Tag: Hardware

If your home or small business has a Powerline network, there may come a time when you wish to expand your network. This could be to add wired connectivity in a different room or to a new WiFi access point. Offering better coverage for mobile and fixed wireless devices than your main router can provide.

It is not always clear from the manufacturers site which part number(s) you should buy in order to expand your existing network. Most Powerline units are sold as initial getting started kits only with little information on how to grow your network.

This Powerline Adapter Comparison attempts to simplify the options in making Powerline product choices.

Contents

The following seeks to clarify some easily misunderstood and often muddied points about Powerline.

Feature Comparison

The Powerline Comparison is divided into comparing the Powerline Adapter ranges of the six main Powerline manufacturers.

• Asus
• D-Link
• Devolo
• NetGear
• TP-Link
• TRENDnet

• Buying Tips & Recommendations

Common Questions

1. How many adapters do I need?
2. Can I mix and match different manufacturers adapters?
3. I can get a 2000 Mbit/s Powerline adapter, seems like a no brainier to make my computer/Internet faster?
4. When shouldn’t I use Powerline adapters?
5. What should I tell my electrician if I’m having work done?

Feature Comparison: Expanding Your Network

The following table can be used to help you expand your Powerline network. For each manufacturer they show the combination of WiFi, Ethernet Port Numbers and Passthrough Port availability. Manufacturers are displayed in alphabetical order.

Passthrough: Passthrough means that there is a standard electrical socket on the front of the Powerline adapter, allowing you to plug the Powerline adapter into the wall without sacrificing access to the electrical socket for other devices.

e(#) = 1Gbps Ethernet

e(#) = 100Mbps Ethernet

(#) represents the number of Ethernet ports present on WiFi adapter modules

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Asus

BT

BT Powerline adapters are not internationalised and only come with UK 240v plugs.

D-Link

Devolo

NetGear

TP-Link

TRENDnet

e(#) = 1Gbps Ethernet

e(#) = 100Mbps Ethernet

(#) represents the number of ethernet ports present on WiFi adapter modules

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Buying Tips & Recommendations

If you are using the Powerline Comparison to create a new or expand an existing network. The following tips may offer some guidance.

1. If you live in a flat, apartment, communal living (e.g. Student accomodation) ony consider devices with AES encryption.
2. When expanding your existing network consider now whather you want to start swapping out any older devices. If you do, stick to the same manufacturer, but go to their newer models. If you do not, stick to the same manufacturer and range for the best  interoperability.
3. Wired Powerline network users should only consider new adapters with 1Gbps ethernet. The adapter should have a minimum Powerline bandwidth of 1000 Mbit/s.
4. If you intend to create a wired network with more than two wired ethernet device connected, and will be making non-Internet file transfers (e.g. backing up to a NAS or PC to PC file copy). Only look at the 2000 Mbit/s Powerline ranges.
5. When creating a new wireless Powerline network. Only look at the 802.11ac ranges.
6. If your broadband Internet connection is fast (e.g. true fibre optic) ideally do not let any single part of the Powerline network be slower than your broadband connection.

Common Questions

How many adapters do I need?

It is not always clear to new users starting out with Powerline adapters that you can expand the network beyond the first two appliances that you will probably have (or will) purchased in a starter kit bundle.

Powerline is in essence a broadcast technology, meaning that it is not limited just to the first two devices that you place in your home. Neither is is necessary to operate any subsequent device that you add in a pair of devices – so you do not have to have 4,6,8 adapters live at any one time and can just as easily have 3, 5 or 7 adapters live on your network.

You do have to have more than 1 adapter however!

Can I mix and match different manufacturers adapters?

‘Powerline’ is a technical standard, not a proprietary solution to each manufacturer – although they may add proprietary innovations on top of the standard. This means that in practice you should be able to mix and match Powerline devices from different manufacturers on your network provided that the product is advertising standards compliance to the following certification combinations.

Being standards compliant does not mean that an individual manufacturer or model of Powerline adapter will actually meet the performance levels prescribed by the standard. It also does not prevent the adapter from exceeding the standard either under conditions defined by the manufacturer.

