Powerline Networking

[Mario23]

Just curious if anyone has any experience with the latest iteration of powerline networks. I have a couple of wifi weak spots in the house and was thinking of using powerline wifi extenders to fix it.

As far as I can tell, it should not interfere with anything else I have going on around here. Is there anything I should know before I go through with it or are there any revelations out there???

Thanks

[langenet]

I've got a couple of powerline interfaces and they seem to work fine. Thought, they don't extend wifi as you desire.
They don't seem to be affected by X-10 either (different frequency spectrum).

Rob

[Mario23]

Cisco has a 2 piece kit. One connects to the router to create the power line network and the second can be plugged in elsewhere and it will also broadcast the wifi so I was thinking that would cover my needs.

[Uncle Michael]

I tried it, but was disappointed with the bandwidth. If you use it for low volume traffic it should be ok, but my link was pretty slow. It's been a while now, and I don't remember the actual values, unfortunately.

[Mario23]

Ok I'm still debating... May just try it to find out for myself...

[Pete]

Tried it here a few years back. It was a bit slow. The Linksys (?) I used did burn up. Both sides though got really hot when utilized.

That said tried the newest couple of the newer models ($200) on a friends farm where the 4 houses were on one step down transformer. At about 300 feet away it didn't work. Ended up using Cat6 outdoor cable. It was just under 300 feet and it worked and is still working today after a year or so.

The new models in decription appear to provide more bandwidth. Try it and see how it works for you. If it doesn't work just return it.

[Mario23]

I just walked around here with a wifi analyzer on my phone and found the signal to be not so bad where I thought. I ordered one but may just return it now that it appears a particular device in that room may actually be the problem. I'll test it out a bit. Thanks.

[Pete]

Here I switched over to using an Ubiquiti Networks Access point in the attic. Never bothered to update the firmware and it works very well.

It uses a propietary POE such that you would only need one cable to the device.

http://www.ubnt.com/airmax#picostationm

http://www.ubnt.com/airmax#nanostationm

Historically I have "played" with commercial Cisco AP's and mostly the DDWRT FW updates to a variety (5-6 different mfg's) Access points for home use and decided to settle on the Ubiquiti a couple of years ago.