Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[broadstairs]

The problem with only having wired lan is that all smart phones and tablets wont work. If powerline devices are really as bad as some folks appear to think why are they selling so well? I have been looking around and have yet to find any convincing arguments for not using (or at least trying) them.

For historical reasons my master socket is upstairs and so is the router (HG622), I have turned off wireless on the router as it simply does not work well even right next to it, and downstairs getting a decent signal was almost impossible, running cat5/6 is a no go as there is no where to hide it - hence the powerline and access point. Now the a/p location has to change and my wife does not want to see a box with flashing lights anywhere obvious so a wireless powerline is the only option to hide it.

This is the background to my request for peoples experience of using them. For me not using them is NOT an option, even in the future if the master socket was downstairs my PC's are upstairs so I'd still need them!

Stuart

[sevenlayermuddle]

I agree wireless is pretty much a 'must have', but I'd restrict its use to smart phones and tablets. Anything more 'serious', such as a 'smart' TV with iplayer, I'd want either  wired or powerline.

My only first hand experience of using them was setting up a youview box that came free with some BT package I helped to install.   They worked OK, but I found them less practical than anticipated owing the fact that you either had to 'lose' a wall socket that could otherwise have had an extension plugged in, or piggy back the extension on the 'powerline' adapter, which made it awfully bulky.   Sorry, don't know what brand that was.

Also, if flashing lights are to be avoided, pretty sure the ones above had LEDs of some kind, don't remember whether they flashed with traffic, or how bright they were.

[broadstairs]

Thanks 7lm, thing about the powerlines in that you can use a socket which is behind some small piece of furniture which means you cant see the LEDs where most A/Ps are quite large and difficult to hide Many of the powerlines now have a mains socket passthru.

I have to use wireless for the laptop my wife uses as she wants to be able to use it anywhere, including the garden in summer  As for smart TVs well my chances of getting my wife to agree one of those is between 0 and none 

Stuart

[broadstairs]

Well since I had to do something to remove the old access point I bit the bullet this morning and purchased a TP-Link TL-WPA4220KIT which is a 500Mbps powerline set with wireless N connectivity.

I am quite impressed by the features which are pretty much the same as a normal access point which allows mac filtering. Yes I know you can spoof mac addresses or change them on some devices but it does mean there is just a bit more for anyone wishing to be naughty, and it has all the various security options one would expect 

I have now got it all installed and running and my laptop still gets the same speed results on Thinkbroadband speed tester as yesterday using my old wireless G a/p and it is connected at 300Mbps according to Windows 7. So it would seem that the TP-Link hardware is at least as good as the Devolo I was using.

The wireless homeplug in this kit also has two rj-45 connectors so I could hardwire a smart TV if I am allowed one in the future, or any other devices that I may have in future downstairs.

So now if I want faster speeds I need to go FTTC  8)

Stuart

[NewtronStar]

If powerline devices are really as bad as some folks appear to think why are they selling so well? I

They were bad for my setup was seeing upto half a million FEC errors per minute, and the weird part my PC is connected direct to router using Lan Cable, so it looks like the Powerline Adapters was Interfereing with the Modem via the mains.

Once I removed all powerline adapters the FEC errors have recoverd to a healthy 24 - 500 per min with the odd spike to 18000, and the Modem has increased it's speed and Interleaving has gone down from 1600 to 450

thats my experience with homeplugs and have gone back to wireless unill I can route Lan cable to second PC.

[geep]

I use a pair of ancient Netgear HDX101 and they work fine for streaming video to my Raspberry Pi.
But they do run hot, so I unplug them when I remember to to save power.

On occasions have used one of them at the end of a curly extension lead, and it worked OK for
my needs of driver downloads whilst rebuilding a PC on the dining room table.

Cheers,
Peter 

[broadstairs]

In light of what folks here and elsewhere intimated about ADSL interference last night when I no longer needed WI-FI I turned off both adapters and left it like that until this morning. I took a close look at my error rates in DSLStats but could see no discernible difference in the FEC or CRC error rate between them being off and on.

