Experiences with Powerline networks?

[tendonut]

Has anyone given Powerline networks a try yet for streaming?

I went and bought a highly rated Powerline network pair (ZyXEL PLA4215 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006L6X7PM/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) which was delivered yesterday, the same day I got my beta invite.

My living room has quite a few obstacles between it and my computer room, which is on the second floor, so I opted out of running cat6 myself. The house is a year old, so the electrical wiring should be great.

I'm noticing, using the adapter's monitoring software, that when I have my adapters on different floors (different circuits), I get latency around 1-3ms (reasonable) but get a total bandwidth throughout between 50mbps and 70mbps. When I connect the adapters on the same floor, but different rooms, I get closer to 200mbps. This seems to dramatically affect the framerate while streaming. 15fps while on different circuits, rock solid 30fps when on the same.

I am not entirely sure if I just don't have the greatest powerline adapters, or if this is to be expected.

[[LUC] Braahl]

I get about 12ms extra in response time from using my Zyxel 500 Mbps power-line adapter compared to a "direct" connection through a switch. Just regular ping gives 2ms on power-line, but Steam streaming says 12ms.

[tragicmaestro]

I'm still testing this, I'm using a 200mbps powerline. Both on the same floor, but different rooms. From my initial test of different games I found that the framerate stays at an average of 20FPS regardless of the setting I have (auto, 30 or 60, 720p or 1080p, limted bandwidth or unlimited). As per the thread starter, it seems to be expected with powerline.

[Blurb]

Just too many variables with powerline. When it works it works very well, but any kind of wiring issue or device that puts noise on the line will just bring it to a halt. If it's possible to run cable to where your other devices are then it is a much better option.

There are keystone wall plates that will allow you to have an ethernet port and a coax together which should make it much easier if you have a one story home, at least. I'm going to take a shot at it myself when I can afford too. Until then I'm going to keep trying out the powerline and pray to the great Gaben in the sky. ;)

[jonathan.cole]

I'm using a Netgear power line network and it works well. We are however in a single floor flat with pretty new electrics.
WiFi was terrible.

[sterfield]

Here's my experience about powerline communication :

• My flat is only 10 years old, so the electricity system is OK
  
• If you go for PLC, go for a system where you can plug directly onto the PLC adapter. That way, you don't block your power outlet, and the adapter will get the best connection possible, without interference from the other equipements.
  
• I bought 3 AV Plus 500 Mbps adapter from Devolo, and I'm really happy with them. My internet box, my gaming PC and my home server are all connected through PLC adapter, and the result are great. From my gaming PC to my internet box, a ping shows 1ms, and using Speedtest.net with a server close from my location, I've got a 3ms ping. I'm playing BF4 in this configuration, and manage to get a ping between 10 and 20ms
  
• The bandwidth is quite good, the last test I did is a wget from a file stored on my Internet box, and my home server. The transfer shows a steady 9.5MB/s, which is IMO quite good, considering the situation.
  

  Taille : 1073741824 (1,0G) [application/octet-stream]
  Sauvegarde en : « 1G »
  
  100% ====================================> 1 073 741 824 9,11MB/s   ds 1m 49s
  
  2014-02-09 10:00:19 (9,41 MB/s) — « 1G » sauvegardé [1073741824/1073741824]
  

For the reference, here's a link on my PLC adapters : http://www.devolo.co.uk/consumer/82_dlan-500-avplus_starter-kit_product-presentation_1.html?l=en

[8BitCerberus]

Got a TP Link 500Mbps kit http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-PA4010KIT-Powerline-Adapter-Starter/dp/B00AWRUICG in last Friday but didn't get a chance to test until tonight. Host is upstairs, client is downstairs, and so far it's running rather well. I've got fps locked at 30 for now, but streaming 1080p pretty much stayed locked on at 30fps.

I was seeing 100ms latency, but 2ms of that is input, 12-15ms is game (ie: from host, so PLE) and the rest was display at around 80-85ms. It's a big DLP so I don't expect exceptional gaming performance, even when it's on "game" mode. It's playable, even FPSs if you're not a twitch player, but I definitely don't see myself streaming too many FPSs, at least not until I get a new TV (which might be sooner than later, the DLP chip is starting to produce white and black dots all over the screen).

