New router issue (I think)

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A friend has a two-week old TP-Link TD-W8968 wireless N ADSL+ router, bought to replace a non-functioning Netgear router. The new router worked fine for a couple of days but then started to lose its internet connection. Switching it off then on again restored the internet connection. Now it has to be switched off and on again up to 3 times a day due to loss of internet connection.

What I don’t understand is that its built in diagnostics page shows no loss of WAN connection, i.e. the status page continues to show the ISP-provided WAN IP and DNS server IPs, refreshed every few seconds.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it likely that the new router is faulty or is it more likely to be an ISP/phone line issue? Any advice would be gratefully received.

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I have an ISP supplied router that just goes into slow mode every now and then. A reboot brings it back to normal.
Put the old router back in and see if it behaves, then I’d be sending the new router back for a replacement.

cheers, Paul

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Hi Coochin – Many thanks for your reply. As the router worked really well for the the first couple of days (after using the Setup wizard) I didn’t think to double-check its settings when problems arose. I’ll do a bit of research about the ISP’s ADSL configuration.

On a related topic, have you had any experience of TP-Link powerline devices? I’ve just had to return a pair of TP-Link AV200 powerline adapters when they wouldn’t connect to an existing BT 500 powerline network. I purchased 2 (much more expensive) BT 500 powerline adapters and they connected straight away. I thought ‘Powerline’ was a standard… 🙁

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…have you had any experience of TP-Link powerline devices? I’ve just had to return a pair of TP-Link AV200 powerline adapters when they wouldn’t connect to an existing BT 500 powerline network…(

Rick,

Sorry, but I have not had any real experience with powerline adapters. Here in SE Queensland most buildings don’t have insulation or reinforcing mesh in internal walls (warm climate) so simple WiFi range extenders are the usual story. I have attended a few customers who had powerline devices, but not for problems with those devices.

As far as TP-Link’s reliability as a brand goes in my opinion I would place them mid-range (although I haven’t yet needed to return a TP-Link unit for warranty).

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I’ve just had to return a pair of TP-Link AV200 powerline adapters when they wouldn’t connect to an existing BT 500 powerline network. I purchased 2 (much more expensive) BT 500 powerline adapters and they connected straight away. I thought ‘Powerline’ was a standard…

Yeah, but there are different standards. The TP-Link uses AV200 standard while the BTs appear to be AV500. In theory AV500 is supposed to be backward compatible with AV200, but IMHE I’ve had very poor luck getting that to work, especially with devices from different manufacturers.

Here’s a recent example. I installed a pair of Netgear 85mbps adapters several years ago in a client’s home when he needed to connect his internet-enabled TV in a different part of the house. Everything worked fine. Then he had solar panels installed. The solar installer used a pair of Tenda P200s to connect the solar monitoring module to his router, but the result was the monitoring didn’t work and now his TV no longer worked, either. That was beyond the installer’s pay grade so the solar company scheduled a technician visit in the far distant future, so in frustration the client called me. I replaced the older Netgears with a couple more Tendas and both TV and monitoring came back up properly.

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…Is it likely that the new router is faulty or is it more likely to be an ISP/phone line issue?…

Rick,

I have set up a number of similar TP-Link routers for customers during the past few years. Often TP-Link’s “setup wizard” doesn’t get the ADSL settings quite right, when I have to make educated guesses about what those settings should be or phone the ISP (shudder).

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Hi Paul – Many thanks for your reply. The family has 9 devices that connect wirelessly (mostly iPads and iPhones) plus 2 PC’s connected to the router directly via network cables. Wireless failed completely on the old router – hence its replacement – so the family is not keen for it to be put it back in even for test purposes. (I’ve got it at home now to see if I can update its firmware to see if that restores wireless.)

In the meantime, the store manager has very nicely let me have another TP-Link TD-W8968 router to swap the new one out after I explained that I didn’t want to leave the family without internet connectivity over Xmas. I haven’t put the replacement router in yet ‘cos I was hoping to hear from WSL members whether anyone else had had a similar experience and solution.

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Is the connection lost when wired up to the router as well or is this purely a wireless problem ?

If so, has anything else changed in your home such as any new wireless devices or has anything else been moved around ?

