devolo home plugs

[dombanks]

swmbos dad is having problems with his wireless dropping out on his pc, its a bit far away from the router. he cant lay a cable so i suggested using a devolo home plug kit.

unfortunatey he didnt head my advice and get a starter kit so has bought just a single plug. (its a 200mbps one) can he just buy another of these or does ne really need the starter kit that comes in 2's?

how easy are they to set up, just plug into the sockets and go for it.

thanks

[pete275]

Yep, just buy another one. They are literally just plug and play and off you go.

cheers

Pete

[Blatman]

QUOTE

swmbos dad is having problems with his wireless dropping out on his pc, its a bit far away from the router.

How far?

Is it an old house or new?

What wireless is he using, 2.4GHz (IEEE802.11b/g/n) or 5Ghz? (IEEE802.11a)

How many other wireless networks are nearby?

[blue_toaster]

Try changing the wifi channel. It worked for me.

I seem to remember reading that windows 7 pcs work better using channel 9, dunno if that's true but it's what I've done

[Blatman]

Try changing the wifi channel. It worked for me.

I seem to remember reading that windows 7 pcs work better using channel 9, dunno if that's true but it's what I've done

Utter rubbish I'm afraid.

To avoid interference from nearby wi-fi, you need to put your own wi-fi on to a channel that is at least 5 channels away from the wi-fi that is giving you trouble.

I could go in to a whole load of detail about the ins and outs of how to get your wi-fi interference free, but you'd all nod off...

[Asterix]

Try changing the wifi channel. It worked for me.

I seem to remember reading that windows 7 pcs work better using channel 9, dunno if that's true but it's what I've done

Utter rubbish I'm afraid.

To avoid interference from nearby wi-fi, you need to put your own wi-fi on to a channel that is at least 5 channels away from the wi-fi that is giving you trouble.

I could go in to a whole load of detail about the ins and outs of how to get your wi-fi interference free, but you'd all nod off...

But on the upside  ( ) home plugs are easy to install. The only problem is compatibility with some clients.

And I've often wondered how easy they would be to hack outside of the junction box/ meter.

[tex]

yea just buy another one - you will need to run the software to set it up - they have id numbers you have to type in to enable them to be linked. they do work quite a long way away as long as it your fusebox theyre linked to.! im running a few of them and they are very fast. got one in the workshop out the back which is 20feet away from the house.. works great

[Uncle Fester]

Try changing the wifi channel. It worked for me.

I seem to remember reading that windows 7 pcs work better using channel 9, dunno if that's true but it's what I've done

Utter rubbish I'm afraid.

To avoid interference from nearby wi-fi, you need to put your own wi-fi on to a channel that is at least 5 channels away from the wi-fi that is giving you trouble.

I could go in to a whole load of detail about the ins and outs of how to get your wi-fi interference free, but you'd all nod off...

Oh I dunno, try me    

I'm always willing to learn something new. I'd be intrigued to know the best way to get the wifi to work better

[Blatman]

Try changing the wifi channel. It worked for me.

I seem to remember reading that windows 7 pcs work better using channel 9, dunno if that's true but it's what I've done

Utter rubbish I'm afraid.

To avoid interference from nearby wi-fi, you need to put your own wi-fi on to a channel that is at least 5 channels away from the wi-fi that is giving you trouble.

I could go in to a whole load of detail about the ins and outs of how to get your wi-fi interference free, but you'd all nod off...

Oh I dunno, try me  <!--emo&  

I'm always willing to learn something new. I'd be intrigued to know the best way to get the wifi to work better

The easy thing first... Try changing the position of the aerial on the router. Most folk have them upright. Try it at 45 degrees. If you have a router with no aerial, try it lying down, or standing on it's edge. Most home routers come with a choice of stands to enable this. The orientation is more than just a way to save space on the shelf...

Now, the nitty gritty...

You need to see what channels the nearby wi-fi networks are on. To do this you need to download and install one of the many wireless sniffers that are available, like Airsnort, John the Ripper, Aircrack or the one I use which is **Cain and Abel.

Once downloaded, fire up the software and scan for nearby wireless. If you live in a typical suburban street, you'll see quite a few. If you live in a block of flats like I do, there will be loads and loads and loads...

You'll also see what channel they are on, and how strong the signal is. If there is no obvious empty channel to use, you need to put your wireless router on to the channel that presents, on average, the weakest signal. Here's a piccy of Cain's output where I am right now.

To the right, you can see what channel everyone is on. Also note that whilst many of the SSID's will be hidden, they are still revealed. You can also see a signal strength reading. The higer the number, the weaker the signal. This enables you to take a view on which channel may or may not be interfering. However...

