New Router Adding Noise, Slowing HomePlug?

[Logic Bus]

I upgraded my D-Link DIR-655 to an Asus RT-AC68P.

I have Xfinity TV and Internet. Right now we've got ~125 Mbs down and ~25 Mbs up.

I live in a three story house. On the middle floor in the living room, I have a TV (with an X1 cable box), the SB6141 modem, and the router. In the basement I have a desktop PC and several video game consoles. I connect the router to the basement via Linksys PLE500 powerline adapters.

When I hooked up the RT-AC68P one of the first things I did was use Speedtest.net on my devices. Of course the 802.11ac devices saw improvement. But my PC in the basement showed slower speeds. Using the DIR-655, the basement PC was getting about 50 Mbs down and 25 Mbs up. Now with the RT-AC68P it gets about 35 Mbs down and 25 Mbs up.

At first I thought the RT-AC68P was slow on wired connections. But eventually I connected a laptop directly to it and got 125 Mbs down and 25 Mbs. So my powerline connection seems to have gotten slower since I got the new router.

I know powerline connections can be sensitive to noise on the line. Maybe the beefier router is producing more powerline noise?

I understand ideally I would have nothing plugged in close to any of my powerline adapters. But in my home I can't think of a way to have the first floor powerline adapter NOT plugged in right next to the power strip that has the cable modem and router plugged into it.

So I'm looking for advice on my next step. Should I try a new power strip? A powerline filter? Moca?

 

[thiggins]

First, temporarily use a long extension cord to move the RT-AC68P's wall-wart to an outlet in the next room. If throughput improves, you can be reasonably sure you have a noise problem. Also think hard whether anything else AC pluggable has been added to the mix since you switched to the ASUS.

If it is a noise problem use a powerline filter or switch to a powerline adapter with a feed-through plug. If you're going to try a filtered adapter, check the NETGEAR PLP1200. It's a filtered version of the PL1200 recently reviewed. Great performance for the money.

 

[azazel1024]

You can also replace the power adapter of the Asus router. That said, there are not a ton of really high quality AC to DC adapters out there, but they tend not to be super expensive, so you could try out a couple of different ones (hopefully with a good return policy). Or if you have spare AC to DC adapters in the right voltage and amperage range as the Asus router, you could try swapping them out (though, I think Asus routers use 19v adapters or something silly like that, so you might not have any spares).

 

[TonyH]

You can also replace the power adapter of the Asus router. That said, there are not a ton of really high quality AC to DC adapters out there, but they tend not to be super expensive, so you could try out a couple of different ones (hopefully with a good return policy). Or if you have spare AC to DC adapters in the right voltage and amperage range as the Asus router, you could try swapping them out (though, I think Asus routers use 19v adapters or something silly like that, so you might not have any spares).

If really noise is suspected, cheap AM pocket radio will be able to sniff it out. Use the radio as a noise probe. Mostly hash type noise. I use laboratory grade variable output DC source on my bench.