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How to clean up a noise creator?
Just got a set of Powerline 2000 Extender (PLP2000) units. Connected one to my router and placed the 2nd one upstairs in my office. The Pick-a-plug LED came up orange right off the bat - disappointing - same on other outlets in the room.
Is it possible an appliance, such as refrigerator, can generate 'noise' on my home power grid that interferes with this unit? If so, is there something I can plug it into to eliminate/reduce the 'noise' (leaving it unplugged is not a solution).
Back Story:
Installed and the Pick-a-plug LED came up orange. Connections seemed good - just slow (12Mbps).
FYI - my Wi-Fi connection gets between 250 and 350 (I'm paying for 300). The reason I got the Powerline is because on my laptop, during video meetings, I get dropped occasionally - at least once a day - very annoying. I immediately look at the Wi-Fi and it's gone or in the middle of reconnecting. I have other computers that do not have this issue, same location, so my theory is that the laptop Wi-Fi is flakey.
So I went to lunch and read on the internet about what to do. Get back from lunch and it's green - yay! Within 10 minutes back to orange and occasionally red with speeds anywhere between 6-21Mbps -boo! Regardless, I tried a few meetings on the Ethernet and as expected, it's worse than Wi-Fi, I now get dropped even when my video is off.
Few days pass...So I started unplugging things around the house to isolate what might be causing the 'noise'. I read power bricks can cause 'noise', so I unplugged all that I could find - who knew there are so many! Little changed, until I unplugged a commercial cooler we have in the garage. Results! I still get orange more than green, but definitely more green than before. So it's not the only culprit but it helps. Obviously, we also have a frig in the kitchen, microwave, dishwasher, clothes washer and dryer, furnace (blower), and various other equipment with motors. Obviously, I can't unplug them all.
So unless, I get a solution soon, the Powerline is being returned - failure to perform. Then I'll need to take look at MoCA, getting a USB Wi-Fi for the laptop, or better yet, see if my boss will get me a new laptop. 🙂
313MME wrote:
Regarding 'circuit sensitive', I do not believe the units need to be in the same circuit.
Perhaps I wasn't clear about "circuits". No one said anything about plugs having to be on "the same circuit" but they do have to be an "electrically clean" circuit.
Plugs are obviously going to be sensitive to any electrical interference on your mains circuit, the one that goes back to the power company's meter.
Powerline plugs depend on, or are sensitive to, the quality of the electrical circuit they are connected to. If you have a noisy mains circuit for some reason – devices that create electrical noise or that have corroded connections – that will get in the way of the signal that plugs use to communicate with each other.
They obviously have to be on the same electrical circuit or they won't be able to communicate with one another. So you can't plug one into your house and another one in the neighbour's house and expect them to communicate with each other.
That's where another "circuit sensitive" factor comes into play. For safety reasons, the wiring in your property may have all sorts of switches, trips, fuse boxes and junction boxes that separate the electrical circuit in the house from, for example, your garage.
I know from experience, that Powerline can't always cross those barriers easily.
All of these things mean that, in various ways, Powerline is sensitive to the mains circuit.
From playing with the devices plugged in, there is definitely 'pollution' being generated from one or more plugged in devices.Kind of shows that the Powerline plugs are sensitive to the local mains circuit and what is on it.
So my question is how to mitigate that. Is there something a device can be plugged into to prevent it from generating 'pollution' back onto the house's power grid?Find the device that creates this "pollution" and do something about it. I would be inclined to "recycle" is on the grounds that I don't want something like that in the house. Or experiment with those mains filters that HiFi nuts use to keep electrical noise off their equipment.
I have NOT tried to put the extender unit on an outlet near the router unit. I may try that when I have time, but that really would not tell me anything useful (maybe prove your 'circuit sensitive' theory).On the contrary. It would show if you have a problem with the plugs themselves. Believe it or not, electronic stuff can come off the production line in a less than perfect form. It would also indicate that somewhere in your house there is a connection that deserves an electrician's attention.
The first move when trying to troubleshot anything is to rule out the simple stuff and then move on to more complicated things.
