bandwidth-eating powerline

krysia · Oct 09, 2020, 15:41:22

For the past 7 years or so, I'd been using a Netgear Powerline to connect our smart television to the internet, but in July I decided to replace it with the TP-Link TL-WPA7510 KIT in order to strengthen the signal for an Amazon Firestick. The powerline boosted our wifi signal from 'fair/good' to 'very good', so I thought it was doing its job.

However, we started having a lot of trouble with variable and extremely slow speeds, even though we upgraded to a 40 Mbps SuperFast FTTC connection. Although our ethernet-connected desktop consistently got download speeds of 35-36 Mbps, everything else was really slow. The laptop could occasionally get a fast speed, but was mostly around 5-8 Mbps;the Firestick was getting only about 1 or 2 Mbps, while even the ethernet-connected television (via the powerline) was getting only about 3 Mbps. We assumed there was some kind of problem with our wifi or router settings, so we called in an engineer to sort it out.

The engineer couldn't find anything wrong and was puzzled. He was about to give up, when I said we used to have better wifi speeds when we were on ADSL2+ and that at that time I was using a different powerline. He was interested in that, so we plugged the old Netgear powerline back in, and suddenly all the speeds were what we expected - e.g., the wifi-connected laptop went from 5-8 Mbps to 35, and the Amazon Firestick went up to 8-9, even though it now had a fair to good rather than a very good wifi signal. The engineer was amazed, but concluded that the TP-Link Powerline had been eating up our bandwidth. That was on Wednesday, and all our devices have been consistently speedy ever since.

I haven't yet tried streaming a whole programme via the Firestick with a wifi signal that's back to being fair rather than very good - that's the main reason we upgraded to FTTC, as we'd get halfway through a film and it would start to buffer badly. I hope the increased bandwidth will solve that problem, but if it doesn't, I wonder about getting Mesh or a wifi-extender, but I feel cautions after our experience with the new powerline. The wifi signal from our TP-Link TD-W9970 router seems strong enough throughout the house for phones, laptop, iPad - the only weak thing is the Firestick, with its fair to good signal -the iPad gets a good one in the same place, so I assume the Firestick itself is a bit weak.

Simon · Oct 09, 2020, 20:17:18

I've not got Fibre so I don't know if this is possible, but can you still select either 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz as the band on the router? I wonder if it might be worth trying the Firestick on the 5Ghz instead of 2.4Ghz (or vice versa)?

robinc · Oct 10, 2020, 11:23:51

We use Devolo Powerline 500's throughout the house in conjunction with the Billion router. I use one to provide ethernet to the TV box

I recently bought a Firestick because an update to our NOW TV Roku has turned it into junk, locks up the TV and connection - just awful. That's after 2 years of flawless working.

The wifi connecton on the Firestick was and is rubbish - that's with the Powerline about 3 feet away next to it. It seems they didn't go overboard with the spec - and that way they get you to buy the ethernet adapter - which I had done as part of the bundle and good job too. With the ethernet adapter the Firestick works OK. Firesticks are a bit prone to heating so make sure it is not tucked away close to the back of the TV or being heated up by something else. I have a short 1m HDMI extender cable to tke the weight off the HDMI port and keep the stick in the fresh air.

If you have an android phone grab this app https://www.keuwl.com/apps/wifianalyser/ it really does a great job of showing you what's going on where and identifies channel activity so you can balance things out a bit if you want.

nowster · Oct 10, 2020, 18:26:17

Most likely a packet storm caused by some sort of looping.

krysia · Oct 22, 2020, 14:06:04

Thanks to all of you for your helpful posts. I did try the firestick on both 2.4 and 5Ghz, but it made no difference - maybe bwecause my router is only 2.4.

Anyway, since my last post, I've been using the nearly 10-year-old Netgear powerline for my TV's ethernet connection and relying on unboosted wifi for the firestick, without a problem. I did wonder about getting the firestick ethernet connector if needed, so it's useful to know it does work. I've also hooked the firestick wore up so it's further from the TV - I'll keep an extender cable in mind and also download that very useful-sounding app. Thanks again.

krysia · Oct 22, 2020, 15:21:03

sorry - wire, not wore!

robinc · Oct 23, 2020, 06:43:07

Good to hear things are running better.

As an adjunct to the issues I was having with my NOW TV box it looks as though the 6 year old Devolo 500 repeater has actually good bad. I swapped it out, but if I use the original elsewhere then my wife gets all sorts of problems with her laptop connection. Take the original away and all seems good.

krysia · Oct 24, 2020, 13:22:48

I wish I had posted here before investing £60 in a useless new powerline with wifi. I did as you suggested and downloaded the android app, which showed that the signal behind the TV is awful, whereas it's great just in front. I followed your lead and bought a metre-long HDMI extender for under £3 and plugged it in this morning. Result: very good wifi signal to the Firestick and download speeds of 35 Mbps - thank you so much!

robinc · Oct 25, 2020, 05:43:51

Quote from: krysia on Oct 24, 2020, 13:22:48
I wish I had posted here before investing £60 in a useless new powerline with wifi. I did as you suggested and downloaded the android app, which showed that the signal behind the TV is awful, whereas it's great just in front. I followed your lead and bought a metre-long HDMI extender for under £3 and plugged it in this morning. Result: very good wifi signal to the Firestick and download speeds of 35 Mbps - thank you so much!

Great news - glad you got it sorted!