Virgin Cable Modem - Asus Router as a signal booster?

General Chat
21

Only asking, no need to be a D**k, obviously my crystal ball :crystal_ball: not working either otherwise I would have expected your reply.

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22

Power lines state 200mbps but only getting around 35mb, when I was 1st testing I was ensuring I got the connection in 1st place not speeds.

So only option apart from direct connection to router would be get 1000mbps and cat 7 Ethernet cables.

Testing direct to router is a pain having to get access behind tv stand etc.

As power lines state they do up to 200mbps if no issue with Ethernet cables I assume would be an issue with port on virgin super hub or the
EWan on the ASU’s router?

23

For the power line, a few things can cause issues. Like having them on extension cords or surge protectors.

I didn’t find them reliable myself and if you want the best speed from the router, best solution is to go direct

24

Power lines direct info wall as didn’t think they would work well or at all on extended cables.

Going to change back to sky in July next year so was looking at new 1gb powerwlines as a temp measure to get a better speed.

Only using the router as central for the flat and can get virgin cable moved wished we never got it lol.

Next possible option is to put trunking round the skirts and get powered switches in as we know got 4PS’s most of the time only 3 would be used at the same time and currently use WiFi but would prefer cabled so if I don’t run the cables round etc have 4/5 power lines running wouldn’t be an issue?

Building also only built 5.6 years ago so hopefully wiring in required rooms not an issue

25

In a similar situation to you. I went for the central router approach and it didn’t work using powerlines (used 1Gbps netgear homeplugs) and they were not reliable.

Went for a mesh router instead, Amplifi HD, router is plugged into the modem and the WiFi is pushed out to the mesh points. Pricey, yes, but faultless WiFi that keeps the wife happy… worth it :wink:

26

Was actually looking at netgear power lines :joy:

Was looking at a mesh networking, just that we’re the Asus router is now is where the DSL connection will be for next July change over and with ps4 gaming or any gaming for that matter wired connection always better than wireless.

So best option would be to get a 4 mesh “routers” that have at least 1 Ethernet port or the WiFi good enough (for gaming) on ur mesh?

27

Not trying to be a D, just trying to make a joke which I guess failed horribly.

Power line is a “best effort” thing so the numbers you see advertised are under lab conditions and are by no means representative of real world usage, so 35mbps is definitely possible (although I’m not sure what would degrade the performance - my understanding is that powerline adapters send data during the zero-crossing of the AC sine wave, so I guess back EMF from inductive loads like motors might be it?).

But in this case using a higher rated power line adapter might (don’t quote me on that) give you better performance? So if an AV200 one gives you 35mbps, AV500 would give around 80mbps?

I assume would be an issue with port on virgin super hub or the EWan on the ASU’s router?

I have never yet seen a port fail in that way, usually they either work fine (up to a certain spec - sometimes they’d only negotiate up to 100Mbps instead of Gigabit because of a broken connection) or not at all with insane amounts of packet loss which would barely do 1mbps let alone 35mbps.

If you can’t do tests with Ethernet another option would be to test the powerline link with computers at both ends running iperf3. You’ll need to configure both of them with static IP on the same subnet (as you don’t have a router acting as DHCP server and handing out IPs) and then run the test both ways. It’s a shame network hardware doesn’t have it built-in as it could be very helpful.

Also this might be a stupid question but I assume you’re doing your tests over Ethernet? Otherwise I’d first blame the poor WiFi performance of a consumer-grade router.

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28

I’d be very careful with mesh systems. First of all they are pricey (similar to a set of good power line adapters or just making holes and pulling through good old cable), and the WiFi frequencies are likely to be saturated in a residential area so no matter how good your gear is there’s just so much data you can cram into the air at any given time.

29

No worries :joy:

Testing over WiFi to be honest, same router using dsl connection was getting again over WiFi with Plusnet full speeds 70-80mbps DL & 20mbps upload.

Majority of laptops now don’t come with Ethernet ports so need quite a long cable to connect to my Mac mini in the other room or move the Mac closer which is about as much a pain as testing direct from modem to router.

Wish I knew about the modem option before changing step from ASUS back to ASUS lol

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30

As per previous post looking at powered hubs and cabling

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31

Get yourself one of these (I have the exact same one and it’s good) and keep it in a drawer somewhere. It’s reasonably cheap but will save your ass in the future when you’re trying to troubleshoot weird network issues with these “new” laptops which don’t even bother having a proper network interface anymore. :pensive:

32

have 4/5 power lines running wouldn’t be an issue?

Not an issue (I have 4 running right now and they seem fine), they’d all share the bandwidth so if you get AV1200’s you can theoretically transmit 1,2Gbps between any of them at the same time.

That’s plenty for a house to be honest, and gaming doesn’t actually use that much bandwidth, it’s mainly latency and jitter that matters.

33

Lol all well and good but you know before long they won’t have usb it will be like Apple are doing now AirDrop :joy:

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34

A proprietary networking standard? Eww. :joy:

35

They TP link?

Can find in US but not uk :joy:

Also need pass through if possible

36

Nope, Devolo dLAN AV1200 with WiFi AC and power passthrough (the WiFi part is limited - not even a way to set the transmit power, but otherwise works decently and easy enough to use for non-technical users like my flat mates).

Available on Amazon as well as cheaper on eBuyer. Still pricier than the TP-Link ones but at least you get what you pay for (already wasted money with cheap TP-Link ones so decided to just pay for proper ones this time).

37

So i got one of these connected it to the modem directly and via the powerline adaptors but fails to get any internet connection as unable to get IP Address after windows diagbostics, works connected directly into Asus Router via a lan port to the laptop, any ideas?

I have also ordered these will be here today at some point with Cat7 cables.

Wanting to run speed tests directly from modem if possible and via the powerline 200mbps to see if the new ones do improve it.

Cheers for any help/guidance :wink:

38

Virgin Routers aren’t great, surprises me that with all their investment in high speed fibre they don’t invest much in their router hardware

39

Virgin Router in Modem mode and connect to Asus DSL-AC88U getting onlu 40mbps max via 2000mbps powerline, but want to test directly via Virgim fouter modem mode and via the powerline directly

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40

So got both Devolo Magic 1 & 2 lan only as WiFi version way to expensive and pointless, Virgin router no longer in modem mode and my Asus router via E-wan is sending out the WiFi signal everything works perfectly now, around 200mbps by Virgin connection speed and kids PS4’s getting around 75-90mbps, even the devices using WiFi close to full speed :joy:

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