Powerline network/WIFI anyone?

bochnak · Jan 8, 2018

Anyone using the following:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01929V7ZG/?tag=atomicindus08-20

https://www.netgear.com/home/products/networking/powerline/PLW1000.aspx#tab-features

I setup a PC in my detached garage and the wifi works OK. I'm paying for 30 down and only getting max of 12 and in some cases 3.

Looks like this device may be the ticket for 2 reasons:

1. I can hardwire my PC to outlet adapter. Hoping to get the whole 30 reliably.

2. It will create an access point so I can also get better WIFI on my phone as well.

Anyone have this?

bannerd · Jan 8, 2018

I would look at and use ubnt.com.

Captain Spaulding · Jan 8, 2018

They work well. I use one in my pool house for music and video.

_cruster · Jan 8, 2018

I’m using the ZyXEL AV2000 pair to connect a wireless router to my modem at opposite ends of the house. They work great.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0173CGWFY/?tag=atomicindus08-20

apollo11 · Jan 8, 2018

I have the ZyXEL AV1000 and it works great

bochnak · Jan 8, 2018

Awesome thanks guys!

Falcon67 · Jan 8, 2018

Have you run a speed test on a direct wired computer to verify that it's not your provider? we're contracted for 50 down and REGULARLY have to open a ticket with Windstream because their speed is off by half.

bochnak · Jan 8, 2018

Falcon67 said:
Have you run a speed test on a direct wired computer to verify that it's not your provider? we're contracted for 50 down and REGULARLY have to open a ticket with Windstream because their speed is off by half.

My main PC in the basement gets 30 down right from the modem or router through Ethernet. 30 is also what I'm paying for.

My phone gets 30 down inside the house where wifi signal is good.

I go out to the garage and both my phone and garage PC on wifi get half that.

Now, my router is located in the basement, so I could move it upstairs and see an improvement.

bochnak · Jan 8, 2018

FWIW, my garage has a subpanel, so I hope that this powerline thing will work OK.

I went ahead and ordered the kit I linked to above. I also bought some cat cable and will play around with the idea of moving the router from the basement to the main level.

TheSt|G · Jan 8, 2018

FYI, you can't plug them into a surge protector. If you are hardwiring something into them, make sure it passes through an Ethernet surge protector before it gets to the PC/whatever.

T_R · Jan 8, 2018

Before you do all that you might try what we did. We hung the router in a house window facing the building we needed wifi in and pointed the antennas at the building. It went from sort of ok to a solid signal. It's about a 150 from the router to the building.

HOTFR8 · Jan 8, 2018

A waste of time if you have Solar power, sadly.

u3b3rg33k · Jan 8, 2018

bannerd said:
I would look at and use ubnt.com.

another vote for ubiquiti gear. give your radios line of sight and enjoy a 100Mb/s link that's reliable and affordable.

EOC_Jason · Jan 8, 2018

I've used older models of those netgear powerline adapters, and some other brands. As long as you plug them directly into the wall (and not a UPS or surge protector) they work pretty darn good and are basically transparent...

finn · Jan 8, 2018

My provider set my garage up with one.

Works for what I need it to do.

Had to use the outlet closest to the sub panel, though. Couldn’t make it work on the back wall, even though those outlets were on the same breaker.

Ole Slewfoot · Jan 8, 2018

Recently installed the non wifi netgear ones. Consistent 50+ down. Happy customer.

Mr. D · Jan 8, 2018

bannerd said:
I would look at and use ubnt.com.

I will second that, solid system. I used it for 3 years grabbing internet from the top of a pine tree .5 miles away. I now have HS internet at the house and will use this hardware when I build my detached garage.

POA Antenna at the house pointing at the garage and a Antenna at the garage receiving the signal.

yamaha0343 · Jan 8, 2018

bochnak said:
FWIW, my garage has a subpanel, so I hope that this powerline thing will work OK.

This might make it a waste of time for you, unless these have improved in the last couple years.

