Third Powerline adapter causes Bonjour, Home Sharing drops

[rorykingms]

I had two Netgear XAV5101 adapters setup for several months and they seemed to work very well. I wanted to add a third for an Apple TV to get a faster and more reliable connection.

But since adding the third adapter (same model as the others) the laptop that has been connected to one of the original adapters has had problems seeing the NAS on the network (via Bonjour) and also maintaining a reliable connection for iTunes Home Sharing to two Apple TVs. Internet connections on all devices seem to be okay.

Switching the laptop to a wireless connection immediately restores Bonjour and Home Sharing.

Any idea why adding a third adapter would cause problems like this?

Network setup:
Cable modem > AirPort Extreme > Netgear 8-port switch (GS608) >
ATV 3rd Gen, Netgear ReadyNas Duo and Netgear XAV5101 >
Netgear XAV5101 (Master Bedroom) and MacBook Pro >
Netgear XAV5101 (Master Bedroom) and ATV 2nd Gen

 

[fizikz]

Are you saying that the shares no longer function but internet, and thus, network, connectivity is still ok?

I've recently noticed something similar in that since adding a 3rd (in a strong signal location) and 4th (in a very weak signal location) powerline adapter, the network connection randomly drops for a few seconds to a few minutes. It gets re-established on its own. Since I've removed the 4th one, the drops are much less frequent.

I don't have a solution, but as a starting point, you could verify that you have the latest firmware.

 

[rorykingms]

That's correct. The shares no longer show up in the "Shared" section of a Finder window. I can use "Connect to Server" with the correct afp address and it will connect though. Time Machine cannot see the NAS either. I can surf the Internet on the laptop just fine and surf/stream on the Apple TVs just fine but it's the local connection that has been an issue.

The firmware on all the adapters is v0.2.0.4NA. The firmware upgrade utility is for Windows only (of course). I searched for the latest firmware info but couldn't find anything by way of a version name.

I did find one mention on the Internet about these particular adapters dropping Bonjour/mDNS under a heavy load:

http://forum1.netgear.com/showthread.php?t=59439

But it's an older thread and not very popular so it might be an isolated issue.

I have had the occasional few seconds of not loading a web page in the past; now I wonder if this is somehow related to the Powerline adapter as well?

Any suggestions on how to test it on a Mac?

 

[fizikz]

I can't stand it when software/firmware versions are not properly named... And yes they often have Windows-only update mechanisms. Is there any web management for your powerline devices?

Unfortunately I'm not sure what else to suggest, so hopefully someone else can pitch in here.

 

[rorykingms]

I don't really know what I'm talking about on this one, but:

Could IPv6 have anything to do with it?

If I run "netstat -n | grep 3689" to check on the Home Sharing connections I get some tcp6 entries:

tcp4 0 0 192.168.100.13.3689 192.168.100.130.63143 ESTABLISHED
tcp4 0 0 192.168.100.13.3689 192.168.100.130.63140 ESTABLISHED
tcp4 0 0 192.168.100.13.3689 192.168.100.130.63139 ESTABLISHED
tcp4 0 0 192.168.100.13.3689 192.168.100.130.63135 ESTABLISHED
tcp6 0 0 fe80::21f:5bff:f.3689 fe80::184b:2882:.49441 ESTABLISHED
tcp6 0 0 fe80::21f:5bff:f.3689 fe80::184b:2882:.49408 ESTABLISHED
tcp6 0 0 fe80::21f:5bff:f.3689 fe80::184b:2882:.49400 ESTABLISHED

 

[thiggins]

Run long pings in the configuration that is giving you trouble and check packet loss.

It's possible that the third adapter is in a location that has a noise source. Cellphone and other "wall-wart" adapters/chargers are notorious noise sources.

 

[rorykingms]

Ran 500 pings several times throughout the day including during a Time Machine backup/Home Sharing drop (though curiously Bonjour seemed to stay up this time). No packet loss.

For some reason today I had a hard time killing Home Sharing; it happened on its own this evening after working solidly for about 12 hours. I had switched out some older power strips for newer/nicer ones that offer filtering and that may have contributed. However the connection is still not reliable.

I wonder why it stops working for some services but not others? Seems like a noisy/dirty wall wart would cause the whole signal to degrade. But the laptop and both Apple TVs can pull in Internet connections when Home Sharing/Bonjour has dropped.

 

[thiggins]

That is odd. The only thing I can think of is that Bonjour is much more "chatty" than internet applications (HTTP, SMTP, etc.)

HomePlug adapters should plug directly into the wall. Other gear can go into filtered power strips.

 

[rorykingms]

Yep, all Power Line adapters are and have been plugged directly into the wall. Still waiting to hear back from Netgear…

 

[rorykingms]

What are the odds that the switch is getting flooded with multicast packets? It's a consumer unmanaged gigabit switch; is that even possible?

And if it is possible, does that mean I'd need either a more expensive unmanaged switch or would I need to step up to a managed switch?

I'll be testing this shortly by connecting the Powerline and the NAS directly to the LAN ports on the router as soon as I can find the cables…

 

[stevech]

Yep, all Power Line adapters are and have been plugged directly into the wall. Still waiting to hear back from Netgear…

I've found that some power strips and some media devices (TV, etc) plugged into the same outlet but with just 4 ft. or so of wire length will attenuate.

One trick is to use a 25 ft. extension cord (3 prong in the US) between the wall outlet and the plug strip or other offending media device. Coiled up excess length, out of sight.

That 25 ft., in engineering terms, serves as a low pass filter and tends to not let as much of the high frequency from the HomePlug (IP data on RF on power wiring) type device reach the attenuating plug strip (or other). RF magic.

 

[rorykingms]

It's been about six days since I tried bypassing the Netgear GS608 switch. Only one Apple TV is still connected to that switch; the Power Line adapters and the NAS are connected directly to the Airport Extreme's switch.

And everything is working great.

I did find one other mention on these forums of a Netgear switch (GS1xx family) having problems with multicast packets:

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showpost.php?p=106651&postcount=7

Might be time to pony up for a Cisco switch; but managed or unmanaged? Back to the drawing board.

Thanks everyone for your help troubleshooting this.