Advice from Solwise - is it correct?

ivrytwr3

ivrytwr3

ivrytwr3

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Hey all,

I have my router in my bedroom and a few devices that are internet capable in my living room. My plan is to buy a pair of 1GB Homeplugs:

http://www.solwise.co.uk/net-powerline-gig-pl-1000m.htm

I asked the question at Solwise "What product would you recommend to connect 3 different internet devices to the Living room equipment I have?"

Solwise have come back with this:

NET-HUB5100:

http://www.solwise.co.uk/networking-copper-based-hubs-5100.htm

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Now a 5 port switch sounds like it it will do the job - but looking at the transfer speed it is 100mb.

So i have a 1GB Homeplug and a 100mb port switch - am i going to lose transfer speed with this recommendation?

(i'm really not clued up on homeplugs etc :()
 
i would be amazed if your 1gb home plug could transfer at 1gb....

however id get a gb switch anyway as they are only about 20 - 30£
 
Ah! So you can get 1GB switches? Cool.

But £65 for 2 x homeplugs and £20 - £30 for a switch :( Damn that's a lot of cash to hook up my TV, media player and PS3 :(
 
The answer as always depends on what you're trying to do.

If you just want to hook these devices up to the internet then GbE is overkill, as the throughput of data will be limited by your internet connection (maximum speed (a lot less than 100Mbps for ADSL).

So you could get away with a 100Mbps switch and probably a cheaper homeplug too. I don't know that much about homeplugs, but the stated speed will be a theoretical maximum and what you'll achieve in practice will be lower. If you could run a network cable between your router and the new switch then this would be cheaper still and more reliable than homeplugs.

If however, you're hoping to start shifting heavy duty amounts of data between devices in your home (e.g. streaming HD video from a PC in your bedroom to media player in the lounge) then you might need GbE, but bear in mind that the whole chain of devices will have to support GbE and be quick enough to make use of it. E.g. if your PC is connected via a router that only has 100Mbps ports then it would all be a bit pointless.
 
My plan is:

Sony TV - update firmware
PS3 - on-line gaming
WDTV Live Hub - transfer, not stream, large movie files from PC to live hub (bluray etc).

All done through BT Homehub router and 2 x 1GB Homeplugs.
 
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wonko said:
but bear in mind that the whole chain of devices will have to support GbE and be quick enough to make use of it
Click to expand...

Its also easy to forget to factor in the read throughput capability of a source hard drive device. For instance, streaming from a slow spin laptop 2.5" HDD wont make anywhere near 1000Mbit/s; it simply cannot pull the data off the drive that fast.

But whilst few hard drives work at that speed, virtually all work at more than 100Mbit/s, so its still better to use Gigabit
 
BunnyKillBot said:
Its also easy to forget to factor in the read throughput capability of a source hard drive device. For instance, streaming from a slow spin laptop 2.5" HDD wont make anywhere near 1000Mbit/s; it simply cannot pull the data off the drive that fast.

But whilst few hard drives work at that speed, virtually all work at more than 100Mbit/s, so its still better to use Gigabit
Click to expand...

Fair point, and that's what the "and be quick enough to make use of it" was trying to say.

In the case of the WD TV Live, 100Mbps is hardly going to be a limiting factor if file transfers are as slow as this review suggests
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3990/western-digital-wdtv-live-hub-review/4

To the OP: if cost was no object then GbE is obviously the better way to go, but to get GbE between your pc and your media player then you'd probably need *two* GbE switches, plus a linking cable or homeplugs. From the review above, your media player will barely be quick enough to transfer at over 100Mbps anyway. Whether GbE is worth the extra money for the marginal benefit now and 'futureproofing' is really down to you.
 
Do keep in mind that AFAIK the BT Home hub is not capable of Gb unless you have the home hub 3.0 with the GB port.

That is ofc if your planning on passing everything thru the hub
 
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Your Gigabit homeplugs are very unlikely to actually transfer at much more than 100Mb, which will be the bottleneck. The "Gigabit" rating is only theoretical, real world speeds are far less.

100mb switch will be fine for anything your living room devices need anyway. No need to spend more for a gigabit switch.
 
ivrytwr3 said:
My plan is:

Sony TV - update firmware
PS3 - on-line gaming
WDTV Live Hub - transfer, not stream, large movie files from PC to live hub (bluray etc).

All done through BT Homehub router and 2 x 1GB Homeplugs.
Click to expand...

