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  • Powerline adapters

    From Poindexter Fortran@VERT/REALITY to All on Wed Jul 27 09:11:44 2016
    We were talking about Powerline adapters recently; I wanted to share what I've learned recently.

    I've got 4 TP-Link TPL-406Es in my house on separate floors. One unit is connects to my cable modem downstairs, one to an XBox and to an access point, one to my desktop and one to the BBS.

    TPLink has a nice utility that lets you see the quality of signal between the local and remote units. I was able to move my desktop and router units onto the same phase by running an extension cord for one of the units, and saw the quality on the utility app jump. My desktop throughput using speedtest jumped from 40 to 60 mbps.

    While typing this I found another tool at http://forum.ethernetovercoax.eu/index.php?topic=126.0 that looks interesting for viewing the health of your powerline network.

    Doing some legwork doesn't hurt; As a prevantative measure I took a handful of wall warts we had for a charging station and replaced 2 warts with one wart and a multi-connector cable.

    I'd seen occasional dropouts that would cause my wireless network to reset and telnet connections to the BBS to drop. After doing a little legwork, I haven't had a drop yet and saw 100,000 packets without a dropped packet to devices connected to all of the adapters.

    My next project will be to replace my Linksys E3200 with a Linksys AC1900 MU-MIMO router to cover my upstairs and pick up a couple of 802.11AC adapters for my laptop/desktop.

    ---
    ■ Synchronet ■ realitycheckBBS -- http://realitycheckBBS.org
  • From Nightfox to Poindexter Fortran on Wed Jul 27 14:01:51 2016
    I'd seen occasional dropouts that would cause my wireless network to reset and telnet connections to the BBS to drop. After doing a little legwork, I haven't had a drop yet and saw 100,000 packets without a dropped packet to devices connected to all of the adapters.

    With my powerline ethernet adapters, I've seen some instances where the outside occasionally can't seem to connect to one of my servers on my home network.. I'm
    not sure if there's anything I can do about that but switch one of my servers to
    wi-fi (which might not have as high of a connection to my router as with the powerline ethernet adapter).

    Nightfox
  • From Vk3jed@VERT/FREEWAY to Poindexter Fortran on Thu Jul 28 08:05:00 2016
    Poindexter Fortran wrote to All <=-

    TPLink has a nice utility that lets you see the quality of signal
    between the local and remote units. I was able to move my desktop and router units onto the same phase by running an extension cord for one
    of the units, and saw the quality on the utility app jump. My desktop throughput using speedtest jumped from 40 to 60 mbps.

    Cool, well done. :) Yes, it is worth experimenting with powerline adapters. In my previous house, I was getting poor performance, until I switched powerpoints, then I got excellent transfer speeds. In this house, I couldn't get the speeds I wanted, and switching powerpoints wasn't an option, so I replaced the powerline link with a Cat 5 cable. :)

    Another potential trap is some switchmode supplies can interfere with the powerline adapters. I had this with a friend's laptop, which took the Internet offline, every time it was plugged in.

    So now, my network backbone is fully Cat 5, with 3 wifi APs for mobile devices.


    ... What is mind? No matter! What is matter? Never mind! - Homer S.
    --- MultiMail/Win32 v0.49
    ■ Synchronet ■ Freeway BBS in Bendigo, Australia.
  • From Vk3jed@VERT/FREEWAY to Nightfox on Thu Jul 28 08:06:00 2016
    Nightfox wrote to Poindexter Fortran <=-

    With my powerline ethernet adapters, I've seen some instances where the outside occasionally can't seem to connect to one of my servers on my
    home network.. I'm

    I never had those issues. The link was as transparent as a Cat 5 cable.


    ... Logic and practical information do not seem to apply here.
    --- MultiMail/Win32 v0.49
    ■ Synchronet ■ Freeway BBS in Bendigo, Australia.
  • From Nightfox to Vk3jed on Wed Jul 27 21:46:03 2016
    Re: Re: Powerline adapters
    By: Vk3jed to Nightfox on Thu Jul 28 2016 08:06:00

    With my powerline ethernet adapters, I've seen some instances where
    the outside occasionally can't seem to connect to one of my servers
    on my home network.. I'm

    I never had those issues. The link was as transparent as a Cat 5 cable.

    The link is indeed transparent, just like I'm using a Cat 5 cable straight to the router; it just seems like occasionally (not too often), the connection between powerline adapters drops momentarily.

    Nightfox
  • From Vk3jed@VERT/FREEWAY to Nightfox on Thu Jul 28 20:19:00 2016
    Nightfox wrote to Vk3jed <=-

    I never had those issues. The link was as transparent as a Cat 5 cable.

    The link is indeed transparent, just like I'm using a Cat 5 cable
    straight to the router; it just seems like occasionally (not too
    often), the connection between powerline adapters drops momentarily.

    I never had any issue with dropouts, just slow links if the powerpoints were on different circuits. :)


    ... Just because everything is different doesn't mean anything has changed.
    --- MultiMail/Win32 v0.49
    ■ Synchronet ■ Freeway BBS in Bendigo, Australia.
  • From Mro@VERT/BBSESINF to Nightfox on Thu Jul 28 22:31:40 2016
    Re: Re: Powerline adapters
    By: Nightfox to Vk3jed on Wed Jul 27 2016 09:46 pm

    cable.

    The link is indeed transparent, just like I'm using a Cat 5 cable straight to the router; it just seems like occasionally (not too often), the connection between powerline adapters drops momentarily.


    if you own your house, drill some fucking holes like me and string some ethernet cable. just go through the floor in the back of the rooms.

    makes things so much easier.
    ---
    ■ Synchronet ■ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::
  • From Vk3jed@VERT/FREEWAY to Mro on Fri Jul 29 17:26:00 2016
    Mro wrote to Nightfox <=-

    if you own your house, drill some fucking holes like me and string some ethernet cable. just go through the floor in the back of the rooms.

    Well, I'm renting and I managed to run a Cat 5 cable over the top of a few internal doors, behind some shelves and through a window. Out of the way and no damage to the house. :)


    ... Wow! Short runway....but look how WIDE it is!!
    --- MultiMail/Win32 v0.49
    ■ Synchronet ■ Freeway BBS in Bendigo, Australia.
  • From Mro@VERT/BBSESINF to Vk3jed on Fri Jul 29 23:46:48 2016
    Re: Re: Powerline adapters
    By: Vk3jed to Mro on Fri Jul 29 2016 05:26 pm

    Well, I'm renting and I managed to run a Cat 5 cable over the top of a few internal doors, behind some shelves and through a window. Out of the way and no damage to the house. :)



    i also saw some baseboards that you can hide cable in. it was on some website so it's not something you can order on amazon or whatnot.
    ---
    ■ Synchronet ■ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::