Hi all, I’ve no doubt this has been covered before but I’m looking for some guidance. Up until very recently and because we had slow copper broadband I’ve been managing with Powerline adapters in the upstairs rooms, including my son’s gaming PC. Now that we have FTTP which is ten times faster straight off the wireless router, I noticed that it’s still a tenth of that off the Powerlines including the Powerline Wi-Fi extender which as you can imagine has pleased my son no end given that he wanted quicker speeds. What would be my best solution, mesh or better repeaters, I’m not very technical so please excuse me if I haven’t got the terms correct,thanks
Powerline or mesh
- Thread starter Rob Bowen
- Start date
Power line can be hit or miss - after getting fibre, my power line adapters really struggled to get anywhere near the max speed.
A mesh system will be much better and the seamless coverage is a plus. There are a ton of variations so probably best to set a budget so that people can recommend the best one.
A mesh system will be much better and the seamless coverage is a plus. There are a ton of variations so probably best to set a budget so that people can recommend the best one.
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The best solution is to run a cat5e/cat6 network cable. Second best would be to put an Access Point upstairs centrally which should serve most of the house depending on the interior wall construction. Repeaters, especially ones given by ISPs are usually pretty terrible. A mesh might be suitable, especially if you can't run a network cable but in most cases it's easier than you might realise (using the exterior wall and drilling through, using new build phone/satellite cables etc).
Using your own kit means you don't have to faff about when you change ISP.
Using your own kit means you don't have to faff about when you change ISP.
Powerline is pretty useless these days, AX WiFi is miles better in most cases.
I was susprised how well a Unifi mesh worked for me (router upstairs, meshed to access point downstairs). Getting 2-300mb downstairs. I ran a cable down though which is obviously the preferred solution.
I was susprised how well a Unifi mesh worked for me (router upstairs, meshed to access point downstairs). Getting 2-300mb downstairs. I ran a cable down though which is obviously the preferred solution.
Sorry to thread Hi-jack, what is your ISP speed, compared to what you're getting through the powerline adaptors?
I was just about to create a thread as I have recently got gigabit fibre with sky. After initial and very hit and miss speeds directly through the router, that appears to have settled down and im hitting anywhere between 550-800mb.
However, my powerline adapters (TP-link AV1000's)(with cat6 cable) I am literally locked at 190-200mb on my PC and its really starting to annoy me
On the subject of powerline adapters specifically: are upstairs and downstairs sockets on the same RCD ring main from the fusebox? The ones I have work pretty well but are all on the same ring, I tried one on a different ring and it surprisingly still worked but that one gave terrible speeds (but better than the zero I was expecting).
Dedicated Ethernet is definitely much better but sometimes that takes a lot of persuading (which I am still working on)
Dedicated Ethernet is definitely much better but sometimes that takes a lot of persuading (which I am still working on)
I’m getting 500 off the router WiFi, anything through the powerline struggles to get 100Sorry to thread Hi-jack, what is your ISP speed, compared to what you're getting through the powerline adaptors?
I was just about to create a thread as I have recently got gigabit fibre with sky. After initial and very hit and miss speeds directly through the router, that appears to have settled down and im hitting anywhere between 550-800mb.
However, my powerline adapters (TP-link AV1000's)(with cat6 cable) I am literally locked at 190-200mb on my PC and its really starting to annoy me
Thanks, I’ve even tried the power line in the next room, all others turned off and I still only get around 20% of the routers WiFi speed
It's hugely dependant on the wiring in your house, so results will vary.Sorry to thread Hi-jack, what is your ISP speed, compared to what you're getting through the powerline adaptors?
I was just about to create a thread as I have recently got gigabit fibre with sky. After initial and very hit and miss speeds directly through the router, that appears to have settled down and im hitting anywhere between 550-800mb.
However, my powerline adapters (TP-link AV1000's)(with cat6 cable) I am literally locked at 190-200mb on my PC and its really starting to annoy me
I have a 500Mbps line and the power line adaptors barely hit 100Mbps, but would go as low as 20, whereas I get full speed almost everywhere in the house with the mesh system. I've read post where people struggled to get over 40.
I considered using the existing coax for a wired network as that's apparently reliable - might do it if I bump up the line speed.
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Ouch, i went with better powerline adapters as while i was on their 'Superfast' 75mb i had zero issues and hit the speed with Zero issues.
on the TP link software, its saying there is anywhere between 650-770mb connection between the two adaptors, however into the PC I cannot get over 200
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I noticed a lot of stability issues and extra latency while gaming, so the adapters might be saying that they could achieve their max speed, but the actual transfer of data is bumpy.Ouch, i went with better powerline adapters as while i was on their 'Superfast' 75mb i had zero issues and hit the speed with Zero issues.
on the TP link software, its saying there is anywhere between 650-770mb connection between the two adaptors, however into the PC I cannot get over 200