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Puzzling Wi-Fi Powerline behaviour - help

It just occurred to me that no powerline link is in the data path at all if the red line is a direct Ethernet cable to the router and no Devolo device in the loft is omitted from the diagram.

Correct. No powerline from the loft to the first floor. Just a cable from the modem to the Devolo. This is why I'm puzzled.
 
Are you sure your Devolo is set up correctly?

I'm not sure why you are using a Devolo there if all you want is to transmit wifi
 
The cost of the cable isn't the issue, it's the cost of the installation. I got an electrician in to chase oval conduits into the wall, just before we were going to have several rooms redecorated anyway. (I did the jack terminations myself )

Exactly. This is why I use powerline to get internet to the first floor.
 
Hi Koda,

Interference from what? It's wired directly to the modem. I can understand if the powerline adaptor speed downstairs was low. I know that there is loss through the house cabling and interference with appliances.
Assuming I am not misunderstanding you, you're talking about the WiFi speeds from the access point device that's connected direct to the modem which has N300 WiFi only, right?

The point I was making was that N300 is a 300Mb theoretical maximum which you never get in the real world. The range is short so it will degrade with distance, but you'll also see significant interference from other WiFi networks around you, as well as things like cordless telephones, microwave ovens, baby monitors, and all kinds of other things that are commonly found in your home and other houses around you that share the same 2.4GHz frequencies.

Just to give you an idea. If I sit at the other edge of my living room to my router and connect to the 2.4GHz band, not even a ~50Mb connection will carry wirelessly at full speed. I see about 35-40Mb. This then drops as I move into other rooms until I get to the conservatory at the other end of the house where I am at 2-5Mb but if I connect to 5GHz I am still at, or very close to full speed.

Or if I have completely misunderstood the question and my sleep deprivation is finally catching up with me - Appologies.
 
Are you sure your Devolo is set up correctly?

I'm not sure why you are using a Devolo there if all you want is to transmit wifi

This is sort of the reason I posted. As far as I'm aware the Devolo is set up correctly, but I thought maybe someone would be able to highlight a possible problem.

I have another Devolo on the ground floor too. Both Devolos are configured on the same SSID and password so that all of my smart devices (plugs, switches, heating hub etc.) have access to the internet, and should I have to change ISP or modem, the Devolos ensure that these smart devices reconnect without any issues. The modem has a different SSID/passward. In principle, the set up works. It just didn't make sense to me why the 1st floor Devolo WiFi was slower than the directly-connected modem.
 
Have you used the Devolo Cockpit app to see what they are doing?

I have several Devolos and sometimes my desk PC logs on to the wifi from one in another room - instead of the one in the same room. That kills the speed. I sort it by closing some doors. Maybe you are logging in to the Devolo on the ground floor by mistake.
 
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Assuming I am not misunderstanding you, you're talking about the WiFi speeds from the access point device that's connected direct to the modem which has N300 WiFi only, right?

The point I was making was that N300 is a 300Mb theoretical maximum which you never get in the real world. The range is short so it will degrade with distance, but you'll also see significant interference from other WiFi networks around you, as well as things like cordless telephones, microwave ovens, baby monitors, and all kinds of other things that are commonly found in your home and other houses around you that share the same 2.4GHz frequencies.

Just to give you an idea. If I sit at the other edge of my living room to my router and connect to the 2.4GHz band, not even a ~50Mb connection will carry wirelessly at full speed. I see about 35-40Mb. This then drops as I move into other rooms until I get to the conservatory at the other end of the house where I am at 2-5Mb but if I connect to 5GHz I am still at, or very close to full speed.

Or if I have completely misunderstood the question and my sleep deprivation is finally catching up with me - Appologies.

I think you're right. It would seem that 75Mbps is pretty much the best you can expect for N300 WiFi. I did some further Googling after reading all these helpful posts, and found the following:

Below is a breakdown of actual real-life average speeds you can expect from wireless routers within a reasonable distance, with low interference and small number of simultaneous clients:
802.11b - 2-3 Mbps downstream, up to 5-6 Mbps with some vendor-specific extensions.
802.11g - ~20 Mbps downstream
802.11n - 40-50 Mbps typical, varying greatly depending on configuration, whether it is mixed or N-only network, the number of bonded channels, etc. Specifying a channel, and using 40MHz channels can help achieve 70-80Mbps with some newer routers. Up to 100 Mbps achievable with more expensive commercial equipment with 8x8 arrays, gigabit ports, etc.
802.11ac - 100+ Mbps typical, higher speeds (300+ Mbps) possible over short distances without many obstacles, with newer generation 802.11ac routers, and client adapters capable of multiple streams.


Many thanks everyone 🙏
 
In 2020 I bought several Devolo Magic 2-2400's - Rated for 2.4Gb/s. Quite pricey then and still are today: Here is a link to the Triple Port (£127.77) and Single Port (£76.99) models that I have.

I don't get 2.4Gb/s between them (I never expected to) but surprisingly I do get 760Mb/s-830Mb/s and I found them to be reliable. I needed these to hook up several WiFi access points as drilling and running cables weren't an option in the house I lived in at the time.

Since I got these in 2020 I imagine there are newer and even faster models but I'm commenting about these because I too found powerline adapters to be quite pants when I first tried them in 2015-2017, barely able to get 100Mb reliably. But these Devolo models I purchased ran rock solid for over a year and the speeds remained consistently high the whole time.

A dedicated cable is always best and that's what we run now in our new home but I certainly would use Powerline in a pinch again based on my prior experience.

Also, I wanted to mention that I did have an AC unit on the same ring circuit as the main Powerline hub (which connects to my router) and it did not affect speed at all when it clicked on and off which was great and a concern I had before deployment.
 
