Question Powerline Adapters

Loup Garou

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Dec 28, 2019
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I am having Sky Q installed in our penthouse and the dish is already in place with a good signal. The router is going to be the Sky Broadband Hub that provides a Superfast connection with boost. We have opted for a 2TB main Sky Q box and 3 mini-boxes. Sky is also going to be our ISP.

I have been told that the signal can be boosted even more by using Powerline Adapters with Wifi. Furthermore, I was told to plug the Sky Broadband Hub via the adapter and then connect the TV, blu-ray player, sky main box and the adapter itself to the hub via Category 6 ethernet LAN cables. In the rooms with the mini-boxes (where there is no router), I was advised to plug the sky mini box through the '3-ported 'slave' powerline adapter and then connect the TV, Sky Q mini box itself and blu-ray player to it.

If this is correct, I'll need a total of 13 category 6 cables but as these are cheap at Cables4less tec, no big problem. But the only Powerline Adapter with the sort of functinality that I need is TP-Link's TL-WPA8630P KIT (1 single ethernet portd 'master' and one 3-ported 'slave') at £99.99; but I need 2 additional TL-WPA8630P slaves and these are £84 each.

Including the cables that comes to almost £300 and I am wondering it it is really worth the cost. I could. of course, leave it and see how the signal works without the Powerline Adapters but there is an issue with that decision. The TVs will be wall mounted and the AV kit professionally installed, and they have those rods to pull through cables behind panels etc. If I need the Powerline Adapters and miss installing those too during the main installation, I might be stuck.

Any related advice would be appreciated.
 

Samd

Well-known member
Thanks. But I need 2 more of the 3-ported Extenders to make it work. Are they sold separately anywhere?

I was advised to plug the sky mini box through the '3-ported 'slave' powerline adapter and then connect the TV, Sky Q mini box itself and blu-ray player to it.

I don't see why you need a 3 ported slave - that only needs 1 port or have I missed something.
 

Loup Garou

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I don't see why you need a 3 ported slave - that only needs 1 port or have I missed something.

AFAIK, the main Powerlink adapter has only one ethernet socket whereas the extenders have 3 each. Here is what I've been advised.

Where the main Sky Broadband Hub router is located - in the lounge - the main Sky Q box will also be present. I was told to plug the broadband hub into the mains supply through the primary powerlink adapter (which has only one ethernet socket) and also connect the two (the hub and powerlink adapter) with a Cat 6 LAN cable. Then I have to 'pair' the 3-ethernet ported powerlink extenders to the primary one. In my case, I'll need 3 such 3-ported extenders.
Still in the lounge, I am then supposed to connect the TV, Sky main box and the 4K BD player into the 3 remaining ethernet ports of the broadband hub (it has 4 in all). The 4th port on the hub will go to the powerlink adapter (as above).

In the 3 other rooms where the Sky mini-boxes are located, the connections are slightly different since there is no separate hub or router here. In these rooms, I was told to plug the sky mini boxes into the mains supply through the powerlink extenders (the 3-ported ones) and then connect the mini box itself, TV and 4K BD player to those 3 ethernet ports of the powerlink extender via Cat 6 cables.
 

Samd

Well-known member
OK - apologies I thought, when you said then connect the TV, Sky Q mini box itself and blu-ray player to it that 'it' meant the mini box (I've never seen one). Just so you know options here are single ports at £28 for 2 and here are ethernet switches at a tenner each so £76 all in.
 

Loup Garou

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I just realised that most AV Receivers have ethernet ports. In one of the rooms with an AV setup, I have a Pioneer 933 VSX receiver which certainly has an ethernet port and everything - the TV, Sky mini-box, blu-ray player, CD player, turntable....is plugged into the receiver. Therefore, if I plug the ethernet cable from the powerline extender to the ethernet port on the receiver, do I still need to connect the TV and Sky mini-box separately? This is doable as the extender has 3 ethernet ports.
 

scene

Well-known member
I just realised that most AV Receivers have ethernet ports. In one of the rooms with an AV setup, I have a Pioneer 933 VSX receiver which certainly has an ethernet port and everything - the TV, Sky mini-box, blu-ray player, CD player, turntable....is plugged into the receiver. Therefore, if I plug the ethernet cable from the powerline extender to the ethernet port on the receiver, do I still need to connect the TV and Sky mini-box separately? This is doable as the extender has 3 ethernet ports.
Yes and no.

Yes if you want to connect your device to the internet via a cable. The connections between your other devices and the receiver are for sound and picture only

No, but as they're not plugged in, they will have to rely on WiFi.

One thought: if you've only got one ethernet port on your extender, you could get a five port switch (netgear do a gigabit one for about £20, the gs105e I think) and plug that into the smart plug, you can then plug 4 more devices into that - it needs a power supply. I've got my place wired with cat6, but I only have a single port in any one room and use this to split that into 4 or 7 (they do 8 port switches as well) and plug my devices into the switch.

I don't think a network extender precludes you from using a network switch.
 

scene

Well-known member
Yes and no.

Yes if you want to connect your device to the internet via a cable. The connections between your other devices and the receiver are for sound and picture only

No, but as they're not plugged in, they will have to rely on WiFi.

One thought: if you've only got one ethernet port on your extender, you could get a five port switch (netgear do a gigabit one for about £20, the gs105e I think) and plug that into the smart plug, you can then plug 4 more devices into that - it needs a power supply. I've got my place wired with cat6, but I only have a single port in any one room and use this to split that into 4 or 7 (they do 8 port switches as well) and plug my devices into the switch.

I don't think a network extender precludes you from using a network switch.
You can get cheaper 5 port gigabit switches. A TP one in metal (recommend, as these tend to be higher quality ones) is £13.25 on Amazon
 

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