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Potential Bandwidth for PL1200 (Powerline AV1200)
Specifications (from manual on netgear product page) say the ethernet port is 100base-tx, how could it even theoretically support 1200mbps?
The manual is probably wrong. The tech specs on the website indicate that the Ethernet port is Gigabit (link). Note that 1200 Mbps is the link speed. Because a lot of bits are used for overhead, the actual throughput will be much lower, probably around 200 to 400 Mbps under optimal conditions.
Thanks for the response. The manual is likely wrong, i agree. Its insane, however, that they advertise it as 1200Mbps capable if one can only acheive 15 - 30% of that speed under typical or even optimal conditions. My internet doesnt get much faster than 75Mbps, but I was hoping to get some benefit on my local gigabit network. Oh well, it's seems better than it was with existing wifi. Thanks again.
My PL1200 and PLP1200 move data around at about 15MB per second. Are you able to achieve around these figures (or better, my wiring isnt great!)
I get about 35Mbps, going to different floors. It seems decent!
18, adjacent room, but 2 older PLs in the same network elsewhere.
That's 18 MB/s.
The manual is not wrong but it could be clearer. The bandwidth actually refers to the total bandwidth of the Master PL connected to the router. Here are my experiences with one Master and 2 Slaves, one a PL-1000, and the other a AV500 with Wifi:
1 Master 2 Slaves, Master located in Family Room Device Location Out In PL1000 BR 546 569 XWN5001 SR 185 189 Total 731 758 1489 The master is easily exceeeding its spec.
In the above configuration, a file download from a gigabit-connected Network Drive to a PL-1000 connected Windows Computer yields approximately 18 Mega Bytes / second. The speed ups to 21.5MB/s, if the computer and slave PL-1000 are colocated in the same room as the Master and are the only PLs in the network.
The same transfer without Powerline, i.e. both the computer and drive hardwired over Gigabit to the router, yields 70 MB/s.
The conclusions imho:
- With only a pair of PL-1000s in the Powerline network, up to 22 MB possible (roughly 1/3 over hardwired Gigabit). Lower depending on the distance of the slave from the Master.
- Adding more slave PLs to the network reduces slave speeds proportionally
- Powerline performance does not compare one-to-one with pure Gigabit. So if you are looking for Gigabit performance, wire direct to the router
- But it still works great! If you are getting anything above 5 MB/s on your multi-slave network, be happy :)