As steady as it held to 30fps, I think it can go higher. Tomorrow I'm going to set everything to auto again and see if it will hit 60fps without stream locking like I was getting with WiFi (3-5 second pauses whenever action on-screen would pick up).

[Magistar]

Powerline is superior. Even across power groups I reach a consistent 5 MB/s throughput (about 54Mbps) with a few ms latency. Wifi cannot beat this due to packet loss. Powerline has no packetloss.

ps some Powerlines perform better when the quality of your power network is worse, for example the Netgear 500mbit ones are expensive but superior.

[davew_uk]

I have a bit of a complicated network.

The structure of my house heavily attenuates wifi signals so I have multiple wifi access points connected by a 200mb/s powerline network. With this setup I can get something like 15-35mb/s across the network from the PC in my office to the HTPC under the family TV (wired->powerline->wifi). The slightly low throughput is almost always down to a weak wifi signal at the HTPC more than anything else.

So - with home streaming from the PC in the office to the HTPC, the network latency is quite low most of the time - 30-70ms, which I find acceptable.

However late at night I getting horrific lag spikes, stutters making it impossible to play anything for any length of time. I suspect the powerline bridge to be the cause, perhaps interference from the clothes dryer/washing machine/dishwasher which are run at night?

[Magistar]

Few things to keep in mind there@Davew_uk.

First of all al bandwith between powerline adapters is shared. So if you are using a low quality powerline network (200mbps) to route a lot of traffic this can cause issues where one (or more) adaptors are suturating the limited bandwith.

Besides that you probably want to not use WiFi for stuff like your htpc, it has power, so it can use the powerline directly. Should also boost your ping back to 1-5ms.

Last point is yes; heavy machinery will cause issues within that power group. I personally solved this by changing to a better 500mbps set (that peformed better at worse quality networks). Best would be to use a fixed line (rj45 cable) for the powergroup that has the washing machine:P.

[davew_uk]

I definately need to get the HTPC on the powerline rather than wifi, but my adapters (D-Link DHP-303) are not compatible with the newer standard. The existing adapter can't be relocated closer to the HTPC either. I've boosted the wifi signal at the HTPC as much as I can with an external antenna so for now, till I upgrade the whole network I'm kind of stuck - but it is good to know that newer powerline adapters are more resistant to interference :-)

[tendonut]

I've got an update for my Powerline adapter issues. It was a printer. I unplugged a printer from the same circuit as the unit next to my router and suddenly I was getting latency around 50ms combined. My throughput is still 40-60Mb but games were totally playable.

[Armagedon]

I have a PA511, sincerely my friend if you want to Steam Stream with it, get a free weekend and do the job with a CAT5/6 cable or a 2/3/4... wireless router, what is better for you, even for Netflix and web browsing sometimes this is a pain in the @$&.

It's wast of money if what you want is a good performance network, next weekend I will take off this @&$& and I will pass the CAT5 through my house floors.

[zreese]

I get very good performance from my TP-LINK TL-PA511 -- about 40mbs -- but I can't seem to get Steam clients to see each other when one is using the powerline adapter. Is it because I'm mixing wifi and powerline? I have a modem/router combo: one gigabit output goes to a wifi router, one gigabit output goes to the powerline adapter. But logging on to Steam and checking available devices shows nothing...

[tendonut]

zreese eredeti hozzászólása:

I have a modem/router combo: one gigabit output goes to a wifi router, one gigabit output goes to the powerline adapter. But logging on to Steam and checking available devices shows nothing...

Does it work when both systems are on wifi or have a direct cabled connection? Mixing wifi and powerline wouldn't cause any direct issues, but there could be something else going on.

[zreese]

LM | tendonut eredeti hozzászólása:

Does it work when both systems are on wifi or have a direct cabled connection? Mixing wifi and powerline wouldn't cause any direct issues, but there could be something else going on.

Unfortunately I can't really test this... one machine has no ethernet port (Macbook Air) and the other is far beyond the reach of the wifi network due to thick plaster walls (which is why I'm using powerline in the first place).