Powerline interference?

Socaddict · 21 Apr 2009 at 22:47

Is it possible for 85mbps and 200mbps powerline to interfere with each other?

In my house I'm using an 85mbps kit, and my hosuemate is using a 200mbps kit. It seems that whenever his stuff is plugged in, with or without his pc on, I end up getting significantly higher pings, even to the router than when compared to when his kit isn't plugged in. Hes adamant that they shouldn't interfere, but I'm pretty sure they do. Can anyone with a better understanding of the technology than me shed some light on this?

Cheers.

bigG · 23 Apr 2009 at 00:17

could be to do with QOS in router, you maybe given a higher priority and more bandwith when his equipment is switched on

Socaddict · 24 Apr 2009 at 12:59

Is there a way to change those settings?

errata · 24 Apr 2009 at 13:41

Theres different chipsets and technolgies under the general poweline banner, are they the all homeplug comtaible or something else?

It sounds likel they at least coexist but the 85 units are not as succeful in assering their traffic on the shared wiring. I would expect the 200 units to do better as they have their own QoS features and would tend to do better in a mixed environment.

Are his pings affected?

Zarf · 24 Apr 2009 at 13:49

I believe that powerline is a hubs type technology, so all devices on the line share the bandwidth (his 200mb ones will also revert to the 85mb/s standard for compatibility), and only one device can communicate at a time - which means collisions and thus higher latencies, even if he's not doing that much with his connection.

Alexrose1uk · 24 Apr 2009 at 14:02

Hi there, it depends on the ones you've got. Originally there was the homeplug standard and the D/DS3 standard, which couldn't work together at all, and cancelled each other out. Nowadays most 85/200 kit is homeplug certified standard rather than the *D*, and should coexist, although they cannot see each other. Newer versions of the kit are better at this, and should pretty much ignore each other, however if you've got slightly older kit, double check for firmware updates, as these improve the ability to coexist, and also compatability between different kits.

As far as I know, 200MBps kit does not sync down to 85 to operate as a single network, but remain independant of each other.
I used to use some 200MBps kit as a backbone, and then some 85s to feed out from a switch, and in general it worked fine!