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Son can't connect to our new fibre router via Powerline.

petebs
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎17-01-2013

Son can't connect to our new fibre router via Powerline.

We just got fibre, as we were grandfathered in on a seven year old plan and it turns out the Fibre plans are cheaper than what we had.
We got a Technicolor TG582n, and with the BT Openreach modem installed he hooked up a laptop and got over ten times what we've been getting on ADSL. Result!
However, when he is upstairs in his room, he can't access it. We had this issue with a wireless deadspot and he fixed it with Powerline adapters, the XE102 and XE104 from Netgear. I know this makes a bottleneck of 14mbps, but he was planning on replacing the 102 with another 104 to get the full 70mbps from the internet connection.
This setup worked well with our Netgear DG384Gv2, and he bought a Powerline Wireless extender to fill the deadspot for his phone and tablet.
With this new modem & router however, he can't get it working. He knows his stuff, and has tried everything he can think of, even down to plugging in the netgear router into the Technicolor and try to route all the traffic through.
He occasionally gets traffic for just a moment, and can occasionally ping out. But he's really bummed out that instead of having a faster connection, he's got none at all!
Any help would be appreciated.
13 REPLIES 13
Townman
Superuser
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Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Son can't connect to our new fibre router via Powerline.

Hi Petebs,
These devices should be transparent to the Fiber router - they simply provide a LAN bridge between two points over the mains cables.
Have these devices been reset during this install process?
Are they being used in the same locations as previously?
What lights are showing on these devices?
In case you've lost the set up documentation, here are links to them - http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/XE104/xe104_user_guide_sep2005.pdf and ftp://downloads.netgear.com/files/XE102_UM_8Jun07.pdf

HTH

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petebs
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎17-01-2013

Re: Son can't connect to our new fibre router via Powerline.

Thanks for jumping in townman.
We've just done a full reset of every piece in the chain (Modem, Router, the 102, the 104 and his desktop) and it's still happening.
The lights are showing up normally, showing power and HomeGroup on constantly, with the Ethernet activity flickering.
There /is/ communication going on, though. His desktop received an IM, then the connection went into it's issues. It's mentioning something to do with DNS in chrome, but the DNS servers are the router and Google DNS as a backup. Looking at the network information, his IP address and Subnet get changed after the connection stops working (169.xxx.xxx.xxx with the subnet 255.255.0.0). They are being used in the exact same location as before. The only thing that has changed is the router and the modem. He switched the router back to the netgear one to be sure, and it worked (up until it asked for login information etc of course).
He hasn't used the software in the instructions at all; he didn't configure anything as it was just plug and play.
Thanks.
petebs
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎17-01-2013

Re: Son can't connect to our new fibre router via Powerline.

As an addition, he's moved the Powerline adapters and used the software mentioned in the documents townman linked to.
The Powerline adapters can see each other, but the router can't seem to go through it.
EDIT: Just had the 4-port switch down to see if I could connect one port of the router and another to a laptop. No success.
penfold
Aspiring Pro
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Re: Son can't connect to our new fibre router via Powerline.

Quote from: petebs
, his IP address and Subnet get changed after the connection stops working (169.xxx.xxx.xxx with the subnet 255.255.0.0).

If his IP and subnet are changing this does indicate that the PC is losing its assigned IP address, or not being assigned one properly.  I doubt its his network card suddenly gone faulty. Just to check, he hadnt set up static IPs on his PCs had he?  The Technicolors IP address ranges are different to Netgears. 192.168.1.X rather than 192.168.0.x
This may be the issue. Also you can check if his PC has been correctly assigned an IP by looking in the routers webpages.  See mine below.
dvorak
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Re: Son can't connect to our new fibre router via Powerline.

169 ip addresses appear when the computer can't find a dhcp router to get an ip address from, it's one that windows assigns to itself.
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petebs
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎17-01-2013

Re: Son can't connect to our new fibre router via Powerline.

