[SOLVED] Powerline ethernet from upstairs to basement.

[nicholas.bayes98]

Hey guys,

So im moving into a basement apartment and there's no ethernet ports in the basement. What I want to do is take a Powerline adapter and put it upstairs and put one in the basement. Is there anything I should consider doing this? Should I do something else? I'm new to this whole Powerline adapter thing so I need advice.

 

[gmagdna]

Your satisfaction with a powerline device depends on a few things, here' are three key ones:

1) are you on the same circuit up and down? In other words, is the adapter that will be upstairs on the same breaker as the one you'll have downstairs? if Yes, that's ideal and will maximize whatever speed is possible on the home's wiring. If the two adapters are NOT on the same circuit and you must go through the breaker box to switch circuits then you'll recognize severe speed impact. There's a YouTube video where a guy tested powerline switching circuits and speed was ~ 5Mbs. That's pretty extreme loss because I use a set that switches circuits and I get 60-75Mbs for internet on 100Mbs service.

2) How old is the house wiring? If it's an older house then that will affect max speed you can achieve. If the home is old enough and uses fuses instead of breakers then I expect you'll have crap speed.

3) quality of breakers - see #1 if the adapters are on different circuits

What else can you do? You'll possibly get better performance by adding a decent router in the basement, connect to it via ethernet (or wireless as second best) and setting it as an access point or repeater. You'll want to first check your wifi strength signal in the basement to ensure it's enough to get good bandwidth to the upstairs modem/router.

 

[bill001g]

This is one of those try it and see if it is acceptable. Buy from someplace that accepts returns. You want to buy the new AV2 technology it has much less issues with the multiple circuit issues than the older units. Still it has so many factors that it is impossible to predict how well it will work.

 

[SamirD]

This is one of those try it and see if it is acceptable. Buy from someplace that accepts returns. You want to buy the new AV2 technology it has much less issues with the multiple circuit issues than the older units. Still it has so many factors that it is impossible to predict how well it will work.

Yep, just plug them in and try it. The good thing is that they pretty much work well or don't so it's literally a 5 minute test. Plug them in, try them out--work well? great! not work well? return.

Now something that is significantly faster would be moca 2.0 if you've got cable jacks in each room and know where they all connect to a splitter. You can get a full 1 gigabit that way.