The standard exists to ensure that if you mix your ecosystem, you can expect that under optimal conditions, the devices will operate at the speed advocated for by the standard – but not (necessarily) at the maximum capable speed of both/either device. Conversely, if you do not mix your ecosystem, and only use devices made by manufacturer x, your realised real-world performance may instead be higher than that advocated for by the standard. Consequently, it is generally recommended that where possible you stick to the same manufacturer for your Powerline network and ideally the same series/range of device.

I can get a 2000 Mbit/s Powerline adapter, seems like a no brainier to make my computer/Internet faster?

Having looked at many reviews and videos on the subject, this topic is horribly misunderstood by people ‘in the know’ to the extent that they are further confusing the issue with false information. There are 5 aspects that influence why a typical single computer/single WiFi Extender scenario isn’t in most cases going to mean a 2000 Mbit/s solution will deliver.

Electrical wiring, distribution, electrical noise and distance: The age and quality of your home electrical system will have an impact on the performance. If your electrical system isn’t up to 2000 Mbit/s, you will never see anything like that speed, possibly pulling the performance down under 100 Mbit/s. Equally, the longer the distance between the adapter termination points, the more this figure will trail off.

IEEE 802.3 (ethernet): If you are going to connect your desktop PC at one end to your router at the other (and you have modern equipment) then the Ethernet cable and the network adapters at your computer/router are only capable of a theoretical maximum of 1000 Mbit/s. Having a 2000 Mbit/s Powerline adapter will not make this point-to-point, two device network any faster even if the Powerline adapter does operate at a speed higher than 1000 Mbit/s.

IEEE 802.11 (wireless): Similarly to that of the Ethernet, wireless technology is also rated at a maximum theoretical speed 54 Mbit/s for 802.11a/g, 11 Mbit/s for 802.11b, 600Mbit/s for 802.11n and up to 3466 Mbit/s for 802.11ac – in practice it usually isn’t more than ~ 1300 Mbit/s on current generation general consumer hardware. If the WiFi Access Point module on the Powerline adapter is only capable or 600 Mbit/s or your laptop/tablet/smartphone are only capable of 600 Mbit/s, having a faster Powerline adapter will not make your wireless any faster.

Internet Connection Speed: Most home installs are probably just being used to push the Internet connection arriving at your router a little further into your property, usually because you need it to reach into another room that is out of range of the existing wireless access point. Most home internet connections (in the UK) at the current time run at sub-100 Mbit/s. Assuming that your Powerline adapter is 2000 Mbit/s, your wired desktop is 1000 Mbit/s and your tablet is 600 Mbit/s, you will not get anything faster from the Internet than the 100 Mbit/s maximum speed of your home broadband. A faster Powerline adapter can not improve the spped of your actual Internet connection to the street.

Contention: This is the most important one that people misunderstand. Powerline is what is known as a contended broadcast medium. This means that every piece of information sent to one Powerline adapter is received and processed by all of the other Powerline adapters on the network. If you have 4 Powerline adapters that try and access the network simultaneously, then the available maximum bandwidth (e.g. 2000 Mbit/s) must be shared between them. There are more sophisticated underlying technologies in newer Powerline adapters, such as OFDM and latterly MIMO that significantly help to improve this, however the key thing to understand is that the 2000 Mbit/s figure on the box is the speed available to the holistic group of all Powerline adapters on the network and must be shared amongst all termination points.

In the case of OFDM bandwidth is shared as a proportion of the total frequency spectrum available to each adapter while in the case of MIMO it is shared up to the number of available MIMO channels. For very old adapters, the full bandwidth was available, but only one Powerline adapter could communicate on the network at any one time; during which time the other adapters had to wait.

At the beginning of this section I stated that getting faster network performance it isn’t a reality in most cases. So where is it a benefit?

The benefit of having the faster line speed (the maximum theoretical bandwidth available to the group of Powerline adapters) is when there are multiple end-point devices and/or multiple Powerline adapters.

Take a scenario where Internet access is removed from the equation and pretend that there are 4 Powerline adapters, A, B, C and D. Each Powerline adapter has a single wired ethernet connection running at 1Gb/s (1000 Mbit/s). If computer A copies a file to computer B while computer C copies a file to computer D and you have 2000 Mbit/s available to the Powerline network, simplified, a 1000 Mbit/s file copy + another 1000 Mbit/s file copy (with access to MIMO) = 2000 Mbit/s. So the 2000 Mbit/s adapter will in theory allow both copies to occur at the 1Gb/s line speed (full speed).

