. I can't find where to do it again and of course it's not easy to locate !!
This is costing me a lot of money and I live on Universal Credit right now yet the service is terrible. Really making me miserable.
Lynda~
"Children are for people who can't have dogs"
Gandalf
Community Gaffer
Community Gaffer
Posts: 26,563
Thanks: 10,265
Fixes: 1,599
Registered: ‎21-04-2017

Re: Plusnet fibre is proving to be a frustrating misery!

Hi there. I'm sorry to hear you're experiencing connection problems.

Whilst I appreciate you don't want to permanently use a wired connection, it will help us identify where the problem lies; i.e. if it's isolated to the WiFi connection or something else.

It may also be worth running through our WiFi troubleshooting guide here.

 

Please do let us know how you get on.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
Dick_Baker
Newbie
Posts: 4
Registered: ‎09-12-2012

Re: Plusnet fibre is proving to be a frustrating misery!

Fibre connection basically involves many steps

  1. PlusNet (Sheffield)
  2. internet (e.g. LINX)
  3. local BT exchange (DSLAM rack)
  4. fibre optic
  5. street cabinet (usually ugly green thing) maybe in your road
  6. copper cable to your house (subject to interference from pylons, weather, surge loads, ...)
  7. BT [master] socket (possibly other sockets), and microfilters (on every socket!)
  8. router (preferably on master socket), nowadays without BT OpenReach modem that was yet another stage
  9. Wi-Fi (e.g. IEEE802.11g on 2.4GHz frequency) if using wireless connection (i.e. not direct RJ45 cabling)
  10. your media-centre / iPad / tablet / laptop (although could be wired direct to router via RJ45 cable)

phew (sorry about the boring list!). The points are really that

1) your router (#8) has to compensate for bumps and burps to/from DSLAM (#3) and they compensate for the performance of middle bits (#4 .. #7) by equalisation (initiated if too many dropouts/reconnections, hence you should keep router always powered-on)

2) the WiFi is subject to many potential interference sources, sometimes beyond your control (e.g. neighbour equipment whether router/TV or electric drill!), and routers conform to internal channel protocols to try to minimise such bother.

3) when experiencing issues (short-term transient or longer outages) it help to identify the bits that are giving grief. Hence my suggestion of direct RJ45 wired connection to avoid the WiFi leg of the journey. You only need this doctor when you're sick and to diagnose the complaint (when you are healthy again you can revert to WiFi and welcome your bunny back).

I am hoping that your "dropping Wi-Fi" might simply mean the WiFi gremlins, and these are usually the easiest to solve (unless you live in a dense area with "noisy neighbours"). Hopefully this justifies explains the approach.

 

PlusNet has some videos and help pages to deal with such diagnosis and cure

https://www.plus.net/help/broadband/

https://www.plus.net/help/broadband/getting-the-best-wifi-signal/

 

I recommend an app called "Wifi Analyser" (available on Android mobile phone, Apple tablet etc) that shows what WiFi channels are being used local to you (typically refreshes every few seconds and doesn't involve any external connection so is free to use). Handy to usee what the normal usage is, but especially good to run when your WiFi drops out, so you would see if charts show any unusual activity spikes). If interference is happening, jump to a quiet channel. 

My other favourite is browsing to speedtest.net (i.e. using your normal browser from mobile / laptop / tablet) which does not require any download or install. Actually tests ping/down/up traffic and is handy to show your regular and exceptional experiences.

 

I think PlusNet should have a much better walkthrough ("flowchart") of tests to perform (e.g. depending on outcome of step #1 goto step #2 [on failure] or step #10 [on success]) rather than bewilder one with all the possible failure scenarios.

And just to prove I am not a PN employee/consultant, I suggest you look at their status page here and currently showing "Average answer time today" = 40 minutes ! Having customers wait for their Customer Support agents to bother picking-up the phone is immensely frustrating, and often makes a bad situation worse (my patience is well-frayed after a 40-minute wait with the dreadful PN musak). PN management (if any) please note !!

 

TinyWings
Hooked
Posts: 5
Registered: ‎19-08-2017

Re: Plusnet fibre is proving to be a frustrating misery!

It's no fun is it Lynne!

My neighbour upstairs has been with plusnet fibre for quite a long time, and she has no problems, so maybe it is only us newer customers who are really being hit with all of this.

I really hope it gets sorted for us soon.

You can not change me without destroying who I am.
TinyWings
Hooked
Posts: 5
Registered: ‎19-08-2017

Re: Plusnet fibre is proving to be a frustrating misery!

Hi Gandalf, thank you for responding, and yes I will try the wired connection and follow the instructions on the link you gave.

And yes, I will say how I get on, it might help some of the others like poor Lynne.

Then again, it may make feel worse Sad

Hopefully not though, then we can all be happy instead of foaming at the mouth in frustration!

You can not change me without destroying who I am.
TinyWings
Hooked
Posts: 5
Registered: ‎19-08-2017

Re: Plusnet fibre is proving to be a frustrating misery!

Another huge thanks to you Dick_Baker for all the info you have typed out there! I shall try going through everything I've had suggested to me, and ... Well, I am not prepared to hold my breath, but you never know!

What I am finding most irritating is that when I was with TalkTalk, on basic broadband, I didn't have any of this messing! And everything is set up in exactly the same place regarding routers, tv etc since I changed to Plusnet.

It will be some time tomorrow now when I try everything out, am too tired now so I'd only [-Censored-] it up if I even attempted.

Fingers crossed!

You can not change me without destroying who I am.