[Closed] What Powerline Adaptors?

I’ve a tp-link av600 (v1) running the network out to my shed. It’s pretty good. Falls over once a fortnight though. Latest version (v3) is cheap as chips and greatly simplified, but only has one cat5 port.

I really want to mesh the house, but I’m waiting until we’ve moved.

Nope, no benefit using both connectors at the router end.

If it matters, there'll be a gaming PC, an internetting PC that's used for streaming Netflix/Amazon/Disney+/etc., my PS4 and my lad's PS5 & XBox (not at the same time). My internet is 70ish meg.

Your limit is your internet connection, not the network. PS 70meg is fine.

We have AV600 to the garage for Zwift and CCTV. Reset once in a blue moon TBH. Disabled the wifi as we have mesh.

I still use my power line even though we have a TPLink mesh system. I have just plugged the power line into the master mesh node and it goes upstairs to provide data to my gaming PC and my Hive hub, both which need wired connections. Seems to work pretty well and I can “see” the wired connections on the mesh app on my phone which is useful.

However I think I need a network switch for the other end of the power line as the gaming pc and Hive hub use both of the sockets it has. I assume it will be more reliable using a switch than the 2 sockets? I don’t know - anyone any ideas?

Your limit is your internet connection, not the network. PS 70meg is fine.

I think that used to be the case but not so much nowadays. My Sky router, after quite a bit of investigation, struggles with more than a small amount of simultaneous connections. When we relied on its wifi we were getting dropouts all the time as it couldn’t cope with the 11 devices that were connected to it, despite the signal being pretty good around the house. As soon as we got the mesh system which aparantely can cope with up to 100 we haven’t had any problems at all. That’s been the biggest difference for us.

I got a couple for my upstairs supercomputer which I occasionally use as a flight sim. Downstairs I get 56 Mbit/s upstairs 30 on the laptop but using the powerline upstairs I get 45 so a real improvement.
No mesh system just wireless.

The 2 PCs have no wireless connectivity so they have to be wired, everything else could be wireless, but I thought a wired connection was more reliable.
My son is adamant that a direct connection to the router is better on his gaming PC but requires an ethernet cable running down the stairs. I'd to get rid of that so was hoping newer, faster powerline adaptors would be the answer.
What is a MESH?

I bought some TPlink 1 Gigabit ones a few years ago (when they were almost eye watering prices), has been solid since. I get ~800Mbps between each plug, and less latency than on WiFi which is great for gaming. They have probably lost connection with eachother twice in the 2-4 years I've owned them.

A MESH is like lots of mini-routers relaying your network around the house. I also bought one of these last year as the our repeaters kept getting out of sync/not working. The coverage is great, the speed is good and because the WiFi network is the same all over you don't have to keep switching to "mywifi-extender 1" etc.

So I'd go for a MESH if you have lots of WiFi stuff are happy with ~100Mbps, and a Powerline if you want/need the most speed from your network/router.

Ah so yeh, you want powerline. I haven't looked at the latest offerings, but generally you want to have ones that have the plug passthrough (you cant plug them into extension cords, due to the surge protection upsetting the magic electric internet). Then as many ethernet ports as you can afford/get/need. You can have more than one plug from linked to together too.

The current set up is a single 200Mbps powerline adaptor feeding two others; one downstairs (my streaming PC) and one upstairs (originally my son's gaming PC, now one of the consoles). I'd like to run my PC and my console wired and get rid of the ethernet cable running up the stairs completely. I'm assuming that faster is better which is why I'm looking at gigabit adaptors. What I really want to know is, are there makes to avoid? The BT branded ones can be had for £25-30 a pair on fleabay but I'm happy to send a bit more if there is a concrete benefit to doing so.

Installed some TP-link AV600's for my home office a few months back it's boosted my speed by a bit but the real improvement is in the staility of the connection far fewer drop outs.

It's slightly improved my Ping as well, which is good for the gaming PC that's also plugeed into it.

Av600s here. Genuinely no issues since I installed last summer.

Home office(garage) at the bottom of the garden.

Attached across two different circuits through breakers and the like. And even through a surge protector at one end.

Still getting 10mbps -12mbps at the router in the house. Zwift and video conferencing no issues

I've generally found TP-link to be more reliable than others I have tried (Solwise was one make but there may have been others).

I use the AV600 ones. Currently £24 for a pair or £30 with the power passthrough (Amazon).

If you install the tpPLC windows app you can see the connection speed between different adaptors, so you could check if they are the limiting factor. Pretty certain that app will work with non TP link hardware as well. There will be other equivalent apps available.

I've got 4 powerlink adapters that BT gave me - shout if anyone wants/needs them.

Err, hello... 😀

@jeff

What data transfer rate are they?
Are they Passthrough?
How many data ports?
And finally, how much do you want for them?

I have

4x Comtrend PowerGrid 9020 pass through

2x Comtrend PowerGrid DH-10PF non pass through

Thanks, but they appear to be 200Mbps, which is what I'm looking to replace.

Ah sorry - I had no idea of the spec.

(you cant plug them into extension cords, due to the surge protection upsetting the magic electric internet).

This message comes to you from a computer connected to a powerline via an extension cord.

I have 500 Mbps Devolo units. I get about 30 meg compared with 45 meg at the router. The main benefit is reliability as I can have a wired connection - far fewer dropouts than wireless which is a big benefit for homeworking.

you cant plug them into extension cords, due to the surge protection upsetting the magic electric internet).

In 2008 maybe .in 2021 less so. As I stated above mines In a surge protected extension cord at the router end

I've got a mixture of Solwise AV1200 and TP-Link AV1300. They are absolutely fine, never lose touch with each other, and comfortably faster than my 70Mb broadband. The Solwise are no longer available, but the TP-Link are these https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/powerline/tl-wpa8630p-kit/
All passthrough, so I don't lose any sockets. I've given the Wifi the same SSID/password as the main router and roaming between the two is seamless.