Powerline networking recommendations

Does anyone have experience or recommendations for extending my wireless via the various powerline network devices? My apartment has a deadspot between the office where the router and modem are and the living room. I'm looking at something like this to extend the wireless and give me a single extra ethernet port in the living room.

My apartment complex isn't large... basic flat setup with 3 floors, 3 apartments so I don't think I need to worry about some super extensive wiring system messing it up, but I know nothing about what makes for a better or worse transmission. There are a surprising amount of plugs throughout the apartment. My other thought was to set up a wireless bridge in the living room, but if the signal getting there is so bad, not sure how effective it will be to put a repeater out there that can't get the signal to begin with.

MannishBoy wrote:

www.smallnetbuilder.com

FTFY.

I'm running these Zyxels to connect Xboxes on TV's around the house so that I can use them to stream HD TV via Windows Media Center. Basically set top box duty a bit more than gaming.

Work pretty well. They do occasionally stutter, but it's not very frequent.

But it's definitely dependent on your wiring, and I'm not sure you can know until you try.

If you keep an eye on those I linked, they go on sale frequently.

I'd say a good place for tech reviews on these is www.smallnetbuilder.com

tboon wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:

www.smallnetbuilder.com

FTFY.

Ha!

Fixed the link.

Don't know how good they are, but Monoprice has these.

Be aware that Monoprice is not trustworthy; they suppress reviews that are negative.

Thanks... I actually did do some research on smallnetbuilder... good info there. Mannish, the one you linked doesn't actually do wireless though does it? Looks like it just has an ethernet connection on it, but no wireless.

Sorry, misread and missed the wireless part. I think they also have some wireless devices as well, or you could just attach a wireless router to it. That's what I did, I put a refurb Netgear WNDR3700 in the bedroom on the end of the powerline device. Just cut DHCP, etc off and set the SSID's and passwords to match the main router.

If Zyxel doesn't, I'm sure somebody does.

As for wireless repeaters, they may work for you, but you end up cutting the bandwidth through that repeater in half because it's talking to the main router and the device at the same time for all that data. If you've got enough headroom, that probably won't affect internet speeds, but might affect local network transfer speed on files.

I'm also probably going to be looking for a fairly low-cost option for a powerline setup. I can likely get away with just running a hookup from the router to the basement room that the wifi doesn't get to, and put a switch on the other end of the powerline setup. I'm hoping the wifi signal to the other room will be strong enough to get by without having to run a third port.

I just picked up these from Best Buy for $50. Plugged them in and two minutes later, I was up and running. Speedtest showed that I was still getting about 20 Mbps (I didn't test throughput to the router as I'm not running a home network).

Needed to get access to an office on the third floor of my house. Netgear N600 wireless router wouldn't reach it (returning that to Amazon; no better than the Buffalo Airstation WHR-125G I picked up two years ago). Old house but I'm not sure when the wiring was re-done. There's at least two floors and probably 100 feet between the two ports.

Currently debating how to handle my new networking setup.

Current:
They have a Netgear wireless router set up in one end of the house. The signal reaches most (but not all) of that floor, and gets about 70% signal strength to the TV room one floor below it. Our room is one level down and the opposite end of the house from the router. My ipad gets a really spotty signal from the router, but my PC set up on the wall closest to the router says it's getting a solid signal. Haven't tested signal strength. The PS3 in the TV room gets a solid enough signal to stream Netflix, but the picture quality wavers. The Xbox in our bedroom doesn't have a wireless adapter.

The goals:
Better signal strength everywhere, solid connection to PS3 and PC, and get a connection for the Xbox.

Options:
1) I have a Linksys WRT54g router that I could swap in for their current router. Maybe that'd put out a better signal?
2) Build one of those foil reflector dishes on either router. Hopefully that'll strengthen the signal to both downstairs rooms.
3) Powerline networking to one or both downstairs rooms. Probably $100 in hardware to get three adapters? That should provide a solid connection to PC, Xbox, and PS3, but is a more expensive option.
4) Get a wireless adapter for my 360 in combination with options 1/2 above. About $55 in hardware.

