HomePlug

ruddock08 · 29-12-2009, 10:10

I'm looking at getting some good quality homeplugs installed, as the wireless is giving me some issues. Now the house I live in, the electrical cabling is 15 years old. I had a pair of cheap homeplugs before, which worked, but not very well (I put this down to price, they were about £19.99 or something stupid). Now I am going to be putting a NAS into my network soon, and I want everyone to be able to use it at at leats 5MB/ sec. Can anyone shed some light onto some good homeplug sets and/or how well they will perform?

Thanks

TheNorm · 29-12-2009, 10:54

I've been using Solwise products for years (http://www.solwise.co.uk/), and my wiring is more than 15 years old.

Solwise have very good after sales support, which is a definite plus with this technology.

altis · 29-12-2009, 10:55

http://www.solwise.co.uk/solwisemedi...HomePlugIntro3

*** Snap ***

ZrByte · 29-12-2009, 11:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by ruddock08

I'm looking at getting some good quality homeplugs installed, as the wireless is giving me some issues. Now the house I live in, the electrical cabling is 15 years old. I had a pair of cheap homeplugs before, which worked, but not very well (I put this down to price, they were about £19.99 or something stupid). Now I am going to be putting a NAS into my network soon, and I want everyone to be able to use it at at leats 5MB/ sec. Can anyone shed some light onto some good homeplug sets and/or how well they will perform?

Thanks

I think the only problem you may have is throughput. I have tried two 200mb homeplugs before now on the same 4 way strip with no surge protection and never achieved more than 4MB/s.
I use my 80mb pair to connect the attic to the router downstairs and I only normally get around 2MB/s. This is fine even for watching blu-rays etc but not so good for file transfers.

ruddock08 · 30-12-2009, 12:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZrByte

I think the only problem you may have is throughput. I have tried two 200mb homeplugs before now on the same 4 way strip with no surge protection and never achieved more than 4MB/s.
I use my 80mb pair to connect the attic to the router downstairs and I only normally get around 2MB/s. This is fine even for watching blu-rays etc but not so good for file transfers.

Solwise ones seem alright, very amateur website though! I was looking at some Netgear XBE1004 or something like that.. any ideaS?

altis · 30-12-2009, 14:16

Before using these, I suggest you check for any radio hams nearby:

http://www.icomuk.co.uk/categoryRend...508&cCID=16650
http://www.rsgb.org/emc/pdfs/plt/emcplc.pdf

ruddock08 · 30-12-2009, 17:34

And radio hams are? I'm confused..

Graham M · 30-12-2009, 17:36

Amateur Radioists

altis · 30-12-2009, 18:03

Good Grief! You'll be asking who Tony Hancock is next!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mEiM0DyVBI

Jon T · 30-12-2009, 19:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graham M

Amateur Radioists

Radio Amatuers if you don't mind

including Kymmy and myself.

The RSGB(Radio Society of Great Britain) are trying to raise the funds to force a judical review on the legality of these devices. They work as a radio transmitter, but instead of feeding their output into an aerial, they use your mains wiring as a balanced line transmission line, the same as your phone wiring minus the twists. The balance, meaning equal spacing, length and termination impedance of the tranmisson line helps to keep wanted signals in, and unwanted signals out.

This falls down when talking about electrical wiring, as there as never been a greater mis-noma, imbalances, no termination, changing impedance due to thing being plugged in, switched off/on. The result is signals being transmitted from your electrical wiring, it's not like transmitter directly plugged into an antenna, it is one.

Now some homeplugs are "notched" meaning they don't use the frequencies of certain users, however some are not.

The problem, at least from my point of view, is that they are unlicensed radio tranmitters, and should be dealt with in the same way as pirate radio stations, in addition to this, the type approval that they were tested to/against was a dodgy German standard that highly debatable.

andyandy · 30-12-2009, 20:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by ruddock08

I'm looking at getting some good quality homeplugs installed, as the wireless is giving me some issues. Now the house I live in, the electrical cabling is 15 years old. I had a pair of cheap homeplugs before, which worked, but not very well (I put this down to price, they were about £19.99 or something stupid). Now I am going to be putting a NAS into my network soon, and I want everyone to be able to use it at at leats 5MB/ sec. Can anyone shed some light onto some good homeplug sets and/or how well they will perform?

Thanks

I use devolo home plugs - and find them faultless. Mainly using them for PS3 / Xbox and dont not suffer from any dropouts etc. They are not exactly cheap, but I would give them a big thumbs up

This is the main site: http://www.devolo.co.uk/

TheNorm · 30-12-2009, 21:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jon T

...Now some homeplugs are "notched" meaning they don't use the frequencies of certain users, however some are not.....

Interesting - I never knew that! Is there an "approved list" of devices with minimal interference? The last thing I want to do is annoy a ham, especially during the holidays...

Jon T · 30-12-2009, 21:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheNorm

Interesting - I never knew that! Is there an "approved list" of devices with minimal interference? The last thing I want to do is annoy a ham, especially during the holidays...

Devolo seem to claim some sort or presence of "notching". From their "General FAQ",

Quote:

Does dLAN® interfere with amateur radio or broadcast radio reception?
No. dLAN® adapters transmit data in the frequency band from 2-30 MHz with an extremely low signal strength, amateur radio frequencies in this range are not used by the dLAN® adapters.

Couldn't find an equivelent statement on Solwise's website.

Waldo Pepper · 02-01-2010, 04:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by andyandy

I use devolo home plugs - and find them faultless. Mainly using them for PS3 / Xbox and dont not suffer from any dropouts etc. They are not exactly cheap, but I would give them a big thumbs up

This is the main site: http://www.devolo.co.uk/

My sentiments too. £59 a pair from Maplin and are very good.

andyandy · 02-01-2010, 09:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by andyandy

I use devolo home plugs - and find them faultless. Mainly using them for PS3 / Xbox and dont not suffer from any dropouts etc. They are not exactly cheap, but I would give them a big thumbs up

This is the main site: http://www.devolo.co.uk/

Quote:

Originally Posted by Waldo Pepper

My sentiments too. £59 a pair from Maplin and are very good.

Amazon have some at about £49 right now too.