homeplugs again

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ed
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#1 homeplugs again

Post by ed »

another homeplug rant

from 2005 to about 12 months ago these things ran faultlessly around the house. The audio was streamed, the nas files were distributed etc etc..no problems. Then about 12 months ago periodic dropouts started occurring. This coincided with the installation of the smart meter so, conspiricist that I am, I immediately thought that may be the problem area.

Anyway, over the last couple of months the dropouts have risen to about 3 or 4 a day on some machines. The solution I've been using has been to remove the RJ45 plug from the computer, wait 5 seconds and then replace it. This works but is a pain.

The thought also occurred that the mice might be messing with the wiring...it wasn't a serious thought.

Moving on, I pulled the RJ45 from the windows machine that serves as the email client and inserted a wifi dongle....peace ensued, no dropouts....except my Apache server(WAMP) on that machine refused to load properly.....oh waily....I suspect it will be down to router/WAMP settings and firewalls and I just can't be bothered...so

bite the bullet and buy another pi and install lamp...

which pi, 3 or 4?

anybody running an apache server for local web testing and have any experience?

as an aside....

since the installation of the smart meter I've had a lot more interference on the 433mhz comms platforms I've been using/testing...but that could be down to the increase of door bells, garage doors, cctv security etc that are being installed.....I feel obliged to suspect the smart meter though.

Next project might be a 433mhz sniffer to see just how much traffic there is.
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The Stratmangler
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#2 Re: homeplugs again

Post by The Stratmangler »

Why not just try a new set of homeplugs?
Nothing runs forever, and your current ones might be getting distracted by thoughts of a well earned break in Silicon Heaven :)
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#3 Re: homeplugs again

Post by Max N »

Probably you've already considered these things, but...
Was there a firmware update at around the time the problems started?
Have you tried moving/swapping the home plugs to see if the dropouts follow the plugs?
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#4 Re: homeplugs again

Post by ed »

Max N wrote: Sat Apr 25, 2020 12:45 pm Probably you've already considered these things, but...
Was there a firmware update at around the time the problems started?
Have you tried moving/swapping the home plugs to see if the dropouts follow the plugs?

yes and no and yes...

I've taken 2 of the units out of the equation and plugged one direct in the router and the other is now wifi....and swapped all the others around in every permutation....no difference...

I think I'll move to wifi for all of them and get a pi for the apache server. My love affair with homeplugs may finally be over. I know some will say that's progress. Thinking a bit further, I may keep 2 homeplugs for the music server because that has never dropped out, never buffered or caused any grief...
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#5 Re: homeplugs again

Post by Max N »

At one point I had quite a few Devolos around the house - all rated at 650. I usually get around 400 Mbit/s.
A while ago they got a bit flakey, so I removed some of them. When I got down to 4 of them, they started behaving themselves and, touch wood, they've been solid for a good while now.
Still using Apple airport expresses for the wifi, either hard-wired ethernet or plugged into the Devolos.
Will probably move to mesh wifi (Ubiquiti?) at some point.....
Like you say, that's progress I guess.
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#6 Re: homeplugs again

Post by jack »

I recently replaced all our homeplugs with a proper Ubiquiti UniFi network for much the same reasons that you are experiencing.

Brilliant.

I'm running Pi-hole and the UniFi Controller on a 3B+ which barely notices the load.

The only reason I'm switching to a 4 is because I'm moving our media centre onto it as well, so need more than the max of 1GB that the 3s have. Nothing to do with CPU.

If you install docker, a single Pi 4 will be more than adequate for a LAMP stack plus all the other stuff too.

See the Pi thread to see what's happening with that. If you want to discuss UniFi, let me know...
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#7 Re: homeplugs again

Post by norman5MB »

another homeplug rant

from 2005 to about 12 months ago these things ran faultlessly around the house. The audio was streamed, the nas files were distributed etc etc..no problems. Then about 12 months ago periodic dropouts started occurring. This coincided with the installation of the smart meter so, conspiricist that I am, I immediately thought that may be the problem area.
I've had almost the same issues.
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#8 Re: homeplugs again

Post by ed »

Thanks for the considerations Nick.