Some routers have their channel setting default set to Auto and that could drop you onto or among high populated channels, so it would be worth logging into the router to check its channel setting and download inSSIDer3 to check you are on the best channel.

As you’ve said the router was fine for a couple of days then it probably won’t be this, but log into the router and ensure that it is set to Always On or the Idle Time Out is set to 0 mins as some routers are default to time out after 30 mins and that would require a reboot to regain connectivity.

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Hi Sudo15 – There have been several changes to their internal network in the last fortnight but I avoided mentioning this because I didn’t want to introduce something I think may be a “red herring”.

The family used to have 3 Edimax wireless range extenders each with its own SSID (plus the old router’s SSID). The wireless on one of the range extenders failed completely (strike 1) and a second one wouldn’t retain changes to its default configuration (strike 2). They also proved to not cope well with power outages (the family live in an area recently plagued with power cuts) so I had to keep visiting to manually reset the range extenders (strike 3). The final “nail in the coffin” for them were that these range extenders – by their very nature – reduce wireless bandwidth by 50% as they both send and receive using the same single radio.

All 3 Edimax range extenders were replaced with BT 500 wireless hotspots (powerline devices which have 2 LAN ports plus a wireless hotspot) so all laptops, a games console and a smart TV now connect at a steady 100 Mbps via network cables instead of via wireless at approx. 10-15 Mbps which varies. This leaves just the iPads, iPhones and an iPod now connecting via wireless (at much faster rates). The SSIDs on the BT 500s are now the same as the router so the whole house is covered by a single unified wireless network piggy-backed on the Powerline devices. The BT 500 devices have proved to recover quickly from power outages once power is restored and retain their settings. The router and powerline devices have all been set to use channel 3 as this was unused when I did a scan for neighbours’ wifi channels in use (using Xirrus Wi-Fi Inspector). A subsequent check shows this channel is still only used by this family. i.e. no new wireless network on this channel has appeared.

I’ve been in the house when internet connectivity has been lost and my tests have shown that the Powerline network remains good and steady, i.e. Powerline-connected devices can continue to see the router (and each other) whether connected via network cable or wireless. To ensure that wireless within the house is not an issue, my ping tests (to the ISPs’ DNS servers, etc.) are always carried out from one of the office PCs connected directly to the router via network cable. To summarise, the LAN shows no problems… it’s just the WAN side from the router.

This brings me back to my original question – why does the router’s ‘Device Info’ page show the ADSL line state is ‘UP’ and IPv4 connectivity to the ISP is good (ISP-provided WAN IP and DNS) when internet connectivity is lost?

Coochin’s reply about the “Setup Wizard’s” ADSL settings and your reply about the ADSL line settings (Always On/Idle Time Out) are just the things I needed to hear. I don’t have a huge amount of experience with ADSL (most connections I deal with are FTTC) and I’ve never seen a TP-Link router before. I’m not convinced it’s a duff router so I’m going to get the manual out and plumb the depths of its manual ADSL settings before replacing it.

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Hi dg1261 – Many thanks for your reply. This kinda mirrors my recent experience. The TP-Link AV200 powerline devices were 30% cheaper than the BT 500 powerline devices but just would not connect to the BT 500 base device no matter what I tried.

When I replaced the 2 x TP-Link AV200s with 2 x BT 500s the new devices connected immediately and have provided excellent service since, despite the occasional power cut.

This is my first time of using BT powerline devices after getting my fingers burned with Devolo powerline devices. I think I’ll stick with Netgear and BT powerline devices from now on because I’ve had success with both… but haven’t yet mixed them. 🙂

Rhetorical question: why do manufacturers persist in only providing instructions about how to connect their devices using WPS when WPS has been proven to be insecure (and was the first thing I switched off in the new TP-Link router)?

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Update – I’ve checked with the router manufacturer’s website and the new router is using the latest firmware (v1.0.5 Build 140821).

I’ve also gone through every single page of its web interface. The closest I’ve found to check/configure its ADSL line settings for “Always On” or “Idle Time Out” is on the Wide Area Network (WAN) Service Setup page where the pppoa0 interface shows the default “Dial on demand” Inactivity Timeout (when checked) appears to be 15 minutes (allowed values are 1-4320). Thank you Sudo15 for alerting me to this setting. Unfortunately there doesn’t appear to be a way to set it for “Always On”.

