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Thread: Our home internet is down - woe is me :-(

  1. #1
    Master
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    Unhappy Our home internet is down - woe is me :-(

    Got home from work yesterday to find SWMBO gnashing her teeth... no internet :-( Oh the calamity!
    Checked the router and it's failing to make a ppp connection :-( 10 mins on the phone with plusnet and it's a BT issue so it's now been escalated. Anyway this isn't a complaint re. plusnet or even BT, I mean these things happen and it's the first down in 10 years. It's really just an observation of how dependant we are on the internet nowadays... I mean SWMBO is going nuts, plus no netflix, no internet radio, no BBC weather, ARRRR!!!!! ;-)

    She's already ordered me that if BT can't fix it today then I have to go home tonight with a 4G router under my are so she can get her daily fix ;-)

  2. #2
    Can you use your phone as a hotspot until it’s fixed?

  3. #3
    Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by Matt8500 View Post
    Can you use your phone as a hotspot until it’s fixed?
    No... that would require a few extra items i.e. a mobile smart phone, reliable 3/4G signal. As it is the 4G router idea suggested by SWMBO is a non starter because a) the aforementioned lack of signal, so an outdoor antenna would be needed and b) a suitable data sim.

    SWMBO will just have to put up with it for a few days... perhaps read a book or something :-)

  4. #4
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    A lovely evening for a walk or to sit in the garden. All those unread books on the shelves. Listen to some music. An early night!

    It's an opportunity not a problem.

  5. #5
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    Tell her it's a good time for an early night...

  6. #6
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    I share your pain.

    My Plusnet service has been playing silly so and sos for the last week. Some devices will be fine but then another just will not connect. Restart the router. All OK for a while then a different device won't connect. Intermittent poor wifi to PC in upstairs "home office".

    You realise just how dependent you become!

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by David_D View Post
    I share your pain.

    My Plusnet service has been playing silly so and sos for the last week. Some devices will be fine but then another just will not connect. Restart the router. All OK for a while then a different device won't connect. Intermittent poor wifi to PC in upstairs "home office".

    You realise just how dependent you become!
    Is this just iffy wifi rather than iffy internet over the wifi?

    I admit my router isn't a plusnet jobby, it's a business grade zyxel, but I still don't use it's wifi. I have a separate wifi access point which is far superior to the built in routers wifi. We only use wifi in the living room for the laptops (everything else is cabled) but changing to a better access point still made the internet faster and more stable.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jeremy67 View Post
    A lovely evening for a walk or to sit in the garden. All those unread books on the shelves. Listen to some music. An early night!

    It's an opportunity not a problem.
    So we were lying there on our respective settees, I was reading a Neil Asher novel and her with her Ideal Home mag, and I went across and put some Alan Parsons on (I Robot), I hasten to add not loud. She immediately snaps 'turn it off because I can't concentrate on the magazine!'. She wasn't in a good mood yesterday evening. You can't win sometimes :-(

  9. #9
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    This am the fault on the plusnet site is given as "PCP Jumpering or Tie Pair issues found most likely near to PCP" which basically means there's a fault at our local cabinet - I don't hold out much hope of that being sorted soon :-(

  10. #10
    Craftsman
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    best thing i did ditch Pusnet...have a look at Zen ...no issues whatsoever

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by subzeer0 View Post
    best thing i did ditch Pusnet...have a look at Zen ...no issues whatsoever
    10 years and this is the first outage and, to be fair to them, it sounds like it's an issue with the BT side of things... could have happened whatever provider be it zen or plusnet or even BT! No I can't fault plusnet as a provider... excellent pricing and for 99.95% (assuming this ends up as two days down in 10 years) of the time it's been fine.

  12. #12
    Grand Master magirus's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by solwisesteve View Post
    So we were lying there on our respective settees, I was reading a Neil Asher novel and her with her Ideal Home mag, and I went across and put some Alan Parsons on (I Robot), I hasten to add not loud. She immediately snaps 'turn it off because I can't concentrate on the magazine!'. She wasn't in a good mood yesterday evening. You can't win sometimes :-(

    Another golden opportunity, this time a perfect reason/excuse to splash out on some expensive headphones. No problems, only solutions.
    F.T.F.A.

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by solwisesteve View Post
    Is this just iffy wifi rather than iffy internet over the wifi?

    I admit my router isn't a plusnet jobby, it's a business grade zyxel, but I still don't use it's wifi. I have a separate wifi access point which is far superior to the built in routers wifi. We only use wifi in the living room for the laptops (everything else is cabled) but changing to a better access point still made the internet faster and more stable.
    It's just the WiFi from the Plusnet router.

    What's frustrating is that it has been pretty reliable since I signed up last December. Something somewhere has changed and the fact that different devices are affected at different times suggests it's a router or internet issue (ie their bit).

  14. #14
    Administrator swanbourne's Avatar
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    Whole chunks of my life come under the heading "it seemed like a good idea at the time".

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by David_D View Post
    It's just the WiFi from the Plusnet router.

    What's frustrating is that it has been pretty reliable since I signed up last December. Something somewhere has changed and the fact that different devices are affected at different times suggests it's a router or internet issue (ie their bit).
    Sorting out wifi issues is always a right so-and-so :-(

    There are so many possibles ESPECIALLY if you're trying to get the wifi going through walls - which it doesn't. tbh 99 times out of 100 it's not the router. If the wifi signal was okay in December and not now but you haven't changed anything then it's either a faulty router (very unlikely), or some issue with wifi in your local (possible) or the client devices (likely). Under the circumstances I feel for Plusnet... btdt; I've been on the end of phone call with a customer going on about poor wifi and then you get the 'faulty' unit back and it's fine. My advice is when you have the issues try a lan cable connection to the router. If that's fine then it's local wifi connectivity. So then is this in the room next to the router? Does the client device see the wifi signal? Can it connect to this signal? Does it connect but then say no internet?

