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Powerline Broadband adapters


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Anybody using one of these or have any recommendations? Are they better than wifi boosters?

I need to get a broadband signal in my seperate from house garage and looking at the best way of achieving a decent speed without spending a fortune!

The power feeds in the garage come from the house so presumably the Powerline adapters should work?

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Depends on whether the garage is on the same circuit as the downstairs/upstairs (depending where your router is) of the house.

 

It may work on a different circuit but they are supposed to stay on the same.

 

I asked the same question on here before, MrMe and a couple of others I think recommended a BT homeplug, it's been flawless, I fitted it in my parents house as it's a very large house and the signal doesn't reach from one side to the other, strategically placed they now get full signal everywhere.

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I asked the same question on here before, MrMe and a couple of others I think recommended a BT homeplug, it's been flawless, I fitted it in my parents house as it's a very large house and the signal doesn't reach from one side to the other, strategically placed they now get full signal everywhere.

 

Yep, mine still working well +++

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As long as all the circuits go to the same board it shouldn't be an issue. Really anything on the same supply as long as the earth, neutral and live are from the same head.

I've not heard of units that must be on the same ring or radial, and since most houses have separate rings for each floor an item restricted to the same circuit would be shite.

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No, it would need to be a separate meter for that to make a difference.

 

Otherwise it comes from the house to get to the garage.

There have been security issues on very early units. They didn't require a unique hand shake with your kit and it allowed flats next door or on the same floor supply, to buy a receiver and just tap in to a neighbours net access.

All units now need a signature to sync and that's unique to your network so isn't a problem anymore.

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It looks like the prices for all of them have changed T. The ones I linked were 49 or 59 and are now up to 89? I'm sure they will all come down again. It also seems BT have introduced 600 versions although I'm still trying to figure what extra they will provide over 500s if using a Ethernet connection

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The 600 range is I believe, dual band, so whatever benefit that provides I guess.

We have a dual band BT infinity router, can't honestly say it makes the slightest bit of difference being connected to either/both bands.

Oddly enough, if I switch off 2.4 ghz on the router, my old laptop which isn't dual band still connects via the 5ghz connection, and some older non dual band devices such as old iPhones or tablets can also connect to the 5ghz connection?

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The 500-600 is just the bandwidth it pushes through the 'networks' ie your electric wiring.

I bought two sets of the BT extenders (non wifi - Ethernet only). A set of 600's and a set of 1000's. I ran a series of tests - copying files (small files and huge single files etc), and the 1000's were close to 1gbps but not quite and the 600s were nearer 500mbps.

Not sure how this all helps wit you wifi repeater stuff but I am very pleased and surprised by how good these BT units are (wired only) so I guess the WiFi ones are good stuff too!

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Might be of interest.

I've bought a 1 sender, 2 receiver set of AV 500 TP link units.

We have a virgin service.

Direct plug in to Router / modem speeds (all via speed test) DL 110 Mbps, UL 9 Mbps

Wifi 5g direct from router to iPads or iPhone about 90 Mbps, 7 Mbps

Wifi indirect 2g via net gear wifi extender 70 Mbps, 6 Mbps

Wifi over 230v cabling-

On same ring circuit 65 Mbps, 5 Mbps

On a different ring, different floor 50 Mbps, 5 Mbps

In the near house shed 40 Mbps, 4 Mbps

In the man shed (55m cable to house) 8 Mbps, 2 Mbps.

The test prove the over 230v cable extenders work anywhere within a domestic situation, and clearly show that signal / speed of service drops substantially depending on the distance the signals have to cover over 230v copper.

Not very happy with the man shed levels- although testing it gave a fine picture for Netflix, BBC I-player and YouTube.

When I ran the supply feed to the man shed I did run a Cat 5e cable which is coiled up on the house boundary, so I'll get on with feeding that under the floors, up my riser and terminate back on the router.

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Thanks for the feedback Chris.

Ironically I purchased the equivalent BT (as linked above) set up yesterday. I'll get round to sorting over the weekend but if you are getting decent picture in your man shed then I should be okay for my garage which is not as far away

I'm also VM so I'll see what I get

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  • 1 month later...

Thread resurrection in order to ask a quick question on these...... 

 

I have the BT Hotspot kit at home.  The SSID of the main router is XXXXX and the SSID of the hotspots is YYYYY.  Therefore I have to physically reconnect from XXXXX to YYYYY as I move around to get the best signal.

 

I have tried to clone the main router using the WPS buttons but this seems not to work.

 

Questions:

 

  1. If the WPS link/clone process works correctly should teh SSID of the hotspots change to replicate the main router?
  2. I can log-in to the hotspots using the IP address they have been assigned - if I do that and just change their SSID's and passwords to match the main router would that 'extend' the same network around the house or would a device just stay attached to the main router with a weak signal rather than switching to the hotspot that was right next to it depsite the SSID and password being the same?

Cheers

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Try manually resetting the devices and clone again mate.

1. The hotspots will replicate the main router automatically, so you won't need to physically reconnect, they will start to carry the same SSIS.

2. Not sure on question 2! I trialled running separate SSID points but then cloned them all to the main router without too much issue - just thought it was easier. I get your point about changing th SSID to match via the IP address of each device but unsure what sort of speeds you would get?

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I might be misreading this.

 

Our BT Hotspots have different networks names to the main Virgin Vivid router.

 

On any device, I connect to the BT Hotspot once immediately after it was installed.

 

The devices (Macbook's, iPhones, iPad's, etc) then automatically connect depending on signal strength.  i.e. If a Hotspot is closest and strongest, they'll connect to that.  Because I've previously connected to the Hotspot (upon initial configuration), I don't have to do anything.  The same applies if the router is the strongest/closest.

 

I can still select another network if I wish to simply by doing so on screen.  I won't have to enter any login/password.

 

I prefer it this way as it means I know what I'm connected to.  If they all had the same network name, I wouldn't know which I was using and that would make any troubleshooting a little more tricky (i.e. when MrsMe switches one of the hotspots off occasionally, in error!).

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My problem was that my devices weren't selecting the hotspots based only on the signal being stronger.  E.g. I walk into the house and the phone connects to the main router with a full signal.  I then go upstairs where the phone stays connected to the main router with a very weak signal despite being next to a hotspot with a full signal.  If the signal to the main router drops out then it connects to the hotspot but doesn't automatically switch due to the hotspot signal being better,

 

I have now managed to reset all of the power line/hotspot plug and the WPS link has worked this time  +++

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