Powerline vs wireless

Difficult to say.

Wired ethernet would be best. Do you own the property? Have you consulted a cabler for an expert opinion as to whether they could cable it and how much it would cost? Most places can be wired if you know how. In a multi-level building it can sometimes involve running conduit on the outside wall.

As for Powerline vs wireless, you'd have to try it to find out. A lot depends on things such as how your house is wired for electricity. An electrician might be of assistance in helping determining whether it would work well or not, but by the time you call an electrician out you may as well just give it a go and find out.

Thanks

I do own the property but jointly so networking up the whole house for my network hard drive won't go down well.

I am an electrician and the wiring seemed to be in a good condition when we moved in, i'll just give it a go and see, i'll have to buy both an N router or the powerline as our internet router is only G. i'll try the powerline option, in theory it should give a much better speed if all goes ok.

Thanks for your help

prs999 wrote:

Thanks I do own the property but jointly so networking up the whole house for my network hard drive won't go down well. I am an electrician and the wiring seemed to be in a good condition when we moved in, i'll just give it a go and see, i'll have to buy both an N router or the powerline as our internet router is only G. i'll try the powerline option, in theory it should give a much better speed if all goes ok. Thanks for your help

The link speeds quoted with both technologies is much higher than the actual transfer speeds. Here's a link that will give you some indication of true powerline speeds: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/l ... erline-faq Note that you might not actually get speeds this fast.

Also, you should pick powerline adapters that have built-in line filters. Otherwise you might need to add external filters into the mix (http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/l ... ine-filter).

If the house is fairly small, Wireless N will likely outperform powerline, especially if your PCs support 5 Ghz. My suggestion is to try Wireless N first, and see if it is fast enough.

Wi-Fi devices are pretty good these days, and Powerline carrier gizmos can be had in high speeds as well, but the thing to keep in mind with PLC devices is that they may have trouble communicating depending on at least two factors: noise on your wiring, and the number of surge protection and/or UPS devices in your home.

I live in a lightning-prone area and have either Surge protectors or UPS systems on EVERY ONE of my electronic devices, whether computer or network or telephone or clock radio or what-have-you. As a result, PLC devices don't work in my house--all the surge protection devices I have see PLC signals as noise and try to shunt them to ground (at least, that is my theory). So I can't use powerline devices reliably.

Thanks

I'll go for the router option first then, I have found a netgear N router for a good price but its only got a 10/100 Ethernet for some reason, even the review says its odd! will this slow things down or will this still be faster than the wireless?

Cheers

802.11N might end up slightly faster than 100 mbits transfer speed, but it will be close. So you won't be losing much performance (if any). What model router?

It was either the WNR2200 which is the cheaper option or the WNDR3400

Cheers

Using adjacent protectors will subvert data signals. But a superior protector solution also does not subvert those signals. Earthing only one 'whole house' protector provides superior protection for everything (even the furnace). Does not harm Ethernet over powerline signals. Has been the solution used even by X-10 controller users over a decade ago. X-10 controller signals were also subverted by the adjacent protectors. So X-10 users would often recommend a 'whole house' protector from Leviton. Other manufacturers of these superior devices include ABB, Siemens, Square D, General Electric, Intermatic, Keison, and Cutler-Hammer (Eaton).

I would still go with a gigabit wireless N router. There may be times when you want faster performance transferring files (e.g. connecting both laptop and NAS to router).

prs999 wrote:

Hi I am after some advice, I am about to buy a DUO v2 with 2x2tb drives which I will use predominantly for storage of photos etc and streaming of music. Due to the layout of my house I will be unable to do a directly wired Ethernet network. My main question is are Powerline adapters any good? I am looking at the Solwise NET-PL-500AV ones, will I have problems with them transferring properly? I would expect there to be a reasonable connection as the house is small and only wired with 1 ring main (don't ask). are these better than an N wireless router or would I be better with one of those. Any advice would be greatly appreciated Cheers

I used to run a set of four Solwise AV PL-200AV-PIGGY here quite happily. Streamed from the Duo (v1) with no problems. (Same for the media players, the sole reason I bought them was because wifi had issues, including my old n150 Linksys.)

I've tried a few over time and these are the only ones that performed well and were usable over a sustained period. (BT-Comtrend, Belkin and unbranded used previously with disappointing and fluctuating results.)

I've eventually managed to get a wired solution in place, but the Solwise were a good alternative until I could get the cables run. I still keep two on the network where the cable runs are problematic.