Do homeplugs increase speed relative to wireless? or strength of signal or is this the same thing?

[admin_exported]

I have a desktop and a PS3 hooked wirelessly to my homehub, but sometimes the connections seem a bit slow (especially if both are running). Would a homeplug (hooking the two machines to the wiring and connecting to the wiring to the ethernet output of the homehub) increase speed? or does it only make sure you have a signal

thanks for your help

 

[Andy Clough]

Wi-fi can slow your broadband speed by up to 30% so yes, adding homeplugs should give you a faster, more robust connection.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Seconded.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Although – and here I'm playing the demonic avocado – they do put noise on the mains supply, which some of us go to great lengths to avoid.

 

[hammill]

Although – and here I'm playing the demonic avocado – they do put noise on the mains supply, which some of us go to great lengths to avoid.

You have now placed the image of a demonic avocado in my head and it won't go away. Claims direct here I come

 

[Clare Newsome]

Yep - although not seemingly applicable to the OP in this instance, mains plugs are best unplugged if you're planning some serious hi-fi listening, especially of the vinyl variety...

 

[Anonymous]

Do homeplugs work if you your router downstairs of one ring main and a pc upstairs on another ringmain?
Does the signal pass through the consumer unit to form a bridge between the two?

 

[scene]

Also, when it comes to noise, homeplugs can also cause RF interference, that can interfere with DAB reception and degrade your Wi-Fi reception.

 

[Chisy1]

Am I correct in thinking that homeplugs basically extend/create a wired network from the router without the need to lay down long ethernet cables? Can I still have a wifi network which I would need for iDevices. I use Airport express to create my wifi but i would be interested in having an AppleTV and my Mac on a wired connection but that currently isn't possible.

Would it go something like.

Router ---> Airport express to create wifi; and
Router ---->Homeplug and then 2nd homeplug in a different room connected to Apple TV etc

Would this work?

thanks
Chisy

 

[scene]

Yes.

Allowing for my caveat on potential RF interference created by sending the signal down your unshielded home cabling. Also, it depends a little on how your mains cabling is structured as to whether they (i.e. homeplugs) work well or not. I'd recommend on buying them from somewhere with a cast iron policy of "Return no quibble if not fully satisfied" with product.

 

[hammill]

Do homeplugs work if you your router downstairs of one ring main and a pc upstairs on another ringmain? Does the signal pass through the consumer unit to form a bridge between the two?

Yes. I have a homeplug connected to my router on one ring and two other homeplugs on different rings and it works fine. Also, I have a DAB radio sitting next to a homeplug and have not noticed any problems.

 

[Anonymous]

Do homeplugs work if you your router downstairs of one ring main and a pc upstairs on another ringmain? Does the signal pass through the consumer unit to form a bridge between the two?

Yes. I have a homeplug connected to my router on one ring and two other homeplugs on different rings and it works fine. Also, I have a DAB radio sitting next to a homeplug and have not noticed any problems.

Thanks. I might look into them. Even if it is just to speed up the transfer if cd rips to my nas for the Sonos

 

[Chisy1]

Yes.

Allowing for my caveat on potential RF interference created by sending the signal down your unshielded home cabling. Also, it depends a little on how your mains cabling is structured as to whether they (i.e. homeplugs) work well or not. I'd recommend on buying them from somewhere with a cast iron policy of "Return no quibble if not fully satisfied" with product.

Thanks, I suppose I ought to check that my wifi is 'significantly' slower compared to a wired connection.

 

[visionary]

Do homeplugs work if you your router downstairs of one ring main and a pc upstairs on another ringmain? Does the signal pass through the consumer unit to form a bridge between the two?

Yes. I have a homeplug connected to my router on one ring and two other homeplugs on different rings and it works fine. Also, I have a DAB radio sitting next to a homeplug and have not noticed any problems.

But not always. In our case I had to put a cat5 link from the room where the router was to a different part of the house which was on another ring main to use homeplugs. All came out of the same consumer unit. Try it and see

 

[Anonymous]

Wi-fi can slow your broadband speed by up to 30% so yes, adding homeplugs should give you a faster, more robust connection.

I'd take that survey done by Epitiro with a pince of salt, and examine who commissioned the survey - I see no reason why wifi would slow down your broadband connection (providing ur average wifi throughput is fast enough to support ur max broadband speed), and also no reason why latency would noticeably increase, unless maybe everyone in ur road is using the same default channel.

Indeed, just testing on my own router - my broadband speed (wired) is 20.6Mb/s with a latency of 45ms to my favourite call of duty server, whilst wifi broadband speed is 20.8Mb/s and a latency of 48ms. So no difference.

As to homeplug/wifi - my Dlink Wifi-n Extreme gives a transfer rate of aroung 60Mbps, my Dlink 200Mbps Homeplugs give a transfer rate around 95Mbps. The wifi rate might be higher - but the wifi-n on my laptop is not mimo.

To get full speed between devices I use a gigabit switch connected to the homeplug. The homeplugs are just used to extend the network so the router can dish out dhcp addresses, devices connected to the switch can communicate to each other at full 1Gbps.

 

[Zarn_Smith]

Wi-fi can slow your broadband speed by up to 30%.

Citation please... I would be surprised if it was true and judging by the fact that someone 10 doors down from me asked politely to stop using homeplugs because it was ruining his ham radio hobby, I would be more inclined to think the exact opposite...

 

[aliEnRIK]

Although – and here I'm playing the demonic avocado – they do put noise on the mains supply, which some of us go to great lengths to avoid.

Seconded.

 

[stevenjonas]

I would like to share sound & vision around the house. I am aware of various devices to use homeplugs to share ethernet around the house, but what do I use to share hi-fi? The consensus appears to be that hi-fi is maintained better using a wired connection, rather than wirelessly?

 

[chris hollands]

I had to resort to ethernet connection because i kept having severe dropouts, was a real problem when trying to download !!

Would the homeplugs stop the dropouts ?

 

[gagagaga]

... or get a better quality router (Cisco E4200 / Netgear N600 or N900) etc.

I also have a WiFI bridge (AGN bands) that works better than the inbuilt wifi that's on most devices, comes with four ethernet ports on the back. Mine is Buffalo, but Netgear, Dlink and others make similar.