Sudden WD Livewire Problem

[Sierra4x4]

I have had 4 WD Livewire working fine for about a year. Now I can only get them to connect when they are very close together (like on the same floor). When they are on diffrent floors they seem to stay connected for about a minute and then PLC light go off and I loose the connection. This is a bit intermittent since I sometimes can get a working connection and sometimes it's impossible. My power company has installed smart meters and I suspect it might have something to do with it. I have made a support request to WD asking if there is a new firmware available but has not received any answer.

[Vadir]

It seems to be related to your electrical lines, since you have no issues when the units are closer.  IMHO I do not think this can be addressed with a new firmware.

[livewire10]

I've had my Livewires for about 1 month. I had the same problem. On the same floor, they work at the maximum speed of the ISP plan I'm on (18 mbps). On different floors, they're at 3-10 mbps, plus intermittent connections*.

*On different floors, there are periods when they keep dropping, the PLC and Power light go on and off and my Network Magic program will constantly show my internet connection as Connected and then Disconnected. It's quite frustrating.

But, after finding this thread this morning, I'm given new hope!

http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-Livewire/What-can-influence-the-performance-of-the-WD-Livewire/m-p/91...

It's interesting (if it's true) to learn that other electrical devices will affect it and that it self-optimizes.

Because normally, when I first get on my computer and the problem starts, I start tinkering with the Livewires. 

However, today, I just put up with the intermittent connection and got  on this message board for the first time. I only registered previously, and I didn't know my password and by the time I finished recovering my password, getting past the reCaptcha, and reading different threads on this board, my connection became stable!

I'm wondering if the initial powering on of the computer has an effect and it self-optimizes. Tomorrow, I start a new job, so I don't think I'll test and be able to post tomorrow morning, but,  I'm going to test this out and just turn on the computer and leave the Livewires to see if they fix themselves after a period of time. It was probably 10-15 minutes of reading through this board when the connection stabilized. I'll report back to share the results.

[livewire10]

Okay, so I think I figured it out. Yesterday, my 3rd floor unit didn't work properly (PLC-Link and power lights kept flashing).

I tried resetting the adapter, but, that didn't work.

I logged in as admin, ran the WD powerline utility, went to the Privacy tab and noticed my Private Network Name was reset to default, maybe that's what happens when you hit the reset. The next time my adapter stops working, I'm immediately going to go to the utility instead to see.

Anyways, after typing in the network name I assigned to my adapters, my internet connection worked again. Now, it's faster than my 18mbps set by my ISP (it's recorded as 21 mbps on speedtest.net). I don't know how accurate that is, but, I'm happy with that!

I just wish they had a linux version since I will always have to switch to windows when there is a powerline problem. I'll have to try this under wine.

[Wizer]

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livewire10 wrote:

Okay, so I think I figured it out. Yesterday, my 3rd floor unit didn't work properly (PLC-Link and power lights kept flashing).

I tried resetting the adapter, but, that didn't work.

I logged in as admin, ran the WD powerline utility, went to the Privacy tab and noticed my Private Network Name was reset to default, maybe that's what happens when you hit the reset. The next time my adapter stops working, I'm immediately going to go to the utility instead to see.

Anyways, after typing in the network name I assigned to my adapters, my internet connection worked again. Now, it's faster than my 18mbps set by my ISP (it's recorded as 21 mbps on speedtest.net). I don't know how accurate that is, but, I'm happy with that!

I just wish they had a linux version since I will always have to switch to windows when there is a powerline problem. I'll have to try this under wine.

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Way to go dude

Thanks for sharing the solution