File transfers on home LAN slow

[bremen1874]

Have you installed the software utility (assuming there is one) to see what they're actually syncing at?

Have you done anything to try and improve the connection? Something as simple as having a low energy lamp or phone charger plugged in nearby can upset them.

Even if they're working perfectly they'll be slow compared to a real cabled connection. Maybe 20MBps compared to the 100MBps you can easily get with a cable.

 

[bledd]

Absolutely, powerline have their place. Just not where speed is concerned.

Yeah, the bin

 

[nutcase]

Yeah, the bin

Couldn't agree more. Interesting idea, fails to deliver.

 

[APM]

It can be worthwhile moving some plugs and other electrical things about a bit,you never know.

Powerlines aren't on an extension are they?

 

[xs2man]

No they are not on an extension..

Ended up drinking instead, so didn't do my testing last night. Tonight, probably not either, as I decided to re-jig my office anyway, so that's taken all day. I did move the socket the powerline was in and it did increase the speed for transfers to a whopping 10-12 MB/s. Awesome.

 

[Rozzy85]

Couldn't agree more. Interesting idea, fails to deliver.

How do they fail to deliver? They use the similar modulation to that of wireless and DSL for transferring data over noisy connections and will never achieve whatever speed is written on the box. Data transfer will fluctuate and reliability will never be 100%. As long as you understand that then they are a worth while alternative to knocking holes in the wall for a computer that will only be used for Internet browsing.

 

[MG42Maniac]

I never managed to get more than 7MB/sec from Powerlines, no matter how fast they were advertised to go. I laid some Cat 6 to the areas I could and then used an ASUS AC87U with a EA-AC87 on remaining area, on the wireless I get around 80MB/sec file transfer which is plenty.

 

[nutcase]

How do they fail to deliver? They use the similar modulation to that of wireless and DSL for transferring data over noisy connections and will never achieve whatever speed is written on the box. Data transfer will fluctuate and reliability will never be 100%. As long as you understand that then they are a worth while alternative to knocking holes in the wall for a computer that will only be used for Internet browsing.

Can you imagine if they were honest on the box? People don't understand they are an unreliable bodge and so we get threads like this.

 

[Lunatic Dreyfus]

I've used Powerline adapters for years, just to connect to the internet, which has been fine. Recently however I've been looking more in to networking my two main PC's and quickly ran in to a 11MB/S bottleneck even when trying to copy from SSD to SSD....

It was only today, while staring at my nice new 5 port Netgear gigabit switch and trying to figure out why the power-line section of the network refused to light up both leds, that I finally discovered the whole "well they're actually 10/100 ports, but look at the amazing numbers we've stuck on the box" nonsense.

They got some nerve, I'll give 'em that.

 

[bremen1874]

11MBps isn't a port limitation. If you were pegged at 12.5MBps that would be different.

Even where Powerline adapters have Gigabit ports they're rarely necessary. The adapters usually just can't shift data fast enough to need them.

 

[Alexrose1uk]

Yeah, I love powerline for the simplicity it can bring, but you've got a double whammy of chips and adaptors of varying quality and performance, even with the same 'headline' speed, and also 'gigabit' connectors that have 10/100 meg ports, which limits you immediately, and the headline speeds being absolutely theoretical, rather than realworld maximums (ie 1200 Mbps is the HALF DUPLEX speed from memory, in other words they're already 600Mbps theoretical maximum, before you even talk about overhead, attentuation etc...similar to how DSL can be 'up to 80Mbps...but some may see 2Mbps!)

It wouldn't surprise me if you're hitting both realworld issues. I'd suggest doing some reading up and purchasing new devices if you absolutely need powerline after double checking the more detailed specs for the ones you have (as I distinctly suspect older chipset and 10/100Mbps ports), and plain RJ45 cable if you can.

Some powerline adaptors simply put are far better at longer range and in general than others.

 

[Fishpan]

Could router be the bottleneck? There are marked differences using my Asus RT-AC68u compared to my ISP-provided one when doing files transfers across a network. I even find that if I overclock the Asus router, I can squeeze out another 5-10mbps.