Powerline vs ethernet cable wiring

Merlin

The Tech Wizard
I must say I was sceptical about this at first, but it was a cissco product.
I got the Powerline kit and it set up so easy.
I tested the speed using the LG blu ray network player connection and I was amazed, it actually works great.
The only thing is, you need to go straight to the electrical outlet and no power strips or surge protectors.
So anyone wodering how to get a good internet connection to a part of the house that has wireless connection problems, this IS the answer

Merlin
 

evilives34

Obliviot
i think so psi, AT&T wired my condo with the powerline connection, it comes from outside to in my condo though the wiring so i must have come though the breaker box.

and i got to say if you dont want to wire/cant your house its a good option, i've not seen any lost in speed
 

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
Powerline-ethernet networking is a great solution when WIFI fails or proves unreliable. The only drawback is that quite a few things impact signal quality, and the worse the quality the slower the link speed will be.

About two years back I bought two Netgear powerline-ethernet devices for personal use, and always had trouble with them. The signal wouldn't work at all in a few rooms, in others I could only get a weak signal which was barely enough for web surfing, let alone anything else.

Some tips with these things... NO powerline-ethernet adapter is designed to work with a surge protector, and even a simple powerstrip, extension cord, or plug adapter can impair the signal and drop the quality significantly. Any sort of device that generates line "noise" on the same circuit will also cause problems. Any high-amp devices on the same breaker as the ethernet source adapter can outright block the signal, such as a window AC unit.

200Mbps has been the Homeplug standard for awhile now. That said these Linksys units look to be a completely new model, even CNet's review of them is two months old. Generally the reviews on these are noticeably more positive than those I saw when dealing with the Netgear powerline-ethernet setup, so I do wonder if they finally improved the standard and worked out some of the signal integrity issues on these things.

Can it pass thru the breaker box or must the devices be on the same circuit?

It is designed to pass through a breaker to reach the entire house or building, although the breaker box will degrade the signal to some extent. Two breakers will be almost guaranteed to block the signal though. The type of breaker box also makes a difference, newer buildings with more recent breaker box types are supposed to have less of an issue.
 

Merlin

The Tech Wizard
I'm getting full bars on all connections at the bluray player. Netflix,Cinemanow, Pandora and they added an MLB channels for live play.
Again I used the top plug on wall for both powerline connections, the Router is a linksys N and the speed at the modem is 10 mbps. I'm in Florida now and no longer work for comcast so Ihave to pay for my connection now.
 
Top