homeplug yay or nay? also lots of other sky and networking question :D

Sasso

Sasso

Sasso

Soldato
Joined
7 Dec 2007
Posts
3,939
Location
Swansea, Wales
right well im moving into my new student house and should be getting 16mb sky bb :) i dont have a wireless card for my pc and previously used cat5 cable in my other house as i would download and game lots so wanted the net to be as lagless and uninturrupted aspossible as theres nothing so annoying as wireless when ** runing about see someone, get a lag spike or packet loss then comes back and you're dead :p

right bare with me thougth this :p its a bit long winded

i have a huge 20m cable so thought it would be fine for the new house as my room is upstairs and the router is downstairs....

however our new landlady has provided the house with a netgear wireless router (not sure if its a adslmodem/router so is it possible to plug this into the sky modem box? ) for the past few groups of students shes had as she says she doesnt want the cables running through the hall as they are trip hazzards and stop the fire doors from closing properly :( hate the fire doors are they isolate the house and make it unsociable :mad:

so anyways yea im pretty sure cables are out of the question unless i could convince her to let me take out a tiny bit of the door frame and tac it to the walls but then theres holes there so im guessuing she would say no :( so then i saw these home plugs and thought wow now thats a good idea.. then i saw the price :O bloody hell!!! they aint cheap :eek:

right so there's variours models ranging in speeds with the lowest one saying for simple browsing and is the cheapest and then the most expensive is the fastest and for gaming and streaming and such.... does this actually make any difference really? i mean 200mb/s.... the net is only 16mb/s max so is there really any point getting the stupidly expensive ones?

next how well do they work? any experiences with them? drop outs, lag etc etc? also will the fact that im upstairs and probably on a different electrical ring be a factor?

also not sure what the internet setup will be yet, guessing we get a sky modem wireless router? can i just put the settings onto the netgear router and use that if its a modem too? or will the sky one be fine? also not sure if with the home plug if you have to plug them straight into the modem or is it possible to plug them into a router in the following setup...

btline>sky router>plug>elec line>plug>my pc
>other things like consoles and wireless for other computers

????

i know theres a lot of questions there but i really want to make sure they are right for the situation before i fork out, being a student an all :p

thinking maybe this one
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...name=Netgear HDXB101 Powerline HD Starter Kit
 
Last edited:
Ive got the exact same setup your describing, i play games a hell of a lot and ive got the MSI 85mbps homeplugs and they are brilliant, i get between 78-85mbps and they are brilliant, just make sure the power is on the same ring or you will have problems. I can play/stream HD no problem :D
 
ahhh awsome thanks :D

however..
Angelos_n said:
...just make sure the power is on the same ring or you will have problems...
Click to expand...

well the router will be down stairs and im up stairs so im pretty sure its got the normal set up of a downstairs power loop and an upstairs one seperated on the main fuse box (i shall check later when i visit).

what problems will happen? what are the solutions?
 
Providing everything is on the same fuse box it should be fine. The homeplugs also do not work if they are on a surge protector afaik so plug them straight into the wall socket.

- Pea0n
 
cool thanks for the info :) now deciting which pack to go for as i need 2 of them (obviouisly :)) so was thinking of the high speed ones in the OP as when buying any of the other 2 seperatly they come to around the same price anywho...
 
Pea0n said:
Providing everything is on the same fuse box it should be fine. The homeplugs also do not work if they are on a surge protector afaik so plug them straight into the wall socket.

- Pea0n
Click to expand...


The one's I've used do. Extension cords, everything. But would still reccomend straight into one socket.
 
sky router will be fine, homeplugs just replace your ethernet cable in your scenario.

85mpbs units will be cheaper and fast enough, though 200 mpbs units will give you spare capacity for network traffic around.

if you have more devices buy more homeplugs or if they are in the same room buy a switch (you can configure the landlords router to be a switch if you want)
 
I think you're better off sticking with wireless if cost is an issue. Homeplug performance can vary dramatically depending on your house's wiring.

Homeplugs are only really a good idea if you're having wireless signal problems or need to send data faster than 20Mbps (i.e. HD video).
 
well with the wireless ill be at the other end of the house through about 3 walls and firedoors.... also it will be for gaming/downloading and well in my last house my laptop was one wall and about 10 ft from the router and i kept getting lagouts and poor transfers. also i dont have wireless dongle or card on my pc so ill have to buy something :p just wondering if i do buy them, try them and cos of the wiring its cack can i reture them as they are not suitable?
 
Swordfish said:
The one's I've used do. Extension cords, everything. But would still reccomend straight into one socket.
Click to expand...

I think extension chords are fine, but surge protectors don't work that well as, unless I'm mistaken, it adds the network signal to the voltage and a surge protector would interfeer with this.

- Pea0n
 
Tunney said:
I think you're better off sticking with wireless if cost is an issue. Homeplug performance can vary dramatically depending on your house's wiring.

Homeplugs are only really a good idea if you're having wireless signal problems or need to send data faster than 20Mbps (i.e. HD video).
Click to expand...

Not going to agree with those statments, quite the opposite in fact.

Wifi performance is also very variable and even more annoying in that its frequently intermittent connection lost problems that are an issue.

Homeplug is on average more reliable and consitently maintains service, it has practically no configuration issues either.
 
errata said:
Not going to agree with those statments, quite the opposite in fact.

Wifi performance is also very variable and even more annoying in that its frequently intermittent connection lost problems that are an issue.

Homeplug is on average more reliable and consitently maintains service, it has practically no configuration issues either.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Wireless if you NEED to move around, otherwise homeplug, from my experience. i installed it for a friend recently, wireless in his house had a range of about 5 feet due to the thick walls and there was nowhere to relocate the router to that would get the whole house

- Pea0n
 
You can still move around the house with homeplug, provided you are near a socket!

I got Solwise powerline adaptors and they are brill. Got the 200Mbps one and I see throughput wayyyyy better than 54g wireless.
 
I had a load of crappy wireless issues, dropping connection,slowwww, even in a new build house with this walls, so I went with the 85MBS homeplugs set up and it works without any problems to date. I can stream to my 360 all my media content with no issues. So for the 50 odd quid it cost it was worth it to stop all the connection issues.

Cheers
KJ
 
Dont ever buy WIFI stuff from me on the members market, with few exceptions its all the stuff that was flakey, too slow or barely adequate. Homeplug solved most of my problems and Im not broadcasting or competing with the neighbours systems.
 
One tip about home plugs, pick a speed and stick to it. Use either 85 or 200. The different versions I've used dont like to be mixed and sometimes will not even work together.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom