Question Internet sporadic while my PC is turned on ?

May 19, 2022
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I live in a double storey house, we have a TP-Link AV2000 Powerline Adapter to connect the internet to our study upstairs, where 2 PCs are connected and a wifi router.

When my PC is turned on the internet will drop out immediately for about 20 seconds, then it will drop out periodically for 1-2 seconds at a time.
Eventually it'll level out, but after maybe an hour it'll drop out completely, with the connection light on the TP-Link turning off.
A hard reset of the TP-Link is the only thing that will fix it after this.

These outages only happen when my PC is on. It doesn't happen when other devices are connected to the wifi, or when my partners PC is on.
While these outages happen, the internet downstairs does not drop out.
 
Powerline devices are pretty stupid. They barely know there are different devices plugged into them. They have no idea for example what a IP address is they work purely on mac addresses.

In addition there is almost nothing you can configure on powerline networks. Most you can change thing like encryption keys but not much else.

Also since nothing downstairs is affected this means it is not your router, internet, or stuff like duplicate IP addresses.

This leaves leaves the powerline units. It is especially interesting that you loose the link light between the 2 powerline units. I forget but this light should have multiple colors. Before it fails is it green or whatever color means it has the strongest signals or is it one of the other colors that represent a poorer connection.

Unfortunately there is nothing you can set. Powerline units either work or they do not. It is the standard make sure it plugged directly into the outlets on both ends and maybe try other outlets in the room.

I have 2 guesses on why your pc might cause the issue. First if it is sending a lot of traffic it might causes lots of errors. Mostly a poor quality connection will always take more errors as traffic increases. You should be able to test this by using your other pc and downloading some large files.
The other idea is maybe the pc itself is causing interference from its power supply into the electrical wires. I would try a outlet away from the powerline units. Maybe a test with a extension cord to another room just to see if there is any difference.