I'm lost with this now, I thought before I had resolved it and found the culprit but the problem seems to be back again a week later. Red light on a different TP link adaptor (same model).
Last week I found that after resetting all adaptors and re-pairing close together that there was never a solid connection, the connection light was flashing between red and green, inspecting through my laptop using a ping test there was high latency and dropped packets.
I then decided to switch off each device that could be interfering, starting with a range extender I have plugged into another powerline adaptor downstairs. I turned it off and
bam suddenly there was no dropped pings and latency was 10ms max again. At this point everything was good. I tried to repeat the dropped packets by plugging the range extender back in again and it triggered them once more. I then took the range extender and plugged it in closer to where the connection problem initially was and there wasn't a problem. After 2x being able to repeat the problem in its original location with dropped packets and 1x not repeating the problem with the range extender in another location I thought 'I wonder what will happen if I plug the range extender back in its original powerline and location now' so I did so and again, despite triggering packet loss initially and the second time of testing it started to work fine and there was no packet loss
So I struggle with this whole troubleshooting process, its stupid things like this that make me hate technology!!
Today, a week later again red light in the troublesome location, this time a different TP link adapter but the same issue. My first point of call was to turn off the range extender downstairs again, this time it did not solve the problem. Second step was to turn off the garage door motor, it did not solve the problem. I cannot think of something else that could be causing the sudden red light?
I think power cycled the adaptor after doing this and it works fine again!!
I am really struggling to understand the logical steps when troubleshooting here. I know that process of elimination could be the only way I can get to the bottom of this but why am I getting such strange results? Is it possible that the adaptor is thrown into a state of no recovery by whatever is causing it to go wrong and I can't test if changing anything else until I after I power cycle it or should it return to normal operation without a power cycle?
Am I going to have to keep power cycling it and waiting another week for it to stop working before I can eliminate another device?
I am really stuck here
BTW, during this process I did find out that one of my 4 tp link adaptors was broken, it was showing a constant red light even after resetting it to factory default and testing it paired directly next to another adaptor.
Have I just got really unlucky or has something destroyed these adaptors? I recently had some issues getting static shocks through my computer from a second pair of power sockets adjacent in the same room to the problem location but that went away after a while... so could there be something wrong with the electrics in the house? I had test already with a "tester plug" to make sure the electrics were all wired correctly and they were.
I do own 2x BT branded powerline adapters too and during the last problems I had also been testing them in the troubled location and they had the same issue. Perhaps my next best step is to just use 2x of them between the troubled location and the modem/router downstairs for long term use to see if the exact same thing happens with those.
Thanks for all your help guys, much appreciated, sorry for not updating for some time. It is such an annoying problem that only happens every one or two weeks and is a right pain in the backside!
I have a router acting as an access point in the trouble location about 3ft away plugged in via a ethernet cable and a range extender running as an access point downstairs. No smart meter.
