I've been using a powerline adapter for about 8-9 years now; I bought the best of the best TP-Link powerline adapter somewhere around 2014 (whatever the most expensive one on the market was at that time).
Ever since I bought it I have had nothing but issues with it ONLY on my desktop. My connection randomly disconnects from my desktop and will not function until I unplug the powerline adapter and plug it back in; and on top of that my down speeds are remarkably slow, around 5mbps, 15mbps if I'm lucky.
The kicker is that I have a switch hub plugged into the powerline adapter so I can have a wired connection on my laptop, Nintendo Switch, and Steam Deck. I get speeds of around 120mbps to 150mbps down on my laptop, Steam Deck, and Nintendo Switch through that switch hub on the powerline adapter... but my desktop continues to get 5mbps down on average. (Plus the random disconnections only occur on my desktop and nothing else but this is besides the main issue of terrible speeds)
What I have tried:
- Reinstalled Windows 10 (completely clean install, speed tested immediately); same slow speeds
- Tried a USB ethernet adapter; same slow speeds
- Reset my router and flashed the firmware; same slow speeds
- Tried multiple different ethernet cables, and swapped cables around; same slow speeds
- Multiple different driver versions for the ethernet on my mobo from Asus; same slow speeds
- Tried a $5 USB wifi dongle that supports 5ghz wifi (the 5ghz doesn't reach my room at all on any of my devices except for my Steam Deck) and I got around 0.3mbps down on the dongle.
- After that I stuck the dongle on a 30ft extension cable and ran it into the hallway along the floor and got 60mbps down on the desktop.
- I even brought my desktop over to a friends place whom also uses a powerline adapter, connected it to his powerline adapter, and got the same speeds he achieves (around 170mbps).
I also have a 100ft ethernet cable and ran that from my router all the way through my house to my desktop and achieved great speeds (300mbps-400mbps), so I don't think the ethernet port is the problem (or that the mobo is the issue).
Sadly WiFi likely isn't an option for me (hence why I've been using a powerline adapter) because my router is very far from the room where my desktop is and I cannot relocate my router and modem or my desktop (shared house). It is a rather large house so running an ethernet cable through it also isn't an option.
I've tried countless different things I've found online as well from changing network adapter settings, DNS settings, various commands to flush network settings, modifying windows registry... to no avail.
Does anyone have any idea why this is happening? Any ideas of other things I can try? Do you think it would be worth my time to buy a newer powerline adapter to replace my 9 year old powerline adapter? Have powerline adapters improved at all in the last 9 years?Or should I instead try getting an Intel AX210 PCIe wifi adapter with a large external antenna and try picking up the 5ghz wifi signal?
I'd greatly appreciate any help! Thanks!
TLDR; Powerline adapter down speed is super slow on my desktop but fast on every single other device I've connected to it even after wiping Windows, using a USB ethernet dongle, resetting and reflashing my router, trying different cables, etc.Have powerline adapters improved; should I buy a new powerline adapter? Will an AX210 WiFi card with a large antenna pickup my 5ghz wifi signal when all my other devices (except for my Steam Deck) can't reach it from my room?
If you do go with a new set of powerline adapters, try one of the adapters with the new(er) G.hn technologies, such as the Zyxel PLA6456 or similar.