TP-Link AV600 Powerline Wi-Fi Extender TL-WPA4220 kit

MV Owner

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Hi All,

I have a Sky Router which has an internet speed (when measured with a broadbandchecker) at the router is around 50MB

I have a TP-Link AV600 Powerline Wi-Fi Extender TL-WPA4220 kit which has the following specs:-

  • HomePlug AV2 Standard - Provides fast powerline transfer speeds of up to 600 Mbps*
  • 300Mbps Wi-Fi - Extend 300 Mbps wireless connections to previously hard-to-reach areas of your home and office*
  • Plug and Play - Set up your powerline network and start enjoying fast, seamless wired/wireless connections in minutes.
  • 2 Ethernet Ports - The TL-WPA4220 (Wi-Fi extender) provides reliable high-speed wired connection for game consoles, smart TVs and more.
  • One-Touch Wi-Fi Configuration - One press of the Wi-Fi button copies the network name and password from your router. Any setting changes will be automatically applied to the entire Powerline network.
  • Wi-Fi Auto-Sync - Add additional extenders to your powerline network by pair button, uniformly sync settings such as SSID, password, Wi-Fi Schedule and LED Schedule for all network devices
  • Easy Management - Gives you easy control of your network through a powerful web interface, the user-friendly tpPLC Utility and the intuitive tpPLC mobile app
I propose to use this TP-Link kit to provide a wifi signal to a Google Nest Camera (in HD mode) and a wired signed to a birdbox camera (in HD mode).

I would appreciate thoughts on whether this kit should be capable (in terms of speed / capacity) to reliably connect to the above two items.

My internet speed when measured with a laptop with these two items in place is around 16MB

Many thanks




MV
 
Ensure you know your "bits" from your "bytes." Data networking equipment "Link Rates" are specified in "bits" per second as are a lot of "speed test" type apps, but things like a Windows file copy often use "bytes" per second.

To assess whether any "x" is good enough, you need to start with the throughput (bit rate) requirements of your applications. Terms like "HD video" are pretty much meaningless: HD video off (say) YouTube might be 4-10 mbps whereas BluRay is tyipcally of the order of 25-35 mbps, but both claim to be "HD." The "bit rate" throughput required are the numbers that are important.

The throughput of HomePlugs is impossible to predict as there are so many variables that can effect it''s performance. There's no option but to just suck it and see.

HomePlug operates in a "Half Duplex" paradigm (as does Wi-Fi) which means that only one plug can be transmitting over the mains at any time. So with only two plugs, transmissions A-->B compete for "air time" with transmissions A<--B. If the sum of transmissions in both directions is below the capacilty of the link, then all's well, if it exceed capacity, then traffic either queues or gets dropped. It's a bit like a road which narrow to a single track - if traffic flow are such that there never any competition for the single track section, then it's just fine; if it's rush hour and lots of traffic are cometing for use of the narrow bit (whatever direction of travel) then they are more like to "collide" or some mechanism need to be employed to mediate who' gets use of the lane.

The "half" in "Half Duplex" does not mean "divide by two." A common misconception in Half-Duplex link is to think you take the basic bandwidth (let's say 100mbps) and conclude "half-duplex" means you get 50mbps equivalent in each direction. It doesn't. It's quite possible for the bandwidth to be asymmetric, let's say 80mbps one way and 20mbps the other in my example. There's still a perfectly valid "half duplex" link. (Though in reality the numbers would be unlikely to work out exactly so.) How much bandwidth gets consumed in each direction is simply a function of traffic levels and competition for the link.

Assessing whether any whether any given link is "good enough" is a real black art (welcome to my world.) The best one can do is try and assess the throughput requirements of the apps, add a healthy dollop of headroom on top to allow for "other" traffic, future expansion, etc. they try looking for the technology that can avail it. Test, deploy, test again, then go back and fix it is if isn't working out.

Wi-Fi hates anything wet of metal. If transmitting to/from a bird box, you might want to consider if there's any foiliage in the way. It can be a real pain.
 
jesus wow, errrrm well thanks for taking the time to provide such a comprehensive answer and of course to be honest I dont understand alot of it. I guess I'll have to fit the extenders and basically see how it works out!
 

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