Looking for solution - Powerline and wireless not work properly

[irishbeast]

Hi all,

 

In short I have decided to use one of my desktops as my office PC instead of my laptop.  One of the frustrations was that the laptop was a little old and whilst the wifi was fine it only hit about 10% of my bandwidth on a good day, think it only dsupport 2.4G. Which was fine for work but in any case I have given it to the GF now as she needs it more than me and brought the desktop in. A reasonable powerful unit. 

 

I have a 500 meg fibre connection that rarely drops below 400.  I have a dongle which is meant to support up to 1GB and a powerline which is meant to support up to 500 meg. 

 

Both of them are getting about 50/70 meg respectively which is disappointing. The Virgin Media router I use is not well reknowned for great coverage but I live in a small flat nso shouldn't be an issue. The other problem is that for some reason when I shut down the PC and start again in the morning I have to reconnect the powerline which I don't understand at all, even the wifi sometimes doesn't autreconnect, which is just as annoying as the speed issue. Have used of dongles/adaptors loads in the past and have been very pleased with them. 

 

Before I get someone out to drill  a hole in the wall to run an ethernet cable through, can anyone suggest why I might be getting such crappy speeds. when I use my phone near the router I get 460 meg ish. Direct connection via ethernet on any device is retty much full speed. Don't have loads of devices all running through the air. 3/4 maybe

 

Few options I can think of. 

 

Get a decent wifi extender - Seems a bit crazy give the size of the place. I know decent ones are pricey too

Get a better wifi dongle/PCI card - Could always get it and send back to amazon if its rubbish

Try a better powerline adaptor. Although the bottleneck could be my electricity circuit as opposed to the adaptors. 

 

And the other option already mentioned is drilling holes, which I would rather not but it might have to be done. Only recently upgraded from 68 meg to 500 so want to reap the rewards!

 

Help appreciated as always

 

[1sascha]

11 minutes ago, irishbeast said:

can anyone suggest why I might be getting such crappy speeds.

What kind of powerline adapter(s) do you use? What protocol/standard do they support?

 

I'm using Devolo's "Magic 2" DLAN which supports (on paper) up to 2,400 Mbit/s - but even in real life those things should get close to 1,000 Mbit/s. Other brands I've checked out only supported older/slower transfer protocols, so their performance is markedly slower - both on paper and in RL. Case in point: My cheapo stand-alone WiFi extender only gets me around 10% of the actual speed of my VDSL connection.

 

And even with those better powerline adapters I went with, operation hasn't been flawless. For some reason, nearly every day between 2000 and 2030 hours I will experience connection problems between the two adapters. I have no idea why this is the case, but I suspect that someone in the building is using a power-hungry device during those hours or perhaps my fridge switches into auto-defrost mode around that time or something. Point is: When powerline-LANs work, they can work brilliantly ... but AFAIK they're rather vulnerable to all sorts of disturbances since those powerlines aren't meant to transfer LAN-signals and lack proper shielding.

 

BTW: Are you using some sort of software to control/pair/reset your adapters? It took me a few days to realize that I don't have to run through the apartment to physically press that button every time I want to re-pair the two units.

 

22 minutes ago, irishbeast said:

Before I get someone out to drill  a hole in the wall to run an ethernet cable through,

Honestly, if that had been an option for me in this apartment, I would've done it. Is there any reason why you couldn't use a cable (considering the fact that you live in a smaller flat)? Before I moved here, I had always used an ethernet cable to link my desktop PC directly to my router and I never had any trouble with that... except for the fact that I had a cable running through the hallway that is..

 

You might not even need to drill a hole. Get one of those super-flat ethernet cables and use some double-sided tape and/or cable channels to hide it from view as best as you can.

 

 

 

 

S.

[Falcon1986]

1 hour ago, irishbeast said:

The other problem is that for some reason when I shut down the PC and start again in the morning I have to reconnect the powerline which I don't understand at all, even the wifi sometimes doesn't autreconnect, which is just as annoying as the speed issue.

Powerline is a finicky technology. It works for some people but doesn't work for others. That's because the units will automatically negotiate the best speeds depending upon the quality of the line signal on the electrical circuit. If the wiring itself is old, passes through surge protectors or line conditioners, or has high-draw appliances connected (e.g. microwaves, fridges, freezers, etc.) then the quality of the signal will never be reliable. That's why I would never recommend Powerline over ethernet unless if Powerline is your last resort and you don't mind the slow and unreliable speeds.

 

1 hour ago, irishbeast said:

The Virgin Media router I use is not well reknowned for great coverage but I live in a small flat nso shouldn't be an issue.

Contrary to popular belief, WiFi might work better in larger dwellings compared to smaller ones. The major limitation is physical obstruction that attenuates the signal. Smaller houses might have more walls for the signal to penetrate whereas larger ones are more spread out so signal attenuation happens at further distances, by which time it would die off anyway.

