Powerline - is it the solution for me.

[Attila the Bun]

I live in a victorian house made of dense blocks of limestone which plays absolute hell with my WiFi connections.

I was looking through the scan TO offers and found this

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/dlink...-and-powersave

and wondered if it would be a good solution to my problems.

I've not come across this system before which amazes me as I like to keep a track of what's happening in the tech world but I guess I've always lived in an area with good Broadband so have not had to find altenative solutions until now.

As always all advice gratefully recieved.

[Phage]

Almost certainly a good way to go. You may lose some packets on older wiring, but usually it's good enough for gaming, as well as your usual surfing and downloading.

[Attila the Bun]

Almost certainly a good way to go. You may lose some packets on older wiring, but usually it's good enough for gaming, as well as your usual surfing and downloading.

The house looks to have been rewired not that long ago and with all the changes I am making to it (hence my absence from HEXUS) I should be able to ensure all the old wiring is stripped out.

The main task is to get the external signal sorted because even hard wired the internet signal just disappears every now and again much to my very sweary constination.

[Phage]

I'm getting the same thing lately. My local exchange is so congested that t'intertubes just disappear about once a day.

[Attila the Bun]

This is more like 2-3 times an hour on bad days. I really need to contact the ISP and get them to run an external line check.

[Steve A]

i have been using Homeplugs for years, and i have had zero issues, i know its more expensive than wireless but for me its a no brainer.

[AledJ]

I live in a victorian house made of dense blocks of limestone which plays absolute hell with my WiFi connections.

I was looking through the scan TO offers and found this

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/dlink...-and-powersave

and wondered if it would be a good solution to my problems.

I've not come across this system before which amazes me as I like to keep a track of what's happening in the tech world but I guess I've always lived in an area with good Broadband so have not had to find altenative solutions until now.

As always all advice gratefully recieved.

I live in a Victorian house as well although some floors were replaced, which is why my sister has good wifi. Where my room is the walls prevent a decent signal being kept. I have some adapters made by netgear which do the job ( get my full line speed and ping below 20- that might be to some parts being re-wired)

[speardane]

for me they were handy but didn't seem to be a long-term solution

they seemed to get quite warm, and locked up infrequently in cold weather - say once a month, and more often in warm weather (approx once a week). S... law insisted it was always when I was in a hurry...

not difficult to resolve switch off; make and drink a cup of tea, switch on again...

[Tattysnuc]

for me they were handy but didn't seem to be a long-term solution

they seemed to get quite warm, and locked up infrequently in cold weather - say once a month, and more often in warm weather (approx once a week). S... law insisted it was always when I was in a hurry...

not difficult to resolve switch off; make and drink a cup of tea, switch on again...

I had the same experience. They are quicker than wi-fi and more than adequate for general networking. If you're going to copy large files or stream movies over them then they struggle. I tried the 100 and 200 mBit flavours and used them for a couple of years before installing cat5e cabling which has removed the bottlenecks.

Look on ebay for them - they always used to be noticably cheaper on there.

[Attila the Bun]

Thanks for all your help guys.

I think that as I'm rebuilding the inside of the house I might see how much it would cost to have Cat5 wired to the various rooms.

[peterb]

Thanks for all your help guys.

I think that as I'm rebuilding the inside of the house I might see how much it would cost to have Cat5 wired to the various rooms.

If you are having major work done, fixed cabling is the way to go, BUT - you need to do some careful planning and think about where you want the sockets, and more importantly, where you are going to run the cables back to, ie, where will your switch be? (and the switch doesn't have to be near the router, ir any server you might be thinking about, but you need to plan for now and the future.

[Attila the Bun]

If you are having major work done, fixed cabling is the way to go, BUT - you need to do some careful planning and think about where you want the sockets, and more importantly, where you are going to run the cables back to, ie, where will your switch be? (and the switch doesn't have to be near the router, ir any server you might be thinking about, but you need to plan for now and the future.

