How good are home network plugs?

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I've just moved to a new (100 year old) house with five stories and it's great. However, wi-fi within the house isn't great and as the router is on the 1st floor, by the time it gets to the office on the top floor, it has lost a lot of oomph :(

So rather than run a 75 meter network cable, I've been thinking of the home network plugs to reach the top floor.

Can anyone recommend a particular brand and share any experiences please? I'll likely only do this once so happy to buy quality that will last.

Also, can I have two outlets - ie plug the router into the socket beside it on the first floor and have outlets in both rooms on the top floor or is it a case of solely one outlet?

Many thanks for any advice.

Kevin
 
I have just purchased two Netgear Gigabit units to use with my Virgin Media Superhub, much to my surprise and delight, the desktops in the office (side of the house) get the full 50MB, give or take a few MB - so for me they are great.
I am not sure about how many outlets are possible, but the setup looks for units on the wiring so I am guessing that more than one outlet would be possible.

Link to PC World - other options are available :)
 
Thanks for the comments; will take a look at reviews. Likely make the purchase from Amazon as they have a pretty good refund policy should it not work as I'd wish.

Cheers.
 
I have bought some of these, got them over a year ago and they work very well, I have one for the playstation in the living room one for my little girls room for her pc in the bedroom upstairs and the 3rd is in the granny wing on the side of the house and it works very well too even though on a seperate ring circuit.
these

Spike
 
So how well do these actually work?

Can they be used to good effect on an extension cable or on a separate ring main/circuit?
 
So how well do these actually work?

Can they be used to good effect on an extension cable or on a separate ring main/circuit?

I have used the 100 Devolo units and they worked for me with one plugged into an extension cable, though I don't think it's recommended. My current Netgear Gigabit units are plugged directly into sockets on different rings and give virtually maximum throughput.
 
I've used the Devolo ethernet and wireless dLAN units for over a year now with no issues and excellent throughput, direct into the mains

Steve
 
Quoth said:
I've just moved to a new (100 year old) house with five stories and it's great. However, wi-fi within the house isn't great and as the router is on the 1st floor, by the time it gets to the office on the top floor, it has lost a lot of oomph :(

So rather than run a 75 meter network cable, I've been thinking of the home network plugs to reach the top floor.

Can anyone recommend a particular brand and share any experiences please? I'll likely only do this once so happy to buy quality that will last.

Also, can I have two outlets - ie plug the router into the socket beside it on the first floor and have outlets in both rooms on the top floor or is it a case of solely one outlet?

Many thanks for any advice.

Kevin

Hi Kevin

I have the Comtrend 200mbps ones and have not any problems with them.

As you say your house is over 100 years, you may have issue if the wireing is also old.

May be get some second hand ones from the bay before spending a lot on new ones.
 
We've used these since they first came out. I think they're 18mb units?? Steam driven, anyway. My son live-streams tv over them so if they are good enough for that.....

If only all modern electronics worked as well and were as simple to set up and use as these beauties.
 
So can I connect one to router and have 2 or 3 other units connected to pc/tv etc ?
 
If unsure I would try and borrow some first rather than relying on the wiring being ok.
 
Thanks again for all the replies; I'll see if I can borrow some before purchasing. The wiring in the house is a little strange, to say the least!
 
Thanks again for all the replies; I'll see if I can borrow some before purchasing. The wiring in the house is a little strange, to say the least!

Very wise, I thought these were the answer in a friends old house.

3 Stories high and 3 ring circuits, changed my views!
 
This has 5 stories and two sets of trip switches in different places - all seems to work fine though.
 
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