Powerline advice

Forums › LAN (ethernet/Wifi/routers/Bluetooth) › Powerline advice

1 | 2

DarthKermit

5346 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3317

Trusted

#799067 14-Apr-2013 09:50

Lizard1977: I'm not sure what the wiring is in the original part of the house. In the newer part, I think it's white sheathed cabling, but I've never really looked.

Ok. The white modern stuff is called TPS (Tough Plastic Sheath). The older black rubber stuff is called TRS (Tough Rubber Sheath) this is the stuff that's a fire hazard because the rubber can become brittle and crumble away. Our house has the latter.

Whatifthespacekeyhadneverbeeninvented?

Lizard1977

2133 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 624

ID Verified

#799097 14-Apr-2013 11:02

Getting underfloor is tricky, and obviously peeking inside the walls is trickier. Would the wiring be visible in the roof space? That's reasonably easy to access, and if the wiring up there was indicative of the rest of the house, then I should be able to get a good idea of things.

DarthKermit

5346 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3317

Trusted

#799101 14-Apr-2013 11:08

Lizard1977: Getting underfloor is tricky, and obviously peeking inside the walls is trickier. Would the wiring be visible in the roof space? That's reasonably easy to access, and if the wiring up there was indicative of the rest of the house, then I should be able to get a good idea of things.

Why? Do you have a very low crawl space?

It should be quite visible in your attic. Have a peek up there and maybe take a pic.

Whatifthespacekeyhadneverbeeninvented?

Lizard1977

2133 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 624

ID Verified

#799106 14-Apr-2013 11:15

Low crawl space, with only a narrow manhole indoors. Also, when we were having an aerial installed after we bought the house, the installer said there was a beam or foundation pile or something blocking access to part of the house. Never been brave enough to explore it myself. Actually, I'm wondering whether it will pose a problem for the UFB installers...

DarthKermit

5346 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3317

Trusted

#799116 14-Apr-2013 11:31

Lizard1977: Low crawl space, with only a narrow manhole indoors. Also, when we were having an aerial installed after we bought the house, the installer said there was a beam or foundation pile or something blocking access to part of the house. Never been brave enough to explore it myself. Actually, I'm wondering whether it will pose a problem for the UFB installers...

Sounds like it could be a bit of a challenge under there mate!

I know of a few houses where they've added an extension on and there's no physical access from one part of the ring foundation to the next part, not good if you need to run new services, etc.

I'm lucky at our place; there's between about 500 - 1000 mm of access under the house which has allowed me to install (or have installed) under floor insulation, stormwater drainage, new plumbing, network cables, airconditioning tubing, a sump pump, new sewer line...

If access is particularly tight in a few spots, you could always dig down a bit to be able to crawl under an obstacle - depending on how claustrophobic you might be.

Whatifthespacekeyhadneverbeeninvented?

cyril7

9075 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2499

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#799132 14-Apr-2013 12:27

Another added danger that creates the fire risk with TRS is that it uses a steel conductor, this is quite high resistance, hence with a short it may not blow nodern MCB's hence a fire starts

Cyril

Dyson

Shop now for Dyson appliances (affiliate link).

Hammerer

2480 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 802

Lifetime subscriber

#799143 14-Apr-2013 13:00

chiefie: I'd definitely recommend drilling holes and get the networking on real hard wire is the best way.
...
It's slightly more "satisfying" than WiFi.

I agree with chiefie. I'd only use it short-term or where there is no reasonable cabling option.

I've used homeplug/powerline adapters for years and found that the actual performance compared to theoretical performance is much worse than for dedicated cabling. On ethernet I've got up to 80% whereas powerline never did better than 40% and was usually more like 20%. The problem is that interference from other electrical devices mean that it functions more like Wifi with contention from neighbouring systems. So not only does bandwidth drop but so does consistency. This means that if you don't have enough headroom in your bandwidth and sufficient buffering then you will find that video stutters. The lack of consistency is also noticeable with online gaming which has nowhere near the bandwidth requirement.

kornflake

409 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 56

#799167 14-Apr-2013 14:39

just out of interest, when did TRS become banned in the building code?

gregmcc

2173 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 836

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#799210 14-Apr-2013 17:05

cyril7: Another added danger that creates the fire risk with TRS is that it uses a steel conductor, this is quite high resistance, hence with a short it may not blow nodern MCB's hence a fire starts

Cyril

Never seen TRS with steel conductors, never seen domestic wiring with any kind of steel conductors, You may be seeing the tinned copper wire that looks steel coloured

gregmcc

2173 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 836

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#799213 14-Apr-2013 17:07

kornflake: just out of interest, when did TRS become banned in the building code?

TRS has never been banned by the building code, it is quite legal to still use TRS but TRS is quite a bit more expensive than TPS and not as robust

1 | 2