Read the many messages that have appeared here over the years and you will find that "test them in the same room" is pretty well the first thing to do when troubleshooting poor signal problems.
Your call, but why reject years of input from people who have "been there done that"?
3 Replies
313MME wrote:
Is it possible an appliance, such as refrigerator, can generate 'noise' on my home power grid that interferes with this unit?
Yes. Powerline can be circuit sensitive. Or you house wiring may just be old and flaky.
One simple test is to put two plugs as near to each other as you can manage. Up close to the router that will he the "host" plug.
If you can't get a decent connection between two plugs that are within a few feet of each other in the same room circuit then Powerline may not be for you.
Thanks for the quick response.
Regarding 'circuit sensitive', I do not believe the units need to be in the same circuit. If so, it's a design flaw right from the get-go, as most houses have multiple circuits and most outlets on a circuit are close enough to one another that wi-fi would suffice or a long ethernet cable is more economical. I may believe that some circuit breakers may hamper the parasite signal, but I've not seen anyone suggest that yet or how to identify those breakers.
The house is not brand new, built in '88, but I doubt we have flaky wiring. From playing with the devices plugged in, there is definitely 'pollution' being generated from one or more plugged in devices. So my question is how to mitigate that. Is there something a device can be plugged into to prevent it from generating 'pollution' back onto the house's power grid?
I have NOT tried to put the extender unit on an outlet near the router unit. I may try that when I have time, but that really would not tell me anything useful (maybe prove your 'circuit sensitive' theory). I need to make it work where it's installed now. That's 'real world' stuff.So you may be right. I'm trying hard NOT to come the conclusion that you cannot clean up a dirty house power grid and so the Powerline may not be right for me (or I would guess most houses for that matter).
313MME wrote:
Regarding 'circuit sensitive', I do not believe the units need to be in the same circuit.
Perhaps I wasn't clear about "circuits". No one said anything about plugs having to be on "the same circuit" but they do have to be an "electrically clean" circuit.
Plugs are obviously going to be sensitive to any electrical interference on your mains circuit, the one that goes back to the power company's meter.
Powerline plugs depend on, or are sensitive to, the quality of the electrical circuit they are connected to. If you have a noisy mains circuit for some reason – devices that create electrical noise or that have corroded connections – that will get in the way of the signal that plugs use to communicate with each other.
They obviously have to be on the same electrical circuit or they won't be able to communicate with one another. So you can't plug one into your house and another one in the neighbour's house and expect them to communicate with each other.
That's where another "circuit sensitive" factor comes into play. For safety reasons, the wiring in your property may have all sorts of switches, trips, fuse boxes and junction boxes that separate the electrical circuit in the house from, for example, your garage.
I know from experience, that Powerline can't always cross those barriers easily.
All of these things mean that, in various ways, Powerline is sensitive to the mains circuit.
From playing with the devices plugged in, there is definitely 'pollution' being generated from one or more plugged in devices.Kind of shows that the Powerline plugs are sensitive to the local mains circuit and what is on it.
So my question is how to mitigate that. Is there something a device can be plugged into to prevent it from generating 'pollution' back onto the house's power grid?Find the device that creates this "pollution" and do something about it. I would be inclined to "recycle" is on the grounds that I don't want something like that in the house. Or experiment with those mains filters that HiFi nuts use to keep electrical noise off their equipment.
I have NOT tried to put the extender unit on an outlet near the router unit. I may try that when I have time, but that really would not tell me anything useful (maybe prove your 'circuit sensitive' theory).On the contrary. It would show if you have a problem with the plugs themselves. Believe it or not, electronic stuff can come off the production line in a less than perfect form. It would also indicate that somewhere in your house there is a connection that deserves an electrician's attention.
The first move when trying to troubleshot anything is to rule out the simple stuff and then move on to more complicated things.
Read the many messages that have appeared here over the years and you will find that "test them in the same room" is pretty well the first thing to do when troubleshooting poor signal problems.
Your call, but why reject years of input from people who have "been there done that"?