Issues with router behind a homeplug :S

Nanostronghold · 17 Mar 2011 at 15:32

Hi guys, I recently upgraded to the new Virgin Media superhub with my upgrade to the 30Mb package. Ive always had issues with wireless signal in my house so i got some homeplugs to try. I'm on 30Mb and can pretty much get that speed fine, but if i plug the output of my homeplug into the old netgear router i have so that i can have my PC and xbox wired at once I can only seem to get ~5 - 6 Mb speed, as opposed to ~26Mb when i wire straight from the homeplug to the PC.

Could this be to do with some router settings or something? Anyone have any ideas or tps?

Thanks

Bob

Skidilliplop · 17 Mar 2011 at 17:14

Make sure you're plugging into the LAN ports on the router not the WAN port.

LAN side will be a 10/100 switch, the LAN to WAN transfer on older cable routers isn't likely to get more than 10Mbit.

If that's not the issue you could be looking at a duplex mismatch, but try that first.

Nanostronghold · 17 Mar 2011 at 23:58

I have a feeling, looking at it now that i'm having occasional problems with my actual internet connection and that it just happened to coincide with me connecting up that router :S. Currently getting about 3Mb/s speeds directly connected to the homeplug. I have higher than recommended upstream power on my superhub stats, at about 53DbmV but VM have so far said, Nah it's probably not that. I will see if they eventually agree to fix that and i'll see if the problem persists.

Also, not sure i follow what you said exactly, but It's a router that was originally connected to the old VM modem and i could get 20Mb wired speeds fine then. I was running an ethernet out of the super hub, into the home plug, then out the homeplug and into the ethernet in on the back of the router, the same one that you use to connect the VM modem to the router via ethernet to get wireless internet.

Skidilliplop · 18 Mar 2011 at 10:26

you shouldn't be connecting the homeplug to the internet port on the router, you should connected to one of the LAN ports which are usually labelled LAN and numbered 1-4 if you're using it as an access point. Else you will end up with a double NAT which can cause issues of it's own.

But if you think there's line issues sort them first.

Nanostronghold · 18 Mar 2011 at 12:55

Ahh okay i see. I always assumed that they were like ethernet outs (I know that doesn't make sense since you can upload and whatnot) I'll give it a try now cheers.

Skidilliplop · 18 Mar 2011 at 13:27

Also don't forget to disable DHCP on it, else it could create IP address conflicts by assigning addresses that have already been assigned by the new router.

Nanostronghold · 18 Mar 2011 at 13:38

Okay, cheers mate. That's really helped. I'm still only getting 5-6Mb speeds lol, but that's not because I had the router set up wrong this time

. The trouble i'm having now is that i have the ethernet from my homeplug into one of the LAN ports and then my PC and Xbox out another two, but I now can't access the router setup pages for it, I just get redirected to the website. When I had the homeplug connected to the internet port before I could access the router setup, cuz I remember disabling the wireless on it. Any ideas? Or should i just stick the cable back into the internet port to access the settings so I can turn of the DHCP stuff? and then switch back :S

Skidilliplop · 18 Mar 2011 at 13:47

The router's LAN IP address is probably set to something in a different range to your network.

How I would do is as follows:

Power up the old router but don't plug anything in.
Plug one PC into a LAN port on it. - this should take DHCP from the router which ensures it's on the same network as the router's management IP.
Connect to the management page and turn off DHCP first, thn set the LAN IP to one on the same range as your other PCs, but outside the DHCP range on the new router. (Use another PC connected to the new router to connect to it and check this info, see example below)

Once you've changed the old router IP plug everything back in (unplug and re-plug the PC you were managing it from) and you'll be able to access the management page on http://<the IP you gave it> and play with wireless settings etc, but avoid IP conflicts.

Example address would be: If your new router is 10.0.0.1 and the DHCP range is set to 10.0.0.2-10.0.0.50 set the old router 10.0.0.51 with the same subnet mask as everything else.

