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Righto so we've moved into our new house and need to sort the network a little. The router is upstairs and wifi around the house is fine so we dont need any ranger extenders. I have a small form PC and NAS behind the TV and just using wireless the transfer between the two can't manage to stream without some lag. Previously used power lines and a small network switch but I'm wondering if I could use just one and not both. Power lines with double gigabit LAN connector? but will this still need to then communicate with the router upstairs and therefore slow the process down? Or will the traffic pass into the powerline adapter and straight back, I'm guessing not as I'd imagine the flow of information only goes one way and they dont 'think'. Switch alone? Could one get the wireless signal from upstairs to disperse but cope with the LAN information itself as the wireless speed isn't critical as it's generally been sufficient and I dont mind relying on the wireless speed for any NAS downloads.
So the pc is reading content from the NAS and using the TV as a screen? Both NAS andPC are by the TV.
If the power line adapter had two ports then just use these. I would bet the power line adapter has a small switch in it.
Yeah basically as you say the PC reads from the NAS and sometimes streams from elsewhere and both are by the TV. Yes I'm wondering if a posh enough powerline adapter would act as a switch in itself to save the expensive of both powerline and a switch.
Buy direct from Amazon only plug in the downstairs unit and test
I expect it will work as a switch fine if not you can return them
Powerlines are perfectly good network media adapters. Ethernet goes in at one end and it pops out at the other. What is missing is that your computer doesn't know whether to send network packets on wifi or via the ethernet. That is a routing /switching problem and why you need a switch (or the switch built into your router). Essentially the link from PC to NAS will be a separate network with separate addressing. With some fancy config on your computer you can probably get it to work but that falls into the "life is too short" category for me as that sort of config doesn't have the set and forget reliability of networking components.
Many a NAS will happily run a DHCP server but you need a rule on the computer to divert *some* traffic to the NAS and other traffic via the router - essentially a routing table.
It is a nasty little problem. The "if in doubt, more wifis" approach of the industry to home networking does nothing to help you unless the stuff you have on the NAS is actually commodity content you can get off [insert name of streaming media provider here].
Easiest may be to relocate the NAS to the router and plug it in to a socket if you can. Why does the NAS need to be behind the TV?
Hmmm yeah fair point actually, if I shift the NAS upstairs to the router and plug it in directly I'll then just need a pair of standard gigabit ethernet plugs to connect to the small PC. Hadn't thought of that because of thinking of complicated solutions!!
NB Avoid any loops (two paths between two devices eg Wifi and powerline), if you're lucky Spanning Tree will be running somewhere and shut it down, otherwise you'll just create your own broadcast storms....
Don't you just need to put the switch on the end of the PLA going to the router and then plug the NAS and the PC into the switch?
(diagram removed, doesn't work in this text editor)
You're not really supposed to use PLA across floors of a house (usually floors have separate mains rings and PLA signals can be chewed up going through RCD/RCBOs in your consumer unit) but it often works OK.
wifi around the house is fine
If this were true then the rest of your post wouldn't apply.
What's the PC doing?
Don't really understand why you need a switch? I have an AV1200 Powerline adapter hung off my router, another one in the garage which the NAS is plugged into, and a Powerline WiFi extender upstairs, which boosts the WiFi at the back of the house, but also has my laptop plugged into one of its ethernet ports when I'm in my office. The router does all the DHCP and everything, wired and wireless, appears as if they are on a single flat network.