MakerGear Forum

After a couple of days trying to troubleshoot the low network speeds in my office, I discovered the problem only existed when my M2 was running. I use a DLink powerline networking adapter to get Ethernet to my office, and I finally noticed the "Connection Quality" LED always turned from green to red when the M2 is on (it doesn't have to be doing anything; just turned on). Measured throughput dropped from 55+ megabits to 4 megabits or less when the printer is running.

"No problem," I think. "I'll just drag that unused APC uninterruptible power supply out of the closet and plug the M2 into that. That will isolate it from the AC line."

Yeah, well, no, it doesn't. Still haven't figured that one out.

The solution I'm using now is using an extra router (Linksys WRT1900AC) to bridge to my existing wireless network. Kinda overkill, but it's what I had in the closet. Now I'm back up to full speed-- actually just measured 64+ megabits/second, so I'm doing even better than the power line adapter was.

I'm a little surprised the power supply for the M2 does this. Yeah, power line adapters are kinda dicey anyway, but I've been using this one for years and hadn't run into the problem before.

dramsey wrote:I'm a little surprised the power supply for the M2 does this

That's a common problem with laptop-class power supplies, too. The filtering required to suppress noise fed back into the house wiring also suppresses signals in that wiring, because there's little-to-no frequency difference between noise and data.

Most of the laptop supplies I use for various projects kill our ancient X10 lamp controls on the same circuit and some supplies obliterate X10 throughout the entire house. I should upgrade those X10 relics to something with more hipster cred, but the whole IoT thing scares me spitless.

As nearly as I can tell, using the AC power line for anything other than, well, AC power just isn't reliable. Of course, WiFi isn't all that durable, either; I've had to run CAT-5 cable to some awkward locations recently.

yeah, this came up in the past and I dont believe the user ever came back with their results. A UPS wont do any conditioning because it just tries to maintain a constant voltage range. I had recommended the last guy to try using a power conditioner for the M2 because that would hopefully isolate it from the rest of the house as far as signals and noise goes. otherwise, i believe you are SOL my friend.

I definitely would avoid power line networking, another alternative could be a MoCA router, which uses coaxial lines to network, and it plays nice with your cable service.

dramsey wrote:The solution I'm using now is using an extra router (Linksys WRT1900AC) to bridge to my existing wireless network. Kinda overkill, but it's what I had in the closet.

I have several obsolete routers that I use as local ethernet switches. In my opinion, if it solves the problem, and the device was otherwise going to spend time in the closet gathering dust or occupying space in a landfill, then it's hardly overkill.

[quote="Tim"I have several obsolete routers that I use as local ethernet switches. In my opinion, if it solves the problem, and the device was otherwise going to spend time in the closet gathering dust or occupying space in a landfill, then it's hardly overkill.[/quote]

True, I suppose.