Asus RT-AC68U Settings with Powerline Ethernet

[M00]

I've been having some problems with connecting to the internet over the past month since getting the Asus RT-AC68U.

 

Prior to getting this router my setup was as follows: Technicolor TG587n v3 router/modem in the front of the house connected to Netcomm NP201AV homeplug powerline. This connected to my room at the opposite end of the house through the powerlines and was plugged into a TP-LINK SG1008D 8-Port unmanaged gigabit switch. I then have my PC (running Windows 8.1), PS4, PS3 and TV plugged into the switch. This setup has worked fine since I set it up about 3 years ago.

 

Around a month ago I bought an Asus RT-AC68U and so am now only using the Technicolor as a modem. The rest of my setup has not changed. My powerline connection and a few other PCs down the router end of the house are plugged into the new router just as they were in the technicolor before.

 

The setup was fairly easy and at first everything seemed to be working fine. However after a few days I noticed that sometimes seemingly randomly the internet connection to the PC in my room would just disappear. It has been happening about 2 to 3 times a week. The connection will just drop. When I do the windows troubleshooting it says ""Ethernet" doesn't have a valid IP configuration". The problem will persist for a few hours and then come back just as randomly as it left. (The time it takes to come back seems to increase each time it happens) I have also found that my PS4 and TV lose their internet connections at the same time as my PC. However, all other devices connected directly to the router's ethernet ports or wirelessly work fine with full internet and network connectivity. This led me to believe it was a fault in the switch but when plugging my devices directly into the powerline plug it seems to have the same problem.

 

I've tried countless troubleshooting options on my PC that I've found on forums all over the net but none have seemed to do anything. Like reinstalling my ethernet adapter drivers, reseting my ethernet adapter, setting static IP, using different ethernet cables, checking that all 3 lights on the powerline plug are green, updating the router's firmware.

 

The only things I can think it could be is:

1. There is a setting in the Asus RT-AC68U router that isn't set correctly for using ethernet over power. (I don't know if this is a thing as I don't know a huge amount about networking.)

2. The Netcomm NP201AV homeplug is failing and it is just a coincidence that it started to fail when I got the new router.

 

Does anyone have a decent knowledge of the Asus RT-AC68U settings to tell me if there is anything I would need to change for my setup before I go out and spend $70 on a new powerline ethernet set? Also, if anyone can think of anything else I may have missed please let me know. Thanks.

[Vitalius]

Wow. What were the odds?

My current setup is a little different from yours, but it's pretty much the exact same in terms of one thing. I have an ASUS RT-AC68U and I'm using Powerline to connect to it. I have TPLink Powerline adapters. 

I have a similar problem. Sometimes, my connection will just drop for no real reason. The Powerline adapters say they are all still connected to each other, but my PC can't connect to the internet at all. However, I know for a fact I'm connected to the Router itself because when this fails, it redirects me to the router's screen saying it couldn't access the page or something. But if I use my phone or something, I can connect to the internet over WiFi. So the issue isn't my router not being connected to the internet, or my PC not being connected to my router. Which sounds very strange to begin with.

All I do to fix this is unplug my powerline adapter (which my PC is directly plugged into) and plug it right back in. I don't reset it. Just unplug -> replug and usually that fixes it. 

Whatever it is, I think it's specific to this router. Using my cheap generic Linksys WRT54G, everything works fine 100% of the time. 

[M00]

Hmm, this has me thinking it's definitely something wrong with the router. Either some setting or just general incompatibility with powerline connections.

 

Unplugging 1 end of the powerline didn't seem to fix anything but I just tried unplugging both at the same time and plugging back in and it seems to be temporarily fixed. However, this isn't really a reasonable fix for my situation. Where I have to have one end of the powerline connections is in an extremely unaccesible spot behind some heavy furniture. I can't really be unplugging it a couple of times a week. There must be a fix to this.

[Vitalius]

-snip-

I just got a firmware update on mine. Check yours. It might have nothing to do with the issue, but hopefully it changes things for you.

[M00]

Ok I just did the latest firmware update. Seems to be working so far, only time will tell. Gotta love intermittent problems.

[AP13]

I am having similar issue wit RT-AX86U. I have logged a ticket with Asus Technical Support 

[Falcon1986]

On 5/12/2014 at 8:11 AM, M00 said:

Unplugging 1 end of the powerline didn't seem to fix anything but I just tried unplugging both at the same time and plugging back in and it seems to be temporarily fixed. However, this isn't really a reasonable fix for my situation. Where I have to have one end of the powerline connections is in an extremely unaccesible spot behind some heavy furniture. I can't really be unplugging it a couple of times a week. There must be a fix to this.

That's the problem with Powerline. The quality of the link between the 2 adapters can change dramatically when appliances on the same circuit turn on/off. Power-cycling each adapter forces them to re-sync, but that's only temporary.

 

In my opinion, Powerline should have been retired a long time ago. Because of its frequent link problems, it should only be used in peripheral applications where clients don't need much bandwidth or uptime.

 

You're stuck with doing what you're doing now unless you link the modem to router with ethernet.