38847-timeout
Click to enlarge

My apologies but… in the absence of any further replies here on the WSL site, I don’t see that I have any further choice but to cross-post to a TP-Link support forum (but haven’t yet checked whether one is available). I mention this only because some WSL contributors appear to have a problem with cross-posting.

For info: Whilst configuring devices on this family’s LAN I’ve encountered 192.168..1, 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.2.1 all used as default settings on devices such as router, powerline adapters, wireless range extenders and printers, etc. As a result I wrote a simple AutoHotkey GUI front-end to netsh so I could change network settings on the fly on the netbook I use for setup of these devices.

38846-ip-changer
Click to enlarge

If anyone’s interested, my AHK script is:

Code:

Gui, Add, GroupBox, x7 y5 w105 h125 , Set local IP to:
Gui, Add, Button, x15 y25 w90 h30 , 192.168.0.50
Gui, Add, Button, x15 y60 w90 h30 , 192.168.1.50
Gui, Add, Button, x15 y95 w90 h30 , 192.168.2.50
Gui, Add, GroupBox, x117 y5 w240 h125 , Connect to:
Gui, Add, Button, x122 y25 w100 h30 , http://192.168.0.1
Gui, Add, Button, x122 y60 w100 h30 , http://192.168.1.1
Gui, Add, Button, x122 y95 w100 h30 , http://192.168.2.1
Gui, Add, Button, x233 y25 w120 h30 , http://tplinkplclogin.net
Gui, Add, Button, x233 y60 w120 h30 , http://tplinkmodem.net
Gui, Add, Button, x127 y130 w90 h30 , Show Config

Gui, Show, w365 h175, IP Changer
return

Button192.168.0.50:
{
SplashTextOn,,, Please wait…
Sleep 1000
SplashTextOff
RunWait, netsh interface ip set address name=”Local Area Connection” static 192.168.0.50 255.255.255.0 192.168.0.1 0,,hide
SplashTextOn,,, OK… done!…
Sleep 1000
SplashTextOff
return
}

Button192.168.1.50:
{
SplashTextOn,,, Please wait…
Sleep 1000
SplashTextOff
RunWait, netsh interface ip set address name=”Local Area Connection” static 192.168.1.50 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.1 0,,hide
SplashTextOn,,, OK… done!…
Sleep 1000
SplashTextOff
return
}

Button192.168.2.50:
{
SplashTextOn,,, Please wait…
Sleep 1000
SplashTextOff
RunWait, netsh interface ip set address name=”Local Area Connection” static 192.168.2.50 255.255.255.0 192.168.2.1 0,,hide
SplashTextOn,,, OK… done!…
Sleep 1000
SplashTextOff
return
}

ButtonShowConfig:
{
RunWait, %comspec% /c netsh interface ip show config && pause
return
}

Buttonhttp://192.168.0.1:
{
Run, http://192.168.0.1
return
}

Buttonhttp://192.168.1.1:
{
Run, http://192.168.1.1
return
}

Buttonhttp://192.168.2.1:
{
Run, http://192.168.2.1
return
}

Buttonhttp://tplinkplclogin.net:
{
Run, http://tplinkplclogin.net
return
}

Buttonhttp://tplinkmodem.net:
{
Run, http://tplinkmodem.net
return
}

GuiClose:
ExitApp

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Further update… I’ve tried and failed to find any ADSL settings specific to my friend’s ISP (Orange/Wanadoo) in order to manually configure her new ADSL router for best results and get rid of the regular drop of internet connectivity.

I guess I have no option but to phone her ISP for advice… 🙁 (or cross-post to other forums).

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The possibility of the other devices I had in mind were possible new “toys” because of Christmas.

It looks like you just manually enter the value for the Idle Time out, but does unchecking its box make any difference ?

A router can report a continuous up time but would have a different sync time where there has been a loss of connectivity.

This is for my ISP supplied D-Link 3780.

38848-ADSL-Sum

Does this set up have a modem and router or is the TP-Link a modem/router combo.

How many lights remain lit on the modem and/or router when these disconnections occur ?

As the router reports Up even during a period of loss, perhaps the problem is internal interference and the router remains sync’d ?

Running RouterStatsLite on one of the computers so that the SNRM and corresponding speeds are monitored can help with interference issues.

