Wired Dropouts

[#1]

Hi

I am getting periodic issues with my powerline internet connection at home.  I am getting about 70mb fibre connection which is good, but my computer is in a different room to the Plusnet hub so I've used Deveolo dLan 1200 adapters to get the internet connected. Most of the time this works fine but I get periodic outages of roughly a couple of minutes several times a day. If I just leave it alone, the internet will reconnect but when you are playing an online game or streaming music/radio, it is incredibly frustrating.

The wireless doesn't drop, just the wired connection via the Powerline, so it seems like the powerline connection is the source of the issue - I am just looking for advice to go about debugging this, or am I just stuck with it? Would it be better just to get a wireless receiver on my desktop?

thanks!

[#2]

The Devolo powerline adaptor has a light which should be solid for a good connection and flashes when the connection has dropped.  Check the condition of the light to see if the Devolo realises that it has lost the connection.  If so, then either your powerline adaptors are slightly faulty or there is some periodic burst of noise on the mains.  Unless you can correlate the drop-outs with something else happening in your house then you may need to try a wireless receiver - which would probably have been cheaper than the powerline devices in the first place.

[#3]

Powerline is a poor solution, even worse than wifi.

[#4]

Powerline has its place but it is best deployed in large buildings or outbuildings where the mains wiring extends beyond the reach of the WiFi.  

[#5]

I use powerline adapters at home and they work a treat. Having said that, they do depend on the quality of the electricity wiring of the property. If your WiFi connection is stable, I'd probably recommend getting a wireless adapter for your PC.

Or, ideally, hard wiring the PC to the router - if you're happy with a long trailing ethernet cable, that is.

[#6]

I, too, use powerline adaptors for three devices throughout the house with no issue.

I have heard that some don't work that well connected to extension sockets although ours seem fine.

[#7]

I used to struggle with expensive low speed powerline adaptors.

Eventually, I replaced them with some relatively cheap Cat 5e ethernet cable which allows me to interconnect devices at potential Gigabit speeds.

[#8]

Same here, I have TV's, Humax PVRs, PCs and gaming consoles connected using TP-Link Powerline Adapters, and I've never had issues with them.

[#9]

In my experience Powerline Adaptors sometimes hang and need to be turned off and on again to reset them.  Would you count that as an issue?  Routers can do the same thing but less frequently, I believe.  

[#10]

I’d agree with you there @ReedRichards that Power Line Adapters can hang, and in fairness I have had to reset my main one, but only once that I remember so I wouldn’t say it’s an issue, well certainly not for me considering the length of time (years) they have been in service.

I don’t think I had a router seize on me either but I have had a managed switch do that, caused be serious confusion until I finally power cycled it.

[#11]

Consider how Powerline units work. They impose a high frequency signal on to the mains cable. What you have to consider is other sources of noise on the mains wiring. We accept that WiFi can be affected by other routers plus extraneous wide band interference. It is exactly the same with mains wiring. The only difference being that WiFi is affected by radiated interference whilst Powerline is affected by conducted interference.

I do not believe that the 'quality of wiring' is the important factor as much as what other sources of wide band noise are present. Some will probably be imported but my suspicion is that the majority comes from switched mode power supplies taking high frequency pulses from the mains. If you go aroung the typical house you will find many ranging from phone and other toys chargers to TVs on standby to clocks etc. etc. Whilst each may comply with EMC regulations all this rubbish builds up. Also house wiring will pick up noise from radiated WiFi junk.

Like VileReynard I have given up both wireless and powerline, installed Ethernet 5E cable and never looked back,