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Plusnet management: stop adding to the junkpile

ukredbeard
Newbie
Posts: 3
Registered: ‎02-04-2016

Plusnet management: stop adding to the junkpile

Hello all,
Warning: bit of a rant coming!
I'm a happy plusnet customer for a few years now. When I first signed up for ADSL, I was very impressed that the router worked out of the box, that was the first time an ISP had done that for me. Less impressed with the *awful* UI on it, but hey, not bad some something (almost) free. I spent many hours with that first one trying to setup my network correctly, then gave up.
FFW to now. I've had two of those TG 582n routers, both now sitting around. I got sick of trying to setup really basic things on the network that I know the hardware is capable of, so I replaced them with a more expensive router.
So yesterday I realized I need another wifi access point in the house: I thought hey, I have that kind of hardware kicking around, why not re-purpose one of those 582ns? But alas, computer says no. I can't put openwrt on it either, without a lengthly soldering / flashing process http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,149227.0.html. Neither is a generic thompson firmware available.
So my message to plusnet is this: stop delivering locked down routers. I might have gotten an extra 5-10 years out of those boxes were they not locked down. It's really cool how they're just plug and play, but this is absurd.
More cost to me, to the environment, and to your brand. Despite my anger, I'm open to hearing your response.
Rant over! (thanks for listening...)
8 REPLIES 8
ejs
Aspiring Hero
Posts: 5,442
Thanks: 631
Fixes: 25
Registered: ‎10-06-2010

Re: Plusnet management: stop adding to the junkpile

Why can't you use a 582n with the standard Plusnet firmware as a wireless access point? All you need to do is switch off various services like the DHCP server, which should be possible with telnet, perhaps change its IP address as appropriate, and give it a LAN connection to your network. Then the 582n's wireless should function as a wireless access point.
MisterW
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 14,585
Thanks: 5,415
Fixes: 385
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Plusnet management: stop adding to the junkpile

@ukredbeard, as ejs says, it should work fine!. I've been using one in just that scenario for some time now.

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

ukredbeard
Newbie
Posts: 3
Registered: ‎02-04-2016

Re: Plusnet management: stop adding to the junkpile

thanks for the help, my first attempt to set this up failed, I'll have another go.
But my general point still stands: by locking the hardware, it limits how it can be re-purposed or used.
MisterW
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 14,585
Thanks: 5,415
Fixes: 385
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Plusnet management: stop adding to the junkpile

You'll find a useful guide here http://npr.me.uk/together.html
AFAIK the PN TG582n isn't locked down at all. I've reconfigured mine both with Telnet and loading config files.

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

ukredbeard
Newbie
Posts: 3
Registered: ‎02-04-2016

Re: Plusnet management: stop adding to the junkpile

cool, thanks. But you weren't able to flash the firmware to openwrt, were you?
This guide here suggests a hardware hack is needed for that: https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/thomson/tg582n
MisterW
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 14,585
Thanks: 5,415
Fixes: 385
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Plusnet management: stop adding to the junkpile

Quote
But you weren't able to flash the firmware to openwrt, were you?

Never tried, no need , particularly to use as a wireless AP

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

twocvbloke
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 6,399
Thanks: 1,782
Fixes: 3
Registered: ‎06-11-2014

Re: Plusnet management: stop adding to the junkpile

The TG582n isn't locked down, it's just an awful router... Grin
nanotm
Pro
Posts: 5,756
Thanks: 156
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎11-02-2013

Re: Plusnet management: stop adding to the junkpile

I found with two of the 3 582n's I trialled before plugging the billion back in that no matter how I tried to change things in the router as soon as it rebooted it was back to basic mode, the only time that changed was when it was reconfigured remotely by PlusNet, every change I made was              non-persistent (and I was following all the guides) that happened with the first two routers (even the wifi passwords would only remain changed for about an hour before the stupid thing fell over, restarted  & reverted to factory settings)
the third one might have worked but in all honesty its still sitting inside the shrink wrapped box (I did tell the person who sent it out I didn't want it I had a better router before they sent it), the first one was genuinely faulty (something inside it was busted)  the second one clearly had some weird firmware fault, and that was enough for me when they were trying to send me yet another junk router (reminded me of the home hub 2 debacle where the call centre would issue a new router before even bothering to look for line faults...tells you how much faith they have in the gear their shipping)


just because your paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you