6 ms·

I've gathered from previous discussions of these devices that homeplug performance is not always good. I've never tested it though.

by dangoor 10y ago

kfriede 10y ago
I use powerline adapters (like homeplug for ethernet) and would say I get about 99.9% uptime. I think I bought either TPLink or Trendnet.
- wtallis 10y ago
  Uptime is a pretty low bar to clear, especially when comparing against ethernet. How consistent is the throughput and how bad is the latency under load?
  - garagehaver 10y ago
    So, I got a couple TP-Link devices a few months ago to try to extend internet to my garage (very old construction, separate building on the property) as wifi was having a tough time reaching there and I didn't want to mess with replacing the whole rest of the network and running some sort of mesh setup. I currently am using a cheap docsis 3 modem (I believe it's a netgear), and an apple airport extreme for the main network, which is extended to the garage through a couple TP Link powerline networking adapters. I haven't benchmarked the specific powerline performance, but I do know that if I hit up fast.com on my house wifi from my laptop, I get about 100-120 Mbps depending on the day and network conditions. (there's a lot of weird stuff with diff devices and diff routers that I'm eliding here but the Airport Extreme performs very well in my house compared to everything else I've tried) in the garage, on ethernet to the TP Link powerline adapters, i get about 20 Mbps most of the time. It is pretty reliable, but it's a huge performance hit. Granted, I am using them in an extremely adverse arrangement: old wiring, running through lots of intervening hardware, through the ground, to my garage. I'm actually happy with them, for my purposes, but they're really not fast.
  - matwood 10y ago
    My house is newer (2011), and I use the trendnets to carry a signal from one corner of the house to another WIFI AP. It is the best solution I found, as none of the meshes at the time worked very well. Speeds are very good, and I have never noticed it going down. I have noticed that if I don't use the AP for a couple days, it seems to go to sleep and can take a few seconds to reconnect.
sigstoat 10y ago
i've tried a few models of those, and never gotten decent performance. fwiw, MoCA devices, particularly the new 2.0 stuff, have worked much better.
andymurd 10y ago
A former employer tested out a number of residential Ethernet over power devices. The results were mixed - they either work really well, or really badly. It seems that the home's wiring and appliances have an overwhelming effect on their efficacy. So, the recommendation is try before you buy if at all possible.
- sbuttgereit 10y ago
  We have a multi-story townhome and tried powerline. When it worked it was very good; "when", unfortunately, was not nearly as often as we needed it to be. We recently just got a Netgear Orbi and are pretty well satisfied. Turns out the base router/AP is better overall than the other single unit devices we've been using until now and the satellite does seem to make a significant difference in the far top floor room which had problems with both WiFi & Powerline. Lucky for that, too.... our next step was to run cable in the walls.
  - davidron 10y ago
    I've had an Orbi for some time now. What sold me was that it doesn't actually create a mesh network. Instead, it sets up a 1.7 gigabit wireless backhaul connection completely separate from the frequencies used by the client devices you connect. This avoids all of the interference (noisy clients disrupting the access points) and latency (hopping from one access point to another) pitfalls you often encounter when using a traditional mesh network or wireless extender. The Orbi is basically the wireless equivalent of running wires through the walls.
    - hueving 10y ago
      Well it's still a mesh in the sense that the wireless APs are connected to each other wirelessly. You can have a mesh network without wireless clients at all if you wanted. For example, you can connect two locations together via a mesh of access points by each end plugging into the ethernet port of an AP, then the mesh provides multi-task redundancy.
  - GordonS 10y ago
Gruselbauer 10y ago
Highly depends on the makeup of your electrical wiring. To get good performance: - always plug directly into walls, never into extensions, or multi plugs. - don't even try to jump phases, performance will be atrocious but... - if you have to, there are phase converters that you can install into your mains There's a huge performance gap between cheap and expensive homeplug kits, and protocol implementation varies miserably between manufacturers. Also lowest speed adapter determines network speed. So ideally you want to buy Devolo or TP-Link Homeplug AV1200 kits with integrated power outlets, stick them into walls directly and you can absolutely get a solid Gigabit without running cable through walls. I do absolutely agree that troubleshooting is a horrible pain however.
matwood 10y ago
I use a powerplug adapter (not HomePlug), that was the best wirecutter recommended one at the time. It works great for making a hardwired run to an additional wifi AP across the house.
digler999 10y ago
I think it's highly dependent on whether the signal has to jump a breaker or not. Anecdotally, I saw roughly 40 MB/s on the same breaker and 3 MB/s on a different breaker.

