Belkin Powerline

[KyeBidz]

Evening pingpingpingpings,

We moved shit around in our house this weekend and now the PS3 is at the complete opposite corner of the house from our router. We have wireless so it going through several walls is causing it to be a total piece of shit when I try to stream my porn.

Moving the router isnt an option, running physical ethernet is an option but a bit of a PITA so that will be last resort.

Ive been looking at Belkin Powerline AV+ and similar products, reviews on line seem pretty good and they arent silly expensive. Anyone had real-world experience with them??

PS3 streams video and music off my server at the other end of the house, and occasionally play COD online.

Thoughts?

[RMX]

I've had the pleasure of setting a couple up.

One worked out of the box, sweet as.

The other didn't. Took me a while to figure it, The two power points were on different circuits in the house.

Providing both points are connected to the same circuit, you should have no issues.

Other option is a point to point wireless bridge.

[Niva]

what the fuck? this is the first I have ever heard of this. seems fucking win

[SK]

We had a similar issue in our house but with a PC that didnt have wireless.

We got a network cable installed in our house, which is an ethernet plug in the room with the PC and another one in the room with the router, connected by ethernet cable. It is basically like a big ethernet extension cord that runs through our roof.

So we then bought 2 small ethernet cables, ran one from the modem to the ethernet wall plug in the office, and ran the other cable from the PC to the wall plug in that room, making one massive ethernet connection.

It doesnt lose any speed and is obviously alot faster than a wireless connection.

Hope this helps.

[KyeBidz]

I've had the pleasure of setting a couple up.

One worked out of the box, sweet as.

The other didn't. Took me a while to figure it, The two power points were on different circuits in the house.

Providing both points are connected to the same circuit, you should have no issues.

Other option is a point to point wireless bridge.

Sweet, heard that it had to be on the same circuit which is all good. They have life time warranty as well.

More concerned about link speed back to the server so I can stream video without it being a laggy POS.

[cplagz]

I think the speed is pretty good Kye. At the end of the day it's all just copper.

[_S9_]

Other option is a point to point wireless bridge.

PS3 has wireless, which is slow. Same deal with that^


I have the 85mbs units. Maximum file transfer speed is about 15mb/s (thats 1.85megaBYTES/sec FYI)

They're terrible.

Its pretty much like wireless, they claim 54mb/s but only ever connect at 30mb/s or so.

Although the cable is a pain, its much better in the long run.

FYI: I use the Powerline units to keep my internet router in the spare room - as my internet only connects at 5mb/s.

[WRCjosh]

agreed, i dicked around for ages trying to get it to work well wirelessly, ended up buying a really long ethernet and just using that

[FitzyB]

one thing i found with the ps3 is that it will default to the slowest wireless signal that your router puts out, when mine was setup for a b and g signal the ps3 was usless even in the same room as the router, but when i turned off the b signal i can stream vidzone 3 rooms away with no hassles.

This may help your problem a bit

[KyeBidz]

PS3 has wireless, which is slow. Same deal with that^


I have the 85mbs units. Maximum file transfer speed is about 15mb/s (thats 1.85megaBYTES/sec FYI)

They're terrible.

Its pretty much like wireless, they claim 54mb/s but only ever connect at 30mb/s or so.

Although the cable is a pain, its much better in the long run.

FYI: I use the Powerline units to keep my internet router in the spare room - as my internet only connects at 5mb/s.

Yep everything i have read say you never get anywhere near the speeds they advertise (which i expect) and that the 85mbs units are slow. But the 200mbs units are apparently good, and they are coming out with 1000mbs units soon.


one thing i found with the ps3 is that it will default to the slowest wireless signal that your router puts out, when mine was setup for a b and g signal the ps3 was usless even in the same room as the router, but when i turned off the b signal i can stream vidzone 3 rooms away with no hassles.

This may help your problem a bit

Cheers for the suggestion, also dicked around with this with limited success.


Looks like im going to take the plunge and buy them, worst case if they dont work well enough ill flog them on ebay or put it in the cupboard with the rest of the useless shit i buy and dont use.

Anyone got the hook ups for these??

[brynj]

Netgear have already released 500mbps EoP adapters in the US.. Don't know if you can just use an adapter to convert to aus power point sockets though. Could wait for the aus release if you're going to be streaming HD porn.

[jEstEr?]

kye I have my comms cabling lic and all the tools needed if you need your place/sister wired up

[Dagon]

Tip - don't use wifi (or bluetooth or microwave or ANYTHING wireless) for gaming, ever... it's not 100% reliable like a cable is, and it's fairly common for that tiny packet loss to cost you a kill or two.

I've got a mate who is a sparky, and he reckons ethernet-over-power is an okay idea, but it depends too much on how your house is set up.

brynj: I've got a personal grudge against Netgear... I've bought a few of their cutting-edge stuff, when the tech is new, and they never seem to know what they're doing... just bung a product out there so idiots like me buy it =P If it's been out for a few years, it's a diff matter though...

[tinto]

I had my PS3 on wireless for a few months before getting too pissed off at the stalling video streaming.
Cat5 through the walls to the mac media server and router (airport extreme) has made me smile again. But I would have considered it over the power cables for sure!

Is there an easy way you check if the rooms you want are on the same circuit without buying the Belkin Powerline?