Another option would be a wireless bridge between the house and the garage, but that would require a little wiring. Any chance you have conduit between the house and garage? a cable run is always the preferred solution if possible. 328ft is the max advised length but I may or may not have successfully gone a little longer.

jfrey123 · Jan 8, 2018

We've use a powerline adapter for years at my home. Wife does IT from home and occasional wifi drops were screwing up her VPN. Powerline router solved our problems, the fact we can get 60MBPS through a freaking power outlet still blows my mind.

bochnak · Jan 9, 2018

T_R said:
Before you do all that you might try what we did. We hung the router in a house window facing the building we needed wifi in and pointed the antennas at the building. It went from sort of ok to a solid signal. It's about a 150 from the router to the building.

I could move the router from basement to main floor for a better signal. However, I have 3 LAN connections to back of router that will require new runs. Definitely not looking forward to fishing new runs.

I will try new router locations and report back.

bochnak · Jan 9, 2018

yamaha0343 said:
This might make it a waste of time for you, unless these have improved in the last couple years.

Another option would be a wireless bridge between the house and the garage, but that would require a little wiring. Any chance you have conduit between the house and garage? a cable run is always the preferred solution if possible. 328ft is the max advised length but I may or may not have successfully gone a little longer.

I wish I ran conduit for data when I trenched the gas and electric years ago. At the time I thought wireless will be just fine.

bochnak · Jan 9, 2018

bannerd said:
I would look at and use ubnt.com.

u3b3rg33k said:
another vote for ubiquiti gear. give your radios line of sight and enjoy a 100Mb/s link that's reliable and affordable.

Mr. D said:
I will second that, solid system. I used it for 3 years grabbing internet from the top of a pine tree .5 miles away. I now have HS internet at the house and will use this hardware when I build my detached garage.

POA Antenna at the house pointing at the garage and a Antenna at the garage receiving the signal.

Would one of you guys explain how to do this? Recommend specific products? Their website has so much info I'm lost.

Falcon67 · Jan 9, 2018

bochnak said:
Would one of you guys explain how to do this? Recommend specific products? Their website has so much info I'm lost.

We used 2 of these to shoot internet over to another location -

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DCNRTAG/?tag=atomicindus08-20

I've taken them down for now, but I can dig up the configs later. Basically you plug one into the house router, configure them as a bridge and point them at each other. Receiving end can go to an AP in the remote location or into a switch. They act the same as a wire strung between points.

Note that these come in 2.4 and 5 ghz versions - your pick although the 2.4 should do plenty.

And before anyone hollers about 2.4ghz LOL, note that we have tested and are sending broadcast quality video from roving remotes with high buck cameras during football games and the link back to the video production truck is 2.4g. The video compressor devices being used don't run on 5 ghz.

PoorOwner · Jan 9, 2018

Falcon67 said:
We used 2 of these to shoot internet over to another location -

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DCNRTAG/?tag=atomicindus08-20

I've taken them down for now, but I can dig up the configs later. Basically you plug one into the house router, configure them as a bridge and point them at each other. Receiving end can go to an AP in the remote location or into a switch. They act the same as a wire strung between points.

Note that these come in 2.4 and 5 ghz versions - your pick although the 2.4 should do plenty.

And before anyone hollers about 2.4ghz LOL, note that we have tested and are sending broadcast quality video from roving remotes with high buck cameras during football games and the link back to the video production truck is 2.4g. The video compressor devices being used don't run on 5 ghz.

Does it give the receiver end a wireless SSID also? Or hardwire only that you have to provide your own wireless router?

u3b3rg33k · Jan 9, 2018

bochnak said:
Would one of you guys explain how to do this? Recommend specific products? Their website has so much info I'm lost.

assuming your garage isn't super far away and has line of sight, you'd want to use 5GHz to avoid polluting the 2.4GHz band unnecessarily.

so for a 500' or shorter run, the locoM5 (https://store.ubnt.com/products/nanolocom5 - search around for price) should do you just fine. they mount to standard pole mounts with zip ties (you can buy them online or build your own). you'd then want to configure the house side as an AP, and the garage side as a station (you'd join it to the house AP).
pick a channel that's quiet (likely mid-band 5GHz), and pick IP addresses for the radios that are in your network but outside of your router's DHCP range (for example if your laptop has the IP address 192.168.0.105, your dhcp range is probably .100-200, so you could pick 192.168.0.10 and .11).

