HomePlug and PowerLine Adaptors on Sky Fibre

[Scubbie]

As a forum, we have generally recommended HomePlugs and PowerLine adaptors (I will just use the name HomePlug to refer to both after this point) to various members to help them to connect a wired device over distance to their Sky router.

This has worked well with Sky Broadband Connect, Home Lite and Unlimited as the Internet connection speed was never much more than 20mb (8mb in the case of Connect).

It has become apparent that some HomePlugs just cannot cope with the throughput speeds demanded for Sky Fibre. Actually the case is true for other Fibre and cable connections, but as a forum we hadn't followed these that closely.

There have also been some reports that some unnamed HomePlugs have affected the overall Internet performance, even when the device was connected directly to the router, not the HomePlugs. It would also be useful to gather this information here too.

There are a few factors which will affect the speeds. Some will be local, whilst others will be related to the model that you have. These factors include:

1. the state of your electrical wiring
2. a neighbour's use of HomePlugs
3. the maximum transmission rate that they can support (200mb = 100mb in both directions)
4. the speed to encrypt & decrypt the data being sent between the two HomePlugs
5. the computer/device being used to report the result (AV, firewall, Wired or Ethernet, processor, connection speed)

It would be too expensive and time consuming for one member to purchase and test all the various different HomePlugs on the market and post the results on this forum. Could I ask members to provide some feedback to help others to see how their HomePlugs perform please?

Firstly though it would be useful to set up a method of testing.

Whilst downloading a file off the Internet is useful, it may not always be reflective to other members as their connection may be a different speed. So what will be useful and how can people provide useful information?

Well we need the make and model of the HomePlugs that you are using. The testing should ideally be performed using a Wired connection as WiFi is too variable.

1. Router being used to run LAN (if not Sky's please mention LAN speed)
2. Make & Model of HomePlugs & current price range
3. Advertised connection speed
4. LAN to LAN performance speed between the two HomePlugs
5. LAN to LAN performance speed between the two HomePlugs (in Safe mode/without AV & firewall software)
6. Internet download speed with HomePlugs connected (taken from router)
7. Internet download speed with HomePlugs connected (taken from 2nd HomePlug)
8. Internet download speed without HomePlugs connected (taken from router)
9. Personal comments/ratings

Windows can report the speed that you are copying a file at. In Vista and Win 7 this is shown in the copy box. You can also use Task Manager to see the % that a file transfers at relative to the computer's LAN connection speed. On a 100mb LAN I would expect to see the transfer speed to be 80mb/s or 80% between a good pair of computers.

If you have a pair of HomePlugs that another member has tested but get slightly different results, please do post your figures and refer to the previous post to so that we too can see the difference.

If any other useful information can reflected in the reports, I'll update this post.

Please keep all posts on-topic.

[s1ndr0me]

OK I'll start

1. Sky router connected to Netgear GS608v2 8 port Gigabit Switch, Sky Fibre Pro 79999/20000
2. 3x TP-Link TL-PA511 TL-PA511 - Welcome to TP-LINK they cost about £50-60
3. 500Mbps=250Mbps each way
4. 4.3 Megabytes per second using ftp
5. Not tested
6. 9 Megabytes per second (usenet)
7. Not tested (homeplugs are connected to media centers)
8. 9 Megabytes (the homeplugs do not impact on the overall speed of the network)
9. Av software used is outpost security suite pro. These TP-links are pretty good and I have ordered them for a couple of links in work. until using them I was pretty sceptical as we'd previously tried the 1st gen 85mbps linksys ones that were awful. While they would not be suitable to connect directly to a main PC or even as direct link between modem and router (when using pro fibre) they suit our requirements of connecting a couple of media centers to the NAS. They are quite capable of streaming 2 15gig 1080p files at the same time with no frames dropped. All of this is subjective tho. We had to try several sockets downstairs before finding the one that would give us the throughput we currently have. infact it's plugged into a double socket on its own that's about 6feet away from the fuse box.

[williammorris]

I always found mine didn't work well in any form of multi plug adaptor had to have their own wall socket

[williammorris]

The devolo 300mbps ones worked fine on 100mbps if that's of any use to people on pro. They are currently 50 quid a pair on eBay

[davinder_sambhi]

Hi all,

I've got the new Sky Fibre line, and i am currently using the devolo 85mbps homeplugs, i'm using 4 round the house, i do a speed test and only get about 15mb download, would it be worth upgrading to maybe the Devolo 200mbps or the TP link 200mbps or 500 for each one?

Cheers

[dankargo]

Hi all,

I've got the new Sky Fibre line, and i am currently using the devolo 85mbps homeplugs, i'm using 4 round the house, i do a speed test and only get about 15mb download, would it be worth upgrading to maybe the Devolo 200mbps or the TP link 200mbps or 500 for each one?

Cheers

Yes, definetely. The homeplugs you are currently using cannot deal with Fibre's throughput speeds as they are only 85mbps. I would recommend upgrading to a set that can cope with 200mbps speeds or more.

I'm currently using these with my 40mbps Sky Fibre connection and I get around 38Mbps with them as my signature shows. They've recently dropped in price on Amazon too!

[dragon2611]

1. Mikrotik RB751- 10/100 (Will probably upgrade as gets high CPU usage when downloading at full speeds)
2. Solwise PL-1000M , About £50 - 60 per pair
3. 1Gbit/s
4. Not tested
5. Not tested
6. Roughly 9MB/s
7. As above
8. As above

9. The PL-1000M's seem to have an issue updating their ARP/Forwarding table, therefore They are NOT recommended for connecting devices that may move about the network, for instance connecting a 2nd Wi-Fi AP via these adapters is not possible since as soon as the connected device switches AP it will lose it's ability to send data across the powerline link

[zerokoolin]

1. Sagem F@ST 2504n
2. 2x Netgear XAVB5001 (£120.10 for a pair) + 2x Netgear XAVB5501 (£137.17 for a pair)
3. 500Mbps
4. Not tested
5. Not tested
6. 23-27Mbps (speedtest.net - seem to lose quite a bit on HomePlug but unsure why someone said it's probably down to its encryption?)
7. 23-27Mbps (speedtest.net - seem to lose quite a bit on HomePlug but unsure why someone said it's probably down to its encryption?)
8. 37Mbps ( speedtest.net - Direct connection to MacBook )

[dragon2611]

8. 37Mbps (seem to lose quite a bit but unsure why someone said it's probably down to its encryption?)

Overheads, there will be TCP/IP overheads as well as ATM overheads on the VDSL side which means whilst your sync speed is 40Mbit/s your throughput will be less.

[zerokoolin]

sorry I meant that my homeplugs were losing a lot of speed not my vdsl i am happy with 37Mbps but sad homeplug fails