Putting in an extra Powerline

[croyde]

I have two old BT powerlines in my house. One connected to the router downstairs and one upstairs connected to my PC as the WiFi is iffy.

My son has just moved in with me and he has a homebuilt pc that has no WiFi card.

Can I just get any old single Powerline with an ethernet port or do I have to make sure it pairs with the BT named ones I have already?

Cheers.

[mmm-five]

There are a few different technologies for these devices, so your best bet is either find another identical one to the ones you've got, or ask your son for a contribution towards updating the whole lot to something more modern, faster, with stronger signal.

I use Devolo Magic 2 and get upto 800mbps from the Virgin router in the other room

There are many other options our there: with wi-fi, without wi-fi, with socket passthrough, with multi-port ethernet sockets, etc.

I'd be happy with any of the following brands:

• TP-Link
• Netgear
• Tenda
• Devolo

...and of course the newer BT ones may well work with your current set up, and be the cheapest option.

[Lucas Ayde]

croyde said:

I have two old BT powerlines in my house. One connected to the router downstairs and one upstairs connected to my PC as the WiFi is iffy.

My son has just moved in with me and he has a homebuilt pc that has no WiFi card.

Can I just get any old single Powerline with an ethernet port or do I have to make sure it pairs with the BT named ones I have already?

Cheers.

Generally, the powerline stuff is interoperable (you just pair the new one with your existing setup). I think at one stage BT were using a slightly different and incompatible technology though so you might be unlucky. I bought some BT powerlines in a cheap BT shop deal and they turned out to work with the AV200 gear I had at the time, just fine.

Just look for a decent pair of new adaptors and try pairing them to your existing BT ones. If they are incompatible, then get one more of the new type and junk the older BT ones which probably aren't as fast as the latest ones anyway. I think they go up to AV2000 now .. even AV1000 and up will deliver pretty excellent performance compared to older AV200 types.

In the meantime, USB wifi dongles are super cheap and will probably get him by. Get one plus a USB extension cable so as to enable you to place it better and he will be golden. You can even get ones that have proper antennae on them for better reception.

[Scrump]

I added an extra powerline adaptor to my home setup. Found a matching one to my existing adaptors on Ebay for £5.

[sparkyhx]

mmm-five said:

There are a few different technologies for these devices, so your best bet is either find another identical one to the ones you've got, or ask your son for a contribution towards updating the whole lot to something more modern, faster, with stronger signal.

I'd be happy with any of the following brands:

• TP-Link
• Netgear
• Tenda
• Devolo
• BT Disks

Definitely this

[Harpoon]

I'd try to match brand / model if easily sourced. There's a matrix of compatibility here which might help:

https://www.solwise.co.uk/net-powerline-features-i...

[RizzoTheRat]

I put a wifi card in my PC, which has an external antenna on a meter or so of cable to get it well away from the metal case. Not certain but probably this one https://www.ebuyer.com/989894-asus-pce-ac58bt-netw...
Similar price to what you'd pay for an extra powerline if the wifi is up to it.

Alternatively if you want a network upgrade, take a look at the TP-Link Deco P9 mesh system. They communicated with each other over powerline as well as wifi, and each node has 2 ethernet ports so you can connect the PCs to them with cable if you want.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-Powerline-coverag...

[Dodsy]

USB wifi adaptor as little at £5 on amazon. Got to be cheaper than powerline. Did this with my old PC works fine

[anonymoususer]

Dodsy said:

USB wifi adaptor as little at £5 on amazon. Got to be cheaper than powerline. Did this with my old PC works fine

Sometimes the OP leaves a big clue

croyde said:

I one upstairs connected to my PC as the WiFi is iffy.

s.