Powerline Adapter Advice

[huwd85]

Hello,

I have a 2TB Sky Q Box and threeSky Q Mini's, as well as two Sky Q Boosters.

The house has been extended last year, and is mainly stone. The Sky Q Box and router is on one end of the house, while the three Sky Q Mini's are on the other side of a solid two foot stone wall (one downstairs two upstairs).

On the whole the Sky boosters working on wifi are ok, but there are times when it is weaker.

I have looked into puchasing a powerline system to boost the system and have found the following:

https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/powerline/tl-wpa4220-tkit/

Does anyone have any opinion on this choice please? The way I consider it working is having the two TL-WPA4220 units wired by ethernet to the Sky Boosters to boost the signal in that part of the house.

Am I thinking about it correctly?

Thank you again in advance

[Chrisee]

@huwd85 Sky do not recommend use of powerline adapters but they work for me and many other forum members.

The kit you link to includes wifi access points and are not the best choice for the set up you propose. Mixing TP-Links wifi with your Sky Q boxes are likely to cause interference. Given you have potentially 7 Sky wifi nodes you should only need those. A straight forward powerline adapter kit with ethernet connections would be a better fit. The other factor is speed of the units no powerlinecadapter gives its rated speed in the real world I would look for units rated at 1000Mb/s. TP-Link are decent as are Devolo units. Buy the type with pass through sockets as that means you still can use the wall socket, never plug powerline adapters into trailing adapters.

Once you have bought your adapters plug one in near the hub and connect using the supplied ethernet lead. Plug a second in at the most dudtant room with a Q box and connect the two by ethernet. That will both improve the wifi speeds and the boxes TV performane. You may need a third on a diferent floor. Hopefully you no longer need the boosters which if you dont should be removed as too many nodes can slow the wifi mesh. When I had a similar set up I found I got decent wifi speeds on all 3 levels of a decent sized house with just the 3 Q boxes.

[huwd85]

Hi Chrisee. Thank you for your prompt and comprehensive reply.

I've done some research and found this kit, would this work in terms of specs etc:

https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/powerline/tl-pa7010p-kit/

If such a system is worthwile, i would buy a set of 3 and connect each Sky Q Mini box up to each one via ethernet cable, and dispense with the boosters as you suggest.

Am I right in thinking the wifi would improve for other non-connected devices such as mobile phone, tablets, laptops, fire sticks etc?

Thank You Again.

[jamesn123]

@huwd85 

Powerline is very hit and miss for Sky Q, I've tried using it in a friends house for them and after around 3 days it just stops working, likely due to throughput or latency issues. I have however had it working fine in my dads house so it may or may not work for you. 

[huwd85]

Hi James, many thanks for the reply.

[jamesn123]

@huwd85 

Oh and in answer to your question, yes that model should be fine, its the model I've used. 

Once the mini boxes are connected to the powerline networking it should increase the speed of the backhaul connection which in turn would likely improve performance on your other devices like mobiles. 

[huwd85]

Hi James, that's great, thank you

[huwd85]

Apologies, should have mentioned the extension is on a separate electrical circuit. Does this affect all powerline adapters?

[Highlinder]

@huwd85Yes it will affect the use of powerline adapters.

[Chrisee]

@huwd85 it depends what you mean by a different circuit if the extension is supplied from the same consumer unit as the main house then it should work. However if the extension has its own consumer unit it probably won't and if it has its own metered electrical supply it definitely wont.

If you buy on-line you have 14 days to test and return the kit if it doesn't work. Expect between 20 to 40% of the rated speed in practice and the more expensive systems use all 3 conductors and are therefore more reliable. Never plug the adaters into trailing power blocks with surge protectors and use wall sockets if at all possible.

[huwd85]

Hi Chrisee,

Thank you again for your reply. My apologies for the incomplete information.

This is a very primitive drawing of the house.

I may try various powerline adapters and see if they work?

Thanks again.

[g7rpo]

Hi

My understanding is that if you have a single electricity meter then there shouldnt be a problem with powerline adapters,

I have just installed the following TP-Link TL-PA4010PKIT from Amazon, costing around £38 and these worked very well for me.

As said by previous posters I wouldnt add a wireless adapter to the equation unless you need wifi.

.

These are rated at 100Mb and I get 95ish across them

[huwd85]

I've just had  a thought.

If I run a long ethernet cable from old part of the house to the new part (which has the different electrical circuit), and plug the cable into a powerline adapter plugged in on the new circuit, the other powerline adapters in that part of the house would be on the same circuit and should ideally work?

[TimmyBGood]

@huwd85 

I don't think linking Powerline to Powerline on the ethernet side is a possible topology.   Powerline to switch to switch to Powerline might be viable.

[huwd85]

Many thanks for the reply.

My understanding is that in usual circumstances there would be an ethernet cable from the router to one powerline adapter. There would then be a secondary powerline adapter which would pair with the first one. Ideally this would  be on the same electrical circuit.

The idea I have is to with the use of a long ethernet cable is to use the same idea/setup on another electrical circuit which I could then connect the powerline adapter to the sky q mini boxes.

Am I considering it correctly?