@dvorak He's aware of the whole 169 thing, how it's a placeholder to allow directly connected machines to speak to each other.
@penfold See, here's where it gets weird. The IP address is listed as handed to his computer on the router, it's with his machine itself that it loses the allocation. He /did/ have static IP addresses, but he dropped those as soon as we got the new router installed to make sure he'd catch the new addresses.
Could it be the fact that it's a locked down router? He just went on in a drone that it's a proprietary piece of kit that does one job and that's it. The XE104 Powerline is a 4-port switch adapter, could that be causing the incompatibility? Would a 1xRJ45 -> 1xRJ45 be more likely to work?
I actually feel a bit sorry for him. He's been trying to get it working for a good five hours now.
pengbo
Grafter
Posts: 104
Registered: ‎15-01-2013

Re: Son can't connect to our new fibre router via Powerline.

petebs I would try a static ip-address on his PC. something like 192.168.1.32 with gateway 192.168.1.254 and subnet 255.255.255.0 would do.  Set the DNS to 192.168.1.254 as well.
Then see what other computers he can ping on the network. If everything stats working then just run with a static address or slowly change different things one at a time to see why DHCP is playing up.
petebs
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎17-01-2013

Re: Son can't connect to our new fibre router via Powerline.

That's the first thing he did, pengbo, when it hadn't worked with DHCP. He'd added static addresses in when we had our Netgear because it was quicker for his computer to connect when Steam kept telling him he wasn't connected when it tried to log him in.
He's thrown in the towel and said he'll get a router that isn't locked down like this one. He's trying again to attach the old netgear to the network again, but I think he's just fighting against it.
Kelly
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Re: Son can't connect to our new fibre router via Powerline.

Locked down?  What do you mean by that?  I don't believe we've locked anything out on the router?
Kelly Dorset
Ex-Broadband Service Manager
Townman
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Re: Son can't connect to our new fibre router via Powerline.

Quote from: petebs
He's thrown in the towel and said he'll get a router that isn't locked down like this one. He's trying again to attach the old netgear to the network again, but I think he's just fighting against it.

This is highly unlikely to have anything specifically to do with the router - as far as the router is concerned (if the power-line adapters are working properly) the PC is connected directly to the router.  To eliminate any possiblility of the XE's contributing to the issue, can the PC be moved or otherwise directly connected to the router?  If this fails, then the problem is elsewhere, if it works, then the problem is with the XEs / power circuit.
Getting a 169 IP address is symptomatic of the PC not being able to connect to the DHCP service in the router - that would indicate an issue with the XE devices or possibly a compatibility issue with the Router's ethernet ports - too fast or half / full duplex settings.  Are the router ethernet ports set to AUTO?  Has he tried any of the other ethernet ports?  Is anything else working using the ethernet ports?

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

petebs
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎17-01-2013

Re: Son can't connect to our new fibre router via Powerline.

@Kelly He's looked online for the documentation that the router links to, and some of the options aren't present. It's what he said, and to be fair he'd been trying to get it to work for four and a half hours at that point. He might have just been moaning since he couldn't get it working. Smiley
@townman Everything connects fine before the Powerline gear. As for the ethernet settings for duplex, he says he can't find it. Here's the interesting bit that just messes with both my head and his. He's got it fixed for now. It's working through this:
Openreach Modem -> Technicolor Router -> Netgear Router functioning as AP ->XE102 -> XE104 -> his PC.
So with that said, and the DHCP is being sent from the Technicolor router, he said the only thing responsible is the way the Technicolor router interacts with the Powerline adapters directly.
Kelly
Hero
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Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Son can't connect to our new fibre router via Powerline.

Perhaps there an incompatibility there.  Worth a dig.
Kelly Dorset
Ex-Broadband Service Manager
petebs
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎17-01-2013

Re: Son can't connect to our new fibre router via Powerline.

@Kelly Neither of us can find any relevant setting. Looking at the local network settings, all we can do is do work on Interface Information, TCP/IP Configuration, IP Addresses, DHCP Pools.