Powerline Question : Fast WAN, Slow LAN ?

[KidRobot]

Hi guys, long time lurker as this forum is a wealth of helpful information. Newly signed up to ask this...

I have a Zyxel PLA5405 kit running and I'm a bit confused at how/why my speeds are the way they are.

First off, my home cable internet package from my ISP gets me 60 Mbps down, 10 Mbps up.

The line comes in, to the cable modem, out to a RT-N66u. Out of the 4 ports going out from the RT-N66U, 1 of them goes to a Zyxel PLA5405. The other end of that is upstairs to my HTPC.

Now here is where it gets interesting.

When I run a speedtest from speedtest.net upstairs at my HTPC, I'm able to get the "theoretical" speeds of 60/10 Mbps that I get from my main PC that's connected to the RT-N66U down in the basement. That's fine. Not a problem, since my cable internet package dictates that's as fast as I should be getting.

However, when I run a network file transfer test (using a 1 GB file) from the HTPC to the home PC downstairs, or home PC to HTPC, the best speed I can get is avg 7 MB/s. That value is from the Windows file transfer dialog box. Also, noticed from the Resource Monitor in Windows, as the Network speed for that specific file transfer.

The reading/writing for the file transfer is from/to an external drive via USB 3.0, so I don't think there's a bottleneck there.

Can someone help explain why I'm able to get speeds to my HTPC via Powerline to the outside world at 60 Mbps, but the LAN transfer speed is basically the same? Shouldn't LAN speeds be a lot faster?

If 7MB/s is the cap, then there's something definitely wrong with the Zyxel 5405, as that's advertised as 1200 Gbps (theoretical)....I'm basically running something worse than a 200 Mb Powerline kit.

I'm having an upgrade done tomorrow for a faster internet package (250 Mb down / 20 Mbps up). I wouldn't be surprised if I can get that speed at my HTPC via Powerline, and yet internal network lan transfers will stay at 7 MB/s


Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[netwrks]

First off you, can't get 1200 Mbps on a 1000Mbps LAN port. That's marketing voodoo. Tested by SNB below.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanw...s-powerline-gigabit-ethernet-adapter-reviewed

Expect up to around 200Mbps, tops, on these devices. Best solution is one physical Ethernet cable, end-to-end..

 

[KidRobot]

That's true, I never really expected 1200 Mbps from that kit anyways, but even if I got 200 Mbps, I'd be happy.

Could there be anything that's capping my LAN speeds at 7 MB/s (56 Mb/s) ?

 

[netwrks]

That's true, I never really expected 1200 Mbps from that kit anyways, but even if I got 200 Mbps, I'd be happy.

Could there be anything that's capping my LAN speeds at 7 MB/s (56 Mb/s) ?

Every environment is different. You could try different outlet's to see if the throughput improves.

 

[KidRobot]

I'll try that tonight.

How much of a factor does having something connected to the other plug in that wall outlet play?

Is it best to leave that wall outlet where the powerline adaptor is, on its own?

 

[ColinTaylor]

Use the Zyxel utility to find out what the link speed is of the powerline adapters. If it's ~60Mbps then you've got a problem with the house wiring. Don't plug the adapters into extension blocks/strips.

If the link speed is >100Mbps, then I'd say the bottleneck is your HTPC. What is the spec of the HTPC?

 

[thiggins]

I'll try that tonight.

How much of a factor does having something connected to the other plug in that wall outlet play?

Is it best to leave that wall outlet where the powerline adaptor is, on its own?

Depends on what's plugged in. Switching power supplies, especially small ones like cellphone and USB chargers are noisy and will definitely knock down throughput.

First test to do is plug both adapters into the same outlet or a power strip and see what you get for throughput.

 

[KidRobot]

What is the spec of the HTPC?

Its just a Zotac Zbox Nano XS AD11 Plus

https://www.zotac.com/de/product/mini_pcs/ad11-plus

Ram upgraded to 4GB

 

[KidRobot]

Depends on what's plugged in. Switching power supplies, especially small ones like cellphone and USB chargers are noisy and will definitely knock down throughput.

First test to do is plug both adapters into the same outlet or a power strip and see what you get for throughput.

The one from the source (in the basement, at the router), the other plug on that wall outlet is the RT-N66U's power adaptor.

On the receiving end, the other component plugged in is the home theatre powered subwoofer.

Will definitely try out your suggestions. Thanks!

 

[thiggins]

The one from the source (in the basement, at the router), the other plug on that wall outlet is the RT-N66U's power adaptor.

On the receiving end, the other component plugged in is the home theatre powered subwoofer.

Generally, noise at the receiver affects throughput more than noise at the transmitter.

One simple thing to try is to plug the power supply (NOT the HomePlug adapter) into a 6ft / 2m extension cord. Sometimes that provides just enough filtering to reduce noise. Easy to do and worth a shot.

 

[ChatmanR]

Did you ever figure out what the culprit was?