So basically, the question is whether there's a cost-effective powerline option to get a wired connection to two rooms, or whether the Linksys router in combination with the foil signal booster will provide a good enough bump to just keep doing that, and maybe get a wireless adapter for the 360. Thoughts?

Chaz wrote:

Currently debating how to handle my new networking setup.

Current:
They have a Netgear wireless router set up in one end of the house. The signal reaches most (but not all) of that floor, and gets about 70% signal strength to the TV room one floor below it. Our room is one level down and the opposite end of the house from the router. My ipad gets a really spotty signal from the router, but my PC set up on the wall closest to the router says it's getting a solid signal. Haven't tested signal strength. The PS3 in the TV room gets a solid enough signal to stream Netflix, but the picture quality wavers. The Xbox in our bedroom doesn't have a wireless adapter.

The goals:
Better signal strength everywhere, solid connection to PS3 and PC, and get a connection for the Xbox.

Options:
1) I have a Linksys WRT54g router that I could swap in for their current router. Maybe that'd put out a better signal?
2) Build one of those foil reflector dishes on either router. Hopefully that'll strengthen the signal to both downstairs rooms.
3) Powerline networking to one or both downstairs rooms. Probably $100 in hardware to get three adapters? That should provide a solid connection to PC, Xbox, and PS3, but is a more expensive option.
4) Get a wireless adapter for my 360 in combination with options 1/2 above. About $55 in hardware.

So basically, the question is whether there's a cost-effective powerline option to get a wired connection to two rooms, or whether the Linksys router in combination with the foil signal booster will provide a good enough bump to just keep doing that, and maybe get a wireless adapter for the 360. Thoughts?

What about powerline ethernet to your bedroom and then set up that Linksys as an access point for the other router? Should solve all your problems for around $60. Also, avoid the add-on wireless adapter for the 360. It's not very good.

I actually got the Xbox online via connection sharing with the pc hooking into the wireless signal. The problem now is mainly the router's signal strength. I'm hoping either boosting it with the foil reflector, using my linksys, or both will take care of that.

Trashie wrote:

What about powerline ethernet to your bedroom and then set up that Linksys as an access point for the other router? Should solve all your problems for around $60. Also, avoid the add-on wireless adapter for the 360. It's not very good.

I have the 360 in the daughter's bedroom on the "n" Xbox adapter, and it works great for streaming HDTV through Media Center. I do use the 5 Ghz band, though. The new Xboxes don't give you the 5 Ghz band in the built in wireless, but the externals do.

I used it for awhile in the kitchen as well since 5 Ghz doesn't knock the signal out when the microwave comes on.

Well, I finally went ahead and bought this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704142. Got it to work for the most part, but my next question is right now I have this thing set up basically as its own little wireless router off my existing internet. What I really want to do is "extend" current wifi, meaning as I walk from my bedroom to the previous nearly deadzone living room, I'd like my idevice or whatever to handoff from my primary router to the powerline adapter so I don't hit the deadzone.

Can I do that by setting identical SSIDS, security passwords, and broadcast channel? I know I can test it but I'm about to take off, and I figure the smart folks here can answer the question quickly.

Thanks.

Uh, well, my recommendation would be to do your best to reposition your router and pop some beefier antennas on it and skip the handoff stuff. How big is your house? Or is it just building materials that are blocking the signal?

Definitely building materials.. there's a wall of kryptonite blocking the living room from the office.. i've tried everything as far as positioning goes.

The intended behavior for WDS, Wireless Distribution Services, aka wireless bridging, is to do exactly what you describe.

But, in fact, what actually happens is that clients associate with whatever AP is 'loudest' when they first connect to the WiFi, and then instead of switching to a stronger signal, they stick like absolute glue to the original link, no matter how slow it gets. Most clients, if they first negotiated with AP A, will stick with AP A no matter what, unless it totally and completely goes away. Then, and only then, will they switch to AP B.

You can get around this by stopping and restarting your clients when you move rooms, but if you're going to be doing that anyway, you might as well just run a network wire into the other room, and set up a separate AP, with a separate network name, in there. Manually changing the connected network is usually faster than a full stop and restart on the wireless, which is what it usually takes for most clients to switch to a better router on the same network.

