Wi-fi extender or powerline?

DoaM

S0litaire wrote: »

Anyone use Powerline Adapters on short (1m) extension cord compared to a adapter with a 5m or 6m cat6 cable?

I've used it on an extension block that had at least a 2m cable on it, and it worked fine. The extension block did not however have surge protection built in - that's what's more likely to kill powerline comms.

mamazaac

psychic_teabag wrote: »

Technically it should be possible - just a case of finding software or a HOWTO to do it. (Quite straightforward on linux.) I'm not the best person to ask for windows, but googling for things like "share windows broadband over wireless" gives
http://lifehacker.com/5369381/turn-your-windows-7-pc-into-a-wireless-hotspot
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/enable-internet-sharing-wifi-hotspot-windows-8
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/turn-windows-wifi-hotspot-share-internet-connection/

It should be free to give it a try. I don't know if a wireless card can be configured to be both a client of your main router's wifi and also a hotspot server. (Even if you can, it would obviously reduce the available bandwidth.) Might need to use a long ethernet cable to link pc to router for the purposes of the experiment. (This would be replaced by the powerline adapter once you get those.)

Does anyone know about ad-hoc wifi ? Maybe this is another approach - rather than designating a single master wifi server, they're supposed to form on-the-fly links, possibly forwarding packets between themselves ? I know it exists, but I've never found very much information about them.

Thanks for all your help, to start with think I will get a couple of cheaper powerlines and set up the wi-fi hotspot. Just one more question if I may. If I was to want to add another powerline adapter at a later date, would it have to be the same brand and same mbps of powerline or will different brands/mbps adapters work together?

Chrishazle

Different mbps adapters will work together - when the BTTV engineer first installed my BTTV, I already had 2 of their gigabyte mini connectors hooked up between the router and the PC, he installed 2 of their 500mb adapters from the router to the TV and it all worked.

Don't know about different brands.

psychic_teabag

Chrishazle wrote: »

Different mbps adapters will work together - when the BTTV engineer first installed my BTTV, I already had 2 of their gigabyte mini connectors hooked up between the router and the PC, he installed 2 of their 500mb adapters from the router to the TV and it all worked.

Don't know about different brands.

(note that I am in no way an expert in any of this...)

Different brands can work together, as long as they implement the same standard. But you won't be able to mix different mbs adapters - at best, the faster ones will probably have to fall back to the lowest common rate. I suppose they *might* be able to use high speed between themselves and lower speed for the other, but I'd doubt it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HomePlug#Interoperability

I've acquired various powerline adapters from the local charity shop over the last year. (People upgrading to newer technologies ?) The first two pairs I got did not work together (both were 200Mbps but didn't mention AV standard - and of course I didn't have the box or instructions). Then I was lucky enough to find another set of 4. I tested it with one of the pairs, and when it didn't work just assumed that different brands didn't work together. But then happened to try them with the other pair (fortunately just before giving them away) and was pleased to find that they did work. Which allowed me to radically simplify my home network.

When I was reading about the new AV2 standard, one page I found said that while different brands ought to work together, the ones they tested unfortuantely did not.
http://www.techhive.com/article/2990024/home-networking/homeplug-av2-mimo-stretches-the-definition-of-standard-to-the-breaking-point.html

I think I saw that there is no official standard for 500mbps or 600mbps - they are proprietry extensions, and so may not work across brands. (They may drop down to 200Mb to interoperate with other devices, though..?)

mamazaac

psychic_teabag wrote: »

(note that I am in no way an expert in any of this...)

Different brands can work together, as long as they implement the same standard. But you won't be able to mix different mbs adapters - at best, the faster ones will probably have to fall back to the lowest common rate. I suppose they *might* be able to use high speed between themselves and lower speed for the other, but I'd doubt it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HomePlug#Interoperability

I've acquired various powerline adapters from the local charity shop over the last year. (People upgrading to newer technologies ?) The first two pairs I got did not work together (both were 200Mbps but didn't mention AV standard - and of course I didn't have the box or instructions). Then I was lucky enough to find another set of 4. I tested it with one of the pairs, and when it didn't work just assumed that different brands didn't work together. But then happened to try them with the other pair (fortunately just before giving them away) and was pleased to find that they did work. Which allowed me to radically simplify my home network.

When I was reading about the new AV2 standard, one page I found said that while different brands ought to work together, the ones they tested unfortuantely did not.
http://www.techhive.com/article/2990024/home-networking/homeplug-av2-mimo-stretches-the-definition-of-standard-to-the-breaking-point.html

I think I saw that there is no official standard for 500mbps or 600mbps - they are proprietry extensions, and so may not work across brands. (They may drop down to 200Mb to interoperate with other devices, though..?)

Thank you, I see the second article was written nearly 18 months ago and seemed to think that going forward the required firmware would be added to enable interoperability. Not sure when the relevant comment was added into the Wiki article, but that suggests that the AV versions at least are interoperable, which presumably indicates that the first article's prediction was correct. Nonetheless, probably best to get one of the more well brands which also makes a wireless version, just in case I have to get one for my son's room if the hotspot doesn't improve things.

Ok, think I am ready to spend some money. Thanks to everyone for all their help and advice.:T