Ethernet over power cables - wall sockets?

Ethernet over power cables - wall sockets?

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Discussion

MrBig

Original Poster:

2,638 posts

128 months

Wednesday 28th January 2015
quotequote all
I have seen some discussion on here of network repeaters/extenders that plug into a conventional domestic socket, but haven't seen any mention of a solution where the ports are incorporated to the sockets, such as this:

http://m.screwfix.com/pr-gallery.htm?id=41241&...

Does anyone have any experience with these or an equivalent?

I must admit that its a bit more pricey than I was expecting, but it's s far more elegant solution.

FlossyThePig

4,083 posts

242 months

Wednesday 28th January 2015
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Clicked on your link and it took me to the screwfix homepage, I assume it was optimised for a mobile phone. After a bit of searching aroud I found what you were pointing to. It's cheaper via Amazon but it's not the latest technology.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/PE-200AV-T1000-POWER-ETHER...

MrBig

Original Poster:

2,638 posts

128 months

Wednesday 28th January 2015
quotequote all
Balls. Sorry. Tried that 3 times. This why I need help with technology smile

Thanks for the heads up.

laam999

538 posts

168 months

Wednesday 28th January 2015
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I used powerline adapters for years. Had no problems at all they where perfectly reliable. My dad still uses them today for his sky, they've been in use for about 6 years now.

They where the cheapest I could get at the time too, only 85mbit ones

Edited by laam999 on Thursday 29th January 09:12

SteBrown91

2,360 posts

128 months

Wednesday 28th January 2015
quotequote all
I have a pair of tp link cheapo ones and they work great, however every so often they lose sync and you have to switch one off and back on again

Other than that they are brill

telford_mike

1,219 posts

184 months

Wednesday 28th January 2015
quotequote all
SteBrown91 said:
I have a pair of tp link cheapo ones and they work great, however every so often they lose sync and you have to switch one off and back on again

Other than that they are brill
+1, wonderful things.

Halmyre

11,148 posts

138 months

Thursday 29th January 2015
quotequote all
SteBrown91 said:
I have a pair of tp link cheapo ones and they work great, however every so often they lose sync and you have to switch one off and back on again

Other than that they are brill
I've got Netgear ones that do the same thing, bloody annoying and there doesn't seem to be any pattern to it.

Mr Pointy

11,147 posts

158 months

Thursday 29th January 2015
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They are a terrible idea. Network over mains can be flakey & you won't know until you install them & try it. If they don't work well, what are you going to do? At least with plug in units you can flog them off & try another manufacturer. If one goes tits up there's no guarantee you can get a replacement. They are expensive as well: one of those faceplates cost more than both the units I have.

As has already been posted for some they work OK & for others they drop out. Mine die several times a day & they are only ten yards apart on the same ring main.

8bit

4,846 posts

154 months

Thursday 29th January 2015
quotequote all
Halmyre said:
SteBrown91 said:
I have a pair of tp link cheapo ones and they work great, however every so often they lose sync and you have to switch one off and back on again

Other than that they are brill
I've got Netgear ones that do the same thing, bloody annoying and there doesn't seem to be any pattern to it.
I had devolo ones until recently that did this several times a day. Not cool. Binned the lot and ran Cat6 everywhere.

B3NNL

1,056 posts

167 months

Thursday 29th January 2015
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Ive had the devlo ones about 2 months now and no drop out, awesome speeds and no complaints, even got on extra adaptor to extend the wifi upstairs from a socket and its all working tickettyboo!

Murph7355

37,651 posts

255 months

Thursday 29th January 2015
quotequote all
As a bit of a counter to many of the above posts, I've found powerline adapters very variable.

The last house I was in they wouldn't work at all.

This one they work, but not at great speeds (though to be fair, enough to stream 1Gb mp4 files).

Both house are old (> 150yrs). And much depends on how your house is wired and where you want to feed from/to.

Fortunately they're relatively cheap to try.

onomatopoeia

3,469 posts

216 months

Friday 30th January 2015
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They are a bodge. Do the job properly and put cat5e / cat6 in.

We used them for years at work to bridge two offices and had all sorts of problems, the data rate randomly going to slower than dialup, them losing sync entirely, needing to be powered off and back on again and on several occasions just dying completely necessitating a further purchase.

In the end I got fed up and bought the SDS drill in and made holes in the walls to run a proper cable, which I should have done years ago.

Dodsy

7,172 posts

226 months

Friday 30th January 2015
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The trick with powerlines is to find the sockets they work best in and buy the fastest ones you can afford.

I have 500Meg Zyxel units, been using them a year now and they've never dropped out. I get Around 150Mbps which works fine. I have an EE signal booster, TV (Iplayer etc) and a NAS running over it. I have 2 x NAS's in the house, one upstairs and one downstairs that mirror each other over the powerline. My media player accesses the downstairs one so I'm not trying to send 1080p video over the powerline although it does work it can congest it.

I had to try a few different sockets until I got decent speed.

Kaelic

2,684 posts

200 months

Friday 30th January 2015
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for domestic situations they are ideal, have used them with great success with friends and family, especially in some old victorian houses

Murph7355

37,651 posts

255 months

Friday 30th January 2015
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onomatopoeia said:
They are a bodge. Do the job properly and put cat5e / cat6 in.....
That's what I've now done...but it's expensive to do properly in a domestic situation unless you're redecorating etc anyway.

TheAngryDog

12,394 posts

208 months

Tuesday 3rd February 2015
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Murph7355 said:
onomatopoeia said:
They are a bodge. Do the job properly and put cat5e / cat6 in.....
That's what I've now done...but it's expensive to do properly in a domestic situation unless you're redecorating etc anyway.
And you own the house! I cant see my landlord being three happy about me chasing Cat5/Cat6 cable into the walls! biggrin