I think 2400 Mbps is the bidirectional bandwidth, so simultaneous send and receive would be needed to have a chance of falling short of it.

Certainly, unidirectional will not achieve it.
 
goodguy. Look at Cockpit and see which channels your units are transmitting on. And then look at which channel the slow unit is using to pick up its wifi.
 
On the above topic of checking where a device is taking its wifi signal from I had to use Cockpit this morning. My PC had updated itself last night and I wanted to be sure I was still connecting to my nearby Devolo.

I was and it is getting a good signal from the Devolo, called Yellow, hard wired to my Huawei 5G.

I seem to be getting 969 as I am using the device called Sunroom.

Screenshot 2023-12-15 093537.webp


For anyone wondering about the 139 that is in our kitchen and quite a challenging hop - but good enough for 'Alexa'.
 
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After much experimenting, the highest point in the house is where I got solid and reliable signal from the mast. Everywhere on the first floor, the signal would be really flaky. 300Mbps for while and then suddenly 3Mbps.
Out of interest, what is the model of 5G NR router in the loft?

I see 300 Mbps with a WiFI 6 AP two floors down, so I might speculate the 5G NR router is much newer and more capable than a dLAN WiFi AP.
 
We seem to have lost the OP now but my point is that if he is accidentally picking up the wifi from his Devolo on the ground floor he will get slower speeds. It is easily done and had to spot unless you use Cockpit or some other way of interrogating each Devolo.

Without the OP to chat to we are a bit stuck.
 
Out of interest, what is the model of 5G NR router in the loft?

I see 300 Mbps with a WiFI 6 AP two floors down, so I might speculate the 5G NR router is much newer and more capable than a dLAN WiFi AP.

Hi,

I am not picking up WiFi from the router (ZTE MC-888) two floors down. I have another WiFi-powerline on the ground floor. I'm getting around 50Mbps WiFi speed from this.
 
We seem to have lost the OP now but my point is that if he is accidentally picking up the wifi from his Devolo on the ground floor he will get slower speeds. It is easily done and had to spot unless you use Cockpit or some other way of interrogating each Devolo.

Without the OP to chat to we are a bit stuck.

Sorry. I checked in on the thread and I'm back. I wasn't getting notifications of posts. I think notifications are on now, if anyone has any more questions.

Having read the post here, revealing just how old my Devolo is, I have just purchased a pair of pre-loved Tp-Link Deco P9 on ebay that I managed to get reasonable cheaply (£73). I'll plug them in when they arrive and report back.
 
Welcome back tgg!

The gurus around here are not keen on powerline kit. Fair enough if you have (a) the skill and (b) a tolerant enough spouse to (c) let you dig up floorboards to install cat. I have neither (a) nor (b) so I have lived with powerline for over a decade. It is flawed. My PC can log in to a socket device far further away than it needs because the wifi is good - ignoring that the broadband is c**p! My tablet ignores the super duper wifi from my Huawei when I move it from one room to another and it hangs on to an indifferent powerline wifi.

Living with this requires a bit of manual intervention (aka it make me feel needed) but it does work. I like Devolo as they have this Cockpit app that gives you sight and control. Probably Tp-Link have something similar.

Stay with us. You say "I am not picking up WiFi from the router (ZTE MC-888) two floors down. " I thought it was two floors up?
 
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Welcome back tgg!

The gurus around here are not keen on powerline kit. Fair enough if you have (a) the skill and (b) a tolerant enough spouse to (c) let you dig up floorboards to install cat. I have neither (a) nor (b) so I have lived with powerline for over a decade. It is flawed. My PC can log in to a socket device far further away than it needs because the wifi is good - ignoring that the broadband is c**p! My tablet ignores the super duper wifi from my Huawei when I move it from one room to another and it hangs on to an indifferent powerline wifi.

Living with this requires a bit of manual intervention (aka it make me feel needed) but it does work. I like Devolo as they have this Cockpit app that gives you sight and control. Probably Tp-Link have something similar.

Stay with us. You say "I am not picking up WiFi from the router (ZTE MC-888) two floors down. " I thought it was two floors up?

Sorry my phraseology and writing; Router is in the loft, and I'm not picking up it's WiFi on the ground floor, two floors down.

I don't really need super-fast speeds. I need it to be solid more than anything. The most I'm likely to do is watch a 4K streaming movie now and again. I'm perfectly happy with 1080p. I'm more interested the quality of the movie than the quality of the picture (e.g. 12 Angry Men, It's A Wonderful Life, Blood Simple etc.)

The reason I started this topic is because I was just puzzled as to why a wired, WiFi access-point would be so much slower than what it's connected to. I think the explanation of the access-point being N300 makes sense.
 
My point tgg is are you sure you are not picking up the ground floor Devolo wifi output on the bit of kit you have on the first floor - thinking it is from the nearer first floor Devolo - Cockpit will tell you what the channels are.
 
My point tgg is are you sure you are not picking up the ground floor Devolo wifi output on the bit of kit you have on the first floor - thinking it is from the nearer first floor Devolo - Cockpit will tell you what the channels are.

I see what you mean. Both powerline Wifi thingies do have the same SSID so I couldn't just check the WiFi setting of the "kit".

I don't have Cockpit installed, but I just did a basic manual version of the test ... I unplugged the ground floor and checked the speed a few times on the "kit". It topped out at 68Mbps
 
tgg

I can see what channel my phone and tablet are receiving but I don't know to see that on, say, a smart tv.

Can you try killing the wifi on all the Devolos apart from the one near your kit? That will force it to use the near one.

You can turn the wifi off by using that wifi button.
 
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