New Router (I was fed up with the performance of the stock Plusnet router)

[#1]

So last weekend I (read whole family; everyone getting continuously kicked off the 5Gz band) (oh, and when "she who must be obeyed" says she REALLY is not happy, time to do something!) became so frustrated with the well known 5Gz issues I decided to invest in a router that could cope with my family's increasing demands; the wife is working from home, the daughter is home from uni for 6 months (?!) and more and more kite now sits on the network: smart thermostat, google mini, Amazon Echos smart watches, gaming controllers (son!), mobiles, fire sticks, chromecasts, laptops, ipads, chromebooks, NAS, oh the list just goes on and on!  Seriously, 10 items would be soooo restrictive.

So I decided if I was going to get new router I would get a good one, to my inexperienced brain.  I short listed either the vigor as I have had one in the past, rock solid, or the TP-Link Archer VR2800.  In the end I went for the TP-Link as it is designed for multiple wifi users and a good 5Gz bandwidth.

I purchased it from Argos, and after the social distancing que picked it up last Monday.  It comes out of the box with a Plusnet quick setup, or rather two as I later discovered, fibre and basic broadband.  I first of all mistakenly picked the Std. broadband and guess what, it did not work!  Probably as I has fibre, Dough!

When I then correctly chose the fibre connection it did not work either, and now it is 9pm and the wife is panicking as she will need it for working from home in the morning.  Two factory resets later and it now REALLY thinks it is just a fibre connection, and this time it connected almost before I could check, a case of picnic (google it!).  Oh the setup should be real easy using their free app (yes you have to create an account, for those that have an issue with this, really?) and is if you pick the right supplier and connection type.

Well now it has been in for a week, what do I think?

First the 5gz, wow, blow my socks off or what?  it reaches clear out down the garden, something the old Plusnet router never did.  All the connections are rock solid and have not dropped.  The download speeds have increased,

Wired connection:  The wife thinks it is faster, about all I can say.

It is bigger than the old router and gets a little warm but nothing too bad.

Other features:  I have setup a guest wifi for all the frequent visitors, plugged in a mobile drive to share photos, and I could if i wanted even share them out into the internet!

And did i say it looks damd sleek in glossy black?

The connect speeds are up with the fastest I have ever achieved using speedtest even though I am doing it on wifi, I know I should not!

I also have setup the additional firewall settings, these make me feel a little more safe, 

It has stayed connected since I installed it and the whole family are pleased with the improvements.

I have not yet tried: QoS, IPv6, NAT forwarding, Dynamic DNS, or many of the other features, I am a key worker and working 5am to 7pm.

I would heartily recommend this router.

[#2]

@carllilley Nice to hear some good news.  🙂

With the odd exception, ISP supplied routers are to be avoided if at all possible.

[#3]

My situation is very similar to yours, frequent loss of signal, kid home from uni, working from home etc, wife working from home etc. After much research and pondering as to whether to go for a second hand BT business Hub 6, a new TP Link ArcherVr2100 of the Vr2800 I have opted for the latter which is now on order and I am waiting for delivery. I figured after a few years the initial glitches should have been sorted, t also uses the Broadcom chipset which is supposed to be very good. I am pleased to hear your experience so far is positive, I have read lots of line reviews and while most are good there there are a few negative ones. Picked up a brand new VR2800 for £149, seen used ones going for £120 on e bay so if I decide to look at FTTP next time out the  Archer should be easily moved on for a decent price.

[#4]

Hi Paul, when you set it up do not repeat my mistake and pick the correct connection type (Std. ADSL or Fibre)!

Enjoy

Regards

Carl.

[#5]

Carl, 

Thanks for the heads up, unfortunately your warning was wasted as I still messed up and got the set up wrong, I picked the wrong option. A quick reset and call to Plusnet and all sorted though. 

