wifi extender

[AstroMuni]

On 28/06/2022 at 17:42, alacant said:

I'm trying to get a home wifi (not designed for heavy traffic) so that a disabled guy can vnc into his computer at the mount. It's working fine, but it's slow. I've traced to weak point to the interim wifi extender; vnc with the two computers in the same room -without the extender- is instantaneous.

Not sure if this solution would help. But this is what I use - A Netgear AC1200 that is plugged in outside my house. This has an ethernet port and I have connected a ethernet cable between this and my RPi which then connects to mount. And when I remote in, I connect to wifi extender rather than home router.

[alacant]

13 hours ago, JOC said:

plugging in something at the far end of things

There is grid (?) electricity -as in you can plug stuff in like a fan or a computer- at the telescope, but it's too complicated as I think mains adapters need to be on the same circuit.

The wiring seems to indicate several individual circuits. Dunno. 

This is way beyond providing astro!

[DaveL59]

9 minutes ago, alacant said:

There is grid (?) electricity -as in you can plug stuff in like a fan or a computer- at the telescope, but it's too complicated as I think mains adapters need to be on the same circuit.

The wiring seems to indicate several individual circuits. Dunno. 

This is way beyond providing astro!

That's not so unusual a main control panel and so long as the shed and the indoor end are all on the same side of the MCB/RCD then you could find an EoP setup will work. You can improve the reliability of them if you can also place a unit on the indoor side of the same circuit the shed is on and then bridge it to one on another ring with a LAN cable connecting the units together.

The more recent EoP units are a lot better than the early AV200 and below models as they use all 3 conductors and like the better WiFi units use MIMO to maximise the transmission quality. Of course the downside of going that route will be that you won't know until you spend and try it. Do you know anyone who may be able to lend you a pair to test out?

The TPLink ones I have are 3-port GBe units so in effect offer a network hub at the mains plug tho in my case I only use a single outlet as I have managed network switches hanging off them.

Edited June 30, 2022 by DaveL59

[barbulo]

21 minutes ago, alacant said:

mains adapters need to be on the same circuit

I don’t think so. I’ve PCL on different circuits, and using a 10m cable on mount’s end. 
Very reliable method IMHO. Much better than any wifi extender I’ve tried. 

[alacant]

16 minutes ago, barbulo said:

I’ve PCL on different circuits,

Perfect. Thanks. That looks like it. 
Presumably I need in addition to the two adapters, two ethernet cables. One for the router and one for the telescope NUC?

Un saludo

[DaveL59]

14 minutes ago, alacant said:

Perfect. Thanks. That looks like it. 
Presumably I need in addition to the two adapters, two ethernet cables. One for the router and one for the telescope NUC?

Un saludo

yep, a LAN cable to hook it to the main router and one for the PC at the scope end is about all you'd need to get the link up and running.

[gilesco]

45 minutes ago, barbulo said:

I don’t think so. I’ve PCL on different circuits, and using a 10m cable on mount’s end. 
Very reliable method IMHO. Much better than any wifi extender I’ve tried. 

I have one consumer unit, and then another consumer unit which is a sub-unit of the first (due to an historical home extension). My devolo Powerline units still work throughout the house, although lower speeds to areas that are on the sub-unit.

I say slower, it is still by far faster and more reliable than my Wifi is.

Mine are a bit older than what is currently available, a mixture of the following:

https://www.devolo.co.uk/dlan-1200-powerline

https://www.devolo.co.uk/dlan-1200-wifi-ac-powerline

Dining Room and Conservatory are connected to the secondary consumer unit. (Dining Room shows up --- just because there's no device using it there).

[alacant]

28 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

a LAN cable to hook it to the main router

Ok. Getting there.

I still need WiFi from the main router to the vnc client, both of which will be in the same room.

Do I retain this?

 

[DaveL59]

@gilesco So long as all units are of the same standard (AV1200 in your case) that works and a drop when crossing to the sub-net I guess you can't do much about other than use a LAN cable to bridge across, tho that kinda negates using them in the first place. The issue is more when folks mix say AV1200 with the older AV200/600 as then the entire EoP network slows to the lower standard.

The other thing I noticed that can/does affect performance is noisy electrical items on the mains wiring. I found that some LED bulbs would cause a 50% drop in data rate when they were turned on, for example but even then the link stayed operational. I do also have a wireless CCTV that operates in the 2.5GHz band but isn't wifi (discrete Rx box for the AV end) and that can be real neat if you wanna mess with a neighbours WiFi. Turn it on and they go dark 😉 

Edited June 30, 2022 by DaveL59

[DaveL59]

1 minute ago, alacant said:

Ok. Getting there.

I still need WiFi from the main router to the vnc client, both of which will be in the same room.

Do I retain this?

 

Sure, if it currently connects on WiFi no reason not to, unless you want to get a 3rd LAN cable and go directly wired 🙂 

[Elp]

On a related note, I did manage to extend the range of my asiair pro with the vonets quad antenna industrial extender after trying a smaller vonets one and a tp link one, extends only around 10M but it's enough for me to be upstairs and still monitor what the rigs doing with image transfer rate of 1-2MBps.

[gilesco]

6 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

@gilesco So long as all units are of the same standard (AV1200 in your case) that works and a drop when crossing to the sub-net I guess you can't do much about other than use a LAN cable to bridge across, tho that kinda negates using them in the first place. The issue is more when folks mix say AV1200 with the older AV200/600 as then the entire EoP network slows to the lower standard.

The other thing I noticed that can/does affect performance is noisy electrical items on the mains wiring. I found that some LED bulbs would cause a 50% drop in data rate when they were turned on, for example but even then the link stayed operational. I do also have a wireless CCTV that operates in the 2.5GHz band but isn't wifi (discrete Rx box for the AV end) and that can be real neat if you wanna mess with a neighbours WiFi. Turn it on and they go dark 😉 

Yes, if you mix different standards and different manufacturers I have found that they generally work, but will step down to the lowest speed across the board, e.g. 2 devolo 1200+ and a Tplink 300Mbps, means that everything will operate at 300Mbps max.

If you're starting afresh then go with the latest and greatest and continue to match (as you can see, my home network has grown, but I started with just two of these devices until networking requirements around the house grew and grew).

I also eventually ran a Cat6 cable from the ground floor to the first floor of the house to ensure that throughput was even higher (RSTP takes care of ensuring it is used in preference to Powerline).

Edited June 30, 2022 by gilesco

[alacant]

15 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

a 3rd LAN cable and go directly wired

Hi

That's what we normally do if it's a dedicated fixture.

This is my first experience of a domestic installation where humans take priority over telescopes. I next have to work out where I can plug the adapter and the Ethernet cable at the house end so it's invisible. 

What a struggle!

[DaveL59]

1 minute ago, alacant said:

Hi

That's what we normally do if it's a dedicated fixture.

This is my first experience of a domestic installation where humans take priority over telescopes. I next have to work out where I can plug the adapter and the Ethernet cable at the house end so it's invisible. 

What a struggle!

if you get the pass-thru type just use the socket the router is on and plug thu router into it.

Like this type, just get the versions to suit your region
TP-Link TL-PA7027P KIT AV1000 2-Port Gigabit Passthrough Powerline Starter Kit (Renewed): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories