Cry for help. Using a TP Link TD-W9970 with the EE smart hub.

[Mescubasteve]

Hi folks.

Hopefully the following makes sense. I’m struggling to get my system to work consistently. Long story short. We have a cabin at the bottom of the garden where we would like to connect internet (with the a TP-Link device TD-W9970) for laptops, mobiles, etc. The EE SH is in the hallway with a cat6 cable leaving the house and going directly to the cabin and is plugged in to the TP-Link device.

Firstly, I believe (possibly wrongly) that the TPL device is capable of doing what I want it to do.

The problem I have is that sometimes when the cat6 is plugged in to the EE SH some devices around the home (Ring doorbell and chime, streaming stick, etc.) disconnect and will not reconnect while the cable is plugged in. Currently my wife is connected in the cabin but the streaming stick won’t connect unless unplug the cat6. Yesterday it was the Ring devices.

What am I missing or not doing? Is my device compatible with my requirements? What settings do I need to check / change?

I’ve been wondering whether I should even swap the devices but no idea where to start with that?

There is lots of talk on the internet about setting access points, bridging, blah blah blah. I’m not too sure my TP-Link device will even do what I want it to do.

Any and all help would be hugely appreciated.

[mikeliuk]

One of the points raised by the community above is quite interesting and I thought I would test it for the benefit of readers coming to this thread some months or years later (a 5G connection is likely to reduce overall latency so the landscape will look different).

I've not previously thought to test the latency introduced by carrying data over powerlines. I'm currently using Reserve Data so the bandwidth is capped at 2 Mbps. The sub 30 ms latencies are the lowest I've seen which is surprising for lunchtime on a sunny day. I had hoped to test in the early morning but a residents' event came up.

Linux server directly cabled (network path is D-Link switch -> Linksys OpenWRT router -> Netgear MR1100 4G LTE)

[x@x ~]$ speedtest-cli --server 30690 --share
Retrieving speedtest.net configuration...
Testing from EE (109.249.187.96)...
Retrieving speedtest.net server list...
Retrieving information for the selected server...
Hosted by Community Fibre Limited (London) [9.29 km]: 28.534 ms
Testing download speed................................................................................
Download: 2.22 Mbit/s
Testing upload speed......................................................................................................
Upload: 2.32 Mbit/s
Share results: http://www.speedtest.net/result/11880095277.png

Microsoft Windows 10 Cat 6 cable to Devolo powerline adapter to a second Devolo powerline adapter and D-Link switch:

PING ms
22
DOWNLOAD Mbps
2.16
UPLOAD Mbps
2.16

https://www.speedtest.net/result/11880093134

So a rough estimate is that the three additional hops adds roughly 6.5 ms (downstairs ring main to upstairs ring). This is conceivably more than if I run a 20 m or 30 m cable upstairs instead.

Some repeats against automatically selected servers (and paired with the same server manually selected).

[x@s ~]$ speedtest-cli --share; date
Retrieving speedtest.net configuration...
Testing from EE (109.249.187.96)...
Retrieving speedtest.net server list...
Selecting best server based on ping...
Hosted by Jump Networks Ltd (London) [9.29 km]: 28.892 ms
Testing download speed................................................................................
Download: 2.06 Mbit/s
Testing upload speed......................................................................................................
Upload: 2.28 Mbit/s
Share results: http://www.speedtest.net/result/11880206598.png
Sat 14 Aug 15:29:47 BST 2021

PING ms
24
DOWNLOAD Mbps
2.20
UPLOAD Mbps
2.18

https://www.speedtest.net/result/11880210098

[x@x ~]$ speedtest-cli --share; date
Retrieving speedtest.net configuration...
Testing from EE (109.249.187.96)...
Retrieving speedtest.net server list...
Selecting best server based on ping...
Hosted by Livedrive Internet (London) [9.29 km]: 25.384 ms
Testing download speed................................................................................
Download: 2.18 Mbit/s
Testing upload speed......................................................................................................
Upload: 2.27 Mbit/s
Share results: http://www.speedtest.net/result/11880216801.png
Sat 14 Aug 15:32:14 BST 2021

PING ms
21
DOWNLOAD Mbps
2.24
UPLOAD Mbps
2.23

https://www.speedtest.net/result/11880219653

I feel if the Ethernet cable was installed at the same time as the mains power, or properly installed tidily underground, it's certainly worth using.

If the Ethernet cable is trailing untidily, obstructing a door or window, or runs over the surface of the ground, it would be best to sack that idea. Two decades ago I would have been quite happy to run a 20 m or 30 m cable but times have moved on in the consumer space and powerline adapters are certainly things to consider in the mix of the appropriate technology to go for. I have no objection to anyone choosing to run an Ethernet cable, it's their property after all. 😁

Here is some interesting benchmarking where the TP-Link comes out ahead of the Devolo Magic-2: https://www.jiribrejcha.net/2020/08/throughput-speed-test-of-tp-link-and-devolo-magic-2-wi-fi-power-... The ping and jitter appear to be below 3 ms.