Plusnet fibre and ethernet homeplugs. No problems?

As per title really.

I've concluded that homeplugs may be the answer to my poor wireless reception, messy cables and networking needs.

I'm looking at Devolo's AVtriple+ dLAN 500 3-Port HomePlug Starter Kit and am on Plusnet Unlimited Fibre.

Anyone using them on Plusnet fibre? Any potential issues?

Cheers.

Home plugs can interfere with xDSL signals I personally would not use them , ethernet cat 6 or cat 5 cable cannot be beaten for reliabilty

I'm not on Fibre (not available in my area, unfortunately), but I am using the Devolo dLAN 200 version Plugs on my BT 18M ADSL connection.

I've found them very effective & I'm getting 100+M on all of my connections!

In fact I've run multiple TBB Speed-tests, both connected via these Plugs & also direct connection to the Router (as a comparison) & have NOT found any noticeable degradation, etc.

NB:- I chose the dLAN 200 version (rather than the dLAN 500 version) because I did read one report that the 500s had given some problem - but I'm not aware of any more details!

I use Solwise 200 Mbps Homeplugs with my FTTC. The Homeplug networking is much faster than my rather slow 15 Mbps FTTC connection.

In reply to a post by tommy45:

Home plugs can interfere with xDSL signals I personally would not use them , ethernet cat 6 or cat 5 cable cannot be beaten for reliabilty

I think I know what you mean tommy, but that isn't how I read your post.

I think it reads as though xDSL over the Homeplug system can be dodgy, which of course would be rubbish. I think you mean the "noise" produced by them can mess up the sync of the modem.

Whether or not that is the case is another matter .

Yeah they can cause interference to the xDSL signal it's self as well as from router to pc, they have been known to cause interference to radio coms too radio hams hate them

So you are saying they also cause ethernet problems between the router and PC, when their whole reason for existence is to provide that connection? They don't transmit xDSL.

Don't know how these things ever got licensed. You're connecting what is effectively a radio transmitter to a load of power wiring which acts as an aerial. Almost bound to cuase interference to something.Either in your house or your neighbours.

Having said that, so much of the radio spectrum is badly polluted these days from all sorts of kit that I wonder if powerline ethernet makes much difference.

The best way to conenct a PC etc is via wired ethernet. If that's not practical (tablets, mobile phones etc) then Wifi. You can have more than one wifi base station in your house though i've not looked into the best ways of doing this.

I had Devolo 200s and Solwise 500s at different times on my network before I had FTTC and they were fine but added 3ms of delay.

After I had FTTC they weren't able to keep up with the connection so I replaced them with cat6 cable which has been absolutely faultless.

If you can't do cat5(e) or cat6... (running cat6 cost me less than the homeplugs) then they're ok, especially if you only have 2.4Ghz WIFI which is massively oversubscribed as in my area.

Thanks
Tim

I use them and they have no detectable effect on the fibre connection. They do generate some radio interference if I put a radio right next to them, but cause no problems for normal reception. Mine are TP-Link models. I know there is a lot of opposition to them and some can cause considerable interference to short wave radio, so if your neighbours are into this you may not be very popular.

I am using a netgear wn3000rp. Haven't noticed any problems

It's a personal preference, and mine is that I hate the things.

I've wired up my house with cat 6 ethernet. If this is not practical, homeplugs may be a good compromise, but it really depends on the quality of your wiring.

Remember too that you need host and slave plugs to be on the same ring main, generally ruling out a downstairs router and upstairs slave. You'll need to know how your house is wired up.

In reply to a post by lewisskinner:

Remember too that you need host and slave plugs to be on the same ring main, generally ruling out a downstairs router and upstairs slave. You'll need to know how your house is wired up.

Not true, they just need to be on the same phase - different ring mains, even different consumer units (as in my case) are no problem at all.

Edited by kasg (Wed 05-Jun-13 15:48:35)

Eek - does that mean the signal leaks out to (some of) the neighbours?

