Powerline adaptors and boosters

[Arborbridge]

I notice these are sold in pairs. Indeed, I am using one of a pair this very moment on my PC.

My question is, could I plug in a third powerline adaptor on the circuit or would it confuse the existing one?

The reason for needing this is that I may soon be buying a EV charging point which will be placed on the far side of the garage where my exisiting Wi-Fi signal is too weak (judging by my mobile phone). Most (all?) of these EV systems seem to depend on a Wi-Fi connection to update or work fully.

Thanks for any suggests.

Arb.

[pje16]

Yes you can add more
best to use the same type

[BullDog]

I notice these are sold in pairs. Indeed, I am using one of a pair this very moment on my PC.

My question is, could I plug in a third powerline adaptor on the circuit or would it confuse the existing one?

The reason for needing this is that I may soon be buying a EV charging point which will be placed on the far side of the garage where my exisiting Wi-Fi signal is too weak (judging by my mobile phone). Most (all?) of these EV systems seem to depend on a Wi-Fi connection to update or work fully.

Thanks for any suggests.

Arb.

That's exactly what we had to do too. It works just fine with the power line adapter in the garage and the EV charger on the outside wall. FWIW, we went for a PodPoint EV charger, though I guess they're likely much of a muchness.

[Urbandreamer]

Yes you can have up to 5 powerline adaptors I think, as long as they are the same speed/protocol.

I have run 5, with varying degrees of sucsess. There are a lot of factors involved. Not least that some of mine are second hand.
I do run one to provide WiFi in a signal black spot.

It's a cheap solution to try. A beter solution might be to look at your WiFi, but that could be £100's.

[pje16]

The more you add the weaker the signal available becomes, especially if they are all in use
A strong signal on the primary router obviously helps the situation

[Arborbridge]

Yes you can have up to 5 powerline adaptors I think, as long as they are the same speed/protocol.

I have run 5, with varying degrees of sucsess. There are a lot of factors involved. Not least that some of mine are second hand.
I do run one to provide WiFi in a signal black spot.

It's a cheap solution to try. A beter solution might be to look at your WiFi, but that could be £100's.

Thanks. It sounds like it would be worth trying an extra powerline first as they are not expensive.
My WiFi is the standard BT hub which they sent me two years ago.

I've also seen so called "booster" adapters so that might be another approach.

Arb.

[BullDog]

The more you add the weaker the signal available becomes, especially if they are all in use
A strong signal on the primary router obviously helps the situation

The PowerLine adapters I am referring to connect to the router by LAN cable for the master adapter and use the mains wiring as a proxy for LAN cabling. No WiFi signal is required for them to operate. Not to be confused with a WiFi repeater which boosts and rebroadcasts the router WiFi signal.

PowerLine adapters may or may not have both LAN port(s) and WiFi on board.

[pje16]

It's not so much your hub, as the broadband speed you get

[BullDog]

Yes you can have up to 5 powerline adaptors I think, as long as they are the same speed/protocol.

I have run 5, with varying degrees of sucsess. There are a lot of factors involved. Not least that some of mine are second hand.
I do run one to provide WiFi in a signal black spot.

It's a cheap solution to try. A beter solution might be to look at your WiFi, but that could be £100's.

Thanks. It sounds like it would be worth trying an extra powerline first as they are not expensive.
My WiFi is the standard BT hub which they sent me two years ago.

I've also seen so called "booster" adapters so that might be another approach.

Arb.

PowerLine adapter is likely to be more reliable than a WiFi booster device. Hardwiring tends to be more robust, in general. I recommend Devolo for them.

[Arborbridge]

It's not so much your hub, as the broadband speed you get

I think my "contention ratio" will be acceptably low. Only myself and my wife "contending" plus the EV car charger when active.


Arb.

[pje16]

two users isn't much
but laptop and phone (TV possibly) would count as 3

[Arborbridge]

two users isn't much
but laptop and phone (TV possibly) would count as 3

Yes, it could be three intermittently. PC on tickover, but laptop usually shut down when not in use. TV is not online.
So PC on tickover mode, plus two of us on phones would be the normal max. Other half is usually asleep when I'm on the phone or PC and vice verse

Arb.

[pje16]

That's not a heavy demand (compared to a lot of household)
what broadband speed do you get - use your pc and nothing else when testing
https://www.speedtest.net/

[ten0rman]

I use Devolo "Hi-Speed 85" powerline adaptors. I have one connected directly to the router, one connected to the TV DVR, and one connected to my backup laptop. In the past I have had a further one connected at the farthest point of the house. I have also done some experimenting to see if the signal could get through the consumer units (two of them) and onto the off-peak system - which it did.

