powerline adapters instead of ethernet or wireless
I've begun using Powerline adapters to connect my laptop/SS server to the router as the router's wireless is struggling with so many items competing for bandwidth. So I'm getting direct hard wired speed from the laptop to the router now and it's showing a great performance boost in SS. It just dawned on me. All my cameras are hard wired with ethernet cables, the wireless functions are not worth the hassle. I'm about to renew my cables as some of them are looped round the outside of the house in trunking but are not exterior cables and are vulnerable to damage or vandalism. ( I used what I had to hand a few years ago ).At the point on my circuit where the cameras are installed I could add a poweline adapter and could uninstall the old ethernet cables and all my cameras would be connected through the house wiring to the router. So no chance of weather or vandalism problems. Could anyone offer any advice as to whether or not this might damage the cameras ?
Comments
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Although not quite as fast or reliable as ethernet, Powerline adaptors are much better than WiFi, as you have discovered. So they can be a great solution where ethernet wiring is difficult and the WiFi is too unreliable. I don't see any reason why a powerline adaptor would do any kind of damage to a camera - what specifically are you concerned about?
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Thank you. I know we have surges and the supply can drop at times causing the lights to dim so that bothered me in my ignorance.I've been digging around today and it seems that the CCTV industry support using these adapters. The ones I'm using claim speeds of up to 500mbps. My ethernet cables are about 20 years old so without being able to test them they are probably cat5 100mbs. So my TP-LINK adapters are probably faster than my existing cables. With my current 4mp cameras struggling on my laptop I'm seriously thinking of moving to an NVR and keeping SS on the laptop just for monitoring
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I would expect the powerline devices to have some kind of protection to reduce or eliminate the risk of power surges damaging ethernet devices, however if you are worried about this then contacting the manufacturer would probably be the best way to find out more information. I personally have not heard of any damage to ethernet devices when using powerline adaptors.
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Well it seems from the manufacturer that they can comfortably cope with voltage fluctuations and they even have onboard fuses. The stated speed however is just that, 'stated'. They concede that speed will vary greatly, even dropping to 240mbps or less and effectiveness can be reduced by heavy domestic equipment like washing machines, tumble driers etc. So bit of a mixed bag. My router sits in the conservatory and the wireless signal can be reached from anywhere in the house, to my garage office but is dead slow at times depending upon users and how far you are from the router. So far I'm now surfing from my garage office and anywhere in the house using adapters and it's a revelation, I'm going to experiment by hooking my cameras up to these as well and I'll give it a trial and report back.
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LOL how did I miss this. The poweline adapters must at some point connect directly to the router, by a cat cable. So theoretically the speed from all your devices will be capped by the last link in the chain, which is a cat5, cat5e or cat6 cable plugged into the mains, adjacent to the router. And if you connect the camera to the mains by a cat5 cable, which is slower than a cat6 cable then that camera will be limited to the speed of that cable even if the router base adapter is cinnected with a cat6 cable. Need eyes in the back of your head !
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Hi Peter, a good quality cat5 cable should be able to support gigabit speeds, especially over short cable runs. Though for long runs you'd really need cat5e or cat6 for this. Generally the speed limitation here will be the transmission of the ethernet signal over the power cables, as there will be significant interference from other devices that the powerline adaptors have to deal with. But even at 240mbps this is going to be much faster and more reliable than WiFi. I think they're a great solution and you've obviously had success with them.
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Here's the 'skinny' from the folks who make cables.
Cat 5 at 100m 10-100 mbps @100mhz
Cat 5e at 100m 10 -100 mbps - 1Gbps @100mhz
Cat 6 at 100m 10-100 mbps-1Gbps-10Gbps @ 250mhz
Cat 6a at 100m 10-100 mbps-1Gbps-10Gbps @ 500mhz
Just re-installed a camera in my eaves with an adapter. !0 minutes ! No struggling round the building with ladders, cables, cable trunking, hammers or cable clips. Everything running sweet as a sewing machine so far.