[brynj]

Apparently it's same phase, not circuit, so pretty much all residential applications should be ok.. unless you steal power from both neighbours.

[SSICK]

can cable it up for ya if you want dude, do this shit day in day out. 10gig p/s sound ok? i did something simialar for damon a while back.

or ill just throw rocks at your house from my room to keep me entertained.

[cplagz]

Cat6 - 10gbit - 55m run length
Cat6a - 10gbit - 100m run length

Use shielded cable and do it properly FTW. I want to do my house eventually (after I do the aerial which currently hangs down the outside of the house and through a drilled hole in the window frame!)

[SSICK]

cat6a @100m? nah......any cable manufacturer would shoot you for even thinking that.

for the price difference and most runs in a normal size house (4x2 5x2) the runs would not be longer than 30m. cat6 would easily be sufficient. only decent thing about cat6a is the speed it carries and thats it, if u have ever worked with the shit, you would know what im on about. the fuckin memory in the cable is shocking in the last 50m.

[Fukushima]

my gf's dad tried it back when she was at home

massive fail so they took it back to harvey norman

Similar situation for me soon, the computer is going to be banished to the spare room - well away from the router. (now I wish she was back at home)

I think I'll end up running cable.

[duste]

What routers are you guys using? I've got Belkin N1 Routers at both my house and my parents and a matching N1 adapter for my laptop and never have issues with connectivity, being outside or at the complete other ends of the houses. Could be another option?

+infinity for Belkin products in general btw - lifetime warranty on everything and I've never had an issue anyway.

[Fukushima]

Duste in my experience wireless is fail and I've found Belkin products shithouse on multiple occasions.

The incredibly shithouse nature of wireless is such that you can have the computer 1 meter from the router and it'll still fuck with online games. (except maybe solataire?)

For this sort of gear though Harvey Norman is always good, get them to pricematch PLE or something and then you always have the option to take it back if it doesn't work - no or few questions asked.

[tinto]

Apple Airport Extreme.
Seems happy with most wireless things and has 3(?) gigabit ethernet ports so you can still hardwire some stuff in if you want to.
I've got a hdd and a printer hanging off it and it just hums along.
It will manage the hdd so you can set quotas for individual users.

Variable range / strength too which is nice if you don't want tumors.

I temporarily had about 10 people using one concurrently at work (web browsing, writing / saving word docs on macs and PCs) and not one complaint (until we tried to connect a belkin wireless card into one of our new PCs).

Apple stuff isn't cheap but it beats repeatedly returning stuff that sort of works.
Also looks nice and contrasts well with my black skivvies.

[Dagon]

Duste in my experience wireless is fail and I've found Belkin products shithouse on multiple occasions.Belkin seem to be a bit of a wildcard; I know people that have said what you just said, and I know people that *only* buy Belkin because they've found they generally make rock-solid products. My Belkin ADSL2+ modem/router with wifi is still ticking over nicely, 3years down the track. *shrugs*

[Miami]

As per what duste said, I have no issues streaming (NON-HD) video throughout the house, including to the ps3 (from crappy p4 box running ps3 media server on the other side of the house) using Netgear wireless-N router in mixed mode (ps3 only does g, not N).

Only thing I cant stream properly is HD movies/blu ray rips - they're now living on an external HD attached to the ps3.

One other solution if you already have a wireless-N modem/router at your access point would be to grab a cheap wireless-N router and cable it to your ps3, acting as an N receiver, if all you're after is video streaming?

I had seen these powerline units reviewed on CNet and wondered about them - be great to hear how they go if you end up grabbing the 200mbs units.

Mind you - whats the approximate quote on getting cabling installed? by the time you spend $200-odd on wireless/powerline option that MAY work, is it going be much more for a permanent, stable cabled connection thats ALWAYS gonna work??

[KyeBidz]

Yeah exactly mate. Tom (ssick) gave me a good quote, so going to bite the bullet and put ethernet points around the house. Nothing angers me more when im getting right near the gravy stroke and the video stalls, so hard wired will stop that completely.

Cheers for the input guys, am still keen to hear how the 200mbs PowerLine units go.

[jEstEr?]

structured cabling FTW

[Adam]

Where do they have stock in perth for 200mbs powerline units? keen to try as they will be for company expense anyway

[mitchy]

Yeah exactly mate. Tom (ssick) gave me a good quote, so going to bite the bullet and put ethernet points around the house. Nothing angers me more when im getting right near the gravy stroke and the video stalls, so hard wired will stop that completely.

Cheers for the input guys, am still keen to hear how the 200mbs PowerLine units go.

surely the few seconds of buffer would tide you over? unless you're talking about going for round 2.

[Miami]

Thread revival - has anyone ended up giving these or the new gigabit units a shot?

Still looking for a potential solution to streaming full HD (ie up to 60mbs) before I bite the bullet and commit to running cat5 through the roof.

[Sfidz]

Thread revival - has anyone ended up giving these or the new gigabit units a shot?

Still looking for a potential solution to streaming full HD (ie up to 60mbs) before I bite the bullet and commit to running cat5 through the roof.

Run cat5 dude.
well worth the fuck around. These things are good in principal but can be a royal pain in the ass. If you were running cables yourself it would probs be cheaper thank power kit as well.

[stormtrooper]

Kye, you work for L7 and yet you're asking for advice about networking technologies? Hope your not just the receptionist :P

[KyeBidz]

You're*