I've had 4 of these units operating flawlessly for a year and yesterday they just stopping effectively assigning IP addresses and thus internet connections to all remote devices. Essentially, the connection has become sporatic after a year of flawless, fast connection. This just isn't acceptable for streaming, online gaming, etc..
All three lights are still on on all of the units but the middle light on the unit connected to the router is now red to yellow all of the time when it used to be solid green. Powerline utility can still see all of the units and they all show consistent throughput in the 80-120 range but no internet.
Here's the kick, I bought these XAV2501 units to replace my 4 old xav101's that suddenly stopped working after about a year of use and hours of "solutionless" trouble-shooting.
I've done everything i did last time, moving the units, resetting the units, resetting the router, etc. but nothing seem to fix it for any more than a few minutes of time. I haven't installed any new electronics recently but we have had several power cycles as a result of nearby line work.
That a long way to this question...
Do these units just crap out and/or overheat after about a year of use?
I've already ordered a new set of 5501's from Buy.com but I don't know if I'm just setting myself up to be dissappointed again a year from now.
Similar issue with me. XAV2501 working fine and then just becomes sporadic. After a while, certain packets just don't get through until you either do a factory reset or a power cycle.
For example, Bonjour (mDNS on UDP 5353) broadcasts just weren't visible anywhere else on the network, even though Wireshark showed that they were being sent out the network stack.
This may have coincided with me upgrading the firmware on the XAV2501. I'm not positive, but it was around the same time. I don't know of any way to downgrade it unfortunately.
I've had the same thing happen with an old XAV101 that I've since retired. I replaced the XAV2501 with a recertified XAV2001 and now it's fine again. Still, I shouldn't have to replace the hardware every year or two!
I am experiencing a very similar problem to the OP. I've had a pair of XAV2501 for about 18 months - worked perfectly from the start. Good connection speeds, no problems!
Few weeks ago, my connection speed dropped to 25% (using SpeedTest.net) ... most noticeable were Skype voice calls dropping, (or "robot voice"). I'd initially blamed my ISP (Virgin Media UK), but found direct ethernet and wireless connections to be fine.
I've gone through all the recommended suggestions - relocated the XAV2501 units to the same room for testing; checked for other *major* appliances; but still poor internet connection speeds.
My gut feeling is that there is an electrical noise issue, but to my knowledge, there hasn't been any new electrical appliances introduced in the last month... so not sure what might be causing the problem?
Update this morning. I've purchased replacement XAV2501 units, but it hasn't made any difference in performance/connection-speed. Still getting a 25% of the speed I used to get.
This lead me to thinking that it is an electric noise issue. So I switched off (and unplugged) all appliances around my house/office ... and then tried it with only the following plugged in: Modem -> Powerline #1 -> Powerline #2 -> Desktop PC (with monitors)
I get a slight improvement, (say around 30%), but still nowhere near what it used to be.
I'd welcome any advice on how I can pin point the issue.
For what it's worth the same thing is happening to me. I stumbled upon this thread while googling for solutions.
I checked, and I've purchased my adapters in August 2010. They've been running flawlessly ever since, up until last week or so. I'm not quite sure exactly when the issues started, but let's say it couldn't have been more than a few weeks ago.
The powerline utility shows me that I have about 100-120 mbps and the lights are green after resetting the adapters. Then after a bit of use the red light shows, IPTV no longer works, my media center gets stuck, all havoc breaks loose.
Nothing's changed with my setup, no new electronic devices or anything like that. I'm more inclined to blame windows update or itunes or some other culprit for introducing network traffic that simply kills the Netgear adapters.
For me, the XAV2501 units turned out to be a red herring!
I found the cause of the dropping connection was one of the ports on my modem/router was faulty. :eek: I literally swapped over the ethernet cable and my net speeds returned to normal! (Which is why when I tested directly previously all appeared fine!)
@crotach - I hope you find a solution to your problem soon! I know how frustrating it is.
Well, I'm not sure if I should try the 500mpbs adapters. It's not a question of money, it's more a question of comfort and reliability 🙂
I started unplugging everything yesterday and resetting the adapters at night to see if anything would change, but it's all the same, starts off green and end up red within a minute.
I've ordered a long ethernet cable for now, can't spend ages trying to debug this. 🙂
