The Lemon Fool

pje16 wrote:Yes you can add more
best to use the same type

yes. But to the extent that they may all only work together IF they ARE the same type.

Id second Howards BT mesh suggestion. I used to have power lines but the mesh just works.

Gosh, a load of replies to digest, thank you all. I've been out all day and it will take me a while to go through these - some of which includes things I've never heard of! Devolo, for example, and BT Mesh. I'll be doing some googling for sure.

As regards the comment: all you need to do is provide WiFi to that area whilst the installer connects it (otherwise they don’t get paid the grant) from

AF62

: is that right? Unless the unit can talk via Wi-Fi you won't get the grant?

Arb.

Gerry557 wrote:Id second Howards BT mesh suggestion. I used to have power lines but the mesh just works.

Maybe this will cure my TP links dropping out several times a day. It doesn't bother me too much - I just wait a minute - but I always wonder if the connection will not come back one day!

Arb.

Arborbridge wrote:

Gerry557 wrote:Id second Howards BT mesh suggestion. I used to have power lines but the mesh just works.

Maybe this will cure my TP links dropping out several times a day. It doesn't bother me too much - I just wait a minute - but I always wonder if the connection will not come back one day!

Arb.

Well there was at least one poster on here who had issues with their BT mesh setup dropping connections all the time (including after firmware updates)...

As a general point with WiFi (or any wireless) if you've got regular dropout issues do a scan of networks/clients for RF congestion issues - swapping out equipment in a hostile environment isn't necessarily going to improve matters.

Infrasonic wrote:

Arborbridge wrote:

Gerry557 wrote:Id second Howards BT mesh suggestion. I used to have power lines but the mesh just works.

Maybe this will cure my TP links dropping out several times a day. It doesn't bother me too much - I just wait a minute - but I always wonder if the connection will not come back one day!

Arb.

Well there was at least one poster on here who had issues with their BT mesh setup dropping connections all the time (including after firmware updates)...

As a general point with WiFi (or any wireless) if you've got regular dropout issues do a scan of networks/clients for RF congestion issues - swapping out equipment in a hostile environment isn't necessarily going to improve matters.

How would I do that? - you are clearly more genned up than I am.

WiFi scanning apps...https://www.google.com/search?q=wifi+sc ... e&ie=UTF-8

Good article(s) here on the do's and don'ts of routers /WiFi / congestion et al. Have a read of all of them - they do get very geeky but it's worth understanding the fundamentals to try and avoid frustrations later on.
Written by Jim Salter (who does it for a living)...https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/02 ... placement/

Arborbridge wrote:

Infrasonic wrote:As a general point with WiFi (or any wireless) if you've got regular dropout issues do a scan of networks/clients for RF congestion issues - swapping out equipment in a hostile environment isn't necessarily going to improve matters.

How would I do that? - you are clearly more genned up than I am.

You may well already have an app built in. Click the Start button and type WiFi Analyzer.

If it's not there you can get it from https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/p/wifi-analyzer/9nblggh33n0n

I've got the free inSSIDer app on W10 as recommended in the Ars link - perfectly useable unless you want all the bells and whistles, in which case you'll have to pay.

Infrasonic wrote:I've got the free inSSIDer app on W10 as recommended in the Ars link - perfectly useable unless you want all the bells and whistles, in which case you'll have to pay.

I've been using inSSIDer for years, and it's a fine tool (although doesn't do anything different from WiFi Analyzer), but the issue I had was that the latest version, inSSIDer 4, requires you to create an account on the MetaGeek website and does periodic "license validation" (of your free license) whenever you run it thereafter.

I was a bit miffed at that, given I'd been using previous versions without having to do that, so I rolled back to v3.1.2.1 (which is still easily found on the web) and have continued to happily use that.

mc2fool wrote:

Infrasonic wrote:I've got the free inSSIDer app on W10 as recommended in the Ars link - perfectly useable unless you want all the bells and whistles, in which case you'll have to pay.

I've been using inSSIDer for years, and it's a fine tool (although doesn't do anything different from WiFi Analyzer), but the issue I had was that the latest version, inSSIDer 4, requires you to create an account on the MetaGeek website and does periodic "license validation" (of your free license) whenever you run it thereafter.

I was a bit miffed at that, given I'd been using previous versions without having to do that, so I rolled back to v3.1.2.1 (which is still easily found on the web) and have continued to happily use that.

Aha - thanks for that! Does it (ahem) have some of the later paid for features per chance?...

Infrasonic wrote:

mc2fool wrote:

Infrasonic wrote:I've got the free inSSIDer app on W10 as recommended in the Ars link - perfectly useable unless you want all the bells and whistles, in which case you'll have to pay.

