Advice on Powerline Adapters

[Pollai]

I am in need of a powerline adapter and I was hoping you guys here could help me find the one I need.

Here are my requirements/ questions.

1) I need one with a Gigabit port as I transfer a lot of files within my home network all day.
2) Can ones with multiple ports do the same job as 1 adapter? For example, if I buy one with say 3 ports, I will only need 2 adapters but if it has only 1 port I will need to buy a separate adapter.
3) Should I expect these to use a lot of electricity and run hot?
4) What speeds can I expect if I have good wiring? (Newish house)
5) Will I be able to achieve my current full internet speed of 120Mbps using the Powerline Adapter you recommend?

I thank you for time in reading this post and for your answers.

Pollai

*Edit

Is this one good for my needs? (AV600 Gigabit with 3 Ports)

 

[getochkn]

They are ok. Expecing to get full GB speeds out of it, or near that, I don't think a GB would really matter. They don't get that fast of speeds. They work for hard to reach areas or if you don't want to run a cable. If you are planning on moving 50GB of data around every day, I'd maybe look at biting the bullet and getting cable run.

 

[Pollai]

They are ok. Expecing to get full GB speeds out of it, or near that, I don't think a GB would really matter. They don't get that fast of speeds. They work for hard to reach areas or if you don't want to run a cable. If you are planning on moving 50GB of data around every day, I'd maybe look at biting the bullet and getting cable run.

Of course I will not be expecting real Gigabit speeds but there are so many Powerline Adapters advertised as being 500Mbps with Gigabit etc when it only has a 100Mb port. I currently only get max 3-5MB when transferring files to my upstairs PC which is on Wi-Fi and thus I have to constantly run downstairs to connect and disconnect my external hard drive :/

What kinds of speeds can I expect - both for my internet connection and my home network if I buy the 500-600Mbps ones? I wish I could go for a cable run but I cannot unfortunately 🙁

 

[Shaun o]

1. If an internal network, and all the other devices have a Gigabit transfer speed, yes to the power line, or you will have a choke point.

2.If you buy one with three ports the Gigabit transfer relates to all of the ports.
If you had three devices connected to it the band width would be divided between the three ports, if three devices were using it to send and receive data. the limit is with the ring mane also and its age and quality of electrical copper properties.

3. Not they don't use much electric, but they do get warm like most things plugged in to a wall socket and on most of the time drawing electric current, if it contains a transformer in the device to drive internal circuits inside the power line adapter.

4. Depends on the distance, or the length of copper cable the signal travels, depending on the speed of the power line.
- 10 to 20% speed.

5. Yes 120Mbs is 12 meg a second. a power line rated up to 300Mbps or more is equal to 30Mbps.
all you do is knock a 0 off Mbps.

 

[Pollai]

1. If an internal network, and all the other devices have a Gigabit transfer speed, yes to the power line, or you will have a choke point.

2.If you buy one with three ports the Gigabit transfer relates to all of the ports.
If you had three devices connected to it the band width would be divided between the three ports, if three devices were using it to send and receive data. the limit is with the ring mane also and its age and quality of electrical copper properties.

3. Not they don't use much electric, but they do get warm like most things plugged in to a wall socket and on most of the time drawing electric current, if it contains a transformer in the device to drive internal circuits inside the power line adapter.

4. Depends on the distance, or the length of copper cable the signal travels, depending on the speed of the power line.
- 10 to 20% speed.

5. Yes 120Mbs is 12 meg a second. a power line rated up to 300Mbps or more is equal to 30Mbps.
all you do is knock a 0 off Mbps.

Could you recommend a model? I have a Microserver with a Gigabit port and that is mainly where all my files are stored. I thought 8Mbps = 1MB? So, 120Mbps = 15MB? Could you recommend one which would allow me to gain my full internet speed of 152Mbps?

*My connection is actually 152Mbps, sorry for mistake in original post.

Thanks!

 

[bill001g]

First you are absolutely correct that 8 bits is 1 byte. Anyone who thinks it is 10 to 1 is basing that on some serial protocols that include start and stop bits from more than 15 years ago. Still there is always some overhead in data transmission it gets too complex to actually calculate exact numbers so it is common to use 8mbits/sec is 1mbyte/sec.

You have to stop believing the magic numbers published by the non technical marketing guys. In your average house you will get massively lower numbers just like wireless never gets 1300m of whatever magic number they are quoting. One of the big clues that the manufactures know they are telling fibs is they put 10/100 ports on devices they claim can run 500m.

Take a look at this site if you want some unbiased test results. This does not mean in anyway you can get these numbers. Powerline is a form of radio transmission sent over the wires in the house. How well it works varies greatly from house to house. Some it does not work at all for reasons that can not always be explained.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/powerline-charts/bar/90-down

You can plug a small switch into the powerline units if you need more ports. Do not buy more than 2 power line adapters unless you have no other way to get the devices connected. It divides the bandwidth creating a full mesh network which is wasteful if you do not run traffic between the end machines as much as you run it to your router.

Still powerline is your best option if you can not get ethernet. The only other cabled option would require tv coax in each room and the use of MoCA technology.

 

[digitaldoc]

I have used the Linksys PLSK400 powerline adapter, and the speed I measured was 287 kb/sec. The adapters were on separate circuit breakers. There are faster options now, with built in WiFi if you need that.

In general, I don't find powerline networking to be especially fast, and WiFi can definitely beat it for pure speed. However, I find it is consistent, and is quite useful for uploads.

The adapters do get a little warm, but never hot in use.

 

[getochkn]

I have 3 in my house, 1 next to the router to feed 2 more adapter in distant bedrooms. 2 are tplink, 1 linksys I think. Mismatched but still work. Each bedroom gets about 20Mb/s or 2MB/s My overall internet speed is 100Mb/s or 10MB/s, so they get a 1/5th. They are all on different circuit breakers, 2 of them on a bit older 2-wire wiring with no ground and plugged into GFCI breakers plugs. Would it be better with better wiring and closer? Probably. Is it fast enough for my roommates to use the net and download. Sure.