So my conclusion - at least for me - there is no evidence of interference from using powerline adapters.

Stuart

[renluop]

My puny set up is wifi except for a pair of powerline adapters connecting PC to my Foxsat+ PVR to get IPlayer and ITV Player. done like that as that was advice in Humax set up instructions.

Seems a silly question, but if the wall sockets are live, I am presuming that the adapters could have no adverse effect on performance unless they were carrying traffic from computer to PVR and thence to TV. Yes?

[roseway]

There will be some traffic between the powerline adaptors at all times (control signals), but much more when they're carrying actual data.

[JGO]

 Powerline adaptors, like any electronic device have a potential for causing interference. When and how serious depends on the exact circumstances, and that is where their particular problem lies as the cable connection is totally unpredictable at RF, one stage worse than WiFi, where you can at least move the aerials about, stick ali foil behind wallpaper on the party wall etc.

Really it is a defect in house design that cable ducts are not built in, (plus garages wide enough for modern cars not just Austin 7 s !) so people look for a magic fix.




 

[bbnovice]

I used to be a fan of powerline adaptors as they let me avoid wireless. In the past I  had several issues with wireless in my property (distance between rooms, wall construction etc) which meant that reliable wireless connection (and speed) was problematic. The deployment of On Demand on the SKY box also meant that wireless was a no-no as I was one of the unlucky ones that could not get SKY to work wirelessly with a Home Hub 3.

However a BT engineer whilst trouble shooting problems on my VDSL service some time after I started using them was able (using his test kit) to conclusively demonstrate that the adaptors were causing a very significant number of line errors. They were not the primary cause of the connection problems, but the number of errors they generated were an important contributory factor to the overall problem.

So I reluctantly ditched the adaptors and went 100% wireless using repeaters to boost the signals round the house. The SKY wireless problem was also (eventually) solved by using a different Sky wireless connector (I had to try 3 before I could get one to work as intended).

So if powerlines work for you then great, but personally I would only invest in a couple to start with and see how they work in practice. There are a lot of variables involved with them so I don’t think it wise to generalise.

The adaptors I used were supplied by a network communications company based in North London called ADDON Technologies.

[broadstairs]

Really it is a defect in house design that cable ducts are not built in, (plus garages wide enough for modern cars not just Austin 7 s !) so people look for a magic fix.

Not in many modern houses now, however this one was built in 1920, lucky to have power but when built it had an outside toilet  although that is long gone 

Stuart

[sevenlayermuddle]

Worth chipping in that whilst powerline may conceivably generate interference, I would expect that interference to be well within the common mode rejection  capabilities of a properly configured twisted-pair home phone wiring link.

If powerline causes a large rise in DSL errors, I'd suspect suboptimal home wiring to be a factor.   Any imbalance in the 'pair', such as presence of a fault or even just 'bell wire' connection, would explain such vulnerability to interference.

That said I'll stand by my opposition to powerline, but that is because I think that wired LAN will perform better as LAN, rather than any conviction that powerline is detrimental to DSL.

But just my opinion, others will differ, and may be right.   

[NewtronStar]

Just for anyone with a dead TP-Link (TL-PA211) adapter (no leds on) don't chuck it in the bin yet, as it's a simple fix if you know how to use a soldering Iron.

please read this link http://www.kphonline.co.uk/2012/12/repairing-a-dead-tp-link-pa211-powerline-ethernet-adapter-part1/

I will let you know how it goes as one of my TL-PA211 has died and have placed an order for that capacitor.

[NewtronStar]

Just Testing the Working TP-Link (TL-PA211) adapter to-night and can tell you once the adapter is connected to the mains the FEC errors Increase from 11 to 75000 in one minute using Ronski's GUI to see this, and once the adapter is removed the FEC's fall back to double figures.

So thats a clear Indication that Powerline Adapters is causing massive interference with the HG612, I'll fix the dead one and give them to someone who is not that concerned about there BroadBand speeds on FTTC