Powerline adaptors or range extenders?

mhar · Oct 24, 2016

Working on a very long property with thick stone walls so when away from the router and phone base station, both phone and wi-fi is poor to non-existent, it is even problematic on rooms adjoining where the router is
I have a tplink powerline adaptor which I happily use at home. I have also provided cat5 cable to enable the connection of range extenders.
Is there such a device which combines the two? I send the data stream around the mains cabling and plug in range extenders which then transmit? Or would I have to plug in a tp link at each point I wanted a range extender and connect to this with an ethernet cable from each tp link in which case would I be better off hardwiring in cat 5 from the hub? If hard wiring in cat 5 can I daisy chain?
The solution for the phone appears to be a 'long range cordless repeater bundle', unless anybody informs me otherwise!
Many thanks for any (simple) responses

Rpa07 · Oct 24, 2016

TP link and the style will give you range extender as a internet switch(1 in 4 Out) at the same time giving you wifi from that spot. This combines the two so ideal but you can just have a switch as an extender with 1 in and 4 or more out. Well worth it if you are in the or position to run some cat 5 or 6 whilst the floors are up.

Rpa07 · Oct 24, 2016

Single cat 5 or 6 to each piece of equipment - no daisy chains - Data don't like it!

mhar · Oct 25, 2016

Many thanks for the reply.
Currently they are using 1 port on the hub for a tp link (for catchup tv) leaving 3 spare. I will require two or three range extenders. Your reply implies that I will be best off to run lengths of cat 5 to each point where a range extender is required (all runs will be external) as opposed to using 3 tp links to provide the datafor the extenders?

Rpa07 · Oct 25, 2016

You can take 3, cat 5 or 6, in different directions and have a TP link on each end of these singles, giving you the new wifi from that link + 4 more hard wire ports or more extension points. If going external cat 5 or 6 is available for that application. It's worth the extra work involved to create a reliable and fast install and future proofs in a way because you'll just change the equipment as time goes by. Invest in quality Cat cable.

Octopus · Oct 25, 2016

If you already have a pair of powerline adaptors in place, just add the TPlink wifi ones as they should simply add on - you won't then use up the CAT5 ports on the hub.

I have 2 wifi extenders and 4 powerline adaptors in our place all happily co-existing - and for behind the TV I have a pair of adaptors with 2 ports each for all the devices.

BUT the only thing they don't like is RCD's or RCBO's - they will slow down the "claimed" performance a lot! My father in laws house has 2 separate CU's, both on the same phase, both with up front RCD's and I've been unable to get them working consistently across the 2 CU's

mhar · Oct 26, 2016

My reading of the tp link wifi repeaters is that they receive the wifi signal via their antenna and then amplify and re-transmit, relying on the quality of signal received over the air, as opposed to data pumped round the fixed wiring. Am I wrong?

Rpa07 · Oct 26, 2016

They receive via the cat 5/6, pass it along via the switch hardwired AND they greate a wifi signal from that spot. Off the top of my head I am talking about the TL WR 842 and similar 300mbps but more up to dates are available and work the same.