Ahha...I have reserved a small but adequate area in the approximate 3D centre of the house where I plan to run the main telephone cable to. This will be my nerve centre and will be the location of the Router/Modem, a myriad of power sockets, workdesk, manuals and any other kit that is required.

However, being new to networking, I would appreciate any pointers as to recommended hardware and/or websites that offer good specialist advice.

[peterb]

Best site for specialist advice is http://forums.hexus.net

Seriously, there are a number of home networking threads on the forums.

In terms of hardware, I personally like Netgear, as for the model, it depends on your budget.

The most important thing though (at this stage) is the cabling. Are you going to do any of it yourself?

Wherever you think you might need one outlet, install2 (or 4) cable is cheap and easy to install at this stage. You don't have to terminate it yet. Then think about your 'nerve centre'. Are you going to put in a patch panel (neat, but puts the price up), a rack system/wall cabinet (even neater, but puts the price up more) or have the wires just terminating in RJ45 plugs to plug into the switch. Cheap but not at all neat.

[Attila the Bun]

Best site for specialist advice is http://forums.hexus.net

No arguments from me on that front, most of the advice I got on building my new rig came from these forums.

In terms of hardware, I personally like Netgear, as for the model, it depends on your budget.

I've had netgear and linksys in the past and have not had any reliability issues so would happily use either...which has the better reputation/product range in you opinion?

The most important thing though (at this stage) is the cabling. Are you going to do any of it yourself?

I was thinking that I might have a go although my brother installs cable and other such telecommunication wiring so I thought I might rope him into the actually cable laying.

Wherever you think you might need one outlet, install2 (or 4) cable is cheap and easy to install at this stage. You don't have to terminate it yet. Then think about your 'nerve centre'. Are you going to put in a patch panel (neat, but puts the price up), a rack system/wall cabinet (even neater, but puts the price up more) or have the wires just terminating in RJ45 plugs to plug into the switch. Cheap but not at all neat.

Haha...I love starting completely new projects...I always have to spend the first month learning the TLAs and other technical terms. Take "patch panel" and "NAS" for instance, I have a fair idea what you may be talking about but I will now take myself away to my Cave (as the girlfriend calls it) and spend all my freetime googling and learning so that when I read all the posts I can ask relevent questions.

Anyway...thanks for your help peterB

[speardane]

yes I went the cat5e route - when we did a major extension.

it cost little (extra) to get the electrician to pull the cables and dig out the sockets, just left the job of terminating them all to us.

Found a location for a small rack mounted distribution point and a decent switch.
I'd say that network points are like power points - however many you thought you wanted 2x is more likely.

much happier with the house setup now...

[peterb]

No arguments from me on that front, most of the advice I got on building my new rig came from these forums.



I've had netgear and linksys in the past and have not had any reliability issues so would happily use either...which has the better reputation/product range in you opinion?



I was thinking that I might have a go although my brother installs cable and other such telecommunication wiring so I thought I might rope him into the actually cable laying.



Haha...I love starting completely new projects...I always have to spend the first month learning the TLAs and other technical terms. Take "patch panel" and "NAS" for instance, I have a fair idea what you may be talking about but I will now take myself away to my Cave (as the girlfriend calls it) and spend all my freetime googling and learning so that when I read all the posts I can ask relevent questions.

Anyway...thanks for your help peterB

A patch panel is a way of terminating the other end of the sockets! It is a row of RJ45 connectors mounted on a rack or in a cabinet. The advantage is that there are no loose wires hanging about, and if you have (say)20 only a 16 port swotch, you can select the sockets that are in use by patching the appropriate socket to the switch. Or if you really want to be clever, use some of the wiring for phone extensions, or Power Over Ethernet with sockets dotted about the house, but on selected sockets. Or you might have a gigabit switch and a 10/100 switch and slower devices (like a network printer) that you want to connect to the slower switch, so you patch it accordingly.

You can achieve the same results with just terminated cables, but it is messy and harder to see what is going on. It really is about ease of use and flexibility of use.