[SOLVED] Powerline Adapter only providing 100mbps while I have a Gigabit port

GeorgeRG

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Nov 17, 2019
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As the title says I have a NAS connected to the network via a powerline adapter (specifically the TP-link AV600) . While the ethernet port of the NAS is rated for gigabit speed and the powerline adapter for up to 600mbps (which according with the toPLC app is closer to 250mbps ) I only get 100mbps speed .At first I thought that it was the cables or the router but I checked the both and they are ok (The router can support up to 1gigabit and all the cables are cat5e). Can someone please explane what am I doing wrong
 
Solution
So how fast do you actually get. It it is in the 90-95mbps range that tends to be a cable issue because it is running 100mbps and the difference is the headers in the ethenet packets. If you are getting more or over 100mbps then the port is running at gigabit. In that case it is likely a issue with the electrical wires in your house. Your best test of powerline equipment is to plug both unit into outlets in the same room. This tends to be the fastest you can possibly expect from your units.

Check out this site 250mbps is not really a valid expectation unless you are really close.

https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/charts/powerline/view
So how fast do you actually get. It it is in the 90-95mbps range that tends to be a cable issue because it is running 100mbps and the difference is the headers in the ethenet packets. If you are getting more or over 100mbps then the port is running at gigabit. In that case it is likely a issue with the electrical wires in your house. Your best test of powerline equipment is to plug both unit into outlets in the same room. This tends to be the fastest you can possibly expect from your units.

Check out this site 250mbps is not really a valid expectation unless you are really close.

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

GeorgeRG

Reputable
Nov 17, 2019
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4,520
I did try an even more ideal condition test . I plugged both devices at the Same adapter (my adapters have double ports each )and I only git around 96 mbps . Also 250mbps isn't the theoretical maximum that the company says (in fact that is 600mbps ) 250 mbps is the maximum speed I can actually get according to tpPLC software . I am pretty sure at this point that the problem is the ports and nothing else but is there a way to find out for sure because it's hard for me to believe that a company like tp-Link could do such a mistake (putting 100mbps ports on 600mpbs unit )
 
If you get 96mbps it is likely a bad cable.

.....so I looked those up if it is the pa-4010 it has only 100mbps ports. This was extremely common on the older av500 models. It was mostly a admission that the 500 number was a massive lie

Part of the issue is they are adding transmit and receive speeds together. So to get a 100mbps ethernet port that can transmit 100mbps and receive 100mbps you need 200mbps of bandwidth. Powerline and wifi tell these similar lies. This would be like calling gigabit ethernet 2gbit because it can transmit 1gb and receive 1gb. Unlike other technology ethernet can actually run full speed in both direction simultaneously
 
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The idiots at tplink started selling their lower end av600 as pa-4010. They reused the part number from the av500. This is just crazy but they did it.

That model says "ethernet" in the description so I would bet it has 100mbps ports. The model that has gigabit ports in a 6010.

Although not real useful for the more common install I bet you could get more than 100mbps total if you were to run 2 devices on each end and run 2 parallel transfers.