A couple of years ago I came across a compatibility issue between a TP-Link router and I think it was a Belkin adapter installed in the computer, but would think things have moved on since then.

Unchecking (TCP/IPv6) in the computers Network adapters Properties has been known to alleviate disconnects – that’s in Network and Sharing Center/Change adapter settings – right click on the adapters that are in use and select Properties (and not the Network adapters Properties in Device Manager).

Windows has been known to try and connect IPv6 where it isn’t supported.

I have my Authentication Method set to CHAP, but this is my ISP’s setting although it can be set to Auto.

If you are going to contact the ISP, check if this setting can be changed to something more specific.

With having multiple computers running, excessive demand on the bandwidth can cause loss of connectivity.

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Hi Sudo15 – Many thanks for your reply.

It looks like you just manually enter the value for the Idle Time out, but does unchecking its box make any difference ?

By default there was no tick in the Dial on demand checkbox. I ticked it just to see what the default value was.

Does this set up have a modem and router or is the TP-Link a modem/router combo.

Operation mode shows 3 choices: ADSL Modem Router Mode (default), Wireless Router Mode and 3G Router Mode. Using the Quick Setup Wizard the router has been left as the default ADSL Modem Router Mode.

How many lights remain lit on the modem and/or router when these disconnections occur ?

When router is working normally the following lights are used:

Power: On
ADSL: On (i.e. the ADSL line is synchronised and ready to to use)
Internet: Flashing (i.e. data is being transmitted/received via the Internet)
WLAN: Flashing (indicating that the modem router is sending/receiving data)
WPS: Off (I disable WPS)
USB: On (I have this port configured as a print server
LAN 1-4: Two lights are either off, on or flash corresponding to the 2 PCs which are directly connected via network cable.

There is no change to any lights on the router when a disconnection occurs except for the Internet indicator. This changes from Flashing (i.e. data is being transmitted/received via the Internet) to On (i.e. the network is supposedly available with a successful Internet connection… [but isn’t, in practice]).

As the router reports Up even during a period of loss, perhaps the problem is internal interference and the router remains sync’d ?

I’ve considered this, i.e. port flooding. As the BT 500 Powerline base unit is connected to a single port on the router it means that all Powerline-connected devices – wired or wireless – are, in effect, connected to just the one router port. However, if this one port was flooded, why would the PCs connected directly to different ports on the router also lose internet connectivity?

Running RouterStatsLite on one of the computers so that the SNRM and corresponding speeds are monitored can help with interference issues.

Thanks for this. I had never heard of RouterStatsLite before so will see if I can get this up and running to monitor the connection, even though the specific model of TP-Link router isn’t mentioned. I note that the TP-Link TD-W8968 uses an embedded password dialog rather than popup so may not be able to get this to work.

Unchecking (TCP/IPv6) in the computers Network adapters Properties has been known to alleviate disconnects – that’s in Network and Sharing Center/Change adapter settings – right click on the adapters that are in use and select Properties (and not the Network adapters Properties in Device Manager).

Windows has been known to try and connect IPv6 where it isn’t supported.

The majority of client devices in the house use iOS (all but one are iOS 8). All 4 Windows client devices are Win 7. When Internet connectivity is lost this affects all client devices, both iOS and Windows. (I note that the iOS devices used to have the most difficulty reconnecting even when the router was power-cycled but this is no longer a problem now that the Edimax range extenders have been replaced with BT 500 wireless hotspots, i.e. it was the Edimax wireless devices that didn’t cope well with power outages.)

I have my Authentication Method set to CHAP, but this is my ISP’s setting although it can be set to Auto.

If you are going to contact the ISP, check if this setting can be changed to something more specific.

It looks like Orange used to be Freeserve and has itself been taken over by EE. I haven’t been able to find a specific ISP-provided support page but EE HOME BROADBAND SETTINGS suggests that CHAP is used for Authentication Method. I also note that an MTU of 1492 is suggested for 3rd-part routers instead of the default of 1480 so I’m going to check/change this on the router next time I’m there.

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Re, the query as to whether you are using a modem and router or if the TP-Link is a modem/router combo refers to if you have a two box set up from the master socket or just the router plugged in.

TP-Links must work different to the routers I have used as when there has been a loss of Internet, just the Internet light has gone out and when there has been a loss of ADSL, all of them have gone out until it tries to resync.

