Powerline 1200 slowness

Aspirant

Jan 08, 2016

I'm having a similar problem (1/8/16) just bought my first pair of PL1200, but haven't yet begun to troubleshoot. The product idea is remarkable, and appears to give me a wired connection to the upstairs other end of the house that I could not reach via cables before.

Here is my setup: New CAT6 cable between my TWC modem and my Netgear wireless router. New CAT6 cable (14') from my router to the first PL1200. Upstairs and other end of the house, I plugged in my second PL1200 and received connectivity, but the Pick-a-Plug LED fluctuates between green and amber (mostly amber) on both PL1200s.

Then installed new CAT6 from the second PL1200 to a Netgear GS205 5-port gigabit switch. I have a home computer and a work laptop connected to the 5-port switch.

All seems well, but my first day working at home, I temporarily (5-6 minutes each of about 5 times during the day) lost internet connection to my two computers on my second PL1200 on the switch. This is not acceptible to lose connection while I'm doing my own work linking to my company's network all day.

I've tried 2 different outlets nearby my work area, but am limited to how many outlets are actually nearby with other devices plugged in. In each outlet I've tried, nothing else is plugged into the outlet.

I don't mind lower than optimal gigabit speed, but dropping the internet is not acceptible to me.

Any ideas? Do I need to supply any additional data?

Steveb48
Aspirant
Jan 24, 2016
Hi all,

Same problem here. I have 3 Pl1200s installed (I have 4). One is connected to my Time Capsule (Apple access point, router and backup drive). Via WiFI on my laptop, I get 120Mbs out to the internet. If I plug my laptop into a Pl1200 and disable WiFi, I'm getting 60Mbs. I have 3 green LEDs. If I plug the Pl1200 into an outlet in the same room as the other one, I get 150Mbs. It's not very useful if it has to be in the same room. Their FAQ says it will bridge circuits although they don't say if the bandwidth is affected.

For the folks that are having success, are all devices on the same circuit? The same phase?

I've talked to support but once I said it works well in the same room I was told it was a problem within my home. I have no other powerline devices in the house. I do have Philips Hue lights but I belive they are zigbee which is wireless.

Any ideas how to solve this?

thanks,
Steve
- JamesGL
  NETGEAR Employee Retired
  Jan 27, 2016
  Hi Steveb48,
  
  Please check this explanation from a KB article from support site.
  
  Why are the actual data rates less from the stated data rates?
  
  Every appliance on your electrical line generates noise, or interference, for Powerline transmission. While distance as some effect on line noise, the number of appliances and age of electrical wiring will have greater impact. The longer the distance and the greater the line noise, the less square footage you will be able to cover with the Powerline.
  
  Environmental factors, Operational overhead, differences between different transport standards (UDP vs. TCP vs. WFT) and the way each standard optimizes the data overhead (typically for error handling).
  
  Pick a plug is a technology that allows you to determine how fast your Powerline connection is - simply by looking at a multi-color LED on the front of the device. Green is the fastest possible connection. Yellow indicates a less than optimal connection. Red indicates that you might experience poor performance and should consider moving one of the devices to a different outlet.
  
  http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/20233/~/product-faq%3A-powerline-adapters
  - Steveb48
    Aspirant
    Jan 28, 2016
    James,
    
    Thanks for the reply but it didn't answer my question. I have 3 green LED on all devices.
    Are they expected to work across phases? My house is fed with 240v as 2 120v legs and a neutral.
    Are they expected to work across circuits (circuit breakers)?
    
    There are no motors, flourecent lamps, arc welders... in this enviornment. Sure everything creates electrical noise but if the answer to my question are no, I can't use the product and there's no point me trying to find out if my computer (or something) has a noisy power supply.
    
    Steve

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