Plus, this is much easier to set up (WDS is tricky), and you don't lose half your network throughput. With WDS, every packet gets repeated for every router in the mesh, so your total network bandwidth drops to 1/X, where X is how many routers you have. (1/2 at two, 1/3 at three, and so on.) Running a wire and setting up a second network will mean that both networks run full speed, as long as they're on channels separated by at least 5. Under normal circumstances, you only want to use channels 1, 6, and 11... this gives the maximum number of fully non-interfering channels.

An 802.11n router and clients would probably get more signal through your kryptonite walls, but you'd probably want to stay at 2.4Ghz. 5GHz, while less crowded, doesn't propagate nearly as well in most buildings, and if you've got a challenging building to start with, it's quite unlikely to work well.

So this thing is actually working as intended. The Kryptonite walls must be that think in my apartment where its handing off. Looking at an ios device it will drop from full power to like 1 bar when I move to the living room, but after like 5 seconds it'll connect to the new extender thingy and I'm back to full. Its not a true "seamless" handoff, but it can't be more than a 10 second lag before it switches. I've at least been pleased with this so far and have gotten 20Mbit connection through the new device in the living room.

So far so good, my A/V receiver which does not have wifi is now plugged through the single ethernet plug and my wii, ps3 and 360 are into the new wifi extension.

Well, good! So you're having pretty good luck with iOS clients? That's how it was always intended to work, but it's been dismal in actual practice. Figures that Apple would get it right.

Do Macbooks work as well? I haven't tried a WDS setup in several years, and back then, it was crappy on every client I tried.

Almost a year later, I figure I'd revisit this thread. Ultimately the powerline kit didn't quite do what I wanted it to do. Wireless flipping from the main router to the built-in powerline wireless AP just wasn't happening consistently and devices would constantly be trying to switch from one to the other.

I ended up buying a new primary wireless router (linksys EA3500), and plugging my old wireless router into the ethernet jack of the powerline adapter in the other room and turning that into a wireless AP. I disabled the native wireless on the powerline unit as it just wasn't working well.

So far so good, and honestly something I should have done in the first place. The transition from office router to the living room AP seems to be happening pretty easily, often within 10 seconds of realizing where the stronger signal is coming from. The WiiU doesn't choke anymore with the conflict. Max throughput through the powerline seems to only be around 120 - 140 Mbit, but I'm not running any media servers in the apt, so its sufficient for my internet streaming (25 MBit from ISP).

Short answer, powerline is good enough to extend your wired connections, but only to plug in another wireless AP. I wouldn't recommend my solution where I wanted to rely on the powerline unit's built in wireless ability (or lack thereof).

My powerline unit just has an ethernet jack--no WiFi or anything like that. I used it to centrally locate my wireless router, as I can't route new cables to the drop in my house. Overall it works surprisingly well, though many of the sockets in my house had a really poor powerline signal to the drop, so I was quite limited in my choice of where to actually put the wireless router. Now that it's set up though, it's been more reliable than the HomePNA I was using before.

complexmath wrote:

My powerline unit just has an ethernet jack--no WiFi or anything like that. I used it to centrally locate my wireless router, as I can't route new cables to the drop in my house. Overall it works surprisingly well, though many of the sockets in my house had a really poor powerline signal to the drop, so I was quite limited in my choice of where to actually put the wireless router. Now that it's set up though, it's been more reliable than the HomePNA I was using before.

Yeah, most only have an ethernet port. In retrospect, I should have gotten one with ethernet only and plugged in a WAP but I was cheap and thought I could save the money by buying one with built-in wireless to solve my problem.

Powerline is a really cool and useful technology - in the right situations! At my dad's house the configuration I set it up in (ethernet from the DSL modem through to outlets in each room) worked really well. I went back recently and, for some reason, he's switched the DSL up into his bedroom. Now the powerline adapter in my bedroom no longer consistently picks up a signal from the one connected to the DSL modem because (i think!) his adapter overrides the signal to mine. Yes, he set it up so there's two in the same room for some unknown reason, it's a bit pointless when he can literally just run an ethernet to the DSL modem directly!!