It may also be the laptop is trying to connect to a wireless network that is on a similar channel to the required newtork. This causes slow performance as the laptop goes through the sequence of trying to connect to the wrong network, being rejected, then trying again. In Dom's case if the laptop is a long way from the home network router, chances are it could actually be closer to a neighbouring router which is providing a stronger signal in a frequency range that makes it a viable network for the laptop to connect to. We call this "channel syncing". Put simply, if the home network is on channel 1, then any rival network on channels 2, 3, 4 or 5 may well be causing channel syncing issues leading to slow performance. You must put your channel selection at least 5 digits away from the interference causing channel to avoid this. In the UK, there are only 3 channels guaranteed to not cause inteference with neighbouring wireless devices, channels 1, 6 and 11.

Once a channel choice has been made and the router channel altered in the router set up pages, you may also consider altering the signal strength generated by the laptop. To do this, go to Network Connections, right click the wireless connection, then select "Configure" in the dialoge box that is open. A new box will open. Click on the Advanced tab, then single click Transmit Power. On the right of the box you can alter the transmit power of the device. This *might* place the rival netwok out of range of your laptop, removing the channel syncing issue. Again, this would not work for Dom given his laptop is "a long way from" the home router.

You may also be able to reduce the transmit power of the router too. I don't have a big mansion so why does my router need to be transmitting at full power? It doesn't, so I have backed it off. Again, this reduces the number of wireless networks that overlap with yours and may also help to reduce interference. Interference manifests itself as slow throughput and / or an unstable connection that drops out often, and for no apparent reason, which is where we started...

That's about half of it. I could go on but it's rare to have to do much more than the above to improve a home wireless network. "Campus" networks, like you find at work where there is a large area to cover present different challenges, but I can fix them too...

**Warning: Cain will set off your virus software claiming it's a trojan. It isn't but it contains tools that enable password recovery. Password recovery is a euphemism for password cracking. But I digress...

[Kevin Wood]

Be aware that Homeplug adaptors create quite bad radio interference due to the signal being radiated from mains wiring, which simply isn't designed to carry data at hundreds of Megabits.

Certainly the earlier generations of power line adapters took out the shortwave bands and, whilst I haven't tried one, I suspect the faster products now available will reach up into VHF.

I have even heard reports that the signal can couple into the phone wiring and affect broadband speed.

You're better of persevering with wireless LAN or installing some CAT 5 cable, IMHO.

Kevin

[dombanks]

Blimey that's a long post to read on an iPhone ...

I think there are a couple of sky ones nearby. It's just a bog standard netgear wireless router they got with their virgin. The pc uses a USB dongle and is win vista say 3 ish yrs old it's not that far away but it is downstairs and through a several solid walls, one of which would be the old brick house wall. (house is a typical 60's semi)

Laying cable is not really an option so wireless it is. The router is underneath the tv nxt to the virgin box and modem.

[tex]

Be aware that Homeplug adaptors create quite bad radio interference due to the signal being radiated from mains wiring, which simply isn't designed to carry data at hundreds of Megabits.

Certainly the earlier generations of power line adapters took out the shortwave bands and, whilst I haven't tried one, I suspect the faster products now available will reach up into VHF.

I have even heard reports that the signal can couple into the phone wiring and affect broadband speed.

You're better of persevering with wireless LAN or installing some CAT 5 cable, IMHO.

Kevin

iv not noticed any interference at all - nor any loss of speed. currently getting 12mb with sky base package which aint too bad

[Blatman]

QUOTE

Be aware that Homeplug adaptors create quite bad radio interference due to the signal being radiated from mains wiring, which simply isn't designed to carry data at hundreds of Megabits.

For peer to peer networking this may be a limitation, but for hard wired connectivity to the internet, the bottleneck is going to be the internet connection itself. Even Virgin fibre connection only run at 50Mb/s...

QUOTE

I have even heard reports that the signal can couple into the phone wiring and affect broadband speed.

If the phone line and lecky cable are side by side in a conduit then there is a risk of electromagnetic interference. Using twisted pair for the phone line would be better, and shileded twisted pair would be ideal. I have no idea if BT's "OEM" phone cable is twisted pair or not BUT, I suspect older dwelling wiring to be pretty shonky for modern data requirements.

QUOTE

The pc uses a USB dongle and is win vista say 3 ish yrs old it's not that far away but it is downstairs and through a several solid walls, one of which would be the old brick house wall. (house is a typical 60's semi)

Any red paint or lead pipes in them walls?

Does the router have an aerial? If so and it's currently upright, try tipping it to 45 degrees.

If it doesn't have an aerial, re-orient the router itself. If it's currently on it's side, lay it flat. If it's laying flat, stick it in it's upright stand...

[dombanks]

its sort of dificult to explain but i doubt any lead pipes or paint..... but im sitting here now and i would say if you drew a straight line its i brick wall, through the cooker, through the floor into a bathroom and then through a double thickness outer wall into the extension. the rounter is under the tv in a solid oak tv type stand and the dongle is at the back of the PC which is in a corner of the room on an outer wall. so all in all its a lot of stuff to go through. swmbos dad already has one plug as he didnt realise you needed 2 so didnt get a starter kit.

he's just going to get another one and then its job done. there are 5 wireless networks available where i am sitting.

thanks for the help tho and that post makes interesting reading.

[mark.anson]

What the fook are you lot on about?