Networking Over Power Mains

rharris

I am currently connected to the internet via a wi-fi connection to my Eircom Router from my laptop.

Can anyone advise me a on a good system to network over the power mains in my house or if anyone has any experience of it or if it is worth the purchase faster downloading etc.

Thanks

billgates

Hi,

i picked up a a set of the Netgear Powerline adapters for the house about 2 months ago and they have made a huge difference to things (i was sceptical at first) I find them to be both very fast and reliable, i haven't really had any issues with them at all to be honest.

I was previously running an 802.11G wifi point (which i still use for laptops and phones) however the desktop machine was just borderline in terms in range of the WIFI point and had very erratic connectivity issues on the WIFI, with high pings and erratic download speeds etc. Installed the poweline adaptors and no bother since, getting pings in the 2ms region now on the LAN with much faster throughput that the WIFI point.

Would highly recommend these, they are pricey for the higher end ones (think i paid €160 for the Netgear set in PC WORLD) but worth it if you are looking for a good stable and reliable wired connection and don't have ability to run lengths of CAT 5 all over the place!

rharris

Thanks for the feed back, is there anything I need to consider when purchacing, I assume they come in different speed etc and prices to match, I will query in PC world.

Cheers mate

billgates

rharris wrote: »

Thanks for the feed back, is there anything I need to consider when purchacing, I assume they come in different speed etc and prices to match, I will query in PC world.

Cheers mate

No worries.

To be honest i just went for the most expensive one they had there at the time (you get what you pay for after all!).

I don't really think that there would be a huge difference in them, most of the Netgear ones would be ok i would imagine (Devolo are meant to do pretty good ones too). It depends really if you are going to doing a lot on the LAN or over the internet. Obviously if you are going to be moving a lot of data around on machines on your local network then go for the fastest one you can afford in terms of all out speed. If on the other hand you are mainly at web surfing and online then the speed is less crucial as it is always going to be faster that your broadband in any case. I guess that's really what it comes down to.

In my experience, they are still much faster and more reliable than the 802.11 G and N points that i have in the house at the moment. There is a huge difference in moving data around from devices on the network, and internet connectivity is much more responsive that on the WIFI, lower pings and faster loading times.

The only word of warning relates to the age of the electrical wiring in your house. They don't play well apparently with older wiring. I have a newer house so there were no issues at all, but it may not be like this for everyone, that's the only factor really to consider, other than that like i said i would highly recommend them.

rharris

Well said I think i had my mind made up before I posted on here just wanted someone who had experience of them to sell it to me, the references on the models types will be of help...cheers again lad

pickarooney

I have a pair of these I use to connect the laptop up. Devolo brand, bought second hand on eBay for about 40 quid the pair and are not the fastest, but connection never drops or slows.

billgates

rharris wrote: »

Well said I think i had my mind made up before I posted on here just wanted someone who had experience of them to sell it to me, the references on the models types will be of help...cheers again lad

Any time, let us know how they work out for you.

bonkey

I use a set of devolo AVPlus.

Like many of the current set of Powerline stuff, they're advertised as being 200 Mbit, but actually only have 100Mb chipsets (the x2 is an advertising trick, based on the fact that networking is duplex...so "100Mb in each direction == 200Mb").

In terms of performance, they're not bad....but they're topping out at around 70Mbit. From reading around, that seems to be quite common. If its only to route to yur Internet connection, you won't care. If you're trying to access stuff on a home network server, or stream HD video content or somesuch...you might hit limits.

IIRC, a mate of mine uses Belkin Gigabit Powerline kit and swears by it. He does use it to stream HD video, but I've never asked him if he's benchmarked it. From what I recall from reviews, its faster then any of the 200Mbit rated kit, but not as noise tolerant, and nowhere near gigabit in real world performance.

Voodu Child

rharris wrote: »

I am currently connected to the internet via a wi-fi connection to my Eircom Router from my laptop.

Can anyone advise me a on a good system to network over the power mains in my house or if anyone has any experience of it or if it is worth the purchase faster downloading etc.

Thanks

Unless you have a very fast connection and a very slow wifi router, you're not likely to get faster download speeds by switching to powerline.

rharris

bonkey wrote: »

I use a set of devolo AVPlus.

Like many of the current set of Powerline stuff, they're advertised as being 200 Mbit, but actually only have 100Mb chipsets (the x2 is an advertising trick, based on the fact that networking is duplex...so "100Mb in each direction == 200Mb").

In terms of performance, they're not bad....but they're topping out at around 70Mbit. From reading around, that seems to be quite common. If its only to route to yur Internet connection, you won't care. If you're trying to access stuff on a home network server, or stream HD video content or somesuch...you might hit limits.

IIRC, a mate of mine uses Belkin Gigabit Powerline kit and swears by it. He does use it to stream HD video, but I've never asked him if he's benchmarked it. From what I recall from reviews, its faster then any of the 200Mbit rated kit, but not as noise tolerant, and nowhere near gigabit in real world performance.

Good point to watch out for. I will do a bit of shopping around and see what i can come up with. Thanks all!!!