Thirith on 12/4/2011 at 07:08
Since my PC's wifi connection is relatively fast but unstable, I was thinking about getting one of those kits that allow for networking via the flat's electric circuit. Does anyone have any experience with them? How stable/fast are they? What things would I need to watch out for? And which makes/brands are good?
Nameless Voice on 12/4/2011 at 08:56
They're pretty stable, but not amazingly fast - at least, not compared to direct RJ45 cables, which are around 10x the speed or more. Copying anything large from computer to computer takes an age over the power cables, but it should be plenty fast enough for Internet.
Thirith on 12/4/2011 at 09:08
At the moment my PC's connected to the router via wifi, so I expect that a powerline set would give me comparable speeds but better stability, right?
Nameless Voice on 12/4/2011 at 09:13
Yes, that ought to be about right.
Matthew on 12/4/2011 at 09:31
Depending on where you are going to use them, you may want to check whether your country's governing bodies are being pissy about the fact that they technically interfere with local shortwave radio transmissions. The UK has recently decided not to bother investigating but I don't know what attitude the Swiss take towards it.
Thirith on 12/4/2011 at 12:08
They sell them pretty widely and Google hasn't turned up anything along those lines, so I guess the Swiss are okay with them. Thanks for flagging it, though!
ANTSHODAN on 12/4/2011 at 18:47
I'm using powerline at the moment, and I'd agree with Nameless Voice, they ain't particularly fast. Mine are advertised as 85mb/s, some Netgear model, but streaming high quality video over the network (PC to xbox360) really shows how pernickety it can be - sometimes it works great, sometimes it is buffering every other second. My 54mb/s wireless adaptor (which doesn't work in my current house because the router is at the other end), by comparison, has never had any of these problems before.
They are damn reliable though. I've never had any downtime so to speak - and in general (hd video aside) it is indistinguishable from an ethernet cable straight to the router.
Two things though - One, I've heard that the quality of the electrical wiring in your house can make a big difference, mainly due to interference from other devices plugged in. This of course, could be bullshit. Two, if you get one, put it in its own plug socket. I had mine in multi-adaptor extension things for a while, but the difference it made when I put both the router-side and PC-side adaptors in their own socket was phenomenal.
Oh, and 3 - I don't know if this is just me, but they interfere with my speakers for no god damn reason. Definite corrolation between internet activity and speaker bzzzz (though these speakers also randomly pick up mw radio at certain times of night.....:sweat:)
Thirith on 13/4/2011 at 06:26
Thanks for those pointers. I checked yesterday and have free sockets near the router and the PC, so I won't have to use multi-socket extensions, so that should be okay. I expect the wiring is pretty good in our flat, since the house is relatively new. I'm hoping that I won't have any problems with the speakers, though.
The powerline adaptors (Netline, 200MB/s) should arrive tomorrow; I'll post an update once I've got them running.
Thirith on 13/4/2011 at 16:18
In the meantime I've set up the Netgear set and am happy with the stability and speed. What is less great, though, is that they result in crackling noise in my speakers when data is transferred. As you mentioned, ANTSHODAN. Not sure whether the problem would be solved with different speakers. Then again, when I play online, it's mostly Bad Company 2, and that's loud enough to cover any crackling. :-D
Matthew on 13/4/2011 at 18:59
It wouldn't be that radio interference, would it? Maybe the speakers are not so well shielded?
