Ethernet over Powerlines - newbie

[tingies213]

I'm looking into networking my house using power lines. I'm gonna use the network to connect a couple of PC's for browsing and 2 gaming consoles. Mostly though, I plan to use it for HD video streaming. I'm talking about 5GB to 12GB .mkv video files. There's only gonna be 1 stream going at any given time.

Will the power lines provide enough bandwidth to stream without having any problems?

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Simply put, yes. But you have to go more for the highend ones. Test them out because your power lines in your house may not be able to support it.

 

[Emulex]

the best you can get. 200 and 190 will not suffice.

powerline is interesting it maybe 200mbps but its 70-90% packet loss. udp can survive that but tcp (esp with nagle on) sucks monkey butt.

the newest ones that promise gigabit use a mesh/mimo tech where you have 3 or 4 nodes in the house. very expensive.


buy some flatwire cat6 and run gig-e - the top of the line best case scenario will still get wiped out when the dyson gets turned on

 

[PingSpike]

I have a couple of these, admittedly only the 14mb/s ones. They work fine for basic connectivity but you're looking at a high bandwidth application. I play videos off my server and even SD stuff lurched a lot of the time. The few HD things I had often were mostly unresponsive. My house was built in the 80s and while I never tested they seemed to work worse when my dryer was on.

I just ran cat6 to the basement last week and my video problems went away even though I'm only using 100mb switches.

And they're pricey. Pulling cable is a PITA but the results are better and frankly it doesn't really cost anymore when all is said and done. I just wish they sold bulk solid cable in amounts less then 1000ft...I really didn't need that much! But the only ~300-600ft bulk I saw for sale cost the same as monoprice's 1000ft box.

 

[Emulex]

flatwire rocks! but yeah the truth is documented that powerline ethernet for the most part is not as reliable as it promises.

kinda like getting a 450/600mbps 802.11N connection; even if you do i doubt it will flow that much bandwidth consistently

 

[Modelworks]

Powerline networking is a crap shoot. Lots of variables like devices plugged in at the time, how the wire is routed, if it is aluminum wire or copper. My suggestion is to buy them locally so you can return them easily if it doesn't work for you.

 

[schenley101]

power line Ethernet and high speeds do not go together. power lines are designed for higher power low frequency and ethernet is the opposite