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Powerline PL1200 and PLP1200 on same network
I recently bought a pair of PLP1200 adapters and was very happy with how they performed so I bought an additional two PL1200 to cover the rest of the house. I'm having trouble getting all four powerl...
Correct. The "client" for the modem network cannot act as the host for the second network. You'd have to create a second powerline network.
As I said, you could get round the wifi issue by using dual-purpose powerline plugs that come with a wifi repeater.
One scenario that I haven't tried is to add a separate wifi repeater on the powerline ethernet network and then to use the repeater's LAN ports to join the network. That would avoid losing the plug's LAN port.
Hi Michael,
What I mean by 'I can't get it to work' is this:
When I plug in a third powerline to the wall (near the router plug as you suggest), after going through the steps outlined in the quick start guide, the three lights on all powerlines are green. However, if I connect a computer to the powerline I just added via it's ethernet port it doesn't have an internet connection. If i turn on WiFi on the same computer, I can connect to the internet on that machine.
Since the first two powerlines are connecting the cable modem to the WiFi router, those two have to be working in order for me to have internet access either way. I've also tried a few other devices to plug in to the third powerline to see if there was something wrong with that computer's ethernet port but regardless of what I connect it still is the same result.
smcrook wrote:
Since the first two powerlines are connecting the cable modem to the WiFi router...
That's wrong. Your main (host) powerline plug has to be connected to the router. It goes nowhere near the modem.
The only connection between modem and router should be the internet link.
You plug the second (client) plug into the mains and then connect devices to its LAN output.
As you are now set up, plugging the PC into the client plug means that it is in a network with the modem, leaving the router out of the network. So it won't be able to get an IP address for the router's network.
If you expect to use powerline to connect a modem to a router you are out of luck. Depending on the modem, you might be able to use it as the router and turn the router in to an access point. But that too depends on the router's features.
Your best bet would be to connect the modem to the router and then run the powerline ethernet off the router. If you need wifi elsewhere you should get powerline plugs that also double as access points.
If you expect to use powerline to connect a modem to a router you are out of luck. Depending on the modem, you might be able to use it as the router and turn the router in to an access point. But that too depends on the router's features.
Michael,
As I mentioned in my first post, with two powerlines, I was successfully able to use powerline to connect a cable modem to a router and at that point connect to the internet via the router. While I understand that this may not be the typical use case, this configuration will work for a two adapter network as I've had it that way for a couple of weeks before buying the second set of adapters.
What determines which of the adapters (in a two powerline network) is the master? Is it whichever one has a direct connection to something that can grant it an IP address?After thinking about this a little more I think I understand why two adapters will work in the way I have set it up and 3 cannot.
If the adapter connected to the router is the master, the adapter connected to the modem would look like any other client. But when a third is connected it becomes essentially a peer to the modem which is why it breaks down.
I could indeed move the router to directly connect to my modem. The reason I separated them in the first place was that the cable company installed the one line for my modem in a spot in the house that isn't very good for WiFi to get to the other side of the house.Correct. The "client" for the modem network cannot act as the host for the second network. You'd have to create a second powerline network.
As I said, you could get round the wifi issue by using dual-purpose powerline plugs that come with a wifi repeater.
One scenario that I haven't tried is to add a separate wifi repeater on the powerline ethernet network and then to use the repeater's LAN ports to join the network. That would avoid losing the plug's LAN port.