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I'm having a strange problem with a pair of Powerline Ethernet adapters that I own. I believe it's a standard 100Mbps TP-Link double-pair.

This past Monday, with no warning at all, it seemed that they just stopped working. I investigated and found that the problem were certainly somewhere between the client/"downstream" Powerline adapter and where the upstream Powerline adapter got its network link. It wasn't a general LAN or WAN issue. I didn't troubleshoot very methodically that time, but at one point I unplugged and re-plugged both of them and at some point later it was working again.

Yesterday, this happened again. I unplugged and re-plugged in the downstream adapter into its outlet to no avail. The upstream adapter is plugged into some sort of outlet splitter - it's permanently connected (not a power strip), but it basically splits two outlets into six. That one has been there for a long time and I've not noticed issues like this until now. However, I unplugged it from the outlet it was in and moved it to one next to it (all 6 outlets are free, so I can plug the Powerline adapter into any one). I went back to the other one, and immediately the LAN connection was working again.

Does anybody know why this might be happening? It seems odd that just changing the outlet on the splitter would "fix" this - after all, all those outlets are on the same physical circuit. Most of the time, I have no issues, and then it will stop working permanently all of a sudden until I go and move the adapter around, it seems. Very weird, to say the least.

I realize actual twisted pair wiring is better, but this is for a somewhat temporary wiring set up where the time/cost justification of running dedicated wiring is not feasible at the moment. It's not a major hassle to go and unplug the upstream adapter every time this happens, but it seems that something is going wrong and I'm interested to know what, why, and how it might be fixed (if possible). Is it something to do with the power harmonics in the building at the time that causes the adapter to "reset" and thus require a re-plug?

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  • The pins that go in the AC socket, and the contacts inside the AC receptacle can get oxidised where they are in contact and cause problems. Even slight arcing can ruin the data signal. I have had this with powerline adapters that have been in the same outlet for years without being moved. Pulling them out and putting them back again can rub the brass pins against the internal contacts and both are cleaned. You may find the adapter works OK in its original outlet.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Apr 25, 2020 at 19:06
  • @MichaelHarvey The thing is, they are both in their original outlets
    – InterLinked
    Commented Apr 25, 2020 at 19:29
  • You wrote "I unplugged it from the outlet it was in and moved it to one next to it (all 6 outlets are free, so I can plug the Powerline adapter into any one). I went back to the other one, and immediately the LAN connection was working again."
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Apr 25, 2020 at 19:49
  • @MichaelHarvey Right, but it seems to work both ways. I'll keep my eyes out though and see if I notice this when it happens again
    – InterLinked
    Commented Apr 26, 2020 at 2:33

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If you try to narrow the problem down it would be good to look at the LEDs of the adapters. Do the adapters have a LAN link? Do they have a powerline link?

From my experience some powerline adapters can over time run into a state where they say they have a powerline link but they do not do correct powerline communication any more. If this happens then it is sufficient to restart the affected powerline adapter. That can even be a warm start, a cold start is not needed. Most times it is not clear which of the adapters causes the trouble, so sometimes it works by resetting one adapter, sometimes I need to reset more adapters.

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