Network Switch Speeds Affected By Powerlines?

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17 Apr 2022
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united kingdom
Hi all,

I've got a few things going on in my home network and recently noticed 'something' was really killing the internet speed, ive been working on narrowing it down and concluded something that I didn't think was possible so wanted to ask for some advice on here.

Setup is
Router (top floor loft conversion) -> 100mbs 16port switch (also in loft) -> Cat5e Hard Wired Ethernet ports to all top 2 floors of house & Garage, One of the garage wall ports runs into an Ubiquity UAP for Wifi in there too.

That bit above is great, works fantastically. However, the previous owner didn't run the ethernet cables from the switch in the loft all the way to the ground floor (only the top 2 floors as mentioned above) meaning to get a 'wired' connection on the ground floor (and in a pub in our backgarden) i've been relying on TP Link powerlines. And i've noticed whenever I use them in conjunction with my network switch, it's absolutely destroying the internet speeds for all devices that are running directly from the switch (including the pc im on now)

As I know the powerlines function best when on the same ring, i'm running it like so.

Router (top floor/floor2) -> Switch (top floor/floor2) -> TP Power line Main unit is running from one of the bedroom ethernet wall ports on Floor1, then the other TP link powerlines are on Ground Floor and garden Pub.

Interestingly the TP links do seem to work OK when I do this, but as stated above it's butchering the speeds for the clients of the switch...... am I going crazy? Or does this make sense? It's like the TP link is just taking everything elses bandwidth or it's confusing my switch or something. Literally as soon as I unplug the Main TP link powerline from the bedroom, network speeds for switch clients go back to normal....

In an ideal world i'd do away with all the PowerLines and start lifting floor boards to extend the Cat5e cables from the bedrooms down to the ground floor, but it's a large job for the future....in the mean time, anyone have any thoughts on whats going on here or how I can solve it?

thanks a lot.

Scott
 
Last edited:
Associate
OP
Joined
17 Apr 2022
Posts
6
Location
united kingdom
Yes agree on all points, I found it odd however that the powerline bit works just fine, it's just the rest of non-powerlined bit of the network that its causing weirdness on....

Eitherway it doesn't really matter as im taking your advice and eliminating the powerlines altogether. In the process of doing that, I found this 4 socket ethernet thing (photos) on the ground floor (yay!) in a bathroom (wierd!)
Anyway, when I tried connecting my laptop to it, it works (well the 1st two ports do anyway) when I open it up I can see the cables from the trunking run straight into it.

Now then, this bathroom is on the far right hand side of the ground floor, I want to get wired connection in the living room all the way on the left of the house, so I think the easiest way to do this is to repurpose one of these cables, remove it from thie 4 socket box, and instead extend it to run down under the crawl space of the ground floor (we have a suspended floor with good access, yay) and then pop it back up into the living room.

So this is probably a silly question, but to do this, do I just disconnect one of the cat5e cables running into that 4 socket box and run the cables into an RJ45 connector? then ultimately run that into a female to female adaptor and connect it to another 20metre cat5e cable and run that to the living room?
if that is the right approach, is it easy to remove the cables running into that box and run them into an Rj45?

photos below


thanks again
 
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