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removed a homeplug (lemmy.horwood.cloud)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
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Homeplugs (ethernet over power) are fine for some things, but they add so much latency to the network.

Wired is so much better.

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[–] 5 points 1 year ago* (3 children)

My experience has been different. Wifi extenders were not very reliable. Wifi devices were better, but powerline extenders have been rock solid. Ping times are right in line with wired Ethernet too.

In my experience powerline extenders are a reasonable alternative to Ethernet for home users in places where running a cable isn't an option.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    You are the subset of people who happen to be in a situation where they're working as they should. I'm going to guess that you're not in North America, and live somewhere with 240v power outlets.

    In any country that uses 120v, usually it's split phase power, and if your powerline adapters are sharing a phase with something that's inductive or crossing the split in the phase, generally they're going to be rubbish. So you basically need a degree in electrical engineering to figure out what circuits are on what side of the split phase, and what is on each circuit that may be an inductive load, and could interfere, just for them to perform like they should.

    There's a whole lot more to it, and I'm simplifying a lot here, but that's the overview of the problem.

    With UK power circuits, there are fewer breakers and everything is fed from a single phase of 240v. That makes it much more likely that you'll have a good experience with powerline. Just have to avoid the circuit with stuff like your air conditioner (if you have one) and stuff like the fridge, and generally you do quite well with powerline.

    Ethernet is still better tho. Heh.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    I have them installed in 2 houses, one 120V and one 127V. Electrical panels in NA are pretty simple (although not as simple as the UK) and have the 2 phases split on the 2 sides of the box. The breakers for 120V or 127V circuits on the right are on one phase and those on the left are on the other.

    The panel wiring wasn't something I thought about when I put the power line adapters in and they were plug and play in both locations. I'm guessing some brands work much better than others and these Netgear adapters have worked flawlessly. Or maybe I got lucky.

    That said, I'd have Cat6 cables installed if it didn't require tearing apart the walls and ceiling.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    Don't know about the UK, but in central Europe it's common for houses to get three phase power that can then be used on 400V three phase circuits and gets split (ideally evenly) into 240V circuits. And the fact that the phases have effectively zero coupling means that you also need to just try the adapter to find out if it's going to work or not unless you happen to know how exactly your house is wired up, just like with split phase power.

    Apartments usually get a single phase though, but IMHO it's also less likely that WiFi won't be enough there, so it's questionable if that's even a point for powerline.

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