Connected to my router but seem to be getting neighbour's ISP connection

jonnyfingers

Hi,

Not really sure if this is the right place for this but I have a very weird situation and I'm wondering if anyone could shed any light on what might have happened.

I have broadband with Virgin Media through a Hub 3.0. I have some TP-Link Powerline adaptors to enable wired connections to some devices, two of the adaptors also extend the WiFi network using a cloned SSID.

Up to about a week ago all was well and I was getting speeds of over 100 Mbps. Then suddenly both the wired and wireless speeds dropped to less than 2 Mbps. I tried power cycling the router and TP-Links to see if that resolved the issue but it didn't. Eventually I tried to connect to the Virgin Media Hub using 192.168.0.1 but it wouldn't connect. I then tried 192.168.1.254 which brought me to an Eir F2000 modem login screen. This made no sense so I looked up my IP details on whatsmyipaddress.com and it said I was connected to Eircom as my ISP. Connecting back to the F2000 showed a connection to an eir network for the last 5 days. Looking at the WiFi networks that are available from my house one of them has the Eir SSID that was listed. Connecting to 192.168.1.254 showed the same results for both wired and wireless connections.

However I was always connected to my Virgin router. I verified this by turning off my router, and sure enough I'd lose internet connection. Turn back on the router and I'd get an internet connection again, but seemingly through Eir.

Eventually I did a factory reset on the router and since it came back I'm now showing Virgin as my ISP and my speeds are back to normal. I've changed the router login password and I'll change the wireless password asap also.

But I'm at a loss to explain what has happened. Was my router or connection cloned in some way? I don't even have the password for the other Eir network I was seemingly connected to. Could the TP-Links have anything to do with it? Is it possible that if both me and my neighbour are using powerline adapters that our networks might be accessible to each other?

Would anyone have any idea what might be going on.

GarIT

jonnyfingers wrote: »

Could the TP-Links have anything to do with it? Is it possible that if both me and my neighbour are using powerline adapters that our networks might be accessible to each other?

Yes, this is totally plausible.

ED E

Yep, you and your neighbour are on the same phase (1 in 3 odds) and have merged networks via the powerline. Usually the RCBO in the CU (fuseboard) will make that quite slow, but it happens.


The TPs, and all modern units, have an encryption function to prevent this happening. Read the manual and have a go at it.

jonnyfingers

OK the powerline adapter was definitely on the neighbour's network. Even after a router factory reset and the ethernet ports disconnected I could get on the internet through the powerline. I re-paired it and now it's back on my network.

But I can't figure out how it could have unpaired from my network and paired with the neighbour's network. To do that you would need to press a pair button on both the master and extender powerlines. Also the WiFi connection to my router and even a directly wired ethernet connection to the router was also connecting to the neighbour's network. How is that even possible???

ED E

Their router responded faster than yours to DHCP so became the gateway for all devices.

You hadn't paired it, just thought you had.