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

Eek - does that mean the signal leaks out to (some of) the neighbours?

It depends on how your local mains is wired up.

If your mains goes from the substation the daisy chains from house to house then possibly, in my area all the houses are connected directly to the sub station and so the chance of picking up a signal is very low indeed.

In my house it is completely impractical to wire the house due to the layout and so homeplugs are a good way just to get a basic connection to the other rooms of the house.

I use D-link and they are very good indeed.

As for interferrence look up the Intel white paper on how USB 3 emits interferrence on the 2.4 GHz spectrum and then ask how that managed to get by regulations as that is going to play merry hell with a lot more people than home plugs will.

Edited by deleted (Wed 05-Jun-13 22:34:26)

As for interferrence look up the Intel white paper on how USB 3 emits interferrence on the 2.4 GHz spectrum

The only ones I have seen, had to place a wireless dongle on top of a USB3 connecter to show interference. A long way from mains-borne interference, or radiating mains wiring.
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/io/universal-...

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

Eek - does that mean the signal leaks out to (some of) the neighbours?

I believe that is technically possible if the properties are sufficiently close and on the same phase, though encryption should prevent access to data.

"..Remember too that you need host and slave plugs to be on the same ring main, generally ruling out a downstairs router and upstairs slave. You'll need to know how your house is wired up. .."

My units are definitely on different rings; the upstairs is separate from the downstairs. The upstairs ring has the host and the downstairs ring the slave. There are no problems; D-link units

hah. That reminded me of this:

http://community.plus.net/blog/2012/03/15/powerline-...

In reply to a post by professor973:

As for interferrence look up the Intel white paper on how USB 3 emits interferrence on the 2.4 GHz spectrum

The only ones I have seen, had to place a wireless dongle on top of a USB3 connecter to show interference. A long way from mains-borne interference, or radiating mains wiring.
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/io/universal-...

Yes and in a laptop how close will the wireless card will be near the USB ports.

Most laptops will have the wireless card in the middle of the base and USB ports on either side.

And now we have USB 3 coming on laptops now and all Intel suggests is keeping the USB ports away from wireless network cards.

How do you achieve that on a laptop or will costs go up by hard shielding the USB ports?

In reply to a post by undecidedadrian:

In reply to a post by professor973:

As for interferrence look up the Intel white paper on how USB 3 emits interferrence on the 2.4 GHz spectrum

The only ones I have seen, had to place a wireless dongle on top of a USB3 connecter to show interference. A long way from mains-borne interference, or radiating mains wiring.
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/io/universal-...

Yes and in a laptop how close will the wireless card will be near the USB ports.

Most laptops will have the wireless card in the middle of the base and USB ports on either side.

And now we have USB 3 coming on laptops now and all Intel suggests is keeping the USB ports away from wireless network cards.

How do you achieve that on a laptop or will costs go up by hard shielding the USB ports?

I agree with most of what you have said, though there is 5gHz wireless and still a long way from widespread homeplug interference.

All the ring mains are hooked to the same bus-bar in the consumer unit. Does not make any difference here with the T-Link ones I evaluated.

Edited by professor973 (Thu 06-Jun-13 10:42:42)

Don't think i'll be going for the Devolo 500 series anymore as external reviews cement what has been touched on in this thread about poor speeds etc. My electrical wiring must be around 20-25 years old I reckon. I did read that daisy chaining pass through homeplugs may give better results due to the filters.

I'm still looking into homeplugs but am also considering moving the Plusnet router into a different area of my home and using its 3 idle LAN ports.

Presumably it's perfectly fine to use a 10-15m ethernet cable to connect it back to the Openreach fibre modem? The default one is probably a metre or less in length.

Edited by deleted (Tue 11-Jun-13 14:13:34)

In reply to a post by RiffRaff:

Presumably it's perfectly fine to use a 10-15m ethernet cable to connect it back to the Openreach fibre modem? The default one is probably a metre or less in length.

Yes, should be fine well in excess of that length.