Having Powerline issues, not sure if it's the adapter or my plug/mains power

Fragil1ty

Fragil1ty

Fragil1ty

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8 Jan 2011
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So I've been noticing issues for the past 2 or so weeks, at first I thought it was my adapter being a little bit silly, so I just left it for a few days and then it was still happening, I was getting dreadfully low speeds and with me owning a "Devolo dLAN 1200+" which costs $300+ I knew that couldn't be the problem, so I thought screw this. I got on the phone to Amazon and they collected/refunded the item for me, which was fantastic.

Now, the reason I use Powerline Adapters is I'm currently living at home while in the process of furnishing my own place, getting everything sorted and it's taking it's sweet time, so while I'm at home, plugging in an ethernet cable directly from the router to my room? Just not going to happen unfortunately, so my options are as follows:


  • Powerline Adapters
  • Wi-Fi


So moving on, I got the refund for the Adapters and bought some replacements, I opted for (stupidly, I may add) the "TP-LINK TL-PA4020KIT" which is essentially a cheap 2 port 500MB Powerline Adapter, this arrived, it was used and was just all around a complete and utter disaster, it wasn't reaching the speeds I wanted/needed, it wasn't hitting the transfer speeds over the network, it was just a complete waste of time.

So I moved on, I bought the "TP-LINK TL-PA7020 KIT AV1000 2-Port Gigabit Powerline Starter Kit" now this piece of kit for the price? Is rather amazing.


  • Looks very appealing
  • Faster transfer speeds (up to)
  • Getting full speeds the second I connected the adapters and they were cheap, so can't complain there either

And from the moment I got the adapters, all was great, was getting full speeds and then today, from around 7:20PM the same issues started to arise.


  • Slow connection, virtually unusable
  • Lag spikes in online gamers/CMD (Using ping -t <site here>)
  • Speedtests were showing a quarter of what I should be getting

Now, I need to stress that up until around 2 weeks ago, I had no issues with any of my powerline adapters what so ever, they were all working fine, but since that point in time it's all gone down hill.

If you refer to the image below, here are some speed tests:

2837036


Now, the 40.19Mb/s and 36.73Mb/s are WiFi results, the 74/75Mb/s are the Powerline Adapter results, now It's currently 3am, I'm tired and my internet is working fine, but it seems during peak? It's being a pain in the ass.

Could there be a serious problem with my mains? my power sockets? etc? What should I do? any advice?
 
Remove variables, test with a wired connection and establish max speed, test with wifi and then test with powerline. Powerline and wifi are not a substitute for a wired connection, all it takes is someone to plug something in that that introduces noise to the circuit and you're going to have issues with Powerline whenever it's on. Also as it'a a shared connection is it possible someone else is using it within the household? Background downloads/updates taking place on your hardware? Even something like someone using an on demand TV service etc.
 
Avalon said:
Remove variables, test with a wired connection and establish max speed, test with wifi and then test with powerline. Powerline and wifi are not a substitute for a wired connection, all it takes is someone to plug something in that that introduces noise to the circuit and you're going to have issues with Powerline whenever it's on. Also as it'a a shared connection is it possible someone else is using it within the household? Background downloads/updates taking place on your hardware? Even something like someone using an on demand TV service etc.
Click to expand...

I've tried all the tests in regards to speed:
The results are as follows:

Powerline (Working Efficiently):
74-75Mb/s down / 18-18.95Mb/s up

Wi-Fi 5Ghz:
Same as above

Wi-Fi 2.4Ghz
51-58Mb/s Down / 18-18.95Mb/s up

Direct connection to the router, same as PL.

In regards to testing for variables, I'd have to test everything that is connected to the house and there are a lot, countless consoles, smart tv, BTTV etc.

But in regards to background downloads/uploads, there's not a lot of people in my house who download on a regular basis, I'm the primary internet user in the house and while downloads could attribute towards the problem, it's been on-going for the past couple of weeks, so unfortunately, that wouldn't be what's causing it.

So annoying.
 
Basically the Powerline adapters will negotiate down the connection speed if the error count goes above a mandated threshold, that could be a timer device that kicks in at certain times, something on a thermostat like a fridge or AC/heating etc. if 5Ghz works the same as PL then i'd suggest using that as it's only a short term thing from what you say.
 
Avalon said:
Basically the Powerline adapters will negotiate down the connection speed if the error count goes above a mandated threshold, that could be a timer device that kicks in at certain times, something on a thermostat like a fridge or AC/heating etc. if 5Ghz works the same as PL then i'd suggest using that as it's only a short term thing from what you say.
Click to expand...

Yeah the 5GHz band is fairly good in terms of speeds, but as it's only got 1 bar connection, sometimes it can vanish from my list of wireless access points near by, 90% of the time it sticks there though, no issues.
 
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