Home Network Help - Powerline Kit

[Doug5984]

I've been trying to help my boss figure out how to get his entire house set up...he doesn't need a true network, just wants wireless throughout the house / a cat-5 connection in his bedroom to stream from his blu-ray player (doesn't have wi-fi, and wi-fi does not reach that side of the house).

He could get up in the attic and run a line, but that really would be a lot of work with the way his house is set up. Now forgive my ignorance, I don't know all the correct terminology here- but I know what i need it to do.

I want to set it up for him to get a powerline kit (do these work well?) into his bedroom, then run that into a switch, then from there I can wire his blu-ray player, then could I run it to a wireless access point as well to give him wifi on that side of the house?

Wired / Wireless connection in laundry room -> powerline kit to masterbedroom with a switch and wireless access point?

[cartman]

I've had mixed results with the ethernet via power lines products. It really seems to depend on what else is on the circuits as to how well they perform. Dimmer switches really wreak havok. Also, they top out at 100 meg, I haven't seen any that run at gigabit speeds.

[Doug5984]

Originally Posted by cartman

I've had mixed results with the ethernet via power lines products. It really seems to depend on what else is on the circuits as to how well they perform. Dimmer switches really wreak havok. Also, they top out at 100 meg, I haven't seen any that run at gigabit speeds.

Main thing they want to do is stream netflix- are the speeds good enough for that?

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Doug5984

Main thing they want to do is stream netflix- are the speeds good enough for that?

"stream netflex to the bedroom" = stream porn

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Doug5984

Main thing they want to do is stream netflix- are the speeds good enough for that?

Hard to say. It probably would be enough, but without testing first can't really say for sure. See if you can pick up some units from a place with a decent return policy and run some tests.

[Doug5984]

Originally Posted by cartman

Hard to say. It probably would be enough, but without testing first can't really say for sure. See if you can pick up some units from a place with a decent return policy and run some tests.

Will do- for the 2nd part of the question- will hooking up a wireless access point in the room work as well? I don't see any reason it wouldn't but just want to be sure.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Doug5984

Will do- for the 2nd part of the question- will hooking up a wireless access point in the room work as well? I don't see any reason it wouldn't but just want to be sure.

Sure, there wouldn't be a problem. But bandwidth would be shared between the Blu-Ray device, plus whatever is connecting via the wireless AP.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Seems like as good a thread as any to ask this...

I just got a Powerline Kit for my Xbox 360, because I wasn't happy with the wireless connection with Netflix. It kept dropping or reducing the quality. I think it's because the Xbox is in a cabinet. Anyway...

The Powerline Kit has worked very well so far. The only issue is that it has one ethernet port coming out of it. I would like to hook up my Blu-Ray player and, at times, my laptop, to the wired/powerline adapter. What device am I looking for? I can't quite figure it out. The plan would be to hook the ethernet cable from the powerline adapter to this product (swtich? router? or whatever) and then hook ethernet cables from this product into the Xbox and Blu-Ray player.

It'd be rare that I'd ever really be using these products at the same time (though possible with the laptop in those rare instances), but I want to avoid having to plug and unplug the ethernet cable into the powerline adapter.

Thanks.

[cartman]

HB, what you are looking for is a switch. You should be able to pick up a 5 port one for around $20-$30.

Here's one on NewEgg for $15 and free shipping:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833127322

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by cartman

HB, what you are looking for is a switch. You should be able to pick up a 5 port one for around $20-$30.

cartman, thanks for the quick response!

I got this from Newegg:

Newegg.com - TRENDnet TE100-S5 Fast Ethernet Switch 10/100Mbps 5 x RJ45 1K MAC Address Table 256Kbytes per device Buffer Memory-_-

TRENDnet TE100-S5 Fast Ethernet Switch 10/100Mbps 5 x RJ45 1K MAC Address Table 256Kbytes per device Buffer Memory

I thought that would do it, but when I tried it out this morning, I couldn't get internet access through the Xbox or through the wired connection with my laptop.

I just plugged it in and tried it. I didn't go through any other steps, so perhaps I am missing something.

[cartman]

You might want to verify that the switch itself is ok. You can do this by plugging the switch in to the other end of the Powerline adapter, then hooking the laptop back up to the switch.

I've also seen, although rarely, where a switch had something wrong, and is actually a hub. That would cause issues as well.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by cartman

You might want to verify that the switch itself is ok. You can do this by plugging the switch in to the other end of the Powerline adapter, then hooking the laptop back up to the switch.

I've also seen, although rarely, where a switch had something wrong, and is actually a hub. That would cause issues as well.

I will give that try.

Thanks again for your help!

[gstelmack]

Is the other end of the powerline plugged into a router? Without a router in the chain you can't have more than one device attached.

[stevew]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Is the other end of the powerline plugged into a router? Without a router in the chain you can't have more than one device attached.

This was my first thought as well.

[cartman]

I doubt he is directly connected to the internet. HB, is this roughly how your network looks:

Cable Modem/Router --> powerline --> powerline --> Xbox ?

And do you have anything else plugged in to the device that the first powerline connects to, ie. a desktop also plugged into the cable modem/router?

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by cartman

I doubt he is directly connected to the internet. HB, is this roughly how your network looks:

Cable Modem/Router --> powerline --> powerline --> Xbox ?

And do you have anything else plugged in to the device that the first powerline connects to, ie. a desktop also plugged into the cable modem/router?

That's how I have it. Exactly.

I got home and tried it all again. I am not sure if it was renewed confidence or using different ports in the back, but it worked just fine. I had both the Xbox and laptop running on the wired connection through the switch.

So now it goes:

Cable Modem/Router --> powerline --> powerline --> Switch ---> Xbox + Laptop + DVD player

Thanks again!

[gstelmack]

Sometimes I've found networking equipment to be finicky enough that if, say, I want to add a switch, I power off the cable modem and the router (which are not always the same device), add the switch, power up the cable modem, wait for it to boot, power up the router, wait for it to boot, power up the switch, wait for it to boot, and then sometimes reboot the PCs / other devices if they can't find the Internet. The consumer-level stuff isn't always that great about getting the IP addresses right when just adding / removing stuff while running.