Would I Benefit from 500mb Homeplugs?

blisteringblue

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Odd one this but need to work out if its worth getting 500mb Homeplugs?

I have used Panasonic HD-PLC 190 Mbps Powerline devices for years. I bought them when they first came out and while I know they are manufacturer specific they just worked.

Anyway they serve my AV Equipment in the front room and also a wifi extender and for the past couple of weeks the connection downstairs has just got worse and worse. Thinking it was the wifi I just fobbed the kids and Mrs Blue off however streaming SD video to the PS3 started to play up too. Just standard def TV downloads but would stutter like mad and no amount of rebooting routers and the Panasonic powerlines made any difference. Seems odd they have slowed throughput as I just thought they worked or they didn't?

It just so happened I had a set of ZyXEL PLA-401s (200 Mbps) in my car that we tried at work but never used. So I plugged them in and they set themselves up.

Slight dilemma (why I like the Panasonic ones as they have a figure of 8 power cord rather than plug direct into socket) because my sockets in the loft (converted to an office) are close to the floor so I have had to use a non-filtered extension (nothing but the ZyXEL in it) so hopefully not much loss because of the extension.

They work ok, wifi seems good again and a quick check on the streaming and it stopped stuttering. I notice on the ZyXEL downstairs that the Homeplug icon was flashing amber. This was classed as a "better" connection in the manual, which maintained a connection of 10 mbps to 40 mbps ? The ZyXEL app seems to confirm this also.

As these are technically works I was going to buy a set of 500mb ones as they are only just over £30 for a pair. But is there any point doing this? If I'm not getting the "best" speed from the 200 Mbps ones there does seem little point? Or am I missing something.

Will the fact I am using the extension be the cause of not getting the "best" connection?

I don't have a socket near my router to test without the extension without maybe getting a 20m network cable and running it out the loft?
 
I had a couple of Devolo 200mbps die on me quite recently in the same fashion , they throttled down while starting to run hotter , then just gave up altogether , it must be the way these things die I guess ?

Anyway heres a chart on performance of homeplugs , no they are not all the same in terms of performance, so see if the ones your planning on buying are on the chart.

Powerline Charts - Uplink Throughput - SmallNetBuilder

You will get a speedbump going from 200 to 500 , maybe double the speed you are getting now , of course you wont get 500mbps or anything like it , same as you dont get 200mbps with 200mbps units.

From replacing the Devolos , I wouldnt mix units from different manufacturers , they do not play nice together and you will probably see a speed penalty.

I would also try and keep all homeplug units on the same network at the same speed, that is all 200's or all 500's , as there is a speed penalty there as well.
 
Thanks I will check them out. The dead panasonics were quite hot so it does indeed prove they gave up the ghost.
 

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