Question about powerline adapter speeds

Boozebeard · 28 Jan 2016 at 04:45

I'm currently using a pair of 200Mbps power line adapters but I'm only getting 70Mpbs speed out of them (I have 150Mbps broadband). Would faster adapters definitely give me a faster speed or is it possible that I'm being hard capped by the wiring? If that's possible is there a way to check or could anyone make an educated guess as to whether that's likely from the current speed I'm getting out of the 200Mbps ones?

Thanks

Minstadave · 28 Jan 2016 at 05:03

200mbps adaptors will do a max of 100mbps in each direction (which is best case, 70mbps in the real world is pretty good), the fact you're getting 70mbps suggests you're wiring isn't terrible.

There isn't a way to check. I'd just order some faster adaptors and return them if you don't get a decent improvement.

Make sure you choose adaptors with gigabit LAN ports or you'll be limited by that.

Aberfala · 28 Jan 2016 at 07:17

As mentioned previously 70Mbps from 200Mbps adapters indicates you have pretty good wiring so higher end adapters should give a sizable improvement.

I have 3 AV1200 adapters in my house that give anything from 150Mbps-450Mbps depending where they are situated so as you can see compared to me you have decent wiring.

moogle · 28 Jan 2016 at 08:39

The TP Link AV1200 ones seem to do quite well in reviews. Although it's all down to your wiring. However 70 on a 200 homeplug is pretty good (I only get 50/45 max and I'm on the floor right above the plug!). The best way to test theoretical speeds would be to plug a laptop or computer into the Ethernet port of your router (or where ever the plug is located) and host a jperf server. Then run the jperf client on your PC to see what sort of speeds the local connection is capable of. You can also try without the router to see if that's limiting it too (in case it has 100mbps Ethernet ports). I always do this just so I know the Max speeds I can get on the plugs before I need to upgrade.

Although since I got the BT HH5 with WiFi AC, I've been using WiFi for my connection and I've been getting the Max speeds so haven't touched a homeplug. But the same tests can be performed to find out the practical limits.

Avalon · 28 Jan 2016 at 15:11

Powerline claimed speed combines up and down (symmetrical) so to get real life speeds half it, then knock off a minimum of 15% in overhead. If you buy a '500mbit' product you'll often find they're castrated with a 10/100 port rather than gigabit so realistically you won't see more than 100Mbit each way out of them or '200Mbit' in Powerline marketing terms.

Wifi can be more useful if you are close to your AP/Router but it depends on the the standard the router supports and the device that's connecting to it.

Boozebeard · 28 Jan 2016 at 18:17

Ah, didn't know about the 100 each way thing. yeah that makes me more comfortable knowing I'm getting 70% out of the current ones. Although come to think of it I think they only have 100mb ports anyway so that makes a lot of sense.

I'm torn between wifi and homeplugs. My router doesn't have ac only N but I was getting a full 300 connection on the 5GHz. The adapter I was using doesn't want to behave with win 10 or is just broken though. In any case I'm getting that refunded and trying to figure out what to do. Could probably get faster speeds for cheaper over 5GHz but my recent troubles leave a sour taste in my mouth in regards to it's reliability and troubleshooting issues. Though having said that I have had occasional issues with my homeplugs droping connection and having to power cycle them. Though it only happens occasionally, when it does, it will tend to do it every hour or so for rest of the night. Maybe related to having the tumble dryer running or something I don't really know.

Maybe just getting a wifi adapter that actually works would be better.