Question Factors affecting powerline adapter speeds (specific question)

[jhsachs]

I'm testing a pair of TP-Link AV500 powerline adapters. They have a nominal speed of 500 Mbps. The manual is copyrighted 2012, so they're fairly "mature" devices.

From a location near the router, but on a different circuit, I get these results:

• With a 50 foot Ethernet cable: download 151 Mbps, upload 5.7 Mbps.
• With a pair of AV-500's and a 6 foot Ethernet cable at each end: download 32 Mbps, upload 5.8 Mbps.

Using the AV-500s from the other end of the house: download 11.2 Mbps, upload 5.6 Mbps.

I see that download is much slower with the AV-500's than with the cable, and significantly slower from the far end of the house than from near the router. On the other hand, upload speeds are about the same in each case. I infer that the router-to-computer channel has a very different speed limit in each case, but the download speed is slower than the lowest limit, so it's not much affected.

My questions: (a) Would faster powerline adapters improve the slowest results? (I suspect not.) Would newer, more sophisticated powerline adapters help? (I have no idea.)

The "nearby" location could perfectly well be served by WiFi. The "far end of the house" location, maybe with a repeater; otherwise, no way.

 

[jsmithepa]

Am not sure what u mean by mature device, to me is 7 years old outdated technology, the newer model should perform better, but by how much, only testing will know.

 

[jhsachs]

jsmithe, I appreciate your effort to help, but when I read your post it appeared to me that you were guessing. I can't tell whether your guess is based on more relevant background than I have, or less.

A current 15" laptop computer has more RAM and more permanent storage than one made in 2012, and it is faster, more durable, and better in just about every way.

A current 21" LCD monitor is lighter than one made in 2012, and it probably uses somewhat less power, but otherwise I'd be hard put to tell the difference. For most purposes it wouldn't matter.

Powerline adapters may be more like laptop computers in this respect, or more like monitors. I hope someone who has expertise with this type of device can tell us.

 

[bill001g]

If you want the details go to the homeplug site and read the differences between av500 and av2-xx stuff. The new technology is much better

 

[jhsachs]

Thank you, Bill. Your pointer led me to a little more information: that there is such a thing as AV2, that it's supposed to work better over low quality communication paths, and that it uses MIMO if the wiring is grounded. (On the circuits in question mine is).

Unfortunately I didn't get a feel for how much better it is, or how to estimate, for example, whether an investment of $50 to $100 to likely to yield an improvement of 3% to 5% , or 100% to 300%. TP-Link's web site explains AV-2 mainly in adspeak, and I haven't found a better source yet.

I'll join TP-Link's user forum and see whether anyone there can tell me more.

 

[bill001g]

It is impossible to predict. You can look here they tend to do a somewhat more scientific testing than other sites but even they admit you can not really predict how it will work in your house based on their results.

https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/charts/powerline/view

 

[jhsachs]

That's not the answer I was hoping for, but any answer is better than none!

It turns out that I'm not going to join TP-Link's user forum. Their software keeps claiming to have sent me a confirmation email and it never arrives. I'm done there. (My spam filter is turned off, but I checked the spam folder anyway. Nothing there over the past year.)

 

[jsmithepa]

So back to square 1. You are not the first person who asked this question, so we are giving you what gets to the point, without having to split any atoms. Trial&Error is the practical way. Sorry if u live in a place where returning items is troublesome.