BT Smart Hub 6 / Powerline Adapter Conflicts

[Conscript]

I'm wondering if anyone can help shed any light on this, or has had a similar experience.
I have BT Infinity and have been having a very weird problem lately. The broadband connection is fine, utterly stable, whenever I'm using any wireless device, or any of the devices plugged directly into the ethernet ports - Samsung TV, Youview box and Hive home hub.

However, I also have my main Windows 10 PC plugged into one of the Ethernet ports, but via a set of TP Link AV500 (TL-PA511) powerline ethernet adapters. And every time I go to use the PC, the smart hub disconnects itself. Sometimes I can get it to reconnect, but in general, the hub remains unstable whilst using the PC.

By a process of elimination, and some research, it seems that the powerline adapters are the cause of the problem. When connecting the PC directly to the hub via a long ethernet cable, the connection remains stable. Returning to the powerlines adapters, as soon as you connect using the PC, it knocks the broadband out.

The thing is, I have been using adapters in this way for a good couple of years now and have never had a single problem. I might have had a couple of moves around of the furniture downstairs meaning that the adapters are in different sockets, but even in sockets I know were working for ages, the problem persists. So I'm scratching my head as to why on Earth they have suddenly become so unreliable.

Can anyone think why this might be? Could it be that one of them is faulty and causing interference which is affecting the hub? And if this is a known phenomenom (which it appears to be, after what I've found online), does anyone know if there is a brand of adapter that can reliably be used which doesn't cause conflicts with the broadband connection? Or has the technology improved in the several years since I bought my set?

Might seem a bit of a long shot, but I really want to be able to find a solution - I'd rather not have to go to the effort of hard wiring CAT5 around the house and I don't want a cable draped down the stairs, so I'm posting here in the hope someone else might have had the problem and found a solution.

 

[ChrisD.]

They could just be old and in need of replacement. I had one die a few months ago and it was causing strange issues.

 

[Conscript]

That's actually good to hear. I could use a wifi card instead, but as I use the PC for gaming, I prefer to have it hard wired into the router, so if I can persist with powerline adapters I'd be happy.

 

[Mariusz]

Have you bought new powerline adapters yet? Did it cure your fault?

 

[Conscript]

Have you bought new powerline adapters yet? Did it cure your fault?

New set of £90 Devolo dLAN 1200+ adapters arrived today. They worked for all of 2 minutes, then the smart hub disconnected.
So I guess the AV Link adapters themselves aren't the problem. I've already returned the Devolo set back to their box and intend to return them.

I've dug out an old WiFi card and press ganged that back into service for now, and I think I might just stick with it. To be fair, the signal is good, and I managed to play online for a few hours yesterday without any noticeable problems. But it does bug me as to why the ethernet adapters have just stopped working for seemingly no reason.

My contract with BT is up in August so I'll be looking to move to another ISP anyway, so I guess a change of router might sort it. How annoying.

 

[andicole0]

You may find it could be your house mains or a part of it. Can you try the powerlines over wall sockets on the same floor as the router. Ultimately you can't beat a wire, any chance of laying under carpet etc.
Andi.

 

[Conscript]

You may find it could be your house mains or a part of it. Can you try the powerlines over wall sockets on the same floor as the router. Ultimately you can't beat a wire, any chance of laying under carpet etc.
Andi.

I could try that, but as I said, I've been using these adaptors for a couple of years with no issue, which is why it's such a head scratcher. About the only thing I can think of that's changed recently is I redecorated the downstairs living room where the router is, which meant unplugging everything while furniture was moved around. But all I did was paint the walls, I certainly didn't touch any wiring. Even so, I've moved furniture before which has necessitate re-positioning the router and the adaptors, and I'm getting this even when placing them in sockets which previously worked without any issue.

I know a direct link is best, but no, we don't have carpet downstairs so laying a cable neatly and tidily wouldn't be that easy...and I can't really be bothered to start pulling the house apart to properly install a cable with proper ports to link the rooms.

 

[andicole0]

In my experience pretty much any electronic equipment can go haywire for no reason at almost any time.
Andi.

 

[Conscript]

Well...I think I've fixed it.
I'd moved the adaptors around during the redecoration, but I'd also changed how some things were plugged in. I have a surge protected extension lead which powers everything sitting on the TV unit (TV, Youview, Smarthub, etc), and this used to be plugged into the wall socket via the Powerline adaptor. When I'd moved stuff around, I plugged it directly into the wall instead, and then something else went through the Powerline. Same went for the PC upstairs...it was plugged directly into the wall, not into the Powerline adaptor.

Just on a bit of a hunch I went and rearranged everything so devices which were using the Powerlines for Ethernet are also plugged into the Powerline AC socket...and hey presto! Don't want to speak too soon, but I did this about 30 minutes ago and have had no problems since. Speedtest.net shows me getting 21Mbps downstream on the PC, and about the same when tested via my phone, so no loss that I'd notice.

It didn't even occur to me that not plugging the device's AC into the Powerlines could be the problem. I'm guessing that they might have some filtering capacity?