I've gathered from previous discussions of these devices that homeplug performance is not always good. I've never tested it though.

by dangoor 10y ago

I've gathered from previous discussions of these devices that homeplug performance is not always good. I've never tested it though.

kfriede 10y ago

I use powerline adapters (like homeplug for ethernet) and would say I get about 99.9% uptime. I think I bought either TPLink or Trendnet.

wtallis 10y ago
Uptime is a pretty low bar to clear, especially when comparing against ethernet. How consistent is the throughput and how bad is the latency under load?
- garagehaver 10y ago
  So, I got a couple TP-Link devices a few months ago to try to extend internet to my garage (very old construction, separate building on the property) as wifi was having a tough time reaching there and I didn't want to mess with replacing the whole rest of the network and running some sort of mesh setup. I currently am using a cheap docsis 3 modem (I believe it's a netgear), and an apple airport extreme for the main network, which is extended to the garage through a couple TP Link powerline networking adapters. I haven't benchmarked the specific powerline performance, but I do know that if I hit up fast.com on my house wifi from my laptop, I get about 100-120 Mbps depending on the day and network conditions. (there's a lot of weird stuff with diff devices and diff routers that I'm eliding here but the Airport Extreme performs very well in my house compared to everything else I've tried) in the garage, on ethernet to the TP Link powerline adapters, i get about 20 Mbps most of the time. It is pretty reliable, but it's a huge performance hit. Granted, I am using them in an extremely adverse arrangement: old wiring, running through lots of intervening hardware, through the ground, to my garage. I'm actually happy with them, for my purposes, but they're really not fast.
- matwood 10y ago
  My house is newer (2011), and I use the trendnets to carry a signal from one corner of the house to another WIFI AP. It is the best solution I found, as none of the meshes at the time worked very well. Speeds are very good, and I have never noticed it going down. I have noticed that if I don't use the AP for a couple days, it seems to go to sleep and can take a few seconds to reconnect.

sigstoat 10y ago

i've tried a few models of those, and never gotten decent performance. fwiw, MoCA devices, particularly the new 2.0 stuff, have worked much better.

andymurd 10y ago

A former employer tested out a number of residential Ethernet over power devices. The results were mixed - they either work really well, or really badly. It seems that the home's wiring and appliances have an overwhelming effect on their efficacy. So, the recommendation is try before you buy if at all possible.

sbuttgereit 10y ago
We have a multi-story townhome and tried powerline. When it worked it was very good; "when", unfortunately, was not nearly as often as we needed it to be. We recently just got a Netgear Orbi and are pretty well satisfied. Turns out the base router/AP is better overall than the other single unit devices we've been using until now and the satellite does seem to make a significant difference in the far top floor room which had problems with both WiFi & Powerline. Lucky for that, too.... our next step was to run cable in the walls.
- davidron 10y ago
  I've had an Orbi for some time now. What sold me was that it doesn't actually create a mesh network. Instead, it sets up a 1.7 gigabit wireless backhaul connection completely separate from the frequencies used by the client devices you connect. This avoids all of the interference (noisy clients disrupting the access points) and latency (hopping from one access point to another) pitfalls you often encounter when using a traditional mesh network or wireless extender. The Orbi is basically the wireless equivalent of running wires through the walls.
  - hueving 10y ago
    Well it's still a mesh in the sense that the wireless APs are connected to each other wirelessly. You can have a mesh network without wireless clients at all if you wanted. For example, you can connect two locations together via a mesh of access points by each end plugging into the ethernet port of an AP, then the mesh provides multi-task redundancy.
- GordonS 10y ago

Gruselbauer 10y ago

Highly depends on the makeup of your electrical wiring. To get good performance: - always plug directly into walls, never into extensions, or multi plugs. - don't even try to jump phases, performance will be atrocious but... - if you have to, there are phase converters that you can install into your mains There's a huge performance gap between cheap and expensive homeplug kits, and protocol implementation varies miserably between manufacturers. Also lowest speed adapter determines network speed. So ideally you want to buy Devolo or TP-Link Homeplug AV1200 kits with integrated power outlets, stick them into walls directly and you can absolutely get a solid Gigabit without running cable through walls. I do absolutely agree that troubleshooting is a horrible pain however.

matwood 10y ago

I use a powerplug adapter (not HomePlug), that was the best wirecutter recommended one at the time. It works great for making a hardwired run to an additional wifi AP across the house.

digler999 10y ago

I think it's highly dependent on whether the signal has to jump a breaker or not. Anecdotally, I saw roughly 40 MB/s on the same breaker and 3 MB/s on a different breaker.