As the disconnects only seem to affect Internet and not the full ADSL connection, then I’m still leaning towards interference of which there can be a few.

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/rein.htm

I think to properly troubleshoot this, you may need to just work with one machine in range of the router and see if that drops out and then add one back at a time which may not be practical for the other users, but if the computers are all desktops then you could reposition the router to the computers location by using a longer ADSL cable and let the computers use the natural WiFi.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/adsl-modem-cable

Edit – if you are going to change the MTU in the router, you will also need to change it in each of the computers – they will probably still be default set to 1500.

I don’t know if you know how to do this but I’ll run through it anyway and it may help others..

Open a command prompt as an admin by going Start – type cmd – right click on cmd and select Run as administrator – accept the UAC then enter these commands –

netsh interface ipv4 show interfaces

This can list 3 or 4 interfaces depending upon if you have MS’s Virtual Miniport installed and that will be listed as Wireless Network Connection 2

It’s just the first Wireless and Local Area Connection we are interested in.

In the left Idx column you could see each of those listed as say, 12 for the Wireless and 15 for the LAN.

To change them to 1492 – we’ll do the Wireless first – enter –

netsh interface ipv4 set subinterface 12 mtu=1492 store=persistent

Then do the same for the LAN using its Index number.

Repeat the netsh interface ipv4 show interfaces command to confirm then enter exit to close the cmd window.

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Hi Sudo15 – Many thanks for this reply. The TP-Link TD-W8968 is a modem/router combo. I’ve been through each page in its web interface and cannot find anywhere to set an idle timeout. I’ve also found out that EE broadband provide no online help whatsoever for third-party modem/routers, only their own (except for a single sentence: “In case of problems with a third party router, change MTU to 1492”). I found more router info at http://www.orangeproblems.co.uk[/B%5D%5B/url%5D but links to Orange’s technical pages are dead (I assume after Orange was taken over by EE).

I read with interest the article about REIN. I’m not sure this is a problem… the new router is in exactly the same position as the old one so interference shouldn’t be any different to previously when it didn’t appear to be a problem. I think the problem is more likely to be the idle timeout.

Anyway, the situation has changed in the last few hours. I was playing with the family’s original router (an Orange-branded Netgear DGN1000SP wireless-N ADSL modem/router) – seeing whether it worked with RouterStats Lite (it does!) – and found that it appears to be working again. Previously the wireless appeared to have failed completely. I have no idea why a factory reset didn’t work when I tried doing this several times in the family home… overheating? (My Dad also has a Netgear DGN1000 and it too loses wireless regularly and has to be power-cycled. A Google search on “Netgear DGN1000 problems” shows a horrendous number of hits and scathing reviews of it.)

I logged into the Netgear’s web interface and there in the basic settings is an idle timeout setting already set to 0. I’m waiting to hear when it’s convenient to go out and put the Netgear back in. I’ve also found out that a firmware update is available for the Netgear which apparently improves wireless performance so I think I’ll apply this as well.

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Have you had a look at the TP-Link’s user manual http://www.tp-link.com/Resources/document/TD-W8968_V1.0_User_Guide.pdf

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Hi Sudo15 – Yes, I had a look at the user manual that came with the router and did a search for ‘idle’. I’ve now found the idle timeout setting. There was no mention of it in the manual under PPPoA Setup (nor Troubleshooting) nor does the manual mention that most WAN settings (including Idle Timeout) are hidden until you hit an ‘edit’ button in WAN Service Setup so it’s no surprise I missed it just flicking from one page to another in the router’s web interface. It was only when I saw a screenshot of the idle timeout feature in the PPPoE section of the manual that I guessed the same must be available in the PPPoA section.

The Idle Timeout setting doesn’t appear until a checkbox is ticked. Once ticked, the default timeout period shows 15 mins. It’s not possible to set the timeout to 0, only 1-4320 minutes. The manual doesn’t make it clear whether, if the checkbox is un-ticked, idle timeout is disabled or set to the default period of 15 mins.

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I was wondering if setting that to the max which equates to 3 days would be any improvement, but like you, I was wondering if unchecking its box locked in the setting or whether it had to be checked to be active – guess that will have to be trial & error, initially with a min setting.