So far, very pleased with the choice. Speeds are good, I am getting 60mb on a WiFi speed check about 5 meters away from the router, this is with both kids gaming on the Xbox and Play stations. Range also goes well out in to the garden. No drop outs to date, so kids and wife all happy. 

[#6]

Hi Paul

LOL, I am glad you got there in the end!

What is surprising is the level of improvement possible from a decent router, I was certainly surprised.

To anyone with performance issues with their WI-FI: try a decent router, you will be surprised at the improvements.

Carl.

[#7]

I too have a VR2800, but have turned off the WiFi and provide the latter through a Ubiquiti UniFi mesh — the Ubiquity "flying saucers" can mesh wirelessly or via Ethernet, and whilst the latter will give better performance it is not an option when all walls are 3' granite, so mine mesh wirelessly.  I have one UAC-AP-LR as the master, and two UAC-AP-PROs as slaves — the latter cannot mesh wirelessly at quite the same range as the LRs but unlike the LRs have a second slave Ethernet socket so can function as extraordinarily sensitive WiFi dongles.

[#8]

Like you I got tired of the faults. So I bought a TP-LINK Archer VR600 - specifically because it said it worked with Plusnet (among others of course), but I've been having problems.

I set it up and chose VDSL (PLUSNET) from the ISP options list. Seemed logical!

So ........

the information lights on the router are all green, including the one signifying a connection to the internet.

The router config webpage reports that the router is connected to the internet.

And the router has been served with an IP Number, DNS ip addresses and a gateway ip address.

However ...... the DNS and GATEWAY IP addresses are not the same the PLUS ONE router is given.

DNS: 62.6.38.125 194.74.65.98   ....... GATEWAY: 172.16.18.144)

And, I can't access any web pages online. The router thinks it is connected but there's no data transfer. It seems as if I've connected to the wrong part of the Plusnet infrastructure, perhaps.

Do these symptoms sound familiar?

[#9]

Sounds like you've got the BT wholesale gateway IP/DNS when there is a problem with the domain part of your username.

Check you have the username correct in the PPPoE settings , it should be <youraccountname>@plusdsl.net

[#10]

Cheers, that sounds very likely. 😁

[#11]

Just to update. The router is working fine after the great advice above. Early days but wireless speeds seem to have increased, going by the speed test on a wireless connected PCI get somewhere in the range of a 40% improvement and I'm happy with that as it's now reaching the speed I'm paying for!

But more than just the speed there's the absence of intermittent freezes which were very annoying when netflixing.

[#12]

Useful stuff, thanks. I ended up at this discussion because I've got to much the same point, fed up with poor wifi and wired performance and reliability. I tried to no avail to persuade Plusnet that as a long-standing customer, they should supply me with  BT smart router, they seem to be getting a good press. No offer forthcoming, though, so now looking for another solution. I think I'll be trying the TP-Link Archer VR2100

[#13]

Not far off 6 months on I have been very pleased with the Vr2800. Its been a lot more reliable than the old Plusnet  router and the performance is much quicker. During the summer we had an inflatable hot tub up in the garden, my mobile and iPad were picking up the 5gz signal much further away from the router without a problem but the hot tub wouldn’t connect. I bought a cheap TP link range extender from Lidl which was easy to link and bingo - hot tub sorted. Just did a speed check and was getting 65mb downloaded and 18mb upload over WiFi about 2m from the router.

I know they aren’t cheap, but I am happy with my VR2800 and will use it for as long as I am a Plusnet Customer. I’ve been with Plusnet for years, but with BT rolling out FTTP in our area I may be looking at a switch when my current contract ends

[#14]

Just to update: I went ahead and replaced my router with the TP-Link Archer V2100. Also replaced an ageing pair of TP-Link powerline adapters with faster / better equivalents. No problems with installation, and immediate improvement in speed all round. Intermittent freezes much reduced, though not entirely eliminated, probably at something like 15% of previous frequency.

Well worth the investment, but I'd still say it's high time Plusnet upgraded their standard offering router!