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[jimmyca69]

Evening all,

This is making me feel silly but I wanted to get some advice on my very basic 'network' setup at home.

In a nutshell I have the following:
- Sky Fibre with SR102 modem/router, connected to phone line (to a filtered phone/dsl faceplate) which connects via Ethernet cable to...
- a TP-Link TL-PA451 AV500 Powerline passthrough homeplug

Connected to the SR102 directly via Ethernet cable I have the following:
- Home HTPC running Windows 7 and Plex server (on workgroup)

Then upstairs I have:
- Desktop PC running Windows 8.1 (on workgroup) which connects via Ethernet cable to...
- TP-Link TL-PA411 AV500 Powerline homeplug

Not sure if relevant in this query but in living room I also have:
- Smart Samsung TV
- Sky HD Box
- Xbox One
- All connected via Ethernet to a TP-Link TL-PA4030 (3 port) AV500 Powerline homeplug

All connect fine to web and I often use Plex apps on TV and Xbox to watch my content without issue. I also get decent download speeds on the upstairs Windows 8.1 PC of around 6mb/s (with the Sky router connected at 62Mbps down and 19.9Mbps up). DU Meter also confirms internet speeds are similar on both W7 and W8.1 PCs.

However when looking to transfer files from the one PC to the other I am getting around 11Mbps file transfer speed in Windows. Tried both directions and also with a homegroup setup but same speeds. I just wanted to know what to look at to improve these speeds? I am not expecting 500Mbps but I was hoping for around 100Mbps using the AV500's.....Do I need to rejig the setup? Is the W7 HTPC being plugged directly into SR102 reducing transfer rates perhaps?

Any help appreciated....
Thanks

[ryan2390]

When you say the download speeds at the upstairs PC are around 6....do you mean Megabytes or megabits? I'll assume for the moment that it is the former. Power line networking should be capable of more than that. That said I wasn't aware you could run more than two at a time. 6Mbps over power line does seem poor.

I would suggest buying some cheap Cat5e cables of appropriate length from somewhere like Amazon or ebuyer and disconnect the homeplugs entirely and see if you get better speeds upstairs. If the upstairs computer reports a better download speed then it's a safe bet there is an issue with the homeplug setup. I would also suggest trying the setup with just one pair of homeplugs. Something tells me they can't work well with more than two on a circuit.

In practice it should really make a difference if everything is plugged directly into the sky box. I have my network arranged in such a way that allows me to get gigabit Ethernet in my room and and the slower wired devices like the printer and VoIP phone and connected to a megabit switch which is then connected to the main router. I can copy files from my RAID array in my PC to my dads MacBook Pro with flash storage at 800Mbps per second.

I can't recall what a single hard drive should be able to do but it should be, I think, around 30 megabytes a second when reading. Someone may correct me on this. Anyway like I say try removing the homeplugs and use Ethernet and then just try two. If they aren't working I'd suggest you try and return them as faulty if you can and run some Ethernet cables around. Switches and cables aren't that expensive and running the cable is a piece of cake.

Anyway let us know how you get on

[jimmyca69]

Thanks Ryan

Yes I was getting confused with MBps and Mbps, what I have found out is that the SR102 will be a problem as I though as only 10/100 Ethernet ports.

The 11MBps I am getting copying files between PCs, equates to roughly 88Mbps so actually on a 100Mbps network it is pretty good.

What I was also advised though is that my homeplugs, despite being AV500 only have 10/100 Ethernet ports on them! Which was a shock to me but I have confirmed this, I bought the marketing hype and missed the small print

So for now I still plan to replace the SR102 with a HG612 modem and a RT-AC68U router, but also replace the homeplugs with AV1200 & 1Gbps ports on them. To try and lift the home network to 1Gbps.

[Weaver]

A cheap Netgear gigabit switch would sort you out.

[ryan2390]

It's worth noting that some homeplugs can actually interfere with your internet connection amongst other things.

I won't use them because of their reputation for causing interference on shortwave radio frequencies and the reports I've seen of some of them causing interference on other parts of the RF spectrum from DAB radio to parts which are used by aircraft.

I would investigate dropping them entirely. With a bit of thought I suspect you could potentially use Ethernet for the same or even maybe less the cost of power line gear.

[AArdvark]

The 100Mbps ethernet problem is common on lots of kit.
The slower speed seems to be 'liked' by the vendors, I suspect it is simple cost cutting to save on the dearer components.(Lots of old components in stock/cheap)
It would also be liked by many ISPs as it is a natural limit on how much you can use the dsl connection.

Be aware that the homeplugs only give the 1Gbps in 'perfect' conditions. i.e. a lab.
For information you can have multiple pairs of homeplugs connected if they all end up at a router or switch.
I would also agree that Ethernet cable is the answer.
Cheap to get if you buy a reel of Cat 5 or 6 cable. (ebay or similar).
Remember to check reviews for quality etc as there is a lot of cheap tat on sale that may not be up to standard.
Biggest problem is being able to drill holes to route cable !! (Significant Other issues etc )

Sent from my LG G3 via Tapatalk (Typos & bad formatting are free)

[ryan2390]

AArdvark....drill holes? It's real Heath Robinson here. Cables to my room come in through a transom window.

[jimmyca69]

Thanks for input all,

Annoyingly I had the option to request Cat5e or Cat6 cabling as part of new build house a few years ago. But we didn't get round to spec'ing it.

I must admin I have always got on with homeplugs, fact that current setup is giving 88Mbps on a 100Mbps internal network has reinforced this.

I am tempted to look at copper cabling and would have to be outside, but for now I plan to stick with the homeplugs and see how it goes. Also doubt the wife would approve of any external wiring...

Whatever happens I will need to upgrade the SR102 router, this will be a bottleneck whatever I do with the HPs....