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Are Powerline Adapters any good???

sarahcook62
Dabbler
Posts: 17
Registered: ‎11-01-2013

Are Powerline Adapters any good???

Hi,
After recently upgrading to fibre optic, My desktop computer is no longer by the router due to the mastersocket being on the other side of the house and 2 floors down -_- I have tried using a wireless dongle and only get 2 bar signal and my speed is almost half what i would get connected to the router. I have heard about Powerline adapters, but dont really understand how they work or if they are effective. Is there anyone who knows if these will be able to give me the best speed possible without being directly connected into the router? And if not, what is the best method of doing so? Smiley
Thanks in advance!
21 REPLIES 21
bobpullen
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Re: Are Powerline Adapters any good???

My master socket is behind my TV on the ground floor and my desktop's a floor up. I have a couple of these and they're brilliant. Much more reliable/stable compared to the sometimes flaky signal I suffered from when connecting wirelessly:

I switched to using Powerline adapters when I had fibre installed. This is a speedtest from the desktop across the Powerline adapters:

Edit: To clarify, one adapter is plugged into the wall behind the TV and connected to the router with an ethernet cable. The other is plugged into the wall behind my desktop and connected to the network card of the desktop. That's pretty much all there is to setting them up.

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
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sarahcook62
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Registered: ‎11-01-2013

Re: Are Powerline Adapters any good???

Ahh sounds interesting. Roughly how much speed where you loosing though when compared to the speed obtained by directly connecting to the router?
jelv
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Re: Are Powerline Adapters any good???

I'll see your two TL-PA211's and raise you three TL-PA211's.
Router is by my desktop with one Powerline, wife's PC and IP enabled PC are in another room each with another Powerline.
They say they can't be plugged in to extension leads - all three of mine are in 4 gang trailing extension leads.
As Bob says they are brilliant.
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
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jelv
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Re: Are Powerline Adapters any good???

Quote from: sarahcook62
Ahh sounds interesting. Roughly how much speed where you loosing though when compared to the speed obtained by directly connecting to the router?

Do you need to do PC to PC transfers across them within your LAN? If not they will be faster than your internet connection so the small drop off won't matter.
http://www.ebuyer.com/370669-tp-link-tl-pa411kit-av500-mini-powerline-adapter-stater-kit-tl-pa411kit cost more but are over two times faster if you are using Gigabit Ethernet on your LAN.
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
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adamwalker
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Re: Are Powerline Adapters any good???

I can also vouch for poweline adapters being very useful and reliable. I'd advise using encryption though: http://community.plus.net/blog/2012/03/15/powerline-adapters-make-sure-you-use-encryption/
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Suarez
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Re: Are Powerline Adapters any good???

Got a pair for Christmas for use with a Blu-Ray.
Works brilliantly.
Though I had some issues as some of my plugs use different 'power circuits' in the house, I could not get the adapter to work on different circuits.
jelv
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Re: Are Powerline Adapters any good???

Strange - in my previous house I had them on ring mains connected to different fuse boxes.
dick:quote Shocked
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
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Suarez
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Re: Are Powerline Adapters any good???

I know, people have confirmed this to me too. People even able to pick up their neighbours adapters.
Can't really explain it, except to say it definitely wouldn't work for me on the two plugs closest to the Blu Ray which were on different circuits, but would work on one a little bit further away which was on the same circuit as the other adapter.
dick:quote
sarahcook62
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Re: Are Powerline Adapters any good???

Quote from: jelv
Quote from: sarahcook62
Ahh sounds interesting. Roughly how much speed where you loosing though when compared to the speed obtained by directly connecting to the router?

Do you need to do PC to PC transfers across them within your LAN? If not they will be faster than your internet connection so the small drop off won't matter.

I would just be using them to connect to the internet and download and upload things. However in the future, i may consider plugging and external Hdd into the router so i can access files from both my laptops and the desktop. But only the desktop would not use wireless. What do you think the best product for me would be?
jelv
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Re: Are Powerline Adapters any good???

Is standard 100Mbps Ethernet fast enough for you or are you planning to run your home LAN on gigabit? Only if you are planning the gigabit would you really need the faster version.
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
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sarahcook62
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Re: Are Powerline Adapters any good???

Quote from: _Adam_Walker_
I can also vouch for poweline adapters being very useful and reliable. I'd advise using encryption though: http://community.plus.net/blog/2012/03/15/powerline-adapters-make-sure-you-use-encryption/

Can you advise on a certain model/brand that would be able to work well with the default router provided my plusnet for fibre optic, that will give me the best speeds for internet connection. And also, i was tempted on adding a HDD to the router, so i would also need something that allows for fast transfer of files over laptops around my house. Nothing extreme though as its the internet speeds im after for the most part.
sarahcook62
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Re: Are Powerline Adapters any good???

Quote from: jelv
Is standard 100Mbps Ethernet fast enough for you or are you planning to run your home LAN on gigabit? Only if you are planning the gigabit would you really need the faster version.

Well im mostly after keeping my internet download and upload speed high, and am not after really fast file transfer over LAN but certainly wouldent mind a decent speed as we have multiple laptops on the network that would be useful to stream films off an HDD plugged into a router.
tijara33
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Re: Are Powerline Adapters any good???

Quote
Much more reliable/stable compared to the sometimes flaky signal I suffered from when connecting wirelessly:

Bob Pullen, yes, but I bet your Router is a 582n!!  Cry
Strat
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Re: Are Powerline Adapters any good???

Pair of TP-Link's PA511 working fine between 2 rooms on the same floor.
I can get a lot more out of them by plugging them side by side in a double socket....but it seems to defeat the object.
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