I've been using inSSIDer for years, and it's a fine tool (although doesn't do anything different from WiFi Analyzer), but the issue I had was that the latest version, inSSIDer 4, requires you to create an account on the MetaGeek website and does periodic "license validation" (of your free license) whenever you run it thereafter.

I was a bit miffed at that, given I'd been using previous versions without having to do that, so I rolled back to v3.1.2.1 (which is still easily found on the web) and have continued to happily use that.

Aha - thanks for that! Does it (ahem) have some of the later paid for features per chance?...

Dunno, I haven't done a side-by-side comparison. From what I've seen from screen shots 4 looks pretty much like 3, just with a different "theme" (colours, etc), but if you're running 4 then install 3 on another system and let us know. For the basic task of seeing how much clutter there is on which channels I find 3 more than adequate.

I've got a box full of powerline adapters of various types and manufacturers, they interoperate fine and broadly they suck. The connection would drop and were prone to interference from high drain appliances eg the washing machine.

Mesh gets my vote, I have the tenda MW6 one and other members of family have deployed them, it works well and is cheap.

Arborbridge wrote: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.

1. Move one of your existing plugs down there and connect a lappy or something just to be sure.
2. Buy the same speed or faster as your existing plugs.
3. Have used powerline to run numerous tvs, computers etc. across 4 homeplugs each with a cheap ethernet hub and WAP attached in a house with ancient wiring without a problem, but had one with built in wifi adapter and it was terrible. Not a large sample and the tech may have improved but I keep my wires and my wifi separate as a result.

There is a defined standard and they interoperate fine. I have (had) multiple different Develo's and TP links working together.

However they suck Any sort of noise on the powerline and the performance drops and at worse so does the connection.

Mesh is much better.

Thanks guys. Plenty of options to play with and I'll spend awhile experimenting.

Interested to hear you all have occasional dropouts too - I just thought it was something local to me, but it's just the powerline technology.

Next step is to try to find sources of information to choose a charging point. I've had a few "votes" for podpoint and wallbox and OHME. Podpoint seem physically too big to fit anywhere except - ironically - on the far side of the garage where the signal would be worst


Arb.

Arborbridge wrote:Thanks guys. Plenty of options to play with and I'll spend awhile experimenting.

Interested to hear you all have occasional dropouts too - I just thought it was something local to me, but it's just the powerline technology.

Next step is to try to find sources of information to choose a charging point. I've had a few "votes" for podpoint and wallbox and OHME. Podpoint seem physically too big to fit anywhere except - ironically - on the far side of the garage where the signal would be worst


Arb.

We have an EO MiniPro charger which is relatively small. Whatever charger one chooses, if it's in the garage, it's definitely worth getting a tethered version in my view (cable is always attached to the charger) as plugging in to the car takes only a few seconds.

regards

Howard

Howard wrote:

Arborbridge wrote:Thanks guys. Plenty of options to play with and I'll spend awhile experimenting.

Interested to hear you all have occasional dropouts too - I just thought it was something local to me, but it's just the powerline technology.

Next step is to try to find sources of information to choose a charging point. I've had a few "votes" for podpoint and wallbox and OHME. Podpoint seem physically too big to fit anywhere except - ironically - on the far side of the garage where the signal would be worst


Arb.

We have an EO MiniPro charger which is relatively small. Whatever charger one chooses, if it's in the garage, it's definitely worth getting a tethered version in my view (cable is always attached to the charger) as plugging in to the car takes only a few seconds.

regards

Howard

Thanks, Howard. That's useful practical advice. I'll check on the EO MiniPro too.
Do you know of a site which is good for charger reviews?

Arb.

Arborbridge wrote:
Thanks, Howard. That's useful practical advice. I'll check on the EO MiniPro too.
Do you know of a site which is good for charger reviews?

Arb.

Sorry, no. Once I bought a charger I lost interest in reviews.

As you will know, one is, in fact, buying a package of charger plus installation. We used a local installer and their performance is just as important as the charger. I attempted to get three quotes and talked to neighbours about their installations. That process led me to the EO mini charger. Obtaining the grant was a bit of a faff of form filling. I waited until the car arrived before confirming installation. To be honest, as it is a second car doing around 5k miles a year, we could just use a 13 amp plug to keep it topped up, so waiting a week or two for the charger to be fitted after the car delivery wasn't a problem. Obviously the charger is useful to allow the use of cheaper off-peak electricity.

regards

Howard

Very happy with my PodPoint but I agree it is best to get a tethered charge lead. I didn't and it is a bore having to get the lead out and plug in both ends. It all worked fine for several months then started losing the wifi connection. I had an old repeater in a drawer which I put in the house near where the podpoint was installed outside and it is fine now. I have a mesh wifi system but the range did not quite reliably reach through the wall to the podpopint.