Power line adaptors

[4bee]

Can anyone give me some feedback on these gizmos please.

TP-LINK TL-PA511 500Mbps AV500 Gigabit Powerline Adapter Kit [TL-PA511-Kit] - $99.95 : iiBuy.com.au (http://www.iibuy.com.au/tplink-tlpa511-500mbps-av500-gigabit-powerline-adapter-kit_p31514.html)



Do they actually do what the label on the tin says they will, ie extend the signal using existing power cables in a building & how good & reliable is the signal?

Thank you in anticipation.

[Distortion]

I have a couple of the older 200Mbps Netgear ones of these

Never actually expected them to work but they were great for getting a signal from one floor to the other where wireless was useless.


That said I only got around 100Mbps in real world tests and I've heard plenty of examples where it hasn't worked

[4bee]

Thanks Rob. I guess it may also depend on the quality of the cabling etc as well. In my case it was replaced with new stuff a few years ago & the old cotton/rubber was all removed. Being an old stone villa makes this attractive to me but............... cest la vie.

[goingbush]

In the most part they work fine. I used be a Telstra ADSL / Cable Broadband installer, fault finder. there was a case where we could not get ADSL to work in one street, where it should have worked, took the boffins a few months to trace a fault to a issue with a faulty light dimmer in another house. You might think this has nothing to do with ADSL but caused by harmonics .

Have had similar faults with faulty power supplies in plasma tv's .

If your internet isnt working as it should try unplugging your tv.

Even if they only push out 100mbps its still heaps faster than the fastest ADSL which are typically 12 -18 mbps for ADSL2, so I say its worth a try.

[Judo]

Don't expect the speed rated on the box, but they certainly have some good uses.

At home we use to have a Wifi N access point upstairs and a media centre (ATV) downstairs connected via the Wifi. Streaming 720p movies almost always paused/buffered at least once, some constantly stopped and were unwatchable.

I purchased some power adapters and run the ATV media centre through that and not once have we had a movie pause/buffer since. That was 6-9 months ago now.

Depends on what your purpose is, the quality of house wiring etc, but they certainly have been awesome for me.

[4bee]

Thanks lads, sounds like it is worth taking a punt on in my case, & I will keep your points in mind.:)

[theresanothersteve]

I use a netgear internet over powerline to provide a network connection in the shed, well away from the house. It's where the playstation and GT5 lives...

I didn't expect much but have been pleasantly suprised. So suprised, in fact, I moved the sharepoint server down to the shed to unclutter the office; the connection is good enough for my content management system.

HTH

[4bee]

Thanks. Is ordered, but I may have to fiddle around a bit because I am on a 2 phase connection & not sure it will work on both phases so may need to do some checking although I have a feeling the second one is just for the old Frigidaire electric range oven.

Time will tell, but I'm sure it's not insurmountable.

[jonesy63]

One more hint: they don't like to be plugged into power boards; instead, directly into a dedicated power point.

[mikehzz]

I've had them not work unless they are on the same circuit to the fuse box, which makes sense if you think about it

Sent from my GT-I9210T using Tapatalk 2

[4bee]

I thought that would be the case so will wait until my friendly electrician calls by one day soon to check it out & maybe shift some house ccts over to the same phase.

What happens with the laptop wireless switch? On or off? And is the laptop plugged into the wireless modem? No mention of these points in the destructions.

Also where can I check "performance" on the Dell 1510/ WinXP Pro?

[mikehzz]

The wireless has nothing to do with it. You plug an ethernet cable from the modem router to the poe adapter plugged into the wall, then plug the other adapter into a socket in the other room and run an ethernet cable from it to your computer. The switches where the poe adapters are plugged in have to be on. Then the poe uses the electricty wiring as an ethernet cable.

[jeffmj]

Yes, they do do what they say on the tin. In my 2 storey house they have been the best way to get my internet connection upstairs. I did have a few issues when they were plugged into power boards. I have also heard that you can encounter issues when the devices are on "seperate circuits" (have a circuit breaker between point a and b). I found that they were also effected when other electrical devices were used around the home. IMHO They do provide a fast network connection but only if the conditions are right with the electrical circuit between device a and b.

[4bee]

Thanks jeffmj.

As mentioned above I am still awaiting for my sparky to call to re-arrange the two circuits (2phase) then I will give it a good old thrashing.