fastest POE adapter?

[finbarqs]

I'm looking at the Netgear's 500Mbps adapter, as I currently have linksys's 200mbps adapter. Unfortunately, Linksys's adapter doesn't stream 1080p content very well... So I need something with higher throughput.

What utility can I use to measure the throughput? And what's the fastest adapter out there?

 

[imagoon]

200mbps should be enough to stream 1080p, so going to the 500mbps adapters may not have a good result because there is likely interference on your power line. The newer ones may handle it better though so it might be a toss up to what happens.

 

[ericloewe]

I don't think you mean POE, you mean powerline.

Unfortunately, you'd probably be better off with Wi-Fi instead of powerline, especially 802.11 ac, when it gets popular.

 

[Emulex]

there is a brand that makes a MIMO gigabit model. it uses repeaters so 3 or 4 devices can help throughput. But you'll still get about 90% packet loss (UDP).

your 200mbps is udp @ 90% packet loss, so 500 will roughly be 2.5 faster 🙂 without mimo

 

[Eug]

I'm not sure what they're like now, but the earlier 500 Mbps models also had problems on noisy lines, sometimes even worse than the 200 Mbps models. I haven't read much on the Gigabit models.

Also try different circuits. In my experience, different circuits even in the same room often have markedly different performance.

Also make sure you're not using a surge protector.

If you have noisy electrical circuits, is MoCA an option for you? Or how about HomePNA?

 

[Emulex]

moca/homepna are not nearly as fast. and yeah all the faster units require cleaner lines to go faster.
what about wigig 802.11ac?

 

[Eug]

moca/homepna are not nearly as fast.

I have both HomePNA over cable and Powerline Ethernet 200 Mbps.

Speeds over 50 Mbps with HomePNA over cable with my hardware are doable. I tested it at over 60 Mbps with two Cellpipe routers close to each other. I didn't directly bench the speeds with the devices far from each other, but I could easily max out my 25 Mbps internet access, and it was consistent.

With Powerline Ethernet 200 Mbps I would usually get less than 40 Mbps but it really fluctuated, and on other circuits I'd sometimes get less than 10 Mbps or would cut out completely.

So, I'd say HomePNA over cable in my case is significantly faster and more consistent than Powerline Ethernet 200 Mbps. That said, I can't use it in my home, because I have digital cable. It works fine, but apparently it's a no-no because the signals can escape into the neighbourhood. Cable subscribers like me are supposed to use MoCA with the appropriate filters.

I can't test MoCA myself because I don't have any MoCA hardware, but I see posts with recent (but not the latest) hardware getting over 50 Mbps too.

However, for me it's all moot, because I now have Gigabit Ethernet anyway throughout most of the house. 😉