BT Infinity problem - slow but reliable wifi or fast but flaky ethernet

tummelv

tummelv

tummelv

Associate
Joined
19 Jan 2011
Posts
1,741
Location
Inverness, Scotland
Hi,

I have recently been using one of those homeplugs to get ethernet upstairs in a bedroom for my desktop as the router is downstairs. It's fast when it works (40mb up, 20 down) but it's proving very unreliable. It disconnects for a few minutes about half a dozen times on any one day. I think the wiring in my house isn't all that great so it's dropping the connection quite a bit.

I recently started using a USB Belkin dongle. It's been super reliable for 48 hours now with no disconnects. However it's proving a lot slower with a speedtest indicating 12MB up, 6 down. It's quite an old dongle and rated for 54MPBS. Would it be worth buying a better piece of wifi equipment for my PC? Perhaps one of those PCI cards with the aerials?

Or can I do anything to sort the ethernet? I'd prefer ethernet if possible. The ethernet cable in my room is 10m to route it over the door from the plug. Is this too long when you add in 2m from the router to the wall downstairs plus the internal wiring distance?
 
Last edited:
Your problems aren't going to be caused by cable lengths. Ethernet is limited to about 100m per link, and your aren't anyway near that.

What model of Powerline adapter are you using, and how old are they? I know there have been complaints about one of the TP-Link models (PA411?).

If the dongle is an old wireless-g model then a modern wireless-n replacement should have better range and throughput.
 
bremen1874 said:
Your problems aren't going to be caused by cable lengths. Ethernet is limited to about 100m per link, and your aren't anyway near that.

What model of Powerline adapter are you using, and how old are they? I know there have been complaints about one of the TP-Link models (PA411?).

If the dongle is an old wireless-g model then a modern wireless-n replacement should have better range and throughput.
Click to expand...

This is what I have, bought in August.

The dongle is a Belkin F5D7050, is this a G-Model?

Richdog said:
Get a long Cat6 cable and run the wire, you'll thank yourself in the long run.
Click to expand...

By CAT6 do you mean a standard ethernet cable? Not sure if this is practical.
 
I briefly thought about a flat ethernet cable but decided it still wouldn't be practical.

In the end I went for an ASUS PCI network card. Seems like it's doing the trick, got about 40mb up, 20 down on a speedtest which is about what I was getting with the ethernet. Time will tell if it's as reliable as the dongle but initially it seems good. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom