Powerline Adapers Stopped Working

[cfortney]

Hi All,

Need some help with my PowerLine adapter set-up. It has been working flawlessly for a few months now. New roommate moves in, and she plugs a second adapter (different model, too) into our router for powerline connection in her room. I start experiencing network drops, and I deduce that I need to unplug her adapter, because we should (as far as I know) be able to run off of one router-connected adapter.

Now I've got just my adapter plugged into the router, but it won't connect. The netgear router displays an orange light over the ethernet port the powerline is connected to. I've tried different cables, different outlets, but suddenly the router won't play nice with either of our adapters. When I plug my laptop directly into the router via ethernet, the light turns white and I'm able to connect. What happened??!

 

[cfortney]

I hate to double post, but I could really use an answer! I honestly can't figure this one out, I don't know why the wireless router has suddenly decided to stop working with any PowerLine I connect to it (I've tried two different outlets, both of them were previously working).

 

[bill001g]

You run 2 pair of network adapters and they stomp all over each other. Even if you run 3 ( ie 1 at the router and 2 remote) you get a pretty big hit in performance. In addition to the splitting the connection to the router they create a connection between each other that you likely do not use.

 

[cfortney]

You run 2 pair of network adapters and they stomp all over each other. Even if you run 3 ( ie 1 at the router and 2 remote) you get a pretty big hit in performance. In addition to the splitting the connection to the router they create a connection between each other that you likely do not use.

Is there any solution to this? Because it seems like even with only her powerline adapter in her room, and the one plugged into the router, there's still no signal. It wasn't doing this before and the router is on the latest firmware.

 

[bill001g]

The problem is in the electrical wires. This is a similar issue as if you both had wireless routers on the same channels. There is no real solution for this you are not suppose to run 2 independent powerline network connection on the same power connections...ie house.

 

[cfortney]

I feel like I haven't quite got my question across - I'm not trying to use multiple power adapters. I really don't care if my new roommate can get an ethernet connection in her room. The issue is that she moved in, plugged her power adapter in, and now my pair won't work even if I unplug hers. Her adapters seemed to have changed some settings on my router. I just unplugged her adapter from the router, and plugged mine in, and then plugged the receiving end into my computer. Which had been working fine for a year. But now, I get no connection and Windows displays 'Unidentified network'. Has anyone ever heard of anything like this?

 

[bill001g]

Some of them have reset switches. These devices tend to try to figure things out for themselves...and get confused. They may have tried to form a network with her pair and one of yous units may have tried to use the encryption keys from her units.

Even though a power strip is not normally recommended it does help test. Plug both your units into a power strip. Make sure they connect with each other...there should be lights on most units. Then connect one to the router and the other to your PC all in the same room.

If that does not work then I really don't know

 

[cfortney]

Some of them have reset switches. These devices tend to try to figure things out for themselves...and get confused. They may have tried to form a network with her pair and one of yous units may have tried to use the encryption keys from her units.

Even though a power strip is not normally recommended it does help test. Plug both your units into a power strip. Make sure they connect with each other...there should be lights on most units. Then connect one to the router and the other to your PC all in the same room.

If that does not work then I really don't know

Hi Bill,

Thanks for the help. Eventually got my pair working again. Not sure if it was resetting or the updating of the firmware on my router. Now that I've got my pair working, is there any way my roommate could pick up the same brand of adapter and get a connection in her room, too?

 

[bill001g]

Yes but you only want 1 more unit not a pair. It will form a full mesh between the devices. That is not optimum for most situation because the connection between the 2 pc is not commonly used but it reserves bandwidth out of the total. In effect it will divide the total bandwidth by 3. If your internet connection is not real large then that will not be a issue.