Off topic, but I thought i'd say that my recent purchase of some gigabit netgear powerline adapters went straight back because they caused so much noise that my signal margin plummeted and even my speakers picked up the disruption. It was something to do with plugging an item into them from what I could make out as they were the passthrough ones.
I'll also check these. As yes, I am using them.
Can they cause a problem just bring connected?
The issues I had were weird. I used them with no problems for ages (apart from the PC sometimes losing network connection due to DNS errors, but the router was still fine).
I then started having problems after redecorating the living room where the router lived. I did have the powerline in the wall, then an extension socket strip plugged into that, into which everything including the router (BT Smart Hub) was connected. After redecorating and moving stuff around, I had the same layout, but the strip that the router was plugged into for power, went straight into the wall (Ethernet cable still going into the powerline). This started the problem whereby using the PC actually caused the router to disconnect and reboot. The PC was the only Ethernet device connected by the powerlines, as it was upstairs; all other Ethernet devices, TV/YouView/Hive, were in the same room as the router and they'd never caused the router to reboot.
Once I plugged the router power cable back in via the powerline AC passthrough, it was fine again. So maybe the powerlines have some sort of noise filter on their own AC output?
But anyway...a couple of weeks ago, we switched to Plusnet, with the Hub One router. Immediately started having the same problem, without changing the wiring setup. I switched back to the BT Smart Hub, and even that wasn't playing ball now. So I decided to ditch the powerlines, and managed to find a way to run a CAT5E up the outside of the house from the living room, across the loft and down into the airing cupboard, which is in the room where the PC is. Ever since doing that, the connection has been perfect - the Plusnet router was still experiencing some problems, but unrelated to the PC being used, so last week I switched back to using the BT Smart Hub with my Plusnet login - current uptime is about 6 days, hasn't disconnected once since I started using that hub
The powerlines I was using are TP-Link AV500s I bought several years ago. When I first started having trouble with the BT router, I actually bought a pair of more expensive Devolo units, but sent them back as they had the exact same problem.
