Powerline adapters sudden crappy connection speeds

[steelo]

So, I purchased Netgear 1000Mbps powerline adapters about a year ago after becoming frustrated with the wifi in our house. My router (a 2-3 year old Netgear Nighthawk N7000) is on the first floor of our home and my PC is almost directly above it in a bedroom on the 2nd floor. All was working well for the past year, however in the past week my connection speed has dropped from almost 100mbps w/ 40ms ping to anywhere between 20-40 Mbps with a 70-80 ms ping. I've ran an internet speed test downstairs via wifi and we are getting ~100Mbps (which is our ISP's advertised speed) Nothing has changed as far as where the adapters are plugged in...I've even rebooted my router several times and enabled QOS on my router (which actually made it worse) It's very frustrating trying to play VR games online and I cannot even understand what my fellow players are telling me. Audio and game play in STBC and Onward are very choppy where before the game was very playable.

 

Any ideas what could be causing this? My wifi speeds are very good (as long as you're on the 1st floor) Do these adapters need to be 'reset' every once in awhile? Thanks!

[Faisal A]

Are there any new obstructions ? Adapters don't need to be reset althaugh it could be a hardware issue in the adapter

[steelo]

1 minute ago, Faisal A said:

Are there any new obstructions ? Adapters don't need to be reset althaugh it could be a hardware issue in the adapter

Thanks for the reply. What do you mean by obstructions? The router and 1st PL adapter is on the 1st floor in our living room and the second adapter connected to my PC almost directly above it on the 2nd floor.

[Faisal A]

Are there any closed doors ? Is there any funiture in the way. Did you change the location of the adapters ? Is the main router ethernet slow ?

[steelo]

9 minutes ago, Faisal A said:

Are there any closed doors ? Is there any funiture in the way. Did you change the location of the adapters ? Is the main router ethernet slow ?

The computer is in a small bedroom and I usually shut the door when I play as to not disturb my wife, I wouldn't think that would affect speeds though as PL adapters use my homes electrical grid. The location of the adapters has not changed - Unfortunately, I'm very limited to electrical outlets that are located close enough to my PC/router. I have yet to test the routers ethernet connection but wifi speeds are quite good as long as you remain on the 1st floor.

[Faisal A]

Try leaving the door open and playing. Also, use multiple speed test. Do not rely on one website for accurate readings. use speedof.me and googles speed test aswell

Edited November 25, 2019 by LogicalDrm

[Lurick]

On 10/18/2019 at 6:19 PM, Faisal A said:

Try leaving the door open and playing. Also, use multiple speed test. Do not rely on one website for accurate readings. use speedof.me and googles speed test aswell

He's using powerline adapters, the door being open or closed has nothing to do with it. Additionally, he's just testing on WiFi to make sure the speeds are good downstairs but the actual connection from upstairs to downstairs is powerline.

Edited November 25, 2019 by LogicalDrm

[steelo]

On 10/18/2019 at 6:19 PM, Faisal A said:

Try leaving the door open and playing. Also, use multiple speed test. Do not rely on one website for accurate readings. use speedof.me and googles speed test aswell

Okay, thanks...I'll try this test when I get home. I've been using speedtest.net

 

Do you think maybe I should try resetting the PL adapters to the default settings? I recall there being a 'factory reset' button on the back.

Edited November 25, 2019 by LogicalDrm

[steelo]

15 minutes ago, Lurick said:

He's using powerline adapters, the door being open or closed has nothing to do with it. Additionally, he's just testing on WiFi to make sure the speeds are good downstairs but the actual connection from upstairs to downstairs is powerline.

Correct sir. Wifi works great downstairs but crappy upstairs. I've been using powerline adapters to remedy that with my gaming PC being upstairs. It's worked great up until the past week.

[Lurick]

Just now, steelo said:

Correct sir. Wifi works great downstairs but crappy upstairs. I've been using powerline adapters to remedy that with my PC being upstairs. It's worked great up until the past week.

You could try resetting them and seeing if that fixes it, worse case nothing changes but hopefully they are just in a bad state somehow and a reset works

[steelo]

3 minutes ago, Lurick said:

You could try resetting them and seeing if that fixes it, worse case nothing changes but hopefully they are just in a bad state somehow and a reset works

Thanks, I'll try that once I get home. I just hope it isn't something wrong with my PC's ethernet port or something...

[Faisal A]

Are you using a cat5 cable. Try using a newer one, but if its been working fine before that might not be the issue

 

[steelo]

5 minutes ago, Faisal A said:

Are you using a cat5 cable. Try using a newer one, but if its been working fine before that might not be the issue

 

Yes, they're the cables that came with the adapters. If a factory reset doesn't help, that will probably be my next step.

 

I've been googling this problem and it looks like 40-50Mbps is fairly 'normal' for PL adapters in residential homes. However, my connection certainly doesn't seem stable lately as I've never had problems with audio cutting out/stuttering up until the past week.

 

 

[Faisal A]

Try using a different device. Maybe the Ethernet controller has gone, which is more likely, but they can be replaced for about 15$

[steelo]

9 minutes ago, Faisal A said:

Try using a different device. Maybe the Ethernet controller has gone, which is more likely, but they can be replaced for about 15$

Believe it or not, that's the only desktop PC (or device) we have in the house with an ethernet port...everything else runs strictly off of wifi. Well, I do have a rpi 3 but I believe the ethernet capability is so severely limited on that device, I doubt it will really tell me anything =( 

 

 

[Euchre]

If there's a device anywhere on the same breaker panel that is creating new line noise, like a space heater, it'll have an impact on the effectiveness of the powerline adapter. This is one of the reasons they're far from an ideal solution.

