Re: OT: Power line network adaptors (was: Okay,maybeit's time to call it a day...)

[Dan Goodinson]

I did a bit of googling, and found a range of products... Main concern at the moment is that the maximum transfer rate is around 14mbps so average transfer speed are probably more like 8-10mbps. In fact, that's slower than my wireless right now.

Although it would seem that 85mbps adaptors are on their way, and should be available in the UK in a few weeks.

Max transfer rates of 85mbps is probably going to translate to about 50mbps average. That's a bit more like it, and it faster than my wireless right now. I reckon I'll hold out for that.

My wireless is supposed to be up to 125mbps; Yeah, right. Sigh.

-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-bounces (AT) lists (DOT) slimdevices.com [mailto:discuss-bounces (AT) lists (DOT) slimdevices.com] On Behalf Of Robin Bowes
Sent: 23 September 2005 12:50
To: discuss (AT) lists (DOT) slimdevices.com
Subject: Re: [slim] Re: OT: Power line network adaptors (was: Okay, maybeit's time to call it a day...)


Philip Downer wrote:
> On Fri, 2005-09-23 at 03:42 -0700, Fifer wrote:
>
>>I haven't used them but 'this'
>>(http://www.devolo.co.uk/uk_EN/button/dlanfaq.html) might help answer
>>some of your questions.
>
>
> I can highly recommend the Devolo homeplug products they are very
> good, and they have now released setup tools for Linux and OS X which
> work very well.

I've just ordered an Acer Homeplug Ethernet Kit from Amazon - two
adaptors for £42 delivered!

If they don't work, they're going back, but you can't complain at the price!

R.
--
http://robinbowes.com

If a man speaks in a forest,
and his wife's not there,
is he still wrong?

[Robin Bowes]

Dan Goodinson wrote:
>
> Although it would seem that 85mbps adaptors are on their way, and
> should be available in the UK in a few weeks.

Which manufacturers are producing these? Do you have any links?

R.
--
http://robinbowes.com

If a man speaks in a forest,
and his wife's not there,
is he still wrong?

[CavesOfTQLT]

Main concern at the moment is that the maximum transfer rate is around 14mbps so average transfer speed are probably more like 8-10mbps. In fact, that's slower than my wireless right now.

But if my SB2 works like a dream using them then I'll be more than happy. £42 for those Acer babies sounds okay to me if they do work without issue; Robin please report back with your findings when you get them - thanks.

[Dan Goodinson]

Indeed

I hate to say it (as you probably don't want to hear it but my SB1 is
working fine via wireless... I was only really thinking about the
adaptors for regular network use i.e. not related to SB (hence
off-topic).

In fact, I just chatted to a guy at Solwise (see previous post, with
links for 85mbps power-line devices) and he reckons that his bench test
showed "true" transfer speeds (based on transferring a large data file)
of:

approx 7mbps for a 14mbps-rated device;
approx 40mbps for a 54G-rated setup (with units only a few feet apart
and therefore pretty much 100% signal strength); and, I think
approx 25mbps for an 85mbps-rated device.

I wonder if I heard him right, as 25mbps sounds a bit low. He mentioned
some specs on the Solwise site, so I'm looking for this data before I
commit to buying... Even 25mbps would be pretty good but still not much
different to my current wifi setup. The only benefit would be that
there would be no interference caused by cordless phones or microwaves.
I need to do a bit more research into the noise on a standard electrical
supply line though, as it seems that these things are still susceptible
to a noisy line...

[Robin Bowes]

CavesOfTQLT wrote:
> Dan Goodinson Wrote:
>
>>Main concern at the moment is that the maximum transfer rate is around
>>14mbps so average transfer speed are probably more like 8-10mbps. In
>>fact, that's slower than my wireless right now.
>
> But if my SB2 works like a dream using them then I'll be more than
> happy. £42 for those Acer babies sounds okay to me if they do work
> without issue; Robin please report back with your findings when you get
> them - thanks.

Will do. Be aware that the delivery estimate is 6 Oct - 15 Oct 2005, so
it could be about a month before I report back.

R.

--
http://robinbowes.com

If a man speaks in a forest,
and his wife's not there,
is he still wrong?

[CavesOfTQLT]

Robin: Yes, I spotted the delay on the Amazon site. No worries.

FWIW to anyone interested I e-mailed Belkin support Wed. and received a reply back today. They've suggested turning on the router's UPnP mode, so wanting to give anything a try I have and I'll see what happens. Annoying I go away tomorrow so I can't give it a thorough test until I return.

[jhall_uk]

Taken from http://www.solwise.co.uk/net-powerline.htm

These were the results:

<quote>
PL14 - 14Meg Homeplug adapter: 7.5Mb/s
PL85 - 85Meg Homeplug Turbo adapter: 25Mb/s
54g Wifi - 14Mb/s
<end quote>

Note the big difference in favour of the 85meg powerline network vs wireless G.I would be interested to see a comparison with turbo G - like my US Robotics 125mbps wireless connection.

You pay approx £27 in the UK for the old 14mbps units and £47 for the faster model.

I'm sure wireless is fine for average Slimserver to SB activity -I use a mixture of the technologies at home and with a SB2 and Slimpey, and experience no problems piggy backing over both the wireless and powerline network.

Once you start introducing a SB in every room, and start whacking video data down the network to/from your living room to record/watch tv etc. it becomes a different matter and you may find the extra bandwith/reliability useful of either a fully CAT5 wired or 85mbps Powerline network.