1st stage is underway:
I'm awaiting delivery of a pi4(4mb) so I can install the apache server and retire WAMP from the windows machine.

next stage will be to put the wifi dongle back in the windows machine and remove the homeplug. This will entail connecting the printer directly to the router instead of the homeplug. The printer is currently hooked into the same homeplug as the windows machine via wifi.

I'm going to risk £2.50 to buy a wifi card to replace the mem sahib's broken one in her laptop. If I get the correct card and it works then I can retire another homeplug. It's a bit of a gamble because all the wifi cards of that ilk seems to be used....

I installed a wifi dongle into Sebatian's machine, the one with 2 antenna. This seems to run fortnite ok so I'd consider it adequate.

that will only leave the pi3 music machine running picoreplayer and LMS. We'll take stock again after the laptop is repaired.

At the moment I think the ubiquity stuff is above my pay grade. If I get speed issues I will look at mesh further down the line.
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#9 Re: homeplugs again

Post by norman5MB »

ed, honestly, it's kinda like making a choice from different audio receivers, Recently, when I have been choosing for a stereo receiver under $ 200, I've searched for dozens of websites, but found only this one ( https://chooserator.com/best-stereo-receiver-under-200 ), where author explained all the pros and cons for each receiver. How hard is that for manufacturers to do the same thing, with comparison tables or articles? Why don't they do it?
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#10 Re: homeplugs again

Post by Nick »

I suspect that homeplugs are like ADSL filters, they should last forever, but never do. I wonder if there are some transorb type things that slowly get worn down by spikes on the mains.
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#11 Re: homeplugs again

Post by ed »

Nick wrote: Mon Apr 27, 2020 8:41 pm I suspect that homeplugs are like ADSL filters, they should last forever, but never do. I wonder if there are some transorb type things that slowly get worn down by spikes on the mains.
my education continues...have to fess up, I had to google transorb. It sounds entirely plausible and can't help that our mains is very often way above specification.......

anyway, I'm down to four homeplugs at the moment and with a bit of luck soon to be two.....oh yeah!
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#12 Re: homeplugs again

Post by jack »

Nick wrote: Mon Apr 27, 2020 8:41 pm I suspect that homeplugs are like ADSL filters, they should last forever, but never do. I wonder if there are some transorb type things that slowly get worn down by spikes on the mains.
Interesting idea. My Devolo ones were initially good, but over the years got progressively more unreliable, especially when we had black or brown-outs - they never all restarted properly. It was a pain
...

Since I changed everything to true WiFi and cat6 to all the wired sockets (including new ones for the APs), not missed a beat.

I still have the homeplugs - they were going to a boot fair, but strangely fate has meant there have been none, so I have several to dismember.

I shall report!
Last edited by jack on Mon Apr 27, 2020 9:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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#13 Re: homeplugs again

Post by The Stratmangler »

In fairness, Nick, the goalposts with DSL get moved, sometimes without the end user's knowledge.

BT are up to this version of socket and filter set, and they're shite.
I've had more trouble with these being faulty over the last three years than I ever did with the previous NTE sockets and filter sets, over the fifteen or sixteen preceding years.

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#14 Re: homeplugs again

Post by Nick »

In fairness, Nick, the goalposts with DSL get moved, sometimes without the end user's knowledge.
Yes, I know (for example when BT updated the DSLAM's so I had to update my Cisco as the older one had a firmware problem in its interface). But line filters are simple things, and they do seem to have a limited life. And given they are connected to a long wire I can imagine they see all sorts of transients. And replacing a filter with the same model obtained at the same time but never used has fixed things in the past.
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#15 Re: homeplugs again

Post by The Stratmangler »

I've never kept hold of filters for long.
Replacing the dongle ones happened all the time :)
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