 

1 hour ago, irishbeast said:

Before I get someone out to drill  a hole in the wall to run an ethernet cable through, can anyone suggest why I might be getting such crappy speeds. when I use my phone near the router I get 460 meg ish. Direct connection via ethernet on any device is retty much full speed. Don't have loads of devices all running through the air. 3/4 maybe

In most cases, poor WiFi performance is due to interference from other neighbourhood WiFi. This happens a lot in apartment complex situations and is made worse if you're only using 2.4GHz. While 2.4GHz is good for range, it's so heavily utilized and narrow that you're going to get a lot of interference.

 

At other times it can be due to poor AP/antenna placement or sub-optimal WiFi setting tuning.

 

Things to try:

1. Move the Hub to somewhere more central in the house, preferably elevated from ground level and away from any immediate obstruction. Don't jam it up against the wall in the far corner of the house, stick it in a cabinet or place it on the floor.
2. If your Hub comes with external antennae, check to make sure they're securely fastened and properly oriented.
3. Post the WiFi settings being used by the Hub. Information to determine are broadcast channel (for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz), channel width, protocols supported, security/encryption type.
4. Post a screenshot of a wireless survey channel analysis using a WiFi analyzer such as WiFiman on mobile.

[irishbeast]

Firstly, thanks for the reponses. Quite a bit of good info there.

 

I live in asmall flat block. Only 2 flats and 2 houses. When I do a wifi scan not much comes up so don't think there would be massive intereference. Tried changing channels etc but to no avail. 

 

The powerline adaptors I have are very old so that I think about it, so suspect they might be the problem.

 

Running a cable would not be a disaster and might in fact be the best solution (and cheap) but was just really hoping to utilise what I have,

 

I remember thinking when I bought the adaptors that 500meg was outrageous as even getting 50 at that point was for the lucky/rich!

 

The superflat cable suggested by @1sascha could be an option. I'm just trying to think where I could drill hole sand run the cable but its not horribly complex. For the UK 500mbps is almost as quick as it gets and I suspect maybe the wireless hardware is not quite up to sracth despite their claims). Ultimately a direct ethernet connection would be the best and put my mind at rest but was just suprised that the powerline was so rubbish as I have always thought them to be incredibly effective. Maybe the model I have is just outdated. Seems a waste of money buying a new one but I am happy about to pay £1200 for a 3080ti!

 

Thanks again all, such a helpful forum

 

 

[irishbeast]

This is tempting but a bit pricey

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Retractable-Meter-Ethernet-Network-Extender/dp/B01LVZ3UI6/ref=sxin_14_pa_sp_search_thematic_sspa?crid=HL6YQA4L948C&cv_ct_cx=20+metre+ethernet+cable+retractable&keywords=20+metre+ethernet+cable+retractable&pd_rd_i=B01LVZ3UI6&pd_rd_r=2838b8af-6e6b-442d-a3c8-8634578c8a10&pd_rd_w=aHLDx&pd_rd_wg=BfuZs&pf_rd_p=7468d229-fb8e-4951-8ff4-df03d0bdb454&pf_rd_r=5E3KGA3767GAVENVEN7T&qid=1647959901&sprefix=20+metre+ethernet+cable+tractable%2Caps%2C51&sr=1-1-b75715df-0cbd-4312-a971-de5362256967-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFCS0IyQUNYVks4VTUmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA3OTc1OTYzT0xUU0VYQlJFMkZKJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTEwMzM1MDRESUJFRDhGR1lSUEgmd2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9zZWFyY2hfdGhlbWF0aWMmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

 

Maybe I could save money by getting drunk and punching a hole in the wall! 

Joking aside the wall I need a hole in is about the only solic one in the bloody place!

[1sascha]

AFAIK, those flat cables (perhaps there are even slimmer ones than the one I linked to randomly) should be flat enough to run them underneath a door. Other than that:

 

 

 

In case you do want to go powerline, the adapters I'm using are here:

 

Devolo Magic 2 DLAN

 

...but are horrendously expensive at amazon.co.uk for some reason. I paid 72 €uros for the 2-pack starter set at amazon.de where they were on sale that day. I'm sure with a bit of snooping around you could get it for a similar price in the UK. No matter what brand you choose if you should decide to get new powerline adapters: AFAIK, the protocol you want (for maximum speed and stability) is "HomePlug AV2" - emphasis on the "2", because there is an older version of that standard.

 

And like I said: They work for me 99% of the time and when they do:

 

 

 

I have a VDSL connection rated at 50,000 k/50Mbit down and 10,000k/10Mbit up. Distance between the two adapters is probably 6 to 8 meters of powerline and I'm pretty sure the connection runs through the fusebox. If it weren't for those mysterious connection losses around 2000hrs, I'd be a happy camper..

 

 

 

S.