Nanostronghold · 18 Mar 2011 at 17:21

Right. Thanks again. Think i've got it just about sorted now. Just waiting on hearing from VM atm. Seems lots of other people are having similar problems after the 30Mb upgrade of having severely reduced speeds. Tempted to ask for a downgrade until it's fixed

Nanostronghold · 19 Mar 2011 at 16:29

Sorry to double post. As it turns out I am still having issues with reduced speed through this post-homeplug Access point. I have swapped routers to a better one i got off VM a while ago which has an "Access point" option, so i know it's been set up properly, but i'm getting a speed of about 18Mb over wireless but only about 6Mb when wired in to the access point.

I checked with my dad and the house's electrical wiring was redone just a few years ago shortly before we moved in here, so i would assume that degraded wiring isn't the problem. We get really bad WiFi interference and disconnections, which is why I want to connect via homeplugs. The homeplugs are 85Mbps ones so it shouldn't be those causing the speed drop either. I'm at a bit of a loss, so any bright ideas would be appreciated on how i can get the speed up.

Thanks Guys

Bob

pespro · 19 Mar 2011 at 21:12

With those homeplugs would you have to use Microfilters on them if they were using ADSL?

Nanostronghold · 19 Mar 2011 at 22:08

I couldn't tell you mate. I'm on cable internet and am using Ethernet homeplugs. Don't know about the ADSL ones.

pespro · 19 Mar 2011 at 23:30

Nanostronghold said:
I couldn't tell you mate. I'm on cable internet and am using Ethernet homeplugs. Don't know about the ADSL ones.

I only really need two internet connections, one part of the homeplug needs to be plugged into the router, which can have 4 devices connected to it.

Hopefully the microfilter with the phone and downstairs computer will work with the homeplug.

Nanostronghold · 20 Mar 2011 at 00:15

Oh. Well unless i am misunderstanding you shouldn't need a microfilter. Your ADSL goes into the router. Then you can just get an ethernet homeplug kit and run an ethernet out of the router to the homeplug. Then another from the homeplug to the PC you need the internet on elsewhere.

If you are wanting an ADSL homeplug then you'd just need that microfilter to tap out your homephone, then the other cable would go into the homeplug just fine i would have thought. But if you're using a router i'd go for ethernet anyway.

pespro · 20 Mar 2011 at 23:48

Nanostronghold said:
Oh. Well unless i am misunderstanding you shouldn't need a microfilter. Your ADSL goes into the router. Then you can just get an ethernet homeplug kit and run an ethernet out of the router to the homeplug. Then another from the homeplug to the PC you need the internet on elsewhere.

If you are wanting an ADSL homeplug then you'd just need that microfilter to tap out your homephone, then the other cable would go into the homeplug just fine i would have thought. But if you're using a router i'd go for ethernet anyway.

Id have to have the phone microfiltered and pluged into the phone socket.
Then PC connected to homeplug via straight Ethernet, just hope it doesnt cause to much interference.

Looked at a site selling homeplugs and they do have an ASDL filter but it double the price.

Skidilliplop · 21 Mar 2011 at 09:54

You don't need a microfilter on homeplugs. Microfilters split Voice and Data freqency ranges on the phone line only. Once it gets to the router it's purely data that's being forwarded on over ethernet so there is no "interference" as such to filter out.

Not to mention, 99% of microfilters have the wrong type of connector and not enough conductors to carry ethernet so it won't actually work at all if you tried, and even if they did the frequency ranges they're designed to filter are completely different to those used in ethernet transmission anyway - Ethernet being baseband using time division multiplexing (on copper) and ADSL being broadband using frequency division multiplexing (in fact it uses a bit of both)

pespro · 21 Mar 2011 at 19:03

Skidilliplop said:
You don't need a microfilter on homeplugs. Microfilters split Voice and Data freqency ranges on the phone line only. Once it gets to the router it's purely data that's being forwarded on over ethernet so there is no "interference" as such to filter out.

Not to mention, 99% of microfilters have the wrong type of connector and not enough conductors to carry ethernet so it won't actually work at all if you tried, and even if they did the frequency ranges they're designed to filter are completely different to those used in ethernet transmission anyway - Ethernet being baseband using time division multiplexing (on copper) and ADSL being broadband using frequency division multiplexing (in fact it uses a bit of both)

Cheers for that, just when we didnt use the filters the internet would disconnect all the time.