Powerline Adapters - who uses them do you like them?

[cerberusss]

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

Sure. Note that it's a commandline tool, and you'll need two macs*.

Do you have Homebrew installed? If not, it's a package manager for commandline tools. Go to brew.sh and copy/paste the line on the frontpage into a terminal, and it'll install Homebrew.

When that's done, type the following command:

brew install iperf

When it's installed, start the server:

iperf -s

Go to system preferences and check the IP address of this first mac playing server.

Do the same on the second mac, and when done, type:

iperf -c x.x.x.x

Where x.x.x.x is the IP address of the server (running on the first mac). After a bit of time, it'll display something like:

user@secondmac:~$ iperf -c 192.168.2.2
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.2.2, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 129 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 4] local 192.168.2.3 port 50699 connected with 192.168.2.2 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 4] 0.0-10.1 sec 69.4 MBytes 57.9 Mbits/sec
user@secondmac:~$

Voilà.

*) I said two macs, but actually iperf also runs on Linux and Windows.

 

[Osamede]

Sure. Note that it's a commandline tool, and you'll need two macs*.

Do you have Homebrew installed? If not, it's a package manager for commandline tools. Go to brew.sh and copy/paste the line on the frontpage into a terminal, and it'll install Homebrew.

When that's done, type the following command:

brew install iperf

When it's installed, start the server:

iperf -s

Go to system preferences and check the IP address of this first mac playing server.

Do the same on the second mac, and when done, type:

iperf -c x.x.x.x

Where x.x.x.x is the IP address of the server (running on the first mac). After a bit of time, it'll display something like:

user@secondmac:~$ iperf -c 192.168.2.2
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.2.2, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 129 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 4] local 192.168.2.3 port 50699 connected with 192.168.2.2 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 4] 0.0-10.1 sec 69.4 MBytes 57.9 Mbits/sec
user@secondmac:~$

Voilà.

*) I said two macs, but actually iperf also runs on Linux and Windows.

Thanks, will try that....

 

[Daisy81]

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.

I have a PowerLine 1200 that I use for my AV gear. The power line adapter is slower but for some equipment it makes sense.

Attached is the speeds of the power line adapter connected to my Mac Mini with WiFi off and with the ethernet unplugged from my Mac Mini and WiFi on.