This may not be exciting to those of you with gigabit Ethernet, but my ISP now offers 20 Mbps service and for $6/month to upgrade from 10, that's a bargain. Pages that you used to take a couple seconds to appear are now nearly instantaneous. I am discovering other CAT5 cables in my network however. In addition the powerline adapters have some odd limits. I suspect the low data rates might be because of having to go through the circuit breakers between circuits.
UPDATE: TP-Link confirms the circuit breakers are the cause. I may have to go wireless on these or find outlets near where I want to go that are on the same circuit. I moved the wireline adapter from an outlet in the klitchen to an outlet a few feet away in the family room (on a different breaker), and download rate went from 2.3 Mbps to 8.4; still not what I should be getting but it suggests that some differences in the circuit breakers. It may make more sense to get a Wi-Fi extender and install that in the third bedroom, which has 100 Mbps Ethernet cable running to it. I have a somewhat older dlink wireless router whuich I might be able to plug into that cable and use for that purpose.
UPDATE 2: I scrapped the dlink wireless router because it seemed defective when really there was a bad connector in the wall which the ISP has since replaced. Does anyone make a wi-fi extender that takes an Ethernet input?
UPDATE 3: Settled for a TP_Link wi-fi range extender. I have 130 Mbps in the room where I will put it to reach the garage PC.
I found instructions for making a PC into a hotspot but the ancient laptop (the clunker as we call it) shuts down shortly after Windows 10 boots. Windows 10 problem? BIOS works without shutting down so I thought I would install Ubuntu Linux instead. There's instructions for doing this under Linux also. But it started shutting down under Linux as well. Someone is probably willing to buy this HP DV5126. Dual core, 2GB RAM, 1TB hybrid disk, LightScribe CD/DVD burner.
Also never plug them into surge protected power strips. They have high frequency filters.
ReplyDeleteThe more modern ethernet-over-powerline adapters (500/600) are much, much better than the old 85 and 200 ones. They use frequencies that do a much better job of crossing over between the two 120V legs in a distribution center.
ReplyDeleteAs for a wifi-extender that takes an ethernet input -- Virtually any wireless router can be put into Access Point mode and used in this fashion, with better function and lower cost than a product labeled as a "wife-extender".
Also, you can use the 5gHz side of a dual-radio, dual-band wifi-router as a backhaul to get a signal out to another 2.4gHz router, but that becomes a bit more complicated in set up.
I suspected as much but could not find a clear statement.
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