Gigabit Home Networking

Harl0

Harl0

Harl0

Associate
Joined
23 Oct 2012
Posts
213
I'm looking at building a gigabit home network - With future proofing in mind.

- My setup will be a Virgin Media Super Hub 50mbps connection (This will probably be upgraded to a faster package in the future).
- Gigabit 8-port switch currently looking at the Netgear GS308-100UK connected to the router.
- Mac-Mini 2014 directly connected to the router.
- Powerline network using gigabit rated plugs such as the TP-Link 1200 Mbps Gigabit Passthrough Powerline as I like the passthrough ability.
- PC connected via Powerline via the on-board gigabit NIC.
- Cat-5e or 6 cabling.

Appreciate my broadband connection will be the main bottleneck here, but does anyone have experience wiring their home network up this way and achieving close to 1gpbs network transfer speeds between devices?

Cheers!
 
Your mileage will definitely vary with powerline. I'd say the only way to get true gigabit speeds is via ethernet, depends how much that matters to you.
 
Don't use powerline, it will taint the network. They don't run anywhere near gigabit speeds.
 
Ideally I'd have Ethernet run everywhere, but I'm in a rented property so cant pass the cabling around without cracking out the drill. I'll give it a go and see what I get.

Cheers!
 
Crack out the drill then just fill the holes and paint when you leave? If it's magnolia paint then you can mix some magnolia paint in with filler and it works well enough.
 
ChrisD. said:
It all depends on the quality of the power cabling and boxes etc in whatever house/flat they are plugged in.
Click to expand...

The management software showed them connected at 700 mbps. The transfer speed between them maxed out at around 400 mbps though. They were reliable though, never had any connection issues or problems.
 
To be fair the powerlines we have installed at the moment do work well and most importantly are reliable - The transfer speeds are letting me down.

I've purchased a gigabit switch and wireless AC card and going to try both solutions, see if the speeds improve!
 
ChrisD. said:
Crack out the drill then just fill the holes and paint when you leave? If it's magnolia paint then you can mix some magnolia paint in with filler and it works well enough.
Click to expand...

And if/when the landlords or letting agents come to inspect? If the guy says he can't, he can't.
 
Last edited:
TheVoice said:
And if/when the landlords or letting agents come to inspect? If the guy says he can't, he can't.
Click to expand...
I've lived in many rented properties over the years and I've never had an inspection where they check cabling and walls.

As long as it's returned to the way it was when the OP moved in there won't be any issues.
 
Powerline quoted speeds are usually based on full duplex, so 1200 is 600 each way less overheads, realistically it's unlikely to sync at 1200. Cable is faster, more reliable and clearly should be the first choice, flat cable can easily be slipped under skirting boards etc. and as stated as long as the cable is installed to a competent standard and any holes made good when moving out then it's unlikely to cause issues.

On most things I agree with bledd, on powerline we differ. Cable is absolutely the best choice for a network connection, wifi is a convenience for connectivity on devices that are incapable of using a wired connection or it's impractical such as phones and tablets, powerline I will happily use where it's impractical to roll cable for some reason, as long as it's not in a bandwidth critical situation.

When I did a lot of GPU mining each GPU rack needed very little bandwith, but the install locations were sometimes 'interesting' as the heat load needed to be spread - I used PL with zero issues, 2am when I discovered a failed cable at home, rather than leave 5e running all over and risk someone tripping over it or a noisy re-pull, I used PL. When my son asked if he could have Plex access on his PS rather than use wifi I chose PL as it's consistently stable. I'm not a bad father, I do have 5e drops in the loft space ready to drop, but I'm saving that for the next time we decorate as he also needs some spur sockets. I appreciate a tiny minority have reported issues with it affecting internet connectivity etc. but I've personally used PL in 9 different properties without issue, I don't doubt the issues others have had, but I suspect it's down to poor cable routing or hardware as the telephony system is self powered and should be fully isolated from the electrical system, the only place the two converge is the modem/router which suggests interference from poor cable routing, or faulty hardware.
 
We are formally moving into the property Saturday 9th Sept, and broadband is being installed 11th Sept so should have everything hooked up and installed then.

A few of the devices will be connected directly to my gigabit switch using Cat5e cable, and others attached via a powerline for now. Will be interesting to see what the speed difference is between those devices. If the speeds are drastically different, I'll run Cat5e cabling around the place and just repair any holes I create when we move out :)

On a different subject, does anyone rate the latest Virgin Super Hub routers, and does any rock an aftermarket router replacing the supplied Virgin one?
 
How fast do you expect a gigabit network to transfer files? How fast are your file transfers at the moment on the network?

While the theoretical maximum of the network is 125MB/s, your typical hard drive might only have burst speeds of 65MB/s - half that of your network speed.

Due to this, you'll unlikely get different speeds from using Ethernet or decent HomePlugs. Of course, either being used under optimal circumstances can change this.

Ethernet is more reliable, consistent and less prone to interference (resulting in less latency and ping spikes)

With the Virgin Super Hub I enabled modem mode and hooked up my own router. I found that the superhub kept crashing when I downloaded from Steam, maxing out the 150mbps connection at the time. In modem mode, it seems to have to do less (understandably) and in turn made the super hub itself run fine.

I also found I needed to move away from the Virgin DNS servers - they were constantly unresponsive for me.
 
Intel aren't really known to rush a fix and i'm lead to believe the testing group may have flagged it prior to public launch at VM. Given it's been this long (they publically admitted it was an issue back end of last year), I'm starting to wonder if it'll see a software patch at all.
 
UPDATE:
Finally moved into the property and have Virgin installed - Get a fairly consistent 100mpbs download and 7mpbs upload.

Powerline network runs around 95mpbs download and 6mpbs upload which is fine for now.

I'm using the Super Hub 3 still which offloads to my TP Link Gigiabit Switch.

So far happy but I think I have noticed this chipset lag problem while gaming - Anyone have any workarounds?
 
RoyMi6 said:
How fast do you expect a gigabit network to transfer files? How fast are your file transfers at the moment on the network?

While the theoretical maximum of the network is 125MB/s, your typical hard drive might only have burst speeds of 65MB/s - half that of your network speed.
Click to expand...

Hard drives from 2001 maybe, any hard drive on the market will easily reach 110MB/s. Gigabit tops out at around 112MB/s
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom