Powerline Adapters

[zplayer]

Has anyone had any decent speed with these on Virgin?

I have a set but getting a constant 87Mbps (My VM is 360Mbps) but this kit is very old (its probably rated at 100MBps) and I wonder how newer kit, with a higher rating would fair and if the technology has improved.

I know it depends a lot on distance, intefernance and wiring, house was rewired 8 years ago and we are connecting from the downstairs ringmain to the upstairs.

[Timwilky · Accepted solution]

Tried them. Ran cable and put them in the bin.

They do not work well across seperated ring main found in modern housing. 

[Andrew-G]

If you want better wireless speeds, you'll need to spend money.  Either spend around £100 on a decent entry level mesh wifi system (eg the TP-Link Deco M4 that I use, or the similar S4, but not the E4), or rent some VM pods that create a quasi mesh system.  If you're a total technophobe then the pods are easiest because VM have to set them up from their end, on the other hand in 18 months you'll pay as much renting the pods as you would in outright purchase of a mesh, but still keep paying the rental (and if there's issues, the "support" is from VM....).  When I say technophobe, I mean somebody who really has ten thumbs when it comes to technology - setting up a mesh system is about as complicated as setting up a new mobile phone.  If buying your own mesh, then it's usually best to put your hub in modem mode - plenty of support and advice in this forum to help you if you want to find out about this.

You could spend a lot more on fancy, hugely capable mesh systems from the likes of Asus or Netgear, or splash out on a next generation Wifi 6 mesh, but I'm guessing that if you would even momentarily consider powerline adaptors, you probably aren't in the market for £200-400 mesh systems. 

[zplayer]

I have decided to get a TP Link router (AX10 Next-Gen Wi-Fi 6 AX1500 Mbps) and TP Link High gain adapter ( Archer T4U AC1300) both coming today so hopefully this should help a lot.

I was curious if the newer power line stuff would be any good, so I think I have went down the right track, current wifi is not great even though router is 6 feet away from wifi adapter (through a floor board) but only getting 1/2 the speed I should be.

[Andrew-G]

Fair enough.  As a broad generalisation, standalone routers are better for peak performance, but for good wifi coverage and decent speed across all devices, a mesh system tends to be better.  As the power or a router is limited by international standards, the AX10 won't have any greater power output than the VM hub.  It will have a fundamentally better design, better components, fewer compromises, and have a few technical tricks that help improve over the cheap router built into the hub, but it's still limited to the same power trying to get through the walls, possibly enhanced a bit by beam steering.  A mesh system is like three routers* working together, so that there's more wifi "power" in use, and it can multi-path signals where possible, and manage devices across its three units.

Routers are also generally better for people who want to tinker with advanced settings, whereas mesh is wifi as an appliance - it just sits there and works, and works best when left to its own devices.

* Actually one router plus two access points for the pernickety - anything to do with wifi is an emotive topic for some people round here.

[Tudor]

WiFi is a very complex subject. VM in their wisdom have 'hidden' from the user many of the parameters that can be used to 'tune' WiFi and I believe this is probably to make it, in their mind, for easier customer service. 

[zplayer]

Just plugged in the new router and connected the new wifi adapter. New kit has worked a treat; straight off the bat the speed has doubled!! so well impressed 🙂 🙂 🙂

DOWNLOAD Mbps 341.33 UPLOAD Mbps 36.94 (not quite max but very happy!!!)

I'll play around with it at the weeked and set the hub to modem mode and hopefully squeeze out the rest of the speed.

[Client62]

87Mbps on the existing Powerline adaptors with 100Mb/s sockets is excellent.

For comparison we have property with multiple ring mains and 4 TP-LINK AV600 units providing 2 WiFi APs and 8 network sockets.
70Mb/s is sustained when crossing ring mains. Our internet TV services / VOIP lines / PCs + mobiles / laptops & printers work flawlessly.

[Sephiroth]

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@Tudor wrote:

WiFi is a very complex subject. VM in their wisdom have 'hidden' from the user many of the parameters that can be used to 'tune' WiFi and I believe this is probably to make it, in their mind, for easier customer service. 

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…. Crass arrogance.  See the volume of posts on the topic with problems caused by VM’s stupidity.