first they work, now they don't ( homeplugs)

i going to scream. I have had some homeplugs now for nearly 18 months, they connect my computer upstairs to my router downstairs. they been working fine no problem at all, but i have been having a few speed problems with my broadband supplier, which got sorted today.

Well for some reason my computer up here connected to the home plugs still showed a slow speed of under a megabit. I got the laptop up here and connected it to the home plugs and again a slow speed, wi-fi was fine.

Took laptop downstairs and the home plug and speed was fine. so it seems for some reason something have happened to stop my homeplugs working at a decent speed from the upper floor of the house to the lower floor.

Why would that happen all of a sudden? using wi-fi on the computer upstairs, but I don't like the idea much. but nice to get nearly 12 megabits now.

Have you introduced anything electrical recently that could be introducing noise onto the mains ring (particularly think about wall-wart type power supplies, low voltage lighting)?

Are your up and downstairs sockets on separate fuseways?

Edited by deleted (Sat 22-Sep-12 01:02:55)

In reply to a post by GeeTee:

Have you introduced anything electrical recently that could be introducing noise onto the mains ring (particularly think about wall-wart type power supplies, low voltage lighting)?

Are your up and downstairs sockets on separate fuseways?

I don't think have added anything, no I am pretty sure I have not. i just wondering now if these plugs have been like it for a while but never noticed as i never had anything fast enough to make use of them apart from the NAS.

What do you mean by separate fuseways? There is a separate trip switch for upstairs and downstairs sockets.

the problem now is I need to re-sort out my network out if I have to stay wireless up here and need to move my NAS back downstairs and get a faster network adaptor

I wonder if a more modern homeplug would work, but it is a risk if it don't. I don't like wi-fi.

I've had a few homeplugs fade out and die. Running a wire starts to become attractive.

should have got devolo, not cheap ones like tp-link!

In reply to a post by yarwell:

I've had a few homeplugs fade out and die. Running a wire starts to become attractive.

but if the home plugs was at fault, then surly they would not work on the same floor?

running a wire would be fine i would prefer, but it would have to be one hell of a long wire.

Edited by zyborg47 (Sat 22-Sep-12 11:39:54)

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

should have got devolo, not cheap ones like tp-link!

Who said I had Tp-link ones? I don't remember saying a make.

As for TP-link products, my TP-link router is great, my mates TP-link ADSl router also works fine.

My homeplugs are Netricity and i am not sure if more expensive homeplugs, not that these was cheap to be honest will make any difference at all.

Just wondering why you don't like wifi.

On 150Mbps you can easily get 60+ Mbps throughput if using the right wifi adapter

& on 300Mbps wifi you can pull over 100Mbps quite easily
Then 5ghz gives even bigger benefits.

My homeplugs give slower actual throughput than my wifi & wifi works out much cheaper I find overall.

As for the homeplugs I doubt replacing them will make a huge difference given that they work fine both downstairs. It's suggesting a home wiring issue / interference from something other than a homeplug broken / faulty.

Ok my home plugs are not the fastest around they are are 85Megabits, but that is about 40Megabits one way as i know that is how they they work.
i found the software for them and installed it, i had to run it in vista compatibility mode

Now the software say when I use the either the set of sockets on fitted onto the walls at either side of my computer desk I am getting about 13Megabits connection.

I was able to plug the home plug into the socket on the top of the stairs and that says 26Megabits.

i thought ok, lets try the socket in this room that is on the other side of the wall that the one on the stairs is on. that also comes around 26 megabits.

i can get pretty close to what the broadband speed should be using either of those sockets.


so I presume that for some reason the two sets of sockets on either side of where my computer desk is have some sort of problem.

the one on the other wall that gives me 26megabits is fine, I can find a longer ethernet cable for that. but I am wondering if a 85Megabit power plug is not enough for a 10 megabit internet connection as daft as it sounds.

I wonder if getting faster plugs will give me more headroom.

Just some thoughts.

right i must get ready for work.

I hope you understand that lot, if you did then you are better than me

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

Just wondering why you don't like wifi.

Security is the main problem and also reliability

On 150Mbps you can easily get 60+ Mbps throughput if using the right wifi adapter

& on 300Mbps wifi you can pull over 100Mbps quite easily
Then 5ghz gives even bigger benefits.

My homeplugs give slower actual throughput than my wifi & wifi works out much cheaper I find overall.

You could be right, my router is up to 300Mb/s on wi-fi, if I got a adaptor to match it, it should in theory be faster than the homeplugs.

My problem is my NAS, it have a one gigabit ethernet, just like my computer and it is connected via a one gigabit switch. that in turns connect to my homeplugs. this means i can get full speed from the NAS tot he computer and still acess it, but at a lower speed from the PS3 and laptop.

Just wondering how I could do that via wireless,



As for the homeplugs I doubt replacing them will make a huge difference given that they work fine both downstairs. It's suggesting a home wiring issue / interference from something other than a homeplug broken / faulty.


I got my doubts as well, apart from the fact more modern ones may be able to cope better with what ever is causing mine to fail. but as you said price is the problem, I can pick up a USB adaptor for around a tenner that will work with my router, made by the same manufacture as my router. the only thing I must make sure is the thing works with linux and also 64bit windows 7
.