Powerline with WiFi

Nebulous2

Hi folks - we’re moving to an old house with thick walls. I’m going to be setting up a turbo for my bike in the garage and need WiFi. The signal in the garage is poor to non-existent. It looks like a Powerline system would be best, I’d prefer one with WiFi and there are limited sockets so passthrough would also be good. Any suggestions? 

I’m going up this weekend and intend checking to ensure the garage is on the same ring as the socket where the router lives, which I understand is needed. 

a

Don't rule out a mesh system, preferably go for the higher powered one.

Chrishazle

Although I have BT Halo2, so wi-fi throughout the house is good, our main internet users (2 x PC's, 2 x BT/Youview boxes) are on BT 1Gb powerline pass through ethernet connections. I have never regretted changing those 4 items from wifi to powerline/ethernet, it's so much faster and stable than in our Wifi days! Just wish Facebook would allow ethernet connection to our Portal TV as we do get occasional unexplained drop-outs when using it, apparently Portal and Portal+ can do this but not (yet??) Portal TV, which is a shame because the Portal TV is fantastic.

Biggus_Dickus

Nebulous2 said:

Hi folks - we’re moving to an old house with thick walls. I’m going to be setting up a turbo for my bike in the garage and need WiFi. The signal in the garage is poor to non-existent. It looks like a Powerline system would be best, I’d prefer one with WiFi and there are limited sockets so passthrough would also be good. Any suggestions? 

I’m going up this weekend and intend checking to ensure the garage is on the same ring as the socket where the router lives, which I understand is needed. 

Not necessarily;...I have powerline adaptors (TP-Link) communicating quite happily across different ring main circuitry.

I have an almost new consumer unit and they run perfectly,...fast and very stable.,...and they worked equally well on the old style ‘fused’ consumer unit.

I have seen posts where people have reported problems, but purely on a personal level I haven’t encountered any.

P.S. you may find this article useful.

https://homenetworkgeek.com/do-powerline-adapters-need-to-be-on-the-same-circuit/#Do_Powerline_Adapters_Work_on_Different_Ring_Circuits

fred246

I think there are 2 groups of people who have trouble with powerline adapters.
1)People with strange wiring in their houses.
2)People who can't be bothered to read instructions and work out how things work.
It's hard to know the percentage in each group.

Biggus_Dickus

Nebulous2 said:

Hi folks - we’re moving to an old house with thick walls. I’m going to be setting up a turbo for my bike in the garage and need WiFi. The signal in the garage is poor to non-existent. It looks like a Powerline system would be best, I’d prefer one with WiFi and there are limited sockets so passthrough would also be good. Any suggestions? 

I’m going up this weekend and intend checking to ensure the garage is on the same ring as the socket where the router lives, which I understand is needed. 

The powerline adaptors with Wi-Fi and pass-through seem  quite expensive. For what it’s worth, in my experience running a powerline adaptor on a good quality short’ish extension lead has negligible effect on its performance.

wongataa

In my experience putting powerline adaptors on any extension lead results in terrible performance.

Biggus_Dickus

wongataa said:

In my experience putting powerline adaptors on any extension lead results in terrible performance.

Extension leads  with 'surge protection' can cause problems if reports are to be believed,...but a bog-standard good quality extension lead has never caused me any problems whatsoever, and I've used quite a number of powerline adaptors with extension leads for many years now. I can only report my own experience though.  

John_

Biggus_Dickus said:

wongataa said:

In my experience putting powerline adaptors on any extension lead results in terrible performance.

Extension leads  with 'surge protection' can cause problems if reports are to be believed,...but a bog-standard good quality extension lead has never caused me any problems whatsoever, and I've used quite a number of powerline adaptors with extension leads for many years now. I can only report my own experience though.  

I think that you’ve just explained a really annoying problem that I’ve been having, thank you!
I’d swapped extension leads, and my power line system had failed, and this could well be why.

Ant555

Im not sure if this is now sorted but I bought one of these for my daughters student house as she is in the loft room ans the wifi signal for online lectures was non-existant
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07349P1TX
Its not cheap and I may have over specced but it works an absolute treat.  The loft rooms are on a different fuse in the fusebox to the doenstaits where the router is so I didnt know if it would work ok bit it works great.  The remote unit in my daughters bedroom not only has its own wifi  configured out of the box but a pass through socket and also wired ethernet - she just uses a wire for the lap top during the day for lectures and connects to the wifi on her phone, In an evening she connects the lap top to the wifi.

I ordered on Amazon and got it sent direct - talked her through the setup over the phone, we were up and running in 5 mins.
Hope this helps.

Nebulous2

Biggus_Dickus said:

Nebulous2 said:

Hi folks - we’re moving to an old house with thick walls. I’m going to be setting up a turbo for my bike in the garage and need WiFi. The signal in the garage is poor to non-existent. It looks like a Powerline system would be best, I’d prefer one with WiFi and there are limited sockets so passthrough would also be good. Any suggestions? 

I’m going up this weekend and intend checking to ensure the garage is on the same ring as the socket where the router lives, which I understand is needed. 

The powerline adaptors with Wi-Fi and pass-through seem  quite expensive. For what it’s worth, in my experience running a powerline adaptor on a good quality short’ish extension lead has negligible effect on its performance.

Thanks very much. That was very much my thinking. The one linked to by someone else is about £120, where if I used an extension lead this would do?  

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/networking/powerline/tp-link-wpa4220-wifi-powerline-adapter-kit-av600-twin-pack-10153178-pdt.html

I need an extension cable anyway, which is why I would need the passthrough. I will be running a fan, turbo trainer, laptop and big screen. There is only one double socket and something is plugged in to one side permanently. We intend getting the place rewired, at which point the garage will have more sockets so the passthrough is only needed short-term.