[SOLVED] Powerline: low data rate

Jun 4, 2020
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I have a TP-Link TL-WPA7510KIT Dual Band Gigabit AC750 Powerline Adapter Starter Kit with up to 1000 Mbps speed. When the 2 units are next to each other I get 646 Mbps but when I take the extender unit to the shed at the bottom of the garden I get 18 Mbps and my download speed is around 3 Mbps (my ISP is Virgin and I'm paying for 350 Mbps and I get 80-90 Mbps on a regular basis in the house.

There's an armoured cable from a 32A circuit going to the shed which is about 40m from the house - it's the same circuit as the plug for my router. I get 238V and 32A at the shed. I don't know how much wiring there is between the plug nearest my router and the start of the armoured cable - or how good it is, the house was built in the 1930's.

My question is: should I buy another TL-WPA7510 or equivalent and place it as close as possible to the cable leaving the house to the shed in the hope that it will boost the data speed or does it not work like that? This is what the electrician suggested but he didn't seem very sure of himself...

Thanks
 
Solution
Not sure what you mean "place it as close as possible". Powerline units only travel though the actual wires they do not travel through the air between different circuits. If you can plug into the same wires on both ends it would be best but I suspect that is not a option.

That is a huge circuit and I suspect it is used as point to point connection between the house and a main breaker in the shed. I suspect there are other breakers in the shed running other circuits that you plug into. I doubt you can connect the powerline units directly to this large circuit without going though many different breakers.

BUT the newest powerline units like you have should not care that there are many breakers in the path. It also uses the...
Not sure what you mean "place it as close as possible". Powerline units only travel though the actual wires they do not travel through the air between different circuits. If you can plug into the same wires on both ends it would be best but I suspect that is not a option.

That is a huge circuit and I suspect it is used as point to point connection between the house and a main breaker in the shed. I suspect there are other breakers in the shed running other circuits that you plug into. I doubt you can connect the powerline units directly to this large circuit without going though many different breakers.

BUT the newest powerline units like you have should not care that there are many breakers in the path. It also uses the ground connector to transfer data. This maybe part of your problem. Sometimes different buildings have different grounding rods. The electrical codes have changed over the years as to what is recommended.

In any event there is not much you can do. Your only real option is to try other outlets and hope you get lucky. The units you have are some of the better ones being sold. I would avoid adding another unit the bandwidth is shared. Your best option would be to move the unit near the router and see if that makes any difference. Maybe you could run a long ethernet cable in the house to the powerline unit if the router and optimum powerline placement are not the same.
 
Solution
Well, the ethernet over power concept, your adapters create "noise" over your AC line and talk using this "noise". Other devices in your house such as Microwave, switching power supplies (any phone charger, your PC to name a few) create noise too. Signal to noise ratio and coding scheme is what defines usable data rate. When the devices are close - the ratio is high. When they are far apart SNR is low.

Running a CAT5e is always better than this.