Existing home router ---- UBNT radio AP - - (wireless link) - - UBNT Radio ------ Garage devices(another AP for solid wireless in the garage?)

Trey T · Jan 9, 2018

bochnak said:
Anyone using the following:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01929V7ZG/?tag=atomicindus08-20

https://www.netgear.com/home/products/networking/powerline/PLW1000.aspx#tab-features

I setup a PC in my detached garage and the wifi works OK. I'm paying for 30 down and only getting max of 12 and in some cases 3.

Looks like this device may be the ticket for 2 reasons:

1. I can hardwire my PC to outlet adapter. Hoping to get the whole 30 reliably.

2. It will create an access point so I can also get better WIFI on my phone as well.

Anyone have this?

I own a powerline adapter (TP-link AV500) for my TV and it's very reliable.

u3b3rg33k · Jan 9, 2018

PoorOwner said:
Does it give the receiver end a wireless SSID also? Or hardwire only that you have to provide your own wireless router?

you could use it as a high powered AP, but i would advise you not to do that. You want this to be a no fuss solution once it's done. use it as an alternative to digging a trench and running wire. put a wifi device in the garage to provide signal there - use the same SSID and security settings as indoors and you can walk out to it and roam to the garage wifi without a hiccup.

also i would recommend caution if you bury wire to a building that isn't on the same main panel - fiber should be used over long distances because it's not conductive/susceptible to static/lightning/accidentally conducting voltage it shouldn't.

bochnak · Jan 10, 2018

Powerline stuff came in last night. Hooked it up and was getting what seemed a stable 10-12 megs. Remember that I'm paying for 30. Indicator on adapter shows red, which is the worst possible signal (there is yellow and green which is a better signal).

So, this weekend I'm going to test router placement by moving from basement to upstairs and hopefully that improves things. If it does, I will have to reconfigure 3 LAN runs. Otherwise it will be onto ubnt devices.

bochnak · Jan 10, 2018

u3b3rg33k said:
assuming your garage isn't super far away and has line of sight, you'd want to use 5GHz to avoid polluting the 2.4GHz band unnecessarily.

so for a 500' or shorter run, the locoM5 (https://store.ubnt.com/products/nanolocom5 - search around for price) should do you just fine. they mount to standard pole mounts with zip ties (you can buy them online or build your own). you'd then want to configure the house side as an AP, and the garage side as a station (you'd join it to the house AP).
pick a channel that's quiet (likely mid-band 5GHz), and pick IP addresses for the radios that are in your network but outside of your router's DHCP range (for example if your laptop has the IP address 192.168.0.105, your dhcp range is probably .100-200, so you could pick 192.168.0.10 and .11).

Existing home router ---- UBNT radio AP - - (wireless link) - - UBNT Radio ------ Garage devices(another AP for solid wireless in the garage?)

Thanks for that info.

What if I want a WAP inside the garage? How do I go about that? I'd prefer same SSID and roaming if possible.

Tmart86 · Jan 10, 2018

Id go with the following ubiquiti gear.

2 - Nano station AC model number NS-5ACL $49.99each (point to point bridge)
1 - Unifi AC-Lite access point $89.99 (wireless Access point in the Garage)
-misc ethernet cables and maybe poe injectors

The loco M5 and M2 are fine but are legacy products so you might as well use the updated versions

txvwnut · Jan 10, 2018

bochnak said:
FWIW, my garage has a subpanel, so I hope that this powerline thing will work OK.

I went ahead and ordered the kit I linked to above. I also bought some cat cable and will play around with the idea of moving the router from the basement to the main level.

More than likely it wont work. I tried in mine and could never get the two to see each other. I forget which brand I tried but it stated in the instructions that the outlets had to be on the same panel.

bochnak · Jan 10, 2018

txvwnut said:
More than likely it wont work. I tried in mine and could never get the two to see each other. I forget which brand I tried but it stated in the instructions that the outlets had to be on the same panel.

