IS this normal behavior for my Powerline adapters

[hw_user]

My router is on the main floor and I cannot get good WIFI at the back room on second floor so I use powerline adapter. One adapter wired connected to the router and plugin to the wall socket, the other adapter plug in directly to the wall socket of the room on second floor with an android TV box connected to it. This works. I power off the android box when I am not watching TV. But once in a while the android box cannot get an IP address when I power it up. I have to unplug the adapter from the wall (just the second floor side) and plug it back in again to get it to work. It looks like that the link between the adapter is disconnected when not in use and need to establish again by POR (power on reset , i.e unplug and plug in again). I was under the impression that the 2 adapters 'ping' each other to maintain the connection even when the connected device is powered off. So is my observation normal ?
My other issue is I need the connection for my PC, so I move the ethernet cable from the adapter to my TV box and connect it to my PC. My PC was never able to get an IP address even after I unplug and re-plug. But when I switch the cable back to the TV box, it works. It almost look like that the adapter is dedicated to be used by the TV box only. I cannot POR the adapter on the router side because I have a couple other adapters in the network.
Since I now needed the connection for my TV box and my PC, will using a hub or switch with TV box and PC plug into it works. This may be better because the switch will be power on all the time and not like the TV box which is power off from time to time. I like to get some expert advice before going out to buy a switch.

 

[Barty1884]

Powerline can have any number of issues, including what you've described. Unfortunately, with so many variables including (but not limited to) the adapters themselves, their capabilities, the quality/length of the wiring between A & B, it can be a real pain to troubleshoot.

 

[bill001g]

A switch make life easier for a fairly small amount of money.

In general it should just work no matter what you plug in or unplug but as stated above the boxes have almost no diagnostic ability. The newer powerline units based on the AV2 standard work a little better but even the old ones should not be doing what you say.

The thing I know that confused them was if you had say 3 powerline units and moved a pc physically between them. It sometime took a bit to figure out the mac address had moved. It has been years so hopefully they fixed that.

 

[hw_user]

Thank you for the quick response. In my case, I have 4 powerline adapters in the network, one to the router and 3 for other devices. 2 Belkins and AV200 2 Netgear AV500. I know that mixed brand may not cooperate very well. My friend has 2 spare Belkin Av200 which I can borrow to try if all 4 Belkins will work better. I have a quick question about encryption. Does the powerline adapter share encryption password or each paired connection has their own password ? The reason I asked is when I plug in a new one and set the encryption password , I need to press the encryption button on the one connected to the router. Will that change the existing password and mess up my other existing connection ? I really do not want to disconnect any existing user when I test the new one.