Powerline Adapters

[as216]

Morning.

Is there anyone here with much experience of using these?

My wife’s work laptop can’t pick up our wifi signal in the office upstairs and her company have provided her with two devices so far both with the same issue. They insist it’s a problem at our end and aren’t prepared to give her another machine despite every other device we own (laptops, tablets, phones, streaming stick) all working fine.

Rather than go to the hassle of drilling holes in the walls and ceilings to get the ethernet connection extended I’ve been reading about powerline adapters and was hoping for some real world knowledge about them. Online reviews are so varied and with a bewildering number of brands out there it’s hard to know where to begin. I’ve read about some having issues with overheating for example. And are they really as simple enough as plug and play once paired?

Our house is only seven years old so I’m confident the electrics are quite straightforward enough to cope ok.

[greybot]

I use them. Plug and play. Never had a problem.

[dave_who_ru]

A Netgear Wi-Fi extender for less than £30 should do the trick as your wife is using a laptop.

I also have a couple of TP Link powerline adapters that I use for older TVs but then you have to link with an ethernet cable.

I live in a 1930s semi and some of the wiring is my own from years ago!

[chrisophiex]

Originally Posted by as216

Morning.

Is there anyone here with much experience of using these?

My wife’s work laptop can’t pick up our wifi signal in the office upstairs and her company have provided her with two devices so far both with the same issue. They insist it’s a problem at our end and aren’t prepared to give her another machine despite every other device we own (laptops, tablets, phones, streaming stick) all working fine.

Rather than go to the hassle of drilling holes in the walls and ceilings to get the ethernet connection extended I’ve been reading about powerline adapters and was hoping for some real world knowledge about them. Online reviews are so varied and with a bewildering number of brands out there it’s hard to know where to begin. I’ve read about some having issues with overheating for example. And are they really as simple enough as plug and play once paired?

Our house is only seven years old so I’m confident the electrics are quite straightforward enough to cope ok.

As long as the two adaptors are on the same electrical circuit in the house you should be fine to just plug one end into your router with an Ethernet cable, and the other in a room where you want to use it, with an Ethernet cable coming from that to your laptop or pc.

TP LINK are the ones I use.

[chrisophiex]

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[Purepalace]

Originally Posted by chrisophiex

As long as the two adaptors are on the same electrical circuit in the house you should be fine to just plug one end into your router with an Ethernet cable, and the other in a room where you want to use it, with an Ethernet cable coming from that to your laptop or pc.

TP LINK are the ones I use.

Yep. Need to be on the same ring main.

[AshfordianEagle]

Used TP-Link power adapters for years in my house. We had a router at the back of the house for similar reasons to the OP, on occasion needed a restart (once in a blue moon as but you could see with the lights not flashing, but overall highly recommended.

[Johnsonpen]

Recommend TP link. Fitted new ones last night (Amazon) with one in second floor office next to router and other half way down garden in office outbuilding. Different ringmains, same fuse box and no problem. Super fast. Plug straight into laptop if having wifi probs. Very simple to fit

Don't touch BT, go wrong after a while

[as216]

Thanks everyone - looks like TP Link are the way to go (and they are one of the brands I’d come across).

[Jonboy]

Our wifi access point is in my office in the basement. I have a D-Link wireless extender so Mrs. Jonboy can use her tablet in the bedroom at the other side of the house. It cost about $20 a few years ago and works just fine. A doddle to set up.

[justjuice]

I never had any luck with them and tried a few types including TP Link. I think something caused interference on the ring periodically causing dropouts. I went with the TP Link Deco mesh network and that's been faultless.

[Adlerhorst]

I’ve tried them and it’s not great. Tried upgrading the router which helped a bit but ultimately we had cabling put in and have an additional two WAPs installed which has worked brilliantly. Getting 600-800 anywhere in the house.

[Pub Idol]

Yeah been there and done that and yes it will work OK for a bit but won't be great. After years of dealing with crap broadband I switched from Virgin to Community Fibre and its been a game changer. Get the WiFi every room and you will be sorted. You can stick one of the boxes in the office and you will be laughing. 35 a month.

[EaglesSnapBack]

Don't get a WiFi extender! Creating additional WiFi networks even on different channels degrades the existing network performance and it's messy...

The performance of a powerline adaptor will depend on the quality of your wiring and electrical noise in the system, but in my experience even in a dodgily wired house you can normally get in the region of 100Mbps.

If you are having problems with WiFi generally I strongly recommend a mesh system with powerline backhaul like the TP link Deco P9s, I have 3 in the house dotted around strategically and they work a like a charm.

Just touching on the specific laptop issue, might just be poor gain antennas in the case or a low quality WiFi card, not all hardware with a WiFi symbol is born equal!!

[Random*]

A couple of weeks ago I put in a wifi mesh network - Asus ZenWiFi AX XT8.

I got it because the number of wifi devices in the house was starting to cause my Sky router (which is only a couple of years old) problems, and there were numerous dead spots in the house. It took a bit of experimentation where to put the second unit, but I now have rock solid wifi everywhere.

Next weekend I'm going to remove the Sky box entirely and attach the wifi direct to the Fibre ONT.

[fang]

Originally Posted by Pub Idol

After years of dealing with crap broadband I switched from Virgin to Community Fibre and its been a game changer.

They really are brilliant. We've been with Community Fibre for two years and the only time we lost our 1GB connection was when a cable was burnt through during a fire at a cable junction in East London.

[Maz]

Yup, mesh.

[Stonewall]

Work Fine in my house, had them for years

[James]

Originally Posted by Random*

A couple of weeks ago I put in a wifi mesh network - Asus ZenWiFi AX XT8.

I got it because the number of wifi devices in the house was starting to cause my Sky router (which is only a couple of years old) problems, and there were numerous dead spots in the house. It took a bit of experimentation where to put the second unit, but I now have rock solid wifi everywhere.

Next weekend I'm going to remove the Sky box entirely and attach the wifi direct to the Fibre ONT.

That's exactly what I did. I used to use powerlines, but although they did the job I found them a bit flaky with occasional drop-outs and network speed suffers. I also found that they don't work on extensions. If you are a light user looking for a bit of help in WiFi deadspots they may be a decent solution, however I would highly recommend a Mesh systems. I installed an Orbi AX6000 Mesh (with Box Broadband FTTP 1Gbps) and it's been amazing. No dead-spots anywhere and no problem at all with speed.

[chrisophiex]

Mesh is great…I use TP Link Deco 5’s, but a thirty quid kit of 2 power line adapters may just do what you need. Good advice from people on here.