See my post above. It works at about 1/3 the speed. LED on adapter shows a "red" light which means poor electrical signal.

Falcon67 · Jan 10, 2018

PoorOwner said:
Does it give the receiver end a wireless SSID also? Or hardwire only that you have to provide your own wireless router?

No, it's point-to-point. Its like running a cable. You come out of the far end device into whatever device you would have plugged up with the long cable.

u3b3rg33k · Jan 10, 2018

bochnak said:
Thanks for that info.

What if I want a WAP inside the garage? How do I go about that? I'd prefer same SSID and roaming if possible.

you can set up whatever you prefer for that - the below AP recommendation would be A-OK. if you want roaming you MUST use the same SSID, security type (you should be using WPA2-PSK), and passkey. otherwise it won't work.

Tmart86 said:
Id go with the following ubiquiti gear.

2 - Nano station AC model number NS-5ACL $49.99each (point to point bridge)
1 - Unifi AC-Lite access point $89.99 (wireless Access point in the Garage)
-misc ethernet cables and maybe poe injectors

The loco M5 and M2 are fine but are legacy products so you might as well use the updated versions

yes - use the newer gear.

bochnak · Jan 10, 2018

Tmart86 said:
Id go with the following ubiquiti gear.

2 - Nano station AC model number NS-5ACL $49.99each (point to point bridge)
1 - Unifi AC-Lite access point $89.99 (wireless Access point in the Garage)
-misc ethernet cables and maybe poe injectors

The loco M5 and M2 are fine but are legacy products so you might as well use the updated versions

u3b3rg33k said:
you can set up whatever you prefer for that - the below AP recommendation would be A-OK. if you want roaming you MUST use the same SSID, security type (you should be using WPA2-PSK), and passkey. otherwise it won't work.

yes - use the newer gear.

Thanks guys!

ghiamonster · Jan 10, 2018

I have the same powerline router functioning in my garage, running for the past month. With the house side plugged in 20 feet from the main panel and the receiver unit about 10 feet from the sub in the garage I had a red light for signal quality. I ran Ethernet to an outlet directly next to a main panel and plugged in the master unit there. In the garage I tried outlets on each leg of the subpanel and saw a distinct advantage to one leg. Have you tried connecting the garage unit to an outlet on either leg of the 220V feeder to see if one gives a better signal?

kwschumm · Jan 10, 2018

I installed a Linksys Velop three node mesh router and couldn't be happier. Laptops, TV, and phones all work great all around the house, inside and out. At our new house the shop will be 60 feet from the house and I suspect adding a fourth node for the shop will do the job.

bochnak · Jan 10, 2018

ghiamonster said:
I have the same powerline router functioning in my garage, running for the past month. With the house side plugged in 20 feet from the main panel and the receiver unit about 10 feet from the sub in the garage I had a red light for signal quality. I ran Ethernet to an outlet directly next to a main panel and plugged in the master unit there. In the garage I tried outlets on each leg of the subpanel and saw a distinct advantage to one leg. Have you tried connecting the garage unit to an outlet on either leg of the 220V feeder to see if one gives a better signal?

No I have not. I'm thinking about trying it though. I believe all my circuit breakers for outlets in garage are on one leg.

I also want to mention that my source adapter near router is plugged into an outlet that has a GFCI upstream. I don't think that is helping the situation.

apollo11 · Jan 10, 2018

bochnak said:
No I have not. I'm thinking about trying it though. I believe all my circuit breakers for outlets in garage are on one leg.

I also want to mention that my source adapter near router is plugged into an outlet that has a GFCI upstream. I don't think that is helping the situation.

That is bad according to everything I researched when I bought mine.
But
I don't believe everything I read.
YMMV

apollo11 · Jan 10, 2018

bochnak said:
See my post above. It works at about 1/3 the speed. LED on adapter shows a "red" light which means poor electrical signal.

mine shows green and only loses 2mps of the speed that my hardwired computer sees.
90mps vs 92mps

Powerline network/WIFI anyone?

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