Thirith on 30/9/2015 at 16:34
Since our internet provider recently upped the download speeds for our subscription plan and then went and matched the upload speeds (before the latter had been at ~20% of the former), I recently ran a speed test - to realise that our internet connection was considerably faster (around 200mbps) than the connection from the router to my gaming PC (around 40-50mbps), which runs via Devolo Powerline adaptors with a supposed maximum of 500mbps. (I know that the maximum speeds given for those adaptors tend to be somewhat fictional.)
What I was wondering:
- Are there relatively easy ways of upping transmission speeds via Powerline?
- Would faster adapters (rated at, say, 1200Mbps) make a worthwhile difference, or are the limitations pretty much set by the flat's electric cabling?
- How easy is it generally to add - i.e. have an electrician come and install - Ethernet cables in a rental flat with existing electric cabling? Obviously I'd have to check with the landlord, but are we talking about something that's done easily and quickly?
Any information you can provide would be much appreciated. Cheers!
bikerdude on 30/9/2015 at 18:02
Quote Posted by Thirith
* - Are there relatively easy ways of upping transmission speeds via Powerline?
* - Would faster adapters (rated at, say, 1200Mbps) make a worthwhile difference, or are the limitations pretty much set by the flat's electric cabling?
* - How easy is it generally to add - i.e. have an electrician come and install - Ethernet cables in a rental flat with existing electric cabling? Obviously I'd have to check with the landlord, but are we talking about something that's done easily and quickly?
* Yes, faster PL adapters or go wifi. But wifi is limited by the slowest adapter being used at the time. Eg if you have a 802.11ac router but your phone/laptop only supports 802.11gn, then your only going to see the slower speed. If the distances are big and there arent too many wall 802.11ac will blow away a PL1200 adapter but as much as 35%. Where PL adapter will beat wifi is ping times.
* From what I have ready from the(
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/feature/network-wifi/what-is-powerline-3491484/) following article, a 1200mpbs adapter should allow you to almost see the full speed of your internet connection.
* Very easy, you could do it yourself, the only issue is weither your rental agreement allow you to start drill holes etc.
If your rental agreements allows then Gigabit (cat5e-cat6e) cabling is the way to go, have a chat with the lanlord and see if they will chip in for the cost as it will only benefit the value of the property if done professionally.
Thirith on 1/10/2015 at 12:47
Cool, thanks. I'll go with the 1200+ for now, although I might look into how much it'd cost to add Ethernet cabling to our flat - at least to the bedroom and office. The cable ducts are there, though I don't know how they work and whether it's easy enough just to add network cables to them.
heywood on 1/10/2015 at 17:00
I've never tried power line networking but it's notoriously inconsistent. You might get better performance with faster adapters or you might not. Probably no way to tell without trying.
I've had mixed results with 802.11ac. I can get 200+ Mbps throughput between my Netgear AC1900 router and a desktop PC with a good antenna in an adjacent room, where the separation distance is about 5-7m. But not so good results with laptops, where a 5 GHz connection doesn't seem to perform any better than 2.4 GHz unless they're in the same room as the router. The mere presence of 802.11n devices connected on the same wireless network in mixed mode doesn't seem to have a big effect on the performance of the 5 GHz connections, but if several different devices are using the network simultaneously (e.g. when family visits) then performance drops off. So if your PC and router are close enough to each other, you should be able to match the speed of your internet connection using wifi.
A 1GE wired connection is still quite a bit faster. It's pretty noticeable on large file transfers from my home server/NAS, where I see 80-90 Mbytes/s over 1GE but only ~25-30 Mbytes/s over wifi. But the difference is not noticeable for internet usage.
I'm surprised by your comment about cable ducts. Is your building all brick & mortar walls, even interior walls? I'm used to interior walls being wood or steel frame construction, with power running via PVC sheathed flat cable (called NM in North America and Twin and Earth in the UK and Aus) with no conduit/trunking. Installing Ethernet cables in existing framed walls is not easy. The installer will need to make an access hole for every stud and plate they need to pass cable through. That's a lot of holes in the wall.
Even if you have conduit that you can fish wire through, it is unwise to run Ethernet cabling next to mains cables because of interference from the magnetic fields created by the mains cables. Shielded Cat 6 would be better, but proper shielding requires grounding the ends of the cable shields. Consumer level network gear is ungrounded, and the Ethernet ports built in to most PC mainboards aren't grounded either. So the shielding won't be as effective. Best practice is to maintain separation between power and telecom/network cabling, and cross them at right angles where they have to meet.
It is relatively easy to run Ethernet cables concealed in raceways which are installed onto existing walls, e.g. along the top of baseboards. That's what most electricians recommend around here.
Thirith on 2/10/2015 at 07:38
I've now had Powerline for several years and am very happy with it, although the speeds you get have little to do with the speeds given on the box. No matter - it's still faster and more reliable than my experiences with wifi in our flat, which may have something to do with how Swiss houses are built. As far as I know, brick-and-mortar interior walls are pretty much standard here, and there will usually be cable ducts going through most if not all of them. For the moment I'm fine with the 1200+ adaptors I've bought and installed, but I might check with an electrician at some point as to what they'd recommend and how much it'd cost, just out of interest.
