New Router

[#1]

I have been with PlusNet for 10 plus years - I have NEVER been offered a new router in all of that time and I am still on the old Thomson TG585 V7 router and now having major issues with the lights on the box constantly flashing - the internet light flashes like mad, where the wireless and ethernet lights flash steadily.  The broadband light is mostly on but then goes off whenever it feels like it.  We are in a poor phone signal area and so also have a booster box for our mobile phones - but even that doesn't work very well and calls are so hit and miss as to whether we can hear the caller.

I can't seem to get the chat to work as it always seems to be switched off or the robot thing answers you and then knocks you off as it doesn't understand what you want.  I haven't got time to sit here on the phone line trying to get through as we run a smallholding and I have my 80 year old mother living here too, so I desperately need to have a good working broadband/internet/phone line - especially trying to do our accounts etc from here!

How do I get a new router sorted out as I'm starting to pull my hair out!

[#2]

@kshanp 

Unfotrunately you don'y get if you don'y ask. If you are renewing your contract or have within the last few months then Plusnet will give you one for free. If a kindly Plusnet staffer comes along and reads this post then they might just send you one. If you want to buy a Hub One then Plusnet charge the ridiculous price of £99. All these optiions (apart from a staffer coming along) require you hanging on the phone, chat is disconnected.

If you want a better modem/router with no hanging on the phone then buy a BT Smarthub 6 from an auction site such as Ebay for about £20. Setting instructions are here:  https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Router/Using-the-BT-Smarthub-6-on-a-Plusnet-Account/m-p/1587673#M85...

[#3]

Thank you for the info!  Just shows that loyalty means nothing anymore - will look at Ebay instead and will also look at switching my phone and broadband soon!  

Thanks for your help again!

[#4]

@kshanp - did you source a replacement router in the end or are you still using your Technicolor?

[#5]

@bobpullen I bought a BT Hub 6 - however, the speeds are no higher at all - and from speaking with neighbours it appears that all of our internet speeds are just dreadful - not even 1mb upload/download.  

I now have a company coming out on Friday to look at the speed and find a solution as I run a business and recently the internet is just going from bad to worse - trying to download documents and ending up waiting for 10 minutes for anything to happen.

As plusnet can't seem to help with this matter, we will probably be moving our broadband/telephone elsewhere.

[#6]

@kshanp your speed estimate is in the 2-6mbps ball-park and you're limited by what the physical copper is capable of.

If you believe your speed is below what it should be, then I'd suggest raising a fault ticket so somebody can actually take a look at things for you. 

[#7]

@bobpullen it is below the 2mbs - doing speed tests it ranges from 0.36mbps to 0.88mbps downloads and 0.42mbps to 0.77mpbs uploads.  That's from doing tests between June 2020 and now.  It is so slow and Openreach have put new wires on the poles, but left them all rolled up for the past 2 years.  Running a business in rural West Wales from home is nigh on impossible with speeds like this.