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Plusnet - Hub Two Router

uknowiama

Super Pro Member
Anyone else tried the new router on Plusnet? I have the previous one Hub One? Terrible piece of equipment - for me - line would occassionally drop and Wi-FI was rubbish - I don't have a big house. So much so running my Plusnet broadband off a BT Home Hub 4 was a marked improvement (line stability / wifi coverage).

So I thought I would trry it out. Spoke to them yesterday. Explained previous experience and what I am using now. Hub 2 being sent out free of charge. Should receive in a couple of days. Give it a try and see how it goes. Would be interested to hear other people's experiences. TIA.
 
It's a fairly recent addition, so most of their customers won't have it yet. But the Hub 2 is essentially a re-brand of the BT Smart Hub 2, albeit with different branding and no doubt some of Plusnet's own tweaks. The SH2 is a reasonable bit of kit, at least so far as budget ISP supplied routers go - nothing special these days, but not terrible.
 
My father was issued the Plusnet Smart Hub 2 for FTTC, it is working fine and appears to only be cosmetically different to a BT Smart Hub 2 - a device that is listed at £200 on bt.com
 
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Thanks for feedback guys.
Mans I can have 1Gbps switchport and better wifi.
I removed my TP-Link archer to use at girlfriends place.
 
I find the wireless performance of the Smarthub 2 very unreliable with devices failing to connect. I blame BT firmware updates. Other users on the BT community forum have the same issue
 
One could make the same comment about VM Super HUB 3 or any other dual band router being poor on Wi-Fi but in practice the VM SH3 works fine in the intended environment.

What is not so good is 5Ghz in the brick & stone built buildings we have in the UK. It is the connecting devices ( our mobile / tablet / laptop etc ) that are not dropping the more frail 5GHz connection & selecting the more robust 2.4Ghz option.
 
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Thanks for thoughts. I have a small 3 bed semi-detached house. Brick outside walls - but non-brick / stud partition walls? So not worried about signal strength and whether 1 x router / wireless AP will provide full coverage or not.
The comment about the last previous Plusnet router was based on experience of being stood next to it and watching the wireless drop out.
UPDATE - I believe they send them in flat boxes to go fit through letterboxes? GOt home on Saturday to find a not from Royal Mail saying they couldn't delvier - so trip to the sorting office on Monday (tomorrow) morning then..
 
New Hub 2 router installed and testing.
Had plugged into white Openreach modem, saw one drop out. Symptom was my VPN drop. I am on wired connection to router. Checked router and DSL had dropped and come back up.

Now plugged into phone direct. Continue to monitor and test.
Using Hub 1 as a Gigabit switch. Wireless off. No DHCP. Change its address. So got 6 x 1Gbps switchports now.
Wireless connection seems better so far as well. iPhone. iPad. Not sure will notice a difference on Echo dots.
Wired connection where possible. PS4. Freeview Play HD box. Personal PC. Work PC. Slight speed improvement maybe? 70 instead of 67 Mbps download and 18 instead of 17 Mbps up.
 
So not noticed any more dropouts through out day. Wireless has been pretty good. Checked router this morning uptime 5.5 hours. So approx 2am something happened. Checked the router log, can see it performed a firmware update and reboot. Will continue to see how it goes...
 
Router stayed up since inital firmware update and reboot. So all good so far - wireless network / signal seems pretty good. Not big house. Brick outer. Stud interior walls.
 
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Most ISP supplied routers have to strike a balance between price vs performance. Hence I’ve always used my own kit and turned the supplied router into bridge mode.

For larger properties I would suggest enabling bridge mode on the PN Hub 2 and connect to a mesh Wi-Fi router such as the TP-Link AX4200 Tri-Band Mesh WiFi 6 System.
 
I agree with this. I was using my TP Link Archer MR600 as router for my house and would have kept it - does both FTTC and 3G/4G - but it has been repurposed at my girlfriends house to provide an additional 4G connection.

Because the latest Plusnet router is "good enough" and I could get it for free - it made sense to replace the TP Link.
 
Thought I would provide an update. Still going strong and doing the job for the price. Free of charge. Wifi is pretty good, not amazing. No line drop outs. Thought it was being a bit flaky on the line side with drop outs - but that was a genuine fault on the line. Now that has been fixed. Returned to being stable.
 
Hi All
I moved FTTP provider going back to Plusnet from a business service and ISP = Talktalk. This was after a year having been on ADSL with PN for many years. (BTW all the issues that I had were down to BT Openreach and their lack of accepting faults at there street hubs, we lost connection for weeks and persuaded the business supplier to provide a 4G router in the interim). Think the ISP's get the blame for much of the chaos at OR.

Problem.
I have the hub 2 up and is running well, albeit the wi fi signal is not as wide as I need it to be. I have an Archer VR2100 router that I set up a mesh system with on ADSL and then FTTP. That is really great with very wide coverage for the property we are in.
The Archer is my preferred router, however I simply can't get it to connect to PN. Details and help from Plusnet are limited and I have also tried Archer Tech help as well. Used the wizard with the drop down Plusnet VDSL etc. Sure I am missing something simple in the depths of the route which I have factory reset. Wondered if any one has had the same issue and has any advice on how to resolve. I've now learnt about the bridge mode on the Hub 2 so that would be a last resort to use the WI-Fi on the Archer.
Thanks for reading and any tips. Nick
 
I was going to say - I notice the Hub 2 could be bridged.
Plusnet account on website - sould be all settings / creds to connect.
I am on FTTC at the moment - moving to FTTP so thought had crossed my mind if Hub 2 I have now will need reconfiguring for the new connection type.
The current up time is 5 days 9hrs. Checked the look the line does seem to drop early in the morning. But not noticed during the days. Most days I am using it to work from home. So if you have a better router already and can get it to replace the PN Hub2, then probably best to do that.
 
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If the wireless performance and reliability is an issue, add a wireless point (eg a repurposed router). No need to change the isp router itself.
 
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