Complicated powerline question?

divuk83 · 9 Sep 2019 at 12:54

Well, I don't know the answer to it......

The router and AP etc are wired up in the side extension of our house. The living room which I'm wanting to connect to via powerlines is on a separate consumer unit to the extension. Obviously it's off the same supply, but our house has 2 consumer units. Would it work at all, or would it work but be compromised/slow and worse than just using the wifi?

Thanks

Dave

jaybee · 9 Sep 2019 at 13:17

I'm under the impression that it shouldn't be expected to work....but it might. Can you not buy a cheap set and try it? I gather that nothing should really go past the consumer unit but it has been known to happen where neighbours can see other people's home network powerline plugs. It's happened quite a bit if you google. From my personal experience, anything in my house that was not on the same circuit (i.e. did not go back to the same breaker) had pretty slow performance, usually under 100mbps. On the same circuit and it got 270mbps.

bremen1874 · 9 Sep 2019 at 14:19

If you have one electricity meter then they should work as they'll all be on the same phase.

How well they'll work can only be a guess, you'd have to try them.

It's almost always possible to find a way of running the single network cable you'd need to sort this out properly.

divuk83 · 10 Sep 2019 at 11:24

Thanks for that. I do have a reel of cat6, but all of the downstairs is laminate flooring, that has had the skirting boards fitted over it rather than the scotia/trim. I'm just exploring easier/lazier options!

Cheers

Dave

bremen1874 · 10 Sep 2019 at 11:26

Have you considered running a cable externally?

Quartz · 10 Sep 2019 at 11:28

bremen1874 said:
Have you considered running a cable externally?

This.

divuk83 · 10 Sep 2019 at 11:59

Yes, it's a very long way round that way as I want it on an internal wall. I think I might be able to lift the hearth and get some access under there. I do have load of rods for pulling cables, it's just not easy to get to anything. I did my last house and it was really easy as I could easily lift all the floorboards. This one is much harder!

Cheers

Dave

brendy · 10 Sep 2019 at 13:10

Or joining both circuits with a 3rd device? if the circuits are old itll run poorly though regardless.

divuk83 · 10 Sep 2019 at 13:24

The new wiring is OK, the old stuff is poor. Half of the sockets appear to be spured off the ring as I have gone to add more sockets and wasn't easily able too. I'm no electician, but I know what I expect to see when I take a socket off and this house has never been what I expected it to be! There are no sockets on the old consumer unit anywhere near the new one.

Dave

Quartz · 10 Sep 2019 at 13:49

divuk83 said:
Yes, it's a very long way round that way

So what? With ethernet you have a maximum cable length of 100 metres.

divuk83 · 10 Sep 2019 at 13:54

My mansion is bigger than that......

No, I just don't want conduit running on the front of the house. It would still be tricky as I want it would have to get across the room which would require taking up the laminate or having more trunking on display in the living room, something I'm trying to avoid. It's not going to be much simpler than taking up the laminate.

Dave

Admiral Huddy · 10 Sep 2019 at 14:03

I run a series of homeplugs across two different RCDs.. Not a problem which is why it's recommended that you activate any encryption.

bremen1874 · 10 Sep 2019 at 14:26

divuk83 said:
My mansion is bigger than that......

No, I just don't want conduit running on the front of the house. It would still be tricky as I want it would have to get across the room which would require taking up the laminate or having more trunking on display in the living room, something I'm trying to avoid. It's not going to be much simpler than taking up the laminate.

Dave

You don't need conduit. Direct clipped external grade cable can be installed very neatly, it could even be shallowly buried.

If you can't get the cable all of the way, can you get it far enough so that you can have both Powerline adapters plugged into the same circuit in the main part of the house?

divuk83 · 7 Oct 2019 at 22:19

Thanks for the advice all, spent the day pulling up carpets and floorboards in the end to run loads of cat 6. It wasn't easy, but it was deffinatlely the better option!

Cheers

Dave

Steveocee · 8 Oct 2019 at 09:11

divuk83 said:
Thanks for the advice all, spent the day pulling up carpets and floorboards in the end to run loads of cat 6. It wasn't easy, but it was deffinatlely the better option!
Cheers
Dave

A rarity to see someone actually do the job properly. Nice one and your future self will thank you for it.

bledd · 8 Oct 2019 at 10:00

divuk83 said:
Thanks for the advice all, spent the day pulling up carpets and floorboards in the end to run loads of cat 6. It wasn't easy, but it was deffinatlely the better option!

Cheers

Dave

/wagging my tail