As it’s an Idle Time Out – was the Internet in greater use for the first couple of days when it was working fine to what it has become since ?

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Hi Sudo15,

I was wondering if setting that to the max which equates to 3 days would be any improvement, but like you, I was wondering if unchecking its box locked in the setting or whether it had to be checked to be active – guess that will have to be trial & error, initially with a min setting.

I’ve posted a question about this on the TP-Link support forum.

As it’s an Idle Time Out – was the Internet in greater use for the first couple of days when it was working fine to what it has become since ?

I’m afraid I don’t know. I only go there when there’s a problem and it’s difficult to work out what goes on. With 3 kids, 3 iPhones, 4 iPads, 2 laptops, 2 PCs and 2 games consoles it’s a safe bet that the internet is in frequent use.

It’s conceivable that for the first few days the 2 eldest kids were catching up with homework (which, apparently these days, is now online… who knew?) after the failure of the previous router but I couldn’t be certain… nor can I make any sense of their monosyllabic answers. They just rush in to the family ‘office’, switch the router off then on again and retreat back to their bedrooms with little or no explanation why, so diagnostics are… difficult. 🙂

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If the Netgear with its f/w update can be put back into service, perhaps you could try the TP-Link uninterrupted on your own Internet to get some consistency in troubleshooting it.

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I’m going to try putting the Netgear back into service… but only because the TP-Link support forum a) seems slow to respond, b) doesn’t recognise the TD-W8968 model (?) and c) shows no replies to a similar query by a TD-W8968 user about dropped internet connections.

Hmmm… I’m beginning to think this was a poor choice of replacement router.

PS – I have a FTTC connection, not ADSL (thank whatever deity you believe in) so I’m not able to test it at my place.

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As the shop were good enough to swap the original TP-Link for another, why not just factory reset it and see if they’ll swap it for something else ?

You could also contact TP-Link direct via e-mail and ask the same questions as on the forum and why does it keep dropping out when a Netgear didn’t.

http://uk.tp-link.com/support/contact/?categoryid=530

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Hi Sudo15 – All good questions… 🙂

I’ve now emailed TP-Link Support directly after waiting hours for my query to appear on the TP-Link Support website.

The TP-Link was a penny shy of £40 but the next comparable modem/router the shop has in stock is considerably more expensive… at least 75% more. The family is unwilling to spend that amount of money when they could just demand that their ISP replace any faulty ISP-provided modem/router.

The (supposed) additional benefit of the TP-Link router was that it included a USB port that could be configured for use as a print server… meaning the office (USB-only) printer could be shared over the network. Alas this doesn’t work well either and is the subject of much internet discussion about how poor and problematic TP-Link’s implementation of this has been compared to 3rd-party efforts like DD-WRT and OpenWRT.

Suffice to say I will be steering clear of TP-Link routers for the foreseeable future… but this doesn’t help with the problem(s) in hand. 🙁

Have you ever run into a friend’s problem and wished you had never got involved? 🙂

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See what TP-Link have to say and if it still drops out then I think you would have ample grounds for a refund and would need to shop elsewhere.

Googling the type of spec you want should pull up a few choices from Amazon.

I’m with TalkTalk and managed to get (at the time) their router they supplied for Fibre to connect to the BT modem (which is no longer being used).

This is the D-Link 3780 which is one up from their basic D-Link 3680 which I had some problems with.

As you can see from this review, it isn’t the best in the world – but what ISP supplied router is, but it does fine for me on ADSL and has held a connection when the SNRM has dropped to 0.1dB. http://www.trustedreviews.com/talktalk-fibre-router-review

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Hi Sudo15 – I’ve had an email from TP-Link Support direct (not the Support forum… although I’ve also had a reply there too) asking a lot of questions about the setup and use of their TD-W8968 router. I’ve sent a detailed reply including a network diagram and wait for a response to see if the problem of internet disconnection is easily resolvable.

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It will be interesting to hear what they say if it fixes the problem, but I would think that you have set it up by the book and included the ISP settings that were in the Netgear.

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Hope my reply is not too late.
I have experience with TP Link Powerline Ethernet Adapter, the 200 and 500/600(?), and also Actiontec brand of same speeds.
Of 6 TP Link 200, one failed in 2 months. 2 years now none fails. All are just warm (~body warm). TP Link firmware has sleep mode always on, to produce less heat and greener, but … With long time non-use (no signal), it would take some time (minute or minutes) to wake up. During this time, you would wrongly think the Internet is not working! Actiontec has no such problem. 4 Actionec, four 200, and four 500, have no failure in 2 years. Actiontec is warmer though.

As mentioned somewhere, best is NOT to mix brands. I stick to that: TP Link to TP link only, Actiontec to Actiontec only.

Actual speed I get: 200: 17Mbps, 500/600: 86Mbps, at times over 100Mbps (more later on this). About the same for Actiontec brand. (They use the same chip anyway).
Looks poor but it is through 2 floors (exceed 200 linear feet) and the wall socket is shared.

USA wall socket is dual socket. The other socket is also in use. Not optimum this way. I use a 12-ft extension for the other socket. The adapter is plugged directly to the wall. The 12-ft extension does wonders (from 7Mbps to 17/86Mbps). Experiment has been performed by letting the adapter own the wall socket. Actual speed jumps to 105Mbps, consistent too. Presently it is not used for aesthetic reasons, and 86Mbps is fast enough.

Disturbance may cause slow down or stop. Plug a laptop AC adapter to the same wall socket kills the Adapter signal! A 20-Watt converter for a LED light kills the signal when on the same wall but 10 feet away in another socket. The eBay converter has absolutely no noise filter! 20 ft extension on it provides no help. AC filter (pi LC filter) cures it. Final solution: plug the LED lamp in another wall. Zero degradation.

If you use more than 2 adapters, expect speed is shared as if through a switch/hub.

For more than 2 adapters, use the TP Link Adapter software to change the security password so that all can link. The software works on different brands too if they use the same chip. To use the software, the adapter must connect directly to the PC with a network cable.

For ‘reliable’ use, connect a switch/hub to the adapter first (old/used is fine). Then PC to the switch/hub. The switch makes the adapter think it is connected to a life PC all the time! Its performance and response are then more consistent. Ethernet broadcasting/probing signals may have kept everybody on alert!

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Hi Scaisson – I was using 1 BT 500 Powerline base and 2 BT 500 Powerline adapters with wifi hotspots. I then replaced 2 Edimax wifi repeaters with 2 TP-Link AV200 Powerline adapters… only to find that they would not connect to the BT 500 Powerline base unit. So much for standards. 🙂 I took them back to the shop and replaced them with another 2 BT 500 Powerline adapters with wifi hotspots. The powerline setup works really well… it’s just the TP-Link router that keeps dropping internet access. I’m in direct contact with TP-Link support and we’re still trying to work out what’s going on.

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Update:

Despite 20+ emails between me and TP-Link Support (Thank you, Vivian Tang, for your patience and persistence), we were never able to get to the bottom of why the TD-W8968 kept dropping its internet connection, even though both the ADSL and internet indicator lights remained lit.

After several weeks the family that I had installed it for became so frustrated with me visiting to tinker with its settings and having to reboot the TD-W8968 several times an evening that they demanded I take it away.

By coincidence I had re-flashed their old Netgear router with new firmware (a second time as a last resort before throwing it in the bin) and found wireless was working once again so I put that back in as a replacement for the TD-W8968.

To be honest, the family live so far away I was quite relieved when the family reported the old router was working fine and I no longer needed to visit. (The family has since decided to have ‘up to 50 Mbps’ cable broadband installed to replace their current ‘up to 7 Mbps’ ADSL connection, which is the maximum speed their phone line can provide due to distance from the nearest local exchange… although in practice it was usually 5 Mbps or less.)

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Some gear just never works. 🙁

cheers, Paul

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A couple of years back a certain TP-Link router had compatibility problems with a particular brand of Network adapter.

Can’t remember the model of each now – so perhaps it was something along those lines even though it worked initially – and I know what you mean about having second thoughts about taking on someone else’s problems 😀

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A couple of years back a certain TP-Link router had compatibility problems with a particular brand of Network adapter.

I know what you mean… in addition to the TP-Link TD-W8968 router I’ve also had to take back two TP-Link AV200 powerline adapters as they wouldn’t communicate with a BT 500 powerline base unit already in use. Ho-hum.

I know what you mean about having second thoughts about taking on someone else’s problems 😀

😉

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