Powerline AV Network kits. Are they worth it?

Forums › LAN (ethernet/Wifi/routers/Bluetooth) › Powerline AV Network kits. Are they worth it?

billgates

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#35327 8-Jun-2009 16:18

Hello people. I am currently running my Xbox 360 over Wi-Fi connection which is about 30 metres away from the wireless router. I watch movies on it quite regularly which are SD format. They run fine about 98% of the time. I am going to setup a PC soon with a freeview compatible card (DVB-T) and Windows 7. Will be using the extender capability so I can watch freeview live on the Xbox 360.

Was wondering whether I should buy a powerline kit which run thorugh your electricity or should I get a electrician in the house and install a ethernet port near the pc on the wall and one near the xbox 360?

Any recommendations for powerline kit that someone might be using without any problems. Will be streaming HD stuff very soon.

Do whatever you want to do man.

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eXDee

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#222779 8-Jun-2009 18:07

If you can get under your house its very easy to DIY a cable in. Otherwise as mentioned someone like an electrician will have to do it in the walls.
Not sure about powerline.

Ragnor

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#222789 8-Jun-2009 18:48

The ethernet over power Homeplug kits generally claim to be 85Mbit/s in marketing speak but in most reviews they seems have a real world throughput of around 10Mbit/s.

This means yes they will still be better than 802.11b Wireless but probably worse than 802.11g Wireless (unless there is a lot of interference or wireless clients).

About the different wireless types:

Wireless is half duplex meaning it has to alternate between sending and receiving. Think ping pong where the ball gets hit back and forth from side to side.

Most cheap wireless is 802.11b which has a net bit rate of 11Mbit/s but because it's half duplex that means 5.5Mbit/s max real world throughput. Also the 2.4 Ghz wireless band can be crowded with microwaves, cordless phones, other nearby wireless access points causing interference resulting in lower performance.

802.11g has a net bit rate of 54 Mbit/s and a throughput of ~22Mbit/s, it uses the 2.4 Ghz band so the same caveats as 802.11b apply for possible interference.

802.11a has a net bit rate of 54 Mbit/s and a throughput of ~27Mbit/s, it uses the 5 Ghz band for less interference.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/802.11

chiefie

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#222791 8-Jun-2009 19:03

I had the DSE PowerLine (14Mbps) to connect another WiFi APN to the router in the room on the other end of the house. It works fine, admittedly, it's for Wii and extend the coverage of the WiFi area.

It's not super speedy but works for me. I am looking to add the HD (200Mbps) to other "four corners" of the house, and that can co-exist with 14Mbps on separate frequency range.

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Fraktul

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#222843 8-Jun-2009 22:33

Ragnor:
Wireless is half duplex meaning it has to alternate between sending and receiving. Think ping pong where the ball gets hit back and forth from side to side.

Wireless does not always equal 802.11x. Half duplex does not always mean dedicated timeslots allocated at 50% transmit 50% receive.

jjnz1

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#222852 8-Jun-2009 22:56

Stay away from them, Get a dedicated Cat5e installed instead.

Also you could run 2 cat5e's and use one of them for usb extenders, HDTV and digital audio extenders, HDMI extenders, etc.

Cheers

Your not in wellington by any chance?

paradoxsm

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#222875 9-Jun-2009 00:02

I did the "run double cables" everywhere in the last house we were in and never regretted it, we ended up plumbing amazing things through that second Cat5. we could just think "wouldn't it be neat to have XXYY" and then bingo, done in half an hour on the breakout box.

richms

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#222888 9-Jun-2009 03:03

chiefie: I had the DSE PowerLine (14Mbps) to connect another WiFi APN to the router in the room on the other end of the house. It works fine, admittedly, it's for Wii and extend the coverage of the WiFi area.

It's not super speedy but works for me. I am looking to add the HD (200Mbps) to other "four corners" of the house, and that can co-exist with 14Mbps on separate frequency range.

Never worked properly for me with the dse gear since they dont do any form of mac address expiration so the laptop moving from one AP to another would become inaccessable to the far side of the powerline bridge - work great for the voip phone in the shed work space and sortof ok for the desktop PCs but the wireless is best done over the air with WDS since laptops would always hop between the APs depending on something.

Richard rich.ms

nate

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#222896 9-Jun-2009 03:49

I'm running over home plug now, works really well, your mileage may vary - I had it setup at a relative's place and it would work then stop then work again.

I'd try homeplug first, if it doesn't work, then get a socket wired in.

chiefie

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#223059 9-Jun-2009 11:37

For the WDS, I just set same SSID, different channel, and set the secondary AP to point to primary AP over the homeplug connection and works well.

Then hand-over can be flaky depending on how sensitive and how quick it recovers with handover between the both the AP range.

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Ragnor

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#223068 9-Jun-2009 11:59

Fraktul:

Wireless does not always equal 802.11x. Half duplex does not always mean dedicated timeslots allocated at 50% transmit 50% receive.

Quite right, it was just a simple analogy... the main point was that real world throughput is much lower than the "marketing" speed for both wireless and power line kits.

Assuming he's using the stock xbox 360 wireless adaptor and a regular consumer grade wireless router it's unlikley he would be using anything other than 802.11 a/b/g.

Fraktul

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#223091 9-Jun-2009 12:45

Marketing speed is correct, its just not "throughput" :) If you used the same rational 100base-t is 125mbps!

Sounddude

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#223110 9-Jun-2009 13:15

I use the NetGear 200Mbit ones. They work well. I can get about 70-80Mbit over it.

billgates

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#223143 9-Jun-2009 14:13

Sounddude: I use the NetGear 200Mbit ones. They work well. I can get about 70-80Mbit over it.

Which model and where did you buy them from?

Do whatever you want to do man.

billgates

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#223144 9-Jun-2009 14:14

jjnz1: Stay away from them, Get a dedicated Cat5e installed instead.

Also you could run 2 cat5e's and use one of them for usb extenders, HDTV and digital audio extenders, HDMI extenders, etc.

Cheers

Your not in wellington by any chance?

I will try the homeplug ethernet connectivity first and if it does not works out then will surely get the dedicated Cat5e installed. You can always return items within a timeframe to all major retailers.

I live in Hamilton

Do whatever you want to do man.