Powerline Adapters - who uses them do you like them?

[maflynn]

As the title suggests, who uses them and are you happy with the performance?

Based on this Amazon review It seems that 20 to 30Mb/s throughput is the best you can expect from powerline adapters and not the N500 speed that was quoted on the model the reviewer tested. He seemed to indicate that he also tested a N750 model but that too did not show any marked improvement.

My question is what good are these then?

I have a 802.11n wireless extender in my bedroom and I'm only seeing 20 to 30 (mostly in the 20s), Mb/s performance.

As per my other threads, I'm looking to upgrade to the AC type wireless, and extend the network, since my downstairs suffers and I want better performance for my DirectTV receiver and PS4.

 

[SheridanMac]

My basement HT room lacks ethernet so with great skepticism I bought one of these - the TP-Link AV600. It works pretty well in my house. I imagine there's some variability depending on your home's electrical wiring, but I reliably get at least 50-60Mb/s on speedtest. Never got around to figuring out how to measure it for internal network performance, but I'm able to stream lossless blu-ray rips from my NAS upstairs so long as I fast forward or rewind too much, and most smaller files basically behave as if they are on my local drive. In my case it was $50 well spent.

 

[Gav2k]

I use them as the main router is in a crappy location. I don't use them for anything else as I've good wifi coverage and cables for everything that's stationary.

 

[maflynn]

but I reliably get at least 50-60Mb/s on speedtest.

I was hoping to see at a minimum 100Mb/s if I were to use them

I use them as the main router is in a crappy location.

My main idea was to use it in the bedroom, and if I wanted to isolate a airport exrpress off it, but I'm not sure if that will be the best approach

 

[Gav2k]

I was hoping to see at a minimum 100Mb/s if I were to use them


My main idea was to use it in the bedroom, and if I wanted to isolate a airport exrpress off it, but I'm not sure if that will be the best approach

It's better than trying to extend over wifi as you don't suffer the 50% drop in performance.

 

[maflynn]

It's better than trying to extend over wifi as you don't suffer the 50% drop in performance.

If I were to get 50-60 Mb/s with the powerline adapter, I'd agree with you. If I incurred the 20-30 Mb/s that the reviewer was seeing, then I'm not entirely sure.

I guess given the cost of these, It may not hurt to roll the dice and see it helps, its not like it could hurt anything at this poit

 

[Weaselboy]

If I were to get 50-60 Mb/s with the powerline adapter, I'd agree with you. If I incurred the 20-30 Mb/s that the reviewer was seeing, then I'm not entirely sure.

I guess given the cost of these, It may not hurt to roll the dice and see it helps, its not like it could hurt anything at this poit

There are some rankings here that might help you choose. Several of those look like they easily hit 100 Mbps.

 

[Richdmoore]

If I were to get 50-60 Mb/s with the powerline adapter, I'd agree with you. If I incurred the 20-30 Mb/s that the reviewer was seeing, then I'm not entirely sure.

I guess given the cost of these, It may not hurt to roll the dice and see it helps, its not like it could hurt anything at this poit

Have you considered if the newest actiontech Moca 2.0 bonded adapters would work instead? They work with already installed coax. I believe satellite tv systems are not compatible, but antenna or cable tv can share the existing cable.

They are more pricy (a little less than $200 for a pair) but should be much higher speeds than power line networking.

 

[mic j]

Your transfer speed is very highly dependent upon the wiring in your residence. No way to know until you try one what transfer rate you will see. So I recommend buying from somewhere with a good return policy (or be ready to eat the cost). I have used the TP-Link with acceptable results. There was an occasional hiccup that required a restart but it was not frequent.

 

[AFEPPL]

I use them just for one room due to the construction of it with very think walls.
A little back ground... My internet comes in to a Time machine, before going up stairs to a distribution cupboard (all the top floor is hardwired) and the power line links from the distribution cupboard to the other room back on the ground floor.

That room has an xbox, ATV and some other steaming devices.
i dont recall the throughput but i can watch movies fine and play the xbox over it.

If you tell me the tool you want to use to measure the throughput i will (not all tools report the same numbers).
It's an OK point solution, i wouldn't use it for everything, but its a good option to fix wifi blackspot and works best is both sockets are on the same breaker.

 

[maflynn]

If you tell me the tool you want to use to measure the throughput i will (not all tools report the same numbers).

Nothing too technical but I use speedtest.net. My internal network speeds are nowhere near the bandwidth of my internet.

There are some rankings here that might help you choose. Several of those look like they easily hit 100 Mbps.

Awesome thanks, that's just what I was looking for

The more I think about it, the ore I like the idea of the using a powerline adapter for my bedroom

 

[AFEPPL]

I've just run the xbox one network test and its telling me 40MB/s, which is the limit of my broadband connection.
I'm also running an RSYNC backup at the same time, between my two NAS devices.