I don't, as a rule, use them for internet access, although to be honest, I'm not sure what the DVR does with it, but it all seems to work. In the main I use them for passing backup data from my main machine to the backup machine which they do satisfactorily albeit slowly. At one time we used to have BTTV (until I realised that we weren't using it) and despite BT trying to flog us faster "500" units, these slow "85" units worked satisfactorily. (I believe BTTV works via the internet.)

One thing I did discover was that an old Advent laptop, intercepted on its way to the tip, and which had a replacement power unit, completely killed the powerline network. Experimenting showed that it was the power unit that caused the problem, not the laptop.

I must point out that these units are quite old, many years old in fact and are probably obsolete. I understand modern units work at much higher speeds.

Many years ago, my daughter was having problems with WIFI around her then house. As it happened, she had a spare router which when I looked into it, ie read the manual - always a good idea, I discovered that this spare router could be used as a WIFI booster. And it did. Now I can't be 100% certain, but I believe I did it by connecting one of the LAN ports to the main router via "85" type powerline adaptors, and then setting the spare router to use a separate channel.

ten0rman

[bungeejumper]

Another vote for Devolo. A bit more expensive, but worth the additional cost. Unlike the unreliable TP-Link units which preceded them, our Devolos use their own password, and our smart TV seems to prefer things that way.

I have recently switched our TV from using a Devolo wifi adapter to a conventional ethernet adapter (also from Devolo), because the very thick stone walls at Bungee Towers were weakening the signal and causing very occasional dropouts. So now I've got a spare wifi unit which I can probably put out into the shed, so as to extend wifi coverage across the garden. At the moment it's too flipping cold and draughty out there, but it's a project for the spring. Happy days.

BJ

[Infrasonic]

Whichever PL adapters you get bear in mind that even in a best case scenario you'll only get around a third of the headline advertised bandwidth - more typically 20/25% (or less...).
Not an issue for most but with FTTP/cable ISP's now offering Gb+ packages you could end up with PL being your weakest networking link.
I think the latest specs are AV3.

If you can run a Cat5e or better ethernet cable you won't get that issue.
There are cables that are rated for external use, buried et al - ideal for garages and sheds.

As suggested an old wifi router could be deployed locally to provide a WAP.
https://www.google.com/search?q=using+a ... e&ie=UTF-8

MoCA is another option if you have existing Coax cable wiring from an install - it uses adapter boxes to run ethernet over coax and the speeds are pretty much the same as ethernet.
https://mocalliance.org/index.php

[BullDog]

Another vote for Devolo. A bit more expensive, but worth the additional cost. Unlike the unreliable TP-Link units which preceded them, our Devolos use their own password, and our smart TV seems to prefer things that way.

I have recently switched our TV from using a Devolo wifi adapter to a conventional ethernet adapter (also from Devolo), because the very thick stone walls at Bungee Towers were weakening the signal and causing very occasional dropouts. So now I've got a spare wifi unit which I can probably put out into the shed, so as to extend wifi coverage across the garden. At the moment it's too flipping cold and draughty out there, but it's a project for the spring. Happy days.

BJ

Migrating from TP Link to Devolo is, I think, a pretty well trodden path. The TI Limk stuff is fine until the day it isn't. Then often, the replacement is Devolo. (As an aside, I was thinking of buying one or two more adapters last week. The price of Devolo seems to have gone up quite markedly).

[AF62]

The reason for needing this is that I may soon be buying a EV charging point which will be placed on the far side of the garage where my exisiting Wi-Fi signal is too weak (judging by my mobile phone). Most (all?) of these EV systems seem to depend on a Wi-Fi connection to update or work fully.

Thanks for any suggests.

Arb.

My Ohme charger (https://www.ohme-ev.com/) doesn’t use WiFi but has a built in SIM card and uses the mobile phone network.

Also unless you actually want to use the ‘smart’ features of the charger then all you need to do is provide WiFi to that area whilst the installer connects it (otherwise they don’t get paid the grant) and then when they are gone just remove the WiFi and use it as a ‘dumb’ charger and use the timer in the car to schedule your charging.

[Infrasonic]

Another option is a dedicated Wi-Fi bridge.
Example installation here from Jim Salter (pro sys admin)... https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08 ... -easy-way/

[Howard]

two users isn't much
but laptop and phone (TV possibly) would count as 3

Yes, it could be three intermittently. PC on tickover, but laptop usually shut down when not in use. TV is not online.
So PC on tickover mode, plus two of us on phones would be the normal max. Other half is usually asleep when I'm on the phone or PC and vice verse

Arb.

A BT whole home wifi mesh system like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/BT-seamless-co ... 93197&th=1 might be worth investing in. For us it only took minutes to set up and solved all our wifi issues. A couple of years later, when installing a BEV charger, the contractor confirmed it extended to our detached garage giving a good signal.

As you are spending a lot updating your car and installing a charger, might it be worth spending a little more to upgrade to a whole house wifi system?

regards

Howard