Again, this is a theoretical figure and there are a lot of variables that will define the actual speed. In reality you may only get 800 Mbit/s during the parallel transfer (1600 Mbit/s total), but this is only achievable because the Powerline back-end is capable of supporting the higher line speed. If the Powerline network was only itself capable of 1000 Mbit/s, then the best you could have hoped for during this parallel file transfer would have been 500 Mbit/s. This is the impact of contention.

In practice, there are a lot of tweaks and optimisation’s to how OFDM, MIMO and proprietary manufacturer innovations are applied on different products. These tweaks make the examples that I have outlines significant simplifications over what may actually be going on in any given Powerline adapter. It is also true that the Powerline network will likely not run anywhere near its theoretical maximum speed, bringing down the contended bandwidth figure that you are starting out with.

In these cases a faster device with MIMO and more frequency groups available may help you to realise slightly faster speeds. It is however important to understand what the figure on the box is actually telling you -and- to set expectations (and even save money) with end users.

Simply put: If you are only looking to have a point to point link and are only ever going to be using it to access the Internet there is usually little point spending money on faster Powerline modules for your use case.

When shouldn’t I use Powerline adapters?

Powerline should not be used if:

1. You are involved in any form of secure network or secure data workflow. Powerline can easily leak data to your neighbours or into the street. Modern adapters usually come with AES 128 encryption support as an option, however AES 128 is not the strongest form of encryption by any means here in 2018. Equally, firmware updates and patches for Powerline adapters to fix security holes are not applied automatically. Unfortunately, neither are they made available by some manufacturers as frequently as they should be.
2. If AES Encryption technology is illegal in your country: do not use an AES enabled device.
3. You do not have direct access to a wall socket: Powerline adapters should not be used on power gangs, PDU’s or through surge protectors. If you do, at best they will either have significant signal degradation or will not work.
4. If the length of your internal wiring is over 300m (try and keep it far shorter than this in practice i.e. under 200m).
5. Your house has extremely old wiring or archaic distribution / fuse boards.
6. You want to get a good signal across multiple distribution boards / fuse boards.
7. The electrical system has a high number of noisy appliances and you are expecting to get performance out of the system.

What should I tell my electrician if I’m having work done?

If you are having work done or want to get an electrician in to troubleshoot poor Powerline adapter performance. Offer them the following tips and get ready with a laptop, ethernet cable and a test plan (e.g. SpeedTest.net, benchmark tool or a consistent large file copy).

1. The electrician needs to provide a low-loss RF path across all circuits, and rings. The system requires low levels of electrical noise.
2. Aluminium wiring, knob and tube wiring, old copper wiring, old fuse boards, distribution boards and sockets will undermine the performance. Unless it is 1990’s or newer, try and eliminate it from the system.
3. Arc-Fault Circuit Interrupter (AFCI), Arc-Fault Detection Device (AFDD), Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI), or Residual Current Device (RCD) circuit breakers can cause depleted or even entirely blocked Powerline signals. You can purchase “Powerline Compliant Outlet” surge protectors, which may mitigate some of the loss.
4. Devices with switch-mode power supplies can create noise that limits performance. Isolate such devices before testing (especially near the receiver Powerline unit).
5. Any appliance on your power system/ring with an electrical motor should be placed on its own surge protector e.g. air-conditioners, washing-machines and electric-fans.
6. Remember the distance rule: Under 300m, ideally under 200m. This is especially important in the UK where rings are used allowing a run to be far longer than it might otherwise seem.
7. 3-phase electrical systems do not work as well with Powerline. Avoid their use if possible in favour of 2-phase.
8. If you are in a communal building, or high density residential environment, use a circuit breaker from the street to reduce the risk of data leakage out of your home.
9. Loose screws, poor joints and thin or frayed cabling at connections can all cause problems. Ensure that everything is nice and tight.
10. Crossing between ring mains will attenuate performance. Where possible keep adapters on the same ring main.