Powerline Adapter strange issue

[#1]

@ejs

LOL.., love technical terms but only if I can understand them. Can you explain how one does this exactly?

For me personally, when I lose connection it only affects my computer which is upstairs, the Hub One router itself shows no error lights. You may well be on to something but there are many factors which can cause these problems. TP recommend not plugging them into trailing adapters but I live in a typical 80's house which lacks sockets. Besides I have my other TP devices plugged into trailing leads and they don't suffer the same issue. It's a mystery for sure.

I'm keen to check these logs you mentioned anyway, hopefully you can get back to us both on this one, I'm sure @rollo will probably find that useful to check also.

Thanks 

Additional Note:

According to the various comments on TP forums trailing adapters are not generally considered a problem unless they're also surge protected. Incidentally often when this issue occurs if I right click the network icon on the task bar and choose 'Troubleshoot Problems' often the result yields no problems whereas other times it will say the Network Adapter has been reset. This generally solves the problem until it next occurs.

[#2]

Log into the router and have a look around. Since I don't have a Hub One I can only refer you to:

https://www.plus.net/help/broadband/router-user-guides/

[#3]

@ejs

Thanks for the advice, that link wasn't very helpful but I found it myself.

For today I'm seeing several 'disconnection' events for my affected device (ASUS - desktop PC) not sure how to interpret the results though. Oddly my laptop (BigDinky) also shows a disconnection but that device wasn't even on and was in sleep mode.

Please see my PM.

BTW, Not sure if it's relevant but I had this same issue with my previous router Plusnet 582n. I believe it also affected me with my previous ISP o2 so perhaps not router related? I'm wondering if maybe it's related to the Network Adapter on my ASUS motherboard perhaps? Not sure how to test that theory without buying a new network card.

Thanks

[#4]

Power saving mode turned off on both devices (it was already turned off by default on one of them?? strange?)

The same problem still happens, I think the adapters must be interfeering with the broadband as it disconnects the broadband connection to the router. I have contacted plus net and they said they will invesitgate as it has come up as a fault on their system. I wonder if its dodgy wiring or something they can sort out with no cost.

I'm thinking about taking these adapters back to store and just run a black ethernet cable from downstairs to upstairs (window to window) as the router is directly below me, I didn't want to have to do this.

[#5]

@MKSlinky

I was suggesting to look at the logs mainly to see if the Internet (PPPoE) and DSL connections were dropping. Your specific problem looks like it's a problem with the connection between the device in question and the router, and is not affecting the connection between the router and the Internet. There's probably not much else of great use you'll get out of the router logs.

You could try testing with a different Ethernet cable, or a direct wired connection without powerlines, I would think the network adapter itself on the motherboard would be the least likely thing to be problematic.

[#6]

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@rollo wrote:

I'm thinking about taking these adapters back to store and just run a black ethernet cable from downstairs to upstairs (window to window) as the router is directly below me, I didn't want to have to do this.

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Pity it didn't work for you.., I know I said I don't recommend them for this reason but that aside they seem to work well in all other respects. A LAN cable through the window should certainly resolve that issue if you can live with an unsightly cable. Have you considered maybe trying a different powerline adapter? BT do one I believe, maybe you would have better luck with a different make?

[#7]

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@ejs wrote:

@MKSlinky

I was suggesting to look at the logs mainly to see if the Internet (PPPoE) and DSL connections were dropping. 

You could try testing with a different Ethernet cable, or a direct wired connection without powerlines, I would think the network adapter itself on the motherboard would be the least likely thing to be problematic.

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Thanks again for your advice. Unfortunately none of the options in the drop down menu on my logs mention PPPoE or DSL, not sure why but this is a grey area for me anyway.

Testing with a LAN cable direct to the router is also not an option, my router is connected to the master socket downstairs whilst the desktop PC is upstairs.

Brings me back to where I was before joining this post really, I've learnt to live with it over the last few years but it sure is annoying.  

[#8]

I have purchased the adapters on the 23rd do you think PC World would let me exchange them for a different brand? credit note maybe?

[#9]

It can't hurt to ask. Maybe take a print out of the comments in this forum or those found on the TP Link forums. If you have evidence to backup your complaint they can't really argue. 

