Using Powerline as a means of connectivity?

Bob the Builder

Meh, I'm probably in the wrong forum, but I *think* this is the most suitable forum.

Anyway, Here's the deal. A guy in the hospitality business asked me if I'd be able to make all of the nine apartments, plus the bar and restaurant all (wirelessly) internet accessible. I, on the spot, took me about 10 seconds to consider it, I said then that it'd take about six boxes to go around the building, all repeated and/or bridged..

So I got one box, and I put into the office, the office with the broadband, about 60 feet sq. in size and the wireless box(Netgear WGR614) that i set up there, will barely penetrate the walls, and will not penetrate the Ceiling at all, which is the most important direction. The walls are massed concrete, obviously designed for tornados or some natural disaster, but not designed for wi-fi anyway. There's not even a phone signal in the office.

So i think, now, that wi-fi is out of the question and I was researching other methods of getting the signal from the office into the 9 apartments, and I was looking at the Powerline method?

Has anyone got any views on this? suggestions? or even possible alternative ways of doing it? Will there be much interference, and will it be fast enough to sustain a decent connection.

Also, if I did install it, would I put a powerline box in each apartment or would I just put it into some attic in the middle of the apartments and have that repeating.

My main problem, as you may have guessed is that I'm finding it flúcking impossible to get the signal out of 'The Office'. It's tucked away, in a small room, in the back corner of the bottom floor of the huge building that was built to last a long time.

Thanks everyone.
Nev.

stylers

Any new place like that is going to be running on three phase power, so I doubt it'll be that easy. plus any form of PLT is the devils invention and to be avoided at all costs (IMHO of course). Reliablity would possibly also be suspect. was the place not wired for CAT5 ??

MunsterCycling

CAT5 will be the way to go tbh, powerline with that many user will be dog slow if it even works, tbh their sparky should have wired the place first day, retro doing this is hard, much harder...

MC

Bob the Builder

The building was built in the early 90's and dial-up internet only came to westport in Cat5.

It's too late now to have the place wired for it. If I was to show you the plan of the building, you would see why.

The connection would be travelling about 15metres, and to be honest, speed isn't the biggest issue, because the internet in westport is advertised as 2mb/s, yet the most i ever got out there was 750kb/s, and even if powerline was a bit slow, it wouldn't slow it down noticeably anyway, would it?

I'm presuming that ye don't recommend it anyway... Would it have any intereference with television signals or electrical devices?

Thanks very much MC and Stylers for your replies, it's much appreciated and sorry for not getting back sooner.

stylers

If there was no other way then by all means try powerline gear, but large buildings like this tend to run on three phase power, which means that not all of the rooms will be on the same phases, and this would mean extra electrical work to couple them. Have you tried putting a wireless router/AP near the rooms themselves to see how it would perform there ?.

zod

I use powerline all the time, much better than wireless.

The actual throughput is about one tenth the rated throughput - 80Mbs .. is about 8 and 200Mbps devices yeild about about 20. i stream SD video over 80Mbps devices

Buy a pair in Maplins for 50 yo yo and just check the furthest room, they don't degrade over time so what you measure day 1 should be fine from there on.

MunsterCycling

Try the powerline connection from the modem to the wifi router then you might have more luck, re the powerline adaptors, I haven't seen any that will allow that many adaptors most i have seen is 3 to 4

MC

Bob the Builder

MunsterCycling wrote: »

Try the powerline connection from the modem to the wifi router then you might have more luck, re the powerline adaptors, I haven't seen any that will allow that many adaptors most i have seen is 3 to 4

MC

yah, i think i'll give it a go. the plan will be that they ask at the bar downstairs to for internet, then they pay a 50 euro deposit, and we give them the box to use during their stay. or something like that

zod wrote: »

I use powerline all the time, much better than wireless.

The actual throughput is about one tenth the rated throughput - 80Mbs .. is about 8 and 200Mbps devices yeild about about 20. i stream SD video over 80Mbps devices

Buy a pair in Maplins for 50 yo yo and just check the furthest room, they don't degrade over time so what you measure day 1 should be fine from there on.

i figured that there would be a slow connection, but even 8mb would still be okay. do you find that it interferes with tv/radio at all?

stylers wrote: »

If there was no other way then by all means try powerline gear, but large buildings like this tend to run on three phase power, which means that not all of the rooms will be on the same phases, and this would mean extra electrical work to couple them. Have you tried putting a wireless router/AP near the rooms themselves to see how it would perform there ?.

ah fúck it. i hope the building doesn't, but for the size of the building, it could very well do. I'll wing it anyway and try it out.

Thanks for replies btw.

zod

figured that there would be a slow connection, but even 8mb would still be okay. do you find that it interferes with tv/radio at all?

no.

less likely than wireless with digi senders in fact

Bob the Builder

zod wrote: »

no.

less likely than wireless with digi senders in fact

thanks zod, that *was* my main fear....

ice9

hi,
I also have my main phone line at the front door.
I have a PC upstairs and a modded xbox that I want to
use as a media centre, streaming content through router from PC upstairs. PC upstairs has wireless capability.

I do not want to run CAT5/6 from the router at the front door to the TV on the other side of the house.
Nor do I want to run RJE45 from the front door to the TV to put the modem/router there.

What powerline options have I?

Can I get a powerline adapter pair for RJE45 and move the modem beside the TV....i.e have the DSL line carried in the main phone socket and across the power network to the modem in the sitting room?

Do I need to keep the modem at the door and move the the router to the TV and send the ethernet signal through the powerline?

Is there any degradation in either and can anyone recommend a specific product they are using for either solution?

Many Thanks