Broadband through powerline ?

omri

Hi everyone. I have max UPC package but I have very poor internet signal on the floor above and below the living room where my UPC box and TV are.

Is there any inexpensive and efficient (in terms of the speeds) way to redistribute the signal to upper and lower floors of my house ?

I was thinking perhaps sending internet signal through the powerlines - I'm not sure how good this technology is as I only heard about it few years ago. My computer downstairs would be connected with cable to the internet. Upstairs we would use laptops/iPads - living room would be computer free zone at this point.

Thanks for any kind of input on that matter.

Tokyo

Something like a Powerline adapter is what you are describing.

They come in two flavours - the cheaper set will extend your LAN as a wired network - i.e. upstairs you'd have to plug in your internet capable device with a LAN cable. The more expensive ones also have a wifi extender built in - the upstairs module will broadcast a wifi network for the upstairs of the house.

omri

mike_ie wrote: »

Something like a Powerline adapter is what you are describing.

They come in two flavours - the cheaper set will extend your LAN as a wired network - i.e. upstairs you'd have to plug in your internet capable device with a LAN cable. The more expensive ones also have a wifi extender built in - the upstairs module will broadcast a wifi network for the upstairs of the house.

Thanks for that. Now Id have to check if my sockets in one circuit. If I can switch off the lights and wall plugs independently for each floor in my switch box does it mean these are separate circuits?

maki

omri wrote: »

Thanks for that. Now Id have to check if my sockets in one circuit. If I can switch off the lights and wall plugs independently for each floor in my switch box does it mean these are separate circuits?

Separate circuits yes, but that won't be a problem. If the house has an extension or something which requires a second fusebox you'll find the signal won't cross between the two. But in a regular dwelling you'll be fine.

Just be aware that the speeds quoted on the adapters (500Mb, 200Mb...) are full duplex speeds at a theoretical maximum. In real life don't expect to get much more than ~70-80Mb from a 500Mb adapter.

randomnumber1

Before doing anything like that you should try change the wireless channel your Upc box uses. A quick google will explain how.

riclad

ALL lights are in a separate circuit, from power sockets
Lights have nothing to do with powerline networking.
You can get powerline units with both ethernet and wifi in the reciever unit.
Handy for laptop, tablet users .
Buy 2 units,
sender, reciever pack.

practice

Before you get these powerline adapters check if your sockets are at
ground level.
I got a pair and could not plug them in.
Was told if I used an extension cable the signel would degrade

riclad

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/devolo-dlan-500mbps-wifi-single-powerline-adapter-and-wireless-extender-n49qg

10/100meg units maybe cheaper than 500meg units.

omri

Hi all - I got the TP-Link kit at €38 and did try them already. Very easy to set up and works fine. I have tried it in the room downstairs in few sockets and no problem with any of them.

These are the 500Mbps speed. I had to get the USB to Ethernet cable for my apple laptop and after running few speed tests on UPCs website my download was at 50Mbps, that's half of what I get using WiFi - is it because of the quality of power lines in my place or because I was connected through USB (it's a USB 3.0). I was expecting a drop in speed but somewhere bit below the 200Mbps that I have when connected with a cable.

ThisRegard

I recently picked up this Devolo kit, http://www.devolo.com/en/Products/dLAN-500-AV-Wireless+ a tad on the expensive side but I needed a reliable connection for both ethernet and wireless in a home office.

On a 120Mb connection I'm getting around 100Mbps via the ethernet connection (which is the max anyway via the plug), and on average around 55Mbps on wireless but with peaks higher than I've ever got directly from the UPC router. I've been hitting 87 with a laptop, internet radio and phone connected to the Wifi plug.

I set the SSID to be the same as the router so when I move around my devices automatically connect to whatever is the strongest connection.

BailMeOut

ThisRegard wrote: »

I recently picked up this Devolo kit, http://www.devolo.com/en/Products/dLAN-500-AV-Wireless+ a tad on the expensive side but I needed a reliable connection for both ethernet and wireless in a home office.

On a 120Mb connection I'm getting around 100Mbps via the ethernet connection, and on average around 55Mbps on wireless but with peaks higher than I've ever got directly from the UPC router.

I set the SSID to be the same as the router so when I move around my devices automatically connect to whatever is the strongest connection.

+1 on Devolo. Tried lots of options and found these to be the best.

omri

ThisRegard wrote: »

I recently picked up this Devolo kit, http://www.devolo.com/en/Products/dLAN-500-AV-Wireless+ a tad on the expensive side but I needed a reliable connection for both ethernet and wireless in a home office.

