My wife and I live in our “for right now house” rather than in a “forever home.” It’s a quirky design, but has enough room for our two teenage boys and is convenient for my commute to and from work. But it was not designed with computer networking in mind, thick brick walls and two different eras of additions make some hard to remedy “dead spots” in WiFi coverage.
My first attempt to fix the problem was with a TP-Link “One Mesh” using mesh network extenders. This was “better” but not “great.” I’ve been seriously contemplating cutting holes in the wall and running Cat5E to run an ethernet drop to every room, and going straight wired but I held off because I hate crawling around in attic crawl spaces if I can avoid it, and while my supply of Cat5e cabling is sufficient to wire up my whole house, I hate cutting into dry wall and running fish lines.
I’ve been putting off any network changes or upgrades, but recently my kids heavily screened network went to really bad bandwidth for them, and my wife re-arranged her crafting area and put a bunch of metal shelving units between her computer and the nearest mesh point….So I got complaints from everyone.
So I did what professionals do, I talked about it with a guy at work, and he mentioned that he solved his problem using Ethernet over Powerline adapters, and setting up access points to them. I figured, “what the heck, I’ll get some refurbed off of Amazon and give it a shot.” So I did, with a sixty dollar pair of TP-Link AV2000 standard adapters, the more expensive kind that let you still use the outlet plug.
Looking through the literature these things work best if they are on the same circuit leg, but others have gotten useable bandwidth even on separate circuits that are only connected at the breaker box. I figured if the two outlets nearest where I wanted to make a logical connection didn’t work, I’d try a different configuration, but I got lucky.
How does it work? Well you plug the units into the outlets, and then press the “synch” button and wait for the two units to establish communications with each other. Then plug your wireless access point (I used a TP-Link Archer 55 in access point mode) into the remote side adapter, and your main router into the other adapter. Everything syncs up and boom, full WiFi access point right where you need it to eliminate the dead spot and slow downs.
What I’ve learned in this project.
- Ethernet over Powerline is a useful technology. It isn’t for every situation, but makes good sense for older houses with thicker walls.
- The Ethernet over Powerline isn’t exactly a strict industry standard. Like the pirate code it’s “more like guidelines” so if you want more than a point to point connection, make sure you buy all of the same brand and model.
- There is a security risk here that no one talks about. I’ve not seen any encryption standards applied to the AVXXXX series of standards, so I assume the point to multipoint ethernet over powerline is transmitted in the clear. And unless you have some sort of electrical waveform conditioner on your input from the grid, you are sending all of that information back out to your connection to the grid, where it will likely stop at the first transformer. This is a low risk factor for nearly everyone, but it is a possible entry point into your network. I know this and accepted the risk since I can see the transformer from my bathroom, and my WiFi signals probably travel beyond the transformer anyway.
- Distance is still a factor. If you have power running to an outbuilding this technology can get network access pushed there, but bandwidth will suffer.
Please note that my use of TP-Link hardware here isn’t an endorsement of them as a brand. I’ve used all sorts of gear over the years, but since TP-Link was the cheapest entry into mesh wifi technology that is what I purchased last (I do not recommend going mesh the way I did), and it was a coincidence that the ethernet over powerline adapters were the same brand.
Wandering Through The Night 