 

[maflynn]

Great thanks, given the price, I think I'll take the plunge and see how it works out. At the very least, removing the wireless extender from my network, will improve the wife performance even if the powerline performance isn't as good as I hope it will be

 

[Truefan31]

I think it's important to see the comparison of the ping/latency tests. Is the adapter providing lower latency and ping times vs wifi. This could make a difference especially for gaming.

 

[maflynn]

I ordered the TP-LINK TL-PA8030P thanks to @Weaselboy's link, I'll report back later about what I see in performance. Thanks to my Amazon rewards that increased thanks to my Christmas shopping, I'm only out of pocket 20 bucks, so it was one of those no brainer type decisions

Is the adapter providing lower latency and ping times vs wifi. This could make a difference especially for gaming.

I'll have to wait and see, but almost anything will be better then what I have now.
[doublepost=1451992332,1451906295][/doublepost]Well I have my powerline adapters and so far during my initial testing, its faring rather poorly. I'm getting about 20 Mb/s download an 1 Mb/s upload. I'm going to retest later but to be honest, I'm not seeing any improvement over the run of the mill wireless extender that I currently have.

I was hoping for better performance especially since my second floor is a fairly recent addition to the house, i.e., we added on and now have new wiring on the second floor.

 

[Weaselboy]

I'm getting about 20 Mb/s download an 1 Mb/s upload.

Wow... that's disappointing given the reviews. Barely better than two cans with a piece of string.

 

[Phil A.]

I've got a pair of Netgear AV500s to get the internet to a room with bad WiFi coverage and get about 50 Mb/s down and 10 Mb/s up (my broadband is 160 Mb/s down and 12 Mb/s up)

The speed is heavily dependent on the quality and age of the house wiring and as they only have 100 Mb/s Ethernet ports rather than Gigabit, it's physically impossible to get any more than 100 Mb/s speed

 

[millerj123]

Well I have my powerline adapters and so far during my initial testing, its faring rather poorly. I'm getting about 20 Mb/s download an 1 Mb/s upload. I'm going to retest later but to be honest, I'm not seeing any improvement over the run of the mill wireless extender that I currently have.

I was hoping for better performance especially since my second floor is a fairly recent addition to the house, i.e., we added on and now have new wiring on the second floor.

Was the poor performance just between old wiring and new, or is that regardless of where the plugs are located?

I'd love to be able to get near ethernet speeds from existing power wiring, but from what I've read, I've been consistently better off just using ethernet/wifi.

 

[maflynn]

Both rooms are upstairs using the new wiring, which feeds into our panel which is also not old. When I say new, its 10 years old, but then the house was built around 1930, so compared to the old wiring, it is new

In all honesty I'm tempted to return these, since performance isn't all that great.

 

[jdelgado]

Both rooms are upstairs using the new wiring, which feeds into our panel which is also not old. When I say new, its 10 years old, but then the house was built around 1930, so compared to the old wiring, it is new

In all honesty I'm tempted to return these, since performance isn't all that great.

Are both adapters in the same circuit (breaker)?
If they are not, that may explain the poor performance.

 

[maflynn]

No, they're on the different circuits as they're in different rooms.

I wasn't expecting gigabit performance but yet, something incurring the mid 20s is a disappointment.

 

[topmounter]

Have you considered if the newest actiontech Moca 2.0 bonded adapters would work instead? They work with already installed coax. I believe satellite tv systems are not compatible, but antenna or cable tv can share the existing cable.

They are more pricy (a little less than $200 for a pair) but should be much higher speeds than power line networking.

I started with powerline adapters, but they never performed well... Basically the speed was a fraction (4-5 Mbps) of my cable modem connection (25M at the time). Since moving to MOCA, I've been very happy. They are very stable and are at least as fast as my ~150 cable modem service. I installed four in my house and use them as a sort of wired backbone to two different Tivos and a WAP on the far side of the house.

 

[Osamede]

I have had a decent experience with the Devolo dLAN 1200+ Starter Kit, which is one uploader + 1 WAP with a 2-port ethernet hub.

The speeds are less than advertised but more than I was getting on my home wifi with a router/modem in the basement floor. Also a much more stable signal than I got with the Asus RT-N66 router, which surprised me.

 

[cerberusss]

I have the same kit as the user above, and I live in a 1930s house. I'm getting 47 Mbit/s as measured with the commandline tool iperf.

The thing has built-in wifi, but I connected to its ethernet port. On one side, a 17" early-2009 MBP, and on the other side a mid-2010 13" MBP. The 13" was sitting downstairs on the dinner table, and the 17" was sitting on the 2nd floor, where the Devolo was connected through two (!) splitters.

With the 17" sitting on the 1st floor, I'm getting 40 Mbit/s, but sometimes also 58 Mbit/s. I don't know what causes this variation. It also regularly craps out. An older homeplug that advertised 200 Mbit/s could actually only get 3 Mbit/s and also regularly crapped out at this particular wallport in the house.

You just have to try and be sure to check if it stays stable.

 

[Osamede]

Do you have a short summary of how that tool works? I'd like to test the measured speed as well.