Can I plug a powerline adaptor into a switch?

Chocci

I have a router in my study with 4 ethernet outputs

1 wd mycloud

2 cable to a switch in front room

3 pc in study

4 cable to switch in bedroom 1

I need an ethernet connection in bedroom 2 for a humax pvr so was thinking I could plug the main powerlink adaptor into one of the switch box output ports, then have the second adaptor in bedroom 2 so I then have the required ethernet connection.

Any problems with this approach?

Thanks

DeepDiver

That will work. I have similar setup. Try to use gigabit switches and highest transfer rates from powerline adapters. Get passthrough adapters that way you still have mains socket.

Chocci

Excellent. Thanks very much for the help.

nheather

If you do have a gigabit switch, plan what you connect to it and what you connect to the router.

The reason I say this is often, routers (and other devices only have 100Mbit ethernet).

Bearing in mind the main purpose for connecting to the router is to get to the internet which is unlikely to be 100Mbit so the ethernet ports are not the limiting factor.

But if you have two devices that have 1Gbit ethernet and which will talk directly to each other (such as a PC and a NAS) then you want to make sure they are both on the Gigabit switch.

Cheers,

Nigel

Chocci

Thanks for the tips. I have 100mbps with virgin and all my cables and switches are in the stone age (100mb). I'm fine with that as only 2 of us in the home. Even my pc is usb2 lol

Thanks again

mickevh

I wouldn't worry too much about your cables. If they work 100mbps they a likely to work Gigabit, though one cannot assert that with absolute certainty. Both 100mbps and gigabit pulse the line at the same rate (125 million pules per second (mpps) AKA "baud" (mbaud) rate.) If they are working and all the lines are connected (10/100 only uses 2 pairs in the cable, gigabit uses all four) then there's a good chance gigabit will be OK if you ever step up. Even if it doesn't work due to cabling issues, most gigabit interfaces will step down to 100mbps operation.

Incidentally, bear in mind that HomePlug uses a different operation paradigm and has greater protocol overheads that ethernet. The upshot being that one needs plugs significantly "faster" than the ethernet either side if you want similar performance - especially if you mains is noisey and introducing lots of errors. IE - if you want 100mbps throughput on a two plug powerline link, you'd want to be looking for at least 400mbps plugs - fortunately most are much faster than that these days, but if you're on a budgest, then don't be fooled into things "I only need X speed plugs because I've only got X speed ethernet (of Internet.)" Of course, if "speed" is not you thing, then it doesn't matter.

Whilst out shopping for powerline, you might care to consider whether to get ones with a Wi-Fi AP built in and gain the advantage of a second Wi-Fi hotspot in bedroom 2. IIRC the cost difference is no that much. A lot of HomePlug "starter kits" contain a pair of plugs, one normal one Wi-Fi equipped which may or may not feature the mains passthrough mentioned in earlier post.