Good luck with that, I think you'll find homeplugs will be terrible at this and I think you'll also see a lot of corrupt files.

If you're thinking of pushing big files about don't mess about with home plugs - you'll be disappointed, they're only really good for low speeds where wifi isn't an option.

Save the cash, buy some CAT5 and a crimping tool and run some ethernet.
 
ecksmen said:
Good luck with that, I think you'll find homeplugs will be terrible at this and I think you'll also see a lot of corrupt files.

If you're thinking of pushing big files about don't mess about with home plugs - you'll be disappointed, they're only really good for low speeds where wifi isn't an option.

Save the cash, buy some CAT5 and a crimping tool and run some ethernet.
Click to expand...

Corruption worries are rubbish, TCP ensures reliable transmission.

I do agree that If you are planning to transfer hundreds of Gigs, Run CAT5 (or move the Live Hub near to your PC temporarily and sync the bulk of the data there).

I'll also say that Homeplugs provide much better and more consistent speeds than Wifi (even N-300) in my experience.
 
If your sony tv is like mine, you can't update firmware from internet, you have to download it to a usb stick.
PS3 online gaming will be fine on 100mbp/s.
Transferring large files will be quicker on 1gbp/s but still fine on 100mbp/s

Whats your pc capable of? If it's 100mb/s then that will limit the speed of copying off to that speed from that. My sony tv is only 100mbp/s connection, ps3 1gbp/s. I don;t know what the WD TV has as a network interface. A lot of routers are 100mbp/s, if it's a homehub 3 there is only 1 gb port on it. So for example, your pc is plugged into gb port of homehub, and homeplug into other port, then no matter what speed homeplug you get, the absolute limit on what can be transferred will be 100mbp/s. The homeplugs might link at 200mbp/s but can only transfer whats fed into them.

I've got some homeplugs and only use them when rebuilding computers. I've got a gb switch in loft with 2-4 ports in each room. i use the homeplugs for convience, but they take ages when transferring a 30gb windows image so tend to use them so I can set updates downloading, while imaging another machine.
 
You can get homeplugs with 4 port switches built in, get one of them for downstairs and a 1 port one for upstairs, problem solved, will do everything you want. Your setup is less demanding than mine and mine works fine :)
 
nice one - can you make a recommendation for the 4 and 1 plugs please? Also, i am after a good speed as i am planning on transferring files and PS3 gaming.
 
As I said for ps3 gaming 10mbp/s is doable, I had my switch set to this at first and gaming didn't notice any difference. 100mbp/s will just take longer to transfer files.

Sorry I can't recommend any homeplugs as I've got a pair and they work, can't see any name on them and no markings on them either. I know they are 85mbp/s units and connect at this, but I live in a bungalow that was rewired 2 years ago so all new wiring.
 
The Netgear XAV1004 or similar should do the job for downstairs, and whatever you can find for the room with the router, as long as they are both marked as Homeplug AV they should work fine together.
 
I'm certainly sure HomePlugs also quote half duplex speeds, which really means you only get 1Gb by 0.5Gb each way, i.e. speed is really only 500mb. Whether or not the homeplug will achieve 500mb is a totally different kettle of fish. It really does depend on the age/quality of your wiring, and can be interfered with by electrical appliances (washing machines, hair dryers, tree lights etc). I had a pair of Homeplug AV which worked great for my 8m (direct) run for browsing and Lovefilm streaming, but rubbish for streaming 1080P video: I ended up using Cat5 which is now butter smooth at 100Mbps full duplex.
 
Bossk128 said:
I'm certainly sure HomePlugs also quote half duplex speeds, which really means you only get 1Gb by 0.5Gb each way, i.e. speed is really only 500mb. Whether or not the homeplug will achieve 500mb is a totally different kettle of fish. It really does depend on the age/quality of your wiring, and can be interfered with by electrical appliances (washing machines, hair dryers, tree lights etc). I had a pair of Homeplug AV which worked great for my 8m (direct) run for browsing and Lovefilm streaming, but rubbish for streaming 1080P video: I ended up using Cat5 which is now butter smooth at 100Mbps full duplex.
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According to the standards AV gives 200mb/s at the physical layer (80mb/s at the MAC) and AV2 gives 1000mb/s at the physical layer (600mb/s at the MAC). Obviously quality of wiring is important.
 
Does the Home Hub have gigabit ethernet? You're limited my the slowest part of the network, so if the Homehub is doing all the routing...
 
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