Powerline adaptors
 

Daughter has a Netgear powerline system to get ethernet connection to her TV from the router in the office. Everything works OK but she would now like to add a connection in another room. I have a spare TP Link unit and here is the question, will it work with the Netgear system, will they pair together?
Anyone tried this?

Yes - or no to be helpful!! You will need to Google both and see which 'system' they both use. Some are 'interchangeable', some are not. (Then, of course, try it.............:) )

...and provided both outlets are on the same phase. My house here is three phase and you can't link across the phases.

Anything relatively recent will interoperate since Homeplug AV won the standards war.


OFSO, you can link across phases by adding a wired switch between one adapter on each phase. It's not elegant.

- and without clear instruction, potentially a big banger?

Thanks for the info - both manufacturers 'mention' the Homeplug standard but the Homeplug Alliance site does not list TP Link. I guess it's worth a go to see what happens. I'll report back on Wednesday.

BOAC, adapter - Ethernet cable - switch/hub - Ethernet cable - adapter. As easy as that.

I seem to recall from a previous thread that there may be a H-Plug 1 and 2 standard.

There you go

a wired switch between one adapter on each phase

A capacitor......being ex-GPO and hence trained in the mystique of wires, I chose to run ethernet cables round the house. Nothing like a solid bit of copper between point A and point B.

I concurr.

Any properly installed CAT5e or CAT6 cabling system will outpace and outlast any lousy power line system. Will also beat all WiFi systems.

Bog standard T&E electrical cables were never intended to carry data.... power line is nothing but a lousy bodge.

Yerss to all of the above. However...
Keef would probably have, for garters, the guts of anyone who actually recommended powerline and such. (Being a radio amateur in a parallel universe, he has a vested interest in that part of the RF spectrum)


Having run Ethernet (and 10-base-T over multiple roofs before that, for that matter) all over the place, I reckon to know the score. But still, at my advance years, I limit my ladder-climbing to what is absolutely necessary - and am too tight to pay someone to do something I should be able to do myself, soooo,


I'm delighted that WiFi works so well, both with our lappies and our printers and our phones and visitors..... etc.,
So probably won't ever use wired connections again.

On buying a new house:

Work out the maximum number of cables you will run point to point around the house (audio/video, rf, ethernet, automated lighting, USB etc). Buy ducting twice the size you think you will need. Run it around ever room, over doors, through walls etc.

The OFSO's house is like that. Ducting is fairy discrete. Answers to rare complaints from wife: "do you or don't you want audio/video, rf, ethernet, 12v LED lighting etc, where you normally sit ?"

There ain't no answer to that.

Me too. The bands are already seriously contaminated with crud from domestic appliances, power line noise and other secondary effects from modern technology. :(

FOR

Powerline adaptors are the spawn of the devil and should be incinerated and buried.

You can't beat a proper Cat5e (or better) cable connection. Bandwidth is going to be more reliable, too.

I wait with interest for future improvements of the Power over Ethernet (PoE) standard, when it may be possible to wire up a (LED-lit, Roomba-cleaned) house with no electrical cable, just CAT6... :8 :}

I guess you have had a bad experience. Mine with powerline technology is very good. I could not get a wireless signal to penetrate our concrete floors and was reluctant to embark on a major wiring job to install Ethernet cables through three floors.

Four plug-ins at a cost of around 100 quid and I have totally reliable connectivity. Yes the theoretical 500Mbps is wildly optimistic over any real distance, but it is still way more consistent than WiFi.

Power line
 

Nope, it is not about a poor experience, power line bleeds energy into the same part of the electromagnetic spectrum used by the Radio Amateur community and interferes with their equipment. It should not have been approved for use in the UK in the first place, someone was not doing their job.

Imagine if one of your neighbours had a microwave oven that interfered with you TV every time they used it?

Please do not use power line.

Powerline adaptors work ... most of the time.

They cause all kinds of crud on the radio spectrum, which you may not care about, but many of us do, and would ban them if we could.

The users of that spectrum may be running significant transmitter power, which means your powerline adaptor will stop working when they transmit. You may find this frustrating, but since you are the secondary user you'll have to put up with it.

Cat 5 cable has a lot to be said in its favour. It's also cheaper than PLAs, although it does require some dexterity to install it in houses that weren't designed for it.

No, they radiate low-level noise all over the lower end of the radio spectrum, as any radio amateur can tell you.

My powerline adaptor (ZyX**) regularly dropped out (sometimes five or six times during the evening) and required resetting. So Computer No 2 is now hard-wired. The 6mm blue cable and wall clips are a little unsightly but I can put up with that in exchange for a reliable connection.

The powerline components sure look pretty now they're back in their box though. :)