  16. #16
    Master Maysie's Avatar
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    I agree, it is worrying how reliant we are nowadays on that connection!

    I had a similar thing a few weeks back. Broadband died in the morning, we were working at home that day so needed the internet to access servers etc, so I called SKY who admitted there was a fault on the line and would report it to Openreach, but the repair may take up to 5 days to fix.
    We could not wait that long, so I headed off towards town to buy a 4G data sim, but only got about 200m down the road and found the road was blocked with all of the BT poles laying on the floor, along with the cables, with Openreach changing the rotten poles.

    We were back up and running by 3pm, but what frustrated me was that I was not notified it was going to happen and when I called to report the fault, SKY had no idea it was happening either. Neither did SKY tell me when the 'problem' was fixed (as they had promised to do).

    We now have a 4G home system and so far it has proved more reliable than the home line.

  17. #17
    Grand Master JasonM's Avatar
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    20 years ago the internet was an escape from the real world, now, the real world is an escape from the internet.
    Cheers..
    Jase

  18. #18
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    We were having intermittent WiFi connection problems, called the supplier who sent out a new router ASAP, call centre handler did say that routers do fail after some time and was a regular issue, and the new routers were better kit? Previously we had an issue that was exchange centred and a “lift and shift”was needed, this did take several weeks as they couldn’t actually pinpoint the problem, supplier even sent someone to test the connection at the house, after 2 hours he nodded and confirmed that no internet connection was available at the master socket coming into the house, compensated for inconvenience and the money spent on a mobile router, it did take several weeks though.

    Good excuse for a trip to the nearest pub with free WiFi?

  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by solwisesteve View Post
    Sorting out wifi issues is always a right so-and-so :-(

    There are so many possibles ESPECIALLY if you're trying to get the wifi going through walls - which it doesn't. tbh 99 times out of 100 it's not the router. If the wifi signal was okay in December and not now but you haven't changed anything then it's either a faulty router (very unlikely), or some issue with wifi in your local (possible) or the client devices (likely). Under the circumstances I feel for Plusnet... btdt; I've been on the end of phone call with a customer going on about poor wifi and then you get the 'faulty' unit back and it's fine. My advice is when you have the issues try a lan cable connection to the router. If that's fine then it's local wifi connectivity. So then is this in the room next to the router? Does the client device see the wifi signal? Can it connect to this signal? Does it connect but then say no internet?

    Thanks for that. Trouble is everything is wifi (tablets and phones) and my desktop PC is upstairs a good distance from the router (and too difficult to manhandle downstairs!!) Actually, thinking about it, my TV is hardwired with a powerline adaptor.

    What happens is that the connection is visible (with the full 3 bars) but it never connects. And it's the fact it comes and goes. One time it's the iPad that won't connect; next time it's my iPhone. On the PC the problem seems to manifest itself with "DNS" errors, whatever they are! Also, on the PC, the signal is sometimes now showing less than max strength.

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by solwisesteve View Post
    ...(I Robot)...
    There's your mistake, nobody could snap at Eye in the Sky.

  21. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by David_D View Post
    Thanks for that. Trouble is everything is wifi (tablets and phones) and my desktop PC is upstairs a good distance from the router (and too difficult to manhandle downstairs!!) Actually, thinking about it, my TV is hardwired with a powerline adaptor.

    What happens is that the connection is visible (with the full 3 bars) but it never connects. And it's the fact it comes and goes. One time it's the iPad that won't connect; next time it's my iPhone. On the PC the problem seems to manifest itself with "DNS" errors, whatever they are! Also, on the PC, the signal is sometimes now showing less than max strength.
    Okay so how about testing the wifi in the same room as the router? Is this always in remote rooms or where the router is?

    You need to bear in mind that wifi doesn't go through walls so if this is when in different/remote rooms than the router local then this might be the issue.

  22. #22
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    Important Update!!!

    Internet now back up!


    SWMBO has just phoned up to say a nice BT man came and knocked on the door to say it's now fixed. Apparently a 'loose wire' was the cause. The BT guy was saying that someone was recently disconnected and he's thinking something was dislodged.

    Anyway now sorted!

    So there should be peace and quiet when I get home. :-)

  23. #23
    Master Maysie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by solwisesteve View Post
    The BT guy was saying that someone was recently disconnected and he's thinking something was dislodged.
    He has probably broken someone elses line while he was in the cabinet fixing yours, so on goes the Openreach gravy train.

  24. #24
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    The newish "Plus" service from BT automatically unlocks BT Mobile sims to unlimited data and they send you a 4G hub to tide you over if the BB goes down for a period. I doubt it happens that often but we had 3 weeks of the net down for large periods in Dec 2017 and it was a real pita. First world problems and all that.

  25. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by solwisesteve View Post
    Okay so how about testing the wifi in the same room as the router? Is this always in remote rooms or where the router is?

    You need to bear in mind that wifi doesn't go through walls so if this is when in different/remote rooms than the router local then this might be the issue.
    Sorry, didn't see this yesterday.

    Touch wood, the service has been behaving itself for the last 36 hours. In answer to your point about distance from the router, when one of the devices wouldn't connect, it didn't matter if you were absolutely next to the router.

    If/when it goes again, I need to do more structured "testing". It's just never a good time!

  26. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by solwisesteve View Post
    So we were lying there on our respective settees
    :-) How many years in to a marriage is normal for settee separation?

  27. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by PhilT View Post
    :-) How many years in to a marriage is normal for settee separation?
    You reach a certain age where comfort starts to become more important.... I haven't reached the elasticated trousers time yet though ;-)

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