[SOLVED] Multiple power line adapters, middle one hogging signal

[James Noscoper]

Hello,

mum currently having an issue where I have two power line adapters one second floor and one third floor (me being third floor) and the second floor is hogging the signal, getting full speeds, whereas I’m getting kb/s. I have a tp link wifi booster with Ethernet plugged in connected to the main one and my friend just plugged his in on the second floor (tp link but not the same pack as mine).

many ideas? Maybe I could invest in a better tplink?

 

[ex_bubblehead]

If the signal has to go through a breaker panel, and I'd bet on it in this case, you get degraded performance. It's even called out in the documentation. Nothing you can do about that.

 

[James Noscoper]

How am I meant to find out if it is going through a breaker panel, is there any tests I can do? I can reach points of full signal (50mbps) when nobody is using it but it's when he is using it he hogs all of it and I get kb's

 

[ex_bubblehead]

How am I meant to find out if it is going through a breaker panel, is there any tests I can do? I can reach points of full signal (50mbps) when nobody is using it but it's when he is using it he hogs all of it and I get kb's

Simple. Open the breaker box. Do you see breakers for the various rooms? If yes then you have your answer. UK electrical codes aren't all that different from US codes which means that you definitely have breakers, and therefore separate circuits in each room. The only way around this is to run ethernet cable between nodes.

 

[James Noscoper]

I'll double check that soon. but I have a Archer vr400 which has OneMesh, could this be of use?

 

[gggplaya]

I would think wifi should be fine to reach the third floor from the second floor. I would eliminate the third floor powerline and just use a wifi access point from the 2nd floor.

Do this home happen to have coaxial tv outlet's installed in some of the rooms? Coaxial outlets using MOCA adapters are way better than powerline.

Also, you could trade all your adapters and upgrade to the G.hn powerline adapters. The older AV1000 and AV2000 standards are unsupported for several years now. However, it appears that in the UK only the Devolo kits use G.hn. They are quite pricey at 175pounds for a LAN kit with a third addon and 275pounds for a full triple wifi kit with 1 lan adapter and 2 wifi powerline adapters.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/devolo-Magic-2-2400-WiFi-next/dp/B07ZZDWVGN

 

[James Noscoper]

It's for our computer playing online gaming so we kind of need to be ethernet.

I'm unsure what coaxial tv outlets are, if they're ones to plug in routers or ethernet then we don't have it, unsure as we rent this house.

Also I'd like to add that our download speed in the area is 70mb max and we pay for 50mb guaranteed. which we are getting when I look at the router status but it'slike the devices hog the powerline internet. My friend hogs it when he downloads something and I hog it when I'm gaming.

I would be up for getting a triple pack but once again we don't have very good download speeds but if it bring other things to the table, e.g. shared bandwidth then that would be better.
edit: I'd like to add that the router has NAT boost on and QoS off, not sure what they do

 

[bill001g]

Are you sure it is hogging the bandwidth. The devices only use bandwidth if a device is actively using it. If the powerline unit is idle it should not have much effect. Can you try turning off the powerline unit on the second floor. It maybe that the extra length in the power wires is causing it to be slow. Powerline network all share the same total bandwidth and they have no method to share it fairly.

Coax cable is generally round black cable, it has historically been used to connect antenna to tv. The wall jacks look like screw on connections. If you have these in your house they are worth the effort to see if you can make them work. MoCA that uses this kind of cable get full gigabit rates.

https://www.amazon.com/CIMPLE-CO-Co.../B01D3W29JG/ref=psdc_3236443011_t3_B01K0ZA61C

...........don't mess with the router settings this is not related unless you think your problem is more that the other person is using up all the bandwidth you purchase from the ISP.

 

[James Noscoper]

I'm quite sure it is, sometimes it's mine and sometimes it's his. This happens when we're both gaming but surely 70mb is enough for us.

No we don't have one of them, only one in the downstairs room.

It's just strange how a computer hogs it all when they're downloading or gaming. Not sure if there is a fix, should I get in contact with my ISP

 

[bill001g]

gaming should not use it all. Most online games need well under 1mbps up and down. Some are closer to the 300bps range.

Downloads are a different story. That you need to artificially limit. You could have a gigabit connection and downloads will attempt to use it all, it just blocks the other person for a shorter time. In general you could set your downloads to 80% of the bandwidth you buy from the ISP and you should be fine. You could get unlucky and both download at the same time but if that is true you are not likely paying the game itself anyway at that moment.

 

[James Noscoper]

Ah ok so just limit the downloads, I can give that a go today.

 

[James Noscoper]

I've had a look at the router settings and I should be getting 71620 kbps (current) and when I've done speed tests I get 50000 kbps (50 mbps) down and 360 kbps upload which seems strange to me as it says current speed should be 19999 kbps.

As my ethernet that my computer plugs into is also a wifi booster, would it be a better idea to get a second one which only connects to my computer and have nothing plugged into my wifi booster one?

 

[bill001g]

It really doesn't matter if you connect devices to 1 or 2 powerline units. The total bandwidth of the powerline network is still being shared by the same end devices. In some ways having extra powerline units will slightly increase the overhead.

You need to test plugged directly into the router. If you do not get the speed the ISP promised you then call and complain. 360kbps is extremely low if that is real you will have all kinds of problems with trying run even 1 machine running games. Most games want at least 500kbps up and down. You would have to research what the actual values are but most are well under 1mbps.

 

[gggplaya]

I would turn off NAT boost or NAT acceleration. You don't need this because your internet is <100mb/s anyways. These use cut through forwarding and flow acceleration to help slower SOC processors achieve NAT speeds to match higher speed internet connections like gigabit fiber internet. You don't have that.

So turn off NAT boost and turn on QOS instead.

 

[James Noscoper]

ok I can do that, but then it says I need to add devices to low medium high priority or should I just ignore this and turn it on?

 

[gggplaya]

I would ignore that for now and just turn it on.

 

[bill001g]

What speeds does the ISP say you should have up and down. It would be fine if they said you had 20 up and only got say 17 but if you are suppose to have say even 10mbps and you are getting 360kbps that is really bad.

 

[James Noscoper]

I think that may have been a dodgy test, I've done it again and I'm getting 20mbps so that's all fine. I'll give enabling QoS today and get back to you