New Metrocast Speeds in January - 150/15 and 50/5
- Thread starter koan00
- Start date
Thank you.
I went from 37/5 to 53/7.
Wired if I can, wireless if it's impractical. Desktops, TV's and other stationary stuff is wired if I can get a wire to it. The above test was run on wired gigabit, but I can get nearly the same on uncrowded wifi. I haven't upgraded to 802.11ac yet, but have a decent dual band 802.11n access point. I keep the 2.4 GHZ band at a 20 MHz channel width for a more stable long range connection (say when I'm outside, other devices further from the AP). I have the 5HZ band with less clients and set at 40 Mhz channel width.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11n-2009#Data_rates
- If you have a single stream 802.11n device, you wont be able to hit 150Mbps effective rate regardless of 20/40 mode.
- If you have a dual stream 802.11n device, you will be able to hit 150Mbps effective rate, but only in 40Mhz mode.
- If you have a triple or quad stream stream 802.11n device (not very common), you can hit 150Mbps in 20/40Mhz mode.
(Above assumes Access Point and Clients both match in capabilities)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11n-2009#Data_rates
- If you have a single stream 802.11n device, you wont be able to hit 150Mbps effective rate regardless of 20/40 mode.
- If you have a dual stream 802.11n device, you will be able to hit 150Mbps effective rate, but only in 40Mhz mode.
- If you have a triple or quad stream stream 802.11n device (not very common), you can hit 150Mbps in 20/40Mhz mode.
(Above assumes Access Point and Clients both match in capabilities)
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It really depends with your home's configuration, construction, position of router and so many other variables. If you are relatively happy with what you have, the simplest upgrade would be a drop in replacement for your existing equipment. You didn't mention what model adapters you are using now (or how many?), but you may just want to try to upgrade your existing powerline infrastructure. The latest products appear to be able to hit on or about 150: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/charts/powerline/view
SamSpade
Well-Known Member
We're getting some spotty coverage lately. Normally, the powerline adapters give us great speed for streaming channels with no buffering, but we squirmed through a show last night that buffered about every other minute. It felt like I was streaming dialup. I am not sure if it's the powerline, or the wifi I have attached to it. It's not *down* - it is just intermittent and slow and I can't figure it out. My best guess so far is that somehow my neighbor might be using my wi-fi for HIS stuff, but that might be paranoid.
I'm just wondering if it's worth the money to upgrade anything - better powerline (I have the TP Link AV500) or better wi-fi (I have a TP Link 802.11g). So I'm wondering what to do. I would have added a powerline to connect directly to my smart TV, but I just learned it does NOT have an Ethernet port.
Clem72
Well-Known Member
Powerline is good for a reliable lower speed network, but short of wiring the house with cat-6 I would suggest a mesh router approach. The new one from google appears to be a good solution.
https://store.google.com/product/google_wifi
https://store.google.com/product/google_wifi
SamSpade
Well-Known Member
Isn't this just a regular router with extenders? How do you avoid losses the further away you get?
glhs837
Power with Control
Not really, more a distributed net with the nodes working together to overcome obstructions. Hence why more is better. Every extender is on it's own, just talking to the base. The mesh nodes work together, splitting the load
http://www.androidcentral.com/router-vs-mesh-networking-whats-best-your-home-wifi-network
And I just tested and got about 35mpbs. Not bad at all.
There are several mesh wifi methods of extending your network. From the little I have read, the google wifi seems to perform the worst of the bunch. The numbers looks like it's just a repeater with no dedicated back haul. There are several other options worth exploring. Here is a recent review with powerline and the orbi mesh devices: http://www.anandtech.com/show/10878...-comparison-of-ghn-homeplug-av2-and-wifi-mesh
Reviews like this however are usually biased toward total network throughput and assume that the wifi will propogate well. If you have a bad obstacle wifi wont get through (my grandparents house comes to mind), the powerline units may fare better than the tests in the article.
Reviews like this however are usually biased toward total network throughput and assume that the wifi will propogate well. If you have a bad obstacle wifi wont get through (my grandparents house comes to mind), the powerline units may fare better than the tests in the article.
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Clem72
Well-Known Member
To answer the original question, mesh vs repeater, mesh is supposed to (though not always does) use a different radio to transmit between routers than what is used for communicating with end user devices. Where a repeater uses the same radio and as such immediately cuts your bandwidth in half as you are basically now using half-duplex communications.
I had only read one or two quick reviews of the google unit which were positive, but if there are better mesh routers in that price range then they would obviously be a better choice.
What I can attest to is having used multiple generations of Powerline and even under ideal conditions on the same breaker with nothing else attached I could never get better than 80Mbit. Between floors the best I ever got for a sustained connection was 35mbit (testing UDP streaming with IPERF, not just believing the identified connection rate). But it is stable.
glhs837
Power with Control
I did like my powerline units with the following caveats. For some reason, 2-3 years seemed to be the limit for life. And you had to sometimes get creative with where you plugged some stuff in. Some items would dirty up the current enough that it would screw things up. Power supplies for laptops, things like fans, sharing an outlet with the powerline adapter could cause grief. I would still be using them if I hadn't ripped up enough of the house that running CAT5 was feasible and relatively easy.
SamSpade
Well-Known Member
That works just fine for me. I was doing a lot of switching and testing last night when I got more buffering problems, and ultimately - it was clear that the culprit was the powerline, and not a cable or router.
It was only putting out about 1 or 2 mbits. I finally decided to start putting the whole thing on a different circuit, and voila! 35 mbits. So it was the circuit itself, for some reason.
glhs837
Power with Control
If that same unit tests fast on a different circuit, look for sources of interference. Unlplug everything you can, then plug back in until the speed drops. In my case, laptop power supplies were the biggest culprit, followed by fans. Just moving them to a different outlet on the same circuit was enough in some cases.
SamSpade
Well-Known Member
Yeah, well - you don't live in my household. If a laptop power supply is interfering - move everything ELSE. It stays.
Clem72
Well-Known Member
Most of the power issues seem to stem from non-grounded appliances. In the case of your laptop power you may be able to fix the issue using a cheapo surge-protection powerstrip. They tend to provide at a minimum some ground isolation and noise filtering (that works both ways).