I know quite a few people that recommend power line adapters/technology and I myself am an advocate of it's use for the normal SOHO user, however although this is a problem for me, I'm not looking for an answer, but rather just to pinpoint the difference in performance from one location to the other which can be construed as something tangible for reference. Everyone's house is different and there a number of factors here, from how the ring main is terminated, age of cable, distance etc etc.
I have 4 Bipac 2071 200Mbps Adapters a Bipac 2073 R2 Adapter and an Bipac 2073N adapter which acts as both RJ45 and wireless (as an extender).
I'm connected from the device attached to my switch on my primary PC, which also has a QNAP NAS (for streaming, backups etc etc) and a Wireless AP.
The rates and quality shown below are from the homeplug adapter attached to my switch/main PC, do depending on where you are located you would see a different adapter in the list.
Now for me, i spend some time either streaming FROM my DM800SE to my PC, or any one of the other PC's, I also use the ATV's to stream content from my NAS.
Today, I've discovered that for some reason which is directly attributed to my powerline adapters, that my download speeds from my main PC have suddenly dropped to a maximum of 800k/s, this shot back up to 1.4Mb/s but for the last two days have been up and down like a...well you get the idea. If i connect directly to the router i have no issues whatsoever.
Streaming content that I've recorded (i.e Young Guns i saved last night) is choppy and basically unwatchable on anything other than the primary TV. However streaming to any of the ATV2 devices is fine (content is mainly 720p anyway)
This leads me to the conclusion, that for basic web access and a modicum of downloads they are doing there job, but it does mean that I now have to look at running Cat5e from my office to my router and to my main TV.
Hope this helps someone in looking at powerline and the fluctuation in performance across a probably detailed real life setup. The other point to make is that it also appears that as it's got colder, performance has degraded.
I have 4 Bipac 2071 200Mbps Adapters a Bipac 2073 R2 Adapter and an Bipac 2073N adapter which acts as both RJ45 and wireless (as an extender).
I'm connected from the device attached to my switch on my primary PC, which also has a QNAP NAS (for streaming, backups etc etc) and a Wireless AP.
- The second is my main TV (55" Samsung) downstairs in the living room which has a DM800SE and ATV2 as well as the TV itself having Web Access (Smart Hub)
- The third, is in the same room, however about 20ft away and is my main ADSL connection into my router.
- The fourth is upstairs and in my main bedroom, this has an ATV2 and a FTA (S9) box on a 43" Plasma.
- The fifth is in my office and serves my partners PC.
- The sixth is in my daughters room and has Wifi/RJ45 which is in another part of the house a sits outside my previous external wall so it's used as an extender, this has another FTA (S10) box and also serves my daughters laptop.
The rates and quality shown below are from the homeplug adapter attached to my switch/main PC, do depending on where you are located you would see a different adapter in the list.
Now for me, i spend some time either streaming FROM my DM800SE to my PC, or any one of the other PC's, I also use the ATV's to stream content from my NAS.
Today, I've discovered that for some reason which is directly attributed to my powerline adapters, that my download speeds from my main PC have suddenly dropped to a maximum of 800k/s, this shot back up to 1.4Mb/s but for the last two days have been up and down like a...well you get the idea. If i connect directly to the router i have no issues whatsoever.
Streaming content that I've recorded (i.e Young Guns i saved last night) is choppy and basically unwatchable on anything other than the primary TV. However streaming to any of the ATV2 devices is fine (content is mainly 720p anyway)
This leads me to the conclusion, that for basic web access and a modicum of downloads they are doing there job, but it does mean that I now have to look at running Cat5e from my office to my router and to my main TV.
Hope this helps someone in looking at powerline and the fluctuation in performance across a probably detailed real life setup. The other point to make is that it also appears that as it's got colder, performance has degraded.
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