Powerline for WAN connection

My basic question is: Is it reasonable to use Powerline for my WAN connection - that is, from my wifi router to my cable modem?

I know that I can, what I'm wondering is: is this a dumb choice, perhaps because the Powerline network isn't stable or fast enough for a WAN connection? Should I only be using a wired ethernet cable for this important connection?



To get better home coverage, I moved my wifi router a few weeks ago to a central location (about 20 feet away from it's former location) but it's not near a cable outlet. So I've set up a second powerline network for the WAN connection to the cable modem (the first powerline network is for the home LAN connection). Also on the home LAN are two other Wifi Powerline adapters to cover other parts of the house (e.g., my basement). All are powerline dlink 500 adapters and I believe the two networks are isolated/distinct/separate (not sure of the correct term but I tried to make sure of this when I set up the 2nd network).

This seems to work most of the time. I seem to get better wifi signal strength throughout the house now. But now I get somewhat frequent (maybe twice a day) network "glitches" that I don't recall having before. It mostly appears as loss of internet connectivity but can also appear as loss of wifi connectivity (to presumably the main wifi router). But I doubt that the wifi connectivity would be related to the powerline WAN connection in any way.

If it matters, a little more information:

1. I have a dlink DIR-655 wifi router
2. I have two powerline adapters for my WAN connection, both are dlink 309AV
3. I have three powerline adapters for my LAN, one is dlink 309AV (to the wifi router) and two are dlink 310AV (wifi)
4. My three wifi networks use the same SSID & pw but 3 different channels (1, 6, and 11)
5. My house was built about 1950 but the cable modem is in a newer part that was built about 1985
6. I have about 15 devices that connect via wifi throughout the house (laptops, cell phones, wifi printer, xbox, smart TVs, etc.)

Realize all your powerline adapters are sharing the same bandwidth, even if they are forming separate networks by being paired differently.

The DHP-310AV is a 200 Mbps HomePlug AV adapter from what I can see. The DHP-309 is AV500. So the slower adapters will hold back the throughput of the faster ones.

It would help to know what your internet service download speed is.

thiggins said:

Realize all your powerline adapters are sharing the same bandwidth, even if they are forming separate networks by being paired differently.

The DHP-310AV is a 200 Mbps HomePlug AV adapter from what I can see. The DHP-309 is AV500. So the slower adapters will hold back the throughput of the faster ones.

It would help to know what your internet service download speed is.

Click to expand...

Thank you Tim.

I'm pretty sure that the one that I have is 500 Mbps (this one: http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00AX9Z652/?tag=smallncom-20), though I see there's also a 200 model, possibly the older one.

The plan I'm on is 25 Mbps download speed (and 2.5 Mbps upload).

Rob

Ok. So all your adapters are 500AV. This means you have maybe 80 Mbps of total throughput to share among all the adapters. Could be lower, depending on what sort of noise your adapters are seeing.

If your WAN connection is dropping, that could appear as a WiFi drop. Or are you sure the Wi-Fi connection itself is being interrupted?

To see if the powerline WAN connection is a problem, you can temporarily replace it with a long Ethernet cable.

thiggins said:

Ok. So all your adapters are 500AV. This means you have maybe 80 Mbps of total throughput to share among all the adapters. Could be lower, depending on what sort of noise your adapters are seeing.

If your WAN connection is dropping, that could appear as a WiFi drop. Or are you sure the Wi-Fi connection itself is being interrupted?

To see if the powerline WAN connection is a problem, you can temporarily replace it with a long Ethernet cable.

Click to expand...

I believe I'm getting wifi drops at times (actual loss of wifi connectivity) and this might have increased since the move, but I'm not certain. Definitely I am getting loss of *internet* connectivity maybe a couple of times a day for a short period (maybe a couple of minutes): either pages will stop loading or actually time out.

I should have noted before that I do have problems with my powerline network. I've had the first in place for about a year, maybe 2. I notice that I often (but not always) get a red indicator light, which I believe tells me that my overall speed is less than 50 Mbps. And I notice this sometimes now on the 2nd powerline network for the WAN connection. But the red light isn't always on when I notice some of the internet connectivity problems, which is why I wonder if that's the cause.

Am I correct in understanding that if I have 2 powerline networks then they share the 80 Mbps? So for example, if I'm watching a netflix video via a smart TV connected to a powerline wifi, then each of the two networks could be thought of as just running at 40 Mbps?

I'm going to run a long ethernet cable for the WAN connection and report back.

Thanks again, Tim.

Rob

I haven't found the multiline powerline quality indicators to be very accurate. But if you're getting a red indicator, you probably have a serious noise problem. That's the first thing to track down. If you've been having the problem with just the LAN adapters, it's not going to get any better by adding another pair of adapters.

Remove any wall-wart type power supplies / cellphone chargers from outlets near your powerline adapters. Make sure each adapter is plugged directly into the wall.

You might also consider an upgrade. The latest HomePlugAV2 adapters are much better at adapting to noise and provide higher bandwidth. I'd try the oes with built-in filter outlets in case other gear plugged in near the adapters is causing noise problems.

Yes, all powerline adapters share the same bandwidth. It's shared according to demand, not just simple division. For example, if you are tranferring a large file between Ethernet connected machines between the LAN adapters, that is going to eat up most of your bandwidth, leaving little for the WAN adapters.

thiggins said:

I haven't found the multiline powerline quality indicators to be very accurate. But if you're getting a red indicator, you probably have a serious noise problem. That's the first thing to track down. If you've been having the problem with just the LAN adapters, it's not going to get any better by adding another pair of adapters.

Remove any wall-wart type power supplies / cellphone chargers from outlets near your powerline adapters. Make sure each adapter is plugged directly into the wall.

You might also consider an upgrade. The latest HomePlugAV2 adapters are much better at adapting to noise and provide higher bandwidth. I'd try the oes with built-in filter outlets in case other gear plugged in near the adapters is causing noise problems.

Yes, all powerline adapters share the same bandwidth. It's shared according to demand, not just simple division. For example, if you are tranferring a large file between Ethernet connected machines between the LAN adapters, that is going to eat up most of your bandwidth, leaving little for the WAN adapters.

Click to expand...

Thank you again, Tim.

I'm going to run an ethernet cable for my WAN connection. But I'll also see if I can reduce the noise on the powerline.

Rob

FYI - I replaced the WAN connection with ethernet cable (and also removed one of the powerline wifis, for other reasons) and the whole network is much more stable than before. No daily loss of internet connectivity and much less frequent loss of wifi connectivity (though I don't know why this would be affected by the change).

Robnw said:

FYI - I replaced the WAN connection with ethernet cable (and also removed one of the powerline wifis, for other reasons) and the whole network is much more stable than before. No daily loss of internet connectivity and much less frequent loss of wifi connectivity (though I don't know why this would be affected by the change).

Click to expand...

The wifi access points may have been interfering with each other if the were not manually set to different channels ( 1,6,11 for example).