Using power cables for data transfer?

[La Poste]

Actually the way I am thinking at the moment is advising the guy to buy a more powerful wireless router.

Adding bits and pieces to a system will just add more things to go wrong and from what I have read about these repeaters they seem nothing but trouble IE they will work with some kit and not with others, some work OK with Ipads and not Windows 7 machines etc.

I've only just started reading about it but at a glance the most flexible system seems to be to have a separate modem that plugs into the power cables through one of these power ethernet systems, then the wireless router can be plugged into any of the house sockets, a bit of trial and error will reveal the most successful place to run the wireless router from.

I will haveto do some reading on powerful wireless routers, does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[brman]

Depending on how bad the problem is I think you are right. Getting a single wireless access point somewhere in the centre of the house without too much around it is better than messing around with different antennas and repeaters.

On the other hand, if you can't find a place where you can get coverage of all the house then you might be forced to go with a repeater.

There is no reason why you should not use powerline/homeplug to get your "wired" network to wherever you want but they still aren't as reliable as a wired network (in my experience of homeplugs anyway) so if you can get a cable there then even better.

That said, I just about managed to get house wide coverage on my wlan using a high gain antenna but I still use homeplug for a couple of the PCs at the far side of the house as they can be a bit flakey and slow on wlan.

 

[La Poste]

This problem of coverage seems to be common with Sky broadband users, the Sagem router they use do not seem to be very powerful.

Sky's terms and conditions forbid you from using anyone else's equipment but their own but there is nothing to stop you daisy chaining two routers as long as the house point of entry router is Sky's own one.

It seems the best way is to use the Sky provided Sagem and disable the wireless, then connect with an ethernet cable to a more powerful router.
Such a pity I got rid of my old BT home hub, I think that was a far better router than this Sagem.

http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/atta...er-how-connect-two-routers-together-v1.00.pdf

 

[UNG]

Actually the way I am thinking at the moment is advising the guy to buy a more powerful wireless router.

Adding bits and pieces to a system will just add more things to go wrong and from what I have read about these repeaters they seem nothing but trouble IE they will work with some kit and not with others, some work OK with Ipads and not Windows 7 machines etc.

I've only just started reading about it but at a glance the most flexible system seems to be to have a separate modem that plugs into the power cables through one of these power ethernet systems, then the wireless router can be plugged into any of the house sockets, a bit of trial and error will reveal the most successful place to run the wireless router from.

I will haveto do some reading on powerful wireless routers, does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks.

A lot of the problems are caused by poor set up and a lack of understanding of the deployment of the technology. In some cases to optimise Wi-Fi you have to go beyond the plug and play boxes to overcome the problems contained within a building that attenuate the wireless network.

In some cases carefully placed aluminium foil can improve wireless propagation as most routers use omni directional antennas and a lot of the signal can be going in the wrong direction, routers with detachable antennas can be useful as you can use different types of antennas and use space diverse configurations to optimise the network

 

[La Poste]

I think a wireless router with the capability of upgrading and directing the antennae is the way to go.

All these additional add-ons just spell trouble to me. No doubt there will be loads of annoying home phone calls from the client stating
"My wireless has dropped out again, can you come over and fix it" and so on.

The thing with Sky is you haveto use their wireless router as the point of entry into the house.
This is Ok, you can use the Sky router as a modem then connect with an ethernet cable a beast if you can find one, the beast being a main wireless router with a monster directional aerial.

All I have to do is find the right monster router and get then them communicating with each other.

I don't know much about aerials and broadcasting, I'm quite looking forward to finding out though.

A powerful wireless router with a detachable and upgradeable aerial is the answer.

 

[UNG]

The increase in power comes from using higher gain antennae, the actual radiated power of the wireless router is limited to a level set by ETSI About ETSIthis is to avoid co channel interference although increasing the antennae gain will increase the output power if done correctly it should not cause problems to other wireless networks located nearby

If the router has multiple antennae then setting these up in a space diverse configuration can improve a wireless network to great effect with little increase in antenna gain other than to overcome the cable losses, this creates an effect similar to having multiple wireless routers in the same network without the configuration issues

 

[La Poste]

Here's something to look at:

WN2000RPT

I don't know how successful it is and I am guessing it transmits on a different channel to the main router so you might experience drop outs as your wireless equipment moves from one channel/router to another while you roam around the house.

 

[brman]

Something to add, if you haven't already done so then you should check there isn't any interference from neighbouring wifi. An app like wifi analyser on a android phone is very useful to check he isn't transmitting on the same channel as a neighbour which will not help his performance at all.

I live in a low density area and from my study I can pick up 6 neighbouring setups, 3 of them on channel 6!

 

[La Poste]

Wi fi analyzer is a great app, I shall have a bit of fun with it this evening.

 

[La Poste]

I'm having a lot of fun with it, I didn't realise there was so much going on in the airwaves and the 5ghz band has loads of channels.

 

[UNG]

It is a good App use it quite a bit myself, if you think there is a lot going on using that App then you would be even more surprised using a full spectrum analyser with a high gain antenna you can even find leaky microwave ovens

With regard to channel selection routers are normally set to automatically channel hop to optimise wireless connection if you are prepared to periodically check and modify the settings then switching to manual channel setting can significantly improve wireless performance you need a minimum of one channel separation to avoid co channel interference

 

[brman]

yes, the trouble with wifi is that is a fairly unregulated band, so shared by things like security systems and radio control models. A lot of these other systems use frequency hopping so it is hard to predict where the interference will come from.

the auto channel selection on access points (I don't think it is really channel hopping...) can help but, as UNG says, it is sometimes better to monitor the band yourself and manually select a channel in a quiet area. The only trouble is if a neighbour changes his router onto your channel you might not notice unless you regularly monitor it.
All reasons why I prefer wires!

 

[UNG]

Can be quite frustrating if frequency hopping and spread spectrum wireless is deployed in close proximity as one totally wipes out the other

Leaky microwave ovens are also a good source of interference

 

[Ian B]

Ok sorry to dig this old Chestnut up again.

I have found these and they look quite smart:
Product Description | Power Ethernet

Those ethernet over power sockets work well in my experience. Just be aware that the mini-hub inside draws a very small amount of standby current whether in use or not, so a couple won't make a lot of difference but if you used them all over the house it might add up a bit.

You will need to use a different wireless channel though as advised above.

 

[i=p/u]

my router can work out in street, new router maybe