 

If you are literally directly above that router, and your wifi connects poorly, and the house isn't so ancient that it has metal hiding in the walls (like chicken wire to hold plaster on lathe), then look at how your antennas are oriented. The pictures show them with the 2 outer ones slightly splayed, which I think is done to make it look 'cool', but the position alters the propagation of the signal itself, quite a bit. Believe it or not, laying the center antenna flat, straight out from the back of the router, could actually massively increase your signal directly upstairs.

[steelo]

1 hour ago, Euchre said:

If there's a device anywhere on the same breaker panel that is creating new line noise, like a space heater, it'll have an impact on the effectiveness of the powerline adapter. This is one of the reasons they're far from an ideal solution.

 

If you are literally directly above that router, and your wifi connects poorly, and the house isn't so ancient that it has metal hiding in the walls (like chicken wire to hold plaster on lathe), then look at how your antennas are oriented. The pictures show them with the 2 outer ones slightly splayed, which I think is done to make it look 'cool', but the position alters the propagation of the signal itself, quite a bit. Believe it or not, laying the center antenna flat, straight out from the back of the router, could actually massively increase your signal directly upstairs.

I think I've tied every possible antenna configuration and this is a new(ish) home that's about 20 years old. If I have no luck with the PL adapters, I'll try your suggestion laying the center antenna flat. The PL adapters have worked flawlessly up until now...not sure what might have changed.

[Sentios]

I have used powerline adapters before in an old house that had poor wifi transmission to the basement. It seemed to me that they were polarity sensitive in a sense, like it mattered if the left plug was into the hot or the neutral of the outlet. One of the adapters may have unplugged and plugged back in with the wrong orientation.

 

If that doesn't help then I would say first you should eliminate the possibility of a hardware or software configuration by plugging the adapter from upstairs into a different outlet in the same room as the router side adapter and then testing your speed.

 

Assuming that works then since your setup worked before then you need to take a 'what has changed' approach to troubleshooting. Through a process of elimination you have to determine if ANYTHING (from microwaves and refrigerators to phone chargers and led/smart bulbs) plugged into ANY of the outlets served by the 2 breakers you are plugged into are causing interference. Speaking of breakers, the breakers themselves can actually cause interference as well if they're incorporating any kind of circuit protection like AFCI (or probably GFCI at the outlet).

 

Lastly your the quality of the power feeding (and grounding but if you have grounding issues may Linus's electrician friend have mercy on your soul) your house can actually cause issues as well, I think that netgear says below 100V the powerline adapter won't even work at all.

 

Powerline adapters are definitely a solution to wifi issues, but they also have their own can of worms.

[steelo]

On 10/18/2019 at 11:42 PM, Sentios said:

I have used powerline adapters before in an old house that had poor wifi transmission to the basement. It seemed to me that they were polarity sensitive in a sense, like it mattered if the left plug was into the hot or the neutral of the outlet. One of the adapters may have unplugged and plugged back in with the wrong orientation.

 

If that doesn't help then I would say first you should eliminate the possibility of a hardware or software configuration by plugging the adapter from upstairs into a different outlet in the same room as the router side adapter and then testing your speed.

 

Assuming that works then since your setup worked before then you need to take a 'what has changed' approach to troubleshooting. Through a process of elimination you have to determine if ANYTHING (from microwaves and refrigerators to phone chargers and led/smart bulbs) plugged into ANY of the outlets served by the 2 breakers you are plugged into are causing interference. Speaking of breakers, the breakers themselves can actually cause interference as well if they're incorporating any kind of circuit protection like AFCI (or probably GFCI at the outlet).

 

Lastly your the quality of the power feeding (and grounding but if you have grounding issues may Linus's electrician friend have mercy on your soul) your house can actually cause issues as well, I think that netgear says below 100V the powerline adapter won't even work at all.

 

Powerline adapters are definitely a solution to wifi issues, but they also have their own can of worms.

Thanks. There is only one way (that I am aware of) to plug the PL adapters into my outlets. I don't think polarity is an issue in my case. On Friday, I attempted to do a 'factory reset' of the adapters, I then performed a speed test on my PC upstairs - I was getting around 60 Mbps, which actually is not that bad. Afterwards, I played a game star trek bridge crew VR and it seemed my audio issues were finally resolved. However, on Sunday I once again experienced serious lagging and audio stuttering making the game unplayable with friends. I ran a speed test and was showing ~68 Mbps download speeds.

 

I'm beginning to think this is a problem with the games servers and not my connection.

[Ja Krispie]

You can also check your WiFi channels. If the channel you're on has become highly populated it can cause issues. The best channels to be on would be 1,6,11 since these channels don't overlap

[steelo]

On 10/25/2019 at 4:11 PM, trueCABLE said:

 

I believe I (may) have fixed the issue. As I mentioned above, the audio stuttering occurred mainly with a single game (STBC) I've researched the issue a bit and found that I needed to forward quite a few ports for the audio to work properly. Since then, I've been able to understand other players and sound isn't cutting out. My PL connection is still around 60 Mbps, so I believe the transfer speeds are okay. Thanks everyone!

Edited December 22, 2019 by LogicalDrm