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Powerline - Brand preference?

Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 10:47 pm
by mcewinter
I have a DMA2200 I'm going to throw in the basement but I need to get a connection to it. I decided I'll try a powerline adaptor but I see many brands with other added features like four port and wireless. I'm only interested in hearing your success story. My main interest is hearing if you have a brand preference.

Re: Powerline - Brand preference?

Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2014 11:49 am
by evilgoat
Sorry but we've taken more out than we put in. In particualy anything with Dynamode or Tenda on it should be avoided like the plague. In fact avoid anything from the same shelf as these as they are so useless they may make other kit useless just by being near it.

Re: Powerline - Brand preference?

Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2014 1:02 am
by newfiend
I'm using NETGEAR XAV2001's in my house with very good results. They are older (probably discontinued item) but they work perfectly. Use them at all three of my Xboxes. Might be able to get them on eBay cheap now? http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R4 ... 1&_sacat=0
newfiend~

Re: Powerline - Brand preference?

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2014 7:06 pm
by mcewinter
So I purchased an Actiontec kit from BestBuy on sale for $30. While I hoped it would be plug and play, it certainly was not. By nature, both ends were getting a lot of AC noise as I have all sorts of gear plugged in, of course. I had to relegate the devices to a further outlet and run a longer cable at both ends. That helped but my extender still showed that my signal wasn't strong enough for HD. I have everything plugged into a switch so logically I plugged the powerling into the same switch. After messing around with it, the extender showed the strongest (full tilt) if I plugged it into my router. This doesn't make sense to me aside from the fact that the router is several feet away from my switch and pile of networking gear (tuners, modem, etc.) and perhaps is more isolated from AC noise.

The extender kicks me out of movies and live TV freezes from time to time. I now need to determine if my Samsung tablet and phones are to blame for some of that. Nevertheless, this is for a system comprised of leftover equipment that I set up in the basement and is actually quite usable in that scenario, though will still strive to work out my issues...even if it means putting a PC in its place as extenders add a layer of troubleshooting that I had previously written off.

Re: Powerline - Brand preference?

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2014 10:31 pm
by mdavej
If you have existing coax drops you can use, cheap DirecTV DECA adapters from eBay are fast and rock solid, about $10 per node.

Re: Powerline - Brand preference?

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2014 10:39 pm
by mcewinter
mdavej wrote:If you have existing coax drops you can use, cheap DirecTV DECA adapters from eBay are fast and rock solid, about $10 per node.
Yeah, I know. I don't. I have coax to my modem and Prime tuner, no other coax in my home. I'm willing to bet my issues are extender related more than powerline NW related. The issues I'm having with my DMA2200 mirror other issues found here. I'm going to try the bedroom PC in it's place over the weekend just to see if I have any problems. If it's 100% then I'll relocate the extender to the bedroom or sell it.

Edit: Or I can isolate my Samsung products and troubleshoot my extender issues otherwise. I never cared for the extender experience so I'm not to keen on going down that path, only to go the PC route in the end.

Re: Powerline - Brand preference?

Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2014 10:51 am
by CyberSimian
mcewinter wrote:By nature, both ends were getting a lot of AC noise as I have all sorts of gear plugged in.
I recently purchased some powerline network adapters, and chose the following; they are rebranded versions of the Aztech products:

http://www.solwise.co.uk/net-powerline- ... -piggy.htm

You will notice that they have a pass-through mains socket, and (this is the important point) the mains socket is filtered. So the idea is that you plug all of your computer equipment into the pass-through mains socket, and the mains socket filters out the AC noise originating from your computer equipment. The AC mains circuit thus remains relatively "clean", and gives you the best chance of obtaining fast speeds.

I don't use this network connection for streaming video, or any other high-bandwidth use, so I don't know whether this type of device would be suitable for your use. But I have just run the management program, and the quality-of-service test gives these speeds:

Transmit: 260-330Mbits/sec
Receive: 220-260Mbits/sec

Note that my devices are rated at 600Mbits/sec, but that is measured in a laboratory when all conditions are optimal; one would be unlikely to achieve anywhere near that speed in practice. My "rule of thumb" is:

achievable sustained throughput = one third of rated maximum speed

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

Re: Powerline - Brand preference?

Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2014 1:09 pm
by mcewinter
The kit I bought is rated at 500mbps but the port is only rated at 100. It works well four the most part but watching a bluray iso is impossible. I'm going to try and further isolate the devices and cables from noise but I can't he'll but wonder what a better kit would achieve.

Re: Powerline - Brand preference?

Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 4:59 pm
by mmurley
I use the Netgear XAV101s (v1) to connect to the DMA2200 in my kitchen. I used to use them to stream video from my home server to my Asus O!Play in my living room befor I ran ethernet there (and why I didn't run it to my kitchen at the same time... well, that was before I went WMC).

When I streamed video I had to stream smaller files / resolution.

I also used to use them to connect a wireless access point to my router so I had WiFi at both ends of the house.

I get connection speeds fast enough to watch recorded and live TV. Generally, Powerline adapters will produce speeds that are half or less of their rated connection (due to wiring, etc.).

I tried the new TPLink Powerline adapters and they are just too 'iffy' (they either work or they are DOA).

Cnet rated some gigabit port ones lately. Buy where you can return. http://www.cnet.com/topics/networking/b ... -adapters/

Re: Powerline - Brand preference?

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2015 11:48 am
by jec6613
mcewinter wrote:The kit I bought is rated at 500mbps but the port is only rated at 100. It works well four the most part but watching a bluray iso is impossible. I'm going to try and further isolate the devices and cables from noise but I can't he'll but wonder what a better kit would achieve.
The 500 mbps is a theoretical PHY if they're plugged into basically the same socket. In reality, if you remove a zero from the rated PHY you'll get the effective bandwidth under ideal conditions, then divide that by five and that's your minimum bandwidth. In your case: 50 Mbps ideal, 10 Mbps minimum. Blu-Ray requires about 55 Mbps minimum. :)

Re: Powerline - Brand preference?

Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2017 2:28 am
by riker0314
i use netgear 200 mps for the most part and i can record 3 shows in sd at once with no problems on wmc. i can also play online xbox one game at the same time. solid system