Ethernet hub

[stender]

i have a mains WiFi link in a room which is generally ok but struggles to stream on PS4 and get some audio lag on fire stick via WiFi. The adapter is on the opposite side of the room to the PS4 and tv so I was going to try running an Ethernet cable. Is there any way to run both the fire stick and PS4 off the same cable as I need to buy an Ethernet adapter for the fire stick m. Am I jointing too many times to make the signal any better than the WiFi connection?

 

[ianb1965]

Some Powerline adapters have multiple Ethernet ports at the receiver end. I would run a network cable to either the PS4 or Firestick first to see if that solves the problem. If it doesn’t then the issue is obviously in the link back to the transmitter end of the Powerline. If it does fix it then just get a cheap Ethernet switch and run the single cable into that and two out. Still doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll have enough of a signal to run both though.

 

[sparkymarka]

Take a look at draytek ap800 ...

 

[Chud]

If you can run an actual ethernet cable between the router and where you need the connection then try to use a CAT6, then plug that into an a switch (5 port gigabit unmanaged) then connect up the PS4 and firestick with either Cat5e or Cat6.

If you're talking about running cable from the powerline adapter to the PS4 etc then there may not be much benefit - you may need to switch out your powerline adapter for one that supports higher data rate (non wifi). I think someone mentioned on here before about buying from Argos and returning if it doesn't help...

It might also be worth running a speed test app to compare the speed when wifi'ing to your router compared with going via your powerline adapter - just to check it's not your internet connection that is the bottleneck?

 

[stender]

I can’t go from router, at least not without a lot of work and drilling. Already have a hub from router for downstairs. Have ordered a cat 6 for £9 so will just try it and like you say test speed before switching to cable.
The power adapters are devolo 500mbps which have been quite good. Is the suggested one any better?
I currently have the main one and 2 others. Works ok but notice an occasional Second or 2 drop out. Don’t know if that is router or power lines.

 

[Chud]

I can’t go from router, at least not without a lot of work and drilling. Already have a hub from router for downstairs. Have ordered a cat 6 for £9 so will just try it and like you say test speed before switching to cable.
The power adapters are devolo 500mbps which have been quite good. Is the suggested one any better?
I currently have the main one and 2 others. Works ok but notice an occasional Second or 2 drop out. Don’t know if that is router or power lines.

Depends on what kit you've got and what you're sending across your network - if you have a media server etc. then you may want to try and get your LAN up to gigabit speed, if it's just streaming from the internet then your internet connection should be your limiting factor.

But...having played around with a sky wifi boosters I've seen some really weird behaviour in terms of network speed - this is using sky Q hub and the new booster both of which are supposed to be gigabit wifi (and LAN); in my case, instead of seeing a drop in WLAN speed from ~1000Mbps to ~500Mbps when the booster is not hardwired all of the following resulted in a drop in internet connection speed from around 70Mbps to 35-40Mbps on the outside connection according to speedtest - obviously it's not actually affecting that but it's slowing everything else down to the degree where it's dropping below the speed of the outside connection:

• Booster linked to router via WiFi/WLAN
• Booster linked to router via CAT6 Ethernet (via 2 gigabit switches)
• Booster linked to router via CAT6 Ethernet (direct)

I only managed to restore internet speed by cutting out one of the switches - weirdly when cutting both switches out I again saw the drop which makes absolutely no bloody sense!

 

[Chud]

What I'm trying to say in a very long winded way is that the wifi boost function of your powerline adapters may effectively be slowing down your wifi to the degree that it's actually slower than your internet connection so try turning off the wifi boost function on the adapters if you can and test with just wired connections.

 

[stender]

I have lots of devices in various rooms and no easy way to hardwire them and WiFi doesn’t reach to parts of the house. I only get 40mb to my door as that’s all the line will take. I have a talk talk router , off that I have a flat Ethernet to my pc where WiFi is rubbish, also have a bit extender plugged in there. I then have another flat Ethernet running to a 8 hub behind my tv. That runs tv, sky, wii, amazon tv. Then upstairs I have 2 devolo plugged in to run PlayStation and fire tv’s. generally works ok.
Going back to my post I tried a cable from power link to PS4 and it was no different. My issue however turned out that one of the kids chose to download a load of games which were queues up downloading. I’ve used 700gb this month!