this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2023

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Powerline adapters - will be returned - just want to understand what I experienced (alien.top)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

7 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I have a computer that has wifi 6E. I have a router that has wifi 6E. I have the computer attached via cat 6a cable to the router. When I start the computer, it connects to an SSID ending in 6G. it does the same when I also have the router connected to my Internet gateway via a cat 6a cable. All good here except I have wires running across entryways.

I am trying to use Powerline adapters to bring Internet to my router. When I connect the internet to the router via Powerline my computer boots up with an SSID that ends in 5G and isn’t one assigned to my 6E router. Oddly, it matches a router that used to be connected to my gateway and is now disconnected and turned off. Why?

My goal was to connect the internet and the PC to the router using Powerline adapters. When I tested the powerline adapters, I got around 200 mbps on outlets in same room and around 100 mbps on outlets in adjacent rooms. I was going to see if the internet connection would be adequate for my quest 3 PCVR gaming before I tried them for the PC connection. The quest3 doesn’t see the same SSID that the PC has when I use Powerline and so it can’t link to the PC. I don’t really want 5G anyway. When everything is hard wired, it works great. The PC and quest3 are both attached to the SSID ending in 6G.

Equipment: AT&T fiber with a Nokia modem and BGW210 gateway

MSI Aegis RS Gaming Desktop: Intel Core i7-13700KF, RTX 4070, 32GB DDR5, 2TB M.2 NVMe, Liquid Cooling, WiFi 6E, Keyboard & Mouse, DIY Friendly, Windows 11 Home-Adv: 13NUE-450US,Black

TP-Link Powerline Ethernet Adapter Starter Kit - AV1000 Gigabit Port, Plug&Play, Ethernet Over Power, Nano Size, Ideal for Smart TV, Online Gaming, Wired Connection Only (TL-PA7017 KIT)

TP-Link AXE5400 Tri-Band WiFi 6E Router (Archer AXE75)- Gigabit Wireless Internet, ax Router for Gaming, VPN Router, OneMesh, WPA3

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You need to separate things here a bit.

I'm confused when you're mixing ssid and physical wired ethernet.

Is the pc wireless? Or wired? If wired with powerline do you disable WiFi?

I got powerline adapters because the WiFi mesh I had was getting crushes(makes sense airwaves are saturated) back haul is now powerline and I don't have to run cables. Was going to put one out in the garage too.

I'd thought the powerline would be lower latency to the router than wireless but wifi6 is really good.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The PC is physically wired to the gaming router always. When I hover over the globe in the lower right corner it displays the name with a 6G at the end when I have the 6G router connected to the gateway with an Ethernet cable. When I try to connect the 6G router to the gateway using powerline adapters, the computer says it is connected to an ID that ends in 5G and the name matches the router that is disconnected and turned off.

WiFi is off on the PC for all of this.

Here is a diagram that works

Modem to gateway. The gateway has wifi enabled for other devices

Gateway to 6G router via cat 6a

PC to 6G router via cat 6a

PC shows a connection to 6G

Quest3 connected to 6G router via wifi

Quest 3 connects to PC via either airlink or virtual desktop. Both work.

This one does not work

Modem to gateway. Gateway has wifi enabled for other devices

Gateway to power link adapter via cat 6a Powerline adapter to 6G router via cat 6a

PC to 6G router via cat 6a

PC says it is connected to a name that ends in 5G and matches the name the disconnected router had.

Quest3 connected to 6G router via wifi. The name the PC is showing is not available.

Quest 3 cannot connect to PC. Airlink and virtual desktop cannot find the computer.

I logged onto the gateway and there is no name ending in 5G.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The 6g is a full router it's not an Access point that has ethernet ports?

If you plug the power line direct into your pc do you have internet?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The 6G is a full router. I tried to follow some instructions to make it an access point by turning off DCPH server and that broke everything. I couldn’t even find a way to log onto the router again so I did a factory reset.

Before I started this project this morning, I tested the Powerline adapters by connecting one to the gateway and connecting the other to the PC. I did speed tests to see what speeds outlets had. I also tested the third cable I planned to use.

I made sure I had a starting set up that also worked before I added the powerline adapters. I made sure the PCVR worked on the quest 3 before I added the powerline adapters. When I added them and it didn’t work, I tried shutting everything down so I could start them up in order. It still didn’t work. That’s when I noticed it had a different name appearing for internet on the PC even though it had a direct line to the router.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Ok it sounds bizarre that it all worked but the weird results over the powerline when you added the router.

Does the quest work with the pc without internet? Just the 6g router.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Some games work okay without the internet . The quest 3 definitely connects to the PC even when the router doesn’t have internet.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Well, I got it partially working with the power link adapters but I don’t understand why.

I played PCVR last night. This morning, I disconnected the cable between the gateway and the 6G router. I started the PC. It showed it was connected to 6G but no internet. WiFi was off. I connected the gateway to the powerline 1. I connected powerline 2 to 6G. Now the PC had internet. I started the quest 3. I ran speed tests on PC and quest 3 which showed about 70 mbps. I started virtual desktop (VD) and it said it couldn’t find the PC. I shut down everything (including modem and gateway) and started everything in order after each one came back on fully (I waited each step). Still VD could not find the PC. I turned on wifi for PC and connected it to the gateway wifi. Now VD found the computer and I could play Kayak vr mirage. So I tried Google earth VR. It wouldn’t run. The whole point of getting internet to the 6G is so I can run Google earth VR. I also think it might have been running PCVR through the gateway on all wifi which is terrible performance. The kayak game was jittery.

Perhaps someone with more understanding of networking could get the powerline adapters to work. I will be using wires and just secure them to the floor at the two entryways the wires cross until I figure out something better.