On a 120Mb connection I'm getting around 100Mbps via the ethernet connection (which is the max anyway via the plug), and on average around 55Mbps on wireless but with peaks higher than I've ever got directly from the UPC router. I've been hitting 87 with a laptop, internet radio and phone connected to the Wifi plug.

I set the SSID to be the same as the router so when I move around my devices automatically connect to whatever is the strongest connection.

I'm only getting 50Mbps on the TP Link AV500 and I tried it on two different machines in the same room and two different rooms and I don't exceed this speed even though I have 200Mb connection. I used to get around 98Mbps on the wireless. So could this be that the little adapters are not able faster speeds or is it something to do with the power lines ?

ThisRegard

50Mbps wired or wireless ? If wired, have to tried them on the same power strip to rule out any issues with your wiring ?

omri

I have double sockets in each room. I had them plugged in the same sockets. Both adapters, both connected with cables. Then moved one to other room. Speeds never exceed 50Mbps. No matter if they were in the same room, same socket or not.

BailMeOut

omri wrote: »

I have double sockets in each room. I had them plugged in the same sockets. Both adapters, both connected with cables. Then moved one to other room. Speeds never exceed 50Mbps. No matter if they were in the same room, same socket or not.

Are the interfaces 100Mb or 1Gb as I suspect they are 100Mbs on these. This would mean that 100Mbs is the theoretical max throughput from one machine to another so getting 50Mbs with all the required overhead and going over power lines would therefore seem ok to me.

omri

BailMeOut wrote: »

Are the interfaces 100Mb or 1Gb as I suspect they are 100Mbs on these. This would mean that 100Mbs is the theoretical max throughput from one machine to another so getting 50Mbs with all the required overhead and going over power lines would therefore seem ok to me.

How do I check that ? It's bit of a waste of my UPC bill if I can't get above 100Mbps.

BailMeOut

omri wrote: »

How do I check that ? It's bit of a waste of my UPC bill if I can't get above 100Mbps.

If you are running windows just look at the status of "speed" of your network interface. It will look something like this.



There will also usually be an event in your Event log under System showing how it is connecting

Mine looks like this

"Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet: Network controller configured for 1Gb full-duplex link."

omri

BailMeOut wrote: »

If you are running windows just look at the status of "speed" of your network interface. It will look something like this.



There will also usually be an event in your Event log under System showing how it is connecting

Mine looks like this

"Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet: Network controller configured for 1Gb full-duplex link."

I'm running MacOS and in TPLink utility for mac it shows 168Mbps.

maki

As I said earlier in the thread, you're not going to get much over 80Mbps under normal conditions. Less depending on the wiring in your house (I get 60Mbps max with the exact same adapters). Not to mention that the ports on those are only 10/100, so it's physically impossible to be supplied bandwidth over 100Mbps.

omri

maki wrote: »

As I said earlier in the thread, you're not going to get much over 80Mbps under normal conditions. Less depending on the wiring in your house (I get 60Mbps max with the exact same adapters). Not to mention that the ports on those are only 10/100, so it's physically impossible to be supplied bandwidth over 100Mbps.

Will I get more with different devices ? I don't mind paying more if it means I get higher speeds.

maki

omri wrote: »

Will I get more with different devices ? I don't mind paying more if it means I get higher speeds.

You may get a marginal increase with a more expensive model, but I wouldn't expect anything worthwhile. At the end of the day you're transmitting data over a very noisy medium, so until the technology improves your only option if you want greater speeds is to run an ethernet cable from point to point instead, or stick with wireless.

BailMeOut

The TP-LINK TL-PA511 KIT AV500 are Gigabit (not 10/100).

Whether of not they help you I cannot say. Google reviews to see if you can find any published actual performance results.

http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-PA511-Powerline-Starter-Kit/dp/B0081FLFQE

Also are you really getting 100Mbs with UPC? Have you tested this when plugged directly to the router and doing some speed tests. I know upto 100Mbs is being offered but do you really get 100Mbs?

omri

BailMeOut wrote: »

The TP-LINK TL-PA511 KIT AV500 are Gigabit (not 10/100).

Whether of not they help you I cannot say. Google reviews to see if you can find any published actual performance results.

http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-PA511-Powerline-Starter-Kit/dp/B0081FLFQE

Also are you really getting 100Mbs with UPC? Have you tested this when plugged directly to the router and doing some speed tests. I know upto 100Mbs is being offered but do you really get 100Mbs?

On my mbp Im getting up to 80-90Mbps wireless. I had a PC connected a while ago and downloads were between 20-25MB/s when connected with a cable. Using the TP links never above 50Mbps today it barely reached 40Mbps and thats obviousle cable not wireless. I have no sockets in the "staircase" so cant fit any airport type of device to extend the wireless signal.

It will be difficult for me to run a cable but at the end of the day I might just have to do that.