Powerline adapter weird behaviour

[Special Agent 星雨]

TDLR at bottom.

 

 

I'm not sure how to describe this, other than saying it's quite bizarre.

 

I recently bought a D-Link DHP-701AV PowerLine Ethernet Adapter, and it's been working great.

 

I use this because I recently moved to a different room in the house, and despite getting 3/5 bars of Wi-Fi, the speeds are slow and ping spikes occur every 10 minutes, making gaming impossible. With this adapter I can now achieve ~40 mbps down and ~20mbps up on my 50/20 connection (Australia, shit tier internet).

 

However, here is where it gets interesting.

 

Whenever I stream content to Twitch, Youtube and even Discord screen sharing, my PowerLine adapter will shit itself. The PowerLine icon on the adapter will begin blinking red a few minutes after I start streaming, and I will lose all connection until I power down one of the two adapters and power it up again (effectively re-establishing the connection?).
 

This happens at all times of the day, no matter if its 4am or 12pm or right now, 3PM. This happens on my desktop and laptop.

 

If I'm downloading at full speed there are no problems at all, so what causes this behaviour when streaming/using high upload bandwidth? My only guess is that the electrical stuff in this house is too old? Can't think of another reason and Googling this hasn't resulted in anything.

 

TLDR: Powerline adapter shits itself if I'm streaming (or presumably doing anything upload heavy).

[Sir Asvald]

Hello! May I ask who old is your house? Power line adapters can be affected by old electric cables.

[Special Agent 星雨]

I am not sure, but based on the style/building material it looks to be 20-30 years old. My guess is also that the old electric cables in my house are at fault. Hopefully I can confirm this by taking my adapter to a newer house and using it there.

[Sir Asvald]

4 hours ago, Special Agent 星雨 said:

I am not sure, but based on the style/building material it looks to be 20-30 years old. My guess is also that the old oelectric cables in my house are at fault. Hopefully I can confirm this by taking my adapter to a newer house and using it there.

One other question. How are you connecting the Power Line Adapters? Make sure you connect them straight to the wall socket and not an extension.

[Special Agent 星雨]

'

On 6/12/2019 at 1:14 AM, Abdul201588 said:

One other question. How are you connecting the Power Line Adapters? Make sure you connect them straight to the wall socket and not an extension.

At the modem's end, it is plugged directly into the wall socket. Unfortunately, in my room I cannot do that, as it will also occupy the other, only free socket, meaning I'll be left with no access to electricity. So I guess this + old electrical wiring are the two potential causes for my situation.

[Sir Asvald]

4 hours ago, Special Agent 星雨 said:

'

At the modem's end, it is plugged directly into the wall socket. Unfortunately, in my room I cannot do that, as it will also occupy the other, only free socket, meaning I'll be left with no access to electricity. So I guess this + old electrical wiring are the two potential causes for my situation.

Well I believe that's the reason why you're having issues. You don't have any other sockets in your room? You only have one?

[Special Agent 星雨]

12 hours ago, Abdul201588 said:

Well I believe that's the reason why you're having issues. You don't have any other sockets in your room? You only have one?

I only have one pair of sockets in my room.

Things I have tried:
another room in the house where the adapter was plugged straight into the wall (same effect, stops working once high upload bandwidth is being used)

using the adapters in a newly built (<2 years) apartment, no issues.

 

I think its safe to conclude that the electrical wiring in my house is the culprit, which is quite a shame. Guess I'll have to use Wi-Fi when I need to stream.

[Sir Asvald]

3 hours ago, Special Agent 星雨 said:

I only have one pair of sockets in my room.

Things I have tried:
another room in the house where the adapter was plugged straight into the wall (same effect, stops working once high upload bandwidth is being used)

using the adapters in a newly built (<2 years) apartment, no issues.

 

I think its safe to conclude that the electrical wiring in my house is the culprit, which is quite a shame. Guess I'll have to use Wi-Fi when I need to stream.

Yeah. Can't you run a Ethernet cable?

[Special Agent 星雨]

On 6/14/2019 at 5:13 PM, Abdul201588 said:

Yeah. Can't you run a Ethernet cable?

I could but then it would need to be run through two living rooms and a kitchen, which I already know will not be supported by the rest of the family.

 

I have resorted to using Wi-Fi to stream, and use my powerline adapter for the rest. It has been working well so far.

[Ja Krispie]

1 hour ago, Special Agent 星雨 said:

I could but then it would need to be run through two living rooms and a kitchen, which I already know will not be supported by the rest of the family.

 

I have resorted to using Wi-Fi to stream, and use my powerline adapter for the rest. It has been working well so far.

The thing with Powerline adapters is since it runs through the lines in your wall they typically run best if they are on the same circuit (or wall)

For instance in my office I tested some and put it in the socket where my modem is which is on the outer wall. In another room I plugged them into a socket that was an interior wall. Slow connection. Same room moved it to a socket on the outer wall and the connection was pretty close to what I have. The solution I choose instead was to buy some deca adapters and use the old direct tv coax that was installed in the house. (DECA boxes are pretty cheap and I have the full speed from it. MOCA works as well if you have cable TV instead of satellite. They use difference frequencies on the COAX so they don't interfere with the TV signal. MOCA is more expensive though but like DECA works MUCH better than powerline adapters.)

[Special Agent 星雨]

On 6/22/2019 at 2:25 PM, Psybadek said:

The thing with Powerline adapters is since it runs through the lines in your wall they typically run best if they are on the same circuit (or wall)

For instance in my office I tested some and put it in the socket where my modem is which is on the outer wall. In another room I plugged them into a socket that was an interior wall. Slow connection. Same room moved it to a socket on the outer wall and the connection was pretty close to what I have. The solution I choose instead was to buy some deca adapters and use the old direct tv coax that was installed in the house. (DECA boxes are pretty cheap and I have the full speed from it. MOCA works as well if you have cable TV instead of satellite. They use difference frequencies on the COAX so they don't interfere with the TV signal. MOCA is more expensive though but like DECA works MUCH better than powerline adapters.)

Maybe in the future when we get access to better internet here.

Here in Australia we pay $80 AUD/month (~$55 USD/month) for 50 mbps download and 20 mbps upload. At these speeds even my powerline adapter can provide full download speeds.

 

Deca adapters sound great but probably won't be utilized fully, not here at least.