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Forum Discussion
Powerline Adaptors - Distance & Sub-panel Limitations?
Dear community , I want to use powerline adaptors at a project but the electrical distribution network is more complicated than most. Specifically, there are one or two or in one case even three elect...
Howdy Michael,
Thank you for your advice......very disappointing, but not nearly as dissappointing as buying the gear, installing it for a client, and then findng out too late that it just doesn't work.
I guess the Powerline Comms or PLC tchnology that electrical utilities use to read meters in vast areas is a more robust technology than the small adaptrors we can buy for home networking.
I have used powerline com's a couple times, but those were short distances and virtually direct electrical network connections. Never passing through a sub-panel or two or any significant distance.
Oh well, back to digging trenches to install CAT-6 cables!
Thank you again!
Jim
Powerline does well for truly local connections, but the nature of the technology, messing around with signals sent over a possibly noisy mains circuit, leaves it open to interference.
In my case, the connection was between an office and the house. Both had their own fuse boxes. There was also an extra switch isolating the office from the house. So, probably enough "interrupts" to emulate what you had in mind. And, as I sad, more like 50 feet or less. I got a connection, but not great.
One thing I have found is that, despite Netgear's warnings about extension block, they don't seem to cause any issue.
The 150 feet you are looking for might even cause issues with some wired LAN cables. It is certainly a stretch for wifi. So good luck!
You could see if Powerline would get far enough to feed a wifi access point that could stretch as far as your intended location. But that might be slightly flaky and liable to fall over a bit too easily. I have an Orbi router (AP mode) running from a Powerline connection, but that is a mere 20 feet and on the same mains circuit.