They're not compelled to give you your money back unless it's faulty however it's up to the retailer to prove this. It's possible they might offer a repair in the first instance but that's doubtful as it would have to be sent back to the manufacturers. 

My guess would be that they will either refund you or offer a like for like replacement or allow you to choose something else.

I find whenever I find myself in this kind of situation it pays to be polite. Maybe ask to speak to the manager as they usually have more say so than floor staff.

Incidentally I've been looking at YouTube videos about this same issue this evening, I found one video here which instructs you to make a small batch (.bat) file to ping your default gateway every second, so far it seems to be working!

See this video: 

The text file you need to create initially as shown in this video will read as follows: ping -t 192.XXX.X.XXX

The bit in green represents your default gateway which you will find by following the instructions. Actually if you want to test this you really only need to follow the first 3 minutes of the video. You can run .bat file once created simply by double clicking it. To stop it just close the CMD window.

Worth a shot, at least you will have tried everything.

If you find this video too small watch it on YouTube

[#10]

Amazingly that actually has worked.

Speed I am getting to the router from PlusNet

Speed test results on PC upstairs

When I hook up my TV Box to the switch my speed drops down to about 45mbps. Which I do understand if you are having more than one device connected to the switch.

Steps I have made to work around this issue

1. Disabled power management on network card via Device Manager.
2. Turned off power saving mode on both adapters
3. Created a task that pings the router every second using a command line command. (used a vb script to hide the command line interface on login.

Is there a more accurate way to test your download speed? As I don't really trust these speed test sites as I get all sorts of different results ranging from 7mbps - 59mbps.

edit: currently downloading a game and it is downloading at around 6.8 - 7.16 mbps. Much bigger improvement from wifi which downloaded the same game at 2.3mbps max

edit 2: Just a thought, I wonder if when PC is turned off would the tv box not work. Will give it a test and get back to you

[#11]

Can confirm that tv box works without pc being turned on for ping to router to keep alive.

Does this issue only effect Windows?

[#12]

@rollo Fantastic news! 

Actually I'm now testing without sleep mode disabled on my TP's and have changed the network adapter back to power save mode. So far so good fingers crossed. 

Would i be right in thinking you're on fibre broadband? I use this speed test which gets mentioned a lot http://www.speedtest.net/

I used to have terrible speeds before I went fibre and then one day decided to fit a dedicated ADSL plate to the master socket and plugged my router into that. The speed increase was an additional 30% faster. Technically your not allowed to fit those plates yourself and so prior to having fibre broadband I refitted the old one only to have it changed back again for another ADSL faceplate by the BT engineer. 

Apparently I'm at the furthest point from my exchange but here's my stats anyway - I actually pay for 40 mbs so not too bad a result:

As for your other questions, it's difficult to give accurate answers, mostly I go by what other people are saying in the various forums. I don't own a MAC so I don't bother reading those comments.

I wonder if after you've tested the stability using the PING command whether it would be worth enabling those other disabled features, i.e. sleep mode and network adapter and see if it remains stable?

I'll keep you updated with my own testing anyway.

Cheers 

[#13]

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@rollo wrote:
Can confirm that tv box works without pc being turned on for ping to router to keep alive.

Sorry I should have probably discussed this one first! Yesterday you mentioned having spoken to Plusnet about your issue and they confirmed a fault being registered on your router. Since your TV box is working without the PING I wonder if maybe something has been fixed and the PING isn't actually making any difference?

[#14]

I have checked the support ticket and no updates has been replied from plusnet as of yet. But they could have potentially done something. Bit of a coincidence though right?

I have no idea if ping is making any actual difference and if it was disabling the power management on the network card which has made the difference.

I shall undo some changes and see what the actual fix for me was.

Thanks for all your support so far, it is very much appreciated.

[#15]

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@MKSlinky wrote:

I used to have terrible speeds before I went fibre and then one day decided to fit a dedicated ADSL plate to the master socket and plugged my router into that. The speed increase was an additional 30% faster. Technically your not allowed to fit those plates yourself and so prior to having fibre broadband I refitted the old one only to have it changed back again for another ADSL faceplate by the BT engineer.

You are allowed to fit a filtered faceplate yourself. Like anything else, they plug into the test socket, which is the dividing point between what's your responsibility and what's Openreach's. It's replacing the master socket itself which you're not supposed to do yourself.