Powerline or WiFi

[Tinker1947]

I have a BT Hub 3 in my PC Room, runs off a Extension hardwired into the master socket, its been playing up DC'ing at various time but no pattern emerged, so the BT Man has suggested moving the HUB to the master socket which i have done and so far its been stable now if this is going to be its new home i need to sort out the connection to 3 PC's all in the same room, atm while testing i have a CAT Cable drapped over the grand father clock then bluetacked above to doors and then into a HUB with the PC's connected and working,,,So a perminate solution, Powerline adapter with 3 slaves or 3 X Wifi cards plugged in each of the PC's and recommendations for either,brands, speeds (My Broadband until its fibred is slow 2mbs) ect ect,,,Thanks inadvance.....

[gkec]

I would go powerline as I have found that my Home Hub wireless connection to be so dreadful that I replaced the hub with another router.

However powerlines don't always work as I also found out trying to solve the home hub problem.

I could write an essay on why BT home hubs are so bad but I won't.

ETA -- Also don't get a powerline for each PC just connect one powerline to your switch (you described it as a HUB) and connect the PC to the switch.

[damnut]

I have only one place for homehubs - recycling bin... Have friends and colleagues who have terrible wifi connx with them. Innevitably have replaced with Netgear, either completely or then taken cat 5 from the homehub to netgear wireless router and utilising the netgear for wireless. Any time you can utilise powerlines then do so, you may need to plug directly into mains sockets as they sometimes do not like extension blocks.

Have also utilised wireless extenders and external aerial's to extend range. You could breakout from a wireless extender to your other wireless devices.

[endure]

Wires are better - faster - more reliable. Powerline adapter to computer room and then small switch to PCs.

[dwc]

When i switched to BT Infinity i had to plug the modem into the Master socket and not the extension I previously used.

I have a HomeHub3 plugged into one of the powerline devices that has a pass thru 3 pin socket so only uses 1 socket got power and network.

Then I have a 2nd powerline where my desktop and hub lives, and a 3rd powerline in the shed.

All works very well.

[damnut]

Wires definitely faster and have cat 5 and managed switched my house, the power extenders and wifi provide connx for other kit (ipad etc) that do not have ethernet port.However all this no good if bandwidth low.

[Tinker1947]

OK gone with 2 Power-line modules, both have 4 Ethernet connectors, ordered a brass back-plate for the next to be installed double mains socket, it right under the consumer unit which has several blank slots, total distance for the power-line 20 feet and will have its own main socket at the PC end if this doesn't create a stable connection, will ditch the HomeHub3 and get a Netgear with WiFi, The shed PC is the opposite corner of the property but the layout means it is line of site through 3 doors ways, gets a good strong signal on 10' extension with a dongle plugged in the end......just waiting on deliveries and socket installation now.....

[Enrico]

I got a belkin wireless n router (recon) from fleabay for about £13 inc postage. As long as you realize with powerline that you are generating a lot of RF noise then OK.

I currently run a wifi bridge to my shed, with then has it's own wired mini-network (two apple airport extremes - both used off fleabay). Quite a good solution, but planning on putting cat5 in (just bought 305m of outdoor cat5 for £35 - bargain!).

Could you could replace existing phone extension cable with cat5? Given the number of conductors in cat5, you can use 4 for the Ethernet bit and two of the spares to keep the phone line in it's place (have done this before).

[Tinker1947]

I ended up with a WD Powerline with 4 Ethernet sockets each end, wired in a new double mains socket next the BT phone socket, so i get the powerline 2nd module in my pc room with atm 3 pc runing from the Ethernet sockets, the PC in scope room runs a WiFi Dongle, the transfer speed of the WD is the same as my Broadband connection speed so while the WD spec says 200mbps its running at 16.1mbps distance socket to socket less than 20', cost £50 disconnects since switch on zero....i'm happy.....

[r3i]

I like PowerLine but it looks like it depends on the topology of your mains circuits in how well it runs. I use a PowerLine adapter to network up the observatory and it works well (I get 30mbps), but one connecting a computer in an upstairs bedroom ended having a speed of 15mbps which we found too sluggish - all our files are on a NAS. So I replaced it with a Wi-Fi connection to a Home Hub 3 which has been much faster and quite reliable.

[Tinker1947]

My new mains socket is about 6' below the consumer unit, run a 2.5mm cable up to it and its on its own 6amp MCB, the other end is the normal ring main but if required i could run a bit of 2.5mm from the consumer unit to the pc room and install another main socket, the consumer unit i put in back in the 2000, its has 4 more spare slots, or go the wireless route ...

[Gib007]

Powerline Networking has worked well for me in the past. Especially since the ADSL connections I've used with it are 8/1 Mbps and 16/2 Mbps (download/upload). This bandwidth is low enough such that the Powerline Networking of about 200 Mbps is more than sufficient. If you have an ultra-fast fibre optic connection to the Internet, it may bottleneck depending on your house wiring. If you do use Powerline Networking, do put them on surge protectors but make extension cables as short as possible as longer cables means more signal loss (and I've experienced significant signal loss over something as short as a 5 metre extension). I recommend surge protectors for places like Gibraltar though, since my Powerline Networking died after a power cut. In the UK with the National Grid, it may not be a risky issue.

One thing to note is that if you get the Wi-Fi Powerline Networking devices, these project their own Wi-Fi network that you connect to. This means that unless you disable your original router's Wi-Fi network, you'll end up having two Wi-Fi networks. As long as the channels are configured differently, it will function without significant interference. The issue is confusion. One part of the house may benefit from one Wi-Fi network and another part of the house, the other. Confusing for mobile devices, of course. Personally I prefer a simple, powerful router like the Belkin Play N600 Dual-Band that does 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz Wi-Fi. Set up a single device in a central location and you're done.