PLA6456 - Connected but no traffic flowing

SAI_Mike

I have two PLA6456 Adapters - one in an office in the basement (local) and one on the 2nd Floor with a NWA110AX connected to it (remote). On 5/16 traffic stopped flowing between the two PLA6456 Adapters. I rebooted the local PLA6456 from its web interface and traffic started flowing again. I upgraded the firmware on both to the latest version. The same thing happened again this morning.

When this issue occurs I can connect to the web interface of the local PLA6456 and it shows it is connected to the remote. However, I cannot ping the remote or the NWA110AX connected to it. Rebooting the local PLA immediately fixes the problem.

Attached is screenshot of the local showing it connected to the remote during the time no traffic was flowing. The second screenshot shows the firmware installed on the PLAs.

ksnip_20230526-095515.jpg

ksnip_20230526-095545.jpg

SAI_Mike

No disconnects or service failures since changing to a non-MIMO profile. MIMO is not stable and does not reconnect after a connection failure.

tonygibbs16

Hello @SAI_Mike

Welcome to the forum.

Looking at the user guide at https://download.zyxel.com/PLA6456/user_guide/PLA6456_V1.00_Ed2.pdf , are you you able to say what colour and state the LEDs are on your PLA6456 plugs?

Kind regards,

Tony

SAI_Mike

Lights are normal on both ends during the problem. Both Powerline & Ethernet are blinking green. So it looks like the connection is up however no traffic is passing over the connection. This is the same thing the local web interface reports during the problem. In fact, I originally thought there was a problem with the Access Point attached to the remote PLA because the PLA LEDs were telling me they were working fine.

okimarukas

When the connection failed, you're able to connect to the PLA directly.

When the issue appears, you could put a laptop under the PLA directly to check if it really an issue on the PLA device, if the laptop under the PLA could reach the router, then the issue might not between PLA.
Or is there any outage?? OR do you buy any electricity device currently?

SAI_Mike

Connection failed again this morning. This time I plugged a notebook directly into the remote PLA after looking at the lights on both PLAs. The lights were normal on both ends and blinking showing the PLAs communicating. On the notebook, I could connect to the web interface on the PLA and it also showed a proper connection between the PLAs. On the notebook, I could not connect to anything on the local network - no pings or any other communication. I rebooted the remote PLA I was connected to, and traffic started flowing between the PLAs again.

So when the traffic stops flowing between the PLAs, rebooting either one fixes the problem.

okimarukas

It's a challenge to find out what may be the issue on this.

If it is due to the policy block or limitation, it should not work normally at the first moment.

Maybe you could try to put both pla on the same power extension and check if the thing would still occur on the PLA.

SAI_Mike

I am using the PLAs to provide an ethernet connection for an Access Point where there is no additional wireless coverage. I can't just unplug them for a week or two and see if they fail again. Does Zyxel have any logging capability on these devices? If not they should replace them under warranty since they are clearly not working as advertised.

Zyxel_Jerry

Hi @SAI_Mike

The way to access the PLA is using the web GUI.

When the issue occurs, it appears that the laptop can still obtain an IP address from the above router, since you can access the web GUI of the PLA, it indicates that there is an IP address assigned to your laptop unless you set a static IP on your laptop.

To further troubleshoot, you can try connecting both PLAs to the same power extension and monitor if the symptoms appear in this scenario.If the issue do not occur, it might have the problem between two PLAs in your original scenario.

SAI_Mike

I had to give the laptop a static IP in order to connect to the PLA. My DHCP Server was not reachable on the other side of the PLA connection because there was no ethernet traffic flowing between the PLAs. The PLA communications problem occurs approximately every 5 days. It occurred again last night between approximately 10:30 PM and 1:30 AM. I know this because I have a device on that wireless connection that reports to the Cloud once per hour and if it does not then the Cloud Server sends me a lost connection error message. This time the PLAs recovered on their own with no intervention.

Zyxel_Jerry

Hi @SAI_Mike

Try connecting the PLAs to different power outlets or sockets. This can help determine if the issue is specific to a particular power source or electrical interference.

You can also perform the following test: Place both PLA devices on the same power extension and observe if the symptoms occur within one week.
If your router could collect the packet, it would be helpful to check on this case.

When the symptom happens in this scenario, you can put a laptop under PLA-B directly connected with an ethernet cable and open the wireshark on the laptop to collect the packet.
And also collect the packet on the router to see if the router could still receive the packet from the laptop.

Btw, do you try to reset both PLA devices?

SAI_Mike

I have wireless control devices connected to the Access Point that is connected to PLA-B, so I can't just put the two PLAs side-by-side for a week to see what happens.

Is there traffic between the two PLAs that I can see with wireshark to determine if there is interference on the powerline? It doesn't look like there are any log files, signal strength, signal alarms, etc available from the PLA web interface.

When you say "do you try to reset both PLA devices" do you mean reset to factory defaults or a simple hardware reset?