Ethernet over power

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Ethernet over power

Post by unfnknblvbl »

OK, so I'm moving to a new place where NBNCo had decided to install the access point in the fucking kitchen of all places.
I can't be arsed running Ethernet cables every which way, not least because that will be hell for the robovac. My PC and NASes don't have wifi capability, so that rules out going completely wireless, unfortunately. So I'm thinking the most reasonable approach will be Ethernet over power.

Who here knows much about this and can recommend a good, cheap solution? It doesn't need to do wifi, just be a dumb switch with one entry point and two exits in different rooms, if that makes sense.
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Re: Ethernet over power

Post by Deef »

Not much I can say that you won't already know; I just bought whatever TP Link option was around. Used it in 2 or 3 different places; I think we've ended up with 4 adapters.

If your house is a house, my experience is that it's perfectly fine. Ping and speeds close enough to ethernet to not care. If your house is something else, like a duplex, an apartment, has had extensions, etc., then you can have issues. "Issues" typically means that certain power points just won't support it. We've had to run an extension cable from the garage at one point.

We did see weird/unreliable speeds in one situation, but that was using 2 adapters coming out of one power extension cable with a double-adapter on the end... which is the kind of thing you're supposed to avoid.

In short, if you have a normal house it should be solid.
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Re: Ethernet over power

Post by pilonv1 »

I used some TP-Link ones ages ago as well and it was relatively painless. Ping/speeds/consistency were quite good considering. I got some mid rated speed ones, but if you can afford it I'd go with higher speed ones because you don't know how good or bad your lines are, especially if it's an older place. It was only an extra $30 or so at the time which was nothing over the 2-3 years I used them.

Regarding non house use, I used mine in a new apartment and had no issues. I believe the issues are more likely with older apartments/units. I believe you're not meant ot use them with any power boards/extensions/adapters as Deef said, but every situation is probably different.
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Ethernet over power

Post by flipswitch »

I hade one at my old place. I forgot the brand, it was a decent price and thankfully once I plugged it in everything connected and I had my wired connection . For the record our house was built in the early 70s.

Good luck with it. Definitely better than wifi at the time because I would get random disconnects when I played online only games such as GT:Sport.
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Re: Ethernet over power

Post by Froggy »

I bought mine years ago, have used the TPLink since I bought my house as I like wired for gaming/work over wireless. I think when I got them there was like 300/600 options, seems to be a lot more now but I upgraded to what I think now are these and it's great. I only had issues once when I had 3 running and for whatever reason one would drop out and then the other would come on but that was years ago when I was an early adopter.
https://www.tp-link.com/au/home-network ... a4010-kit/
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Re: Ethernet over power

Post by unfnknblvbl »

Excellent, thanks everyone. What is kinda putting me off is that a lot of the "starter packs" you see online have what appears to be a master and a slave unit, and no option to buy an individual unit to plug into a socket if I need an odd number of outlets.

I'll definitely check out the ones you suggested, Froggy. :)
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Re: Ethernet over power

Post by Froggy »

Yeah, I reckon I got some from MSY last time but there don't seem to be any individual ones anywhere these days, only found one gigabit one on the Scorptec website. I reckon maybe one thing to think about is the power point orientation, these things I suspect get bigger the more bandwidth through them so if you have a vertical power point pairing you might have trouble fitting another plug in and if it's a horizontal one you'll probably want to make sure you plug whatever is plugged in next to the base adapter first. I think I have a power board coming out next to mine so I never have to disconnect it to change whatever is in it, if you ever do have to turn off the base one then maybe that'll cause some headaches if you have to resync the slaves.
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Re: Ethernet over power

Post by pilonv1 »

This is what I had except I think I had the 300 units, after a year or two I wished I'd got the 600 ones for local transfer speeds.
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Re: Ethernet over power

Post by unfnknblvbl »

That is a very good point. You can mix & match the units though, right?
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Re: Ethernet over power

Post by pilonv1 »

I believe you can but you'll only get the speed of the master unit
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